Friday, January 22, 2010

The Best Pork Chops I ever COOKED!!

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I have never been very good at cooking pork chops without them being dry, no matter how hard I try. So I decided to go on line and find a recipe.

Here's what I found:
saute chopped onions in butter till clear.
brown/sear chops on one side, turn over. (I piled the onions on top of the chops.)
cover with 1/2 can mushroom soup and 1/2 cup of sour cream.
Simmer 20 minutes.

I didn't have the sour cream so I put the whole can of soup on the meat.
It was absolutely WONDERFUL!!!

It called for one large onion, but I used only a 1/2 onion and it was still fine.

"Try it, You'll like it!" (yeah, I know - I'm telling my age with that line.)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ted Kennedy's seat

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HALLELUJAH!!!! The republican, Scott Brown, won the election in Mass.!!!!
Watch out, Obama. You haven't pulled off your health care bomb yet.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Putting into remembrance

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I have been intrigued for some time about the topic of "the development and history of knowledge". How, over time, even centuries, did this progress, starting first with early civilization, even before alphabets were created, (much less reading and writing)? These are "technologies" that have been part of the history of man. Adam, especially before the fall, was a very intelligent person. How could he not be? We know he had a language as he fellowshiped with God and he named the animals and woman. Language is a technology, putting thoughts and ideas into words. But the written language was still a long time to come. Adam gives evidence of using the first technology and development of knowledge: speech.

Oral traditions were held high and valuable by many cultures. What enabled these cultures to have oral traditions? The knowledge of these people had to be memorized by new generations in order for it to be preserved.

[As these technologies, (e.g. alphabets and languages), were developed, they were decried as detrimental by others. The more man depended on these technologies, the less the brain was used, so they claimed. This cry has been a re-ocurring theme for centuries. It was posited when the Gutenburg press was created. The concept has been revived again in the last decades as the technologies of the computer have 'exploded'. One recent article asked if the technologies of today made our students any smarter than before? The conclusion was no, it only enabled them to communicate faster than anyone before. The development and use of the brain is one road we could travel. The development of technology and its effects on the brain and on knowledge is another pursuit. The development and history of knowledge is another, seperate road, yet they all run parrallel through out man's history. They go hand in hand, but it is this latter topic my mind dwells on.]

Keeping track and documenting the various tidbits that I come across on this subject have been difficult, at best, with no single means of gathering all these in one place. However, just today in church I was intrigued by a verse in the bible I came across that plays into this thesis. So I made note of it.

Peter was writing to the church, "his children." Given that, we must realize that the NT was not complete at this point, as what he was writing later became part of that holy collection. This is one of the reasons he even wrote them. They needed to be reminded of the the things they had been taught. II Peter 1:12-15 discusses the concept that in their day and culture, they had to "keep in remembrance," i.e. memorize, what they were taught in order to keep track of it, make it a part of their lives, and pass it on to the next generation. Yes, they were holding in their hand something he had committed to writing. But having something in writing was still not yet a common occurance.

So here, even in scripture, we have evidence that knowledge - even as late as the early A.D. centuries the written word was rare and held only by presumably the privledged and the rich. Everyone else even yet, still had to commit to memory whatever they would need to learn. They still actively used and depended upon what they memorized. They didn't 'need' to put into writing what they needed to know because memorizing was such a part of their way of life. It wasn't part of their mindset at this point. It hadn't become a need, yet. On the other hand, the where-with-all to put knowledge into writing is still a long way off, in being part of every man's daily life, and common at the grassroots level of everyday life.

What difference does this make to you??? Maybe nothing. But in this world of secularism, and disciplines taught from a humanistic and secular world view, it is important the Christians maintain a biblical worldview, even in, or especially in, their professions.

Timelines from these opposing "camps" are probably the biggest and most obvious difference, as 'everything' else hangs on when they happened. Consequently along this line, I have been interested in collecting, collating, sifting, composing and in general, mulling over the development and history of knowledge from a biblical worldview and perspective. My profession, being librarianship, deals with records of knowledge and is what librarianship is all about.

Here, in this passage in II Peter, we see evidence in scripture, in New Testament times, how knowledge and learning was recorded, so to speak, by committing it to memory. Yes, language was already reduced to alphabets, and there are records of history that were put in writing. But yet at this point, memory was still the more common way of learning the knowledge of the day and passing it on to the next generation. Here in the days of the Romans, memory still played a vital role in the history of knowledge and how it was developed over the centuries. Here we have, in our bibles, a time and place of how knowledge was handled. Here we can peek into a portion of world history and see a portion of the history of knowledge itself, recorded in our very own bible - the "history of knowledge" not only presented from a biblical worldview, but recorded in the bible, itself. This realization was an "Ah-ha" moment for yours truely.

Hopefully as I continue to study and read I will find even more instances that can be culled from the scriptures. I would most gladly be interested in your input and discussion. You may email me directly at swguinn at gmail dot com if you wish to share your thoughts and comments.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Where's the line to see Jesus?

This is an awesome (!!!) song that a man wrote after his grandson asked the question. This man and his daughter then recorded the song. It is beautiful. I "wish" I had written it and I LOVE the music. Go here to see it: "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPViKJRHyZo"

Sunday, January 3, 2010

My Master

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When sin is my master, the world’s what I love.
When Christ is my master I’ve life from above.
For life as a sinner comes to a dead end.
No peace in my heart and no vict’ry within.
.....My old ways were filled with sin’s hatred and strife
.....Its wages are final and take away life.
.....When sin had dominion then death reigned in me.
.....But God is my master, yet I’m also free.

His spirit now fills me with his love and peace.
And life with the Savior - it never will cease,
For God’s Holy Spirit is living in me.
I’ll soon live with Jesus for eternity.
.....When led by the spirit, though unworthy of,
.....He fills me with goodness, longsuffering and love.
.....The spirit of God when he’s living in you
.....Will lead you from sin and enable you, too.

When Christ's second coming has all come to past,
Our struggles and tests will be over at last.
Then Satan’s dominion will come to an end.
Our conflict with Satan he cannot defend.
.....This cursed mortal body will someday descend.
.....Yet God’s Holy Spirit will raise it again.
.....And creation’s groanings will no longer be
.....When Jesus returns with complete victory.

Now your mortal body will someday fail you,
And your destination will be final too.
Oh life with the Savior’s, forever my friend
For once he redeems you His life never ends.
.....So who is your master? You must now decide,
.....For Jesus is waiting with arms open wide.
.....Receive his forgiveness he’s offering you.
.....Accept his salvation; his message is true.

-Suzanne Guinn
December, 2009

These thoughts come from Romans 6-8