bierkergaard

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world." “We can shoot rockets into space but we can't cure anger or discontent. ” John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent My Dad was delving into an explanation of this Shakespeare inspired quote on Christmas night. My Dad is a well-read dude and in listening to him, I learn a lot. Like downloading knowledge. Doing a bit of research, I discovered that this quote had been turned into a title for a book by John Steinbeck--his last novel published in 1961. The novel looks intriguing and was apparently Steinbeck's broadside against the "Greed is Good" mantra of the American Dream. Or maybe it was a surgical skewering. Although I don't believe in the biblical office of Prophet is operational any more (for Christ has come), I do believe people can be prophetic. Steinbeck's words seem to fall into this sense of things....

Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the store, the merchants and customers were screaming, "More, more, more." On Christmas Eve Day, I was watching a little TV. Several commercials from retailers were touting their after Christmas sales. I think there should be moratorium on such ads. I understand first mover advantage, but it seems unholy to market such a sale before the after on a holiday like Christmas. Let Christmas be that one celebration where the day stands alone, not trammeled underfoot for what comes after. Several years ago, my extended family went from buying gifts for each other, to buying one gift for one person in a present exchange, to no gifts for anyone besides the kids. I do purchase gift cards for the children but my own personal gift count take this year was zero. Nothing at all.  My presents appear to be in the past. I am OK with that because I find not participating in the commercial side of Christmas cr...

Matthew 25:23 "The master said, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!' Yesterday, I was out around 7:30 am for my four mile jog. It was in the mid-30's temp-wise. I wear shorts with no sweatpants, so I have to keep moving lest I freeze from the feet up. I was coming to the close of my route, I saw that there was an envelope out in a yard. It look unopened from the distance. As I passed by, my conscience told me to turn around, as I suspected something was awry. I trotted up the lawn and indeed it was an unopened envelope; it was MIA from a mailbox. It looked like a Christmas Card with one of those letters of the year in review folded inside. The sending address was on the outside so I broke Federal Law and opened up the mailbox without authorization and deposited the letter inside and went on my way. I know that the ac...

Proverbs 25:13 As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to him that sent him, for he refresheth his soul. When I moved, I lost the my CD Bon Iver's "For Emma, Long Ago." For the uninitiated, this album is already a classic. Bon Iver is an Ebonics-like transliteration and pronunciation of the French term for "Good Winter." There is a huge back-story on this work that you can Google. No need to restate what is already out there. I want to mush the sled dogs of my thoughts into new snow. Being that this is the first winter in seven that I am not heading out to California, I am truly hoping for a "Good Winter." This somehow sounds like a mash-up between Charlie Brown's "Good Grief" and Narnia's "Always winter, never Christmas" negation. Being Nordic, I love the winter. But, I only love it if I can get warm. Pure cold is not cool without some heat.   I debated buying another CD of the w...

Let Rome keep her noise, the arena of its atrocities, the circus its follies, the theater its revels . Jerome (342-420) Ancient Rome, imperial Rome, descended into decadent entertainment as a way of life. Or more accurately, death. And this was Before Cable. B.C. Historical rerun of Rome here in the old USA. As we witness the twilight of our Civilization, on the edge or ruin or redemption, which way the moral winds blow will determine our destination. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I try to resist the goods the world sells. Satan Inc. wants us to be grounded in what is passing away. It is easy to get cynical. Non-believers relish deconstructing the Faith. I can also lower the wrecking ball on our culture's Idols. It is like bowling from ten feet away. Can't miss. It doesn't take a Ph.D. What our day needs is hope, real hope. Our culture specializes in the snarky, being clever about the irrelevant, or more seriously, dis...

The NRA has made its statement on guns. Mo' guns, mo' better. There is a truth in this, sort of. Guns are creators of inequality in the most brutal calculus possible. I have bullets, you don't. I win. Ask the Native American how he felt being on the losing side of that equation. If everyone had guns, there would be only a questions of whose gun would be more lethal, whose hand was more steady, whose eye was sharper, and whose heart was colder. But, everyone still would have a shot no matter what was in the hand. The first shot has the edge because one bullet can do the job. I have heard the argument that guns in Colonial and Constitutional times were muskets and the 2nd amendment was based on this inefficiency . But, this was the common gun of both government and the citizen. If the government has Uzis, and the citizen has a 22 rifle, there is an inequality, and vice-versa. Yet, as a Christian, I ask is this piece of dirt that we call Earth worth fighting for? I hear...

2nd Sam 1:26 I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. The last couple of weeks, I have had the pleasure of hanging out with brothers. My own, three brothers, and two brothers. The latter two sets I have known since college. My biological brother, since birth. I really appreciate being granted a place in other families' brotherhood. It is an honor. We can tease each other, bust each others chops, have thoughtful conversations, do cool stuff, laugh, and have fun. We got each others' backs too. That is the most important thing for sure. In an often indifferent world that is sometimes out-and-out bad news, loyal brothers are better than a million dollars in the bank. I will take people over paper any day. The verse above has been seriously misused by those trying to build the biblical case for a sexual relationships man-to-man. There is no evidence in the text or elsewhere in Scr...