In the story of the prodigal son, Luke uses a curious phrase when the younger son realizes what he has lost and determines to go home. The King James Version translates the phrase, “He came to himself.” That phrase has always fascinated me. How do you come to yourself? Can you set yourself down somewhere and then forget where you left yourself? Actually, it is something like that. We can become so buried under mistakes and failure, stuffed under grief and regret, that we get to the place where we no longer recognize ourselves. But God’s “yes” changes all that. When the Spirit changes our true identity in Christ, we leave behind everything that is false and start walking toward the truth of Christ and who he created us to be.

Changing your mind
Walking away from the lies and destruction of sin is very close to the practical meaning of biblical repentance. It goes far beyond feeling bad about your sin—all the way to literally changing the direction of your life. And to change your life, you have to change the way you think. A change in your life’s direction means you stop fighting the current of God’s grace that flows in your spirit. Now you start flowing with the current of grace. As you reorient your life in the direction of God’s leading, you find your efforts are amplified through the Spirit’s presence in the same way an ocean current enhances the work of a ship’s sails.

Growing up an only child, I didn't play very many board games (though I did own many) unless it was with my cousins, my aunt, or when I could talk my parents and grandparents into playing. By the time I started school video games where starting to become popular, therefore I played Super Mario Bros. with my friends.

Now as an adult, I realize the importance of interacting with another player instead of a television or computer screen.

Recently, I had the opportunity to review a new educational game titled Mysterious Creatures the Game, courtesy of Education Outdoors in exchange for my honest review. I received the game by UPS within a few days in a nicely packaged box.

Mysterious Creatures requires up to four players between the ages of 8 and up. There are some small game pieces, so children under the age of three shouldn't be around the game.

Tiny Toon Adventures Crazy Crew Rescues!
Studio: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
ASIN: B009JE18UE
Release Date: January 8, 2013
Retail: $19.97 SRP
Running Time: 369 minutes
Number of discs: 2
Rated: Unrated

The zany Looney Tunes spin-off  is back in Tiny Toon Adventures Crazy Crew Rescues! containing seventeen hilarious episodes (Eps. 67-82) on two discs. The Steven Spielberg produced animated series introduced many new characters such as Buster Bunny, Babs Bunny, Pucky Duck, Hamton J. Pig, Elmyra Duff, Montana Max, and many others, to whole new generation in the early 1990s. The series was set at Acme Acres, where the characters were enrolled at Acme Looniversity with the occasional cameo appearance by veteran Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and others.

I was a big fan of the Tiny Toon Adventures when I was growing up. I couldn't wait for school to get out so I could run home and watch the newest episode that aired at 4 o'clock in the afternoons. The characters were energetic and at times rude (especially Babs), in which I absolutely loved.

Thanks to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, I can now relive my childhood by watching the newest DVD release, Tiny Toon Adventures Crazy Crew Rescues!, which I received free of charge in exchange for my honest review.

The episodes on the two discs are:

Through taking healthy risks that make you a better person or the world a better place, you begin to develop a deeper appetite for good. At first it might not be very tasty. Taking even a small risk can be more difficult than it sounds. And that is why we have to practice. We have to develop the skill of challenging ourselves.

We want the act of making healthy choices to become a natural and authentic part of who we are. But before something can become a habit, it often is a hassle. Put another way: if we want new habits to become instinctual, then they must first be intentional. And in order for that to happen, we have to practice the sacred art of self-challenge.

I don’t want to freak you out, but what we’re really talking about is obedience. Obedience to God is the path that leads to Life. It’s the path that transforms you into the person you long to be. And obedience always requires risk.

What’s amazing is that much of our obedience is instinctual. In at least some areas of life, we naturally make healthy choices. We naturally smile at a stranger, or perhaps we have a great work ethic or are naturally curious or easygoing.

Yet we can’t define obedience solely in terms of what comes naturally. Often our greatest moments of obedience come when it is least natural. Perhaps our natural tendency in certain situations is unhealthy or hurtful. Or perhaps what we naturally want to do is nothing, to avoid taking action when action is called for. In these moments we have to choose something else, something we don’t want to do, something that, most likely, will move us into the space of the unknown.

I want to be a person who is able to act—who is able to obey—even when it’s unnatural.

I’ve met a lot of people who knew what it was to burn plows and set out to live for God but didn’t know what to do next. They prayed, they made a commitment—and they got stuck. As a pastor, I’ve seen it over and over again. As a man trying to live for God, I’ve experienced it over and over again.

I’m guessing you’ve made plenty of resolutions about stuff you needed to start doing or stop doing. Maybe you were going to start praying or reading your Bible more.

Or maybe you were going to stop smoking or boycott carbohydrates or stop looking at pornography or stop saying mean things about family members behind their backs. Maybe you decided to break away from a relationship you knew was unhealthy for you.

The way I see it, there are two major reasons why well-intentioned people like us get stuck after we burn our plows.

One, we don’t think big enough. Two, we don’t start small enough.
 

I’m a British author of dark, paranormal romances. The first three books in my Blackthorn series were recently bought by London publisher, Bookouture. The first two are about vampires – the ‘romantic’ type, in an ever-so-slightly disturbing type of way. And I love my genre. Because of that, I can’t help but feel defensive when others say this vampire obsession is just a trend – that fans will eventually get bored. That this current epidemic will fade to nothing.

The evidence screams everything to the contrary.

Vampires are embedded in our society’s psyche. In fact, they’re embedded in the psyche of many societies outside our own. Nearly every country on our planet has its own version of the vampire myth. Even before Dracula was penned over a century ago, real tales of vampirism had been rife in Eastern Europe for decades. And when those stories (along with the Serbian term ‘Vampire’) infiltrated our society in the 1800’s, apparently any newspaper containing such tales sold by the bucket load. But why? Admit it or not, on some level we all have an instinct to be fascinated with the mysterious and the macabre. We’re all a little bit intrigued by the supernatural, not least our lack of ability to explain it.

So what is it about vampires in particular? What is it that has made them such an iconic romantic figure? Whether it’s the social fascination with bad boys or the psychoanalytic view that vampire fantasies are no more than subliminal repressed sexual fantasies, vampires have got an incessant appeal. But let’s be honest, our current vampiric heroes are a long way from archaic tales of hairless beasts with protruding ratty teeth and rank breath. So when did it change?