Reading Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics

I recently attended the 33rd Annual Racial Ethnic Seminarians Conference for the PCUSA. I met a lot of pretty amazing people, life long partners in Ministry for sure! My new sister in Christ from Fuller Seminary in San Fransisco introduced me to the website of her New Testament Professor, J.R. Daniel Kirk called STORIED THEOLOGY.

He has set up a Reading Schedule for 2011 to go through and read Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics. Along the way, Kirk will be responding theologically to the readings. Journey along with Dr. Kirk and exegete for yourselves the work of one of the most stunning theologians of the 20th Century in my opinion. God Speed Friends and Theologians!

If you are otherwise tied up with copious amounts of reading as it were, then you may also appreciate an overview of the 14 volume Church Dogmatics condensed into a book called Karl Barth Dogmatics in Outline.

FYI: Church Dogmatics, the Full 14 vol. set is available for $99.99. Click above on the hyperlink to purchase.

All Natural at Home Beauty Treatments

I'll be 32 this year and I don't have a single wrinkle. I think some of that has to do with good genes (shout out to mom and dad) but I don't take those genes for granted. I'm also in seminary and on a very tight budget. I don't have the luxury of going to salons on a regular basis to get facials or to get my hair deep conditioned, nor quite frankly do I have that kind of time. So if you can relate, I hope you will appreciate these beauty treatments with ingredients or products you are liable to have in your fridge and your cupboards. Here are my top 5 beauty treatments:
1. Rice Water Toner for balancing and nourishing your skin
2. Green Tea Facial Cloths
3. Teeth Whitening Rinse
4. Avocado Hair Mask for Deep conditioning
5. Brown sugar and olive oil moisturizing body scrub
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*Rice Water Toner. Rice has essential vitamins and minerals that benefit the skin. This toner will bring luster back to dull skin and it will also help to tighten your skin with consistent use. My mother told me that growing up in Korea, she used the water that was used to rinse rice to clean her face and it was used to clean dishes!
Step 1: Take steps to prepare rice for consumption. I have a rice cooker and usually cook 3 cups of rice for the week ahead. Put 3 cups of uncooked rice into a large bowl. Run under cold water and then swirl around using your hand to rub the rice against the bowl. This will release some of the vitamins and minerals into the water producing a milky white color. DO NOT POUR WATER OUT INTO SINK. Step 2: Take out a clean container or Large bowl with lid and pour the milky rice water into it. Step 3: Refrigerate rice water and take out and splash small amount on your face. Let your face air dry. If you must dry, use a paper towel and not your normal face towel and pat gently. You can also use this with a cotton ball and rub into your freshly washed skin.



*Green Tea Refreshing Cloths. By now you probably know that Green Tea is full of anti oxidants. They attack free radicals which are associated with aging and also help to aid in maintaining a healthy immune system. Green Tea has cleansing and anti bacterial agents both internally when consumed and topically. The Japanese drink Green Tea (or Sake...let's be real)especially when they eat sushi because it helps to aid in digestion and gets rid of any bad bacteria in the raw fish. This is also why you eat the pickled ginger with it, but I digress. Topically, Green tea is a great way to keep your skin refreshed and looking youthful. Green tea is also known to help acne prone skin. I have oily skin and I am sometimes prone to break outs...I use the cloths as a cleanser and toner. Enjoy!
Step 1: Take 2 tea bags and brew a pot of green tea. Remove tea bags and place into a large zip lock bag. Reserve 1/3 of the tea by setting aside to cool. Drink your tea for the wonderful benefits listed above. Step 2: Take cooled tea and place in zip lock bag as well. Take 7 plain white paper towels (please don't use the ones with decorative ink)and place into the zip lock bag full of tea and tea bags and refrigerate. Every night after you remove your make up you can use a towelette to wash your face or tone your skin. You can also double the batch and use one to refresh your skin during a hot day or after a work out. ***You can certainly soak a facial wash cloth in the hot Green Tea and place over your face like a facial. Very soothing and relaxing.

*Teeth Whitening Rinse. Who has the 20 mins. or the $30 to $100 that it costs to fuss with whitening strips? I don't. I have been rinsing with Hydrogen Peroxide for years. I drink coffee and tea everyday and my teeth maintain a natural pearly white hue. It won't make your teeth glow unnaturally under a black light but it's a cheap, low maintenance, way to keep your teeth white! Step 1: Take a swig of Hydrogen Peroxide and gargle and rinse for a min. of 30 sec. but up to a minute and spit out. If you're a beginner, you can cut it with water until you get used to the bubble producing effect. It does take time. Rest assured if you do this morning and night, you will begin to see a change in as soon as 3 days but usually a week. Make this a part of your daily dental hygiene routine.



*Avocado Hair Mask. This is a great way to restore overly dry or damaged hair. The natural fats in Avocados are a wonderful part of a healthy diet. The benefit of the good fats (mono unsaturated fats)for your body also has the added benefit of adding the natural oils and nutrients into your hair. Step 1: Pit and place the flesh of one avocado into a blender with 1 table spoon of Olive oil and blend for 15 to 20 sec. Step 2: Pour contents into hair and massage your scalp and rub mask into the strands of your hair. Step 3. Collect your hair on top of your head and clip in place. Let the mask set up in your hair for 30 min. Step 4. Rinse and then shampoo and condition as usual with mild products. For extremely dry or damaged hair, do this once a week for a month. Otherwise, you can do this treatment once a month to maintain soft, silky and most of all healthy strands!



*Brown Sugar and Olive Oil Scrub. Bath Salts can tend to have a drying effect on your skin. Sugar scrubs however, have a smoothing effect that helps to keep your skin soft. This body scrub is great to use especially in the dry winter months. Personally, I use this concoction on my feet as a foot scrub in the summer and forgo the all over scrub since the humidity of summer helps the skin to retain it's moisture. Step 1: take 1/2 to 1 cup of Brown Sugar and mix with 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of olive oil (if you don't have olive oil, you can substitute Canola Oil). Step 2: Slather onto skin and scrub away with your hands or a whatever scrubbing loufah you desire. Step 3: Rinse in warm shower water and pat skin dry. Your skin will feel so smooth!

Enjoy these treatments! Remember, you are beautiful through and through. Use these tips as a way to care for and maintain the temple that God created. I pray it helps you to honor God in being a good steward to the body you were given while you walk this earth here and now.

Polenta Lasagna

As you enjoy the summer by being outdoors in God's beautiful creation here's one recipe that is super quick and easy. It's a divergent take on your classic lasagna, but one that I promise you will keep coming back to. I realize that the grill beckons and I won't deprive you of your right to grill in the summer months. As a matter of fact, I suggest paring this polenta lasagna with grilled vegetables of your choice...I like Chinese Eggplant (which is much smaller in diameter and lighter in color than your average variety. It also has a slightly sweeter taste), I also love zucchini, Onions, Tri-colored melange (mixture) of Peppers and of course you can never go wrong with Asparagus on the grill. This recipe is a lot less work than your traditional lasagna and you can also prepare this ahead of time and refrigerate it over night. This dish is healthy and relatively light and a great cost effective way to entertain! Bon Appetit!!!



Ingredients

* 1 (18 ounce) package polenta, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
* 1/2 (24 ounce) jar bottled marinara sauce
* 1/4 cup pesto
* 1/4 cup pine nuts
* 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
(serve with generous sprinkling of Parmesan Cheese at the end)


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Oil an 11x7x2 inch baking dish.
2. Arrange a single layer of polenta in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Spread a thin layer of pesto over the polenta. Spoon half of the sauce over the polenta. Top with another layer of polenta and sauce.
3. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Turn on the broiler. Top polenta with cheese and pine nuts, and broil until cheese browns and nuts are toasted.

Nutritional Information open nutritional information

Serves 8 people:
Amount Per Serving Calories: 179 | Total Fat: 9.1g | Cholesterol: 12mg

Happy and Healthy Eating!

In Honor of my Father on Father's Day

Here is a personal anecdote from my childhood in honor of Father’s Day. I love my dad very much and it is through stories like the one I’m about to share, that I can begin to imagine infinitely more how much my Heavenly Father loves me. I’m grateful for this heroic tale that stars my dad. It causes me to give thanks for a man who isn’t perfect, but who has always striven to be obedient in his role as a Godly Father called to love, protect, nurture, care for, teach and of course discipline.

While my father was getting his Master of Theology at Princeton, my family lived in the student housing complex. Some of my fondest memories as a child include finding honeysuckle vines and feasting on the buds as if it were candy! I lived for the days where we would set out in search of honeysuckles like heat seeking missiles. On one particular day, my sister and I were playing outside when we were approached by some of the older kids in the neighborhood. They told us that the other side of the soccer field was covered in honeysuckles and they were headed there. They asked me and my sister if we wanted to go with them. We did, so we followed them to the edge of the field where they told my sister and I to go in first. I led the way and as I bounded into the woods, it became clear that my sister and I were alone. We yelled out to the other kids, but they had left us high and dry. We kept on going, determined to find the honeysuckles. The woods were getting thicker and thicker and soon we found ourselves tangled in a web of thorn bushes. I held my sisters hand and I tried to back out, but we were trapped. My sister started to cry and I panicked. I screamed as loud as I could for my daddy! The field was across the street from my building and in my opinion it was a miracle that my father heard us and came running out.

He ran into the woods barefoot, wearing only his white undershirt and his underwear. Both of us tucked tightly under each of his arms he pulled us out of harm’s way and back to safety. He got all the way out and I cried for him to go back and get my purse. He didn’t even hesitate, he ran back into the thorn bushes to grab my purse. Of course the content of my purse was monopoly money, my little pony combs and my play make up…very important things! But He didn’t question it, he just wanted us to be restored, whole and safe. I’ll never forget that day. There were no limits to what my dad would have done to keep my family safe. Once he calmed us down and brought both my sister and I home sniffling from our ordeal, he cleaned us up and made sure all of our boo boos were tended to.

Only after he knew we were okay did he ask us what happened. I explained to him that we were bamboozled by the older kids and that we were lured in with the promise of honeysuckles. He chastened me as the big sister to know better than to go into the woods honeysuckles or not. He pointed out how dangerous it was and that we needed to be more careful when we played outside. Furthermore as the big sister, it was my job to look after my little sis. We had scared him. After his obligatory words to me, knowing I felt bad for getting my sister and I into trouble, he hugged us and let us know that he was just glad that we were okay. I was embarrassed that I fell for the trickery of the older kids and I felt badly for leading my sister and I into the woods away from the safety of our home and our yard. Yet I knew my daddy loved me and my sister. We didn’t need to question or doubt it. I hold on to that.

The Jerusalem Experiment

Amid my studies of the Old Testament in my second term here at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, I find myself both deeply grateful at how much of the O.T. context is being illumined for me and with that gratefulness comes an influx of emotions that leave me overwhelmed with how little I really know. This is the both one of the blessings of a seminary education and a quandary. I'm told to bear with, I'm told this is absolutely to be expected and I'm told that I'm not the only one. I'm not sure how much comfort I can derive from that. Nevertheless, I am certain of one thing, that I belong here. Through conversations with other seminarians who I get to share life with I know with certainty that they were called to be here as well. We all stepped out in obedience to this adventure called seminary. Bible Boot camp, Theology Boot camp, take your pick, but the rigors of our studies and the pace at which we go, WILL serve it's purpose. Even when we fall short, God will meet us in our studies.

All this to say, without any formal Bible college education prior to coming, it's tempting to think I don't have anything to offer in a discussion or an insight. It's tempting to think I'm in over my head, but the reality is this, we were all called. We come from different walks, different perspectives, we bring to the table varied life experiences to draw from so that we can all add to this joint experience of being sharpened and trained up for ministry. Just like any family unit or model of community, we all need to chip in and lend our gifts to minister to one another and let God do His miraculous work through the broken vessels that we are. The beautiful picture of the Body of Christ is that we all need each other. We can let down our guard or a working facade that would lead others to think we've got it all figured out! Transparency is a mode of life as a regenerated, grafted in follower of Christ. I think instead of comparing ourselves to one another, we benefit most by offering our gifts and asking for others to share theirs! I know it's no easy feat, but it is intrinsic to our growth as believers in Jesus Christ and as future pastors, missionaries or whatever capacity of ministry we will by the sovereignty of God end up at. I can't tell you how many times I've had to walk into the study lounge to ask questions from some of my friends who have the church history backgrounds, biblical studies backgrounds or just a penchant for linguistics. We all could greatly benefit from someone that God has placed a certain skill set or talent for that is outside of our own! :) This all aims to glorify God because it humbles us and reminds us that we need HIM and sometimes He works through our friends at seminary. This is something that has stuck with me as I study the Prophets of the O.T. Righteousness (in Hebrew) is derived from this notion of being poor and needy. Apart from God, we are indeed helpless and in need of rescue. So, let's throw out a tow line by seeking out the skills and knowledge and gifts of God's Holy Spirit in one another and most of all, lending our gifts and using them for the service of God.

A friend of mine from MN named Bryan is currently in Israel.He's just a really gifted teacher. He's in seminary and is taking these next 6 months to ruminate over the places of the Bible and to bring the Scriptures to life in new and exciting ways. He's passionate about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in his scholarly knowledge of scripture he has been gifted with being able to paint a picture with words in such a way that allows the knowledge of God's word to come alive. God is doing tremendous things through Bryan's experience there. Go to his website which is called The Jerusalem Experiment and take a tour. I know it's helped me to further develop my own understanding of the O.T. See what God is doing through this project and I trust it will be a blessed experience. (Thanks Bry for sharing the inner and outer workings of God's gifts through you in Israel!).