What kind of Pizza?

Take the faith plunge. If you have to make a decision quickly, trust that God is going to make it through you. And once you take that plunge, don't worry about the consequences. Just watch for Him. The consequences can be up and down. If you focus on them, you're drawing your life from the consequences. Draw your life from God instead.

Why is this important? Because so many Christians are hopelessly bogged down, trying to figure out the “perfect will of God” for every decision. Should I go to this college or that college? Accept this job or that job? Buy this house or that house? Go to this church or that church? Order pepperoni pizza or sausage pizza? That sounds ridiculous, but some believers are almost that immobilized trying to discern the will of God. Most believers are at least partially immobilized.

God doesn't want us to live that way. Such thinking arises from a sense of separation: “God is way up there. I'm way down here. Somehow I have to figure out His perfect will.” But there is not separation. You and God are one. He lives in you. He lives through you. He guides you.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 213

<idle musing>
Of course, we all know that God perfect will is that you make your own pizza—with only organic ingredients—and definitely not sausage or pepperoni! :) Seriously, I have seen people agonizing for days about a decision for fear they might miss the will of God; this quotation definitely is for them.

I'm also reminded of the last chapter of Tozer's Pursuit of God about the dichotomy that exists in many people's minds about the secular and sacred. I've got news for you: there isn't one! All is sacred to God.

Organic versus "deep" organic

<idle musing>
I just got a copy of The Winter Harvest Handbook from the library last week. Because of the garden, I didn't have time to read it until this weekend. In it, Eliot Coleman makes a very interesting distinction between the types of organic food available. He labels one "industrial organic" and the other "deep-organic."

So, what's the difference? Basically, a mindset. Industrial organic still sees nature as an enemy to be overcome. So, they use pesticides and augments and fertilizers—all "organic" of course. But, it is the same mindset that produces the industrial schlock we call food. The agricultural/industrial complex has no problem with it; they speak the same language, just different dialects. The industrial organic market can still be sold on the need for chemicals.

Deep-organic sees nature as an ally; all we are doing is cooperating. If there are pests, it is because the plant is missing some necessary nutrient; we need to find out what. Basically, we need to take time to listen, observe, and respond. That kind of thinking can't be marketed to, so it is a challenge to the agricultural industry.

Personally, I find the deep-organic view to be more scriptural. Oh, I know lots who hold to it are "tree-huggers" and nature worshipers, or some such (now that I think of it, I've been called a tree-hugger on more than one occasion). But, the source doesn't negate the insight. We are called to be stewards of creation; pouring pesticides—even organic ones—all over isn't being a good steward. It is just exploiting the land and upsetting the balance of nature that God put in place.

Sure, I know about the Fall and that it has an effect. But, for thousands of years, agriculture managed to survive without pesticides. Maybe we should re-examine our theology to make sure we haven't bought the industrial marketing lie that we need to pollute our life to make it livable...

Ask yourself, does a fish know it's wet? Do we know the degree to which the ultra-intensive commercialization of our life has influenced our decisions and outlook?

Just an
</idle musing>

Listening

Here are three practical points about hearing God. First, more often that not, you're going to hear His voice in the mess. When external circumstances or soul turmoil are doing a number on you, and you don't have any good feelings to draw on, you will hear his voice. His Spirit speaks directly to your spirit. When nothing in the external, including your soul, validates that, it makes it all the more clear that it's Him speaking.

Second, we can do things to cultivate our ability to hear Him. One is to spend time with Him alone, just listening. I've observed that it's very hard for most Christians to be all alone. We want someone to talk to, because when we're talking we don't have to face ourselves. And when we're talking we don't have to face God. Prayer is listening as well as talking. It's difficult to listen, though. It's challenging to believe that you actually hear. Take time in silence to listen.

The last point I want to make is this: you will do what God prompts you to do. Often when believers learn to trust Christ to live through them they begin to doubt their motives. “How do I know that this isn't just my selfish desire?” they ask. Who is the author of that? At this point we are so close to living a spontaneous, Spirit-directed life that Satan wants to challenge us as to whether we will do what God prompts us to do.

We will. Past experience alone should tell us that. Back when we were trying to live the Christian life from our own effort, we wanted to do what God wanted. We just couldn't, because we hadn't yet learned to live from the Spirit. But our heart's desire was to do His will.

Now that we have learned to live by His inner voice and we aren't striving anymore, we needn't wonder, “Will I really do what God wants me to?” Our inner man is always in agreements with God (Romans 7:22). Since He called us into His kingdom, we have always wanted to do what He wants. Previously, we just didn't know Him in such a way as to let Him do it through us. Now we do. The more we come to know Him and hear Him, the more we will manifest Him through our spontaneous living.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 206-207

<idle musing>
Lots of good stuff here, especially the statement that just listening is hard. Our society blares at us all the time; we need to take the time to turn it off and just listen. Of course, we might have to be face-to-face with some unpleasant realities, so we quickly turn the noise back on...too bad. God is waiting for us to listen; Augustine called the Holy Spirit the "hound of heaven" and he keeps on knocking on our door. He won't quite, praise God!
</idle musing>

This is dangerous

Someone will object, “It's too dangerous to tell people to trust the inner voice, to learn to identify the inner voice and go with it.” Yes, it is dangerous. That's what I'm telling you, though, because that is the way God has set up His kingdom. It's an inner kingdom. He has joined Himself to our spirit, the deepest part of us. He want to manifest His life through us. He does that most fully when we learn to hear His voice and obey it. I'm not putting down the written Word. I'm trying to elevate the indwelling Word.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 203

<idle musing>
"I'm not putting down the written Word. I'm trying to elevate the indwelling Word." Very well put!
</idle musing>

Varia

Andy Le Peau is running a nice little series on electronic reading, especially hyper-inked electronic reading, versus print. This from yesterday's post:

Studies show that those who were presented with electronic hypertext documents retained and understood less than those presented with the same documents in print form. The more the links, the less the comprehension. The medium obscured the message.

<idle musing>
This shouldn't be a surprise; the medium as the message was pointed out a long time ago by Neil Postman in Entertaining Ourselves to Death.
</idle musing>

Charles Halton has taken up blogging again. One of his recent posts tackles the hazards of interpreting—get ready for it—maps! After showing a map from the 14th century, he asks:

So, how do we assess this map? Is it worthless because it does not accurately represent the geography of the world?

When we interpret and assess mappae mundi we need to understand their genre which includes their intended purpose. The purpose of these maps was not to guide travelers, in fact, when sailors started using maps as aids for navigation maps changed dramatically (it was at this point that maps changed their orientation to the North, represented geographic features more accurately, etc.). Instead, these maps were intended to convey theological messages–the relationship between earth and paradise, the effects of the Fall and the exiles to the East, the theological importance of Jerusalem, etc. If we judged a mappa mundi on the basis of how accurately it represented the actual geography of the world we would be missing its entire point, the reason why it was made in the first place. It is like this with biblical genres. Before we interpret a text, any text for that matter, we need to understand its genre and concomitantly the reading expectations that we should bring to it.

<idle musing>
Read the whole thing. He even includes a 20th century example. Good stuff to remember when you are reading an ancient text...
</idle musing>

Over at Alan Knox's blog, he has a nice post about going to church:

So, Sunday morning, he found himself pulling his sedan into the parking lot. The attendants flagged him through the parking lot and into a space. The man at the door smiled and handed him a folded piece of paper. As he was going to say something to the man, the man turned toward the family behind him to hand them some folded pieces of paper.

As he paused inside the door, he marveled at the hive of activity that he found. The family behind him pushed past and found a pew. He sat beside them by the aisle. The husband of the family nodded, then turned toward his folded piece of paper. So, he looked at his paper, too. At the top of the paper were the words, “The Blessing of God.”

Good. He needed a blessing...

Then, everyone was leaving. He turned to the husband of the family. The husband shook his hand, and said, “It’s great to meet you.” As he was preparing to ask about being blessed by God, the family made their way past him and out the door. He stood there for a moment and a few people nodded at him. One man shook his hand.

Slowly he made his way back out the door and to his car. He drove back home. He did everything they asked. He went to church. He sang the songs. He gave his money. He listened to the speech. He said the prayer. Was he blessed?

He cried himself to sleep that night in his empty bed.

The next morning, the sign in front of the church building read, “Come here for a new life.” He wondered if that was a lie too.

<idle musing>
Sad, isn't it? I guess the reason it is so sad is because it rings too true. I'm not throwing stones; I've been guilty, too. But, God didn't call us to bring people to a building; he called us to bring people to himself. That may or may not happen in a building; the location is irrelevant. The life-changing encounter with God is what matters—and the following interaction with believers on a daily basis...
<idle musing>

Agreeing with God

You experience victory when you agree with how God sees you. Stop debating with Him: “But...but...but... I know how you see me, but... I know what the Word says, but...” Just agree with how God sees you. “You see me as holy and blameless and irreproachable. Thank you. I'm holy and blameless, and irreproachable.” You'll be surprised at what happens within you...

Most people want a confirmation of God's truth first, then they'd be willing to confess it. They want seen and temporal evidence. That's the way the world works. The world says, “You act holy, and we'll call you holy.” God says, “Say you're holy, and I will bring that forth in the seen and temporal."— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 189-190

<idle musing>
I love what God tells Moses in Exodus; basically, you'll know I sent you once you get the people out of Egypt and all of you worship me here on this mountain! Quite the promise. Of course, Moses argues with God and gets a bit more confirmation, but the point is that God says it, so believe it.
</idle musing>

In denial?

Our main objective now is not to manipulate the seen and temporal realm, to make it as we want it, but to interpret the seen and temporal by means of the unseen and eternal. The Holy But is what does it.

The temporal stuff truly is happening. Don't try to get anyone to deny what is going on. Why get them to deny a fix that God has engineered in order that God might fix them? Why not instead cause them to see the comfort that comforted you when you were in the fix that God engineered to fix you? Everyone else is giving them a technique to try to cope with their fix. But they are still in their fix. You may be the only one who sees what God sees, who knows the comfort that comforts a person when they are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 188-189

<idle musing>
Now that is no "pie-in-the-sky" kind of religion. The temporal stuff is there (contra Christian Science!), but God is there, too, and even more so.

God wants to get us out of our fix, not just to tolerate it. No wonder James says to "count it all joy."
</idle musing>

More buts

Most of us want to escape our circumstances, because we don't know how to operate the but. If we don't know inner life, we want to escape. But if we know the inner life, we understand that the Christian life is us living in the same situations that everyone else lives in, but we live differently. — The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 187

<idle musing>
Did you see him do it? He used the "but": we live "in the same situations that everyone else lives in, but we live differently." We live after the "but"; we live by Christ in us.
</idle musing>

A pet peeve of mine

I take quite a few phone calls from people looking for a particular book on a particular subject. I enjoy that; it is fun helping match people with the right books. It's a part of my job that is important; it distinguishes us from the competitors.

But, there is a breed of people that seem to be attracted to biblical studies and ancient Near Eastern studies that are a bit odd. I get my share of those calls. Invariably they try to impress me with how much they know. Usually they will claim to know Greek and Hebrew, with a smattering of other languages, be it Coptic, or Aramaic, or Latin. But, they massacre the pronunciation of the words they are throwing at me. So, do they really know it?

Anyway, I don't mind that so much. What I do object to is spending a half-hour on the phone with them, giving them free advice, ISBNs, publishers, etc. Then, they say thank you (usually) and hang up. No order; sometimes a promise of an order. But, when I check out their account in our system (we have caller id), the total spent is about $50.00 for the last 2-3 years. Yet, when they call me they claim to have all these books...

So, finally, my pet peeve: People who take advantage of my knowledge and recommendations and then go shop elsewhere to save a few bucks. I don't mind them buying it elsewhere; that's their choice. What I do object to is that I spent over 1/2 hour giving them free advice. I should send them a bill, like a lawyer does...

I'd like to see them get that kind of personalized information from their discount book seller...

More harvesting

I ended up canning the peaches on Tuesday; I got 12 quarts. Saturday I bought another 1/2 bushel, which I'll probably can tonight; it will give us another 12 quarts. That will give us 23 quarts for the year. I know, the math doesn't add up :) One quart didn't seal, so we are in the process of eating it. Even our failures are good eating... By the way, I use a light syrup in canning them; I tried no syrup one time and they were inedible :( My recipe is one part sugar to two parts water. Anybody have a different ratio? How did it taste? We also use unrefined sugar, which has a richer flavor; it looks better, too.

I made 30 pints of tomato soup last week, so now all I need is to stew some tomatoes. At the rate they are producing, I'll have about 3 times what I need. I guess we'll be eating a lot of fresh tomatoes! We had fresh tomatoes on our pizza last night, 3 Romas, but that barely made a dent in them. Last year, I froze a lot of the Roma; maybe I should do that again.

The beans are slowing down again. I'm thinking I will pull the ones in the greenhouse area in preparation for planting winter crops there. The top will probably go back on in early October. Not sure what I'm going to try to overwinter yet.

The cucumbers are about gone. My second planting got destroyed by the heat; I only got two cucumbers out the whole planting. Too late for another planting this year, although it is tempting to see if the hoop house would protect them enough...we'll see.

I finished canning the apple sauce on Sunday. I ended up with about 12 quarts, 36 pints, 24 half pints, and 39 4-ounce jars. What can I say, I ran out of pints and quarts! Also, the 4 ounce jars are perfect for my lunch and we had 3 dozen empties. I'm not sure how we ended up with that many, but there they were.

I'm hoping to plant some more stuff this week for fall harvest, but we'll see how it goes. I would also like to get my garlic planted for next year. You plant garlic in early fall/late summer for harvest the following year. I've never grown it before, so this is an experiment.

The potatoes are looking good. I managed to harvest a few this weekend, and they sure tasted good baked. They are a red potato, but very light. This is another experiment; I planted them in straw, which theoretically makes them easier to harvest. They also are a lot cleaner :)

So, how about you others? Is your garden doing ok?

But, again

Friday's post introduced the idea of the word "but" being an indicator of what we really believe. Here's some more:

To operate in the Holy But, we have to put the stuff first and God's truth last. You can't always change the stuff, but you can change whether you're going to receive it or not. What comes after the but is what you received...

Just because we know the truth and live from the truth doesn't mean the external situation is going to change. But we are changed. The Holy But moves you from the circumstance to the solution, and that solution is a Person. It moves you from without to within, the outer to the inner, the temporal to the eternal.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 185, 186

<idle musing>
So, put what God promised after the circumstances and stuff. The Psalmists did it all the time; we need to learn from them...
</idle musing>

Another one bites the dust

"Another what?" you ask. Another university press. Today's Inside Higher Ed carries the story of the shuttering of Rice University's digital press because of budget constraints. How much did it cost to run it? Well, let's ask them:

Levy, the Andrew Hays Buchanan Professor of Astrophysics at Rice, said in an interview that the press was costing $150,000 to $200,000 a year.

<idle musing>
In other words, a drop in the university's budget. I'm sure the provost made a lot more than that, as does the athletic department's many coaches. But, cut the academic stuff! After all, as long as we have an administration and a sports program, we can pretend to be a school!

Maybe it's time that schools take a long look at why the exist; they should have a purpose statement somewhere. I'll bet it doesn't say anything about being financially profitable! But, schools are being run like businesses, with the resulting closure of "under-performing" departments. Scandalous! And, like businesses, the administrative wing is multiplying like rabbits...
</idle musing>

Some good stuff to chew on

Out of Ur has good post on Job. After the exchange between Job and his friends, God speaks:

God pushes back not on Job, but on the four accusers. God berates them with question after question, challenging their notions of who God is : a god that governs over transactions or a god defined by God’s relationship with Israel. As God speaks from the storm, I get the sense that the Book of Job isn’t about Job at all. It is about those who attempt to speak on God’s behalf.

Job’s response is beautiful. He says “I am unworthy. How can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.”

But to the four that spoke for God, God says, “I am angry with you... because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has...” And the story ends with Job being restored.

There is a real danger in pastoral work. The temptation to push past humility in our confession of what God is doing pulls at us all, and we need to resist this temptation. Often we are called upon to make sense of what is going on around us, and far too often we can’t. This leaves us scrambling with uncertainty at best; and at worst, it puts us in a position to substitute our own authority for God’s. But God speaks for Godself. It is not our place to judge or to condemn. It is our place to love. Because most of the time we don’t know what’s really going on. And when we attempt to place judgment on someone, or explain why God has allowed something to happen, we end up looking foolish. Who knows the mind of God? Not Job, not his friends, not his wife, and certainly not us.

<idle musing>:
Only God can speak for God. That's good.
</idle musing>:

Ben Myers muses on what it means to be a theologian:

Perhaps then we should define theologians like this: They are people for whom even the Christian worship service does not provide adequate catharsis of the hurtfulness of God.

That is why, as a general rule, you should try to show kindness to theologians. Not because they are necessarily exemplary personalities. Not because they necessarily know what they're talking about. Not because they are necessarily people of great faith. Instead, you should show them kindness because their faith is so weak and so vulnerable; because they are burdened by the difficulty of God; because they are driven to think about God the way some people are driven to drink. You should take care of your theologians the way you would care for the widow and the orphan.

<idle musing>
God is a whole lot bigger and more complicated than we would like to admit...
</idle musing>

Roger Olson weighs in on inerrancy:

I like theologian Emil Brunner’s illustration. (I don’t necessarily agree with everything he wrote about the Bible.) In his little book Our Faith Brunner wrote about the old RCA Victrola advertisement that showed a dog listening to the megaphone of a record player. Under the picture the caption read “His master’s voice.” We recognize our master’s voice in Scripture in spite of its inevitable flaws, just as the dog in the illustration recognized his master’s voice in spite of the inevitable flaws on the record.

And, after catching flak for it, adds this today:

...belief in strict, detailed, technical inerrancy and insistence on it for authority sets up an impossibly high standard for any book. And it undermines faith because one has to wait for each new edition of Biblical Archeological Review (or similar publication) to know whether one can still believe the Bible. What if the Bible contains a factual error in history or cosmology? Does that mean the end of belief in the Bible? I pity anyone who says so.

I believe in the authority of the Bible because I believe in Jesus; not vice versa. The Bible is the cradle that holds the Christ child and that in it is authoritative that promotes Christ (was Christum treibt) (Luther). Too many evangelicals, like fundamentalists, base Christian belief on (alleged) secular facticity. The two are, of course, inseparable. I don’t want a faith that is irrational or esoteric. However, the foundation of Christian faith itself is not a set of facts but Jesus Christ communicated to us by the Holy Spirit.

<idle musing>
Too many people put the cart before the horse. I think inerrancy is a flawed doctrine that has done more to destroy faith than build it. It is based on a need for sight instead of faith. It is setting up an idol that we can bow to, just a surely as a statue of Mary, or any other religious trinket that we substitute for Jesus.

OK, let the arrows commence!
</idle musing>

But...

People always live after the but. The word, I mean: but. Go out and listen to people talk. Everyone lives after the but, whether they are Christians or not. I don't care what they say first, before the but. It's after the but that you hear what they really believe....

You're always living after the but. Unfortunately, Christians typically put the wrong things before and after the but. We put the God stuff before the but and our situation or feelings after the but. We say things like:

Well, I know God loves me, but it doesn't seem like it. Everything is falling apart.”

“I know God is my sufficiency, but I don't really have what I need.”

“I know that God promised me wisdom, but all I have is confusion.”

You do that, and where are you living? You're living in the junk. You're living in the circumstance. It's got you. The only thing you can hope for is a change in the circumstance. And if that doesn't come, you're up a creek. But even if it does, you still haven't learned to live out of the life of God within you. Satan doesn't care how much God-talk we use, as long as we put it before the but.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 183-184

<idle musing>
Ain't it the truth. After reading this, I started listening for the but in people's conversation; it was quite enlightening—and depressing. Put the right stuff before the but and enjoy life that is independent of circumstances and dependent on God!
</idle musing>

Free at last

It is important to know that we don't have any more spiritual needs. We don't need any more life. We don't need any more spirituality. We don't hunger and thirst in our spirit. He who said, “I am the life,” has come to dwell within us. He has already satisfied our hunger. He is our total sufficiency. We are free to be preoccupied with God's world and His work, because we have been released from a preoccupation with ourselves.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 181

<idle musing>
And what a blessed release it it!
</idle musing>

New sale at Eisenbrauns

This is one of my favorite sales. Why? Because it is one of my favorite languages :)

Here's the blurb from BookNews:

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

We continue our back-to-school sale with Ugaritic reference
tools. For the next 10 days, you can save 10-70% on these
great reference works.

As always, all sales on this web sale are final; no returns
will be permitted. Offer is good only on orders placed at
www.eisenbrauns.com through August 29, 2010.

To go directly to the weekly sale, click on this link:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/NEWSLIST
============================================================
"A Manual of Ugaritic"
by Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee
Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic - LSAWS 3
Eisenbrauns, 2009. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061535
List Price: $69.50 Your Price: $48.65

"Ugaritic Textbook: Grammar, Texts in Transliteration,
Cuneiform Selections, Glossary, Indices"
by Cyrus H. Gordon
Analecta Orientalia - AO 38
Biblical Institute Press / Editrice Pontificio
Istituto Biblico, 1998. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9788876532382
List Price: $128.00 Your Price: $115.20

"A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture and Literature"
by William M. Schniedewind and Joel H. Hunt
Cambridge University Press, 2007. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9780521704939
List Price: $41.99 Your Price: $35.69

"A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language
with Selected Texts and Glossary"
by Stanislav Segert
University of California Press, 1984. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780520039995
List Price: $70.00 Your Price: $56.00

"Ugaritic Grammar"
by Daniel Sivan
Biblical Encyclopaedia Library - BEL 9
Bialik Institute, 1993. Paper. Hebrew.
List Price: $32.00 Your Price: $25.60

"Ugaritische Grammatik"
by Josef Tropper
Alter Orient und Altes Testament - AOAT 273
Ugarit-Verlag, 2000. Cloth. German.
ISBN: 9783927120907
List Price: $100.00 Your Price: $80.00

"Ugaritisch: Kurzgefasste Grammatik
mit Ubungstexten und Glossar"
by Josef Tropper
Elementa Linguarum Orientis - ELO 1
Ugarit-Verlag, 2002. Paper. German.
ISBN: 9783934628120
List Price: $24.00 Your Price: $19.20

"The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra"
by Marguerite Yon
Eisenbrauns, 2006. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575060293
List Price: $37.50 Your Price: $18.75

"Ugarit at Seventy-Five"
Edited by K. Lawson Younger, Jr.
Eisenbrauns, 2007. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9781575061436
List Price: $32.50 Your Price: $19.50

"Ugarit in Retrospect:
Fifty Years of Ugarit and Ugaritic"
Edited by Gordon Douglas Young
Eisenbrauns, 1981. Cloth. English.
ISBN: 9780931464072
List Price: $45.00 Your Price: $13.50

The I AM

Jesus was encountered by Martha first [after Lazarus died], who spoke in terms of past and future. The past was, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The future was, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” But there was no sense of the present tense with her.

It is ironic that she made those remarks about the past and the future to the One who is the I AM, who know no past or future, and only lives in the present. “I who stand before you am the resurrection and the life. That which you await in the future tense, in Me is reality now...”

I was teaching once at a church, giving my testimony and saying that I had a forgiven past and a certain future. I was asking the group questions, and they were giving the “right” answers-the typical evangelical answers. Past and future. Past and future. That really is the Christian scene, isn't it? I don't intend any condemnation, but our sense of certainty is in the past and future, and we have a sense of nothingness in between, in the present. So we fill it up with activity. What else can you do? But Jesus is the present; He gathers all up in the now.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 179, 180

<idle musing>
Interesting observation—about Martha, I mean—I AM, but we relegate him to the past or the future. How sad, but how true. So, we fill up the present like a hamster on a wheel; we spin and spin and get...nowhere.
</idle musing>

It's harvest time

This weekend was full of harvesting goodness.

On Saturday, I picked about 3.5-4 bushels of apples. They are smallish, but perfect for applesauce, three different kinds. I'm not sure what the varieties are, but they have a good flavor; two of them are sweet and the third is tart. They should make a good sauce.

I also picked about 20 pounds of tomatoes, and there are at least that many right on the verge of needing to be picked. Yesterday I made 25 jars of tomato sauce; that should give us enough for the year (60 10 ounce jelly jars—perfect for a pizza). I'll start making tomato soup next; I hope to get at least 30 pints, which shouldn't be a problem. I'll make stewed tomatoes last, about 30 quarts.

We picked another watermelon on Friday; it was a large round Sweet Crimson. Delicious! And, the beans keep coming, but the cucumbers aren't liking the heat; I only got 4 yesterday. I might not get enough pickles this year; I've only got about 25 quarts right now; I like to have closer to 40.

I also got some peaches, but they need to ripen a bit before I can process them. Probably be ready about Wednesday. I bought a 1/2 bushel, which should translate to about 10 quarts, so I'll need to get another 1/2 bushel next weekend.

How's your garden doing this year?

Everything necessary

There's nothing spiritual about saying you're seeking more of Jesus. Because He can't give you any more. He can give you more awareness about Whom you already have, but He can't give you any more of Himself. You've got Him, and He's got you. The needs that preoccupy us so much of the time, that keep us focused on ourselves, have already been met in Christ.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 178

<idle musing>
Maybe that is why scripture says that he has given everything necessary for life and godliness...ya think?
</idle musing>

You will never hunger or thirst

He [Jesus] is saying that if we know whom we are in union with—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—if we know and live from that, there's no such thing as hunger or thirst. You're never hungry. You're never thirsty.

Do you get the implications? Jesus is your total spirit sufficiency. We need to know that if we are going to be light to others. We need to know that our light bulb isn't going to run out of juice, or else we will constantly be worried about satisfying our own hunger. For the person who knows he is in Christ and Christ is in him, there's no occasion for a sense of lack. Jesus says, “I am your total sufficiency.” You and I come to know that by revelation.— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, page 176

<idle musing>
Too many people "in ministry" don't get that. They are always trying to fill their own cup so they can fill others. But, it already is filled in Christ. Of course, it isn't just limited to those in ministry; think about those who are continually running around looking for the latest blessing to be poured out on them...
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