Redneck Awards Finalist

Sunday, 4pm
Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

If you temporarily convert a Weber Skyline Gas Grill....


into a deluxe venison hickory smoking station for deer jerky....

it's possible you might be a redneck!

Just Win, Baby!

As my wife can attest to, I spend a fair amount of time reading sports articles on the internet. Probably like many of you the name Brett Favre, prior to about 10 weeks ago, brought a frown to my brow. For the last several years, Favre has made a long, Jordanesque, drama queen, tearful, pathetic goodbye. I'm going to retire, no I'm not, yes I am, maybe, no I'm not (typing that sentence just wears me out!).

The way one "finishes" is such an important aspect of their legacy. Do you remember John Elway's goodbye. It couldn't have been better if it were a Disney movie. Here I was, a KC Chiefs fan through the 90s. Time and time again we saw Elway and his Broncos beat us when it mattered most. He was such an easy guy to despise with that cheesy grin. And then Elway lost so many Superbowls, you remember that? Crazy. But several years later they mounted a comeback. And with the feet of Terrell Davis also as a weapon, won two Superbowls in a row. Elway retired shortly after the second Superbowl victory. At the beginning of the following season he said goodbye publicly, once and for all time in regards to his football playing career. It was halftime during a Monday night game against Miami in Denver, John Elway's number was retired in the Broncos "Ring of Fame." While Tina Turner's "Simply the Best" was rocking the woofers of the stadium he stood at the 50 yard line and said a wonderful goodbye to his loyal fans. It was awesome, what a great moment. It was possible a tear came to my eye, I'm not sure it could have just been the onions from the nachos.

Now, back to Favre. He has at current time, led the Minnesota Vikings to an 8-1 record. If he was not winning it would be pathetic, he had a short stay at the Jets and now "Benedict Arnolded" the Packers and joined their archrivals. I read on the news, Wisconsin soldiers are told "Favre, Favre" by non English speaking Iraq detainees, again pathetic.

But you know what, he is winning. Nothing cures sore muscles and sore memories like a win. And that makes it all better. Of course, the season is not over so it still could get ugly, but for now............................. "Just Win, Favre!" I like it, and you may too.

Extrabiblical Witness

Extrabiblical witness of Jesus or the early church is a fascinating topic. There of course, is not much historical information apart of the Scriptures about Jesus because of the amount of time that has past since he was here on earth. And then there is always the question as to the authenticity of any given document. When I say "Extrabiblical" I am mainly referring to documents that can be traced to be written during an acceptable period of time after Jesus was here on earth. Most of the so called Gnostic gospels would not fit this criteria, but a few may, I am not sure. For instance, the man who wrote the quote later on in this post died in 126 AD. If he lived say anywhere between 60-75 years, he would have been a young man when many of the people who witnessed Jesus life were still living. This offers a high probability of the chance that his life overlapped those who witnessed Jesus' miracles, death and resurrection; and that he was personal witness to their testimony, therefore making his testimony authentic.

Anyway, last weekend I had the opportunity to fill the pulpit for our pastor, who took a much deserved retreat. While preparing the sermon I came across this quote from a man named Quadratus, who lived in Athens in the first century and part of the second century. He was defending his new found faith to the Roman Emperor at the time. Check it out:
"Our Saviour's works, moreover, were always present: for they were real, consisting of those who had been healed of their diseases, those who had been raised from the dead; who were not only seen whilst they were being healed and raised up, but were afterwards constantly present. Nor did they remain only during the sojourn of the Saviour on earth, but also a considerable time after His departure; and, indeed, some of them have survived even down to our own times."

I used this quote to further an illustration of what the 1st century church must have been like. With members of the church body being present who had seen one of Jesus' miracles or witnessed his death and resurrection. Can you picture it?
"Come on down Lazarus, and tell us about that time.............."
And come they did. I think this is the only way to explain the documented explosion of the first century church. They had no political power, military force and didn't even have "church" buildings to meet in, but yet they grew.
It is a powerful testament to us living in "easier" times to learn from those early Christians. They were not perfect, far from it in fact (see the scoldings in the letters to the Corinthians) but they had strong faith and unity, especially in the face of persecution.

Anderson in Bristol

Mike Anderson, head coach of Mizzou basketball was in Bristol, Conn this week for several interviews with ESPN. One interview was a coaching roundtable that included Travis Ford (Ok St), Scott Drew (Baylor) and Anderson that went over the strength of the Big 12. This looks to be another tough and exciting season in Big 12 play. Obviously with Kansas and Texas ranked 1st and 3rd preseason nationally, but also a bunch of teams bring back solid talent, ie Craig Brackens, Iowa State.
The second interview dealt exclusively with Mizzou Men's Basketball. Anderson comments that even with the loss of Demarre Carroll and Leo Lyons he really likes this year's basketball team; reminding us that it was Ramsey and Stafford who played the majority of the second half in the Elite 8 loss to UConn last year.
The season is just around the corner. I think it is going to be another great season for Mizzou basketball! Both interviews can be seen at the following link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=142

Grinding Corn

Getting back to "the basics" is such a great and soul invigorating thing to do. I think that is why I like camping and backpacking so much. You just have what you need to survive or find extremely useful, along with one or two luxury items that really aid in the enjoyment of life.

This past week my Dad picked some corn from a neighbor's field. After roasting it, to different levels of darkness, we all (three little boys included) knocked the kernels off the cob together into a big stainless steel bowl. Then we ground the corn in a wheat grinder. The smell of freshly ground, freshly roasted field corn is something I had never experienced before, but it was outstanding. One of those deals where your mouth is watering instantly.

This week we made two different types of cornbread. One was cornbread with blueberries that my wife and I picked and froze earlier this year. The second double batch I prepared and baked was Mexican cornbread. This tasty bread had sweet corn, jalepenos, and cheddar cheese. Oh Baby! I also add 1/2 cup of unsweetened whole milk yogurt to each batch as this keeps the cornbread exceptionally moist. MMM MMM. Yes, there is true pleasure in preparing meals that are off the land and prepared in your kitchen.
"Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread" Proverbs 30:8 Amen.

Football and Basketball

This picture of quarterback Blaine Gabbert being sacked by a Baylor defensive man gives a nice summary of the state of the Mizzou football team. We are a bunch of underachievers. Probably not to the point of a Michigan (at least we beat the pillow fighting Illini), but we are still pretty bad.

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Our game day coaching is bad. Pinkel and his staff are good recruiters, they have a very well disciplined team and they usually come up with a good game plan. The problem lies in the area that they are not good game day coaches. Adjustments are not made properly. Cornerbacks are told to play 10 yards off receivers. In such a way that the Baylor receiving corp looks like the Jeremy Maclin and Percy Harvin show. Prior to Saturday, Baylor has been, and was traditionally the worst football team in the Big 12. I really don't think this was disputed.

So if the so called "worst" team in the Big 12 beats you, with 40 pts on the board, at your house, with a freshman backup QB and on a sunny day; what does that make your team?

A few of my friends will call me treasonous for saying this but I think I will halfway root for Kansas State next week. And why not? They are well coached and obvious over achievers. They have taken a season that no one thought they would do anything and turned it into a success, playing better and better as the weeks go on. They played Oklahoma to the wire last week in Norman. Oklahoma probably has a better player at every single position on the field. And they beat KU this week which is always a good thing.

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Oh well, at least the Mizzou basketball season is getting close to starting proper. The boys looked pretty good in the exhibition game. I think this group is going to beat out expectations in a big way. Rivals.com lists Mizzou as the 75th ranked team or something and they are picked to finish 7th or 8th in the Big 12.

Losing JYD was big, but we still have JT Tiller. Let's not forget he was Big 12 defensive player of the year last year. I also think if Kim English makes the freshman to sophomore improvement we will be a force to be reckoned with. Go Mizzou! (basketball anyway) Oh, I'll probably root for the football team too.

Poneros

Until I had the privilege to take a graduate level Philosophy class this semester, I was unaware of these two features in the scholarly world:

1. The word "insofar". "Insofar" must be the most popular word among English speaking philosophers. It may even be a requirement that your dissertation has say, 100 or so "insofars" to get a PhD. I have made the discovery into how it is used. You start with a long run on sentence with at least 2-3 words that normal people need to consult Websters for, followed by "insofar" then you justify the previous run on sentence with more mumbo jumbo to create one long head scratching experience. If you can do this, you might just be a philosopher!

2. On a more serious level is "poneros" (Greek for evil). The philosophical world goes to great lengths to try to grasp an understanding of moral evil; it's limits and possibilities. In addition to this I had no idea of the issue that exists between theistic philosophers and nontheistic philosophers with this "problem of evil", that is, rationally explaining the existence of evil with an all powerful, all knowing God.

Poneros can be broken down into two broad categories: moral evil and natural evil. Natural evil of course consists of natural disaster, famine, fires, disabilities, disease, etc. Moral evil consists of wrongful acts and bad character traits of human beings: murder, stealing, dishonesty, greed, cowardice, etc. It is in moral evil that we continually learn of its seemingly limitless possibilities because of our fallen human condition.

Consider this short narrative from Elie Wiesel as he recalls his memory of the first few minutes at Auschwitz in his book "Night":
"The cherished objects we had brought with us thus far were left behind in the train, and with them, at last, our illusions. Every two yards or so an SS man held his tommy gun trained on us. Hand in hand we followed the crowd. An SS officer came to meet us, a truncheon in his hand. He gave the order:
'Men to the left! Women to the right!'

Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion.
Eight short, simple words......I had not time to think, but already I felt the pressure of my father's hand: we were alone.....Tzipora held Mother's hand. I saw them disappear into the distance; my mother was stroking my sister's fair hair, as though to protect her, while I walked on with my father and the other men. And I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever."

This story of pain and suffering staggers the imagination. Believers are sometimes asked to "explain" evil. The major questions that non theistic philosophers bring are summarized like this: How can an all knowing, all powerful God exist, who also created the world, if he allows (or ordains) so much evil to exist in his created world? Why doesn’t he do something about it? Is he unwilling, unable?.... These can be tough questions, although I don't think they are quite all they are made up to be. I thank my God that we are not required to have all the answers, save that we defend our faith in Christ. I think the truth of the matter is that evil exists because of an historical Fall (you know who you are! sons of Adam and daughters of Eve).
For some, the emotions surrounding the understanding of evil can create a huge divide between themselves and God. For others, pain and suffering may the conduit that introduces them to faith in God and gives them the opportunity to surrender themselves to something greater. “The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems well with it” (The Problem of Pain, Lewis, 90). Lewis goes on and calls pain God's megaphone that rouses a rebellious world. Pain removes the veil that everything is O.K. "It plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul" (94).

The Christian faith offers something unique from other's religiosity, an historic event that defines it. That is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. "Christianity is not the conclusion of a philosophical debate....it is catastrophic historical event following the long spiritual preparation of humanity" (Lewis, 14). Wow, spiritual preparation... for something better, for something glorious; the hope of living in the presence of God. I'll take that deal.

"If philosophy is the love of wisdom, then what is the wisdom of love?" -Matt Kauffman