Tried With Fire

I have a few posts brewing in my head, but brain fog (mild bug? not enough sleep?) is not conducive to writing. I'm also trying to get my blog bearings this year, so when in doubt, link! Staci gives some good advice about recommending books . Also, there are a whole slew of posts at Out of the Ordinary this month on reading, so check them out. What to remember when you change your mind about a book  from Aaron Armstrong. Maybe you haven't, but I've changed my opinion about books I once recommended. It's been interesting to watch the debate over antinomianism in the reformed camp. Sometimes it reminds me of these lyrics from Shai Linne's song  Cosmic Powers : He’s [the devil] always standing on one side, ready to swing the pendulum For those who minimize truth, he’ll burden them with heresies For those who emphasize truth, he’ll turn them into Pharisees One generation, he’ll tempt them to be legalists The next generation, he’ll tempt them to be hedon...

I was awarded the "Versatile Blogger" award more than a month ago by Gregg .  I forgot about the award until I read John's post .  So thank you for the award, Gregg.  I won't pass it on as I'm not into chain letters, but here are 7 things about myself. 1. I grew up in Southern New Jersey - the part that is rightfully named the Garden State.  The entire state of New Jersey does not resemble Newark, East Orange, or Elizabeth, all of which happen to be Northern towns.  My home town was surrounded by acres and acres of farmland.  Every spring we would pick strawberries, blueberries, and cherries.  We would get peaches and apples directly from the orchard and local produce from a family run farm.  There is nothing quite like fresh Silver Queen corn.  But alas, much of the land has been sold to developers.  The cherry orchard is now a strip mall, and soybean fields are now growing houses. 2. I was always an uncool nerd in school.  I r...

We are getting acquainted with our new yard. The previous owner planted several roses. They're beautiful to look at, but they have no scent. Not even a faint whiff of anything remotely like a rose. My preference would be to have them look less perfect and smell more like roses. I think there may be a spiritual analogy here. One can look so good on the outside but when you get up close, there may be no fragrance of Christ at all. It's all just for show. I have been playing plant detective. There is a vine growing near one of the roses. The leaves look almost like wild grape leaves but not quite. I have checked Virginia Tech's dendrology site, but to no avail. If anyone recognizes this, let me know. I have also checked if it was a squash, cucumber, melon volunteer or even an ornamental bean like scarlet runner or hyacinth bean. I got word that my Mac is salvageable for a price. The mother board and the hard drive went bad and need to be replaced. However, the d...

The Verizon Saga - Take 27. A technician came out today. He told me he was unable to move the FIOS service as a trouble request and that I needed to submit an order through the business office. I've done this twice before. He kindly offered to put in the request for me and was put on hold for 18 minutes and transferred back and forth five times. This is an employee, not just Average Joe Customer. Verizon's customer service hasn't been user-surly, just unable to deal with a request that falls outside of the standard service options. Unfortunately, my request defies catergorization. Most customers don't need their service moved because the current location is undergoing demolition. Lord willing, a technician will be here tomorrow. We sent our two boxes, 15 total pounds, of fabric and yarn to Iraq for the IBOL distribution. The current box count is 3436. If each box averages 7 lb, that's 12 tons of fabric, yarn, and sewing supplies . Major LaFlamme was originally hopi...

I have moved Holiness by J.C. Ryle from the back burner. I started reading it again on Monday evening when we lost power for 6 hours. It felt quite historically correct reading it by candlelight. Chapter 3 on Holiness seems to tie in well with the new sermon series on the Gospel and the Home. I'm still ruminating on The Glory of Christ by Owen. I am pondering John 1:18 and Owen's statement " Without Christ we would have known nothing truly about God for he would have been eternally invisible to us. We would never have seen God at any time, either in this life or the next ". Since this the case, what/who did Adam see in the garden, what/who did Abraham see when God told Him of His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, what/who did Moses see on Sinai? Around the blogsphere: Brian at Recover the Gospel has posted a video interview of Shai Linne on communicating the gospel via the medium of hip hop. Check out the many resources available there. While We Sojourn i...