What’s Your Favorite Musical?

Crystal has persuaded me to watch “My Fair Lady.” The jury is still out on this one (it’s playing right now), but my all-time favorite remains “Fiddler on the Roof.”

How about you?

12 Things I Love about Bowling

I went bowling with my brother today. I hadn’t been in three and a half years or so. Here were the highlights:

1. Being the only ones bowling in the whole alley for the first few games.
2. Learning from my brother how to throw a mean spin.
3. Watching my brother be sweet at bowling, just like I watch him be sweet at just about any sport.
4. Getting to wear a swanky pair of rented shoes.
5. Totally wiping out and banging my knee on the wooden floor.
6. Using a scoring computer that was probably older than I am.
7. Having my brother promise to buy me a steak if I nailed a difficult spare. I blew it.
8. Nailing an unbelievably difficult spare by the grace of God. My brother didn’t promise me a steak before that one.
9. Having a first game score (84) better than anything I’ve ever golfed.
10. Improving my score by 173.8% from the first to the last game.
11. Beating my brother once.
12. Knowing my puny right bicep (which goes rather well with my puny left bicep) is going to hurt something fierce tomorrow.

A Recipe for Some Stellar Chai Tea Mix

Crystal and I like to keep a steady stash of chai tea mix on hand. This makes for an enjoyable drink in any season, but particularly during the wintertime months. Here is the recipe Crystal uses for this toothsome treat:

Ingredients:

1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.
2. To serve: Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.

Footnote:

You may choose to omit the French vanilla creamer, and use 2 teaspoons vanilla extract instead. To do so, mix the vanilla into the sugar, let it dry, then break the sugar into small lumps. Follow the same procedure as above.

(From allrecipes.com)

P.S. This tastes really good mixed with hot milk rather than hot water. Rich and creamy.

Why Did God Create the Rhinoceros?

I think one of the reasons God created big, rippling, burly animals like the rhinoceros or the grizzly bear is to help us be astounded that he is stronger than they are.

Will you play with him [Leviathan] as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hands on him; remember the battle — you will not do it again! Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him. No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me?

– God to Job (Job 41:5-10)

A Music Video for Greek Students

Jim Hamilton posted this video created by some students at Biola University. The title is “All Things Are Better in Koine.” It’s pretty rich.

Three matters of introduction for any non-Hellenists:

1. Koine Greek was the form of Greek that was spoken in the New Testament era. The word “Koine” means “common” because it was the language spoken by common folks at that time.
2. About a minute-and-a-half in you’ll start hearing people singing “Leggo my Eggo.” “Lego” is a Greek verb meaning “I say, speak, call.” “Legomai” is it’s middle/passive form, I’m assuming, meaning something like “I am called.” “Ego” is the first person singular pronoun: “I” in English. Thus, the phrase is “Legomai Ego.” Pretty funny.
3. During the hip-hop section in the middle you’ll hear the names “Daniel Wallace” and “Bill Mounce.” These are two authors of commonly used Greek grammars.

Enjoy.

Vitamin Z Interviews Fernando Ortega

Vitamin Z shares an interview he did with Christian music artist Fernando Ortega. Here are his questions:

1. Was there a point in time when you knew you were called to be a full time musician?
2. What do you enjoy most about your career?
3. What are some of your most significant memories of your career as a Christian artist?
4. What changes have you observed in the music industry over the years for good or bad?
5. Have you maintained a similar style over the years or are there ways that you have sought to adapt and change? If so, why and how?
6. What recording (or recordings) of yours are your personal favorite(s)? Why?
7. Is it hard to view your ministry also as a business? What are the unique challenges with this reality and how do you deal with them? Are you conflicted at times? How?
8. What do you see yourself doing in the next few years with your musical career?
9. Congrats on the new baby! How are you feeling as a new Dad later in life?
10. How do you want to be remembered?

Read the whole interview.

My 5th Grade School Picture

Here’s a blast from my nerdy past. In order to fully appreciate the photo, though, I’ll need to give you some inside information:

1. The background is called “Odyssey.” My parents typically opted for the “Traditional” background. It was the cheapest option. However, this year, Mom and Dad let me splurge and I chose to plant my cheeky mug before a kaleidoscopic galaxy. Maybe I thought it matched my clip-on tie.
2. If you look hard enough, you just might be able to see my uvula through the gap in my front two teeth. I had just flossed my pearly whites with a garden hose that morning so the view would be unobstructed. Okay, that’s not true, but I sure had a drafty grin. At least I didn’t have to worry about getting anything smaller than a crescent roll stuck in my teeth.
3. This picture was taken in the middle of the silk shirt glory years. My cool friends had them, and I wanted one bad, so my mom eventually took me to a local department store to find one. There were none available in the boys’ section, but my mom, in unfettered parental zeal, snagged one from the girls section, bought it, and cut off the shoulder pads when we got home. If I had lifted up my clip-on tie when the photographer said, “Cheese,” you would be able to see that my shirt buttons were decidedly on the feminine side of the tracks.

How about you? Do you have any embarrassing school picture stories?

What Type of House Heater Are You?

Which do you prefer: keeping your house colder during the winter and wearing blankets to save money, or paying the extra cash for better quality of life?

John MacArthur Interviewed on TBN

John MacArthur appeared on TBN, interviewed by Kirk Cameron. In the following videos he brings a strong word against modern distortions of the gospel and explains how the biblical gospel is different, emphasizing sin, Christ’s substitutionary death, repentance and faith, and the call to take up your cross and follow Jesus. I feel like his words were a prophetic correction to much of popular prosperity teaching.

HT: Pure Church

Snow Says at Least 11 Things at Once

Minneapolis is in a deep chill today. Both of my car doors were frozen shut this morning. Thankfully, there is a cloak of snow over everything to bring a beauty to the freeze. Beyond delighting the eyes, however, snow speaks to those who have ears to hear. And it is saying more than one thing:

1. “This is a day for valiant acts of faith.” — “And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two heroes of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen.” (1 Chronicles 11:22)
2. “God is unspeakably powerful.” — “God thunders wonderfully with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.” (Job 37:5-6)
3. “Be humbled, O man.” — “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” (Job 38:22-23)
4. “God commanded me to fall.” — “He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?” (Psalm 147:16-17)
5. “Praise the Lord!” — “Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!” (Psalm 148:7-8)
6. “Be a faithful servant in all of your roles.” — “Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.” (Proverbs 25:13)
7. “Seek wisdom with all of your heart.” — “Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.” (Proverbs 26:1)
8. “Take care of your family.” — “She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.” (Proverbs 31:21)
9. “God will forgive your sins through Christ.” — “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
10. “God’s word will accomplish all his purpose.” — “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
11. “This is what Jesus looks like.” — “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.” (Daniel 7:9) … “The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.” (Revelation 1:14-15)