Shotguns and Sunshine

The Titus Mandate

2011-04-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was easy to read. It followed the bible, Ted Bigelow is an excellent writer who follow the bible to the letter without trying to change Gods word for his own agenda.

The premise of the book, The Titus Mandate is well thought out and researched.

Titus was given a mandate to bring the churches in Crete back to God's mandate or the word of God that he has given us all. Titus had a mission to get rid of the bad (non biblical) leaders and replace them with biblical leaders.

In this book you will learn haw to spot non biblical leaders in your church. You will also learn that you have the same amount of biblical authority as anyone else in your church and how to bring your church back to the Titus Mandate.

I highly recommend this book for anyone that goes to church and wants to get closer to God's ideas, to anyone who has had a bad experience in church or anyone who is not sure if situations in your church are not going the way God intended.

Book Summary: The church is supposed to be the safest place on earth for Christians, so why is it often a place of deep dissatisfaction? Many Christians suffer from difficult church situations and are unsure how to live and worship with such stress, let alone grow in the midst of it. Much of this pain comes from being under poor church leadership. According to Ted Bigelow, if your church doesn’t follow God’s mandate for leadership as set out in the book of Titus, it is almost certainly headed for disaster.

All Christians want to be a part of a safe and godly church so that they can invest in its ministries and mission without fear or compromise. Yet thousands of real churches, perhaps yours, have been infiltrated by dangerous men. Many Christians have been so hurt by these wolves that they have left church, vowing never to return. Other sheep, unaware of what they are witnessing week by week, pay the wolves to preach their error.

In The Titus Mandate, readers will follow Paul’s special attaché Titus on his treacherous mission to the Mediterranean island of Crete. You’ll learn for yourself what Titus experienced as he went toe-to-toe with the wolves, carrying out God’s very public mission to rescue Christians and churches from danger. Paul’s journey will teach you to spot the wolves and protect yourself and those you love from Satan’s most prolific form of spiritual peril.

Through reading this book, Christians will be equipped to:

· Understand the biblical reasons for most negative church experiences and gain scriptural wisdom about their church trials.

· Trust in the Lord whose wisdom brings such trials into His children’s lives, enabling them to move forward in their walks with Christ.

· Discern safe churches from unsafe churches.

· Participate in church in a way that draws them closer to the Lord.

Taking the truth from Scripture and applying it in the church is easier said than done, so The Titus Mandate provides specific instruction on how to live out God’s principles that make church a secure place. One’s confidence in church will be restored as God’s ways are explained, applied, and contrasted with those ways that bring danger. The Titus Mandate is a rescue plan for Christians and their churches. Readers will be able to feel confident that the leadership they have chosen will be trustworthy shepherds for their families.

Flight Plan by Lee Burns and Braxton Brady

2011-01-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

I just finished a great book which I wish I would have had back when I was 17 or 18. It is full of great real world analogies which will will help a young man relate to God on his level. Its hard to understand Gods plan for us but the author brings us one step closer to understanding our place in his plan. I would recommend this book to any young man that needs God encouragement.

Book Description:

In today’s culture, teenage boys are faced with navigating the turbulent journey to manhood, often without an inkling of what that really means or any direction of how to get there. What does it mean to be a man? Flight Plan: Your Mission to Become a Man offers a vision of godly manhood and a complete and honest guide into the adventures ahead.

Flight Plan, written by Lee Burns and Braxton Brady, is a natural evolution of their original program, Building Boys, MakingMen, a curriculum created by the authors for the 630 boys who attend Presbyterian Day School (PDS) in Memphis, Tennessee. Over the years, Burns and Brady, colleagues at PDS, have received numerous requests from youth leaders, pastors, parents,and teachers for access to the curriculum that was only available to the boys at PDS. Flight Plan is the answer to those many requests and the culmination of sixty years of research, mentoring, and ministry to more than 3,000 boys.

Throughout his career in education, PDS Chaplain Braxton Brady has learned that there is a void for young men that is not being taught. “I hope to call dads to be strategic with their kids and intentional with their boys, and I also want to help dads navigate their sons through middle school and high school on their way to adulthood,” says Brady.

Flight Plan uses the metaphor of a journey of flight to speak candidly to pre-teen and teen boys about friendships, peer pressure, drinking, drugs, girlsand dating, puberty, sex, and school and family relationships. Like any sound flight plan, the book maps out the journey ahead giving practical advice for success and warnings for potential pitfalls any boy on his way to manhood is likely to encounter. The text strategically builds on seven biblically based virtues, “The True Friend,” “The Humble Hero,” “The Servant Leader,” “The Moral Motivator,” “The Bold Adventurer,” “The Noble Knight,” and “The Heart Patient.” Each chapter concludes with questions for reflection and discussion, making Flight Plan an ideal teaching tool for boys’ small groups, mentoring groups, Sunday school classes, fathers and sons, or simply individual study.

Co-author Lee Burns is the headmaster of Presbyterian Day School. His vision is to mentor boys not just academically, but from a life perspective. “It’s important to know the person God wants us to be,” Burns says. “I believe God calls us into authentic manhood as we pursue His purpose and passion for our lives.”

“Flight Plan is a godsend to those of us working on the front lines with middle school boys,” says David Beecher, headmaster of the Hillside School in Massachusetts. “Insightful yet practical, challenging but simple, creative yet concrete—it provides young boys, their parents, and their teachers with a blueprint for sound, successful, meaningful growth.”

Phil's Southern Beans

2011-01-28T07:15:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

2 lbs pinto beans rinsed and cleaned
2 ham bones with a generous amount of ham attached
1 dark beer
1 onion minced
1 green pepper minced
3 cloves minced garlic
3 Tb bacon grease
3 small bay leaves
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper
3 dried red chili peppers
2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
2 large carrots shredded
4 cups broth

In skillet, saute minced onion, green pepper, and garlic until translucent. Add to large pot with all other ingredients. Now add enough addition water to cover ham bones.

Bring pot to a rolling boil for 2 minutes then remove from heat. Let pot sit for 2 hrs to allow the beans to soften slightly. Add more water if needed. Return pot to medium heat and simmer till beans are soft, 2 to 3 hours.

Salt to taste.

Serve with corn bread or fried potatoes.

January Food Challenge at My Wooden Spoon.

Deer Season

2010-11-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry for my lack of posts. I have been so tied up trying to find Bambie's dad that I haven't had time.

There is so much to deer hunting that most don't understand. Lack of sleep is one of them. Get up at 4:30 to take a scent free shower, put on my clothes that smell like dirt. Yes there are rituals that go in to hunting. It's like other sports in that there are people that have their certain lucky thing that will go with when them to the game. Mine is dirt. I know that sounds funny to a non-hunter but what is more natural to smell in the woods in fall?

After the rituals at home it is off to the woods for more. I have to figure out wind direction to determine the tree stand I will use then which way I will go in to the wood to not spook the deer. When I get to the tree its up twenty feet for a birds-eye view of sometimes nothing but a squirrel or a chipmunk.

It is all worth it though if you get the chance to see the buck of a life time.

Saturday was opening day of gun season here in Indiana and I would like to wish others out there good luck and remember to always be safe.

I shot this Doe Saturday evening, she field dressed at 115 lbs. I am looking forward to bacon wrapped venison loins.

Thanks for reading.

What a great day.

2010-11-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

September 25th my beautiful wife and I went to Chicago.

I normal refer to Chicago as Shitcago-- thought you should understand the way I think of the big city.

With that said I had a wonderful time. We spent our day at the Chicago Gourmet, a food and wine fest, in Millennium Park. I have to say that the stereotype Chicago'ens that I had in my head were nowhere around. The people were very nice and struck up conversation with out prompting. There was no dress code, which was quite evident. There where people dressed in tee shirts all the way up to Tuxedos. I do have to say that it didn't seem to mater to the others that attended the event. People in Tuxes where talking with others in Tee shirts without a care in the world about what others would think.

I was impressed with the festival. The wine was flowing freely as was the Tequila and vodka. The Latin food booth was awesome.

We also tried bacon ice cream for the first time and that it has to be the best desert I've ever tried. The event was not just food and drink though there where several big name chefs there such as Rick Bayless, Cat Cora and Ted Allen they were doing cooking demonstration and book signings thru out the day.

Whole Hog Smoker Plans

2010-08-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well thought I should check in. Haven't had a lot of time to blog since I started this.

I do have a plan for my next blog post.

I recently acquired a old homemade whole hog smoker. It needs a lot of work. So you are going through the journey of cleaning, sanding, refinishing and firing it up for the first time.

I will put in all the work and sweat.

All you have to do is put in the time to read what I write and give support. I will soon be taking pictures of the starting point and then we're off.

'Til then--thanks for being here.

The journey begins.

2010-08-03T15:24:00.000-07:00

I guess in the grand scheme of thing I am a nobody, but just like you, there are things in this world I think could be done better. That is not to say that I am right about those things, but I have my thoughts just like everyone else in the world.

My thoughts will probably make you laugh at times and they will probably make you down right mad at times. I will use phrases and say things you will not understand. That is because of my southern upbringing. I am here writing because people in my life thought it would be fun if the rest of the world heard some of the things I had to say. (Maybe I should have asked if that was because they didn't want to hear it anymore or because they really thought other people wanted to here it. )

No matter.

Here I am and you are stuck with me now. I am not guaranteeing that I will post on any regular schedule. I will do my best to not make it boring.

My next post will be subject specific, I just don't know what the subject is yet.

So till then.