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Showing posts from June 16, 2013

In Defense of the Man Tank-Top*

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Romans 14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. I know the pejorative term for the tank-top is wife-beater. I first heard the term a decade ago from my quasi-girlfriend. Boy, I had a lot of those quasi-girlfriends. I think I drove more women towards marriage than anyone I know. It was a mixture of my unwillingness or theirs to continue the relationship. Odd, it is was either I called it to an end or the women did. Never mutual. Someone is always on the losing end. If you have noted in previous blogs my aversion to Uber-air conditioning when it is 95 outside and 62 inside which screws my body up, a tank-top is a perfectly legit piece of clothing. It releases heat from the body--like arm-pit exhaust pipes. It is not like a I have a hairy gut sticking out and/or a Confederate Flag emblazoned on the front. The South gonna' rise again? Hope not--didn'

Garden of Good

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I am a firm believer in the good rather than the great. Let me elaborate. Great is a wonderful goal, but more often than not we fall short of greatness. What fills the gap? Feelings of inadequacy, failure, self-recrimination. The Spurs probably feel like losers today. No, no, no. The good should fill the gap. Still aim for greatness and give it what you got, but be willing to embrace the results regardless. As long as you put in the effort. Dogging it in life is never acceptable.  For the last 6 years, I had a large garden and even larger battles with a groundhog family under my shed who dug under my fence or climbed it like a jungle gym. I finally called a truce on the war and began to grow the crops necessary for salsa--which the g-hogs had not a taste for. Tomatoes, red pepper, jalapenos, parsley, and basil. I buy the onions. I like cilantro better than basil but it goes to seed and is too high maintenance. After moving, I debated whether I was going to grow a garden this y

Cooking Souls Into The Kingdom

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I was frying my two eggs as usual this morning on a medium heat. Up until recently, I turned the burner onto high, melted the butter into the iron skillet, then turned down the heat to medium to cook the eggs the rest of the way. Now, it is medium from beginning to end. Too hot at the start creates brittle and hardened eggs--and causes the eggs to fuse to the pan. The moderate heat seems to be the perfect balance of enough heat, but not too little or too much. The power of moderation in discourse these days is pretty much dismissed. For many Christians, it reeks of compromise. Did not Jesus say that He was going to spew the lukewarm from his mouth? Yet, in looking at that passage, Jesus is specifically referring to a Church who has need of nothing, Jesus included: (Revelation 3). He is speaking to Believers lack of fervency for Him and lack of deeds expressing that passion. Message to Laodicea      14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:     The Amen, the faithful and

Redeeming the TV Time

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Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. I was watching the news yesterday--which was its usual faire of perverts, murderers, horrific accidents, robberies, and other mendacious peoples' actions. Along with the five day forecast and a sports review. "No wonder," I thought, "That antacid ads are so prevalent during the news hour." Not only from what we ate but what we watched. Why can't we crave good like we do evil? Or be at least more balanced? This age seems preoccupied with sin. For a society so intent on cutting itself from biblical moorings, our shipwrecks--and the perverse satisfaction we get from watching them--certainly does much to prove the inherent waywardness of the human heart. Then, at the end of the broadcast, some feel-good piece is thrown in like spraying cologne on a corpse. TV is mostly a wrecking ball in the living room. It takes a lot of discipline to dodge the destruction. Here is what I have done to t