What is Friendship with God? Here I am Lord, Is it I Lord? I have heard You calling in the night. I will go Lord, if You lead me. I will hold Your people in my heart. Let’s look at specifics in the Bible. Then let’s ask the question, what did they know about God that we might not necessarily know or comprehend. Characteristics of Friendship with God: 1. We have to understand the purpose of friendship/relationship with God. It’s purely for our benefit. It’s our salvation. Apar

Thanksgiving is quiet literally the opposite of complaining. And complaining is something we like to do... a lot. We complain about almost everything in our lives. Work, kids, spouses, you name it. Why is that? Why do we live in this state of perpetual dissatisfaction? There are very few people who truly enjoy their lives. And I mean truly. Not the kind of people who put on a show, but deep down they are resentful. I knew a guy who used to say, "Fake it until you make it". So

I noticed an extreme lack of patience in the younger generation, 13-16. They ask so many questions, but do not wait for an answer. It is as if they are satisfied with the questions. I'm smart, I asked a question. There is evidence of a lack of interest in knowledge. I don't know why. They might think they already know enough. They might just want to show that they have stumped you. This extreme lack of patience is a recipe for disaster. Nothing worth while in this world comes

2 Corinthians 12 My Strength is made perfect in weakness. What does it mean? Some context: St. Paul was faced with some troubling circumstances. There were some false prophets among the people of Corinth. These people boasted of their ability. They showed off, and they demanded compensation from the people of Corinth. They were teaching them wrong teachings. The people of Corinth, listened to them gladly, and were glad to be used by them. These false prophets more over slande

There has always been a big debate about abortion. It has only intensified in the last while, when NY state decided to allow abortion up till birth. The language of the bill is left vague stating only for the mother's health reasons. However, as several commentators mentioned, there is no reason to kill the unborn child when it can be delivered and have a chance to live. I'm not going to express my thoughts on this subject on a political spectrum, but rather on a solely spiri

I've been thinking about the idea of serving God for a while. It goes under different terms, ministering God's people is another term. I've been having a problem with certain ministries. Close to home, is the phenomenon of "celebrity priests". These famous priests who everyone flock after, sharing their sermons, sayings, etc, etc. This phenomenon is not restricted to the Coptic Orthodox Church only. You can see it very clearly in people who have a large following on their you

There has been a lot of back and forth on the internet about Patriotism and Nationalism. On a recent facebook post, someone shared: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-27/angela-merkel-nation-states-must-give-sovereignty-new-world-order?fbclid=IwAR0dMfQi8W-h87Y6IHsgZsC2XLTiGdP7mrkld5i9abD4HcP8xHJnPagbMFs The article is clearly against the idea of surrendering the national identity of a country to other nation states. The comments on the post I found quiet appalling. People

What are the prerequisites for leadership? I find this word being thrown around rather recklessly. People like the title, because it makes them look or feel good. But they conveniently dismiss the responsibility which comes with the title. What makes a good leader? I'm not going to look at the external factors, like good organizational skills, motivational personality, etc. These are all skill that may be acquired by training. I believe there are two factors which one must re

Have you ever had someone wrong you? Badly I mean. Can you describe the anger you feel towards that person. The problem is compounded when someone wrongs you at an early age and you hold in your anger for years to come. Any small thing can bring this wound back up to the surface again. It's a hard issue to deal with. People usually say, forgive and forget. Is forgetting even possible? What does forgiveness even mean? The dictionary defines it as granting pardon for or remissi

I keep asking myself this question. Can I do it? Can I do what I set my mind to accomplish? The answer to the question is heavily influenced by where I look for strength. I find myself looking for strength in people. And the overwhelming truth I'm realizing: this is a very very bad idea. People are more likely than not to tell you, you can't do it. Oh sure, many will not come out and say it in your face, but it will be clear in their actions and even in their dismissive attit

Pharaoh in the old testament is most famous for his story with Moses. The question I'd like to address today, is who or what is Pharaoh in our lives? First we have to know who we are. The Old Testaments stories can be taken in at least two ways: 1. As historical stories 2. As ensamples for us to learn from. The People of Israel in the OT represent the Children of God today. Even though current day Israel are the descendants of the people of Israel mentioned in the OT, but the

I ran into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTpukaJxyzM&fbclid= She makes a good point. If people's opinions will make you then people's opinions will break you. As I start this project, I have to change my pattern of thinking. It's not about pleasing people, it's about the work; the project. It's about making something I'm happy with and then if people's "likes" comes then good, otherwise, it's ok. It's not an easy task, changing one's pattern of thinking but I mu

For some reason since I decided to do the Open Movie Project, I've just been stuck. It almost seems like divine intervention. Everything is just working against me. Work is picking up like crazy and most of all I can't seem to get a descent idea. I wrote like 4 scripts none of which I like. What I'm trying to do is create something that works with the medium of 3D animation. Something lighthearted, but I just can't seem to get that. I've been dabbling with a Superhero idea.

Letting apprehension halt your progress? I'm feeling this right now! Just wrote a post about doing my first Open Movie Project, and I'm already second guessing myself. Why? Because I feel I'm out here alone. Sometimes when you start something new, you feel like you want to talk it over with someone. And not just anyone, but someone who understands the struggle you're going through. I don't have someone like that, so I end up having to push through on my own... or not push thr

I've come to a decision. I'll make an Open Source 3D animated Movie, in the same vein as the Blender Foundation's Open Movie Projects. Here is what Wikipedia says about "Open Source Film": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_film What does that entail exactly? I'll provide regular updates on the project. Links to all materials I use. If I create any assets including models, programming scripts, I'll make them available to the public. Furthermore, I'll open up the projec

Usually by the time five years expire in a specific job, I'm ready to move on. I worked for seven years in my first company and five years in my second company. One common sense I got is being locked in. Hard to describe the feeling. I guess you can say I get the sense that my career is stagnating. I'm not progressing anymore. I kept in contact with a co-worker of mine over the years. He ended up working for a small company called Whamcloud. They developed and maintained an o

For a while now I've been thinking about celebrities or more accurately, celebrity-hood. I'm going to define celebrity-hood as the status of being sought after; elevated beyond one's actual stature; placed as the center of attention. I believe celebrity-hood is extremely dangerous to both the celebrity and the fans. For the celebrity because it boosts their ego beyond measure; makes them lose sight of their actual importance. And to the fans because it sets them up for disapp

The Matrix is all around us. I was reading this article about what the Matrix is in the real world. We all know about the movie trilogy, The Matrix. The metaphor presented there though is something which can be applied in the real world. The Matrix in its essence is a control system. Any control system takes away our free will or severely limits our free will. The article argues that big corporations is the real Matrix of this world. I'm not necessarily going to go into a phi

Just scanned an article: https://www.vancourier.com/entertainment/acting-isn-t-the-only-thing-paying-the-bills-for-most-vancouver-performers-1.23466796 Basically it says how actors need a side job beside acting to make a living. I have first hand experience with that. Mikal Grant, a great guy I had the privilege of working with on Turning Point, was a VFS instructor as well as an actor. Not many actors/filmmakers make filmmaking their sole career. It' totally OK to have a sid

I forgot how much I enjoy writing. For the past while I've been doing it with the purpose of making movies. Because I'm limited with production budget available to me, I have to write stories I can actually translate into visuals. The script writing process requires a lot of planning. I have to write down a beat by beat breakdown of the script. Then I have to write a first revision. More often than not it turns out to be longer than what I can make, so I have to re-write and