The Spiritual side of Transformers 2 Movie

Warning: If you plan to see the movie 'Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen' and don't want to know part of the ending then DON'T read on.

I went to the movies yesterday to watch Transformers 2 - Revenge of the Fallen with my son Simon. I was going for his sake of course ;) The movie was fast and furious for most of the 2 1/2 hours of fast cars, fast planes and fast robots ..... except ...... when the human star of the movie Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is killed by an exploding misile while running to save the day. CPR fails to revive him and he is given up as dead. That is until the next scene where we are taken into ... Transformer heaven. Here the 'Ancient of Days' of Transformers declares to Sam that it has always been Sam's destiny to be a great leader and to save the day and that he must go back. Whoosh!! Sam's 'dead' body jerks, his eyes open and he's back on the battlefield, full of life and vitality. A little later the leader of the Autobots (good Transformers) Optimus Prime, the only hope of winning the battle, is resurrected by a magical key.

I find it amazing that in a movie where science and technology are 'God' the movie writers still feel the need to inject a spiritual dimension - a greater Spiritual power, beyond this world which controls peoples' destinies, life and death. Is it just that we can't cope living in a mechanistic world where this world is all there is and where death has the final say (c/c to 1 Corinthians 15).

You know you're middle aged when ....

... all you think about is .... food!

The food that you'd like to be eating but you can't because you're on a diet.

or/ The food you're feeling guilty about because you did eat it.

One Bible verse which says it all

Romans 6:23.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Note:
1. The contrasting symmetry of ideas.
2. What is it that makes a positive difference to the right hand side? ie. How do you receive the gift of God?
3. You could put a horizontal line through 'sin' and 'God' in the diagram below when explaining how Jesus' died to pay for our sin. ie. God suffered for us.



Question: Have you received the gift of God? Would you like to receive it now?

Could you learn this verse and diagram as an easy way of explaining the Bible's main message and the difference Jesus makes? Pass it on!

Gambling vs Contentment

As I'm coming back into my work building from lunch today I have to avoid the queue of people lining up to get their Lotto forms in before the Tuesday night draw (see photo). I did some research and found out that the chances of winning Lotto are one in eight million (while the chance of your marriage failing is 2.3 to 1). We live in a gambling obsessed society. I've noticed the increased profile of sports betting on the TV recently. I'm sure if people put their money into an interest bearing account instead of spending it on lottery tickets, pokies, the T.A.B. etc. they would have quite a sizable amount after 20 years *1. Why do we gamble so much in this wealthy country of ours? I think its because we are not a very thankful nation. We take for granted the good things we already have and want more and more (the advertising industry doesn't help this). Maybe if we started more sentences with "I thank God that ..." perhaps we would be more content with the good things we already have. Why don't you give it a go over the next few days and see if it changes your perspective on life.

*1 Australians gamble $16 billion per year. This equates to $1194 per adult head of population. Invested over 20 years at 3% = $33,000.