Book Review: In the Name of Jesus
| August 6, 2011 | Posted by matt under books, reviews |
In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen is a short book on Christian leadership, directed primarily at the clergy but applicable to all Christians in leadership. Nouwen looks at the three temptations of Jesus before he began his ministry and generalizes them into temptations that leaders face today. He then uses the challenge that Jesus gave to Peter after the resurrection to show how a leader should behave, and offers a spiritual discipline to help deal with each temptation.
This is a short book, only 107 pages with a study guide, prologue, epilogue, large print, and some pages taken up only by a woodcutting and a quote, so it is a very quick read. It reminds me a bit of the structure of The Return of the Prodigal Son. It’s interesting how much Bible teaching uses three points for comparison.
Nouwen is well known for his move from the academic world as a professor at Harvard, Yale, and Notre Dame to living and working with mentally handicapped individuals in the Daybreak community near Toronto at the end of his career. It was there that he learned the lessons of leadership that he covers in this book, and he gives some excellent examples from his own life and ministry for why leaders need to adopt the disciplines he suggests.
The first temptation faced by Jesus (as seen in Matthew 4) was to turn stones into bread after 40 days of fasting. Nouwen sees this as the temptation to be relevant. The leader wants to do things that will make people take notice and will help them to not feel marginalized. Christian leaders can feel inadequate and be tempted to behave like other ‘professionals’ such as doctors or therapists, providing people with solutions to their problems. Nouwen uses the interaction between Jesus and Peter in John 21 to give an alternative to being relevant. Jesus asks Peter, ‘Do you love me?’. If the leader truly loves Jesus, questions of relevancy don’t matter, but they will do what Jesus asks since they will know his heart. The discipline that Nouwen says will promote this is contemplative prayer.
The second temptation of Jesus was to throw himself from the temple to be saved by angels. Nouwen describes this as the temptation to be popular. From his own life, he describes the difference between being a popular and well respected teacher to living in a community with handicapped individuals where his individualism and credentials were challenged. Jesus tells Peter to ‘Feed my sheep’, which is ministry in community. Instead of striving for popularity, Nouwen is saying leaders should be in their communities, serving mutually and being known by those they serve. The discipline that enforces this is confession and forgiveness. Leaders often don’t have an outlet for confession, and Nouwen argues that they need to seek this out within their community.
The third temptation of Jesus was to seize power over the world. The temptation to be powerful is a strong one and leaders often seek to build an empire instead of loving and serving others and giving up control. The challenge that Jesus gave Peter was that someday, ‘someone would take you and lead you where you do not want to go’. This was pointing out that Peter would serve the Lord by giving up control, and in his life he lived this out by dying in a way that glorified God. Nouwen suggests the discipline of theological reflection, or thinking of things how Jesus would think of them, to counteract this temptation. This is a hard discipline, but one that will allow the leader to give up control and seek to serve others.
Harvest time
| July 16, 2011 | Posted by matt under garden |
The garden is coming together nicely for 2011, without a lot of the issues I had last year. The slugs have been absent, and there has been no sign of the white mold that affected all the squash varieties last year.
The Empress Green beans were fantastic tonight for dinner. They have a nice squeaky bite, and are very flavorful.
The Yellow Squash are coming in, but we haven’t had any ready to harvest yet. Sautéing these with a bit of butter and garlic salt is a great side any night of the week.
The cucumbers are just flowering, but look like they might be plentiful.
The tomatoes are probably a week or two out, but both Grape…
and Cherry are coming along nicely.
No Bake Cookies
| May 24, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I remember my mom making these cookies for me as a kid, I loved them with a glass of milk. They’re perfect for that time when you decide you want a cookie but don’t want to go through any of the work to bake. I can whip these up in about 10 minutes time.
No Bake Cookies
- 3 T cocoa powder
- 2 C sugar
- 1 square oleo (stick, or 8 T butter or margarine
- dash of salt
- 1/2 C milk
Stir above ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add:
- 3 C oatmeal
- 1/2 C peanut butter
- 1/2 t vanilla
Stir together and scoop onto wax paper with two tablespoons or an ice cream scooper. Allow to cool.
Makes 2 dozen cookies. About 160 calories/cookie.
Book Review: Dug Down Deep
| May 14, 2011 | Posted by matt under reviews, Uncategorized |
I read Dug Down Deep by Josh Harris on the recommendation of my pastor. It is a book about theology which Harris dedicated to his three children, saying “One day when you are older I hope you’ll read this book and realize I wrote it for you.” I wish that this book had been available when I was younger, it is a clear introduction to a number of theological topics including salvation, sanctification, the roles of the Bible and the Church, the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Harris’ writing style in this book is to mix narrative with sections on theology, making the book an easy read. The book also contains many quotes and references from well known Christian authors so digging through the bibliography for books to add to my ‘To Read’ pile is in order. There are ample scripture references, and I chose to read the book slowly and read them as I went along.
Like me, Harris grew up in a Christian home and was ‘saved’ at an early age. It took him much longer to grasp what it really meant to be a Christian and to understand how much of his view of God was incorrect or misinformed. I can identify with him in this area and found myself relating to many of the experiences he describes as he grew up. I can also look back over the years and see how I have let my lack of knowledge about theology allow me to have incorrect beliefs about God and what the consequences have been and still are in my daily living.
My favorite chapter is the last one, Humble Orthodoxy. Our church has adopted this as one of our ‘ethos anchors‘, and I can appreciate it much more after reading this book. Harris introduces humble orthodoxy as the opposite of what we see so often in the evangelical church today: arrogant orthodoxy. I have seen this arrogance play out in real life and my reaction has been to hold less tightly to some truths because those fighting for those truths have been arrogant and confrontational. Just because someone is being arrogant doesn’t mean they are wrong or agreeing with them is taking on their arrogance. While my reaction has been the incorrect one, I hope that I won’t push others in the same direction through my arrogance. We should contrast that with the charges that Paul gives to the young pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy, which Harris sums up as “Don’t be a jerk.”
Dug Down Deep is a good introductory book on theology for younger Christians, or a good refresher for older Christians who need it.
Brood parasite?
| April 26, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
While at my in-laws over the Easter weekend we got to check out two birds nests located on top of wreaths outside their front and back doors. The girls had lots of fun looking in them – one had eggs and one had baby birds. The interesting thing is that the one with eggs was populated by a house wren and there were two different types of eggs. I’ve been wondering if this is a case of a brood parasite?
A possible brood parasite?
Spring flowers
| April 16, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I love seeing new flowers in the spring since I always forget about what I planted in the fall. My goal is to plant one bag of bulbs every year.
Becoming a morning person
| February 19, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I woke up this morning at 5:29, on a Saturday, no less. My alarm went off about 30 seconds later. I jumped out of bed and am writing this while the rest of the family is sleeping. Why on earth would I be doing this?
I found this post (from 2005) on hacker news a few weeks ago. The basic premise is to set your alarm to the same time every day, 7 days a week, and get up as soon as you can without snoozing. Then, in the evening you have to fall asleep when you are truly tired and can fall asleep quickly.
This has worked really well for me. I used to snooze my alarm for 30 minutes every weekday and sleep about an hour or two on weekends. I’d try to go to sleep about the same time every night and often would end up spending lots of time waiting to fall asleep. Now I’m falling asleep almost immediately, and getting up at exactly the same time. I have felt very well rested and haven’t been tired except for in the evenings when I should be. The best part is I think it has bought me about an extra 5 hours a week. That’s time I can use for exercise, reading, writing, and other things.
Yes, you can make your own beer!
| February 5, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I first made my own beer with a friend a few years ago. After getting some exposure to the process, I realized it was not that hard and produced a pretty drinkable product. However, the second batch we made turned out a bit skunky and I had to throw it out. The beer had a slight banana taste, not what you’re going for in a beer. That experience turned me off to beer making for a while since I was afraid that I’d screw up my next batch and waste all the time, effort and money that went into it. This summer, my friend Frank and I decided to give it another go, and the results were much better. Since that batch, I’ve brewed six more times with much better results.
A typical batch of beer
Making beer is not much more complicated than boiling a big pot of water. You can basically brew two different ways: with malt extract or all grain. Using malt extract, either in liquid or dry form, is much easier than brewing with all grain and is where most homebrewers start out whereas brewing with all grain is considered an advanced technique. You need a large pot for brewing (mine is 32 quarts), some equipment for fermenting the beer, and then some more for bottling. Several companies sell starter kits for less than $100 that will get you everything you need to make batches for years to come. Ingredient kits can be had for $25, although some can cost much more. My current favorite store for buying home brewing supplies is Northern Brewer.
Brewing beer takes three basic steps: brewing, fermenting, and bottling. On brew day, you boil water, add malt extract and hops to the boiling water, then cool the beer (known as wort) and finally add yeast. For the fermentation step the beer is then stored in a sanitized container (glass or plastic) for at least 2-3 weeks. Finally, some sugar is added and the beer is placed in bottles. It’s usually ready to drink in a week or two.
Like any hobby, homebrewing can be much more involved than what I describe here, including advanced equipment and techniques. However, making a basic recipe is not complicated, is affordable, and can be quite rewarding. I enjoy it since it is fairly easy to make a very good beer with little knowledge or effort, but the more you want to learn about the process and ingredients, the more you can appreciate the skill and effort that goes into a fine beer.
Syncing google contacts on iOS
| January 20, 2011 | Posted by matt under gadgets, howto, techie |
I use my google account to keep my addresses synced up between all my devices. I realized that I was creating contacts on my iPhone or iPad and they weren’t showing up in my address book on my mac or in my google account. A simple google search didn’t seem to turn up what the issue was, and then after poking around a bit I realized what was going on. By default, when you connect your google account to your iOS device, it appears that it creates new contacts on the device, and not on your google account.
It was pretty easy to fix. Just go to the Settings app…
Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Then scroll down to the Contacts section.
Tap on Default Account, and make sure it’s set to your gmail contacts account, not ‘On My iPhone’. Contacts should now sync to your gmail account immediately when you update or add them.
Green eggs and ham
| January 9, 2011 | Posted by matt under family |
Do you like green eggs and ham? These eggs and ham tasted great, but I couldn’t get anyone else in the family to
try them.
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