To Love Much

Luke 7:40-50 - And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, "Teacher, say it." 
"There was a certain creditor who had 2 debtors. One owed 500 denari, and the other 50. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more?" Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly judged."
 

Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."

Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

We can glean more than a few lessons from this story I am certain. Here are a few the Lord has ministered to me:

 

It is important that we confess our sins and acknowledge them before God (who will then forgive them, 1 John 1:9 tells us) because in this we are made aware/conscious of how much He has forgiven us-- which in turn brings thankfulness, praise, worship and love to our hearts toward our heavenly Father.

And why was this woman saved/forgiven? Because of her faith in and love tward God, and the acknowledgement of Jesus as her Savior and Lord-- worthy of worship and adoration. This is the same way Abraham was saved: He believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. And this is the same way all saints of the Old Testament and New Testament alike have been and are saved-- By faith in and love toward God and His Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Verse 50 shows us that when we are saved, having put our faith in Jesus Christ, we can "go in peace". Salvation by faith brings us peace with God, and that immediately! There are no manner of works to be done before we can have this peace.
 

We don't believe and then (a) get baptized, (b) get circumsized, (c) keep the law, (d) become a church member, (e) evangelize, (f) keep the Sabbath... NO-- There is absolutely NOTHING that comes between putting our faith in Christ and having peace with God, the forgivenness of our sins. "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now going to be perfected by the flesh?" Paul asked. The answer to this rhetorical question is-- NO! Of course not!
 

Thank You Lord that You have made peace between sinful man and a holy God by dying on the cross for our sins. Help me to be ever mindful of Your grace and forgivenness, that I may be one who loves much. Amen!

The Food Dilemma of D.C.

The Food Dilemma of D.C.

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So I flew to Dulles Airport (Washington D.C. area) for work, flying in Monday night and leaving Thursday evening. I arrived in the D gates of Dulles, and as my stomach was informing me of the necessity to eat, I perused the airport for some good eats. However, about the only decent place to eat was Gordon Biersch Brewery; you could tell this was the only good place because it was standing room only-- at 9:30pm! So I decided to try my luck with what restaurants would be near the hotel.
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As the shuttle arrived at the hotel, I quickly learned my mistake. There was no food by the hotel. There was a lowly Burger King and a gas station mini-mart. The hotel was located in a sort of industrial business district (lined with beautiful Virginia trees). I went inside and asked the girl at the desk if there was anywhere to eat nearby. "Nothing within walking distance... But here are some restaurants that deliver," she said handing me some to-go menus. My choices? 4 different Italian/Pizza places, and a Chinese take-out. Hmmm...

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Being that I had recently vowed to lose the extra few pounds that my audit career has imposed upon me, I wanted to eat as healthy as possible. That meant no ton of refined white flours, and no oversized food portions. I decided ordering salads would be a good way to accomplish this. Looking through the menus (which all had the exact same foods), I saw very little in the way of appetaizing fare. I decided on the fried chicken salad. (A little fried chicken won't hurt anyone! Especially if everything else I eat is a vegetable...) I called and placed my order around 10pm. After placing my order I learned my food would arrive in 40-50 minutes. I would have skipped dinner if I knew it would take that long! Not so good to chow right before bed!

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So my food finally arrived. Now, I was expecting something like this:

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But it was not to be. Instead, I got a pile of iceburg lettuce with a couple vegetables sprinkled on top. The fried chicken was lightly breaded and actually a typically tasty treat. The honey mustard dressing was like... hydrogenated salad dressing mixed with yellow food coloring or something! It was so thick it was scary. Probably 50% high fructose corn syrup and preservatives. It tasted okay... But the color and texture were down right scary.

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I tried to find a visual for you-- the pictures above look quite a bit better as the food is nicely arranged on a plate. I think putting anything in a styrofoam container can make it less appetizing. But I ate all the chicken and vegetables and tried to avoid the glue dressing, and ate my fill of crunchy water iceburg lettuce and tossed the rest. It was your typical mediocre late night take-out dinner. Time to move on.

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So the next day I worked all day at the airport. I had a decent "Havanna burrito" from "California Tortilla" for lunch. Funny enough, though the name of the restaurant had "California" in it, I have never seen any similar Mexican dishes in California. Total East Coast Mexican food!

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For dinner I meant to stay behind security and eat at a restaurant, but my coworker and I forgot and ended up finishing off the day landside. Bummer! It was back to the hotel with my choice of Italian/Pizza or Chinese take-out again. So I chose a different Italian place this time.

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This menu was very ornate, and seemed to me to perhaps have Applebee's or Olive Garden level of cuisine. I ventured into the unknown and ordered "pesto pasta" with penne pasta and grilled chicken, expecting something made with olive oil, ground pine nuts and basil tossed with grilled chicken. Not super healthy, but I would eat a small portion and save the rest for later. I imagined something along this line...
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But what I got was... Not pesto. I couldn't even find any pictures that accurately reflect what I got. It was kind of a cross between the two pictures below; take away all the pretty vegetables from the one on the right and make the one on the left look more like a handful of cheese was tossed on top rather than a cream sauce, and you basically have it. It was basically a pile of noodles with a pound or so of mozerella melted on top, with some bits of (what looked like) dried herbs sprinkled on top, with whole pine nuts tossed in. Oh yeah, and the chicken. I think they must have still added some oil too, because you could just about drink the grease. Needless to say, I had indigestion the entire next day...

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Wednesday I was left to myself for lunch. There were no good restaurants (that I could find) outside security, so I got a boxed, refrigerated sandwich from a news stand. Typical airport fare. For dinner we were going to catch a ride from the Sales Manager to a Persian restaurant, however, as it started raining my coworker called and cancelled (mostly out of consideration for the manager I presume). I was, however, NOT going to spend another night couped up in my hotel room eating awful food!!!

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I paid $13 to take a cab 1.5 miles to 28 Centre, a shopping center which had some pretty standard restaurants, a Wegman's grocery store, and a Target. The hotel shuttle could pick me up later, but for now they were too busy.

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Wegman's was wonderful!! It was such a unique market, and I got a quarter rotisserie chicken, rosemary potatoes and garlic broccoli for $6!! Such a relief. Afterward I wandered around the parking lot, taking some photos and then ended up at Target to kill some time. I got a hot chocolate at the Starbucks there and chatted with the barista, who had ironically quit Starbucks for a different job (a stocking boy at Target) only to get placed at the Starbucks franchise. It started pouring rain finally just about the time I was ready to leave. Then my shuttle came and brought me safely to the hotel. Oh yeah, and I picked up an organic Kashi frozen meal for the next day too while at Wegman's.

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The last day of the audit had the best food-- B Gates I tell you, that's the place to be! I had sushi and strawberry Ben & Jerry's from the ice cream case, my favorite (it's old and hard in the store, but amazing from the case!).

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So there you have my food drama diary from D.C. Hope you are still awake... :)

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