Middletree

Not a lot of phrases these days have the ability to produce extreme reactions in people like "Christian movie". Think about it: when you read it just now, you either cringed at the memory of past experiences watching lame stories with terrible dialog, or perhaps the phrase filled your heart with warm fuzzies. The former reaction is likely if you saw atrocities like "The Omega Code", and the latter is true for you if you forgave the substandard acting in "Fireproof" or "Facing the Giants" because you agreed with the message. The good news is, the quality of the post-"Facing the Giants" movies aimed for a primarily Christian audience has been steadily, though slowly, improving. It's not quite up to Hollywood standards yet, but it's getting better. A recent entry into this field, The Way Home , was recently provided to me for review purposes. The only "stars" are Dean Cain, formerly Superman on ABC's Lois and C...

1. This is a real confidence-builder: The Rangers ran the Yankees' best pitcher out of the game Friday, and outplayed the Yanks for 8 of the 9 innings. The fact that they have now slammed the Yankees for 26 out of 27 innings has to be a real confidence-boost for the Rangers, and has to be causing doubts in the minds of the Yankees players. Don't underestimate the mental side of this game. 2. Feliz's speed in the last AB against Texieria: 98, 98, 99, 100, 98, 99. It's very significant, because it means the batter and pitcher look each other in the eye, and they both understand what kind of pitch is coming. They're daring each other. Even if Feliz had a great breaking ball, it wouldn't have been right, and he knows it, to pitch anything but a fastball. Great way to end it. 3. The toe-to-toe, man-to-man aspect mentioned in #2 above is vital. Tex has been around a while, and can hit a fastball as well as anyone. But for Feliz to take his challenge like that say...

http://www.wfaa.com/sports/baseball/rangers/Playoff-charges-surprise-Ballpark-office-tenants-104319234.html Major League Baseball has come in and told the Rangers to tell their tenants--small businesses who rent space in the offices of the Ballpark--that the precedent which has been set for the last 17 seasons is now no longer in effect. They can no longer watch games from their office without purchasing a ticket. At least for the playoffs. MLB has always had ridiculous rules which come across as greedy. For example, go try to find a clip on Youtube. If you do get lucky enough to find one, bookmark it and come back in a week, and it won't be there. That's because MLB won't let any game footage be shown online, because they want you to view it on the league's website. A great example of the ridiculousness of MLB's policy is in that article linked to at the beginning of this post. Watch the video, which comes from a news report on local DFW station WFAA. When i...

It's only natural that, after writing about the topics of God's design for men ( Wild at Heart ), women ( Captivating ),  spiritual warfare ( Waking the Dead ), and the parallels between human romance and our relationship with God ( The Sacred Romance ), it's only logical that John and Stasi Eldredge expound on, and combine, all of those ideas in a book about marriage. Those already familiar with the ministry and writings of both Eldredges will see many similarities in their latest book, Love and War .    But it's not merely the same old regurgitated stuff. Love and War is full of fresh ideas, filtered through the familiar Ransomed Heart framework. Marriage is perhaps the most covered topic in all of American Christianity. And judging by the way marriage among professing Christians has been getting bludgeoned, it's understandable why.  But Love and War differs from the bulk of marriage-themed books in most Christian bookstores in at least two major ways. First,...