FAVORITE MEAL EVER!

All right, guys.  Here it is.  The recipe you've all been waiting for, drooling for, dying for....
(not at all dramatic - you'll understand when you taste the heavenly goodness that is this curried chicken!)

Anna's Curried Chicken with Rice
(I always approximate measurements... but I'll do my best to standardize it for ya.  Feel free to mess with amounts to your taste)
Serves Four
Ingredients:
2 Cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup (the smaller ones, not family size)
3 Tb Curry Powder
2 Tb Cinnamon
Honey
Handful of Raisins (super specific, haha)
2 Small-Medium Sized Yellow Pears (the best are the almost mushy ones)
Rice for 4 Servings (depends, I guess... and I use Minute Rice, because it's so dang hard to cook rice up here at 7500 ft.)
4-6 Chicken Breasts (defrosted, obviously)
---
1) Heat cream of mushroom soup over medium heat, stirring in 1 cup of water (do not follow instructions on the can!)
2) Stir in curry powder and cinnamon as directed (or to taste).  Mix thoroughly so there are no chunks of mushroom, etc.
3) Stir in honey.  This is an optional step... I love love love the honey added, and usually put in quite a bit.  Use your discretion.
4) Let sit on low heat for 10 minutes, stir in raisins after the 10 minutes are nearly up.
--Preheat oven to 375.
5) Dip defrosted chicken in flour and place in medium-sized (glass) baking pan.
6) Cover chicken with the mushroom soup/curry/honey/cinnamon mixture.
7) Slice pears (I like them to still have the shape of the pear when I slice it... but I'm not sure what the technical term is for that... so... do what you want, just get those pears on those chickens!) and place on top of the chicken and soup-mixture.
8) Place in bottom rack of oven, let bake for ~30 minutes.

Then... just make rice as you see fit.  You don't even need to eat it with rice, but it's so so good to let the rice soak up the soup-curry sauce.  Highly recommended.

Serve each chicken breast with at least one slice of pear, and plenty of sauce.

Enjoy!  Let me know what you think, or if you have any additions/suggestions to this already near-perfect recipe!  :)

Here are a couple pictures for inspiration!

Before Baking

After Baking

(this picture is from a different batch... sans raisins)

my last duchess

My Last Duchess
Browning


FERRARA
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, 
Looking as if she were alive. I call 
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands 
Worked busily a day, and there she stands. 
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said 
“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read 
Strangers like you that pictured countenance, 
The depth and passion of its earnest glance, 
But to myself they turned (since none puts by 
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, 
How such a glance came there; so, not the first 
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not 
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot 
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps 
Fra Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps 
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint 
Must never hope to reproduce the faint 
Half-flush that dies along her throat”: such stuff 
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough 
For calling up that spot of joy. She had 
A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad, 
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er 
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. 
Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast, 
The dropping of the daylight in the West, 
The bough of cherries some officious fool 
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 
She rode with round the terrace—all and each 
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 
Or blush, at least. She thanked men,—good! but thanked 
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked 
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name 
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame 
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill 
In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will 
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this 
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, 
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let 
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set 
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, 
—E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose 
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, 
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without 
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; 
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands 
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet 
The company below, then. I repeat, 
The Count your master’s known munificence 
Is ample warrant that no just pretence 
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; 
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed 
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go 
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, 
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, 
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

life's not fair, is it?

We've all been there.  Sometimes, there are situations in which I feel hurt - angry, even - when something doesn't go the way that I planned.  Or, alternately, when someone doesn't come through the way they said they would.  Yes, that's life.  But yes, I'm not okay with that.  Some would call it a sense of justice.  Fairness.  It's only fair, right?  When things are unfair, it's okay to feel the way that I feel.

After all, it's only human to get up in arms when someone wrongs you.

This weekend, I helped to lead a youth retreat with our church called The Last XXIV.  Along with fun youth-groupy activities like board games, bowling and singing and playing really loud music, we led the youth through the "last twenty four" hours of Christ's life on earth, including a real Passover seder, clips from The Passion of the Christ, and passages from the Gospels.  I learned new things, which were powerful and numerous.

Among those powerful and numerous things I learned was the fact that I have absolutely no right to feel entitled.  To anything.  The phrases "sense of entitlement" and "Christian" should have nothing to do with one another.  They are diametrically opposed.  "It's only human to get up in arms when someone wrongs you."  Precisely.  It's human.  It's part of the part of us that isn't like Christ.

In our sessions, we discussed how Jesus was completely alone in His last hours.  His disciples abandoned Him:  one sold Him for a negligible amount of change, one denied he had ever met Him, and another merely observed the goings-on and said nothing - not to mention the other nine, who are not even mentioned!  He was falsely accused, tried illegally according to Jewish law, spat on, mocked, scourged to within an inch of His life, and beaten "beyond human likeness".  And, finally, crucified.   All without saying a word to defend Himself.  If anyone ought to have had a sense of entitlement, it should have been Him.  The one and only innocent Man to have ever lived.


Injustice in its truest sense.

And yet, He endured it all.  To bring us to... an unfair standing before God.  Think about it.  He died so that we wouldn't get what we deserved: a guilty sentence and all that entails.  Now, thanks to His sacrifice, we are able to stand before the Throne of Heaven completely unashamed, completely accepted.  In His last moments, instead of cursing the ones who had put Him on the cross, the ones who had completely shamed Him (you and me) He asked His Father to forgive us.

With this perspective, I think that I can stand a little unfairness in my own life.  I think that I can look at a situation that didn't go my way and say, "All right, that's tough... but I'm not going to dwell on this, let it mess me up, when Jesus went to hell and back for me."  Even more so, when people hurt me or let me down, it gives me the opportunity to be Christ in that circumstance.

I can demonstrate grace.
I can forgive and forget.
I can sacrifice my sense of justice or fairness or whatever you want to call it so that others will see in my life that Christ is King.
And I will choose to live like He did.

Without a sense of entitlement.
Without retaliation.
Even, without response.

I certainly hope that my students learned as much as I did.  If nothing else, I pray they learned how much Jesus sacrificed to save them.  Not just His life:  He gave up His relationships, His dignity, His sense of entitlement as the one true God, and His sense of justice.  For us.

"Life's not fair, is it?"
To that, I say, Thank God.

Q 10:11

Last night's class dealt with Jesus' early Galilean Ministry:
-Jesus and John the Baptist
-the importance of Jesus' baptism
-the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness
-repentance
-the restoration of Israel in Jesus' teaching and ministry
----the Kingdom of God
----the call of the Twelve
----healings and exorcism
----pronouncement/conflict stories
----redefining the family
----Sermon on the Mount

"Any questions from the first eleven chapters?  No comments?  No controversies?  Completely memorized?"

"Feel free to use social memory.  Also known as: work with a partner."

"Preached and teached... inquiring foreigners would like to know.  Praught and taught?"

[A project of John Meyer (sp?)]
"It is the single largest project on the pre-ministry life of Christ.  Single with a double-sense.  [John Meyer] is a priest!"

"Gotta keep our Johns straight here."

"'But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."'  Well, I'm glad that was clear."

[On the Temptation in the wilderness]
"Jesus in the water, the Father in heaven, and the Spirit descending as a dove.  This would make for a great video clip.  He's just been baptized, rides into Jerusalem, defeats the armies of Rome... not.  Right when you expect something triumphant, not some severe, life-threatening tests in the wilderness."

"Counselors... and... anyone who else cares for people - which I hope is all of you - do not forget to go back to this passage."

"I think Jesus had the hardest task that any of us ever will have or our clients ever will have - gotta stop having so many pity parties!"

"...Blombergian paraphrase..."

"'Ralph before breakfast' says some frat at CU.  That means 'barf'."

"If you grew up Southern Baptist, you'll struggle with this: wine was a symbol of joy!"

"Then, He cleanses the temple... or... makes a mess of it, to be more precise."

[Russian believers do not use terms like, "The day I asked Jesus into my heart..."]
"They would say, 'The day I repented..." "When I repented..." Now that's got some teeth in it. "

"Well, then, we mix all the letters up.  Did you miss that?  It's the restoration of Israel... or... at least of its letters."
(His Powerpoint had some... excessive animation in its lettering.  And he made it "mix" twice.)

"I'm just wearing my historian's hat.  Not my believer's hat at this moment."

[Why twelve disciples?]
"You know, we've got Two and a Half Men, why not eight and a half disciples?"

"It's... the microphone falling apart.  It's the Jewish favorite number!  I got so excited I'm just falling apart!"

"While I'm writing Greek, I'll do it again!  For the sake of the elect in our midst."

"Jesus never said, 'In My Name, come out,' He just said, 'Come out!'"

"What's that all about?  We'd better solve this before break."

"Have you learned the 'C' word yet? ...Context!  WRite in on your foreheads, inscribe it on the tablets of your hearts!"

[The Unforgivable Sin]
"If you're that worried about it, that's almost a guarantee you haven't committed it."

"Let's take 15... then we'll come back and do more fun things!"

[He gave a statistic reporting the percentage of students who do not go into ministry because their parents do not approve of such a low income]
"How can I say this lovingly...?  BLOW OFF THOSE PARENTS!  [Whispers in lapel mic] I'm sorry about that."

[The term 'disciple' was not used outside of the Gospels, or of people other than Jesus' disciples - a student asked what we should make of Jesus' commission to 'make disciples']
"It's not like, make-people-that-you'd-call-that and then not call them that!"

[Sermon on the Mount]
"That's not a bad start to a religion."

"Then comes the zenith."

"This is Jesus' Kingdom Manifesto.  Marx isn't the only one who gets to use that term - Jesus can have a manifesto, too!"

"'I came not to abolish the law, but to preserve it unchanged.'  Hmmm... still not there."

"Wait!  Where's chapter two??  Flip flip flip flip."

[In an attempt to use the picture-capture feature of the projector, and speaking into the microphone, which, presumably, was transmitting to someone who would aid him in his technological dilemmas]
First, uses a stapler to hold the page down
Second, captures the picture as the pages flipped
Third, captures a picture of his tie covering the page of the book
"Nevermind!  ...Yes, and, Aaron, I know that you're listening and there's a button I can push. Immediately, the phone rings!  And the class dies.  Some discussion on the phone, some more attempts at a picture.  He gives up and THROWS the book.


"The best laid plans of mice... and people!"

[Dispensationalism]
"Bring your lambs and bulls to church, let the blood run out under the pulpit... would definitely attract a crowd!"

"Suppose you were a normal Christian and didn't have this wonderfully titillating little resource!"

"Christian friends, Christian parties, Christian balloon launching... it's heaven on earth!"

"I would much prefer that you would all enter class next week with hatred in your hearts for the instructor administering the exam than if you all entered with weapons and fired at me.  Not all sin is equal!"

[On the 'turn-the-other-cheek' passage, right-handed back-hand insult in culture]
"Even with my double-jointedness, it's just not quite possible."

"If you will indulge me... for I know you can't possibly have a class next!"

"Don't parade your piety!"

[Health and wealth teachings of Christianity...]
"A reference to the prophet Joel... and not the Old Testament one."

i had a phase

I had a phase when I:

-only wore green earrings.

-only wore mismatched socks.

-didn't brush my hair (that phase is still in action.)

-didn't wear makeup (only recently started again... for student teaching, I didn't want my students to think I was tired all the time!)

-only read fiction.

-felt a calling to live in a ditch with my pig and my horse to help people who had broken down on the side of the road (that... was when I was seven.)

-wanted to be called Toby.

-dressed like a boy.

-dressed like I put outfits together in the dark (that phase... may still be a part of my life)

-would play Moonlight Sonata for hours and cry.

-listened to Dashboard and nothing else.

-drank all tea and no coffee (wowie, can it be believed?)

-wanted to believe in Santa.

-drew creepy and quasi-Gothic pictures with the greatest black pen in the world.

-would stay up reading Little House on the Prairie (et al.) under my covers with a flashlight.

-wanted to be a sporty girl.  (I tried soccer and track, not successfully.)

-listened to my parents' conversations at the top of the stairs - way past my bedtime.

-worried about death and tragedy before falling asleep every night.

-was obsessed with Lord of the Rings.

-played a game with my best friend in elementary school about medieval men and women (we were the only two characters, but would sometimes be men) with a little French Revolution thrown in for good measure.

-was really shy.

-would straighten my hair every day.

-aspired to be a singer (and comforted myself in scary situations that God wouldn't let me die because I needed to sing one day.)

-jumped on the trampoline every day with my brothers (mostly, Austin - aka Hasenpfeffer.)

-played Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego like it was my job.

-didn't like to listen to other people.

-read more than any other activity.

-was a lifeguard.

-didn't eat anything but popcorn and s'mores poptarts.

-wore Etnies shoes.

-tried to dance.

-stayed up till 3 am every night.

-saw Facebook as a valid means of socializing and meeting new people.

-my job was my life.

Q 10:4

Sowwy this is a week late...
but... better late than never to catch up on the latest class from thee Dr Blomberg!

This particular class (Oct 4) dealt with:
-Historical Jesus
-Chronology
-Infancy Narratives

"The American Christian church has the most anemic view of suffering.  We just don't get it.  For whatever reason, we just don't think God will let us go through it."

[Further comment on the idea we won't go through suffering]
"I don't know what channel that's on... don't linger on that channel."

[The Gnostic response to "Logos" and John 1:1]
"To the Gnostic, it seemed Jesus was God in... shall I anachronistically say... holographic form?  Gnostics had no problem with Christ's divinity, but with His humanity.  'In the beginning was the Word,' -oh ok.  'And the Word was with God,' -hmm, not sure which god, but that's ok.  'And the Word was God,' -ohh... that sounds like you're pointing to monotheism.  Ah well, you're Jewish, that's to be expected."

"Ok... it's October!"

[Further instructions for the upcoming exam]
"Do try to learn the proper spelling.  It's a crazy notion."

"It'll be exactly like the map I handed out, minus all the places."

[Grieving the fact that every year, someone forgets the instructions]
"Maybe if I stand in another place... you do NOT have to write all the places!"

"Without going back to the Clinton era... what do you mean by 'is'?"

"When you study it in the Greek, you'll find that 'draw' means... draw.  Much like the English."

"After the break - who knows, maybe even five minutes before - we'll do something a few of you thought we'd do the first night: turn to Matthew 1:1.  Fooled you!"

"In 1995, some of you were quite young, and others of you were not young.  You didn't pay thousands of dollars to hear me say that."

[15 years ago, someone from Time Magazine interviewed five men (including Dr Blomberg) on the historical reliability of the Gospels]
"All five of us: white American males, well... one was British.  Almost American."

"I no longer wear suit coats, if I can help it... what do I have to prove?"

"'Harmonization' is almost a swear word.  So is 'apologetics'.  Don't use it!"

"I know that you're not all of the same generation... Jim..."
(Jim's an older student in our class)

"And... yada yada.  That's spelled Y-A-D-A-Y-A-D-A."

[Why wasn't Jesus born the year AD 0?]
"Presumably you know the answer, and now you do!  We screwed up the calendar!"

[Reading through Luke 2:1]
"And Abilene was not yet a city in Texas..."

"We only know that because Egypt is so dry and there are so many places to hide scrolls, unlike Rome and Greece and their humid climates."

"Jesus didn't talk about judgement, because as all enlightened intellectual human beings know it's beneath Him!"
(sarcastically said)

"Great!  Now it's halftime!"

[Comparing the intros to Matthew and Luke]
"You can't read across in your synopsis... except you mights see: Jesus!  Joseph!  Bethlehem!  David!"

"Just humor me, I'm not dangerous."

[On a commentary he recommends as a resource]
"You should probably be cautious on the first chapter on Matthew... but the ones I didn't write are really quite good.  That's a shameless plug."

"Ay!  Something's happening!  Something!  Exciting!"

[Isaiah 9 passage and names of Messiah]
"OMG works in this case."
(I think this was a pun on 'Almighty God', somehow)

"If your birthplace was in Bethlehem, don't apply for the position of Messiah.  You're not qualified."

"Coincidence?  Not for a believing monotheistic Jew - just God sovereignly acting out His M.O."

"I exaggerate for the sake of em-pha-sis."

[In Hebrew, there are no written vowels, etc]
"David... the original DVD."

"So what do you hear at Christmas time?  This kind of stuff?  Ah... maybe we'll do better with Luke."

"Ah... this is the gospel we know and love!  Manger scene, swaddling clothes, no room at the inn..."

"In the promise of Luke 2:11 and countless Christmas cards ever since... is that God?  No, God wouldn't boo."
(Some noise was heard in the hall... presumably a 'boo'.)

"It's page 11 if you're in the synopsis... page whatever if you're in the regular Bible."

[On Jesus at age 12 being left behind in Jerusalem by his parents]
"Are you thinking like a Jew yet, or are you modern-day parents thinking it's borderline child endangerment?"

"There is an element of religious precociousness here, but is that why Luke is telling this story?  We might expect that of an aged Rabbi, not a twelve-year-old.  Are we meant to see a special Father-Son relationship?"

"Ever try to imagine His siblings?  Dang, Jesus NEVER gets in trouble!  It's always us!"

["Mamzer"]
"That's a nice Aramaic term you can put on PowerPoint slides and keep it PG."

"There's nothing warm or feel-good from the Christmas story in Matthew or Luke.  Unless you take a long-term view of it."

["There was no room at the..." inn or guest room?]
"The other two places this word appears in the Bible, it means 'guest room'."  An innkeeper would be more like the master of the house in Les Mis."

[Attempt at drawing on the board]
"I'm not an artist nor the son of an artist, so this will be horrible."