It pays

Did you know that Christians still have a voice? Sounds like an obvious answer to an easy question. And the answer is obvious, but do we really believe that it’s true? Or do we care enough to use the voice?

 

Recently Gap came out with a “Holiday” commercial saying “Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Solstice, etc.” It then went into saying something about doing what you please, think what you want, we’re all free or what not.  It’s kind of a depressing commercial instead of one that is supposed to be joyful for the Christmas season.

 

Many of the stores we shop at and the companies we support do not support Christmas, but rather support the idea that we should all be politically correct and the idea that “all roads lead to Truth” (saying that there is no absolute Truth).

 

Anyway, my mother wrote Gap Inc. stating that she would no longer be shopping at any of their stores because they no longer support Christmas and what it means. This includes: The Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piperline. There were a couple of emails exchanged between Gap Inc. and my mom over the last week. 

 

Through a poll taken from customers also stating that they would not be shopping at the above stores for the same reason, The Gap is said to be coming out with a new commercial that is more “Christmas friendly”. We are taking this in good faith that they will stand by their word and do what they say they’re going to do. But should they not, shame on them. We’ll see what they mean by “Christmas friendly”.

 

It’s obvious, the people in this country are not as on board with the whole “no Christmas” thing as the media seems to think.

 

Stand up. Use your voice. Use it for good.

 

Minneapolis-Goof Friends

I went up to Minneapolis, MN this past weekend to visit two friends of mine, Julie and Ty Stafford. I had never been to MN before and I hadn't seen either one of them in over a year. Bought the ticket and went! And what a great time we had! It was an encouraging time with both of them. We ate at a delicious Somolian restaurant where we ate goat. Had great conversations of catching up and talking about what God is doing in our lives. We cooked dinner at home each night and went to the Mall of America! And my goodness that place is big! Oh and the Pioneer Woman was there signing her new cookbook!

Thankful Thursday

Time to be thankful!

 

1.       Makeup (whoever invented that stuff was brilliant!)

2.       Coffeemate Peppermint Mocha powdered creamer

3.       A God who speaks to me in new ways and who is always speaking

4.       A phone call from my dad this morning where I got to share about what God is doing in my life

5.       A community group that is truly acting/being like Biblical community

6.       MS Office Suite and what I’ve learned so far

7.       Staying busy at work

8.       That I have a job

9.       Water

10.   The heart God has given me for the nations

11.   That I have enough to subside my hunger each day

12.   The grace of others

13.   Clearance granted!

14.   God’s confirmation

 

 

Blind

“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.  These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”   -Isaiah 42:16

 

God is changing some things up in my life.  He’s speaking to me in ways He’s never spoken to me before.  He’s working in my life differently than before-definitely in ways that I have not known and along unfamiliar paths.

 

If you know me well, you know that in the past when God called me to do something He called me very clearly and very quickly.  I knew where He wanted me, no doubt.  These days I feel like a blind person. Ever since returning from China I have made some pretty important decisions in my life without that clarity that God has given me before.  I am still following Him.  But it’s different. God is still there; He’s never left. And He hasn’t stopped guiding me and speaking to me, but it’s in a different way. These are ways I have not known. Growth? I hope so. The promise in this verse? HE WILL NOT FORSAKE ME.  Boy am I glad of that!

 

Hankering

I have a hankering for some adventure.  I also have a hankering for a deeper life. There are no coincidences for those who know God.

outlook

Fixed the computer problem!  All is well!

Advice

I had a dream last night that an old lady told me I cut my toenails too short.  Random.

 

 

A bit of help

I need some help from any of you who are computer savvy and I mean really computer savvy.  Here's the deal.  I have/had a hidden hard drive on my computer.  It had to be mounted by a piece of software called TrueCrypt. Passwords and everything. I accidentally uninstalled the TrueCrypt software and now cannot use it to mount my hidden hard drive.  Therefore half of my computer's space is somewhere in computer space not able to be used and my MS Outlook is out there as well.  Does anyone know how I can get this part of my hard drive back?

Grey's Anatomy

Propaganda.

 

China is not the only country that has it.  In fact, it’s right here in our very own good ol’ U.S. of A.  And it’s all over the television.

 

Last Thursday I was watching Grey’s Anatomy.  One of the doctor’s on the show is a homosexuality (per the story line).  Her father is very against it.

 

There was a scene with the father and daughter confronting the issue together in the presence of a priest.  The father is quoting scripture to the daughter about how homosexuality is an abomination to the Lord and a sin and what not.  The daughter counteracts with quoting scripture at him about how the Lord loves no matter what she does.  Also quoting that her father shouldn’t judge.  There were others but my memory escapes me.

 

From my view here it seems that this is some right out propaganda.

 

There is a continuing discussion about how the Bible says that homosexuality is not okay and is, in fact, a sin.  Other people say that it is okay and cannot be helped and, in fact, should be completely accepted.  I felt like the show’s whole point was to put Christians in the light of looking like they are judgmental and off-base.

 

I need to watch out with these shows.  They have underlying messages to them and they sneak their way in there and then before you know, we’ve wandered a bit from Biblical Truth.

 

 

Would You Rather

You know that game that middle and high school boys (and sometimes girls) play, often times on a bus or when they’re just sitting around? It’s called “Would you Rather?”  Often times it is usually a question of would you rather see this something gross or that something gross.  So you’re getting the point that it’s pretty much just gross.  Anyway, today’s question is kind of along those lines, except not gross.

 

My roommate read a story to me last night after dinner about a school in Boston that is apparently distributing a little black book as part of the school curriculum to teach on same-sex relationships.  It’s advocating this and teaching that it’s completely acceptable and right.  And not only that but it lists ideas for these kids (and yes, they are still kids) to do if they are experimenting with homosexuality.  It goes into detail about how to do certain things. 

 

Listen carefully, this book is being distributed in the schools as a part of the curriculum.  Granted, while it promotes homosexuality and all of its acts it DOES discourage smoking because smoking is not good for you.  Thank you for that Boston.

 

So here’s the question-Would you rather have your child’s school teaching that smoking is okay or that homosexuality is okay and how to go about being involved in that?

Cavier and Bananas-restaurant review

Julia and I headed downtown Charleston tonight to try out a restaurant called Cavier and Bananas. She and I had seen the place a few weeks ago and thought it sounded interesting.

It's got a very European feel to it and it's broken into sections of hot food, salads, sandwiches and bakery/coffee. We walked right up to the hot food section and saw a lot of choices there before us.

Here's the scoop: this food is already prepared and then put into bowls or onto plates and put into a cooler that you can view from where you are. Everything is priced by the pound. So you tell the little man behind the counter what you want and how much you want of it. He puts it on the plate, weighs it and then, get this, he microwaves it. He heats it up in the microwave! And...everything is served on plastic plates that you would buy from the grocery store.

Here's what we got and how it tasted:
Chicken Satay with peanut dipping sauce-not as sweet as it really is in Thailand and the chicken was tough after being put in the microwave.
Plantain encrusted chicken breast-tough after being reheated
Roasted duck breast spring roll with plum dipping sauce-this was delicious! The spring roll itself was not crispy like it's intended to be because of the reheating, but the flavors were right on and everything about it was great!

The rest of this food was served cold, therefore no turn in the microwave:
Zucchini ribbons with goat cheese, pecans and dried cranberries-subtle flavor and very good
Apple and Fennel salad-heavenly! Julia and I both could not get enough
Greek Pasta Salad-the same that any restaurant would make

She and I then headed on over to Paulo's Gelato. Julia has been to Italy and so she was set on finding a place here that she could get gelato. She found it and apparently it's right on with the real thing. This was my first time having gelato and I really enjoyed it! So smooth!

And right now I'm going to tell you a lovely secret about gelato. The difference between gelato and ice cream is that ice cream is made with full-fat milk and heavy cream, but gelato is made from skim milk, there making it not as bad for you and allowing the flavors to come through more because they're not being overpowered by the fat of the milk. :)

All-in-all: I don't know that I'll go back to Cavier and Bananas. I might go back to get the salads to take home, but definitely not something that needs to be heated.