So that's what his voice sounds like...

Donald Miller has posted the audio from a handfull of lectures on his website. They're available for $2.00 a piece. I'm listening to the one titled Journey Back To Faith as I type this. I totally recommend it.

Category: Post

You don't wanna be wicked do you?

Proverbs 13:25 says, "The righteous eat to their heart's content, but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry."

I have to admit that I love the Food Network. I watch it more than I watch any other channel, I think. Clearly this is proof of my righteousness. I try to cook a lot of the stuff I see on there. Especially if it's something by Rachel Ray (or Man Hands as I like to call her...). She always makes quick, easy, and fairly interesting meals. The best recipe of hers I've ever made is something she calls Nan-chos. Basically, their Indian style nachos made with Nan bread. They're totally awesome. Here's the recipe. My name is Patrick Drury and I endorse this product and/or message:

1/2 cup-extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball the amount
2 cloves garlic, cracked
4 slices Tandoori Naan Bread or Mediterranean flat bread or large pita bread
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, 1/3 handful
A handful chopped parsley leaves
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1 can chick peas, drained
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Salt

Salsa:
1/3 seedless cucumber, skinned and chopped
1 vine ripe red tomato, seeded and chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, from 5 or 6 sprigs, chopped
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon coarse salt

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat oil and garlic in a small pot over medium low heat to infuse garlic flavor into oil. Pull the oil off the heat when garlic speaks by sizzling in oil.

Brush the breads with half of the garlic oil and reserve the remainder. Cut breads into tortilla-chip-size wedges. Sprinkle bread "chips" with Parmesan, poppy seeds and red pepper flakes. Bake breads to toast, about 5 minutes. Remove bread from oven and sprinkle bread chips with and parsley and salt. Pile chips on a platter and cover with cheddar cheese. Place platter under broiler and melt cheese.

In a food processor, combine chick peas, lemon, cumin, cayenne and remaining garlic and oil. Season spread with salt, to your taste.

In a bowl, combine cucumber, tomato, pepper, shallot, parsley, mint, lime juice, salt.

To assemble, top naan-chos with chick pea spread and a layer of cucumber salsa. Serve.

You can also find the recipe here, at the Food Network website. Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Category: Post

Paying the price

So I was listening to Fred teach at Reverb today, I do that sometimes, and he was talking about paying the price for wisdom. He specifically discussed being willing to pay for the wisdom we receive.

It made me think of the price we unwillingly pay for wisdom sometimes.

Three years ago I went through a divorce. I was married for about eight years prior to that. The last few years of my marriage were markedly different from the first few. There were secrets. There was distance. A problem would arise and instead of addressing it or trying to fix it, I would let it go. I'd tell myself things would take care of themselves eventually.

That's not how it works, though. I realize now that relationships have to be tended to. Problems, no matter scary, have to be addressed. The price I paid for that lesson was my first marriage.

I know paying unintentional prices for wisdom wasn't really what Fred was talking about today, but he threw some seeds out and they took root in the hindquarters of my headbones and this is what sprouted.

Now it's your turn. Use the comment section to tell us about the hard-earned wisdom in your life. Tell us about the lessons you maybe didn't want to learn, but learned anyway.

Category: Post

Reverb Radio is Live!

Ever wish you could listen to something really cool on your iPod? Of course you do. A person can only take so much Michael Bolton, right? Well my friend, it's your lucky day because now you can download and listen to Reverb Radio!

Reverb Radio is a podcast (internet radio show) all about faith and culture. You can download the first episode as an mp3 by clicking here or if you have iTunes you can subscribe to Reverb Radio by clicking here. Expect more episodes on a weekly to bi-weekly basis (it depends on what's on tv on a given week, really...).

Give it a listen and let us know what you think here in the comment section or by emailing us at reverbradio@gmail.com.


Category: podcast

Public service announcement

The Book of Proverbs doesn't touch much on bear attacks. Thank Goodness we have Dwight Schrute from NBC's The Office to fill in the gaps:


Click the arrow to play.

Category: Video

Watch me get all historical for a second

The other day Fred asked a few of us on the Reverb planning team to share with him the best advice we'd ever received. I had a hard time remembering much of the advice I've been given throughout my life. I think that's probably a bad sign. I ended up doing the same thing I always do whenever I'm at a loss for material. I searched the internet.

I ended up finding some info on The Instructions of Amenemopet.

The Instructions of Amenemopet was an Egyptian papyrus thought to have been written around 1200 BC. It contained 30 chapters of Egyptian proverbs - some very similar to the ones written by Solomon in the Book of Proverbs (click the link above to check them out). Some scholars have suggested that Solomon might have referenced The Instructions of Amenemope when writing Proverbs.

I think that makes an infinite amount of sense. If Solomon was the wisest man in the world, then no doubt he saw the wisdom in learning from others.

Speaking of which, I wanted to open Fred's invitation to the planning team to anyone reading this blog. Share your wisdom with us. What's the best advice you've ever received? Click on the comments button below and let us know. Don't forget to include your name if you want to.

Category: Post

In case you were wondering

I know several people (including me)were curious what the song that was played during the responsive worship time on Sunday (7/16) was. Fred has informed me that it was Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch. It can be purchased on iTunes for $.99. Murdoch's website is www.aleximurdoch.com. Apparently his music was featured on The O.C. at some point, but don't hold that against him.

You might want to consider buying his album. From the looks of his album cover he needs the money to buy some furniture.



Category: Post

Crazy

Sick of the Gnarles Barkley song Crazy yet? Try it folk-style from the capable hands of Ray LaMontagne.

Category: Post

Donald Miller Speaks!

If you're like me, you spend all your free time reading books, and by reading books I mean watching The Food Network. If you're not like me, however, and actually do seek to improve yourself through literature then you might be interested to know that Donald Miller, author of Searching For God Knows What, Blue Like Jazz, and To Own a Dragon will be speaking at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville on October 19th. You can find out more at http://www.vineworship.org. If you're a fan of emergent Christianity's golden boy (like I am), or if you've just never been in a church with more than one timezone, you'll wanna make the trip.

Category: Post

How to use this blog

-The gray boxes on the left (like the one this text appears in) are post. There should be one or more new post every week day, so check back often.

-Any light gray text in the post is a link. You can left click on that link to take you to other websites:
(By the way, clicking on pictures, like the one above, will often make them bigger.)


-At the bottom of every post is a link that says "Comments."

If you click on this link, a small window will open where you can read any comments that have been made by your fellow readers about said post. The number to the left of the link tells you how many comments there are. After you've read others' comments, you can make your own. At the bottom of the little window you'll see a white space:

You can type your comment in that space. After you've typed it, let us know who you are by typing your name (or an alias if you're feeling sneaky - but really, it's more fun if you tell us who you are) in the box that says "Name":

The "Your web page" field can be left blank, unless you have website or blog of your own that you'd like us to know about.

Finally, just hit the "Publish your comment" button and you're comments will appear for everyone to read:


-Over on the right hand side of the screen you'll see a variety of links you can click on.

The links under "Contact" will allow you to email Fred, Greg, Jason, Bret, or Patrick.

The links under uh... "Links" will take you to various places we think you might find useful like the main Crossroads website.

The links under Previous Post will take you to post from the recent past. They're listed by name.

The links under "Categories" represent the three kinds of material you'll find on this blog. Regular post, Podcast (internet radio programs), and videos. For the first few days there will only be regular post. But podcast and video material will appear shortly - along with instructions on how to enjoy them. Clicking on these links will take you to links for all the material under said category.

The links under Archives will take you to post from past months. The main blog page will only show you post from the last two weeks, so if you want to revisit some of our stupidity, you'll do it through these links.

At the bottom of the page there are three little symbols. The first one is the Blogger logo. Blogger host this page for free, so they like to stick their logo somewhere on the page. Fair's fair, right? The second one is a site meter. The number in it, represent how many times people have viewed the blog. The third symbol is a button that allows you to subscribe to the blog if you use an rss feedburner on your computer.

-At the top of the page is a Blogger toolbar. If you want to find something on the blog but can't remember when it was posted, you can type words you remember into the search field and hit the "Search this blog" button. It'll bring up links to any post containing the words you typed in. Nifty huh?

If you have any other questions about using the blog, feel free to Contact Patrick or Bret. Thanks!