Fun with Firefox 3

You gotta love those guys at Mozilla, makers of the Firefox web browser. If you didn’t realize from the post title, it is now in its third incarnation. And it’s a good one!

If you don’t have it yet you can get it here.

And once you have it, you can type the following code into the address bar for some nerd humor:

about:robots

Enjoy.

Cheesesteak Challenge: A Scriptural Defense

Several of us from the Philly area went out yonder (6 hours yonder) to near the Ohio state line in order to join with 6 other Houses Of Prayer in PA. Special thanks to Dennis and Ralph at the Altar HOP in Meadville for pulling off something unpredented in recent history around here.

We had ourselves a blast, what with all our declarations, proclamations, and other utterances. At one point our generous team even had an altar call of sorts for anyone who would like to try to beat the living tar out of the timpani in the front and obliterate the worship band’s rhythmic cohesion in the process.

Yet at one point in the weekend, my disciples came unto me saying something like, “why dost thou offerest the cheesesteak challenge, whilst Jamie’s disciples fast?” And verily I did speak, saying the same:

Did not our Lord speak, saying that we shouldst use our mammon to make ourselves friends amongst the heathen? So that they might find the truth and have eternal rewards?

And should I not use my resources to recognize and reward those, yea those even in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who do not cease to pray night and day for the harvest?

And is not the Cheesesteak a principality over our city? And are not those who partake of its gluttonies in need of deeper soul food? Are not its proprietors and workers themselves members of an Unreached People Group?

Yet I was somewhat reviled at first, until I was able to find said passage in Luke 16:9.

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Now, it DID take me a few minutes to find the scripture, without being distracted by taunts and false lifelines (“maybe it’s in Hezekiah 2:14!” “have you tried Isaiah 67?”) but in the end the scripture was proclaimed, and my detractors were silenced.

And then we all discovered the local Steak & Shake, which almost none of us had ever seen before.

What’s Up with Panera?

So I am once again at Panera Bread. For the souffle and even some of the pastries I need not only a fork but a knife as well.

Recently, without fail, I am given a fork and must ask for a knife. Annoying. I have also noticed that they have switched to plastic cutlery. Today I received a real fork but went back to get my knife. So I am eating the souffle with a silverware fork and plastic knife.

This is somewhat unnerving. Do the executives at Panera think people like having to ask for a knife? This has happened in Willow Grove, and Newark DE as of late…

The Philly Soft Pretzel

Philadelphia is known for much more than cheesesteaks. With my obsession about the Cheesesteak Challenge, I forgot about another local favorite: the Soft Pretzel.

There are several notable things about these pretzels:

1. They are large. Oversized and about the size of one’s head almost. Very big.

2. They are soft. You can chew on these, no crunch at all. You can rip ‘em apart and share with your friends.

3. They come to you. Local vendors have seized the opportunity afforded by Philadelphia’s crawling traffic arteries and can be found setting up shop and working the bottleneck at failsafe intersections (unlike this guy in the picture, they walk right up the median strip). Pay the dude a buck or 2 and get a yummy soft pretzel, rain or shine!

4. I also have an appreciation for the oversized salt granules on the pretzel. They are big and they only crunchy part on the pretzel.

5. Soft pretzels should also be vegan-friendly.

6. There may be a “Pretzel Challenge” coming up.

Cheesesteak Challenge Winner, Part 2

Part 2: Here is the first WINNER of the Cheesesteak Challenge:

Jamie is a worship leader out here who has been doing 12 and 24 hour prayer sessions locally for close to a decade now. When I first moved to Philly 3 years ago I found out about his past involvement and briefly swapped emails a couple times but never got to meet him… until last month!

I recently found out about a Friday Night 8-12 that they do at his church only 15 minutes away from me (in Philly, NOTHING is only 15 minutes away!).
He also showed up for my Friday 2-4pm set at the Temple HOP. The TUHOP is currently under 10 structured hours per week, so I continue to maintain that Philly is the largest city without a significant HOP presence. This HOP is about 3 miles north of center city Philadelphia, which is a very sweet spot for prayer. Conversational highlights included the following:

1. How God has been raising up 24/7 in Philly, under the radar

2. Speculations on what the prayer movement in Philly is really like in terms of Ethnicity, Style, Focus and Vision

3. Prophetic Hip/Hop and Intercessory Rap (neither of us is adept at this as you can see from the photo)

4. The role of the Cheesesteak in eschatology (the End Times)

Jamie concurs with my theory that the last commercial subsector to hold out against the mark of the Beast will be Authentic Cheesesteak Joints (ACJs). This is because one of the marks of an ACJ (pun intended) is to take CASH ONLY. I put this to the test, paying for the challenge with a $50 dollar bill. The guy didn’t even flinch at this large denomination, which is often refused by credit card-friendly merchants.

ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT for the Cheesesteak Challenge!

Give Back My Old Virtual Prayer Room @ PS Blog

Click here to see what the fuss is about.

Nativity – part 2

More on Keisha Castle-Hughes, Mary from the Nativity movie:

- I like films/actors that come out of the woodwork the way she does. Very low profile yet her humility, fears, and faith emerge gradually into something quite beautiful.

- We can pray for this movie to resonate in her life and ultimately for her to find Jesus. According to the IMDB film database Keisha and her boyfriend are expecting in ‘07. She according to this source will be only 16-17 at the time of the birth, so I hope it goes smoothly for them.

- The lack of controversy over this compared to “The End of the Spear” (which starred Chad Allen, a gay activist in the role of Nate Saint) may indicate a few things:

1. It’s just not much publicized (which is probably a good thing)

2. People have learned to be thankful for a movie with biblical themes and values even if the actors are not living accordingly

3. People view this as a chance to believe and pray that the positive message will influence those actors as much or more than negative movie messages

4. People are more apt to look the other way for heterosexual immorality than for homosexual immorality. The issue was rather explosive last year with “The End of the Spear”.

5. Something else.

In any case Keisha is a talented actor and I can only pray for a safe delivery and that the Nativity message will remain and grow within her.

The Prayer Log / Plog

I’m putting most of my efforts into the Plog. The CBB is alive and well, despite zero activity of late. Since I am living in such a historic region my blogging energies are best spent on journaling stuff that we can pray into. The Plog is found here.

Nightwatch… in da’ House!

 

Ok, I admire this family’s commitment to the nightwatch, as well as their preferred volume, but they need to find some industrial zoning for this stuff before they make their neighbors any more angry at them! Germany is de-churched enough as is without alienating people by having warfare prayer in the living room of a rowhouse at 3am.

Family faces eviction for loud night prayers

Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:26 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) – A seven-member family faces eviction from an east Berlin apartment tower after neighbors complained about loud prayer sessions that keep the whole building awake at night, a German newspaper said Thursday.”I really don’t want to disturb the neighbors but the high volume is needed in the battle against the devil,” Pierre D., the 42-year-old father of the Christian family, told Bild newspaper. He is fighting an eviction order in court.

Neighbors told Bild the screams and singing that are part of the family prayers in the second storey sometimes begin at 2:30 a.m. and can be heard all the way up to the fifth floor.

“We have to work in the morning and need our sleep,” said taxi driver Horst Berghahn, who lives on the third floor. He said he asked the family to lower the volume several times since they moved into the building 10 months ago but to no avail.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=WKHKOOMZ3L51ICRBAELCFFA?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=13219698

Minimum Wage

Just got this from the Sojourner’s listserv. The logic struck me kind of weird though, from the perspective of someone who once earned minimum wage after receiving a Bachelor’s degree, read on…

“As a person of faith, I believe that people who work hard and play by the rules should not be living in poverty.I ask that you vote in favor of legislation to raise the minimum wage to at least $7.25 an hour, and to oppose any “poison pill” provisions that would weaken existing minimum wage eligibility, overtime protections, or other labor laws. A job should keep you out of poverty, not in it! A raise in the minimum wage rewards work, and will lift countless families out of poverty.Thank you for your time.”

Uh… $7.25 / hour still sounds like poverty to me! It gets you about $14,500/year, vs. about $10,300/year.

While this is a very significant raise, you need to earn perhaps closer to the upper $20K range to be out of “poverty”, but that doesn’t mean you can ever hope to buy a home apart from Habitat or a subsidy program.

My point is that this raise of nearly 50% won’t take anyone out of poverty, but the argument from the other side of the table is that it will handcuff employers from being able to hire more people, since people will cost at least 50% more money to hire.

I think it’s a great thing to try to eliminate poverty but the Sojourner’s haven’t gone far enough! We should lobby for a $18/hr minimum wage if we are serious about ending poverty…

Dear N,
Call representative your today at (202) 224-3121…

Demand an increase in the minimum wage to at least $7.25/hour
Last month when more than 600 Christians passionate about social justice came to Washington to demand an increase in the minimum wage as part of A Covenant for a New America, we knew good things were starting to happen.

So far this year, 192 House members have asked for a vote to raise the minimum wage to $7.25, and just two weeks after the Covenant launch, 28 Republicans urged their leadership to hold a vote to increase the minimum wage this month. We and countless others have put on so much pressure to demand fair wages that later today, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on an increase to the minimum wage.

After you call, forward this message to 10 friends who share your values.The vote could happen in the next several hours, so time is of the essence!

The latest New York Times/CBS poll finds that more than 85 percent of respondents supported raising the minimum wage over the next two years to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 an hour…

Peace and Blessings,
The Sojourners/Call to Renewal Policy and Organizing Team