Koran Burning

UPDATE:  Media outlets are now reporting the event is being called off.  This does not invalidate my thoughts on the subject, but hopefully healing can now occur and true Christian love can be shown to the world.


A church in Gainesville, Florida has been receiving lots of media attention recently.  The church is planning on burning Korans on September 11th.  I admit at first I was not necessarily against this, but not supporting it either.  I cracked a few jokes about it, but in hindsight that was not the right thing to do.  So here is my official statement concerning this event:  I do not, nor will I ever condone such an event from this day forward.

I think it is sad and appalling that those who claim to be Christian would espouse such disdain with an in your face attitude toward another group.  At the same time I am not agreeing with Islam or its tenets.  However, if we are to follow the commandment of Christ in Matthew 22:39,  "Love your neighbor as yourself," we have no choice but not stand against this hateful act.  How is this showing love?  Are we not commanded to even love our enemies?

 ⁴³ “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. ⁴⁷ If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. ⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.  (Matthew 5:43-48, NLT)

Here it is in black and white (some Bibles red and white) we are to love our enemies.  Not only that but we are to be kind as well.  How is burning the Koran showing either love or kindness to Muslims?  How many hearts will be hardened by this display of venomous hate?  I have friends who minister to Muslims, how much will this set back their ministry, how much damage will be done?  Souls will be lost because of the hate this group has for Muslims.

I will leave you with one more passage repeating the above command found in Matthew but ending with a stern warning:

¹³You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. ¹⁴The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  (Galatians 5:13-15, NIV)

Meditate on that verse, what do your thoughts and actions say about how you feel toward your enemies?

Obligated?

Last night it struck me, my prayers are stale and lack sincerity.  Have you been there?  Are you there now?  What if our friends and family spoke to us in the same manner we speak to God?  What if at best they only spoke to us three or maybe four times a day?  How would we feel?  Neglected?  Unloved?  Unappreciated? 

Why should God be any different?  How His heart must ache when we treat Him as an afterthought?  Or even worse -- as an obligation.  We think to ourselves, "Oh, time to eat, better pray."  Then we say something such as, "Dear God, thank you for this food. Amen"   Well, truth be told it may sound more along the lines of,  "DearGodthankyouforthisfoodAmen."  Said as fast as we can, after all we would not want our food to get cold.  Never mind the fact that it is our spiritual lives that have grown cold.  This is where I am at in my journey.  My spiritual life as grown cold.  I want to change and hopefully my journey through studying and meditating on prayer will be valuable to you. 

Football season is here and each Sunday and Monday night will present a "big game" to someone.  Maybe you are the person who works extra hard on Saturday in order to clear up the schedule on Sunday.  There is an air of excitement as the players take the field and you want to be there to catch that excitement.  What if, what if, we had that same excitement and enthusiasm to come into the Arena of God?  This game is big folks, it is huge.  Football games will be forgotten over time, but the effects of prayer are eternal.

Is prayer just an obligation for you?  If so, join me in making a change.  Join me in making coming before our King, our Saviour, our God, a desire and passion so deep it will change us forever.

Green Bean Recipe

This is the first year we will be hosting our family for Thanksgiving.  We finally have the space to do so and are really excited at this prospect.  A couple of things I am working on are the turkey (more on that later) and side dishes.  I like cooking with flavor, no bland tasting food at my table, so when I began to think of a way to prepare green beans.  I know I wanted it to include bacon but at the same time did not want to go the casserole route.  I knew I wanted fresh minced garlic as part of the recipe and a bit of minced onion as well.  I then began to think what else I could throw into this dish.  I decided on a bit of Balsamic Vinegar might go well and some paprika.  Just a note about the green beans, I used frozen green beans as this would be what would be available in late November.  Feel free to use fresh green beans in season.

2 cups frozen green beans
4 strips of bacon, cooked
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp minced onion
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 tsp paprika

Cook the green beans until tender.  Once green beans are done cold shock them in a bowl of ice water (we don't want mushy beans).  While the beans are cooking, fry the bacon reserving about 1/2 tsp of the drippings (I just used the same cast iron skillet throughout). Crumble the bacon and set aside. Add the garlic and onion to the skillet and saute until golden brown.  Add the green beans and paprika give it a good stir to mix them in with the onion and garlic.  Add the vinegar while continuing to stir.  Finally add the bacon and cook over medium heat until everything is heated through.  Serve.

Baked Beans

Well, if you've been waiting for my recipe for baked beans you will have to wait a little longer.  It was a complete failure.  But, like every good chef, failure will only lead to another attempt and eventually success.  The first failure was I did not soak the beans in enough water, lesson learned.  Secondly, the sauce was not quite what I had envisioned.  This, however, is not the end and at some point I hope to post a baked bean recipe made from scratch.  Oh and I must add, no bacon was wasted in this failed attempt.  A bacon rescue mission was initiated and all bacon pieces were successfully recovered.

Tomorrow I plan on sharing a green bean recipe I tried yesterday.  This, unlike, the baked beans turned out pretty good.

Recipes in Progress

I soon hope to post some new recipes within the next few days or coming weeks.  I have been wanting to try some new things in the kitchen\grill recently.  I have been working on a pizza crust and pizza sauce recipe that is nearing what I think would be a good recipe.  Just a bit more tweaking and it should be ready to post. 

Summertime means firing up the grill and grilling and smoking a variety of meats.  This is one of my favorite ways to cook.  Summertime also means BBQ Baked Beans.  And once again I find myself reading the list of ingredients with names of preservatives I can not begin to pronounce.  So, off to the drawing board.  Hopefully, tomorrow night or Friday I will post the recipe, so be sure to check back.

Is this really June?

Hard to believe that it has barely reached 60 degrees today.  After all we are half way through the month.  We should be having sunny skies and much warmer temps.  My wife noticed my youngest daughter this morning was covered in goose bumps and asked her if she was cold.  She nodded her head yes and went to go put on her bathrobe.  My wife and oldest daughter both stated they were cold as well.  Being the great husband and father that I am, let it be known that I turned the furnace back on after several weeks of being turned off.  Alright, I admit I was cold too.

The forecast had called for partly sunny skies and mid 70's, but now that my weekend has arrived it is cold and rainy.  But the forecast looks good in a few days -- just in time to return to work.  I guess I can't complain too much at least my lawn is nice and green.

I hope to post some more recipes here in the near future.  I will be posting my chili recipe and a pizza sauce that is nearing where I want it to be.  So check back soon.

Jeff