I recently was able to start using the New Xbox Experience (NXE) through their preview program. All Xbox 360 users get it on the 19th. The NXE completely revamps the Xbox 360 interface which had become overly complex when trying to navigate through the many items available for playing or watching. Additionally it adds avatar characters which gamers can customize and that will show up in certain games.

One of the biggest changes people have been looking forward to is the partnership Microsoft struck with Netflix which allows streaming of a portion of their catalog through the Xbox 360. (Streaming has previously been available to PCs, Macs and a set-top box)

I wanted to take this opportunity to recommend some Christian and other inspirational content I've found in their streaming catalog.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - Ben Stein examines situations of scientists being discriminated against for expousing intelligent design. He ends up cornering a couple atheist scientists on where they think life came from. Directed Panspermia FTW!

One Night with the King - The story of Queen Esther and King Xerxes. Esther hides her Hebrew background to survive and ends up selected to be Xerxes' queen. Her humility and strength played a huge role in her selection. Though she knew she risked death she went to the king to ask him to save the Jews. The film is beautifully done and both actors do a great job.

Thr3e - The thriller from Ted Dekker brought to screen. The Riddle Killer, responsible for the death of police psychologist Jennifer Peters' brother, appears to be behind the attempted murder and stalking of seminary student Kevin Parson. Parson is given a deadline to confess a certain sin or die.

Hermie and Friends - Animated videos for kids. I haven't had a chance to watch these but I hear great things.

God's Outlaw: The Story of William Tyndale - Known as the "Father of the English Bible," Tyndale worked tirelessly to translate and publish an English Bible during an era when prayers uttered in English were outlawed.

Remember, both Netflix and Blockbuster have gigantic DVD mail rental catalogs but Netflix's internet streaming catalog is much smaller. This is some of the best I've found to stream from Netflix but there is more.

House started out as a book co-written by best-selling authors Ted Dekker (of the Circle Trilogy) and Frank Peretti (from Piercing the Darkness). In it, Jack and Stephanie are headed to couples counseling when they are diverted and trapped in a house with another troubled couple. They must deal with the evil within their own hearts in order to survive.

Directed by Robby Henson, the movie adaptation of House did not do well in its first weekend in theaters. It opened 24th at the box office in 363 theaters according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. House earned $329,836, or $909 per theater, and was even beaten by Bill Maher's Religulous which came in at #20 in its sixth week. Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron, came in 13th in its seventh week earning over $1.5 million.

Todd Hertz, over at Christianity Today Movies, wrote a great review of House which you need to check out. He thought the book's narrative was "heavy-handed" but that a faster paced movie could really make an impact. The premise of a horror film where the penalty for the characters sins is their death but someone comes in and pays that penalty for them is very Biblical and powerful. Hertz says the movie is hurt by some of the director's decisions including "a lot of MTVish fast-forward and quick-cut devices that make it very hard for the terror to settle over the viewer". Also, the salvation climax is faster paced than the book but too fast, barely long enough to allow the audience or characters to realize "why or how they had been saved".

At the same time, Hertz says that Henson has shown significant improvement over his two previous adaptations - Dekker's Thr3e and Peretti's The Visitation.

“
1 Peter 3:15 (New International Version)
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have...”

Apologetics.com is a website and podcast devoted to "encouraging believers to think and thinkers to believe". Each week they broadcast a radio talk show on KKLA in Los Angeles from Midnight - 2:00 AM Pacific on Saturday mornings.

Apologetics.com was founded several years ago by Harry Edwards who has a master's in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. On each episode of the podcast, several apologists (including Lindsay Brooks, Christopher Neiswonger, Rich Park, Steve Tsai and Harry Edwards himself) discuss a variety of issues. Recent topics include "20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists", Bill Maher's Religulous movie, Human Life and Human Rights and an Apologetics 101 series.

Check out the podcast and you will learn a lot about evidence for God's existence, Biblical reliability, evidence & reasonings against naturalism and much more.

Digital Praise is back with a Guitar Hero clone called "Guitar Praise". For those who don't know, Guitar Hero really kick-started the rhythm game genre by allowing players to strum along with big rock and roll hits using a guitar-like peripheral. Digital Praise is known for producing several Christian games but the big recent release was "Dance Praise", a Dance Dance Revolution clone featuring Christian pop, hip-hop and rock hits by artists like TobyMac, BarlowGirl, Audio Adrenaline, DJ Maj and Paul Wright. They've since followed it up with Dance Praise 2 which features an Exercise mode, new dance moves, a super-easy level for young kids and more.

Guitar Praise brings this expertise they've built up to a guitar! It's been reviewed by Tracy John over at MTV multiplayer and 9mmPreacher (Drew Koehler) at Hardcore Christian Gamer.

The game features 4 difficulties - Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. There's also a no-fail mode so new players can finish songs even if they are messing up. You can also duel with another player if you buy another guitar controller.

The notes move by on the left side of the screen while lyrics to the song appear on the right. This helps hammer home that these songs are based on Biblical truths and others in the room could certainly sing along. (makes me wonder if Guitar Praise 2 will feature at least a microphone). Just like in other similar games, a meter fills as you keep a string of notes going and when full you tilt the guitar to activate bonus points.

Tracy John had this to say about the guitar itself:

“Holding the “Guitar Praise” guitar, it feels pretty comfortable and solid, but when you hit the fret buttons, the “clacking” sound from hitting them is noticeably louder than the other versions; the strummer also feels a little looser than others I’ve played.”

Drew Koehler says this is a must-own for youth groups and:

“It truly is refreshing to play guitar to positive uplifting music and parents should be fast on the ball to buy this game. The game requirements for the PC are also pretty minimal so you shouldn’t have much problem setting it up on your computer.”

Guitar Praise is available now for Mac and Windows PC for $99.95 with one wireless guitar and 50 songs, some of which must be unlocked. A second guitar can be purchased for $69.95.

This morning was a morning we have been looking forward to for a while Bob Tebow, missionary, preacher, and father of Heisman winner Tim Tebow preached in our morning service (and will also preach tonight). We had the unexpected surprise when Tim showed up and introduced his dad.

Tim said his dad was his greatest role model and taught the whole family to order their lives like this:
1) God
2) Family
3) Great Commission
4) Other (football)

After that, Bob Tebow came up to the pulpit and spoke on God's love for us. God knows all our horrible thoughts, actions and deeds and yet still loves us. Real love is "desiring the best for another, and acting upon it" (paraphrase - I'll post the real quote later). Our love for one another is always flawed but God's love for us is perfect and infinite - meaning it could not possibly get any bigger. He proved his love by sending Jesus to die for us.

“Romans 5:8 - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

This is the simple good news that can never be said too many times.

Bob told about a child he saw in the Philippines when he went to Manila to run errands. The boy was mostly naked, dirty, and sleeping on the street. He asked all around for information about him but no one knew or cared. He was so moved he was prepared to adopt this boy. However, when he woke him up and tried to talk to him, the boy got frightened, confused and ran away. Similarly, we face a God who offers us nothing but love and wants the best for us. Many of us choose to run away from Him rather than accept his gift.

You can learn more about his work at the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association website.

Afterward, I was able to meet Tim Tebow. We tried, as a church, to not bother him too much but many of us said brief hellos. I thanked him for sharing his faith on the field and informed him (I'm sure he knew already) that the "Phil. 4:13" on his eye blacks is clearly visible during the broadcasts.

Combine all this with the worship music and it made for a wonderful, powerful service. I will post a link to the sermon once the podcast episode is ready. (Here's the MP3 Audio)

The anthropic principle is the idea that the universe has been "finely-tuned" to allow for life to occur. If any one of dozens of quantities (forces, quantities of elements, etc) were slightly different from what they are, complex life such as humans would not be possible. This is what "The Privileged Planet" is supposedly about. In fact, it takes the principle to another level.

Already, the argument is quite compelling. What are the chances of a universe capable of supporting life coming about through purely random circumstances? Slim-to-none doesn't even cover it. In fact the number, even though different people will give you different ones, is so infinitesimally small, it is essentially zero.

Let's tack on to that something new. It seems that some of the things that make the Earth and even the Universe perfect for human life are the same things that make it perfect for scientific discovery. These are the features that the makers of The Privileged Planet discuss.

One example is the transparency of our atmosphere. It allows visible light through and protects from most of the other radiation types, many of which are harmful. It allows us, even ancient astronomers, to look out and observe the Universe. Certain features of the solar system allow many asteroids to be blocked before reaching Earth. Our solar system's position in the Milky Way allows us to see out into the rest of the universe. (It is very close to a spiral arm, that if it were inside, all we would see is dust)

Check out the video, narrated by John Rhys-Davies on DVD. There are several nice bonus features. Some of the video is available on YouTube.

CNN and the NY Times report that Billy Graham decided to stay one night in the hospital for observation after a fall this weekend. X-rays showed no broken bones. He has faced hydrocephalus, Parkinson disease and prostate cancer.

Graham approaches his 90th birthday (wish him a happy birthday here) and his worldwide ministry continues led by son Franklin and grandson Will, among others. Graham's wife, Ruth Bell, who wrote more than a dozen books herself, passsed away in 2007.

Check out the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website to see what they have been up to.

VeggieTales - the cartoons with morals, have continued to entertain kids and adults for several years now. "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" is their second movie on the big screen and was released back in January. It brought in more than $4 million in opening weekend box office receipts and more than $12 million during its 2-month run according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

In the movie, Larry the Cucumber, Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt, learn what it means to be heroes when a princess' ship is captured. These wannabe pirates were first seen in the sing-along song of the same name which you can find in one of their earliest animated videos.

Produced by Big Idea, the VeggieTales videos are well known for comical, friendly vegetables telling stories with a moral lesson. Many of the stories are straight out of the Bible including my favorite "Rack, Shack and Benny" (read: Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego). The story of three young men (or in this case, vegetables) who stay true to their God despite strong pressure from the king to worship other gods is a very powerful one.

In this video, Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer from Big Idea talk about the movie:

According to Rapzilla, Lecrae's album "Rebel" released last week and is now topping the Billboard Gospel chart and places just below T.I.'s new album on the Rap/Hip-Hop chart. "Rebel" is also high on the iTunes charts - it is currently #5 in the Hip-Hop category and was as high as #3.

Philip Road over at Rapzilla said Lecrae's new album "is now the highest debuting album in the Christian Rap industry, and Lecrae is proof that the ministry of Christ-centered Gospel Rap is truly a form of music that we should all pay close attention to."

I became aware of Lecrae last year when he released "After the Music Stops". While certain tracks, like "Jesus Muzik" are a blast to listen to, the entire album comes back to that simple question - after the music stops, what will you do with the message you have learned? In "Rebel", Lecrae points out that being a Jesus follower is actually rebellious. The rest of our culture is doing their own thing - but Jesus was a rebel and counter-cultural. Living a moral life, spreading the Gospel, and making disciples is the ultimate rebellion. Lecrae samples a preacher who says "If you really want to be a rebel, read your Bible, because no one is doing that. That's rebellion. That's the only rebellion left."

Check out Rapzilla's interview with Lecrae about "Rebel" below:

UPDATE: CNN Showbiz has also written about Fireproof and its success. Additionally, my pastor, Rev. Carr of North Central Baptist blogged about the movie this week.

Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron, debuted at #4 during the last weekend of September. Cameron plays a firefighter who's family is about to be split by divorce. He is encouraged by his father to take the "Love Dare", showing love to his wife in different ways for 40 days.

Christian Press reports that Fireproof opened "on 839 screens, grossing $6,804,764 with a per-screen average of $8,111." The production companies credit a massive grass roots effort with the marketing success.

I first heard about the movie Fireproof from our local Christian radio network, the Joy FM. The "Morning Cruise" DJs were able to interview Cameron and others involved with the movie and even tour the set. The opening weekend success of Fireproof, and the previous theatrical success of Facing the Giants shows that American movie goers are looking for meaningful and entertaining films.