Fall Reading List

Last week I took my National Board Dental Exam Part II, so I am now refilling all the time I was spending studying.  Of course a lot of that time is spent with my wonderful husband.  The other time I am using to try and work out more often and start my fall reading list.  Here it is:
1. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova ( I have started this one before but life happened and I never finished it.  I was really enjoying it so I have picked it back up.  The story has a neat twist between history, folklore, and fiction.)
2. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (This one is actually waiting for me a the library.  Pretty excited to read it.  I heard it is what you should read if you miss Harry Potter. haha)
3. Power in the Pulpit - Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix and The Supremacy of God in Preaching - John Piper (These two are the reading assignments for the IDM class Ryan and I are taking at Brook Hills with our pastor, David Platt. Should be challenging but a really good way to help me learn best how to teach the bible to my college girls small group.)
4. The Help - Kathryn Stockett (I know I am behind since the movie is already out and it seems everyone has already read this book, but my mom lent it to me and I have heard it really is great.)

What I'm listening to...

Such a fun song, love it!

Recipe: my favorite fancy coleslaw

Since the new school year has begun, Ryan and I are trying to stop of summer trend of eating out way more than we should.  Last night, for the first time in several weeks, I tried a new recipe.  I found it on Cooking Light's website, which I think is a great place to look for healthy, new recipes.  Here is are the recipes I tried last night, Apricot-Lemon Chicken with a Sweet Lemon-Mint Pear Salad.  Very yummy!

But for today's recipe I will share what Ryan's grandmother calls "the famous slaw".  Most of the time Ryan and I join his extended family for dinner I am asked to bring this slaw, which is great because it is yummy and easy to make.  In reality, I can take no credit for this recipe!  I found it in a Paula Dean cookbook I own. So here it is, "the famous slaw"...

Rene's Coleslaw
Source: Food Network, Paula Dean

Ingredients

• 5 cups shredded cabbage (I buy the chopped, washed, ready to eat slaw)
• 1/2 cups almonds, toasted
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions, white and green parts
• 1/2 cups chopped green bell pepper

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use light mayo)
• 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
• 1 tablespoon honey mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Combine cabbage, almonds, cranberries, celery, green onions, and green pepper in a large plastic bowl with a snap-on lid. Combine all dressing ingredients, adding salt and pepper to taste, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Pour dressing over slaw just before serving. Stir well.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my wonderful husband's 26th birthday.  This is the 10th birthday we have celebrated together.  I hope he knows today that I love him more everyday.  I love my life with him and I look forward to the future adventures we will have together.

Taken during the first couple months we were together, 2002.

I also want to say Happy Birthday to my lovely sister, she is turning 30 today!  And she will be a mom in less than 2 months!  Wish I could see her to today to celebrate.  Luckily I will see her next week, probably the last time I will see her before baby Elizabeth is ready to come!

Let 4th Year Begin

Although it is still July, my 4th year of dental school began today.  So I figured it is time to get back to reality, and to blogging!  So to start of year, here is my summer in one blog post...

1. Time with my sister. My precious big sister is 7 months pregnant.  I was able to go to Mississippi and visit her and help work on the beautiful nursery she is preparing for her precious baby girl. Here is a picture of her nursery in progress...

I tried to be creative and use her baby's initials and the colors from her pillow sham to make some decor for over the crib.  We'll see how it looks once they are hanging over the crib... haha.

2. Peru! Ryan and I had the great privilege to lead a short term mission team to Peru this June. Our team was made up of incredible individuals ready to serve the Lord.  Like last year, we worked in an orphanage, preached in churches, and visited a Compassion International project.  It was a wonderful experience.  We were truly able to see God work through our weakness to bring himself great glory in Peru!

3. B Wise's wedding.  One of my most precious friends Brittney married the love of her life last week.  I had the privilege to be a part of that day with her.  She was beautiful, the wedding was beautiful, and all around it was just so much fun! 

and 4. Harry Potter.  I know how ridiculous it seems that Harry Potter makes my top 4 list for my whole summer, but I am afraid I absolutely, unabashedly, love Harry Potter.  Ryan and I started reading the books years ago.  We loved them so much that we went to the midnight book release of the final installment of the series because we could not wait to hear the end of the story.  8 months ago we went to see The Deathly Hallows, Part I with some good friends of ours who share our love for the story.  At that time we planned to see Part II together once it was released this July.  In anticipation for the July release, Ryan and I challenged one another to read all 7 books this summer before the release.  So after reading all 7 books in about 5 weeks and watching all 7 previously released movies, we went to see the final movie on the day of its release.  While the books will remain king in my mind, the movie was fantastic.  I think they were true to the story told in the books and they succeeded in bringing what I imagined to the screen beautifully.  So I guess we have to say goodbye to Harry Potter (or at least goodbye for now, until I revisit Hogwarts through blu-ray and by rereading the epic tale again.)

Scripture and Jesus As We Like Them

Photo from German History in Documents and Images
 

 

     This morning I read a passage from Eric Metaxes's book Bonhoeffer that was a reminder of how much we want God to look like us, even to the point that we will twist Scripture to fit our own needs. Let me set the stage: It is 1933 and Germany has just pulled out from the League of Nations under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Most of the German people saw this as a great victory for their country. They were humiliated after World War I and the continued sanctions on the size of their military was obviously problematic for a man like Hitler who desired domination by any means necessary. A day after the German people voted in agreement with Hitler (though most historians would agree this was likely a rigged poll) to pull out from the League of Nations, the German Christians (the official state-endorsed church) held a rally in the great Sportpalast of Berlin (the photo above is actually taken from this very rally on November 13, 1933). There, a high-school teacher by the name of Reinhold Krause, the leader of the Berlin German Christians, gave a speech that revealed the true agenda of this church sponsored "church".

In coarse, crude language, Krause demanded that the German church must once and for all divest itself of every hint of Jewishness. The Old Testament would be first, "with its Jewish money morality and its tales of cattle merchants and pimps!" The stenographical record notes that "sustained applause" ensued. The New Testament must be revised, too, and must present a Jesus "corresponding entirely with the demands of National Socialism." And it must not longer present an "exaggerated emphasis on the crucified Christ." This tenet was defeatist and depressing, which was to say Jewish. Germany needed hope and victory! Krause also mocked "the theology of the Rabbi Paul with its scapegoats and inferiority complex," and then he mocked the symbol of the cross, "a ridiculous, debilitating remnant of Judaism, unacceptable to National Socialists!" Furthermore, he demanded that every German pastor must take an oath of personal allegiance to Hitler! And the Aryan Paragraph that demanded the expulsion of every church member of Jewish descent must be heartily accepted by every German church! (Bonhoeffer, p. 193)

     Oh how desperately we want our Jesus and our Scripture to look like us! Don't we see the ease with which we can follow him if only he would conform to our liking, to our prejudices, to our desires?

     "Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Corinthians 1:20-25)

     Be encouraged, brothers and sisters! This facade put up by the German Christians was the beginning of their downfall. Many Germans saw through this and realized that this was in error. Though the night may seem dark and the foolishness of man great, God is greater still. He chose in his goodness to save men and women by the cross. It is he who preserves his word, the Living Christ, the Word himself who still speaks today.

     Be warned, brothers and sisters! Fashioning Jesus to our liking and twisting Scripture to suit our needs ultimately produces a god in our own image. Worshiping this god of our making is idolatry, plain and simple. And this temptation is not localized to a specific point in history, nor to a specific political ideology. It is the temptation to which all our fleshly hearts bend. May God in his mercy and grace keep our hearts steadfast. Soli Deo Gloria!

ATL and the Indy Grand Prix

Ryan and my weekends usually consist of some activities, church, seeing friends, so on, but it almost always includes some rest and relaxation.  This weekend was a little different.  Saturday we headed to Clarkston, GA with a group from our church's college ministry.  Clarkston is right outside of Atlanta and since the 1996 Olympics over one million refugees have immigrated from countries all around the world from Atlanta.  Most of these individuals come from places where you likely have never heard the gospel, like Iraq, Bhutan, Thailand, Sudan and many others.  Most of the refugees are in Clarkston for around 2 years so there are about 40 missionaries living among these people trying to share the gospel with them.  We were able to hangout with 2 of these workers from Global Frontier Missions.  We came for a one day exposure into what Clarkston is like and how we can possible lead short term teams to serve there.  Here is there website: http://www.globalfrontiermissions.org/atlanta.html.  It was a very interesting experience.  These people are so close to Christians and churches but most have them still have never heard a clear gospel presentation.  Praise God that I have heard and responded to his gospel.  It was so clear to me on Saturday that his grace alone has saved me!

So we got home Saturday and were pretty exhausted, but we had free tickets to the Indy Grand Prix for Sunday that we just could not pass up!  So Sunday morning we got up and headed to Leeds and the Barber Motorsports Park to watch the main races, Star Mazda, Indy Lights, and the Indy Grand Prix.

 

Here was our view of the track.

The green "Go Daddy" car, AKA Danika Patrick.

A shot of the cars on the final turn during a "double-file" restart

We are not about to go buy t-shirts and put numbers on our cars, but Ryan and I both really enjoyed the race.  It was quite an experience!