Listening to the Word of Promise Bible

For the longest time, I have wanted to read through the Bible from the front page to the back page.  I was making very good progress when I took my Bible every week with me to my daughter's dance class practice where I had to wait in the lobby for her.  That was an excellent time for reading and I would always be able to stay awake with the constant noise around me.  Once I stopped taking her to dance class, I lost that time for reading and sadly have not found another good time or location.  With me, reading in a quiet place seems to always put me to sleep and as such I don't usually get the value out of the reading time

I found an alternative solution that may be better for me.  I recently upgraded to a smart phone and found that there are several audio Bibles available through Audible.  In fact, I found one that has been produced with a dramatization which even includes a background sound track.  So, I decided to purchase this one (The Word Of Promise) and listen to it on the way to work.  Maybe this will be a great way for me to actually complete the entire Bible.  I hope it will be something I will listen to multiple times all the way through.

http://www.thewordofpromise.com/

I still want to finish actually reading the Bible but I know how long that will take given my lack of desire for reading.

TAKE THE LEAD

There have been several instances where I would have a flood of ideas come to me during a church worship service.  These ideas have included thoughts about reaching out to the homeless, thoughts about cover and article ideas for a magazine published by the church, photography and even videography ideas.  So, I know that I’ve had these types of ideas on my mind for a long time (even years).  I remember when I first met with the church pastors accompanied by my wife.  They were trying to gauge our areas of interests to get to know us and I’m sure to find out what areas of ministry we would fit in with my church.  During that meeting, my wife and I mentioned photography as a ministry and that has definitely come to pass as we have stepped into that ministry by joining the magazine group to provide them with pictures to use for each published edition.  During the same meeting, I specifically mentioned videography as another potential ministry.

Now, I am the type of person that will typically have an idea and then think about the largeness of the idea by breaking it down into all the small details that have to be done in order to make a project come together.  If the idea is a large or complicated one, I usually get overwhelmed by everything that would need to be done and then would completely drop the idea since it is too big for me to complete.  I either start becoming anxious about the implementation and drop it for stress reasons (even laziness) or I realize that I don’t have the time available to pull it off.  Then, I never pick up the idea again and move on to the next project.

This past Sunday (October 18^th), my wife and I attended the marriage class that we’ve been part of for Sunday school.  This week’s message was about having goals (small, mid-term, and long-term) for our marriage.  As I thought about it, I realized that we didn’t have any stated goals for our marriage and wondered what they would be.  During the class, we watched a video from the series “The Story of Marriage” by John and Lisa Bevere.  There was nothing in the message itself that really stood out to me but I remember just having casual thoughts about their video production techniques (to include lighting and camera angles).  At the end, I noticed the list of cast with their stated roles scrolling through in white text just like any other video production that includes credits.  It really struck me at this time that if any of the ideas that I’ve had about videography were going to come together, I would need a cast of people just like this list of credits.  I really don’t know why I hadn’t thought about this much before but I started to realize that there is a talent pool of people at the church that would excel in these roles.  We have an elementary school principle that knows about theatrics, we have worship leaders that can provide musical arrangements, we have story tellers and script writers that are even working with the magazine, we have technically gifted individuals that have knowledge about camera operations, and we even have former actors that have their own acting school!  The heaviness of this idea just stood out to me and it was like I was seeing a puzzle come together.  I knew at that point that I had to talk with my wife to get her help and opinions on it.  But, we continued with the marriage class and then proceeded to the church service.

During the church worship service, I continued to think about the concept of putting together a “film group” that would be able to put together videos for ministry purposes.  I really started thinking about the roles and realized that we had a deep talent pool even with the church's Christian school.  I thought about ideas for developing a children’s video ministry with the theatrics of our elementary principle.  I thought about our members with previous acting experience taking the role of coaching people in our video projects on acting techniques or even serving as a film director.  As I was thinking about all of this, I knew it was completely outside of my own capabilities.  So, I laughed and said to God, “Ok God, but you’re going to have to show me how.”

After service, I was in the children’s room waiting for my daughters to be ready to leave.  I was holding the material that they gave out in the children’s service that day and was sitting down.  I remember just briefly turning over the papers and the back of the handout said in bold white letters on a red background “TAKE THE LEAD”.  This just completely struck me and I thought it might be a word from God showing me what my role would be in this.  I kept this to myself at the time knowing I would share it with my wife when we had time to discuss it.

As we were going home from church, I informed my wife that I had something that I needed to talk with her about and she informed me that she also had something from the worship service.  Apparently, God had also given her a vision in a new ministry direction.  I thought “Wow! She must have the same ideas that I had.”  So, we waited until our daughters were in their nap time.

When we met to discuss, we were both excited that we had something to discuss concerning a potential new ministry.  My wife insisted that I tell my story first even though I really wanted to have her say her side first to see if it lined up with mine.  I proceeded to tell her what I saw from the credits and the talent pool at the church.  She listened to me until I was finished and I asked her about her vision.  She said that she was given an idea about an overall publications and communications ministry.  Her ideas were not limited to just a “film group” but that it would cover all media types.  We agreed that God might have been speaking to us about our specific parts in the ministry but that they were very similar in nature.  As we were discussing this, I remembered that a friend from our previous church would say the phrase “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”  I took this as comfort and knew that my first bite would be to discuss this with the church pastor to hopefully get further guidance and direction.  I scheduled a meeting with him in hopes to fulfill the call to “TAKE THE LEAD.”

Beef Brisket on the BGE

I have cooked some beef brisket before on my old offset smoker but I had never tried it on the BGE.  It is such an expensive piece of meat and it is also more difficult to cook right that I don't cook brisket that often.  I remember on my offset smoker that the brisket came out a little tough to chew and just wasn't right.  Since everything else has been so easy to cook on the BGE, I decided to have another go at the brisket but this time on the BGE.  I ended up buying a 6.21 lb brisket flat $50 ($7.99/lb).

I decided to follow this recipe for cooking a brisket flat. http://www.biggreenegg.com/features/brisket-flat/

Since the recipe calls for flipping the brisket over after the first 4 hours, I started early in the morning and set up the egg for indirect cooking with the plate setter legs up and a drip pan on top.  While the BGE was heating up, I trimmed the fat off the lean side but left the fat cap fully in tact with no trimming.  I then seasoned both sides of the brisket with McCormick's Cowboy Rub.

Brisket rubbed and ready

Stable at 250 degrees with pecan wood and brisket fat side down

The BGE got up to the cooking temperature (250 degrees) at around 7:30 AM.  I then put the brisket on the egg at around 7:45 AM and placed the fat side down.  I closed the lid on the egg and then had some breakfast and coffee.

Brisket after 4 hours cooking at 250 degrees

At around 11:45 AM, I opened the lid to the BGE and flipped the brisket over so that the fat side was now facing up.  I closed the lid again and cooked at 250 degrees for another 2 hours.

Brisket in heavy duty foil with coffee poured into bottom

At around 1:45 PM, I brewed some coffee for the next step in the brisket cooking process.  I chose to use Starbucks Pike's Peak whole bean coffee and ground it up from the freshly opened bag.  I set the brisket fat side down on a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil and poured 1 cup of coffee into the bottom of the foil.  As I was closing up the foil to make an enclosed package containing the coffee and brisket, I spilled some of the coffee onto the deck.  So, I poured about another 1/2 cup of coffee onto the foil and carefully wrapped up the brisket.  I placed the foil packet onto the egg and cooked the brisket for another 2 hours at 250 degrees.

Brisket is already measuring 183 degrees

Also during this stage, I put a meat thermometer into the brisket so I could measure the internal temperature.  I was surprised to see that the brisket was already at 183 degrees and started to get a little nervous since I didn't want to overcook this $50 piece of meat and I still had 2 more hours of cooking time per the recipe.  I researched brisket doneness and tenderness and found out that each brisket seems to be different in terms of final temperature.  The better test is the "tenderness test" which is where you stick a fork in the brisket and give a slight twist.  You start testing for tenderness after the temperature reaches 185 degrees. If the fork slides into the meat with the same consistency of hot butter and the meat pulls away during the twist, the brisket is done.  Since this is not an accurate measurement, it will take me a few times to really know the right feel.

I let the brisket continue to cook for another 2 hours and kept checking the tenderness.  The internal temperature reached 200 degrees but I didn't think the brisket had passed the tenderness test yet so I let it cook longer still wrapped up in the foil.  When I finally decided it passed the tenderness test, the brisket temperature was reading 209 degrees.  I took the brisket off the egg and then let it rest for 30 minutes still in the foil.

Brisket ready to slice against the grain

One trick that I used before cooking was to make a small cut against the grain so that I would know which way to slice the brisket once it was done.  This seemed to help since it can be hard to tell which way the grains run on the brisket after it has been cooked and has a nice crust.

Slicing against the grain

Fully sliced and ready to eat

I did save the coffee drippings into a bowl and my wife made a au jus dipping sauce out of it.  This complimented the brisket but it wasn't a requirement in my opinion.  The brisket had an excellent flavor by itself but some of meat towards the point ended up being a little dry.  The rest of the brisket was fabulous.  I guess an improvement for next time would be to ensure the position of the point is not over a hot spot where the plate setter lets up the heat.  It might also have just been the brisket itself since the fat cap was more prominent over the larger end of the flat and not as much over the point.

After we ate it for dinner, I placed the remaining brisket in a plastic container and we poured the au jus sauce over it for storing in the refrigerator.  We're going to make some Brisket Chimichanga's with the leftovers.

http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/groves-brisket-chimichanga/162298

http://www.nibblemethis.com/2010/01/brisket-chimichanga.html

Quote from "Loose That Main & Let Him Go"

"Don't avoid prayer because you think you are not articulate or expressive.  God is not moved by vocabulary, enunciation, or articulation.  He is only moved by the sincere longings of an open heart that 'spills' the burdens of the day across the altar, baring every pain to the power of a God who can!"  -- TD Jakes

I was going through some old notes in my notebooks tonight and came across this quote again that had previously moved me so much that I had to write it down in my notebook.  It still touches me even today and reminds me that our God is a caring God and wants to hear our prayers regardless of how they sound.