Cooking with Beer

Earlier this week I made beer bread. It turned out alright, but I think it could have used a little more time in the oven as it turned out a bit doughy in the middle. The recipe was pretty simple. Here it is if you want to try it.

3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
12 oz. bock or lager

Combine all ingredients and bake for 1/2 hour at 350 in a greased loaf pan.

I used Boston Lager for my beer. Next time I might go with a lighter beer, and try baking it for a bit longer. If you try this let me know.

Later today I'm making pancakes that call for beer. I'll be sure to post how that goes.

As far as the East from the West

Pslam 103:12 reads, "As far as the east from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us" (ESV).

Struggling with habitual sin is something so many deal with, myself included. It is easy to feel unclean and unworthy of God when this sin starts to take control and we feel helpless to break free of it. We grow weary of coming before God time and time again as we plea for forgiveness and for help to be rid of this heavy burden. "Lord, I've failed again." My friend Steve pointed out last night, that if that verse above is true then God's response might be, "Again?"

God has already separated us from our sin before, and he can do it again. Even in our lowest moments, when we feel that we have wandered too far, a fresh start is available; God is ready to separate us from our sin again. Thank God for that.

Recently I've seen friends on both sides of this. I have friends who are self-loathing, feeling worthless and undeserving of God's love and grace. It sucks. At the same time I am excited to see my friends who are crying out to God for a revival of their heart. The excitement they have for God is contagious and you can't help but want to glorify Him when you are around them.

In myself, as I struggle with the same sins over and over again I have to keep reminding myself the God can and does separate me from my sins. My favorite verse of any song goes "My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more! Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, oh my soul!" What comfort it brings to know that there is nothing I can do to separate myself from the love of God.

Friends, what has been bringing you comfort lately?

Christmas Card

Here is our Christmas Card. Click it to make it bigger.

Leaves

City Park is just two blocks away, and with free internet there I find myself making up to 3 trips a day. Its nice.

The leaves colors are changing, oranges and reds and yellows bursting forth, screaming "Chlorophyll be damned! I am not green!"

I wonder if perhaps this is the only time of year when we get to see the leaves true colors. If they did not depend on photosynthesis I suspect they'd be this color all year. Can the leaves sense that their time is almost through? Perhaps they are saying, "No more hiding, I'm the color of rust. If you don't like that you can go to Hell. I'll be dead and gone soon anyway."

Leaves live a short life, arriving in April, gone in October. Barely making it 6 months. I'd probably be bitter too.

Do leaves believe in reincarnation? Do they say to one another, "Being a maple leaf has been nice, but I hope I can come back as an elm, or a sassafras." What do they think of pine needles? I imagine they call them pretty nasty names.

As much of jerks as I am making out leaves to be towards others, I would guess that they are still pretty kind to their brothers and sisters on the same tree. They probably have endearing names for each other, like "Leafy" and "The Leafinator." When one of them falls off the tree, or gets eaten by a bug, I imagine they have long moments of silence. Perhaps the rustling of the trees is not the leaves rubbing each other, but the leaves crying over their lost brothers and sisters.

Fall is nice. The temperature is comfortable, the colors are stunning. Pumpkin finds its way into all these foods it leaves well enough alone the rest of the year. I am ready for it all.

Merry Autumn friends.

Book It

Today I was approached by a math teacher I know in Fostoria. He saw that I had a novel in my hands and said, "You actually like reading?" "Yeah, I love it." "Whats the point if you aren't getting information from it?"

Rather than explaining the joys of fiction or telling him about the importance of story or daring him to walk down to the English hallway say that, I just shrugged and smirked. I did have class going on and students to attend to. But still, even if reading is not your thing, how can you not at least see that there is value to it?

Today I finished my 8th book this year (9th if you count the audio book I listened to). My little sister has probably read twice as many. Reading is just so good. Through stories we can tap into emotions often neglected, challenge our world view, laugh out loud with no one around, increase our effectiveness of communication, and do so many other things my friend Melissa would likely be ecstatic to list.

Donald Miller recently wrote on his blog about the importance of reading. In that he talked about how few Americans read beyond the requirements of education, and that if you read only one book after college you are already further ahead than the majority of Americans. What the butt?

Here is my proposed solution. Bring back Book It for adults. When I was in first grade I got stickers for every book I read, and every so many stickers got you a free personal pan pizza. If book reports meant free food, that might be enough to get some more people reading, or at least further reward those who already do.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on reading? Or what are you reading? I just finished "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and loved it. I would love to hear from you.

Teleportation: a real possibility

I was reading in Acts this morning when I came across a story about Phillip talking to an Ethiopian. In the story the Ethiopian was having trouble interpreting a passage in Isaiah. Phillip comes along and explains how it is about Christ an then the Ethiopian asks to be baptized in some water that they were passing by. After the baptism "the Spirit of the Lord carried Phillip away," and he found himself about 30 miles from where he was.

I want to do that.

Now at that time, even though Christianity was on the rise, there were only a small number of men going around spreading it (probably something to do with the whole Paul dragging Christians to jail thing). God wanted someone in Azotus, and no one was there, SO HE TELEPORTED PHILLIP THERE! This is one of the coolest things God has done via awesome power of the Holy Spirit, and if I had to pick one awesome thing for the Holy Spirit to do to me it might be teleportation.

What would be you Holy Spirit powered awesome thing?

Vacation: All I ever wanted?

I've been on family vacation now since Thursday. We started off going to New York City for a few days to spend some time with my brother and sister. What a blast! Most of our trip centered around what restaurant we were going to visit next, but no complaints here. Here are a few of the things we've experienced so far.

-A doughnut shop that makes the following flavors of doughnuts: PB & J, creme brule, carrot cake, blackout(4 forms of chocolate), and more.
-The best coffee ice cream on the planet
-rice coffee (iced coffee from a store called Rice)
-Manhattan's best coal baked pizza
-A sandwich from where Harry met Sally (I'll have what she's having)
-Lobster Rolls at a flea market
-Sweet Potato Cheese Cake
-Corn on the cob on a stick with cheese and paprika
-The best steak dinner ever...ever.
-Brooklyn Lager, Coney Island Lager, Luger Lager, 6 Point light, and my sister's grapefruit beer.

And that's just the food. We also walked to Brooklyn Bridge, went to Liberty Island and Elise Island, saw Million Dollar Quartet, went shopping in SoHo (got a pair of H&M jeans for $10), and spent plenty of time playing with Megan's dog, Cliff.

Yesterday we arrived in Rehoboth, a beach town in Delaware. We'll be here until Saturday. Already we've had some great food and beer, and later today I'll be hitting up the ocean. Not to mention there are enough books to keep me satisfied far beyond our stay here, and bikes for us to use in the garage.

All in all sounds pretty great, right?

I've converted back to little kid mode. Dad is taking care of everything and I'm just having fun. However, the timing of this vacation means that I'm missing everyone coming back to BG. I'm missing the start of the Cru season and catching up with friends who have been gone all summer.

Bummer.

Also, despite having plenty of time for it, I've been neglecting making time for God on vacation. Maybe now that we left the business of New York it will come a bit more naturally, but nonetheless I don't want my vacation to be a vacation from God.

I would like the rest of this trip to not only be a time to have fun with my family and relax, but also to be an opportunity to reflect on what God has done this Summer (it seems like so much) and to continue to draw near to Him.

My friends, I cannot wait to get back to BG and see what God had done for YOU this summer.