The Lord's Day

Today at our church is Mark's last sermon in a series of Stewardship sermons, these have been particularly good. I came into the Lutheran church under a pastor who viewed stewardship as a series of papers to fill out on time, talent and definitely treasure and who preached to us about how if every one of the members were only receiving a welfare check, but tithed from it, then the church would have no financial crisis. In the course of this man being my pastor he said some things that I needed to hear, proving that God speaks even through sinful men, but when it came to stewardship stuff he was all LAW! Mark's sermons have been rather different, focused very much on who we are in Christ and how he has provided for us, and last week that our primary focus in life was to be making sure that those around us spent eternity in heaven with us. Now his sermon had a lot more than that too it, but remember I'm in the pew with a wiggly 3 1/2 yo and only catch so much.

I don't know how much of his sermons are sinking into the hearts of his parishoners, I'm hoping a lot. Because his churches are currently in a fiscal crisis there is an overwhelming emphasis put on money, good grief, even in the discussion of having Saturday services for those members who work on Sunday morning the cost of increased utilities had to come up. I'm hoping, no, actually I'm praying that a real heart for the mission of Christ will be born here. I believe it exists to some extent in the individual members, but sincerely believe that until his little town congregation sees it's primary purpose in life is to reach out to their community with the Gospel of Christ that they are truly in the last days of their being a church. Such a shame it would be to close the doors on this little congregation, it's not often that you find a group of people who can get along so well, nor a group of people who are so kind to one another. They have great strengths in these areas, hopefully with new leadership, not that the old leadership was bad, just that sometimes new eyes on a situation can make things better, hopefully with this new leadership they can find their way forwards to be a church that extends it's hand in help and love much more often than it extends it's hand in need.

It's also the Lord's Supper this morning and ordinarily we would not miss church, especially on this day, seems funny to be home, but John had a very rough day of it yesterday and needed all the rest he could get. Poor kid caught my cold/sinus infection and is certainly not feeling up to much of anything, we are hoping that he can get through this at home, if not, we'll at least we know what to do.

I wanted to share another of Mark's mom's recipes so that I can throw this scrap of paper away off my desk, lol, and because well her recipes are always good and good things should be shared. I have never made this one, but Mark remembers it fondly.

Omi's Chile

2 pounds hamburger, cooked and drained
2 cans 'Mexi' beans
2 tablespoons chili powder
3/4 teaspoon garlic
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1 cup day old coffee
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 beef bullion cube with 1/4 cup water
1 can tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce

I have no directions with this recipe but would assume that it was put together much like any other chile recipe, well honestly, imo, with chile you can't go wrong by just putting everything in the pot together and letting it simmer long enough to thoroughly distribute the flavors and make sure the onions are tender. As for can sizes, there was nothing stated so I'm guessing the normal, what is it 8oz tomato sauce can, the little short one, and the 16 ounce can of tomatoes, you know the one that's a little bigger than a cambell's soup can :)