Fellowship Collection

Fellowship Collection: "Flags Israeli Flag Code: FL305LG Price: $19.95 Let your spirit soar and your love for Israel shine through when you fly this authentic Israeli flag. Made in Israel, the blue stripes on the flag are designed to resemble the blue stripes on a traditional prayer shawl. The flag measures '. 5'x3.6'. (Pole not included.) USA/Israel Flag Set Code: K2K7GC Price: $7.95 For your desk, your table, or your church-these flags are a reminder to pray for America and Israel each and every day. Flags are 6' x 4-1/4' and stand 10-1/2' high. Includes stand. "

An Experiment

Fred Thompson in Celebration, FL: Energetic Candidate, Enthusiastic Crowd

I'm not sure which candidate the pundits have been talking about, but it is certainly not the same Fred Thompson I saw in Celebration, Florida on Thursday. He was remarkably bright eyed and bushy tailed, especially considering that we were his third Florida stop on a sweltering day with a temperature of 94 degrees.

It was a rather conservative crowd, as one would expect, but probably a bit further to the right than most. To give you some idea of the prevailing sentiment, one could say it is entirely possible that "Amazing Grace" is Osceola County's unofficial anthem. Although I am unsure of his role, I noted that my church's music director occupied a prominent place along with campaign staff. Seeing him, as well as several other fellow church members surprised me somewhat since I read recently that Huckabee enjoys greater support among conservative Christians.

Fred's campaign thus far has concentrated more on principles rather than specific issues. He made a point of stressing that rights are God given rather than government given. Also prominent was the idea that a government strong enough to give you everything is strong enough to take away anything. Each of the following positions were met with resounding applause:

Pro-Life
2nd Amendment
Border Security
Reduced Federal Spending
Social Security Reform
Supporting Troops in Iraq

His position on supporting the troops should not be taken to mean that he is in favor of a never-ending occupation. It's more along the lines of a desire to do the right thing for the Iraqi people and US interests. Regarding national security he said, "There are 20 year-old in our military who know more about what's going on the politicians in Washington with twenty years of experience". The crowd went wild. We also heard some of the down-home type expressions Thompson is known for. For example, referring to the immigration reform of the 80's and the recent failed immigration reform effort he said, "they tried to sell the same horse twice". Once again he judged his audience accurately.

We had a lot of fun meeting other supporters, especially three who made the trip over from Lakeland, FL. Ruth had an especially good time.

After the question and answer period my daughter was the first to greet Fred and he graciously gave her a hug and signed her campaign sign (she has not stopped talking about it since). I could have left at that point, but I decided to maintain my prime spot directly next to Fred so I could see how he interacted with everyone. Thus I was able to witness the following:

Ruth from Lakeland: "I think you can beat Hillary".
Fred Thompson: "I think I can, too".

Wedding Photos

I got married on 10/9/04, and it was the happiest day of my life. I waited a long time to marry the man of my dreams and the wait was worth it!

In the Interest of Full Disclosure

Considering the self-congratulatory tone of my most recent articles I have decided to write about my most glaring mistakes. Whew, where do I even begin with such a cornucopia of errors at my disposal? My father once told me, “Brenda, you don’t mess up often, but when you do, it’s big.” (I had backed his car into a ditch and he had to call a tow truck to get me out.)

1. When I was 16, I was taken in by the police for underage drinking because I hid in the party host’s closet instead of running. Actually, that’s pretty funny now that I think about it.

2. I forgot to send my bridesmaids invitations to the rehearsal dinner. Fortunately, I had bought them each a Pashmina, so they forgave me.

3. I used to carry a Glock for work sometimes. One night, after a particularly exhausting day, I remembered that I left it in the car and went downstairs to get it. On the way back upstairs to my apartment, I accidentally opened somebody else’s apartment door thinking it was mine. It wasn’t in its proper case, it was in my hand. Hilarity ensued.

4. I did my own fresh floral work for my wedding. The night before the big day, I realized I had forgotten to order greenery/filler from the wholesaler. As a result, I was up until past 4 am cutting green stuff from my front hedges for the centerpieces, hoping none of my neighbors saw me since there was really no adequate way of explaining what I was doing with pruning shears out front at 2 am. My bouquet greenery wound up being fronds from one of the palm trees.

5. When my husband and I first started dating, he let me play amateur landscaper/gardener. I tore all the existing stuff out. I planted all new stuff, none of which grew. My mother-in-law resented me for a while over this one.

6. I accidentally broke my mother-in-law’s heirloom crystal pitcher by pouring boiling water into it.

7. I accidentally broke the sprinkler pump by leaving it on overnight. Fortunately, I bore a male child. Now I’m golden.

Ok, that’s enough self-flagellation for now.

Restaurant Review: Bern's Steak House, Tampa

Bern's is awesome. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the Tampa area and someone else is paying. Plan on between $100-$150 for two, without alcohol. They have one of the most famous wine cellars in the world. Take the tour (they offer one to diners). The wine list is the size of a phone book of a large city. Vermouth is served with an eyedropper. They grown their own vegetables and fish is fresh from tanks. Actually the decor is one of the things they are known for, I think it's cool, most think it's garish, especially the lobby. Think Victorian House of Ill Repute. I'd tell you how I know what a bordello looks like, but that's between me and my priest.

A must do is the dessert room. It's separate from the dining rooms. You get up from your table and go, but is available separately from dinner, in fact, a lot of people do that.
It's gotten a reputation as too touristy now, and some say it's gone a little downhill since Bern passed on. I've seen incredibly negative reviews and have no idea what they're talking about. Every time I've been there it's been consistently excellent in every way.

Snooty but true story: When I was in treatment somehow a group of us got to talking about restaurants and stuff since the food was so bad. Keep in mind this was like a last resort type place, state funded for people with no insurance, the end of the line so to speak. Being completely oblivious to my surroundings I piped in with "For the best steak you really have to go to Bern's." Blank looks all around. The director, who knew me well by this point, said "Notice how she didn't mention Quincy's." My own blank look, followed by "What's a Quincy's?" (Apparently it's a chain type place like Ponderosa or something.)

My Ellie May Life

I’ve been feeling a lot like Ellie-May Clampett lately.

I should begin by telling you a little about where I grew up. Philadelphia homes are mostly rowhouses. Or, as other folks call them, “townhouses.” Personally, I don’t like that euphemism. It sounds pretentious to me. And we Philadelphians hate pretension. Common childhood expressions were: “You ain’t the boss of me!”, “Who died and left you boss!?!, and “Who do you think you are, Mr. Big Shot!?!”. In any event, we all had the same floor plan. Thus, it is a concept with which I’ve had a hard time coming to terms. It never occurred to me that one could have a choice in such things.

Fast-forward fifteen years and I am a suburban housewife. When I married my husband, my daughter and I moved into “his” house. It’s a semi-tricked out ranch with wood floors, crown molding—fancy stuff I’d never heard of while growing up. (My father actually had his baseboards carpeted and flecks of glitter mixed in with his popcorn ceiling. Sorry for the visual. Please accept my apology).* Because our current house was purchased before we met it has never truly felt like my own, or even “ours”. Even most of the furniture is his. I always feel funny about making any changes, as if I need permission or something.

Now we are planning to have a new house built. I’ve hit the big time. Ain’t swimming with the guppies anymore. No sirree! (Cue Jefferson’s theme song.) Giddy with joy, we put the ranch on the market and chose a custom builder in New Braunfels, TX. It’s extremely exciting, yet bewildering and scary at the same time. I’ve never done this before. I have no frame of reference.

What I’ve come up with so far is a 2 story white brick country French style home—2600 square feet of fun (not too shabby for a formerly homeless mentally ill drunk!). Heh, heh. (Yeah, so, I married well—don’t hate). Is it any wonder I’m crazy about that man o’ mine? These are the major decisions I’ve made so far:

Instead of a formal dining room (we use the one we have now twice a year—max) we’re going to have a media room (AKA hubby’s play room). Although I will miss my formal dining room, as a practical matter we’ll get more use out of a media room. My dining room table holds laundry much more often than food.

Instead of just a breakfast nook, we’ll have a semi-formal eating area just off the kitchen with a fireplace so it will also function as a sort of hearth room.

I’m going to have an island in the kitchen with a secondary sink. Yay me! (Golly Paw, you mean we get to pick our own faucets!).

Particularly exciting is the master bath’s walk through shower and the morning kitchen in the upstairs loft/gameroom.

Since I can, I’m going to have a studio. (I jump up and down and do an Elaine-style happy dance at the thought of this one!)


OK, now that I’m done bragging (Gee Paw, look at them there fancy colored rocks for countertops! Granny: “I wouldn’t trust no flat shaped rocks. Can’t they afford that new-fangled laminate?”) let’s hop into the Way-Back Machine and head to the year 2000.

When I was living in a halfway house, we had daily counseling. One day the counselor brought in a stack of magazines and told us to make a collage of what could be possible in the future, if we stayed clean and sober. Since she said possible, not probable, I let my wild imagination soar. I cut and pasted wood floors, a piano, crown molding, and fresh flowers in a beautiful vase. Sometime later, I asked to see my chart and saw that the counselor’s note for that session read, “Brenda’s expectations seem unrealistic.”

I forgot all about that collage until one day in 2004. I was in my kitchen arranging flowers I grew in my garden. I was standing on hard wood floors. I looked up at the crown molding. And I cried.

My name is Brenda and I am an alcoholic.

P.S.: I’m still working on the piano.





* Sadly, this wasn’t in the ‘70’s, it was in the ‘90’s.

Truth vs. Knowledge

Ron Suskind, in his book The One Percent Doctrine, asserts in the preface that knowledge is power and that Americans behave accordingly. While the former may be true, the latter statement does not reflect reality. If we truly believed within our innermost selves that knowledge is power our behavior would reflect that belief. But it doesn’t. For example, so many of us “knew” that Al Gore said he invented the Internet.

What we Americans really do is buy into whatever information - true or not – fits comfortably into our worldviews. We tend to accept automatically ideas that provide support for our preconceptions. We don’t question what we think we “know” because it is far more comfortable to not critically appraise deeply held beliefs. All most of us really want is confirmation that we’re right. Any information – however valid it may be – is usually discarded if not in accord with an internal reference point.

We would shout less and listen more. We would investigate and inquire. We would examine and seek explanations.

But we don’t. Rather, we pay attention to only those superficially factual statements that support whatever ideas we bring to the table. Some of us know with absolute certainty that America is the noble land of the free and home of the brave. Others of us know with the same certainty that America is a deeply flawed society that viciously suppresses dissent in the most cowardly fashion. Some are absolutely adamant that we live in the ultimate land of opportunity. Others assert with comparable conviction that this country systematically creates economic inequality and purposefully impoverishes the masses.

We say we are seeking solutions, but we’re not. If we were, our national discourse would not be defined by whoever shouts the loudest.

Why the Jews Are Not Going to Hell

Of course the Jews are going to hell. That’s what most of us Gentiles have been taught quite emphatically for years. If you don’t accept Jesus Christ as your savior you go to hell when you die. It is that simple, isn’t it?

Yet, a careful study of what God has to say on this matter reveals quite a different story. Throughout the Old Testament God proclaims his love for, and devotion to, Israel and declares His relationship with her to be an everlasting covenant. As in forever. As in no way, no how, not the slightest scintilla of a chance that He’ll cut her loose.

Paul speaks quite clearly as to the ultimate disposition of Israel in his treatise to the Romans, specifically throughout chapters 9 through 11. Utilizing the effective imagery of olive trees, he metaphorically likens Israel to a natural, powerful, cultivated tree and Gentile Christians to wild olive branches. Gentile Christians are grafted as foreign objects onto the tree of Israel in order to share in Israel’s status and benefits because of their faith in Christ. But for Christ, the Gentiles would be left to their own devices. Thus, the reality is that Christians are dependent upon, and join with, Israel. Our Christianity allows us to be co-inheritors along with Israel; it unites us rather than separating us. It is Israel with the irrevocable status and benefits, we Christians are only being permitted to hang with them as long as we toe the line. He is crystal clear in the implication that that Gentiles need Israel but that Israel does not need Gentiles. This is most definitely not a reciprocal relationship. It appears to be more of a parasitic one, actually – and the Christians are the parasites. We, through grace, are being permitted to obtain nourishment from the root: Nourishment to which we are otherwise not entitled. Additionally, Paul points out that the grafted wild branches are most certainly more dispensable than the naturally occurring branches. The tree itself will never be dispensable.

It seems to me that we evangelical Christians try to out-think the Bible. We bog ourselves down in the minutiae of verbiage while neglecting the obvious - what ought to be common sense. Often we fail to see what is directly in front of our faces because we are seeking every possible nuance, in every language and dialect from every translation going back several millennia. I think God is much cooler than we give Him credit for. In this case I picture Him saying to us “Duh, McFly!”. Or, “What? You need me to spell it out for ya? Hellooooo – I already did!”.

I firmly believe that God makes things nice and clear. He doesn’t hide stuff we need to know. He doesn’t try to trick us. He doesn’t require that we compile a mass of esoteric knowledge in order to discern His true meaning. To believe otherwise requires also believing that His purpose is to make Himself less accessible, less known, and less appreciated. Obviously, this cannot possibly be true since throughout the entire Bible He vigorously pursues humanity, intervenes on our behalf, and provides prophets to give us a heads up on what’s in store down the road.

God is not some sort of sadistic trickster. He doesn’t offer something and then deny the means necessary for taking Him up on His offer. He is God - therefore He doesn’t need to engage in that sort of sick manipulation. For this reason, the prophetic references to the divinely-imposed blindness of the Jews to the identity of Messiah could not possibly mean that He intends to deny them their birthright as a nation. That would make God a particularly mean-spirited liar. Thus, the very idea that Jews will go to hell unless they accept Jesus Christ as Messiah, on human terms, is absurd.