Christmas and Coffee

This Christmas, I received a shipment of coffee from SM's a few days before Christmas. 10 pounds, 5 different beans, 2 pounds each. I roasted a 4 variety sampler for a friend to give to her husband for Christmas. After all the joy and busyness of the holiday, I'm just starting to taste the beans now.

The highlight in our house was watching the kids and having the majority of our families here. The two gifts I'd like to highlight are distinctly low tech, analog. One was a new style of organizer/journal to replace my aging DayTimer. It's from Lee Valley Tools, quite affordable and useful. It's actually what I used to write my sermon for Sunday. It'll become my archive of sermons, in fact. I just can't create text well on a computer, which is immediately ironic.

The other was a hat, and I've always loved hats. It's the Tin Cloth Packer Hat. Looking forward to using it for years. But, if you order one, make sure you check their sizing; it's a bit different than the norm. I had to send mine back for a different size. Waiting...

On the coffee front, last night I had a great 1/2 caff double ristretto of SM's Donkey Blend and Indian Pearl Mountain MNEB Nuggets. It was a lot smoother than the Donkey alone, with a great lingering aftertaste. Wonderful! I love java!

Solo Deo Gloria,
Jason

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A Personal View of Oneself

This past Sunday, I was privileged to preach once again at our home church, Faith Bible Fellowship in Farmville. My text was not directly linked to the holidays, recent disasters in south Asia and Africa, nor at the new year. It was a continuation of my series on Nehemiah. Sunday's passage was Nehemiah 6:1-7:4.

One of the events recorded in this passage is how all the inhabitants around Jerusalem suddenly became smaller in their own eyes because of what God had done at Jerusalem. It really has resonated with me how we view ourselves in relationship to God. We are infinitely valuable - Christ, the second person of the Godhead, after all, died for our sins. That is value.

Then, last night, I was looking at the bookshelves. I picked up this small book, Children of the Living God. It was so small, I'm surprised I saw it. It was seminary text that I didn't get around to reading during my studies. So, I started reading it, getting only a few pages in. But I must say that Sinclair Ferguson did a masterful job when writing this book. The warmth of God shines through as he digs into scripture, highlighting how all Christians are sons and daughters of God. One very good metaphor regards the differentiation of God's dealings with men and women in the Old Testament era and the New Testament era. He likened it to the OT era being more like small children, highly regulated and having few liberties. The NT, by contrast is the adult child, free from the confines of youth and dealing with the Father on a different, more intimate level. I must say, after six pages or so, I have been truly inspired to a new level of devotion to my Father.

Solo Deo Gloria,
Jason

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