- Cecil Day Lewis
Korean Cooking Pro-tip: Freeze Your Spam
Spam is frustratingly packaged in an odd volume that I often throw half the can away. But no longer, since I’ve discovered the ingenious way to lengthen the life of your spam (because everyone was dying to know).
Cube it and freeze it in multiple small ziploc bags.
This made for my quick and easy fix of spam that I would throw in whenever I’d make jjiage or kimchi bokeumbap.
There you have it. The one culinary tip that will change your life. You’re welcome.
Always Reforming
Post-“Silence” Wikipedia-ing led me to this gem of a section under “The Great Apostasy.” It’s important as Christians to make sure our worship is holy and has not been tainted by the world. Humility is essential. We are certain that we will be wrong and in our weakness substitute for truth what is convenient, so we must always be reforming.
“In the Reformed view of church history, the true church cannot declare itself infallible, but rather calls itself ecclesia semper reformanda (“the Church which must be always reformed”), the church that is always repenting of error. This Protestant view is that people are naturally inclined to elevate tradition to equality with the written testimony of the Bible, which is the word of God[citation needed] (cf. Sacred Tradition). The reforming churches believe that human weakness is naturally drawn to a form of false religion that is worldly, pompous, ritualistic, anthropomorphic, polytheistic, infected with magical thinking and legalism, and that values human accomplishment more highly or more practically than the work of God (divine grace) is valued. Given the chance, people will substitute the sort of religion they naturally prefer, over the Gospel, see also Cafeteria Christianity. The Hebrew Bible contains multiple episodes of backsliding by the very people who first received God’s revelation; to the Protestant mind, this shows that teaching the Gospel is a straight and narrow path, one that requires that natural religion be held in check and that God’s grace, holiness, and otherness be rigorously proclaimed.”
I don’t have a strong opinion about the adult use of marijuana.
The argument that responsible adults can responsibly consume it makes sense. But this also applies to alcohol and even smoking. Responsible adults can freely consume those things.
But we have to be careful about how quickly youth culture adopts these things. If it’s cool for adults to be doing, young people will follow suit. We had to institute programs to curb the consumption of alcohol and tobacco among high schoolers. The enthusiasm behind weed is not being curbed at all.
On HONY, a beloved teacher shared a similar opinion about the responsible use of weed by adults–but in the hands of the youth, he hated it. He hated that his students who once had so much life and energy would show up to school high, becoming dead and unmotivated.
Again, not a position against weed, but an urge to be careful about the way we enthusiastically endorse the legalization of weed. We need to be cognizant of the message it sends and its effect on society, culture and our youth.
Want to know Julian Assange’s endgame? He told you a decade ago →
Public vs. Private
A wise friend of mine once told me there should be no notion of public and private. You should conduct yourself in private as you would in public.
This struck me since we often do in private what we know is not okay–just because no one is watching. Whether that be gossip or making the unethical choice etc. we feel at liberty to do many wrong things behind closed doors. However, we should be trying to conduct ourselves with character and virtue even when we are out of the public’s view.
This is why politicians are afraid of Julian Assange and Wikileaks because they don’t want their shame to be exposed outside. People should have control over what is shared and when, so I don’t agree with Assange’s tactics. But I think it is important that politicians conduct themselves with integrity so they are not afraid of these attacks–rather than relying on low-tech ways to maneuver around hackable information channels.
This should also be a challenge for all of us in our private lives to live uprightly–even when no one is watching. My friend is even careful about what he writes in his journal, because if we put to paper our sinful thoughts, we are only enabling this sin to grow larger. Our challenge as Christians is to kill our sin first in our minds and in our private lives, so it doesn’t creep out into public life–damaging our relationships and communities.
On Ambition
People often question the motives of those running for elected office. I too wondered why anyone would want that job except for the power and fame. However, a friend said something recently that stuck with me–ambition comes from wanting to fulfill our highest potential.
This is a good thing. Nick Vujicic was very influential to me when I was young. He is a motivational speaker that has no limbs, but has the most optimistic outlook on life. That was the first moment I realized I should be thankful for my four limbs. There was so much to be thankful for: I’m on track to going to a good university. I have no other health issues. I am a citizen of the wealthiest nation in the world. Though I may not be the smartest, I am capable and therefore have a duty to serve the world because I can.
This is the root of good ambition. We feel the responsibility or call towards a certain vocation because of our unique position–whether it’s skills, socioeconomic, health etc–to maximize our potential via the role.
This can obviously be twisted for our own glory–all of God’s best gifts can. However, God gave us unique talents that He wants us to fulfill to their highest potential, in order to best further human flourishing (a reflection of God’s glory). I offer up my own gifts to this cause and I’m excited. I enjoy work and feel like I have much more to give! But, I have to continually check myself and remember that my work is for God’s glory, not mine.
I never blog about food but I have to let the world know about the best snack in the world - TRUMPET MUSHROOMS. They’re so easy to “cook” (if you can call it that) and they taste amazing. They’ll look like the bottom pic when you shop for them at the grocery store.
- Slice them into thin-ish pieces (like the pic above).
- Heat up sesame oil, add salt/pepper/garlic powder into the oil and then lay the mushroom slices on top.
- Sauté on both sides until brown (even until a little crisp on the sides).
- Enjoy!
You’ll thank me later :)
— 30 True Things You Need to Know Now
Christ came to fulfill, not to abolish the law.
This past Lord’s Day we went over the Westminster Larger Catechism question 8a.
Q. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.
The main takeaway from our Catechism lesson is that our God is consistent in both the Old and New Testaments, in His 3 persons in the Trinity and indivisible between his characteristics. This is what folks call the Divine Simplicity.
This is important as we understand how the wrath of God in the Old and New Testament. Oftentimes, many would cite the God of the Old Testament as seemingly “more wrathful.” However, this cannot and is not the case. God is just as wrathful (and loving) as He was in the Old Testament as He is in the New Testament. God’s moral law still stands today and we are just as much subject to this law as we were in the OT.
The fact is that on this side of history, Christ has atoned for our sin and the wrath of God has been fully unleashed on Christ instead of us–as he is the propitiation for our sin. Christ has fulfilled the moral law on behalf of us, because we would never be able to.
“Propitiation means the turning away of wrath by an offering. In relation to soteriology, propitiation means placating or satisfying the wrath of God by the atoning sacrifice of Christ.”
The only thing that is different is that the wrath of God is somewhat less visceral, definitely less bloody in our day to day, than it was in the Old Testament. We are not sacrificing animals to atone for our sin–rather, Christ has (and theoretically is still) atoned for our sin in that one night. But in that one night, He was completely forsaken and bore the INFINITE burden and wrath of our sin. (Everyone, please understand how incredibly intense, profound, heartbreaking it is. Imagine your dad or mom being thrown into jail and tortured for each sin you commit–and more gets tacked on to them as you continue to sin. Then a MILLION times worse.*) The fact is that God’s wrath is still being paid out for each sin we commit day to day, but that Christ has paid/is paying for it each time we sin. This should bring us into a posture of utter repentance to turn AWAY from our sin instead of continuing on in it.
Because the wrath of God is seemingly less visceral today we feel, even as Christians, comfortable with sinning. But this week, let us not forget that Christ has bore and is bearing the full and utter wrath of God on our behalf. Let us fall and cling to His feet and pray in thankfulness for God’s mercy poured out on His people through the work of Christ. We are so undeserving. This is amazing grace.
“And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this.” Ezra 9:13
Open Q: How can we practically better understand God’s wrath in order to remind us of the immensity of Christ’s propitiation for our incompetence in our day to day? I’d imagine good practice (being in the Word, good prayer) and good ecclesiology (reading of the law etc.) are the means which God intended for us to be reminded of this.
*For illustration purposes only. Theologically, the analogy probably doesn’t map correctly to the time span that Christ has atoned for our sin. (This would require a deeper dive into God’s concept of time…)
Pro-tip: On building Bible reading habits
Most of the Epistles (Corinthians, Thessalonians etc) are really short (3-5 chapters) and make you feel like a boss when you finish 2 books in a week. I would start with these to give you some early momentum when getting into a daily Bible reading habit ;)
The Millenial’s guide to the KonMari Method
“Does it make you go ‘YASS.’ If it doesn’t, or you hesitate, discard.”