THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2023
CHRISTIANITY / BOOKS / THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
Oh my GOODNESS!!! A brand new commentary series on one of the greatest books ever written, "THE IMITATION OF CHRIST".
I'm going to need a 36 hour long day for all the good stuff out there on the 'net!
Thank you TAN Books!
SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2023
BOOKS / RECIPES / GENERAL COOKBOOK
For someone who owns nearly 100 cookbooks and who has been cooking for decades, why a buy a cookbook that teaches you how to cook? It makes no sense.
Well, the simple reason is that all cooking comes down to learning proper techniques right from Day One. So I got this book to help me reinforce the basics of cooking.
One thing this book leaves out is proper knife techniques. The French and Chinese are very big on proper use of knife, but for some odd reason most American instructional cooking courses have little to say about it. To fill that hole, I've found the best place to learn how to use and maintain a knife is YouTube.
I've paged through the book, and I think it will be an excellent resource for cooks of any skill level. There is always something new to learn.
- Pseudo Boethius
Monday, April 3, 2023
BOOKS / RAILROADS / DULUTH, MISSABE & IRON RANGE
Just got this book last week from Perry's Hobbies in Morgan, Minnesota. For a book about ore cars, it's one of the most beautiful books I've ever owned. The paper quality and the binding are first rate.
I bought it for my continued research into the railroads of northern Minnesota. Northern Minnesota is the home of the "iron range", one of the richest iron ore deposits in America. Iron ore is a very heavy ore, so to move the ore to the steel mills that need it, several railroads were built to serve the mines in the area.
Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Equipment, 1883-2004
by Daniel P. Holbrook
published by Signature Press
ISBN: 978-1-930013-41-4
Sadly, this book is no longer in print, and Signature Press is out of business.
Truth, in all of its forms, must be the primary goal of a person's life. The pursuit of truth often ends up being the pursuit of God. But when people prefer lying to the truth, things go downhill quickly.
From the book "Strangers in a Strange Land" by Charles J. Chaput:
Over the course of decades, Dr. Peck met patients who didn't fit a standard diagnosis but thad certain recurring traits. These persons showed chronic disregard for the good of others to the point of causing grave psychological harm. They were subtly but pervasively self-centered. Their symptoms were broader than narcissistic personality disorder, but they weren't sociopaths. They knew right from wrong.
But their main shared trait was the habit of lying. They al lied constantly and effortlessly about everything--especially about themselves, to themselves. As such, they were opaque even to highly trained therapists. More important, they were opaque to themselves. For Peck, the "layer upon layer of self-deception" that "people of the lie" build up insulates them so thoroughly from truth that they no longer recognize it. Their own irreproachability is their only truth.
Peck didn't mince words. He calls such persons evil. While he fleshes out his use of that word in his book, he never backs away from it. Peck's "evil" people erect so many defenses against self-examination and repentance that these become almost impossible without a miracle of grace.
"People of the lie" embody Aristotle's teaching on the formation of character. They don't wake up one morning and decide to be cruel. Rather, they accumulate years of decisions to ignore the true good in favor of their own apparent good, until they fully identify their own will with what's genuinely good.
As Peck notes, this reveals itself as a preoccupation with appearances. "While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their 'goodness' is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie". The evasion of truth soon makes their entire lives little more than an intricate ruse.
For these morally crippled creatures, the pretense of goodness salves the scares of conscience that do exist, but have been routinely ignored and abused. "The central defect of the evil [person] is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it." We all sin, of course, but the unwillingness to take any responsibility for our sins implies a more deeply damaged spirit. And so the evil person doubles down on his or her lies by cultivating false appearances and scapegoating the innocent.
As Peck puts it, "We become evil by attempting to hide from ourselves. The wickedness of the evil is not committed directly, but indirectly as part of [the] cover-up process. Evil originates not in the absence of guilt but in the effort to escape it."
Strangers in a Strange Land
"Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World"
by Charles J. Chaput
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 978-1-250-15962-5 (trade paperback)
pg. 113-114
BIBLE / OLD TESTAMENT / JUDGES
A small passage, but it has HUGE ramifications:
Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.
- Judges 2:1-5 ESV
The story here is simple, as it is tragic. When God brought the Jews out of Egypt, he told them, multiple times, that they were to completely wipe-out all the people that were living in the Promised Land, but they refused to do this. Instead, they allowed them to continue living in the land, and even started hanging out with them, and inter-marrying with them. This was a direct violation of God's command, and God was not happy. As a result of their compromise, the Jews brought unnecessary pain and suffering upon themselves.
Amongst today's bible scholars, God is often criticized for his no-compromise policy with the evil inhabitants of the promised land. He is called, by some, a genocidal maniac, and a monster. Killing all the people of a given land offends our modern sensibilities. But God told the Israelites multiple times that these people needed to be killed, because they were evil. The Israelites were to carry out God's wrath on a people who were anti-God, but they refused.
So what can we learn from this passage here in the 21st century?
What we can learn is this: we must never, ever compromise with those things that will take us from a pure and focused devotion to God. Once you start compromising with the things of the world, you will end up in a world of hurt.
As Christians, we know there are a bunch of things in this world that are far less than Christian, even (sadly) other Christians! Many of these things are obvious: illicit sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, pornography, violence, godless political movements, and so on. But in this world of mass media and high speed internet access, we must always be on guard for all sorts of things that can easily upset our equilibrium.
It's no fun playing defense constantly. It's tiresome, boring, frustrating, and it just plain wears you out. Hence, one needs to adopt the policy that God gave to the Jews: you are to go on the offense. You are to take no prisoners. You are to conquer all that is laid out before you, and be victorious. And God will grant you victory.
Now that does not mean that you have license to finish the job that the Jews left unfinished, and go kill every ungodly person or wishy-washy woke-a-doke "Christian" you can find. The rules have changed since the time of Moses and Joshua, though the mission has not. You must confront godlessness where-ever you find it. And the primary "land" that you have been given to conquer is yourself, your family, and your household.
The weapons of are warfare are not swords, guns or knives. Rather the offensive that we are to engage in requires bibles, prayer, spiritual books, wise men and woman, sacred music, good churches, and even more prayer. Our battlefield is the spiritual realm, and we fight our battles on our knees. But it's much easier to fight those battles when you empty your life of all distractions from your task.
Be merciless in getting rid of anyone or anything who is exerting a negative influence in your life.
Be merciless in getting rid of any TV or radio show that just pushes your buttons and manipulates your emotions.
Be merciless in getting rid of any books or magazines that don't feed your soul and refresh your mind.
Be merciless in getting rid of any internet podcast, blog or website that isn't telling you the absolute truth.
Be merciless in avoiding any company trying to sell you things that openly supports the cultural Marxism of wokism.
Be merciless in working against any politician or political leader who pushes a cultural Marxist / woke agenda.
Be merciless in getting rid of any food or beverage that provides empty calories without any healthy benefits.
Be merciless in getting rid of any music or movies that don't encourage you and lift you up.
Be merciless in your pursuit of discipline, prayer, spiritual reading, and godly people. Hold on to such things tightly!
Be merciless in your pursuit of God. Do not allow anything to get in your way, but pursue Him no matter what.
And be merciless in raising your voice and condemning the godless sin and violence that has overtaken the earth at this hour.
When God saw that that Jews were happily compromising with the very people he wanted dead, he brought pain and suffering on them all. Eventually, God will have had enough of the evil in this world, and he will act. There's no doubt about it.
Right now you need to choose who's side you want to be on. There have always and forever been just two sides: that of the world, or that of God. Choose wisely! And the consequences of your choice will be felt not only here on earth, but in the life to come, and for all of eternity.
2023-03-21
- Pseudo Boethius
CHRISTIANITY / BIBLE LITERACY
This is an AMAZING documentary about the history of the bible by Jordan B. Peterson. This is MUST SEE TV!!!
"Watch "Logos & Literacy" for free for a limited time only. Join Jordan in this feature-length documentary, renowned scholar Dr Jordan B Peterson takes us on a captivating journey through the Museum of the Bible, where we are met with historians, theologians, and philosophers who discuss the powerful impact of the Bible on our lives and our world. From the history of its writing to its influence on modern culture, this eye-opening exploration will leave you with a newfound appreciation for the timeless power of God's word."