Friday, September 27, 2013

Book Review: Apostate


I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say that our American culture is falling apart because "they took prayer out of the schools". But the reality is that's just a side-effect of the 800 hundred years of shifting in philosophical thinking from a Christian worldview to a Humanist world view. Kevin Swanson, author of Apostate: The Men who Destroyed the Christian West has done the extensive research to show how men of great influence have left us with such a depraved culture.

From Thomas Aquinas to Jean-Paul Sartre and William Shakespeare to John Steinbeck, Swanson gives clear historical evidence of how 16 of the "greatest thinkers" left the Christian faith in favor of Secular Humanism, or self-worship and influenced generation after generation to follow in their steps.

I appreciate that Swanson does a consistent job of using the Bible to disprove the philosophies of these men, allowing the Word of God to shine the light of truth on these dark, twisted minds of men.

I was slightly disappointed in his conclusion, though. His solution seems to suggest that, as Christians, we should just remove ourselves as much as possible from the culture as it collapses and then rebuild. My question is, where's the mission mindset of rescuing people from this dangerous way of thinking with the power of the gospel?

For those wondering how the cultures got like this or who think removing prayer from school was the cause, this book is a must read. For those who admire or highly esteem the "great thinkers", this book will challenge your comfort zone, but is worth reading considering the obvious detrimental results of their work.

*Special thanks to Generations with Vision and Cross Focused Reviews for providing this book, free of charge, in exchange for an honest review.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Behind the Scenes: The Kitchen Chemist

"Behind the Scenes" is a fun link up where we show those photos - but tell the real story behind them. The sneak peek behind the scenes, a look past the edges of the photo to the real life behind it. - Crystal Stine
                                                         

I'm notorious for not measuring when I cook -  I just kinda guess at amounts - it keeps meals interesting. That's why you can have Chicken Stir-fry 10 times at my house and it will taste different every time. I also like to experiment with recipes - I might get a craving for cookies and substitute whatever I have in the house to make it work. Here's my latest Chemistry experiment:


Chocolate No-Bake Cookie Cakes??

I started with the correctly measured amounts of milk and sugar. (That's the first shocker!)
I guessed on cocoa, butter and vanilla.
While that all came to a boil, I pull out the big container of oatmeal - oh no! only about a cup left and I need 3 cups! What will I do? No worries - there are packages of brown-sugar-cinnamon instant oatmeal right there in the pantry.
I add 3 or maybe it was 4 packages of instant oatmeal to the pot. After stirring, it's still a little runny, so I add about 1/4 cup of peanut butter. Now I don't want to wait for these to set up in a couple of hours - I need to make sure that they taste good - so my next brilliant idea is to fill cupcake liners with the cookie mix and put them in the fridge.
I snapped this quick pic because I thought I either have an awesome Pinterest post or something to remember and laugh at later!
(P.S. They turned out pretty good - really sweet though and the fridge & cupcake liners didn't really speed up the process that much.)

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Five Minute Friday: RED

Prompt: RED

Lots of things come to mind with the word RED:

My son's favorite color RED - because it's the color for stop at the traffic light (um, okay?! not sure why that makes it your favorite, but if you say so, son!)

Go RED for Women - the American Heart Association's Initiative for Women's Heart Health (I worked for AHA for 2 1/2 years, so I celebrate heart month every Feb.)

Bright RED lipstick - because I'm jealous of Drew Barrymore and my friend Sara who can confidently wear bright red lipstick with beautiful femininity.

But most importantly, the RED blood of Jesus - that was shed as the payment for my sins - that I am forgiven and made right with God only by His sacrifice for me!

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
O, precious is the flow, that makes me white at snow 
No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

(Hymn written by Robert Lowery)




Five Minute Friday with Lisa-Jo Baker and hundreds of others. We write for five minutes. All on the same prompt. No extreme editing. No worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation.Unscripted. Unedited. Real.