Hey, I moved my blog to http://hogueweb.com
Strength and Works Vs. Weakness and Faith
I stumbled across these verses and thought they were a great testimony to a truth that feels so unnatural to me (all the more reason to remind myself). The truth being this: that God doesn’t need me to be strong, or perfect. He only requires me to admit my helplessness and follow Him in faith. He can use me to do good works which I could not do on my own.
The first verse is from Isaiah 1:31 (ESV), where God is speaking of His enemies, those who have forsaken Him.
And the strong shall become tinder,
and his work a spark,
and both of them shall burn together,
with none to quench them.
(I can’t get over how poetic that is)
And the second is 2 Corinthians 13:3b-4 (NIV) where Paul is speaking to the believers who were demanding proof that Christ was using Paul to speak to them:
He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.
I found those verses because I was thinking about snow, and happened upon Isaiah 1:18-20. Random! =)
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
The Taste of Autumn
My favorite things about Autumn are red and gold leaves swirling around in the sky and crunching under my feet as I walk along in the crisp morning air, curling up with a cup of hot spiced cider and a good book in the evening when the world is finally done with me for the day, and the taste of my mom’s freshly baked pumpkin pie.
Last year I also fell in love with pumpkin spice lattes from Panera Bread. I’m not the type to breeze into the coffee shop every morning before work, so yesterday I thought, “I should just make my own pumpkin spice coffee.” I’m quite happy with the result. Here is a great recipe that I used as a guide:
Pumpkin Spice Mix
(enough for a 10-12 cup pot)
3 pieces of Crystallized Ginger,
(or 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
2 Tsp Cinnamon
3 Whole Allspice Berries
3 Whole Cloves
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg
Since I’m a cheapo, I just bought a little jar of McCormick’s Pumpkin Pie Spice, which contains the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. I did buy the whole cloves, because there’s really no excuse for leaving them out.
I used Java Love whole bean coffee from The Organic Coffee Company as the base blend. The recipe I listed above recommends that you sprinkle the mix on top of your coffee grounds before you brew, but I was happier with the flavor on my second try, when I had mixed it all together and stored it overnight. I may have used more spices than the first time, too.
I topped my finished cup with a generous heaping of whip cream and sprinkled it with spices. Delicious.
“A Journey You Should Never Make Again”
A few weeks ago, one of our Pastors was speaking out of Deuteronomy, and I began exploring surrounding verses. I often do it just to get a better idea of the context of the topic, but sometimes I learn more from flipping through random passages than I do from the actual sermon topic.
All that to say, I don’t actually remember what the sermon was about a few weeks ago, but here’s what caught my eye that morning:
In Deuteronomy 28, Moses dictates a summary of what life will be like for the Israelites if they choose either to obey God, or to disobey God, since “You have now become the people of the Lord your God” (chapter 27 verse 9). It feels very much like reading through a contract (covenant, anyone?); I half expected to see a dotted line at the bottom where the Israelites would have signed their names and perhaps checked a box labeled “I have read and agree to the terms and conditions above.”
The first 14 verses are spectacular. If the Israelites obey God and follow His commands, they will live in prosperity all their lives, and be blessed wherever they go and in whatever they do.
The next 53 verses are a very detailed description of what will “overtake” God’s people if they choose to disobey Him. Not to make this a negative post, but the following verses are actually what stuck out to me the most, because they are so telling. I could check off all of the things below that I have experienced when I wasn’t upholding my covenant with God. It is all the more amazing to me that we so often choose these sorts of things rather than the abundant life that God offers.
“Among [all] nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!” – because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.” Deut. 28:65-68, NIV
Restricting Content Visibility in Drupal
Today I needed to display content in a Drupal template file only for users who belong to a certain role. Specifically, I wanted to show a profile edit link (generated by a View), but only show it for those who are logged in and allowed to administer other users.
Drupal has a handy function called user_roles that is included with the User module. It will return an array of existing roles, so we just need to check it for the admin role:
<?php
if (in_array('admin', $user->roles)) {
// Put stuff here
} ?>
Where ‘admin’ is the role you are looking for. Easy-peasy.
