Month: October 2014

A Moment of Honesty From Obama

“That’s not a choice we want Americans to make.”

It’s seems straight from Chapter 3 of Brave New World.

(If you haven’t read it lately, you should.)

Understand that strong, coherent families are the greatest threat to a totalitarian government.

A well-ordered, well-disciplined family tells more in behalf of Christianity than all the sermons that can be preached.

It shows that God’s model works.

Thing is, even Obama knows that God’s model works.

That’s why he’s so intent on attacking it.

A strong family has little need for the government.

A weak family has great need for the government.

Obama wants weak or non-existent families.

So do most ‘conservative” politicians.

So do most voters.

This is why they pushed women’s suffrage.

This is why they pushed no-fault divorce.

This is why they have pushed for every form of sexual deviancy, from promiscuity to homosexuality.

This is why they constantly cry about a “wage gap.”

Because they don’t want you to follow God’s model.

Because they’d rather you stayed miserable and seeking satiation.

Because they value “the economy” more than your soul.

But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. —Titus 2:1-6 (KVJ)

Frugal Friday: Cider

Today’s Frugal Friday post is a quick, easy, and cheap way to make your own cider.

Here’s what you will need to get started:

  • 1 gallon of preservative-free apple juice. Check the ingredients. If there is anything in it other than apple juice and citric or absorbic acid, find a different brand.
  • 1 gallon of spring (not purified) water. (Not necessary if the apple juice comes in a 1-gallon jug)
  • 1 bag of organic granny smith apples (Organic is necessary to ensure that the natural apple yeast is alive)
  • 1 balloon
  • 1 pin or needle

When you’ve got everything together, dump out the water. Remove the apples from the bag and peel them. Do not wash them beforehand. Place all the peelings in the empty gallon jug. Next, fill the jug with juice to about 1″ from the mouth. Use the needle or pin to poke a hole at the top of the balloon, and then place the balloon over the mouth of the jug. Set the jug on the counter where it will be out of the way.

In 1-2 days you will notice that the balloon is standing upright and there are bubbles rising in your juice. From this point, count off one week. If you want to vary the alcohol content of your cider, you can increase or decrease this time on your second batch. Your first batch, you are going to brew for one week, because I said so.

When the week is up, remove the balloon and very carefully pour your cider into a different container. There will be a large amount of yeast sitting at the bottom, and you want to leave this as undisturbed as possible. Your cider is now ready to drink, but ideally ought to be chilled in the fridge first. The last pint or so of cider, containing all the yeast, you will pour off into a third container. To the yeast dregs add about a teaspoon of sugar, and then place it in the fridge as well.

When you are ready to make your second batch, remove the yeast dregs, shake it up to distribute the yeast, and place about 1/2 of a cup of the dregs in your gallon jug. Add juice to about 1″ from the mouth, and place a punctured balloon on as before. You do not need the peelings the second time because the point of the peelings is to provide yeast, and you now have a supply of yeast from the dregs. Pour about 1/2 of a cup of the fresh juice into the dregs, and place it back in the fridge for next time. Again, wait for the balloon to stand up, and then count off a week and your cider will be ready.

Numbers 30

Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded. If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. “If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father’s house in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand.  But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her.

“If she marries a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself, and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand. But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void her vow that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound herself. And the Lord will forgive her. (But any vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.) And if she vowed in her husband’s house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath, and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand. But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge of herself shall not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the Lord will forgive her. Any vow and any binding oath to afflict herself, her husband may establish, or her husband may make void. But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them, because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them. But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”

These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses about a man and his wife and about a father and his daughter while she is in her youth within her father’s house.

(ESV)

Alone?

In a comment on his recent article about the NFL, Cane Caldo wrote

I am convinced that the solution to the mismatch of emotions with experience is to change how we perceive the experience. In that light, my feelings of defeat are shown to be false…which matches with what the Bible tells me both about our victory in Christ and about the deceitfulness of my heart. Now, others’ confusion at my peculiar view of sports, art, and media is the source of my sense of victory. And it correlates with the Truth.

Like Cane, I am convinced. However, this is an area where I sometimes struggle to put the force of action behind my conviction. Too often I find myself listening to my deceitful heart and saying with Elijah “I alone am left.”  In such times, I refer to Paul’s comments on Elijah’s struggle.

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. —Romans 11:2-6 (ESV)

I have had many real life conversations lately where people have been drawn to me, ask me questions, because my Biblical perspective is so different than anything they have run into, even in the church. That’s success, and I know it. But it doesn’t always feel like success, and sometimes it takes real effort to beat down those feelings with the Truth of Scripture.

What feelings?

The feelings of aloneness. “I’m the only one left, boo-hoo-hoo.” Thank God for the record of Elijah struggling with the same thing, because it feels like a pretty childish sentiment to admit to.

Childish as it may seem, it has been a struggle for better men than I. And I know it is not just me. Are you feeling abandoned today? Like you are the only one left seeking to follow in the way of righteousness?

That feeling is a lie.

Elijah felt that way right before God led Him to Elisha, the disciple that was to not only continue his ministry but receive a double portion of his spirit. Elijah’s sense of abandonment was so great that he asked God to let him die. The Devil wanted to keep him from ever meeting and discipling Elisha.

Maybe the Devil is trying to limit your effectiveness through feelings of aloneness. If so, resist him, and he will flee.

Christ promised that He would be with us until the end of the world, and that’s the best company a man could ask for.