So I’m leaving for Israel in a couple days and a friend asked if I’d be posting about it.  Maybe.  It’ll be here if i do.

pg. 229

“Second, to see evangelism in terms of the announcement of God’s Kingdom, of Jesus’ lordship and of the consequent new creation, avoids from the start any suggestion that the main or central thing that has happened is that the new Christian entered into a private relationship with God or with Jesus and that this relationship is the main or only thing that matters.  (Some currently popular Christian songs seem to suggest this rather too frequently, as though the main thing about the gospel were that Jesus could take the place of my girlfriend or boyfriend.)”

i may have made a mistake…or at least a huge omission.

i my previous post about my favorite albums of the last few years, there should be one added to the list.  I knew it was risky to do the 2007 list before i’d heard all the possibly good albums.

A couple days ago I bought Josh Ritter’s new album The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter.  Musically, it’s amazing.  And lyrically…well, all the accolades about him being the most authentic american songwriter out there are true.  It’s brilliant.  A couple examples:

My orchestra is gigantic
This thing could sink the Titanic
And the string section’s screaming
Like horses in a barn burning upHe plays pianos with fistfuls
Of broken Belvedere crystal
And he’s trying to forget you
But the music’s never loud enough

From “Rumors”

Sorry, but I have to put this next song on in its entirety.  It doesn’t make sense without the beginning and it’s simply stunning.

If this was the Cold War we could keep each other warm
I said on the first occasion that I met Marie
We were crawling through the hatch that was the missile silo door
And I don’t think that she really thought that much of meI never had to learn to love her like I learned to love the Bomb
She just came along and started to ignore me
But as we waited for the Big One
I started singing her my songs
And I think she started feeling something for me

We passed the time with crosswords that she thought to bring inside
What five letters spell “apocalypse” she asked me
I won her over saying “W.W.I.I.I.”
She smiled and we both knew that she’d misjudged me

Oh Marie it was so easy to fall in love with you
It felt almost like a home of sorts or something
And you would keep the warhead missile silo good as new
And I’d watch you with my thumb above the button

Then one night you found me in my army issue cot
And you told me of your flash of inspiration
You said fusion was the broken heart that’s lonely’s only thought
And all night long you drove me wild with your equations

Oh Marie do you remember all the time we used to take
We’d make our love and then ransack the rations
I think about you leaving now and the avalanche cascades
And my eyes get washed away in chain reactions

Oh Marie if you would stay then we could stick pins in the map
Of all the places where you thought that love would be found
But I would only need one pin to show where my heart’s at
In a top secret location three hundred feet under the ground

We could hold each other close and stay up every night
Looking up into the dark like it’s the night sky
And pretend this giant missile is an old oak tree instead
And carve our name in hearts into the warhead

Oh Marie there’s something tells me things just won’t work out above
That our love would live a half-life on the surface
So at night while you are sleeping
I hold you closer just because
As our time grows short I get a little nervous

I think about the Big One, W.W.I.I.I.
Would we ever really care the world had ended
You could hold me here forever like you’re holding me tonight
I look at that great big red button and I’m tempted

From “The Temptation of Adam”

“The Kingdom of Heaven is very important, but it’s not the end of the world.”

-N.T. Wright

In the year 2000, the top 5 shareholders of Microsoft had more wealth and assets than 600 million residents of Africa combined.

New post up with a couple pics over here.

Sauce:

1 ½ cups Franks hot sauce

2/3 cup butter

¼ cup red wine vinegar

6 Tbsp sugar

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces

Batter:

1 ½ cups flour

3 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp fresh ground pepper

1 egg

Add milk until batter drops from spoon in oblong slivers

First things first: get all the ingredients out and open the windows.  The grease and garlic smell will dissipate much quicker.

Get out the chicken and cut it into pieces.

Once that’s done, mix the dry ingredients for the batter and then add the egg and milk.  The batter should be lumpy and not runny, but should fall off the spoon relatively easily when you hold it up.  Roll the chicken pieces in the batter and put them on a nonstick cookie pan in the freezer.  Cold batter crisps up better.  Leave them in there anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.

While the chicken and batter is cooling, start heating the oil to a medium temperature.  The oil, when heated, should smoke only very slightly and should stop when you add the chicken.  Now mix the ingredients for the sauce and heat them very slowly in a pot.  In the picture below, you can see the butter I added, but it’s actually better to let the butter melt first, then add everything else.  DO NOT LET THE SAUCE BOIL!!  Keep it on low heat and if it starts to roll, move it away and let it cool some.  If it boils for more then a few seconds, it will get a very skunky taste.

Once the chicken is cool and hard, drop them piece by piece into the hot oil.  You will have to do them in a few batches unless you have a giant pot.  Stir them a bit to make sure they aren’t sticking together.  Cook them for about 5 to 8 minutes, depending on oil temperature, or until a nice golden brown color.

Once they’re done, transfer them to the pot with the sauce using a slotted spoon.  Try to strain as much oil off as you can, but don’t worry about including some…it thickens the sauce.  Let them sit in the sauce while you start cooking the other batches of chicken.

When all the batches are done, put them in a serving bowl and serve immediately with a nice salad, a soup, whatever.  But definately have some Bleu Cheese or Ranch dressing on hand.

2 days.

http://peacebuilding.wordpress.com

You’ll notice I deleted the links to other blogs from this page.  Don’t be offended.  I assume most of you have them either bookmarked or you’re using something like Bloglines to let you know of updates.

I’ll be replacing them with a few links for stuff that I care about.  5 at the most, which will likely rotate pretty often.  A blog may come in there every now and then.