A New Year Quickly Approaches

As promised, here is a picture of our Christmas tree this year! Hope you had a joyous Christmas and I wish you a wonderful New Year! This year was my first all-out experience with trying to visit both of our families in three different towns around one holiday. Thankfully our families live in close proximity and we were able to see everyone in a somewhat orderly fashion, but I will be looking forward to the day when we have an excuse for everyone to come see us instead.

In our travels through Butte, America this holiday season we were taken to a new brewery in town named "Quarry Brewing" with its catchy slogan: "We Dig Beer". Very nice place, started by a young man who had his beginnings in homebrewing. Stop by and check it out if you are ever in town.

Speaking of beer, Sam and I have brewed three new beers in the last few months and have two more set to go soon. Sorry I failed to post on those earlier. The three currently on tap are an English Special Bitter ("Rust Remover"), a Brown Porter ("Annie Street Porter"), and an Irish Red ("Brendan's Red") which turned out more black than red but has a rich, wonderful, toasty taste (the remains of a this one are shown in the picture).

Owning the Name "Christian"

Today I was listening to a lecture on some of the beliefs of Islam and one man's "tactics" for sharing the Gospel with them. In the lecture, the man (who is fluent in Arabic) was approached by a Muslim in a restaurant in the Middle East, and the Muslim overhearing his conversation and realizing he was American, asked him when he had become a Muslim. He told the Muslim that he wasn't, but that he was a "follower of Jesus".
"A Christian you mean?" asked the Muslim
"No, a follower of Jesus," replied the man.
He went on to explain that most Muslims associate "Christians" with the Crusades and the oppression that their people have suffered from "Christians" in the past. This man wanted to free himself from that stereotype to tell the Muslim what a real "follower of Jesus" is like.

Now I can understand the thinking behind this, and maybe even the effectiveness of it by drawing another's curiosity; but, the whole sound of it struck me funny. My thinking is that a "Christian" is what a Muslim says a "Christian" is in some sense, good, bad, ugly, or indifferent. I do want to associate with the men of the Crusades, not because I believe what they did was right, but because, in the end, they are still my brothers. I don't want to abandon association with the historical church because there have been times of grievous sin in it's past or because their have been tares mixed with the wheat. I would argue that if the name of "Christian" is wrongly viewed, it is our own fault and up to us to redeem it . . . not abandon it.

Thoughts, anyone?

"Is Christmas Christian?"

Jeff Meyers of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA) has some helpful and interesting posts on his blog about the legitimacy of celebrating the Christmas season:
"Is Christmas Christian?"

This Place Seems Vaguely Familiar . . .

. . . Hmmm . . . yes, this does look familiar. Oh wait! There's a picture of me below! Ahh, its all starting to come back now.

So, today I was attempting to leave a comment on someone else's blog and needed to sign in to my old blog account to do so. Sadly this took about 45 minutes, but 2 or 3 passwords later I had succeeded and decided to read over some of my old scratchings. I decided I do miss having this outlet for thoughts and discussion. Most of any of you coming across this site will already know that Beth and I have already celebrated our first Wedding Anniversary just shy of a month ago. No need for updates I don't think. God has gifted me with new responsibilities throughout the last year and so my time really is more constrained, but not so much that I couldn't make a regular weekly post on passing thoughts, ideas, and current issues. Don't check back right away, give it a few weeks, then you may not be quite as disappointed.

Here's a wedding picture for those of you who may not have made it (no, the service was not held on a hillside):


Here was our first Christmas (last year) and our first real Christmas tree (pictures of this year's will be soon to follow):


Lastly, a picture of my new little sister, Alivia, helping to prepare a Sabbath meal with her older sister: