Sofrito rescue

Last night's picadillo spent the night in the fridge, but still lacked "tomato authority" and tasted almost like ground beef mixed with zesty salad dressing.

This morning I gradually added 2 ounces of tomato paste (after realizing I'd forgotten to include it in the sofrito) while simmering and re-heating.

There, that looks more like it.  (Notice no capers or raisins this time around.)

PS.  Remember Easter for a Reason

Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

- 1 Corinithians 15:57 

Just as he said

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

- Matthew 28:6

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

- Revelation 1:17-18

Picadillo, again

New recipe, headed straight for the fridge.  This one's the first to use home-made tomato sauce, so we'll see.  Tomorrow.  After church.

New York church brings Good Friday to Twitter

by Caroline McCarthy

In observance of Good Friday, a New York church has been Twittering the story of the Passion--the biblical tale of the hours leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. This means that subscribers will receive 140-character updates coming from a set of Twitter accounts run by people playing characters in the story.

Trinity Wall Street is an Episcopal church in Manhattan's Financial District that live-streams its services on the Web, encourages members of the congregation to send video e-postcards to friends and family, and produces its own podcasts. The church's thinking behind offering a Twitter feed of the Passion is to offer a way to bring the day of observance into modern life and technology: While Good Friday is one of the most important days of the church year for many Christian denominations, there are plenty of devout Americans who don't take the day off from work.

-source here

twspassionplay here

Right now, I think a little sin would sure fix things

Sound silly?

Yep, but we're talking about temptation, and temptation's not silly at all: temptation has a way of blind-siding us by distracting our focus and appearing as "Something I Really, Really Want & Really Deserve ... It's My Life and Me Business, and No One Will Ever Know."

Sounds appealing and delicious, but it's not.

Temptation isn't just a "harmless fantasy" or a pleasant private daydream.  Temptation leads to sin, and sin isn't just having a "Me First weekend," "looking the other way" or taking a "time-out" from Jesus.

Temptation is scary business because temptation is a warning that sin's waiting around the corner ... and Sin has real honest-to-God consequences.

"But but but, all my friends ... I mean, my preacher doesn't know everything or have all the answers, so I think it's ok and natural if I want to ..."

What about the friends, casual acquaintances, co-workers, bosses, Facebook friends, boyfriends, girlfriends or whoever, who work hand in hand with temptation to make sin sound appealing ... what's their agenda all about?  Whose priorities have they got in mind, anyway?

What makes this a hard question to answer?

Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; 
       their heart is filled with destruction. 
       Their throat is an open grave; 
       with their tongue they speak deceit.

- Psalm 5:9

Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

 - Luke 17:1-2

Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

- John 8 :43-45

What if you lived next door to Jesus?

Missionary-author finds spiritual principles in circumstances both ordinary and exotic

South Carolinian Gary Stone publishes book of meditations

By Butch Blume
butch@baptistcourier.com

Published September 30, 2008

Whether splashing in the cold waters of Morgan’s Creek with his brother near his hometown of Williamston, S.C., or trying not to fall off a rickety bamboo pole into quicksand in the eastern jungle of Ecuador, missionary Gary Stone finds glimpses of God wherever he looks.

In “What If Everyone Lived Next Door to Jesus?” (2008, Hannibal Books, Texas), Stone, an International Mission Board missionary who has served for 23 years with his wife, Lily, in Ecuador, Australia and Guatemala, serves up stories both humorous and poignant to illustrate a Christianity that aims to get back to the basics: loving others and sharing God’s good news.

In the title chapter, “Living Next Door to Jesus,” Stone tells of a Guatemalan missionary who became upset with a fellow missionary, Don, and went to his house to “give him a piece of my mind!” After the encounter, during which Don apologized and humbly asked to be forgiven, the aggrieved man was asked if he felt better. “No,” he replied, although he’d clearly lost some of his steam. “Living next door to Don is just like living next door to Jesus!”

Stone uses the illustration to ponder what life would be like for those around us if we actually lived like Jesus. “Could it be that those who are observing us realize before we do that we are much too long on sermons and far too short on love?” the author asks. “I can’t help but wonder if maybe we have put our quest for genuine love on the back burner … behind keeping the laws and being on time for all our meetings at church.

- full story here

Home-made garbanzo bean soup (updated)

- from CubanProducts.com

Cuban Food

Cuban cuisine is a fusion of Spanish, African and Caribbean cuisines. Cuban recipes share spices and techniques with Spanish and African cooking, with some Caribbean influence in spice and flavor. A small, but noteworthy, Chinese influence can also be accounted for, mainly in the Havana area.

Cuban cuisine has almost nothing in common with Mexican cuisine, which is a surprise for many visitors from the United States or Europe. It also differs from other Latin American cuisines and food traditions of the United States.

New Spring Web Campus at CNBC

Attend NewSpring Easter Services From Home

By: Business Wire | 06 Apr 2009 | 04:29 PM ET

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ANDERSON, S.C., Apr 06, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- NewSpring Church has unveiled its newest campus addition--a web campus. It will be available for Easter services, allowing people across the globe to go to church without leaving their homes.

Easter services are a busy time for churches in the United States and NewSpring Church wanted to give people a different option for Easter weekend. Through the web campus, people can participate in worship with the Anderson campus band, listen to Senior Pastor Perry Noble teach and take notes online. The web campus also allows people share experiences and thoughts in a live chat room and connect with others attending through social media and small groups.

"We don't think there should be any barriers to hearing the good news of Jesus," said Nick Charalambous, NewSpring web campus pastor. "We know people are living more of their lives online every day, and we want to offer them an option to learn how God can transform their lives with joy, hope and purpose without their having to visit a church." The NewSpring web campus services will be at 11:15 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and 11 a.m. (PST) on our website www.NewSpring.cc.

NewSpring Church was founded in 2000 with 115 people on the campus of a local college. Now the attendance is more than 10,000 people every week. NewSpring Church currently has four campuses--Anderson, Greenville, Florence and the Web Campus and will be adding a fifth campus in Columbia in late 2009. Student and children's ministries are provided at all physical campuses, as well as several service times to accommodate any schedule. Please visit www.NewSpring.cc for more information.

SOURCE: NewSpring Church CONTACT: NewSpring Church Suzanne Swift, Communications Director 864-226-6585 suzanne.swift@newspring.cc Copyright Business Wire 2009 -0- KEYWORD: United States

North America

South Carolina INDUSTRY KEYWORD: Technology

Internet SUBJECT CODE: Feature

- source here

what's your religion all about?

Why is it that the folks who seem most ready to hear about Christ can apparently walk themselves right up to the edge of asking for the answer, but then do an about-face and clam up ... or become downright hostile and ugly ... soon as the word "Jesus" is mentioned and starts echoing between their ears?

Why is that?  Seriously.

I mean, we're not talking about the guy who's pulling down a seven-figure paycheck, who owns a hundred-foot yacht and who drives this year's model of a quarter-million dollar sports car, who's either blissfully married or happily single and yet still feels like something is missing from my life. 

I'm talking about the man or woman who's reached their spiritual and emotional limit and is staring hard into the abyss of all-out despair ... whether from drug or alcohol dependence, a shattered marriage or a broken relationship, whether from legal problems or a plush career-carpet that abruptly got pulled out from under their feet: mention the name of Jesus, and their attention immediately turns away and returns to the quick fix ("My problem is that I just don't have what I want") ... the same sad solution they know best.

Is it because most people have already had at least some experience with or exposure to "religion," and don't want any part of it?  Isn't "religion" all about building walls to keep sinners out ... and following a bunch of rules? 

Why does "religion" have such a negative connotation ... one with all the reach and pull of a deep-ocean squid?

-- -- --

How important is your "religion" anyway ... and does "your religion" really matter?

-- -- --

Does it seem strange that whether in the entire NIV or the King James translation, the word "religion" is found just five times?  In fact, in neither version, does Christ ever use the word "religion." 

Not a single time. 

In fact, the words "denomination" and "Convention" aren't found in either translation. At all.

Not even once.

Oh, and the word "Politics" isn't mentioned, either.

-- -- --

Too often, believers fall back on the term "religion" as a convenient way of self-righteously purifying themselves, by demarcating the distinction between themselves and "all those wicked sinners."  As if they're proud of "their religion" and its obvious infallibility ... just as they're proud and arrogant when it comes to sharing or discussing eternal life.

As if eternal life is something they either deserved (because "being saved" makes them feel special and above reproach), or as if salvation was God's reward ... righteously earned (by "following all the rules" and by mocking, looking down upon, and hating sinners), or as if their salvation should be viewed by others as a self-evident fact: Sure I'm saved, and that means I'm better than you and God says so.

The truth is that God didn't say any such thing, and the Christ revealed in scripture certainly didn't teach anything like the "religion," or the smugness, many "religious people" feel accustomed to wearing in church on Sunday mornings.

--  --  --

So is "religion" really unimportant and irrelevant?  No, not at all:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

- James 1:27

TV vs empty air waves

As if Ultimate Fighting Championship ain't already enough, tonight at 10 PM Spike TV debuts a series titled Deadliest Warrior:

Each week on Deadliest Warrior, a new episode will pit two of the most feared warriors civilization has ever known against each other. Along with the use of 21st century science and the latest in CGI technology, each episode enlists warrior-specific world-class fighters and experts to provide insight into what makes these combatants tick, analyzing every facet of their unique skills of destruction, culminating in a head-to-head final fight between two legends of the battlefield that will produce the deadliest warrior. Other highly-anticipated showdowns this season include: Pirate vs. Knight, Taliban vs. IRA, Yakuza vs. Mafia, Viking vs. Samurai, Green Beret vs. Spetznaz, Maori vs. Shaolin Monks, William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu and Ninja vs. Spartan. Check out Deadliest Warrior on Facebook

Tonight's debut features Apache vs. Gladiator ... oh joy.

... but it's all I need

Sure it's small, but my $11 stovetop espresso maker arrived today ... though I forgot to look for a plastic espresso cup.  Guess a Dixie cup will do until then.

Things I've learned about Sin and Temptation

1. Temptation never calls in advance to find out if I'm busy: Temptation takes it for granted that I'm never too busy

2. Temptation is never coy or illusive, never slams a door in my face and never has "other plans" ...  Sin always picks up on the first ring

3. Temptation tells me to Go Ahead, you'll feel better if you do ... about myself, my situation or my future ... because "It's only natural to want the things you want"

4. Temptation can whisper "Yes, it's OK ..." loud enough to drown out the voice screaming Consequences!

 5.Temptation has my unlisted number and ignores Call Waiting

6. Neither Sin nor Temptation created me

7. Sin is an obstacle and cannot make me happy, improve me, satisfy me ... or save me from eternity 

9. God hates Sin, because Sin separates me from him and from his perfect plan for my life

10. The inevitable outcome of Temptation and Sin can only be more Temptation ... and more Sin.