Duties Of A Christian Husband And Father
November 1st, 2010 § Leave a Comment
In addition to being Halloween, Sunday, October 31 was also Reformation Day, which commemorates the day that Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg.
I was reading a piece on Luther over at The Resurgence and came across this quote from William Lazareth that I just love.
Luther’s faith was simple enough to trust that after a conscientious day’s labor, a Christian father could come home and eat his sausage, drink his beer, play his flute, sing with his children, and make love to his wife—all to the glory of God!
Amen to that Brother!
A Good Beer Story
September 23rd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Sierra Nevada is probably my favorite brewery. This is a pretty neat video about the early days of the craft brewing industry.
Only In Texas
December 7th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
If you’re from Texas and you like good beer, you’ll appreciate this.
Shiner has a near religious devotion here in Texas and for good reason. Their beer is really good. My favorite is their Hefeweizen but I can’t say that they have one that I don’t like.
The Spoetzl brewer was founded in 1909 and this year they celebrated their 100th anniversary.
Review: The Search for God and Guinness
October 12th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
The title of this book piqued my interest. Having spent a number of years as a member of a famously teetotaling church denomination I had been used to thinking of alcoholic beverages as something bordering on immoral. While I had left that denomination and even came to a more enlightened conclusion about alcohol that allowed me to develop a passion for craft beer, I guess I still had some emotional baggage regarding beer.
Stephen Mansfield writes an engaging history of the Guinness brewing dynasty. A history that includes a strong faith in God and led the Guinness company to pioneer social change in Dublin and throughout the world. While we think that companies that provide for their employees well-being as a modern invention of a dot-com company like Google, Guinness was providing for their employees in a manner to rival these dot-com’s at the beginning of the 20th century. Just as amazing as the Guinness family’s investment in their employees was the story of Rupert Guinness who took his new bride and their £5 million pound wedding gift and moved into the slums to work towards improving the lives of the poor.
In a departure from the form of a traditional historical narrative, Mansfield concludes his work with a five point epilogue describing the values that made Guinness successful that Mansfield calls “The Guinness Way”. It’s an interesting conclusion for a worthy book.
My only criticism of the book is not so much the fault of the writer but of the enormous story he tries to tell in a brief 270 pages. The Guinness story is so big, with such an interesting cast of characters that any attempt to distill it down to such a brief form invariably leaves it feeling a bit disjointed. In spite of this I’d recommend this book to anyone with a love of God and a taste of good beer.
As a matter of disclosure, I participate in Thomas Nelson’s Book Review blogger program. I get copies of the books I review gratis in exchange for reading and writing reviews of the books. For more information about this visit: http://brb.thomasnelson.com/
Shalom,
Scott D
Hoist A Pint With Jesus
May 6th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Leadership Journal.net has an interesting article on the debate in Christian circles over the drinking of alcohol. I came from a denomination that was famous for it’s prohibition on drinking alcohol.
A friend related a story about a seminary classmate of his who applied to the missions board of that denomination. When the staffer looked over the application and saw the answer he gave on the last time he drank an alcoholic beverage, she told him that they would not take him as a missionary. He then pointed out that their policy would even prohibit Jesus from being a missionary. Kind of ironic in an organization who’s stated goal is to teach others about that very same Jesus.
The Bible is clear on it’s prohibition of drunkenness. It’s also clear that we are to be sensitive to those who might be weak in that area. I’m not sure that an extra-biblical prohibition on drinking in moderation is going to do anything to help us relate to a lost and dying world that might occasionally drink. It’s also pretty funny that the denomination with the strict prohibition was surveyed and nearly half admitted to drinking alcohol. This blatant hypocrisy is very off putting to the lost who desperately need Jesus.
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart. – Psalm 104:14-15 ESV
The Psalmist says it’s God who gives us wine to gladden our hearts. I think I’ll crack open a cold one and thank Him for it.
