Man Of Steel, part 2

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Before going to see Man Of Steel, I saw the trailer which begins with a scene from Krypton. Superman’s Mother, Lana says “He will be an outcast, they will kill him.” His father, Jor el (played by Russell Crowe) says “How? To them, he will be a god!”

Upon seeing this trailer I was offended. I was under the impression that the originators of the superman comic had patterned him after Jesus Christ. This impression came from some unknown source in the past and was reinforced by picking up and taking a cursory look at The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero By Stephen Skelton. Preparing for this blog , I looked a little closer. Skelton points out that the first originators of the comic book were Jewish. But he also found there are many contributors to the Superman story and discovered “that some of the storytellers in the Superman canon have deliberately worked to infuse the narrative with their religious, even Christic, intentions”. You can read more excerpts from the book here: https://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/inspirationalteaching/superman_messianic.aspx

In spite of the offending line, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It displays copious amounts of courage, self-sacrifice, tenacity and deep care for others. It easily passed my analyzing whether some thing is worthwhile of my attention (more about this next time), Kent

Man of Steel

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I decided to let you take a break from introducing myself from my book and look at something current.

Like many boys from my generation, I was enthralled with comic books. Visits to the barber shop were much more tolerable upon finding a table laden with comics there. I even spent some of my hard earned allowance on my own comics. I appreciated visits to my cousin, Kenny, who owned hundreds. Favorites were Superman, Spiderman, Daredevil and The Fantastic Four. These had a profound effect on me, instilling a desire to be more than who I felt I was, to be the hero myself. There also was an important lesson that one person can make a difference. They encouraged me to enjoy reading and added to my vocabulary. Doubt I would have ever learned such words as nemesis, impervious, and invulnerable without them.

Superman seemed to be the most virtuous comic book character. He always did right, never shirked his duty and put others before himself.  I, for one, am glad he is back in the limelight. How about you? Who were your favorites?

Why ResetPreacher?

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ResetPreacher

   Finally, I’m taking the big step of beginning a blog. This will be the first of, I hope, many posts. I pray that the Lord will use my words to further the Kingdom. As you may guess from the name, I started out preaching after my time at Abilene Christian University. And now, after thirty years the Lord has brought me back to full time ministry. I only preached for five years. The reasons I gave to myself and others for quitting at that time were:

I never was comfortable with my time, I always seemed to feel I was neglecting my work or I was neglecting my family.

            I seemed to have little contact with those outside the church I served.

I did not feel my first wife was comfortable “living in a glass house” and dealing with the pressures of being the “preachers wife”.

    Now I admit the real reason, I simply did not have the spiritual strength for the job. You see, the churches I grew up in put great stock in Bible study. And in two colleges I learned a great deal more about how to study the Bible, how to research background, explore related passages and delve into New Testament Greek. These skills were very helpful preparing sermons and teaching classes. I am grateful for them. I am especially grateful for professors and preachers teaching me more about God and about His grace.  But I was taught little about having a personal relationship with God, about prayer.