Entry #21: Cooking With A Higher Power

   Click photo to enlarge.

My brother-in-law Mike hates fish.  One day my brother John called and jokingly interrogated Mike, “Did not OUR LORD eat fish?  We all (my mom, sister Karen & I who love fish) bursted out laughing.  Mike was speechless, half grinning, red faced.  I found an ad for this book to settle once and for all the question, WHAT WOULD JESUS EAT?  Anthony Chiffolo and Rayner Hesse, Jr., detail 18 meals—16 dinners, a lunch and a breakfast—found in the Scriptures.  The authors spent 3+ years on research.  One example:  The Lovers in the Garden (found in Song of Solomon). The meal features Spiced Baked Fish, Pounded Chicken Breast with Pomegranite and Walnuts (I love both), Solomon’s rainbow of Vegetables, Sephardic Wedding Rice, and Pleasant Fruits in Cinnamon Spice Syrup.  What Chiffolo and Hesse concocted in their book, Cooking With the BIBLE, is almost equal parts spiritual, historical and gastronomical—truly FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Entry #20: One Solitary Life

Jesus is Lord – Excerpts from “One Solitary Life” (author unknown)
Jesus is Lord, yet He declares His Lordship through the power of humility and grace…“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty and then for three years was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of those things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself….

“While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed on a cross between two thieves. While he was dying his executors gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth – His coat. When he was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

“Nineteen long centuries have come and gone and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever were built, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

Entry #19: A Truly Great Church

Since Stockton’s big “Landmark 2007″ meeting, there has been some discussion about church size, not only buildingwise (Stockton’s new church building may be considered to be the largest building [in the US] that was ACTUALLY BUILT TO BE A CHURCH), but also peoplewise and thoughts and feelings about attending a small church versus a large church.  I came across this poem that I had remembered from a little while back and came to a conclusion that as I Cor. 3:9 says, “For we are labourers TOGETHER with God:  ye are God’s husbandry, ye are GOD’s BUILDING.”  See what you think:

CHURCHES

Beautiful is the large CHURCH
With stately arch and steeple
Neighborly is the small CHURCH
With groups of friendly people 
Reverent is the old CHURCH
With centuries of grace
And a wooden or a stone CHURCH
Can hold an altar place 
And whether it be a rich CHURCH
Or a poor CHURCH anywhere
Truly it is a GREAT CHURCH
IF GOD IS WORSHIPPED THERE
(Author unknown)

Entry #18 Inspiration BEFORE Expiration! (author unknown)

I have been away from blogging for a while.  My last entry was just after Christmas.  THEN the family computer broke down.  We finagled for a while (3+ weeks) over the phone with Dell technicians (in other countries).  I guess if you’re not a business, you don’t get “American service” as easily as you get “foreign service.”  My brother-in-law talked to workers from El Salvador, San Salvador, India.  I don’t YET have a laptop, so I had some computer down time to gather thoughts.  THEN, when the computer was fixed, and I was just about to blog again, there was a flurry of use for “other computer things.”  I’m FINALLY here, Jan. 30, with my 18th blog entry.  Here’s a quick thought (by an author unknown).  My next 2 entries will be from authors unknown.  Tell me what you think of this thought: 

O Lord, let us have ASPIRATION
To be an INSPIRATION
Before EXPIRATION.