Mandy's Mercurial Monologue

Kutia in the pan Toasting almonds Tonight is Christmas Eve in the west, but I decided I wanted to try something eastern as a dessert following the candle light service this evening. So I went through my recipes searching for kutia, a Ukrainian dish traditionally served on Christmas Eve. To my dismay I found that I didn't actually have that recipe among all that I have collected. I knew that it was made from wheatberries, dried fruits, honey and poppyseed; a mixture cooked in milk. Since I'd previously recognized its connection to another recipe, I turned to Feast From the Middle East by Faye Levy and looked up her recipe for Noah's Pudding .  She writes, "It is common in the vast region that was once the Ottoman Empire, especially in Turkey where Noah's Ark is said to have rested on Mount Ararat, near the borders of Armenia and Iran. (pg 358)" She also mentions that Bulgarians and Armenians serve it for Christmas, but then goes on to discuss h...

“But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him." --Habakkuk 2:20

Yes, time for another Jeremiad as I see troubles all around me. It seems the meat grinder has been kicked up another gear. A person from my former church sent an e-mail to the congregation today, addressing events from ten day ago, which have since been swept out of the news-cycle by the horrors of Hurricane Harvey. There are those who cannot allow the momentum given to them by Charlottesville to be lost. If must be redredged, reframed, set up as an icon and all must bow to their interpretation or be labeled 'heretic.' Nevermind the thousands of dead in the floodwaters to be lamented; instead let's focus on events from 150 years ago and engage in so called "racial reconciliation" by which they mean a never ending chant of mea culpa from anyone born with white skin. Christians must denounce evil, yes, but they cannot ignore multiple other evils while they focus only on those villains already, justly, pilloried by all. The exploitation of one tragedy and the h...

Today I read Numbers chapter 19 and was thoroughly puzzled by the Ordinance of the Red Heifer. I was trying to see the prefiguring of Christ in it and really couldn't make it out. Later in the evening we watched an episode of Call the Midwife in which one character quoted Julian of Norwich, "If you ask what God meant by this, He meant love." I thought about how that fit, and  while it was superficially satisfying, it wasn't quite enough answer for my mind. As I perused some of the quotes from the Revelation of Divine Love, this one seemed to be the answer I had hoped for: “...we need to fall, and we need to be aware of it; for if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know our Maker's marvelous love so fully...”  ―  Julian of Norwich ,  Revelations of Divine Love Needing this ordinance and the other rituals of purification, atonement, and redemption showed the Israelites how utterly dependent we are o...

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." --James 4:4  I've written before about those who proclaim that there is a "prophetic voice of the world," or as another preacher said, "God's witness to us in the culture." Such people want the Church of God to be open to supporting rebellion to the Bible, making it a lesser voice than their own subjective experiences. They silence teaching on repentance and holiness and seek to get rid of anything which makes a worldly person feel uncomfortable in our midst. Open doors and hearts, yes, but when they come in, what all should find is a congregation lifting God up and faithfully speaking His truth; calling the lost to the home they need, rather than seeking to comfort men in their fallen state. " But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is c...