bierkergaard

Numbers 11:5 We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leek, and the onions, and the garlick . The Hebrew word for Garlic (Old King James: Garlick, love the KJV) is Shuwm (shoom). It is from an unused root meaning to exhale; garlic (from its rank odor):--garlic. As George D'Oyly & Richard Mant penned in their early 1800's Commentary on the Bible, these foods were very typical of the lowest class in Egypt (that would be the Jews) during the time of the Israelite slavery. From their work: The Holy Bible According to the Authorized Version: With Notes, Explanatory and Practical ; Taken Principally from the Most Eminent Writers of the United Church of England and Ireland, Together with Appropriate Introductions, Tables, Indexes, and Maps ( that is quite the mouthful, I have seen evangelistic tracks with less words and less intelligence ). Perhaps the Israelite diet of poverty-class Egyptian foods would be somewhat analogous ...

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1 The Hebrew words for waited and patiently in this verse is the same word qavah, (kaw-vaw') It means to look, patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon). As commentators have noted, it means as I waited, I waited. The word for heard in Hebrew shama`, (shaw-mah') . It means to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc). Last Saturday, Valentines Day (er, Valentine's Night), Lina my wife--as I am married, it is good thing that it was my wife--visited a new restaurant in Lancaster city called Gusto's. Sounds like something Schiltz-like. This is a reference from back in the day. Google it if you must. It was a great time...cold and wet outside, warm and lively inside. About the only redeeming quality of being cold and wet is getting warm and dry. Reminds me of the time when I watched the Glen Mills football team get shellacked 49-0 by Malvern Prep many years a...

Ecclesiastes 12:12 And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. (NKJV) The word "making" in the Hebrew is asah, (aw-saw') a primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application (as follows):--accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth. The word for study is lahag (lah'-hag) is from a root meaning to be eager; intense mental application:--study. The pervasive theme in Ecclesiastes is that in doing there is much weariness because all is meaningless. Power, sex, possessions, study...all are meaningless according to the Preacher. Tradition holds that Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes; this makes sense because only Solomon really had it all of the above, plus wisdom from God, and an errant heart throughout most of his adult life. In short, he would know about the end of these things, due to the fact that he had come to an end of t...

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Trash night is Wednesday night. That is when I roll my own portable Gehenna (no it is not smoking) to the curb. Gehenna in the Biblical times of the OT and NT was the the city garbage dump--it was also the place of child sacrifice. I don't kick my trash to the curb....I roll my trash to the curb. That saying of kicking someone to the curb references treating someone like trash....rolling someone to the curb could be treating someone like trash, prim and properly, a la Martha Stewart. I thought I was going up the social scale by getting wheels on my trashcan. How middle class! How bourgeois! What a wus! My old cans were more blue collar Columbia...my new cans? Middle class Mountville. I used to drag my trashcans down my driveway like carcasses, now it is more like a hearse. There was a day, a child, when I didn't like t...

My first introduction to Rush Limbaugh was over 15 years ago. My buddies and I were driving our way out to Bushnell, Illinois, for the annual Cornerstone Rock Festival (put on by Jesus People USA and not Granny church music. It was hard-core alternative and rock and roll. The show by Undercover that went way past bed-time still ranks as one of the top 5 shows I ever saw and heard and I have seen my share of great bands. I was at Woodstock...only kidding...I am not that old). Since the trip took many hours (I think 17 or 18, we listened a lot to the radio) and thus heard the whole Limbaugh show going there and coming back. I thought Rush made many good points but I hardly became a "Dittohead." In fact, whenever I listened to Rush since then, I came to view him as kind of a "Mad Lib" commentator. Although there were new names and words, the basic storyline of the show..."Liberals stupid" was recycled over and over again. There was nothing new under the sun a...

Daniel 1:8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Yesterday, I ate more cookies than the Cookie Monster...actually, I ate many more cookies than the Cookie Monster...all he does is crumble and chomp them up and they fall out of his mouth. A former student of mine gave me a home-cooked batch of cookies freshly-baked at 7:00 in the morning as a way of saying "thanks" for sticking with her when she was making some unwise choices and giving her another chance. Every so often I kind of get it right; I told her straight up that she was making some serious mistakes, I also determined to not quit on her. I told her that it would break my heart if she didn't do right. I have a hard time being vulnerable but I was. It easy in a skeptical age to get in "I care less than you do" mentality. Especially...

I spent most of the morning trying to get my wife's car to start. Since I am not automotively-inclined, I am piecing together the anatomy of what went wrong to cause the problem: 1) We had to keep her car out in the driveway for a couple days because her side of the garage's garage door mechanism was broken (that was an issue that our wonderful neighbor Mike fixed for us...I was like a novice nurse with an experienced surgeon handing him his tools and providing an extra hand but little brain power and expertise to the surgery). 2) It has been colder than Moscow in Pennsylvania. I had offered my side of the garage but she declined (we didn't know the weather was going go go freon on us). I should have given it to her anyway (chivalry should live). 3) She has a tendency to run low on gas. Being efficiently-minded, she doesn't want to go to the gas station more than necessary, so she used her low fuel warning light and sound as a alert that she needs gas. Me, I am at the g...