Continue reading Silent Sunday: 12/05/2010
Silent Sunday: 12/05/2010
UCO Sisters Beat The Golfing Odds
The game of golf is brutal. It is a rage-inducing, mind-melting, often pointless endeavor. The only thing worse than a bad round of golf is hearing about someone else’s good round of golf.
So if you are among the countless ranks of weekend hackers, or if you’re just the jealous type, read no further.
You won’t want to hear about the tale of the Bensch sisters from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Erica and Lindsey Bensch play golf for the University of Central Oklahoma. On November 9th, during a practice round at Kickingbird Golf Club in Edmond, Erica, a junior, and Lindsey, a freshman, each scored a hole-in-one. Two sisters, two aces.
It happened for Erica on the 3rd hole, a 124-yard par 3. The 20-year old stepped to the tee and hit a routine gap wedge.
“When it was in the air, my coach was hollering, ‘That’s in! That’s in!’, but I wasn’t sure,” recalls Erica.
Michael Bond is the UCO women’s golf coach and he is not to be doubted. The ball landed on the green, took one hop and rolled straight home.
“It was shock,” said Erica. “I wasn’t expecting it. My heart started racing, and a couple of guys lifted me up in the air. There were lots of high fives.”
The excitement had barely died down when little sis grabbed her 8-iron on the 11th tee. Lindsey, who already had a hole-in-one to her credit, remembered exactly what she was thinking as she sent the ball toward her target, 142 yards away.
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If at First You Don’t Succeed! (Sticky Dough – Sticky Situation…)
I don’t know about you, but after all the food at Thanksgiving it is hard to get motivated to cook. I wanted to make Cattleman’s Hot Yeast Rolls for you so you could have the recipe for your Christmas meal. I have to confess, I wasn’t going to tell you about this until Julie admitted that her bread did not rise at Thanksgiving.
Take One
I mixed up the recipe and my dough, unlike Julie’s, did rise, but it was too sticky. The problem being that I could not buy yeast cakes so I converted the recipe for dry active yeast and followed the instructions on the yeast package to a T. Then I continued with the recipe as it was written, not thinking to cut back on my liquid to compensate for the liquid I dissolved the yeast in. I added some extra flour and realized that by the time I got enough flour mixed in, the dough would be way too floury. So, instead of wasting any more time I dumped the dough in the trash and headed back to the store for more yeast. Just the place I was hoping to avoid the day before Thanksgiving.
Take Two
Upon arriving home I decided to call the Fleischmann’s helpline. Just what I thought, instead of dissolving my yeast in water like the package tells you to the nice lady at Fleischmann’s told me to heat up about 1/2 cup on milk from the recipe and dissolve the yeast in the milk. Again my dough was too sticky and to top it off it was the worst bread dough I have ever tasted in my life and I have eaten a lot of bread dough and cookie dough and cake batter. Sorry, back to my story. I decided to make the hot rolls just like the recipe said and see what happened. The dough rose just like it should have, but again it was very sticky. I kept telling myself that it would get better after I let it rise the three times the recipe calls for.
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Deconstructing My Christianized Self, Part 2
Editor’s note: Josh’s “Part 1” discussion began last week. If you’d like to start at the beginning, you may go HERE. Thanks.~
I want to make the disclaimer that I do not think I have cornered the market on the Truth with a capital T. I get nervous around people who talk a lot about the Truth, and I certainly don’t want to make you nervous as well. There is a strong possibility that after I die, I could discover that I was completely off from the get go. My guess is that some truth may lie somewhere between in the dialectical tension between where I am theologically and where I came from. Who knows?
Please feel free to test, probe, critique, agree, disagree, heck, even deconstruct my deconstructed ideas. What I’m looking for is simply a constructive dialogue. Conversion to my side of thinking is not the goal. Conversation is. So come join me and lets tell our stories and ask questions and dive into the divine conundrum together.
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I was six years old the first time I got saved. While helping my mother iron clothes, I accidentally burned my hand on the glowing red metal. As my mom wrapped a towel of ice cubes around my throbbing hand, she matter-of-fact said, “You know, Josh, this is what hell will feel like.” 
Looking down at my blistering fingers, I immediately retorted in breathy panic, “Well, I don’t want to go to hell then!” Moments later, as ice cubes melted across my throbbing fingers, I prayed to ask Jesus into my heart. That night I slept soundly. The thought of heaven was like a medicinal balm that soothed and cooled my burning soul. And what I carried around inside of me for many years afterward was the notion that the Jesus story was about saving people from something bad after death and for something good after death.
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You Shoulda Known
Greetings
Happy Saturday to you all. This is the month when everyone is getting ready to buy gifts for friends and family, put lights on the house, and decorate the inside to reflect the Christmas spirit. I encourage all who read this to reflect the Holy Spirit while you celebrate the birth of Jesus. Santa is not the only one who sees you when you sleep and knows when you’re awake.
I happen to come across a passage in James that I’ve always found to be that “anti-gray area” kind of verse. I wanted to share it because it reminded me of just how tough it is to reflect Christ every day. Surely I’m not the only one who knows that being a Christian is not the easy choice or a cop out; it’s hard work. I also hope you understand what I mean by work because some people might already by thinking, “well, works don’t save you.” James 4:17 reminded me of just how high God sets the standard.
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
I don’t think this needs any elaboration on my part. It’s pretty self explanatory. I also don’t want you to think I’m taking the scripture out of context so I encourage you to read the verses leading up to this and the ones after. If you have a difference of opinion, feel free to reply. As I said earlier, I know I’m not the ultimate authority on the Bible so if I need to be corrected in truth just let me know.
Wrap Up
In short, all those times I knew I should’ve done this or wished I had done that, I had sinned. I also believe, even before I ever read this verse years ago, that I had known deep inside and realized it. This verse just put it in stone for me. I also encourage you to really think about all those times this has applied to your life. Lets both try to not repeat our past mistakes and move forward spiritually.
This is the season to celebrate Christ’s birth. If you aren’t reflecting Christ this month and every month, well, you “should’ve” known better.
Keep each other in prayer.
~ by Alfred Lamar Jackson