I had a really fun time with a great bunch of students at Cliff College in Derbyshire yesterday.

Here is the PDF from my lectures on evangelism.

cliff college krish kandiah

In the lecture I presented an alternative to pietistic, dualistic presentations of the gospel. I have written this up in a book called Destiny.

Cheers

Krish

The mens’ 100m sprint has always been the blue ribbon event at any athletics meet. But put Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay in the line up and you have a clash of the titans. The camera zooming into each runner before the race – shows how this event has changed. Only Tyson was relatively focussed, Usain speaks to the camera “I’m ready, are you ready? Let’s go!” he then gesticulates and pulls his classic pose before blasting the opposition off the track. Breaking his own world record by some distance and making Tyson Gay who ran the fastest time any US citizen has ever run look like a pedestrian – some 2 metres behind.

“lightning does strike twice” says the commentator.

There seems no limit to this man’s potential – he is still only 22 years old and the world is literally at his feet.

Watching him power down the track in slow motion – was awe inspiring. Ofcourse it reminded me of Eric Liddel in Chariot’s fire….

God made me for China, but he also made me fast and I feel his pleasure when I run…

Liddel had a whole other side to his life, his faith and his calling to China as a missionary was central to his life. Where do you go after you have accomplished the thing for which everyone will remember you? The Apollo astronauts had the same problem, Borish Becker experienced it after winning Wimbledon at 17. What do you do when you know nothing in your life is going to be as good as what has already past?

In my book Destiny I wrestle with some of these issues and quote C.S. Lewis who says:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

It’d been 18 years since my last U2 gig – I tried to hitch hike with a friend to Paris (we ended up catching a bus…) but we did get to see Velvet Undergound supporiting the great U2 on their ZOOROPA tour on a gorgeous day in the open air.

Last night I witnessed the 360 event in full flight on u2’s opening night of the UK leg of their world tour.

Great things about the gig:

1. Visuals

The 360 claw is an amazingly imposing structure. It looks like a Klingon Space cruiser has landed. The screen is very impressive even when it is on TV mode when the warm up acts are on. But when “Vertigo” kicks in or “Crazy Tonight” it really comes online – I have never seen anything like it. It makes you feel you are on a theme park ride and you are travelling at a 100mph when in fact you are quite still and the screen is the only thing moving. Our seats were pretty high up – so having the screen was a must.

2. Energy

The band basically did a 2 hour set – with only a 60 second break – Bono’s stamina was very impressive he was bopping and dancing almost the whole time. His voice held out really well too. I kind of felt sorry for the rest of the band because he is such an incredible front man – we hardly heard from the rest of them. Larry Mullen Jnr on drums had a great night – but he has gone from looking like the youngest member of the band to the oldest. Adam Clayton ( I just found out he was born just up the road from me in Chinnor) was wearing some very bizarre sparkly shirt – I still can’t believe Naomi Campbell and him were an item at one stage…. Edge wore his trademark hat all night even though it was very warm where we were so under the billion candlepower lamps he was under I don’t know how he managed to keep the hat on and the lumberjack shirt… So the energy the guys generated was incredible. Elbow had an enourmous ensemble and yet they did not produce half the sheer presence of this four man band.

3. Elbow

It was such a treat to have Elbow as the supporting act. I’ve been a fan since this last album. Guy Garvey the front man came across as a very affable bloke. He must have been either very drunk or very nervous because his eloquence so apparent on the album was completely missing in his banter with the crowd, which mainly consisted of “are you ok?” , “are you ok over there?”, “are you still ok?” But his voice was amazingly pure, strong, clear and pitch perfect. Elbow did an excellent job – and would gladly have listened to another hour of them. Most people didn’t bother sitting down to enjoy Elbow and it wasn’t until they played “One day like this” that the audience really got involved with the music.

4. Back Catalogue

I am not a fan of the new album, “No line on the horizon” but U2 still kicked off with four songs in a row from the album. But it felt like the gig only started when started when the band played “Beautiful Day”

Here’s the complete setlist

Breathe
No Line on the Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Beautiful Day
Elevation
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
Unknown Caller
The Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
MLK
Walk On
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
Mysterious Ways
Encore:
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Having given the new album a good listen and after the concert – Unknown caller has grown on me.

So that means i now quite like: Magnificent, Stand up for your love, Unknown Caller and a little bit of Sexy boots – so the album isn’t a dead loss…

5. Political dimension

The emotional heart of the concert was Walk On which was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate. Bono sung her MLK almost as a lullaby. Not that many people had a Aung San mask to wear – but I love the idealism, the passion and the commitment to the poor this band show.

More will follow…

I  was optimistic about this Nicolas Cage film after watching the trailer. Its been a while since he’s been in a good film – actually to be honest I can’t remember a film he has done well in. There was the bubble gum fun of Con Air and The Rock. I didn’t enjoy Leaving Las Vegas and NEXT was so bad it’s not worth mentioning. I have been reminded of Raising Arizona, which was one of the quirky Cohen bros early productions (and I haven’t yet seen Adaptation).

This film is about a young boy – Caleb, who in 2009 is given an envelope that has just come out of a time capsule that has been buried in his school for the last 50 years. Whereas all the other children are given pictures of space ships and flying cars as the children of 1969 were asked to draw their depictions of the future – little Caleb is given a page of numbers. When he gets it home his dad, John (aka Nicolas Cage) can’t sleep as he is grieving his wife’s death and manages to stumble across the numbers. Now luckily for Caleb his dad works at MIT and so he is able to work out that these numbers are accurate predictions of when major world catastrophes will take place and how many people will die in them.

SPOILER WARNING (So far everything I have told you is clearly depicted in the trailer. But if you read on it will spoil the movie for you.)

The movie then wrestles with the question of what you would do if you knew the future. As on the paper are three more dates and death tolls that have not taken place yet. Its an interesting dilemma and could have been a philosophically exciting line to follow in the film – but it is quickly skirted over.

Ever since the piece of paper with numbers has landed in Caleb’s hands he has been seeing spooky blonde haired dark suited men who whisper to him. They also drop strange black stones into his hands while driving pretty lame american cars around.

When we finally work out that this prophecy buried for 50 years is a warning about the End of Everthing we might ask why the spooky blonde guys only gave the world a week’s warning as they were shortsighted enough to leave the prophecy buried for 50 years? What was the point of giving us the future if there was nothing we could do about it?

There are a number of interesting biblical links:

1. Caleb – he was one of the spies into the promised land described in the Old Testament. Caleb along with Joshua was one of only two people of his generation that made it into the promised land – the parallel is that the Caleb in the film is also only one of two people who makes it into the new promised land.

2. John – he was the New Testament prophet who was given a vision of the future that in the Bible is called the book of Revelation.

3. Ezekiel – the book of Ezeikiel features in the movie quite a bit – mainly through a picture that the children colour in. When the space ship finally arrives at the end of the film it does have wheels within wheels – which Ezekiel the prophet describes:

¹⁵ As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. ¹⁶ This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. ¹⁷ As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not turn about as the creatures went. ¹⁸ Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

Ezekiel 1:15-18

This picture of God appearing to his people in Exile in Babylon was designed to encourage them that no matter where they went God was with them. in this picture there are also four Angels / spiritual beings and that corresponds with the film’s depiction of the four spooky blonde haired men who are transformed into translucent beings. So they are supposed to be angels in the movie – they are not able to talk however and they do the strange thing with the black stones and why do they have to drive cars?

4. The Tree of life - the two children who make it through to the next life – a new Adam and Eve as it were and they head off towards a beautiful alien tree of life that is described in both the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation – symbolising that God provides human beings with life and he wants us to enjoy life with him – and the pages of the Bible between these opening and closing books describe how God is able to give life to humanity despite human sinfulness.

The film interestingly replaces God with aliens and offers no redemption to the planet only doom with only two children escaping the cataclysm . (There were other pods but I didn’t see anyother people). It plays off of the growing sense of apocalyptic doom that is present in our movies about the future but offers no hope to most of us. The children both brought an rabbit with them – so there are probably echoes of Noah’s ark too…

If you want a different view take a look at my book Destiny… which presents the big story of the Bible in an accessibly way and provides a hope for the future by exploring God’s picture of the end of the beginning in the book of Revelation.

It was very weird ending to Sunday’s Top Gear as Jeremy Clarkson eulogised rather than gloried in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Some are rumouring its the end of the show forever.

I wonder if it was more about Clarkson knowing the bitter sweet satisfaction of finding something as close to perfect as he can imagine. There’s that weird twinge you feel when you walk down the road with your toddler hand in hand with you skipping down the road with the sun on your face, feeling one day all this will be gone, the toddler will be grown up and won’t want to be seen dead holding your hand or skipping in public. Perhaps the finitude of life hit Clarkson…

Perhaps it was the temporality of all the greatest joys we know on earth.. that as CS Lewis tells are just

These things – the beauty, the memory of our own past – are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.”

Could it be Clarkson was having a spiritual encounter in an Aston Martin pointing him to the Creator in one of humankind’s finest engineering creations?

In a Summer that has seen more dog films than I can remember.

My top dog films this season are:

1. Hotel for Dogs

2. Bolt

3. Beverly Hills Chihuahua

4. Marley and Me

Why does Marley and Me come last? Well I don’t think the film makers knew where to pitch it. It could have been a romantic comedy along the lines of the excellent Knocked Up or it could have been a romantic kids movie along the lines of equally excellent Enchanted or it could have been a dog movie along the lines of Hotel for Dogs which was the best live action kids and dog film I have seen since “Old Yeller.” but instead it fell between the stools and we get neither a kids movie nor an adult movie – just a sentimental journey which occassionally features a misbhaving dog.

I love dogs, I really would love a dog, but as a foster parent with 5 kids in the house a dog is not going to be practical for a while. This film did make me want a dog, but I didn’t want to be watching it with my kids. it wasn’t a funny enough, there weren’t enough dog related capers and there were a lot of sexual references and long bouts of dialogue that made the kids bored as Aniston and Wilson wrestly with infertility, miscarriage, birth, postnatal depression and midlife crisis. Yet I am not sure i would have watched it as an adult either.

The film also suffers from the most long and drawn out death scene I can remember since Philadelphia. Now i don’t mind a good blub, I remember sitting and crying my eyes out with the kids as we watched the Disney classic Old Yeller, but the death of the dog in Marley and Me went on for about 15 minutes. (check out my 10 year old’s review)

There were moments of great fun but really this film has gone to the dogs…

If it’s raining outside and the kids need to let off a bit of steam…

Here are the ultimate Summer wii games:
1. Mario Power Tennis

At under £20 this is a complete bargain and is my favourite wii game at the moment. it’s very demanding and you really have to “hit” the ball hard to return some of the serves. i love it and i think the kids think its great too. there are lots of mini games – gimmick courts but the main tennis play is excellent. I am a big fan of mario games and this is no let down. It’s well worth the money and even rivals mario strikers charged as the best mario game ever.

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2. Wii fit

we just got this as a birthday present in our house. Its really addictive and every one has their target fitness levels. It has lots of content ranging from full on press ups to really fun balance games like hula hoop and tight rope – this is a great game and is easy to get hold of now for around £50. I am currently king of the slalom and you’ll love the header compeitions and ski jump too.

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3. Wii Sports resort -

this looks amazing and comes with a complementary wii motion plus add on for your controller. The best games appear to be the frisbee throwing, fencing and table tennis. We haven’t got this yet but the reviews are excellent. let me know how you get on with it. I like the look of the plane dog fighting flying game – where you hold the wii remote (with motion plus add on) like a toy aeroplane and whizz it around the room.

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4. My Sims

if energetic fun isn’t for your kids – this is a great game for the more creative and social types. I bought this for my 7 year old daughter and she loves it. It involves exploring a really colourful environment, making friends and building a house and decorating it using various resources you have collected. It can be very addictive.

This again is on a bargain deal at Amazon for only £12. Which is cheaper than a family trip to the cinema and you’ll get more hours per pound ;o)

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5. Dora the Explorer rescues the Snow Princess

with its easy controls this is just the ticket for our three year old who likes having her own wii game to play with. the older children want to play too – but this really suits toddlers best. We thought we got a bargain from amazon for £17 but its only £9.95 now.

I don’t mean Gerrard cleared off the line saving another crucial game for Liverpool.

But he was cleared off “affray” in a court case today.

I must admit to feeling torn about the incident.

1. We all make stupid mistakes, and punching someone in a bar when you are; self admittedly 7/10 (with 1 being stone sober and 10 being hammered) is something anyone could do. The fact it was an argument over music shows how stupid the whole thing was. Gerrard was reduced to tears in the court after a statement was given by Kenny Dalglish.

2. But the CCTV footage and the testimony given seems pretty condemning – Gerrard claimed self defence even though he hit the person first.

3. The problem seems to be that if it were you and I that committed this crime we’d be in prison. But because even David Turner QC the prosecutopr paid homage to Gerrard’s skill, describing him as a world-class footballer and “a star”. He added: “Wherever you go in Liverpool, and indeed the world, there are little boys proudly wearing that red Liverpool shirt with No 8 and the name Gerrard on the back of it.” So perhaps he was overawed by the process of prosecuting a legend.

4. I am die hard Liverpool supporter and particularly a Gerrard supporter. But this doesn’t feel right.

5. There but for the grace of God, go we all…

The guardian has just published the first pictures of the new doctor and side kick/partner “Amy Pond.”

I just watched the episode again where David tennant turned up after Christopher Ecclestone and I must say he didn’t look promising to begin with and now he’s my second favourite Dr of all time (second only to the spooky Tom Baker).

What do you think of the new one?

Wow!

What a powerful piece of television. I haven’t been so gripped since the first two series of Spooks.

Loved the philosophical challenges of utilitarianism – can you quantify the greatest amount happiness for the most amount of people and therefore sacrifice whatever is necessary to make that happen. Jack and Yanto arguing that when one person is harmed all are harmed is difficult to sustain because that is not always the case – as the aliens rightly reply – thousands of children die from malnutrition every day, and as the director shows us abortion’s of convenience undercut the idea that every child is valuable. The programme’s bleak ending is based on the wrestling with the question of how to handle suffering, but I think also with the fact that we have no real basis for a moral ethic yet we can recognise that morality does exist.

Ofcourse as a christian I believe that the Christian story provides the best basis for a moral ethic. Where life is intrinsically valuable, because all regardless of ethnicity, age, academic ability, is valuable.

The idea of sacrifice of one child to save all the others – is also problematic – it seems to undercut Jack’s ethic that when one is hurt all hurt. Some will try and see a Christlike figure in Jack’s grandson. But he was an unwilling victim to everyone else’s plans. The christian gospel is based around a rescue of the human race through the willing sacrifice of the son – who deliberately became the saviour of the world. (see my book destiny for more on this)

Well done Torchwood – you used to be cheesy slightly naff and lightweight. But this week you have had on the edge of our seats….

Let’s hope jack is willing to come back again soon…