Plug: Comment on Sabbath Keeping

On Adventist Perspective, Andy Hanson writes in part, responding to the current issue of Adventist World,

Why is it then that Adventist students are made to feel that they are in some way desecrating the Sabbath if they attend a class and take an examination? When I read about a student who has to give up a career because he or she has been taught that to take a final examination on Sabbath is an unpardonable sin, I want to scream…

For the rest of the blog post, go here.

Recipe: Butternut Squash and Yellow Split Peas Curry

Originally this was something I threw together because I had a butternut squash sitting around that needed to be used. I wanted to do something that wasn’t too complicated, though you might think otherwise when you glance at the list of ingredients. I also had a bottle of red curry powder that I purchased about a year ago when we were done in California.

The first time I prepared the whole thing in a large saucepan. Yesterday, I sautéed part of it, and then threw everything else into a Crockpot and left it to cook while we were at church.

Serve with rice.

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Serves: 4 – 6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes (or 10 minutes plus 4-8 hours in a Crockpot)

Ingredients

• 1 small (about 2 lbs.) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and large diced
• 1 cup dried yellow split peas, sorted and rinsed
• 1 T. vegetable oil
• 1/2 t. black or yellow mustard seeds
• 1/2 t. whole cumin seeds
• 2 dried red chili peppers, crushed (about 1 tsp. pre-crushed)
• 1/2 cup ground meat or vege-burger (optional)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 inch fresh ginger, minced
• 1 serrano chile, seeded (optional) and sliced
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1 t. ground coriander
• 1/4 t. ground cardamom
• 1/4 t. ground turmeric
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 to 2 t. salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup loosely packed chopped, fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, cook split peas according to package directions, about 20-30 minutes.
2. In a large saucepan or covered sauté pan, heat oil over medium heat. When hot, drop in mustard and cumin seeds and fry until mustard seeds start to pop, about 1 minute. Add crushed red peppers. If using ground meat or vege-burger, add and and brown. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and serrano and fry until onion begins to soften.
3. Add ground cumin, coriander, cardamom, and turmeric. Fry another minute, stirring frequently.
4. Add broth and butternut squash. Add more water if needed, to nearly cover the squash. Add salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to fast simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until squash begins to get tender.
5. Drain cooked split peas, then add to squash. Continue to simmer and cook for another 10-15 minutes until peas break down and squash also begins to break down into a thick sauce.
6. Remove from heat and mix in fresh cilantro, if desired.

Changes for Crockpot

• Skip step 1.
• Perform step 2 as given above.
• Place results of step 2 into Crockpot.
• Add split peas and ingredients in steps 3 through 5 into Crockpot. Cook at high for 4-5 hours, or low for 7-8 hours until peas and squash are soft.
• Add cilantro before serving, if desired.

Sermon: The Necessity of Focus

(Click HERE for MP3 sermon audio.)

This continues the discussion on the power of God-given dreams and how we can live God’s dreams for us.

The series is based on a set of sermon notes, provided by Thomas Nelson, which goes along with the book Wide Awake by Erwin R. McManus.

The Biblical materials for this sermon are found in Matthew 14:24-31 and Philippians 3:13-14.

Messy Weather

I haven’t posted much in the way of updates, because frankly, there isn’t a whole lot going on that is noteworthy.

The temperature has been bobbing above and below the freezing point, meaning we’ve been getting both lots of snow and lots of rain. With the snow and ice damming up the street drainage, the water has nowhere to go. That means when the temps are above freezing with heavy rains, the basement floods. When the temps go below freezing, all that water freezes and there’s snow on top of ice. And then when the temps go above freezing again, all the stuff starts to melt and everything gets really, really messy and ugly.

I think the temps stayed below freezing today and we got a little sun. The landscape was pretty nice.

Last Tuesday evening we started a new weekly event at church: a supper get-together where we, well, get together, cook, and have supper. We want to host discussions on topics such as health, finances, cooking, and so on that can be of help to the community. We still have some kinks to work out, but our hope is that people from the community will begin to join us.

Tomorrow and Wednesday the mental health services in Petersburg is providing suicide intervention training. Elise and I are attending the training.

Sermon: Who Will You Become?

(Click HERE for MP3 sermon audio.)

This continues the discussion on the power of God-given dreams and how we can live God’s dreams for us.

The series is based on a set of sermon notes, provided by Thomas Nelson, which goes along with the book Wide Awake by Erwin R. McManus.

The Biblical materials for this sermon are found in Genesis 37-46; Acts 10; and Ezekiel 37.

Sermon: Our Best Dreams

(Click HERE for MP3 sermon audio.)

For the next few weeks I will be discussing the power of God-given dreams and how we can live God’s dreams for us.

The series is based on a set of sermon notes, provided by Thomas Nelson, which goes along with the book Wide Awake by Erwin R. McManus.

The Biblical material for this sermon is found in Mark 10:35-52.