Several Comments on American Subjects for Our Recent World Cup Visitors

This Christian blog is ακωλυτως, unhindered, and can speak on any subject, even seemingly totally secular things. As Christians, we are often told by our Christian leaders that we should be in the world but not of the world. Being in the world means that we can have and express opinions on secular subjects.

To a Christian, everything belongs to the Lord. He cannot be restricted. He is lord over everything or he is lord over nothing. There is a saying that your God is too small. God is not small.

Here are a few American things which may need a brief explanation: ranch dressing, barbecue, yellow school buses, mailbox flags, Chick-fil-A, food combinations, air conditioning, gun ownership, biscuits and gravy, lack of mass transport, giant megastores.

Ranch Dressing: Our World Cup visitors fell in love with ranch dressing. It is a favorite of many Americans. The main caveat with this dressing is that it is dairy-based, created using buttermilk or sour cream, so those with lactose-intolerance need to take notice. It also contains eggs, so those with egg allergies need to be aware.

Ranch dressing is not readily available in countries other than the United States for several reasons, one being that it is not a traditional food item in those countries. Another reason is some of the dressing’s ingredients.

Titanium dioxide is a whitening agent banned by the European Union. Other EU-banned or restricted ingredients in ranch dressing include some synthetic stabilizers and antioxidant preservatives used to prolong shelf-life.

The European Union also bans recombinant bovine somatotropin growth hormones, which are often present in U.S. dairy products.

Barbecue: We are very proud of our barbecue (BBQ), with each region insisting that their particular BBQ tradition is the best. There is a great variation in the woods which are used used for smoking the meat and in the sauces. Some traditions do not use sauces at all.

The sauces may be based on tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or molasses, mustard, mayonnaise, apple cider, soy sauce, mirin, ginger, hot peppers, peaches or other fruits, vegetable broths, honey, tahini, coffee, horseradish, gochujang, hot spices, syrups, alcoholic beverages, onions, or meat (beef, ham, chicken, or fish) drippings. Some even make vegan sauces. Everyone is convinced that their BBQ sauce is the best and sauce recipes are often very closely guarded.

Yellow School Buses: The school buses seemed to be fascinating to many of our visitors. To us, they are nothing special. Most of us have ridden in them. Here is some information about them:

1. The U.S. is quite large and many students live many miles away from their schools, especially for schools which serve an entire county. For many, it is impractical or even dangerous to walk or bicycle to their school.

2. The yellow color is intended to be distinctive.

3. Traffic is required by law to stop in both directions when a school bus stops to pick up or deliver students. No one wants to hit a child with their car.

4. Many parents must arrive at work during the hours of 6-8 AM and most schools start at 8 AM. It is difficult for the parents to be two places at one time.

5. When a school bus delivers 30 students to school, that means that there are not 30 automobiles causing congestion in the parking lot.

6. Riding in a yellow school bus is not glamorous. Most do not have seatbelts or very good spring suspensions. The buses are often crowded and smell like whatever the individual students smell like.

Mailbox Flags: This is the explanation of the little flags on individual home mailboxes: we do not have to go to our postal office to conduct our mailings. If we have our little flag flipped up, this is a signal to the postal carrier that we have outgoing mail. They push the flag into the down position, take our outgoing mail, and leave our incoming mail in the box.

It is a federal crime for anyone other than a postal worker to interfere in any way with postal delivery. It is also a federal crime for anyone else to open our mailboxes and file through our mail to see who has mailed us items.

Chick-fil-A: This is a brand or trade name for a chicken filet sandwich. The traditional Chick-fil-A sandwich is the bun, a piece of chicken coated with an egg wash and a dry flour dredge which contains a blend of spices, and one slice of pickle. The chicken is fried under pressure in peanut oil, that’s it. Every other company which sells chicken sandwiches has their own specific combination of ingredients and oils. Some may bake their chicken.

Food Combinations: Some visitors wondered if it was permissible to mix certain foods or to eat them in certain ways or at certain times. This struck many Americans as strange. This is a free country. It is nobody else’s business if you want to put ketchup on your collard greens. You can eat whatever you like, whenever you want to. Many Americans love a good breakfast for their evening meal.

Knowing that no-one will like everything, eat whatever you like. If you enjoy some strange combination of foods, stick it in your mouth and eat it.

Air Conditioning: We like our AC. Most modern homes in the United States are now built with central air conditioning systems controlled by heat pumps which switch between heating and cooling as the weather dictates.

One major reason for AC is that infants, children, people with chronic conditions, pregnant women, and the elderly are put into high risk in conditions of extreme heat.

Gun Ownership: The right to own guns is enshrined in our constitution, except, of course, for high grade military weapons. Not everyone owns a gun, but most people who do own guns use them for hunting (and yes, most of them eat what they kill), for sport shooting like shooting ranges and skeet shooting, or for personal and home protection. And, admittedly, there are some people who abuse the right of gun ownership.

Biscuits and Gravy: This is a traditional Southern breakfast. Few people would eat it every single day. It consists of soft dough biscuits covered in a white sausage gravy which often contains bits of pork sausage, bacon, or even ground beef. Many versions are heavily seasoned with black pepper.

There are hundreds of types of other gravies made from ingredients as varied as coffee, cheeses, chocolate, apple cider, cornmeal, eggs, onions, seafood, flour, heavy cream, or tomatoes.

Lack of Mass Transport: America is primarily an individual automobile culture. Most of us would rather not deal with public transportation. Schedules! No. Delays! No. Extra cost! No. We just get in our car and go where we want to go when we want to do it.

Giant Megastores: Costco, Target, Walmart, Sam's, and other megastores can be described as large department stores which also include pharmacy and grocery departments. Some even have coffee shops, auto parts and repairs, gasoline pumps, cookie and cupcake shops, or delicatessens.

Romans 12:2

Hot Car Deaths

 Every year, in the hot summertime, children die because their parents forget that they are still in the automobile. The closed interiors of the vehicles quickly become like an oven in the hot sun.

Apparently, the adults somehow become hurried or distracted and momentarily and tragically forget about the children. Everyone understands that there was no intention to harm the child. But harm was still done.

There are other kinds of harm besides death. Death or physical injury are immediately obvious. Not so with emotional and spiritual cuts and wounds.

Not all emotional cuts and spiritual wounds are maliciously or even intentionally inflicted. The feeling of neglect or of being seen as a bother to their parents can cause painful lifelong wounds to a child. Anything, even church activities, which continually distract us from our children’s emotional and spiritual needs, can be harmful.  

Exodus 22:23; Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Proverbs 13:22, 22:6; Nehemiah 4:14; Psalms 82:4,127:3; Matthew 18:6,10; Luke 17:2, 22:36; Romans 12:18-19; Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21; 1 Timothy 5:8; 2 Corinthians 12:14. 

Will You be Ready?

Recently, I was watching an American football game, but it could have been a game in any sport and in any country.

Abruptly, the coach called for one of his primary players to come out of the game and to be replaced by one of the seldom used players.

The primary player had been performing well and the situation in the game was very important because the coach’s team was about to score. Replacing the primary player made no obvious tactical sense in terms of game strategy.

The game was being broadcasted nationally and the move by the coach was so obvious that the television commentators remarked about it but had no explanation for it.

The secondary player responded well and the team scored. On the next series of plays, the coach returned the primary player to the game. After the game the coach offered no explanation for the substitution.

The player switch could have been tactical in response to something which the coach noticed about the other team. I believe that it was something else. I think it was a teaching moment.

The coach could have been telling his substitutes to not fall asleep and to be ready to act at all times. They might only be placed into the current game once or even only once in an entire season, but, when they are called upon they are expected to be ready at that moment.

The replacement player could have been daydreaming or talking to someone and not paying attention to the game.

Instead, he went into the game and executed the duties of his assigned position. If he had not been ready, the coach would have called on someone else the next time an opportunity arose.

As Mordechai said to Esther when it was her time to be called upon: “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14. Italics added. Read the entire chapter with emphasis on verse 14. Mordechai’s implication is that God put Esther in the place where she needed to be in order to carry out his will. (Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.)

Esther 4:1-15; 1 Samuel 3:9; Isaiah 6:8; Matthew 24:42-44; Ephesians 2:10.

Subjects in the Labels List Which Begin with the Letters chrj to ck

 This blog is ακωλυτως, unhindered. (Acts 28:31) Any subject is fair game. Below is a listing of the LABELS which begin with the letters chrj to ck. All can be searched from the list which follows the last posted article on this page or by typing them into the SEARCH button at the top of the page. Most will call up multiple postings in which they appear.

chromosome, chronology, church, church activities, church attendance, church bulletin, church burnout, church council, church councils, Church of Christ, Church of God of Prophecy, Church of Iran, Church of Satan, Church of Scotland, church organ, church people, church politics, church sign board, church work, circulatory system, circumcision, circumstances, circus, citizen, citizenship, city state, civic duty, civic involvement, civil disobedience, civil records, civil rights, civility.

There is Power in the Blood

Lewis E. Jones (1865-1934) was a YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) worker who wrote  the hymn, There is Power in the Blood (1899). He is recorded as having said, "I want to be so full of Christ that when a mosquito bites me he flies away singing there is power in the blood."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeTE0W7K4sU

Biblical Sources of Common English Language Phrases: The Eyes Are the Windows of the Soul

 

The exact earliest origin of the phrase "the eyes are the window of the soul" is debated but the concept is ancient.

 

The Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC/BCE), said “The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter.”

 

The phrase does not appear in the Bible but the concept is echoed by Jesus in Matthew 6:22–23 where he says "The eye is the lamp of the body … if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light…”

 

The first known use of the phrase in its modern form was by the 16th-century French poet Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544-1590), who spoke of the eyes as "windows of the soul".

 

As I was growing up, I was taught that it was rude to not look people in the eyes as you talked to them. The idea was that to not do so made you appear to be evasive or uninterested. But … there are numerous cultures which believe the exact opposite, that avoiding direct eye contact is a sign of respect and deference to the other person. They see direct eye contact as aggressive and as an invasion of their personal space.

 

So, I am either very open and direct or I am very rude, because I will look into you and allow you to look into me. It is just part of who I am.

 

I am in my over 60 years period of life so, through the decades, I have occasionally met numerous internationally known persons, usually for only a few minutes or even seconds. I am just a regular person. Let’s just say that I don’t normally run in their circles and that meeting most of them was incidental.

 

I will discuss what I saw in the eyes of some of them but I will respect their privacy and will not personally identify them.

 

One of them was a retired National Football League quarterback who was posthumously inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame. His eyes told me that he was friendly and easy-going, fun to talk with, and that he was surprised that I did not ask for his autograph.

 

Another was a politician who was involved with the peace negotiations during the Vietnam War. His eyes told me that he did not see me at all.

 

The eyes of the legendary daytime soap opera actor whom I met told me that he would have rather been anywhere else than where he was.

 

Highly respected as a radio announcer in numerous sports, one man showed me friendly eyes and even invited me to sit and talk with him about sports during his lunch hour.

 

An Israeli business executive showed me eyes that told me that she respected my politeness and competence. Whenever she visited, she sought me out before meeting with my superiors.

 

My co-worker of African ancestry showed me eyes of deep friendship, great professional competence, and ambition. He ended up in a national governmental health position.

 

The historic singer looked deep into my eyes with what appeared to be panic and repugnance as if I were an unexpected intruder into her home. I must have pushed her personal space and privacy buttons.

 

I was sitting on the second row in the coliseum when an internationally known Christian singer came down from the stage and began to personally interact with people in the crowd. When he stopped to talk to two pre-teen girls, he was about four feet away from me. He noticed me and we locked eyes.

 

What I saw was kindness, generosity, gentleness, sincerity, and a love for the people who had come to his concert. What I saw was a Christian man. His wife has said that he is the purest soul she has ever met. We all should hope that our eyes show the same thing.

Three Religious Truths

I do not know the origin of this joke but I would strongly believe that it came from a Baptist.

There are three religious truths.

1. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

2. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith. 

3. Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store.