Playtime Devotions

This morning I picked up a book called Playtime Devotions: Sharing Bible Moments with Your Baby or Toddler written by Christine Harder Tangvald and illustrated by Tamara Schmitz. I haven't had an opportunity to use it yet with Olivia and Ava, but am excited to have a resource that combines games and songs with teaching little ones about the Lord.
Published by Heritage Builders, a ministry of Focus on the Family, the book contains 30 devotions as well as extra rhymes and games. Each devotion includes:

• Key Thought
• Bible Verse
• Rhyme, Game, or Song
• Prayer to Say

Key Thoughts include "God is Love," "God Listens and Cares," "I Obey Mommy and Daddy," and "Church Is a Happy Place." Familiar games and songs are paired with new words that teach little ones Biblical truths. The only drawback I can see from looking over the book is that it relies too heavily on using patty-cake; it's eight out of the nine games.

The Movie Vault: Mystery, Hitchcock Style

It's the perfect murder. Or so he thinks.

Retired tennis pro, Tony Wendice (Ray Millard) has taken the time to plan every detail of his wife's murder. He's recruited the killer, stashed away the money to pay his hit man, even timed the phone call down to the exact minute. The phone call that will signal his hired hand to carry out the evil deed. Yet, there's just one thing he didn't account for. One thing that will send all of his planning, all of his plotting, all of his scheming spiraling out of control. That one thing being: she fought back. And, as a result, it's the man he's hired, not his wife, that ends up dead.

In my opinion, Dial M for Murder is one of Alfred Hitchcock, the master of mystery's, best. Set entirely in an apartment, this film gets its strength from story. There are no great locations, no daring stunts, and no low flying crop dusters (sorry, there's no Cary Grant either). Based on a play, it's lack of bells and whistles is far from missed. It is brillantly written, wonderfully directed, and is Grace Kelly in all her splendor.

Released in 1954, it is a must see for any mystery lover. Few movies in this genre compare, or can compete, with Dial M for Murder in all its simplicity and complexity rolled into one.

Review of Behold the Lamb of God

In Psalm 79:8-9, the psalmist cries out,

Oh, do not remember former inquities against us!
Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us,
For we have been brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation, For the glory of Your name;
And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins,For Your name's sake!

Atonement. Regardless of time, location, and race, men and women have been seeking atonement. Seeking to make right what they have wronged. Whether they realize it or not, seeking to satisfy the wrath of an angry God. In his article From Kali to Christ, Nathan Zacharias describes visiting the Kali temple located in Kolkata, India, "one of the remaining sites to still perform animal sacrifices." It is here that he witnessed an animal sacrifice -- an Indian family's attempt to pacify an angry god. Whether it is a family in modern day Kolkata performing animal sacrifices, a people group in ancient Hawaii providing human offerings to their volcanic goddess, "civilized" members of society trying to make amends with their good deeds, or the Israelites crying out, "Deliver us!", we all have the same thing in common: the need for atonement.

I'm a firm believer that Christmas music shouldn't be reserved strictly for the holiday season. And, this morning in March, I found myself listening to what has become one of my favorite Christmas albums -- Andrew Peterson's 2004 release Behold the Lamb of God.

The project took Peterson, a singer and songwriter reminiscent of Rich Mullins, five years to complete. It was truly a "labor of love." An album that, as he told Christianbook.com, he wanted to approach "from the tradition of the old bards who traveled from town to town telling stories with their music and recording history that way. I thought it would be really neat to make a record that did that, one that was lyrical in its content, and whose songs followed the progression of the Christmas story through the Old and New Testaments. " In doing so, Peterson beautifully captures the need for atonement. The need for, as Psalm 79 addresses, mercy and deliverance. In the song Deliver Us, he sings:

Our sins they are more numerous than all the lambs we slay/These shackles they were made with our own hands/Our toil is our atonement and our freedom yours to give/So Yahweh, break your silence if you can/Deliver us, deliver us/Oh Yahweh, hear our cry/And gather us beneath your wings tonight

While the song Passover Us cries:

So the years went by and the people they whined and they wandered/And only sacrifice atoned for the sins of the land/So you see the priest he placed upon the holy altar/The body of a spotless lamb/And he prayed, "Lord, let your judgment Passover us/Lord, let your love hover near/Don't let your sweet mercy/Passover us/Let this blood cover over us here"

Yet, he doesn't stop there. On the remainder of the album, he goes on to paint a lyrical masterpiece of God's response to the cries of His people: Jesus. The once and forever atonement for our sins.

So sing out with joy/For the brave little boy who was God/And made Himself nothing/Well He gave up His pride/And He came here to die like a man

By far, my favorite song on the album is Labor of Love. Of the track, Peterson told Christianbook.com, "I try not to write songs that have already been written. So, in this case, the song 'Labor of Love' is about Mary, but not the peaceful Mary we see in nativity sets holding Baby Jesus. I have three kids, and I was there when my wife gave birth to each of them. Now, if my wife had given birth in a barn, in the dark, in the middle of the night, there is no way she would have looked as nice as Mary looked in these scenes. Childbirth is violent and painful, and so the first line of this song is 'It was not a silent night/There was blood on the ground.' I think there’s significance in the fact that God chose to come into the world that way –- bathed in blood and pain." Jill Phillips provides the vocal on this song. A song that never ceases to bring me to tears.

God's gift of atonement. A "brave little boy," as Peterson calls Him, sent to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world. Let us now, not only at Christmas, celebrate "the maker of the moon ... the Author of the faith," Jesus, the baby born to save us all.

All lyrics included on this post written by Andrew Peterson

The Movie Vault: A Classic Chick Flick

Ah, Anabel Sims, a classic chick flick heroine. A character to be admired by women and feared by men. Admired for her go get 'em (or should I say "go get him") spirit and unwavering persistence. And feared for her "go get him" spirit and unwavering persistence. Yes, that's right, when watching Every Girl Should Be Married, the 1948 film starring Cary Grant as Dr. Madison Brown and Betsy Drake as Anabel Sims, most women can't help but giggle in delight at the same story elements that make men shudder. But, it wouldn't be a good chick flick if men really enjoyed the film, now would it?

By today's standards, the most fitting description for Anabel would probably be "stalker." But, not by 1940's standards. No, instead she's merely a very determined woman set on catching the man she knows she's meant to marry. At one point in the film she states, "Do you know something about being a girl? You can just never give up. You have take every single little defeat and twist it around and around until it turns into a great big victory."

But, for those of you who don't buy that and prefer to think of her as a stalker, then at least think of her as a harmless one. After all, it's not like she's sitting outside Dr. Brown's window, watching his every move. Although ... she does manage to find out his shirt size, where he eats dinner each night of the week, what his favorite menu items are there, and just about everything else about him. How's she obtain this information? Why it's simple, through his tailor, the head waiter at his favorite restaurant, his barber, his secretary, and just about everyone else he comes in contact with on a regular basis. Her explanation, "Well I haven't done a single thing that isn't legitimate for a girl." And, she is quite the resourceful woman. Now, who can't admire that?

This movie does contradict the belief that a man should be the one to pursue while the woman the one to respond. Anabel is certainly the pursuer in this film, at one point explaining her actions with, "Well, I know its dreadful. But this is the kind of thing that men force us to do." Dr. Brown, on the other hand, goes from being initially passive and disinterested to down right avoidant. Yet, for every woman that's ever encountered a passive man, this film is welcome therapy.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is Anabel's visit to Dr. Brown's office. She has already spotted him in her favorite coffee shop and the chase is on. Not knowing that he's a pediatrician, she makes an appointment for herself. Dr. Brown thinks she has a little one at home. Needless to say, the conversation that follows is hilarious line after line of misunderstanding.

Variety magazine's November 10, 1948 issue called the film "one of those rare comic delicacies that are always in good season at the box office," while the New York Times' December 24, 1948 edition described Betsy Drake as "display[ing] a refreshingly natural comic spirit in this fanciful girl-gets-boy lark" while also showing "a surprisingly perseverance in pursuing the dictates of the plot." Every Girl Should Be Married is one of those films I love watching again and again. So much so, that it's set on "keep until I delete" on my TiVo, ready to be enjoyed at a moment's notice.