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10 Reasons to Celebrate Being a Salon/Spa Owner

May 12, 2019 | By Neil Ducoff | 1 Comment

As a salon/spa owner, it’s pretty easy to list all the stuff that stresses you out.

  • Employees can drive you crazy
  • Cash-flow challenges can keep you awake at night
  • Fighting fires and problem solving can wear you down

Too often, the very things that feed our passion, and sense of pride as owners, get overshadowed by the daily stress of business.

We tend to forget why we became owners in the first place. And if we forget why for too long, stress can lead to resentment.

FACT: You can’t be the leader your salon/spa needs, or build a culture that rivals all others, when you feel resentment for all that you’re responsible for.

So let’s step away from the daily stress and focus on the positives and the possibilities that bring pride and fulfillment as an owner.

Here are my ten No-Compromise Leadership reasons to celebrate being a salon/spa owner:

  1. You lead employees to achieve their full potential: As a leader and business owner, this is your prime responsibility. More importantly, it is the one aspect of ownership that delivers priceless pride. Without question, you will hire your fair share of unmotivated duds, but there will be many employees that will become more than they ever dreamed possible under your leadership. It’s a gift of knowledge, drive, passion and performance that you pass on to a new generation. This alone is truly a reason worthy of celebration.
  2. You create livelihoods for employees and their families: Business ownership is so much more than generating profit and money. Employees help you grow a viable and sustainable company. As the company grows, incomes grow, benefits improve. Financial sustainability flows from your company to your employees and their families in the form of livelihoods. You will help many buy their first car and their first home. It’s all part of the culture of shared success and how your company provides for the wellbeing of those that make it work.
  3. What you envision, you can create: Damn, what more can any entrepreneur ask for than the opportunity to envision an idea and to bring that idea to life? You are the artist, engineer, builder, trainer, coach, pitch person, financier and head of maintenance for anything you can envision. You are the captain of your own ship and in control of your own destiny. Envision your business journey and go for it. This level of freedom of expression is truly worthy of celebration.
  4. You are the decision maker: The keys to launch ignition are in your possession. The “GO” button sits on your desk. Within the financial reality of your company, you can decide where and how to spend and invest. You can give raises to those that earned it and stop giving paychecks to those that didn’t. You can promote key employees and take them to their next level. You can expand your company or shrink it. You can cut expenses to protect profit. You can build cash reserves or live on the financial edge. Your company and your employees depend on your business sense and good judgement. Through it all, you are the decision maker which is truly a reason worthy of celebration.
  5. Sharing control and responsibility enables growth: Control freaks will always struggle to grow their companies. Why? Because they can’t let go of the controls. Because people can’t grow when they’re surrounded by roadblocks. The best teams are comprised of key players in key positions. These players possess the level of authority to control their area of responsibility. All share absolute clarity on the vision and the goals and the timelines. Empowered teams move and grow companies farther and faster. What an honor it is to lead such a team and truly a reason for celebration.
  6. If you don’t like it, you can change it: As the leader and owner, you can choose to complain about what you don’t like and point the finger of blame in all directions. Or, you can change what you don’t like and fix what isn’t working. OMG! Why waste time, money and drama tolerating what’s not working? Why identify a problem and not fix it? It’s your company. It’s your investment. It’s your personal guarantee on the lease and loans. Making tough decisions that may rock the boat may not sound like a reason to celebrate, but it sure as hell is. When you’re the owner, there is no “they” to fix it. You’re the owner. You are “they.” And that’s a reason to celebrate.
  7. The tighter your culture, the faster you grow: Culture is the collective thinking and behavior of your salon/spa. Cultures are made. More importantly, cultures must be carefully crafted (vision), systemized (structured), empowered (trust) and protected (leadership). Ultimately, your company’s culture reflects your leadership. There is no autopilot for culture building and maintenance. Culture building and maintenance is a daily responsibility that is nurtured by information flow and teamwork. Being able to build a culture that reflects your vision, values and work ethic is a massive reason for celebration.
  8. It’s never as bad as you think: Please reread reason number six. Things get bad when owners don’t pay attention. Things get bad when known problems go unchecked and manifest into major problems. If it looks like it has the potential to get bad, be the No-Compromise Leader your company needs and take action. If it already is bad, there is almost always time to fix it and heal your company. This “it’s never as bad as you think” reason to celebrate being an owner, means that you have the power to prevent or fix what’s broken.
  9. You can design your ideal job: The proceeding reasons to celebrate all lead to the simple fact that you can design your ideal job. This is your reward for doing the work and sharing control and responsibility. It’s your reward for all those years of giving your blood, sweat and tears to your company. Now you get to choose the work that you do best. To do the work that fulfills you. This is truly a reason for celebration.
  10. Profit is your reward: This reason is the most special of all. True, profit is simply a measurement of how well your company performed over a specific period of time. To me, profit is special because profit reflects something deeply personal. Sustainable profit symbolizes the many hard-fought victories and sleepless nights. Sustainable profit also means having the ability to build the cash reserves that provide a level of security for my company. Achieving and maintaining profitability represents so much more than money. It represents a very personal reason to celebrate, appreciate and give thanks.

Here’s my challenge to you: Take time to reflect on each of the ten reasons to celebrate being an owner. If your current reality for any one or more reasons wants you to do anything but celebrate, what are YOU going to do about it?

You have the power and authority to make every aspect of your business worthy of celebration. If you’re not sure how, or what to do, schedule a free coaching session with us. Find out how we can help. Take action.

Today, my job at Strategies is very different than the 35+ years I spent on the road, writing and creating content. I am proud to say that I am celebrating every one of the ten reasons that I just gave you. It was hard work that paid off. I live what I teach and coach.

Print this blog post and hang it where you can see it every day.

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  1. After 26 years in business I found that I had lost my pride And my passion for owning my own salon. I had resentment and trust issues. I didn’t even think I could hire an employee again because I was just not hiring the right people.I didn’t want to go to work, and when I was there I didn’t want to be there. All the blood sweat and tears of my years just seemed redundant. I had upset Staff ,disgruntled staff ,,and I didn’t know what to do. It seems only a few Employees weredriving me crazy. Other employees I had to fake to be nice and even say good morning. And those were my good employees.
    My Cash-flow challenges kept me awake at night.
    All I was doing was Fighting fires and problem solving and it just wore me down. I even forgot why I got into business in the first place. I made a decision before I read your article. That I needed to clean house. So I did and I have been questioning my decision for the last week or so and almost feeling depressed at what I had done but I needed to do something. After reading your article today 10 reasons to celebrate being a salon owner . I realized I had done the right thing ,thank you very much because it couldn’t have come at a better time. I know now That I made The right decision. I took control of my company. And even with in the last week our sales are up. I read all 10 of your points and again it was a wake up call for me I so needed it .again thank you for your strategies I read your articles all the time and I always learn from them. Thanks for helping out an old salon owner she needed it today.

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Soulshow Radio - Amsterdam

Het beste uit 45 jaar Soulshow!!

Ferry Maat's Soulshow, the legendary radioshow from The Netherlands, is on-air since '73 and was aired by Radio Northsea International, Tros Radio 3, Radio 10, ... See more Radio 538, Radio Veronica, Arrow Jazz FM and Sublime. Soulshow Radio is 24/7 classy classics, OldSkool radioshows & new soul/dance tracks.

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Or maybe not.  I am not the the first to blog about the difficulty of the holiday season.  Some people are saddened about who or what they have lost or what they never even had.  It is easy to think that everyone is having more fun than you especially if you compare social media post.

The last few years, I have struggled with getting into the Christmas mood.  Between moving, health issues, house construction, and moving again, Christmas feels different than my memories.  My first miscarriage and my first seizure also happened between Christmas and New Years.

But despite my feelings, the truth is Immanuel come to be with us. That is something to celebrate, but something we don’t feel like celebrating.

I could be a little help and quote 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always,” but I don’t like to take commands out of context.  “Rejoice always” is in a list of final instructions that also include:

  • Respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you
  • To esteem them very highly in love because of their work
  • Be at peace among yourselves
  • Admonish the idle
  • Encourage the fainthearted
  • Help the weak
  • Be patient with them all
  • See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone
  • Pray without ceasing
  • Give thanks in all circumstances
  • Do not quench the Spirit
  • Do not despise prophecies,
  • Test everything; hold fast what is good.
  • Abstain from every form of evil.

And after this list, we are told that the God of peace with sanctify us and make us blameless. God “who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (verse 24).”

I can not do this list by myself including “rejoice always.” He is faithful. He will help me to rejoice again and make me like Him. He can and wants to help you too.

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All About that Base? No struggle?

“The basic question of every revolution is that of state power. Unless this question is understood, there can be no intelligent participation in the revolution, not to speak of guidance of the revolution.” – VI Lenin, The Dual Power

Marxist Center, and especially its supporters in the Seattle area and to a lesser extent Philadelphia promote what they call the “base building tendency”, while we do not view this as a tendency it is important to engage with their published content and hold it up against MLM, seeking to understand its flaws as well as any possible positive attributes.

The main author behind this “tendency” is Sophia Burns, who claims that base building means avoiding both reformism and protest culture. We hope to provide and argument here that “Base Building” is nothing innovative and that the “dual power” ideas behind it, in essence, are reformism. DB Cooper summarizes Burns’ conception like this: “‘Dual power’, while not strictly synonymous, can essentially be understood as another term for base building; although it emphasizes itself as a political strategy for revolution, rather than a political methodology for organizing the working class, which base building can be defined as”; Cooper goes on to state that this ‘tendency’ “…emphasizes the need for revolutionaries to consciously and actively reject liberal narratives and modes of debate”.

We are compelled to agree with the last part, opposing liberal styles of debate, although “liberal” here does not conform to the Maoist definition, nonetheless we must be forward with our disagreements, and call for a public theoretical exchange.

The major point of contention with the “dual power” argument and Maoism are on the basis of Leninism: while Maoists fight for increased centralism, via its correlation with democracy, the “base building tendency” argues for decreased centralism, in essence falling into the age-old arguments that condemn all the major protest movements to spontaneity. According to Burns this means the “dual-power” conception “insists that each of them [“dual power” organizations] become self-sustaining and independent of our control as quickly as possible”.

This reveals both a negation of Leninism and a diffused power conception. Power being the central question of Maoism can only be understood in real class terms, not only is a decentralized dual-power a false formula, but it also lacks coherency about how this is established—for Maoists power is conquered through revolutionary war and class struggle; the avoidance of the  military question is a unifying characteristic  in the Marxist Center. In this regard, there is no meaningful demarcation between them and anarchists or social-democrats.

By rejecting any form of Party-building Burns has no choice except to fall into economism and spontaneity. The goal for them is to form these “dual power projects” which directly empower “the working, disabled, and oppressed people” avoiding politicizing and recruiting them into either a Party or a revolutionary mass organization. Marx, Lenin and Mao all were clear on the fact that trade union consciousness is the climax of these types of mutual aid organizations without the influence and leadership of the very formations that Marxist Center is in strict opposition too.  There is little to no argument made on how these “dual power projects” plan to cultivate class consciousness or take up a revolutionary program as their own, let  alone how they relate to and interpenetrate with the Communist movement. Let us turn to Lenin for an answer: “There can be no competition between a mutual aid society and a revolutionary circle; and when Revolutsionnaya Rossiya ascribes to the latter the determination to destroy the former, it is talking sheer nonsense. But if in this same mutual aid society there develops a certain political tendency—not to aid revolutionaries, for instance, or to exclude illegal books from the library—then every honest ‘politically minded’ person is in duty bound to compete with it and combat it outright” (VI Lenin, The Tasks of the Revolutionary Youth).

What is an even harder mistake to witness is that these “dual-power” theorists see the “empowerment” of the masses in irreconcilable contradiction with the needs of the proletariat to constitute for itself a political Party—to organize its most advanced expression—the Communist Party. In doing so they have posited the empowerment of the masses as fully divorced from the question of political power—their “dual power” opposes itself to class power.

While Marxist Center provides us with a nebulous “base building” and the vague “political revolutionary strategy of dual power”, Lenin’s thoughts on the topic come out in stark relief when discussing the revolutionary side of dual power opposed to the bourgeois power: “What is the class composition of this other government? It consists of the proletariat and the peasants (in soldiers’ uniforms). What is the political nature of this government? It is a revolutionary dictatorship, i.e., a power directly based on revolutionary seizure, on the direct initiative of the people from below, and not on a law enacted by a centralized state power”.

There are a few points that the great Lenin is making here which deserve some commentary: 1) he is specifically talking about forming a government, 2) the workers and peasants in  soldier’s uniforms speaks to both the militarized nature of this government as well as the masses which are formed into it, this is what Maoists call the New State and the Sea of Armed Masses, 3) Lenin leaves no room for doubt that dual power is won through “revolutionary seizure” meaning the conquest of power—taking it from the  enemy by force—that it is not something that is built exclusively through independent mutual aid organizations with no central push, no military and no Party.

Lenin lays out the characteristics of dual power, in both its militarized and mass aspects and we must quote at length:

“The fundamental  characteristics of this type are: (1) the source of power is not a law previously discussed and enacted by parliament, but the direct initiative of the people from below, in their local areas—direct ‘seizure’, to use a current expression; (2) the replacement of the police and the army, which are institutions divorced from the people and set against the people, by the direct arming of the whole people; order in the state under such a power is maintained by the armed workers and peasants themselves, by the armed people themselves; (3) officialdom, the bureaucracy, are either similarly replaced by the direct rule of the people themselves or at least placed under special control; they not only become elected officials, but are also subject to recall at the people’s first demand; they are reduced to the position of simple agents; from a privileged group holding ‘jobs’ remunerated on a high, bourgeois scale, they become workers of a special ‘arm of the service’, whose remuneration does not exceed the ordinary pay of a competent worker” [Our emphasis].

Lenin argues here for the construction of the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, the formation of a workers state which simultaneously fights the enemy and reproduces itself—this theory and  the central question of power forms the basis for the Maoist theory of Protracted Peoples War and its universality. What Marxist Center gives its followers is a domesticated house-broken version of “dual power” and “base building”.

Let us return once more to Burns who provides her definition of “dual power”. After explicitly stating that “dual power projects” are not initiated or led by the Party she goes on to state that: “Dual Power is both a type of institution and a strategy to change the world. Dual Power means new, independent institutions for people to meet their own needs in ways capitalism and the government can’t or won’t. Unlike nonprofits, where a board of directors (and usually wealthy donors!) makes the decisions, Dual Power institutions are created and controlled by the people they benefit. By developing them, people create a second kind of social, economic, and even political power, separate from government and capitalism”.

Without any discussion on armed struggle, its necessity or even its possibility, the author has jumped to cultivating a disorganized lot of nongovernmental bodies which can separate from capitalism and even accomplish political power!

This kind of economism holds a particular appeal. It seems scientific in its formulas and tries to rely on notions of good-will, that as long as the masses are being  provided for materially in some way, that they will respond by flocking  to such a  “dual power institution” with no threat of the (for some reason)  repugnant “communist recruitment”.

Never the less, this conception is reminiscent of Robert Owen, the target of Engels’ great work Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. The idea of wholly independent “cooperative societies” is renounced by Engels when confronting Owen: “He introduced as transition measures to the complete communistic organization of society, on the one hand, cooperative societies for retail trade and production. These have since that time, at least, given practical proof that the merchant and the manufacturer are socially quite unnecessary. On the other hand, he introduced labor bazaars for the exchange of the products of labor through the medium of labor-notes, whose unit was a single hour of work; institutions necessarily doomed to failure, but completely anticipating Proudhon’s bank of exchange of a much later period, and differing entirely from this in that it did not claim to be the panacea for all social ills, but only a first step towards a much more radical revolution of society” (Engels, Socialism Utopian and Scientific).

As quoted above, while these cooperative societies can prove that the merchant and manufacturer are unnecessary, they do not bring us any closer to political power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the abolition of the capitalist mode of production.

Burns discusses different types of “dual power institutions”, demarcating them into two main categories. The first being Alternative Institutions, which are, “worker owned businesses”, “neighborhood vegetable gardens”, “house-sharing projects”, and “community owned free-clinics”. The second being Counter-Institutions, which are, “Labor Unions”, “campaigns against a new Wal-Mart store”, “tenants unions”, and “planned parenthood defense group[s]”.

While Burns attempts to demarcate the “dual power projects” from NGOs, she does not hesitate to formulate them around the defense of an NGO (a bourgeois organization like Planned Parenthood) uncritically of course, while giving no mention to the need for any mass organizations, “dual power institutions”, or mutual aid societies coming to the defense of the revolution as Lenin insisted above. Both types of “dual power institutions” lack any and all mention of conquering terrain to organize independently of the bourgeoisie in any coherent way and both promote merely cultivating something on what is very much contested turf, through sheer will and a moral high ground, again lapsing into utopian socialist concepts already resolutely crushed by the  emergence of Marxism.  Further, no analysis is given to the class question of “labor unions”; they are seen without contradiction as a fighting organization—divorced from all  the  historical evidence to the contrary which proves them to have a capitulationist aspect, which in an imperialist country is its dominant aspect. All of Burns’ theory is contingent on bribing workers out of politics—NGOism to a fault.

“Dual power projects” are peddled in various different forms, from the ideas of Burns to the muddled musings of anarchist Scott Crow, in which “power” is constructed through similar cooperative engagement (staring small and mostly failing businesses, community organizations etc.) without conquest.

Burns and Crow might as well be preaching from the same pulpit; he states his conception of power thusly: “We can take care of our own security, we take care of our own food, we can exchange food with other people. We take care of our own health care. When I say build a clinic, or when I say build food security, I’m not talking about one clinic for 100,000 people. I’m talking block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood”. Of course he fails to elaborate how this plays out in the context of urban gentrification, mass incarceration, and predatory real-estate investment. He fails to mention how the masses and their organic institutions can compete for retail space, how they can defeat an aggressive police force and hold on to anything meaningful without force, conquest, and a grasp of revolutionary violence.  For both Burns and Crow the solution seems to be the formation of NGOs who hoist a red or black flag respectively.  Burns and Crow alike suffer the same delusion that power is just free for the taking, you just have to pull up your boot straps and stop being lazy. They act as if lack of power—meaning disempowerment and oppression—are not violently imposed. Understanding this imposition means we know that any question of power and of attaining power is a question of using revolutionary violence.

For Maoists, the question rests with real power centralized in the hands of the New State, not diffused power floating ephemerally above material conditions. We understand power as a result of conquest, built in class struggle leading up to armed struggle, with the development of militias and a Red Army which can defend these gains. For us dual power is not stagnant coexistence but part of an active war strategy. The New State exists in the form of People’s Committees which use a three-in-one combined leadership—that is one part Communist, one part masses, and one part military.

The General Political Line of the Communist Party of Peru succinctly lays out the Maoist position on the matter:

Thus taking the Party as the axis of everything, build the Army around it and with these instruments, with the masses in the People’s War, build the new State around both. That the militarization of the Party can only be carried forward through concrete actions of the class struggle, concrete military-type actions; this does not mean we will only carry out various types of military actions exclusively (guerrilla actions, sabotages, selective annihilation, armed propaganda and agitation) but that we must carry out mainly these forms so as to provide incentive and development to the class struggle, teaching with deeds, with these types of actions as the principal form of struggle in the People’s War” [Their emphasis].

The construction of the new State follows the fluidity of the People’s War, it can expand or contract, disappear in one place and appear in another. It is fluid.” [Emphasis original]

“‘Strengthen the People’s Committees, develop the Bases and make advances in the People’s Republic of New Democracy!’ That is the slogan which continues to guide its construction.”

“This is a process in which the old State is being destroyed and the contradiction old State-new State is being expressed. This causes all the political and military plans of reaction to fail and incorporates the masses into the struggle.”

And finally:

“[T]he People’s Committees are materializations of the new State. They are Committees of the United Front; led by Commissars who assume their State functions by commissioning [por encargo], elected by the Assemblies of Representatives and subject to recall [remoción]. They are, up to now, clandestine; they march forward with Commissions [con Comisiones], led by the Party applying the rule of the “three thirds”: One third of them are Communists, one third are peasants and one third are progressives, and are sustained by the Army. They apply people’s dictatorship, enforcement and security, exercising violence firmly and resolutely so as to defend the new Power against its enemies and to protect the rights of the people.”

All of the above advances from the positions held by Lenin and accords with dialectical materialism.

Burns, however, does not  grasp the dialectical process which goes on in all sequences of  destruction  and construction—subjectively only focusing on the construction aspect, she claims that: “By putting together a new system parallel to the current one, Dual Power can eventually provide enough of a second power base to totally replace capitalism.”

History has concretely proven that the capitalist class and the Old State which serve it do not cede ground peacefully and will not tolerate the simple construction of “a new parallel system” which in any way threatens its existence, if such a construction even could meaningfully threaten capitalism to begin with.  In fact, the very reason for the state’s existence is to suppress classes which could threaten the existence of the ruling class; Burns negates the existence of the state by assuming such pleasant construction could do away with capitalism.

While Burns makes a valid attempt at pointing out the shortcomings (as well as the positive aspects) of traditional activism she does not view the matter as a dialectical materialist in all of its contradictions and hence comes to an incorrect conclusion. Her main thrust is against organized leadership, positing all leading bodies of the masses as a hostile clique.

The suggested guidelines fall equally short and cannot look past material needs and meeting them with economism. Providing for basic needs and holding concomitant public meetings which encourage “participatory democracy” are not meaningful representations of actual power, and hence cannot challenge the power of the state.

Activism, instead of being viewed in the traditional sense, must be taken over by Maoists and all forms of activism—including pickets, protests, rallies, and marches—must be viewed mainly as a school of war, a place to hone fighting skills and embolden the masses. None of this is meaningful unless the masses themselves are drawn up into stable organizing bodies—which Burns no doubt would denounce as “front groups”. These revolutionary mass  organizations and Party generated organisms however are decisive in consolidating the most advanced masses  and training them to become Communists, Red Army soldiers, militia members or local new state administrators.  Through these bodies—and with the Party as the central axis—real power is accomplished. This conception gives respect and full play to both the destructive and constructive aspects, and thus the masses are able to fully express their infinite creative potential and embrace their right to rebel against reaction.

Other adherents to the “base building tendency” include Tim Horras of the group Philly Socialists, whose approach is more thought out and a better attempt at dialectical materialism than the conception of Burns. He views “base-building” and “mass  upsurge” as complementary along with “self-defense”. Like Burns, however, Horras comes to incorrect conclusions that often times lack self-critical introspection. He states that: “Large mobilizations, when successful, have a dynamic which activates the periphery of a social movement while exhausting and even burning out the activist core, the latter of whom have been working hard to prepare for the event and need to decompress after a big outing…at precisely the moment that new people need to be onboarded!”

A few points have to be made here, first is that the constant concern regarding “activist burnout” is a uniquely first world condition. This is due to both the influence of postmodernism and revisionism on methods of organizing, as well as the back burner treatment of ideology. It is almost laughable to think of advanced struggles led by third world Communists being threatened by “burn out”; if this was at all a factor massive historic events like the Long March, the Great Leap Forward, the battles of Leningrad etc. would be impossible. The same attitude which produces the “dual power tendency” is at play in burning people out and failing to ideologically steel them for the heavy task ahead while demanding a certain amount of labor; this is typical of all strands of economism. Massive protests on the other hand should accomplish a significant moral boost, proof that hard work and revolutionary organizing pay off — these should not be seen as the source of exhaustion.

Here we have two distinct view points and two distinct class stands.  The excuse that “decompression” is necessary simply neglects the role of ideology in serving the people—it is ideology which steels us into unrelenting servants, willing to make any sacrifice. While “self-care” is not exactly what is promoted here, the concerns come from the same petty bourgeois ideology.

Horras correctly states that protest hopping and waiting for the mass movement are not enough to become the sole focus, and of course he is right to expose the fact that much of the left is blinded by this exact pursuit, that something must be done sustainably in between each swell or mass uprising to establish real and meaningful links with the community and the working class. The positive aspects of this argument are already proven by groups Horras detests; the Red Guards organizations across the US, most notably in Austin, have in several short years been able to create a red movement and a diverse array of mass organizations that do not engage in protest hopping, but remain capable of taking the streets and outflanking the cops or bashing back against fascists and assorted reactionaries.  These organizations have proven speed and durability in the tests of practice, in part by facing heavy state repression—including serious injury and long potential jail sentences all while not suffering any “burn out” or requiring any “decompression”.

While on the surface it would seem there are similarities to the positions held by Horras and the Red Guards movement, digging a little bit deeper surfaces the main dividing contradictions, the very same contradictions that put Burns and Horras on the same team and more or less in the same category as Owen or Crow.  This becomes sharp when the hollow theorizing of self-defense is held up to actual Maoist practice in the US.

Horras states that: “As a final note, our trend unconditionally endorses the right to self-defense by the working class and oppressed communities. One of the central historical reference points for a socialist base-building project in the USA is the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. While we are not of the opinion we need to naively seek to recreate these and similar formations from a different time, we do think that their model, which incorporated elements of armed self-defense and service to the people, is an essential component of socialist organizing in our day and age”.

Horras only skims over the question of armed self-defense and does not analyze either the positive or negative aspects of the Panthers, resulting in lip service that cannot take a line on armed self-defense or service to the people and how these two came into contradiction within the Panthers.  What is worse than his sloppy treatment of the Panthers is that self-defense itself is not viewed with dialectical materialism—it is reduced to being nothing but the masses being forced to defend themselves; its other aspect, the offensive, is neglected. Armed propaganda of course suffers the same neglect.

Holding “self-defense” classes is nothing radical in and of itself, and is often divorced from politics. Capitalist society already has a slew of these classes for free and for charge. What capitalist society is strictly against, and what Horras and his counterparts systemically avoid, is that the masses must learn to make war by making war—must learn to fight by fighting—to reclaim revolutionary violence and make physical offensives as part of an overall defensive. No amount of free “community controlled self-defense classes” can provide this kind of practice, and at best could only complement a revolutionary program with a pedigree for combat.

The revolutionary line of constructing community defense militias and building the Red Army in embryonic form, leading to its realization as a force capable of waging Protracted Peoples War is not espoused by Horras’ regretful handling of the self-defense question. He shows an unnatural restraint here. Perhaps he desires going deeper into the matter but was bound by the topic at hand, or more likely was bound by a fear of seeming “ultra-left” a charge he himself levels against Maoists. Self-defense is always okay, in theory, but once the masses and militants grasp the axe handle, or the grip of a rifle — that is another matter. His counterparts in Austin hold regular self-defense classes but they do not fight physically against actual class enemies, in the meantime, Maoists are constructing fighting bodies and armed bodies as an expression of the right to self-defense.

The main conclusion Horras comes to is a call for respecting “a diversity of tactics”, this argument tends to fail to engage with the way in which tactics come into inevitable contradiction with other tactics and more importantly with revolutionary strategy. A diversity of tactics can also be a necessity in targeting different opponents in different conditions with differing forces, never the less a diversity of tactics in and of itself lacks the force of a conclusion and cannot stand in as a conclusion. Bad tactics are as diverse as good ones are, by simply arguing for a flattened vague “diversity” without demarcation between good and bad tactics, Horras and his counterparts spin their wheels, their “base building” gets hollowed out and reaches its natural limitations quite fast. What the Maoists seek to grapple with is two-line struggle, which can be organized according to a centralized strategy so that  the bad tactics within the diversity of good tactics can be culled in the interest of pushing the class consciousness of the proletariat further along the revolutionary path to socialism, cultural revolution, and ultimately to Communism.

As an example of bad tactics commonly employed by the US “left”, let us look at electioneering and the hoisting of third party “socialist” candidates, candidates who seek to legitimize the electoral system while pretending to criticize it. This tactic is not only undesirable but is counterproductive, as well, and must be combatted from a revolutionary standpoint.  We can understand many pacifist and legalist tactics similarly in the ways that they decrease, harm, or even destroy mass initiatives. It is correct to fight for a diversity of good tactics while at the same time demarcating bad tactics which will rout movements, campaigns, or actions or force them to tail behind the Democratic (or other bourgeois) parties.  “Diversity of tactics” becomes a hollow mantra so often repeated that many well-meaning people forget to even view tactics critically!

The rejection of strategy, including revolutionary strategy, military strategy and political strategy is the clearest shortcoming of those who uphold this so-called “base building tendency”.  To justify this avoidance the defenders of this line will undoubtedly use a variety of excuses, the “lack of a mass base”, the need to approach everything as it comes and an aversion to theoretical approaches to organizing are among many such excuses. The conclusion to “It’s All About that Base”, while summarizing Burns even argues that: “Rather than thinking big, their work should be centered where they have the capacity to cultivate a meaningful influence”.

Maoists assert that we can do two things at one time — we can both “think big”, that is act strategically with long term goals in mind, while at the same time develop sober assessments of our subjective capabilities and how to bring these up to match and contend with the concrete conditions objectively. This is part of conquering the mass support base and embedding ourselves in combat trenches; this requires a revolutionary ideology and a revolutionary attitude.

Mao summed this up well in Combat Liberalism:  “We must use Marxism, which is positive in spirit, to overcome liberalism, which is negative. A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless struggle against all incorrect ideas and actions, so as to consolidate the collective life of the Party and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses; he should be more concerned about the Party and the masses than about any private person, and more concerned about others than about himself. Only thus can he be considered a Communist” [Our emphasis].

What rings true in the above statement is that ideology and “big ideas” are far from being a negative influence on our work, but are foundational to it.

The conclusion to the  D.B. Cooper text asserts the very  valid point that small groups, especially ones that are just being established need to settle on a specific site of struggle, be it a warehouse or shop floor or specific community somewhere, the argument to go among the masses and carry out work is correct—but it is incomplete and, when taken at face value, divorced from the need to conquer a base area to have meaningful power established, thus falling short of its progressive intentions.  In all of the talk about a “specific contingency or area” no mention is made of how to materially carry out class combat—this is the main demarcation between the “base builders” and the Maoists who establish a mass base through concrete struggle in a trench of combat. This is no mere vernacular difference nor is it a matter of word choice, any reformist can settle on a “specific contingency or area”, in fact most NGOs already do this and divide the struggles of the masses among themselves fairly equitably, seeking to avoid conflict between them.

On the other hand, it takes a disciplined Communist organization to initiate a trench of combat. Maoists by approaching everything through contradiction, grasp well that the masses, popular neighborhoods, the workplace, etc. are always going to be contested terrain. Spaces where backward and progressive ideas come into sharp contradiction, where revolutionary, reformist, and revisionist politics will also come to blows. In any given sequence of struggle, in any trench of combat, the bourgeois and the proletariat will battle it out in an attempt to win masses behind whatever initiative, campaign or struggle is underway.  It is the Party itself which links these disparate struggles and unifies them into one singular revolutionary struggle. The Party alone can do this as it is where the most advanced are consolidated, where the few converge.

Without talking about the Party, and by leaving this question unanswered by Cooper and Horras and directly opposed by Burns, these “dual power projects”, “tenants unions”, etc., remain dispersed, as dispersed as the Marxist Center is, and as dispersed as their conception of “power” is.  Maoists on the other hand have articulated a far clearer position on the need to build the Party, to construct the United Front around it and to develop the Red Army to defend both. Much of the movements and events which produced the dispersed groupings in the Marxist Center have placed their birth marks on it. From the anti-globalization movement, to the anti-war movement, to occupy, BLM etc. the most common thing which hindered all of  these was an aversion to centralism, an aversion to discipline and a negation  of the Party form—in essence a rejection of the foundations of Leninism.  Anti-Leninism in the United States has taken on a gigantic “common sense” appearance: liberalism and postmodernism, as well as various forms of horizontalism have become the default sensibility informing the left and its directionless spiraling. At least these organizers attempt to break with the old worn-out activist model, albeit in an incomplete and incorrect way which shifts its appearance and approach but ends by making the same mistakes.

Our only conclusion is the understanding that what Lenin proved concretely in October of 1917 is still correct, that not only was it correct for him in that time, but its universal content was synthesized and replicated the world over, bringing the whole of the proletariat closer to revolution and more than half of it to power once the Chinese revolution was accomplished. A return to the principles of Leninism is in accordance with proletarian common sense, but runs counter to the petty-bourgeois and bourgeois notions of common sense. It should not be a controversial position at all that we must carry out better education on what democratic centralism means, and at the same time learn through practice how to implement it in a way which cultivates our movement and makes it stronger and healthier.

It would appear to most observers that it is the left itself which struggles the most with stubborn anti-communism, that the working class itself is not moved by the old fears of centralized Parties and military planning; the masses are not suffering from anti-communism in the working class neighborhoods—it is the left which still has this toxin in its system, which so fears the term and more importantly fears its essence expressed in the personages of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Gonzalo. For the people genuinely wishing to build a base among the working class, they are halfway between something good and something terrible; to make any meaningful steps forward they should embrace mainly Marx, Lenin and Mao. With this embrace they can truly break from old ideas and dare to think and act in new ways.

It is not enough to  try and replicate what was successful in the past, any return must keep in it the revolutionary desire for progress—this means applying the universal lessons proven in practice creatively to our present day conditions, in this process new socialist ideas emerge and old capitalist ideas meet their  end.  Sadly, the “base building tendency” is really not a new socialist idea, but an old capitalist one that seeks to sweep armed struggle off the agenda, make it taboo and forbidden to theorize. It is an old idea which opposes the best of Leninism but still traffics in some of its vocabulary and rhetoric.  Its positive aspects are completely embargoed by its negative aspects.

There is no other prospect as fulfilling and exciting as the initiation of armed struggle in the world’s worst imperialist superpower.  Embracing this necessity of armed struggle will not turn away the workers, but timid avoidance of the question most certainly will.  It is not denied that we must accomplish not only base building but base building as a result of conquest—by ripping power out of the clutches of the death system and bringing it to life in revolutionary base areas. Maoism is the culmination of the overall class struggle toward Communism, fellow travelers who insist that they must empirically come to understand every process, in  their subjectivism will only take the roundabout path to coming to correct ideas, along this journey they either become revolutionaries or committed to counter-revolution because  there are only these two options in the final analysis.  Sadly, the default anti-communist thinking of many in the left prevents them from just embracing the science of revolution, and leads them to conciliatory charity-type work.

The full document being criticized is available here.

Article by Kavga

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Fourth Sunday in Advent: Sunday, Dec. 23

Songs/Hymns for the Day

Fourth Sunday in Advent

  8:30am Contemporary Service

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

“Sing to the King”

“Christ Be All Around Me”

11:00am Traditional Service

#344 “On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s

#367 “Angels from the Realms of

#357 “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

#338 “Come, Thou Long-Expected

Old Testament Reading                                                          Isaiah 7:1–14

P    The Old Testament Reading is from Isaiah, the seventh chapter.

1In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. 2When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 4And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6“Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7thus says the Lord God:

“‘It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
8For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.)

9“‘And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.’”

10Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I

will not put the Lord to the test.” 13And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

P   This is the Word of the Lord.

C   Thanks be to God.

Epistle                                                                              Galatians 4:4–6

P   The Epistle is from Galatians, the fourth chapter.

4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

P   This is the Word of the Lord.

C   Thanks be to God.

Holy Gospel                                                                  Matthew 1:18–25

P  The Holy Gospel according to Matthew, the first chapter.

Glory to You, O Lord.

18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). 24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

P   This is the Gospel of the Lord.

C   Praise to You, O Christ.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

   Notes and News

Sunday           8:30 AM  Contemporary Svc.

11:00 AM Traditional Svc., w/comm.

Monday          3:00 PM  Christmas Eve Svc., w/comm.

5:00 PM Christmas Eve Svc., w/comm.

7:00 PM Christmas Eve Svc., w/comm.

Next Sunday  8:30 AM   Contemporary Svc., w/comm.

11:00 AM Traditional Svc., w/comm.

Pray this week for:

Submit a Prayer:

Cancer: Julia Munson, Nancy Pintar, Elaine Monette, Sue Etapa,

Lori Pemberton, Mary Ann Tervo, Julie Sutinen, Jim, Karen Donovan

Other Prayers: Jen DePuydt, Mary, Pastor Paul, Nancy Smith

Missionary of the Month: Rev. Gary Schuschke, Germany

Read Matthew 1:1–17 again and answer these questions:

  1. Recall several children’s Christmas pageants you’ve attended over the years. Were any of them perfect?
  2. Who are the four women in this list? Were any of them perfect?
  3. Why do you think Matthew’s “Christmas pageant” is less than perfect? Why is this good news?

  MISSED A SERVICE?  Watch archive sermons at

 Church Communications

Make sure to stay up to date with all that’s going on here!

  • Wednesday Morning Weekly Update Email

If you’re not receiving this, please email to be added to the list. Or, check your spam folder in your email.

  • Church App for mobile phones and tablets (Apple, Android, Windows, Amazon) Go to the app store on your device and search for “Saints Peter and Paul” and you’ll see it.

Thank You: We would like to thank all those that participated in the angel tree and helped give a blessed and wonderful Christmas to those families.

 Christmas Eve Services: We will have 3 Christmas Eve Services on Monday, Dec. 24th with communion at 3:00, 5:00, and 7:00 p.m.

 Sunday School Teacher Opening for Spring Semester: One of our beloved Sunday School teachers is graduating in December, and we are looking for someone to step in for the spring semester (January-May). For more information, please contact Abby Gehrke at

CSM –  Concordia student ministries or CSM is our college focus ministry based out of our student house at Michigan Tech. We have events every Saturday afternoon/ evening Bible study on Sunday nights. Come connect with other Christian college students and join us at one of our weekly events!

 The Life Outreach Center will be holding a December Diaper Drive from December 1st through December 31st. Please help support the families that we work with in our community by donating any brand and size diapers and wipes. There will be a drop-off box located at your church that you may place your donation in. If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call at 906.482.8681. We thank you ahead of time for supporting our ministry!

 Needed: People to help others with transportation: There are people in our church family who need help getting to medical appointments and possibly with other errands and I’d like to put together a pool of those of you who can help. It shouldn’t be “spur of the moment” so you would get a call as soon as I learn of the need. Please, if you could help with this type of care, call me at 487-6524 (leave a message) or email me at Thanks much, Lou Ann Vitton, Care Ministry Director

 Education Classes: There will be no Sunday School or Adult Bible Study on Sunday, Dec. 23rd or Dec. 30th.  Classes will resume on Sunday, Jan. 6th.

Confirmation Winter Camp – If you are in 7-8th grade we want you to join us for winter camp on Jan 11-13.  It will be a great time to build relationships, your faith all the while we are playing some broomball, tubing, cross-country skiing, campfires, and more!  The cost is just $125!!  Talk to Marcus ASAP as registration is due today.

TO ALL VISITORS ATTENDING WORSHIP THIS MORNING:  We are thankful that youare worshiping our Lord and Savior Jesus with us.  Part of worshiping our Lord is bringing our financial gifts in the form of offerings to support the ministry of Christ’s church.  As our guest today, please do not feel obligated to give an offering.  We are just thankful that you are here and hope you will continue to worship with us. Want to give your offerings online? Go to

 HOLY COMMUNION: In preparation to receive the Lord’s Supper, please ask yourself these questions: Have I confessed and repented of my sins? Do I believe that in this Sacrament I am receiving the actual body and blood of Christ, under the bread and wine, into my mouth, for the forgiveness of my sins? Do I share the confession and wish to participate in the unity of this congregation? Will I, with the Lord’s help, amend my sinful life? If you answer, “yes” to all of these questions, please join us for this blessed gift from God for our forgiveness. If you need a gluten free wafer, please ask the pastor when you are kneeling at the rail.

 SERVING: Ushers:   Christian Fitzgerald, Craig Sporalski,

Mark VanWagner, John Litzner (Early)

Jerry Smith, Jim Lahti,

Marilynn Dewald, Deb Olson (Late)

Elders:     Warren Weingarten (Early)

Tim Stites, Don Kuiper (Late)

Acolytes: Wyatt Jenkins (Early)

Logan Moilanen, Leah Motowski (Late)

Lay Reader: John Pemberton

Greeters: Bev Auel, Wayne Volk, Pauline Kokkonen (Early)

Roger & Janet Turpening, Elsa Strayer (Late)

Weekly Operating Budget Need $9,296
Last Week
Offerings $    7,767.00
      Other Income $       225.10
Total $   7,992.10
Year to Date Budget Need $455,504.00
Year to Date Actual $458,629.71
Year to Date Difference $    3,125.71

“Lutheran Hour” Radio Ministry, Sunday 8:30 AM, WHKB 102.3FM

Sun. 12/16 – (8:30) 200 + (11:00) 131 = 331

Office Information:

Monday-Thursday 8:30am-3:30pm |

906-482-4750 |

Pastor: Aaron Gehrke;

Director of Youth & Campus Ministry: Marcus Huff:

Preschool Director/Teacher: Jaime Schuldt:

Office Manager: Judy Fenske;

Facilities Manager: Don Kuiper;

Business Manager: Jason Auel;

Volunteer Ministry Staff:

Director of Care Ministry: Lou Ann Vitton;

Group Life: Rob Cooke;

Hospitality: Anne Cooke:

Community: Kerri Mayra;

Children’s Ministry: Abby Gehrke;

Director of Communication: Bryant Weathers:


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Plastic Slipcovers For Dining Chairs

Plastic Slipcovers For Dining Chairs

Plastic Slipcovers For Dining Chairs Ideas

A sofa basically may be a piece of furniture conjointly known as a couch.

If you re going to buy a settee bed, there are plenty of queries that are natural to come to your mind like:

Do you would like a massive sofa-bed for family pile ups or a sofa for guests? Could it block a door or radiator? Can it enable you to move around the space freely?

Various things that can be thought of whereas shopping for a settee are:

Space: Area is the foremost vital issue in shopping for a settee. When buying a sofa you should opt for the one that may easily match in your house without affecting other things. All folks would need to buy a large sofa on that three adults will sit comfortably. For a pair, strive a try of two seater sofas.

Shape: Form is additionally terribly necessary factor in buying of a settee. Based on shape, there are various sofas on the market in the market. Low back sofas are sensible for rooms having low ceilings, but they will not offer the rear support you require. High back sofas are a lot of supportive and snug, however they need larger house to fit in. Corner or modular sofas typically best match in the corners.

Fillings: What material is being stuffed in the sofa can massively have an effect on both comfort and appearance. Foam-filled sofas are most widely used sofas as they provide a firm feel and look. Feather-filled sofas are also in the market that provide casual, squishy feel, and will would like to be plumped daily to keep the sofa wanting at its best.

Color and Material of sofa: Color is also vital because it should match with different furnishings of your space like wall-paint, space floor, space furniture, etc.

It is also important to think whether you are going to purchase a lather sofa or a material sofa. It depends on factors like space of use of sofa and extent of use of sofa. Leather is sturdy, straightforward to clean and non- absorbent for spills and smells. Cloth, on the opposite hand, takes a small amount additional maintenance.

Accommodation: Whether you are having a rented accommodation or you own one, it additionally affects the kind of sofa you would like to buy. If the property is rental, you will have to make positive that your furniture isn t providing any dangerous effects on the floor or alternative rented stuffs, that may include fire retardant sofa fillings and coverings. You will purchase floor protectors in order to forestall your floor getting scratched.

Sofa beds: Sofa beds are notably helpful if you have a little living area. Strive to search for one that s easy to fold and unfold and conjointly build positive you ve got enough house for them to increase.

Above points will help you in taking decision of what type of sofa you must purchase. Assume carefully and deeply before making a final call on your sofa.

Plastic Slipcovers For Dining Chairs
Rating: 4.8 (4.8 out of 5)
Total votes: 144 (144 reviews)


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Courses in Australia

There are thousands of courses to study in Australia, with qualifications available at Vocational Education and Training (VET), undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Studying in Australia can lead to a wide range of career paths.

The following are some of the most popular fields of study chosen by international students coming to Australia:

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An Inspiring Passage by W. Somerset Maugham

Somerset Maugham’s novel The Moon and Sixpence contains an interesting passage. The following is a reflection on writing by one of the world’s most famous writers:

“It is a salutary discipline to consider the vast number of books that are written, the fair hopes with which their authors see them published, and the fate which awaits them. What chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude? And the successful books are but the successes of a season. Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours` relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. And if I may judge from the reviews, many of these books are well and carefully written; much thought has gone to their composition; to some even has been given the anxious labour of a lifetime. The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thought; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.”

Writing is a self-sustaining passion. Maugham makes this abundantly clear. He shows us that, in the end, we have to write for the sake of writing itself, if only to be authentic to ourselves as writers. The journey is, as they say, more important than any imagined destination.

One thought on “An Inspiring Passage by W. Somerset Maugham

  1. Reblogged this on The Grand Tangent and commented:

    This is a little thought on a literary quote by Maugham last year. (Early 2015.) While I initially wrote it on what was a school project, and otherwise a “throw-away” blog, I think that it’s still noteworthy, so I’m reblogging it here.

    — ES (VSC)

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Archive for the ‘Fresh Meat and Seafood’ Category

Born and raised a Catholic girl, I spent most of my life scrunching my nose at the mention of seafood. And I don’t think it was closed-mindedness. Rather, I blame Lent. When Lenten “sacrifices” involved eating fish on Fridays, I naturally assumed fish was some type of punishment. And it doesn’t help when the extent of my fish experiences involved fish sticks and canned tuna, and the unappetizing odor associated with both. Would I like fish for dinner? No thank you.


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Posts Tagged ‘nachos with jalapenos’

This post is about nachos. And only about nachos. Be forewarned. I’ll make it short and sweet. If you want to get delicious nachos on the cheap, anytime of day, go to Alejandro’s. Most of those 24-hour fast food Mexican places like Rene’s, Mexican Burrito, etc. don’t have cheese dip. And the chain fast food Mexican places like Taco Bell, Taco Pronto, Taco Bueno, etc. don’t have very good nachos. But Alejandro’s not only has 24 hour at your beck and call nacho service, but they’re delicious. And you can get a gigantic serving for $3.

Yes. Go.

Nachos with jalapenos. Más por favor.

See more pictures after the jump…


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How To Stay Moisturized During The Winter

Happy Wednesday! Do you all have issues with dry skin during the winter? I know I do. The air in St. Louis is always so dry in the winter, so my skin, lips, and hair always get so dry. There are a few extra steps I add to my daily routine to help prevent that. My daily/nightly skin care routine stays the same (you can find the post HERE). Here is a list of products I add during the winter:

Face Moisturizer
Aquation Daily Moisturizing Lotion: Since I have oily skin, when it tends to get warm outside, I never use a moisturizer on my face. It just tends to make my face look more oily than it already is. But in the winter, I always use this before putting on my primer. It takes away all of the dead skin flakes and makes applying makeup so much easier. Right before I bought this, my face started breaking out quite a bit (yay hormones!), but when I started to use this I noticed my face started to clear up! Let’s just say I will now be using this daily, even during the summer! Mostly because when I apply it, it doesn’t leave a greasy residue like most moisturizers do. Score!

Eye Cream
One product I always love to use is the Elf Illuminating Eye Cream. I put this on at night right after my night cream. My eyes always look more awake in the morning after using it.

Body Moisturizer
When my legs and arms start to get dry, I also apply my Aquation Daily Moisturizer. One good thing about this moisturizer is that you can use it all over your body, so you don’t have to spend money on a separate one. If I have a spray tan, then I apply Jergens to my legs to help with keeping the color looking fresh.

Body Wash
One product I swear by is the Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash. I have noticed a huge difference in my skin once I started using this! It truly helps with dry skin during the winter.

What products do you use during the winter to stay moisturized? Let me know in the comments!

15 thoughts on “How To Stay Moisturized During The Winter

  1. Great tips! I also have terrible allergies that end up showing on my skin so if I keep moisturized it really helps! I have not tried aquation, but will!! Sounds perfect.

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Transformation by Moonlight

I have always been a cat person, but these last few years, here I am with a dog. My kids knew the right buttons to push. If we didn’t take Shadow she was going to the shelter. Right away. Next week. And she was too old to be adopted, once there. I said we could take her until we found a home for her. I’m sure you can finish this part of the story without me.

Waiting for the next walk.

Waiting for the next walk.

Shadow has been in the family for about 5 years now. She is either 7 or 12, depending on which murky version of her past is correct. All my experience is with cats, and rabbits, who are a lot like cats, except in two dimensions – they don’t usually go high above the ground.

Dogs are not like cats. Shadow doesn’t want to think for herself. She wants me to tell her what to do. I want her to figure it out for herself. Not sure how long it might take to re-train me about this.

Shadow is a sweet soul who had difficult early years. It was before my time with her, but some effects are permanent. She has fly-strike bald patches on her ears (indicating neglect, the vet says), she is afraid of young children and petite women (abuse, we speculate), and she is unpredictably psycho around other dogs. She might be friendly, she might attack. She can switch from one attitude to the other in an instant.

I walk her twice a day, and sometimes she will lunge at a dog who barks behind a fence, with such force I am lucky to remain standing. She knows the lunges are forbidden but sometimes she can’t resist. No doubt my lack of dog savvy contributes to the problem. My aging joints are getting more brittle and someday I may have to stop walking her to avoid these jolts.

During a walk I am quite willing to reverse direction, or take her to stand on the far side of a parked car, when another dog and walker appear. Neighbors who have friendly dogs are oblivious, or amused by this. Neighbors with kindred dogs have similar tactics. There was one night when I stood behind a car forever, waiting for the other dog to walk by, then finally looked out at the same time as the other dogwalker – who had moved behind a car across the street, waiting for me to walk by!

I know all the routes that let me see whether another dog is coming around the bend, I know all the streets that are wide enough to let dogs pass by without incident. And I know the times of day when the streets will be heavy with dogs, or empty of them.

One benefit of psycho dog walking syndrome is that I have discovered the pleasures of a dog walk by moonlight on a summer night. When all the other dogs are inside for the night, Shadow becomes a lovely walking companion. When I can be comfortable strolling in shorts and sleeveless top around about midnight – that makes the daytime heat worthwhile. And when the moon is bright enough to cast shadows, magic ensues. Usually the shadow images aren’t dense or defined enough to show up well in my photographs. But one night recently, they were.

The photos below show the moon-shadows of a tree and a chicken-wire fence on a yellow garage door, transformed from mundane to mysterious. The dog was reasonably patient about my stopping to take the photos. There are things we need to accept about each other on walks. I stop to take pictures. She stops to sniff every frigging molecule in the universe. (One of us is more accepting than the other.)

Anyway, here are the photos:

2014-07-13 21.10.45

2014-07-13 21.10.36

The WP Weekly Photo Challenge was Summer Lovin’.

3 thoughts on “Transformation by Moonlight

  1. I saw six men kicking and punching the mother-in-law.
    My neighbor said “Are you going to help?” I said, “No, Six should be enough.”

  2. […] but have no reason to think twice about it? Certainly, I’ve always been fascinated by shadows and reflections and silhouettes – their ability to reproduce while distorting, maintaining […]

  3. Those are fine photos, and not at all easy to get. Very nice!

    Also the molecular sniffing part made me laugh. Thank you.

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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms

A few months ago Allrecipes asked me to develop a recipe using Diamond Crystal Salt and I came up with super yummy (and easy) Roasted Asparagus with Sea Salt and Parmesan.  I loved how it turned out- and that my daughter loved it too!

Well, since I helped them out over the summer they asked the other Allstars who created recipes and me to make a recipe from their collection.  There were a lot of yummy recipes on that list- everything from Easy Cashew Sea Salt Toffee to Salted Naan Sticks with Mango Chutney.  The choices definitely ran the gamut, but they all sounded so tasty!

In the end I decided to go with Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms- I was trying to stay at least a little bit on the lower carb end of things... and I'm a sucker for a stuffed mushroom.  :-)

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Mastering The Perfect Southern Breakfast Gravy

Once upon a time, 14 years ago, there was a girl in California that had never heard of biscuits and gravy.

In fact, she didn't even know gravy existed in any shade other than brown, and generally only ate it on Thanksgiving over mashed potatoes.

I know, crazy, right?

When I was 18 my best friend and I got our first apartment.  Literally two weeks after my 18th birthday we were out on our own.  It was then that I was first introduced to the idea of biscuits and gravy.

Sometimes she would make them for us on Saturday mornings.  Goodness we felt so grown up back then...we were babies!  But when we would have "the guys" grill for us on our itty bitty balcony, get dressed up and make lasagna and drink Arbor Mist (ugh), or sit around in our pajamas eating a real meal of biscuits and gravy on a Saturday morning we felt SOOOO grown up.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

An Ode to Pimento Cheese

Pimento cheese is one of those things that I don't know that I'd even heard of before moving to the South.  Do they even sell it in California?  I dunno.  Much like sausage balls, it was an amazing part of southern cuisine I missed out on for a large portion of my life.

Anyway, for years my husband has been dumbfounded by the fact that I've never tried it.  I've just never had the desire to try it...it looks funny.  It's orange and goopy looking.
Then came Tupelo Honey Cafe.

Tupelo Honey is a small, popular regional chain of restaurants that originated in Asheville, NC- one of my all-time favorite towns.

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I kicked off our anniversary weekend by having lunch at one of their locations.  Remember when I said I'd gone way off the diet wagon for a couple of weekends? Yeah...this didn't help.


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Timberwolves Defeat 4 Year Program Paul Smith's

Timberwolves Defeat 4 Year Program Paul Smith's

The Timberwolves hosted 4 year program Paul Smith's for a head to head battle and came out of the contest with a resounding victory.

They took a lead early as Cody Seaver led game 1 witha 244, followed by very good scores from Boyce ( 211 ) and Hollister ( 194 ). Alex King's 192 added to the score and gave them a lead to protect going into game two. Game two was another solid game from the Timberwolves top bowlers as Hollister led with a 214, followed by Boyce ( 211 ) and Seaver ( 209 ). The final game before baker games was more of a struggle and allowed Paul Smith's to close the pin gap as they fell to 923, their lowest score of the set. Hollister was the bright spot for the game at 235 and Boyce put up a 203, but no one else cracked 165.

The lead was over 200 pins going into the first game of bakers and the home team decided it was time to put the set away. They put up the best baker game of the year and blew the set open with a 232, over 100 pins more than their opponent. That set the tone for the remaining 4 baker games. The Timberwolves won 3 of the final 4 games and netted 189, 194, 203 and 167 to close out the 3,843 to 3,510 pin victory.

Final Standings:

  1. SUNY Adirondack
  2. Paul Smith's

Individual Scores:

  1. Hollister 643
  2. Boyce 626
  3. Seaver 613
  4. King 478
  5. Gervais 475
  6. Comitini 414

The Timberwolves next play at Schenectady on February 3rd and again on the 4th.


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On February 3, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers played in Super Bowl XLVII. This was a unique game because for the first time, two brothers were going head to head against each other as coaches. The final score of the game was 34-31 and it was played in the Mercedes Benz Super Dome.

The MVP of Super Bowl XLVII was Joe Flacco. Flacco ended up completing 22 of 33 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns. He was also the fourth quarterback “in a row” to receive the MVP title during the Super Bowl. The head referee of the game was Jerome Boger and there were 71,024 people in attendance for this Super Bowl.

The National Anthem was sung by Alicia Keys and the halftime entertainment was Beyonce. The announcers of the game were Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. The cost of a 30 second commercial during Super Bowl XLVII was $4 million dollars. CBS broadcasted the game and the total cost of a commercial for this network rang in as being the most expensive ever recorded in Super Bowl history.


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SuperCoach Tips

You Ask, We Answer.

Archive for the ‘The Teams – Big Changes’ Category

The Teams-Final Week 1

Posted by Josh on September 4, 2009

The Teams-Finals Week 1

The teams have come out for this round the games will be exciting and I’m sure that almost any team could win the big on this year. Hear are the games for this round followed by the big changes.

The big story is the amazing selection of Daniel Merret, Daniel Bradshaw, Josh Drummond and Simon Black who were all big doubts to play in this weeks elimination final against Carlton. Anthony Rocca has been named to make his long awaited return in there match verses St.Kilda and Essendon have lots of problems against Adelaide with there skipper Matthew Lloyd, Patrick Ryder and Sam Lonergan all suspended.

Good Luck to your team (if they made finals) 😛

Jotter Hawks

Posted in The Teams - Big Changes | Leave a Comment »

JotterHawks All-Australian Team

Posted by Josh on September 2, 2009

B.Goddard (STK)                                                             C.Newman (Rich)                                                            S.Gilbert (STK)

B.Lake (WB)                                                                       S.Prestigiacomo (Coll)                                                 M.Scarlett (Gee)

                                                        M.Clark (Bris)                                                                    G.Ablett (Gee)

                  N.Dal Santo (STK)                                                                                J.Selwood (Gee)

                                                        D.Swan (Coll)                                                                     L.Montagna (STK)

N.Riewoldt (STK)                                                            J.Brown (Bris)                                                                  L.Davis (Coll)

B.Deledio (Rich)                                                              B.Fevola (Carl)                                                                L.Franklin (Haw)

Interchange: M.Murphy (Carl), C.Enright (Gee), J.Brown (Bris) and R.O’Keefe (Syd).

Posted in The Teams - Big Changes | Leave a Comment »


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Thank you for purchasing the Super IT Solutions On-site Warranty. All Super IT Solutions computers are already covered by our standard 3 year part replacement warranty*, but this on-site warranty only covers manufacturer’s faults. It does not cover cleaning, normal wear and tear, damage caused by accident, neglect, misuse, improper installation or operation, acts of God, including but not limited to lightning flood earthquake and fire, power surge without Thor Technologies surge protection, computer viruses or infections, foreign matter entering the product such as liquid, moisture, insects or dirt or any damage caused from service, maintenance, modification or tampering by anyone other than Super IT Solutions’ authorised repairer.**

Operation of the product in excess of the specifications or intended purpose, use on electrical voltages other than shown on the rating plate, or use with the serial number or rate label removed, shall be deemed abuse and all repairs thereafter shall be the sole liability of the customer.

Should your hard drive fail:
This Warranty will cover the reinstall of the operating system and system drivers as per licence COA affixed to the system. Note: No user data or software will be recovered, transferred or reinstalled or configured.

Super IT Solutions trusts that you enjoy your new machine and the peace of mind this warranty provides. Free onsite parking must be made available for your Super IT Solutions technician at time of all job bookings. All other parking which incurs charges will be borne by the customer and included in the final invoice.

* Registration for the Super IT Solutions Warranty is only available within the first 30 days of purchase

** If upon inspection /testing of your system it is deemed not a manufacturers fault you will be charged for parts and labour. Super IT Solutions will make all reasonable efforts to correct the fault. The customer is responsible for providing safe access to customer’s site and products, and for ensuring that an adult representative is present while service is being performed. An additional charge will be billed to customer for: cleaning, general servicing requests and any products that are found not defective/faulty.


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The iGaming world has hundreds of online casinos to choose from, but 32Red stands out from the crowd purely for its stellar track record. 32Red offers players a vibrant platform that is constantly at the forefront of the casino world. The site offers hundreds of games, great bonuses and top-level security all to ensure the player has nothing but the best time. Furthermore, its licences come from Gibraltar and the UK Gambling Commission.

32Red Casino

150% Welcome Bonus
  • 24/7 Support
  • Live Casino
  • Pretty site
  • Sportsbook
New accounts only. Min. £10 deposit, debit/credit card and PayPal only. Up to 50x wagering, game contributions vary, max stake applies. 7 day expiry. See full terms.

Casino Ratings

Fast Payout

Release date
Gibraltar, United Kingdom
Mobile casino
Live casino
Number of games
Games Suppliers

Deposits and Withdrawals

Minimum deposit
Maximum withdrawal
No limits
Payment within
Payment methods
Bonus turnover
Free Spins bonus turnover
Support channels
Chat, Phone
Deposit methods
Visa, MasterCard, Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, Paysafecard, ecoPayz, Entropay

About 32Red

32Red was established in 2002, which has enabled it to move with the times, offering improvement after improvement. There doesn’t appear to be a specific site theme unless that theme is how they can help players win! The site itself is supremely easy to navigate and offers a whole host of gaming options and information, ensuring that all players know exactly where to find all of the options. There’s even a mobile app that players can download on order to carry the casino around with them.

32Red License and Security

32Red is licensed by both the UK Gambling Commission and the Government of Gibraltar. All online casinos are required to have a license from the jurisdiction they are in if they intend to operate legally. This also means that players have a safe environment in which to play, as the licenses require the casino to follow strict rules and regulations in order to operate. The security doesn’t end here though, as 32Red displays its payout records and the specific breakdown of winnings given to big players.

32Red Bonus

Online casino bonuses are one of the best things about playing on the internet. 32Red understands this draw and has provided bonuses that live up to expectations. There are a number of different bonus options available, and these depend on whether the player is new or is a returning customer. Many casinos will simply offer a welcome bonus, moving on to attract new players without rewarding existing ones – not so with the 32Red casino. All players are treated like royalty, making this a great place to stick around.

32Red Welcome Bonus

There are two parts to 32Red’s welcome bonus. The first part is a no deposit bonus where players will get a generous £10 deposited into their account simply for signing up. It’s a decent starter and enables players to check out the casino and its games before they choose to commit. Players that move on to make the first deposit are eligible for the match deposit bonus where they could get as much as £150 extra to play with – for every £10 made in the first deposit the casino will give players £15.

Regular Tournaments and Bonus Promotions

There are other promotions running concurrently to the welcome bonus. These can change all the time, so we do recommend that players sign up to the email newsletter offered by the casino so that the latest bonuses and updates will appear right there in the player’s inbox – they’ll never miss out on a lucrative bonus again! Additional bonuses can include bonus spins, extra cash and match deposits. There’s also a really lucrative loyalty programme in place, which can get players ahead that we’ll discuss in more detail below.

32Red Loyalty Programme

The loyalty programme, called Red Rubies Rewards, offers players the chance to accrue points simply for playing and making real-money wagers. There are five different tiers within this programme, and for each level, players must simply accrue a specified number of red rubies. Once 1000 rubies have been reached, players can redeem these for 10 casino chips, which can be played anywhere in the casino. Reaching the top level – Club Rouge – will see players get some serious extras including birthday bonuses, exclusive promotions and more.

32Red Games

32Red has hundreds of games at its disposal. The biggest selection is the slots, and these come in all shapes and forms. Thanks to the Microgaming software that operates the casino, the collection is constantly growing and expanding so that players are treated to an exciting range of options. Players can access the more simple, three-reeled classic slots, complex five reels (or more) video slots or even choose to try out the even more intense, but high paying, progressive jackpots that could see you win big on the spin of a reel.

Elsewhere the collection is also impressive. Players can choose between various roulette games in the virtual section – American, European and French are all present – as well as a good collection of blackjack and baccarat. Players can also access a decent set of video poker games including many of the popular titles such as Jacks or Better, All American Poker and All Aces. However, for soft game players, there is little to no choice here with scratch cards, keno or bingo options all absent from the collection.

32Red Live Casino

The live casino, on the other hand, is excellent. Players can, once again, play several different roulette and blackjack options with tables offering varying table limits to suit all budgets. There are also more unusual games present including Sic Bo, Casino Hold’em and Lightning Dice. There’s even a live Deal or No Deal, a Dreamcatcher and a Monopoly Live game, all of which simply add to the excitement factor and help players come together to enjoy their games and discuss strategies and big wins.

32Red Mobile Casino

32Red has made it their mission to ensure that players are well taken care of and one of the ways they do this is by offering a mobile app. Of course, their site is also fully mobile optimised for those that prefer not to have to download apps, but for those that like to carry the casino wherever they go, the app is the best bet. Each section of the casino has its own app, so players must make sure they get the right one. All are available for both Android and iOS.

32Red Payment Methods

There are numerous payment options available for 32Red players. The usual top options are here, including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Skrill and Neteller. Deposits are instant across all methods, but withdrawal times will vary. All withdrawals have a 24-hour pending time before they are processed. After processing, it will then depend on the payment method used as to how fast it turns up in the player’s account. Generally, the eWallets are the fastest method and will be that much faster if players have already verified their accounts.

32Red Customer Service

It may not seem so important, but the second something goes wrong, it’s crucial to be able to make contact with casino staff. 32Red offers 24/7 customer service via phone, live chat and email. The live chat is the best option for getting instant answers as players usually only have to wait a few minutes before one of the professional and friendly staff comes online to help out. There’s an extensive FAQ section that can be visited prior to making contact and this contains a number of answers to common queries.

32Red is one of the top casinos for a reason. Combining elegance and timelessness with a customer service that holds the player at its heart, this casino is definitely one to check out. The welcome bonus and, in particular, the loyalty bonus, really make playing here worthwhile. The selection of games is constantly growing so players will never get bored and all the while the security is top-notch, ensuring that players are safe and secure whilst they enjoy themselves.


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God’s All Grace for Your All-Sufficiency

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:”

~ 2 Corinthians 9:8 ~

Sufficiency necessitates purpose, goal, objective.  Sufficiency is means to an end.  The sufficiency spoken of in 2 Corinthians is provided by God’s abundant, all grace toward us.  The sufficiency, therefore, is completely adequate, suitable for the purpose in which God’s grace supplies for.  The sufficiency granted isn’t unto any purpose, but God’s eternal purpose in Christ.  Therefore, this sufficiency is “all” we need for this purpose.

Not Confused

Those “in Christ” have a dire need to clearly understand God’s all grace provision, its subsequent provision as our supply, its immediate application in this life, and its ultimate purpose in the life to come.  Each is a link in the chain of provision-use to God’s objective, God’s eternal purpose in Christ.  If we don’t understand God’s eternal purpose in Christ we can be easily confused about the sufficiency, about the supply – thus we will confuse God’s all grace abounding toward us.  Yet, the opposite is true as well, if we don’t understand the nature of God’s all grace abounding toward us, its sufficiency and supply for all things, then we can easily misunderstand God’s eternal purpose in Christ and our inheritance therein.

A Little Context

The context of 2 Corinthians 9:8, as well as, previous and subsequent verses set forth part of the motivation for the Corinthians to participate in a certain “experiment” (:13), a “administration of this service” (:12) that is to provide for the “poor saints which are at Jerusalem” (Rom. 15:26).  In other words, they were to participate in a “work” of giving their “carnal things” and possess a godly motivation to do so.  This motivation is to stem from God’s provision to give and love now but to also have a “righteousness” that “remaineth for ever”.  Therefore, the Corinthians were to participate in a “carnal” operation with glorious results – eternal results in the life to come.  Invest-sow carnal things now, by God’s grace, to reap eternal fruit.

God’s All Grace Abounding Toward You

The dynamic of God’s all grace is His power that He abounds toward us to be our sufficiency and supply to do that which He instructs, for His eternal purpose.  In this process of hearing and learning, then proving and doing we have the privilege to be “workers together with Him” and as we do work together with God the work becomes a token that we have “receive[d] not the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor. 6:1); that is, God’s gracious supply for our sufficiency to work with Him and it be of Him.

Fascinating enough when Christ came to this earth during His earthly ministry John describes that “the Word was made flesh” and He was “full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14).  Therefore, this was “grace for grace” and “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:15-16).  God’s all grace toward us is – Christ.  In Romans 8:32 we are to be persuaded that God “with Him [Christ] also freely give[s] us all things?”

All of Christ He gives us, but what does He really mean?  How is it that Christ can be “toward us” and becomes our supply and sufficiency?  How can the second member of the Godhead be “toward us” “in all things” “that..we may abound to every good work”?

It is His mind influencing our “will”, His mind, “that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).  It is “the image of Christ”, “who is the image of God” shining in our hearts to “give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).  It is the Spirit teaching us the deep things of God in Christ that we may know Him.

Always Having All Sufficiency

We come to know Christ by the living Word of God – by reading, studying, listening, and learning the Bible.  We come to know Christ and His mind – line upon line by basking in the Word of God.  It is then His mind within us that becomes “the excellency of His power” (2 Cor. 4:7) a “performance” (2 Cor. 8:11), a “to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Php. 2:13).  The Word of God contains His gracious provision of the mind of Christ that it may be “God which worketh in you” (Php. 2:13).  Thus Christ becomes our “all sufficiency” our “supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Php. 1:19).

Moreover, by Christ “all things were made…and without Him was not any thing made that was made” (Jn. 1:3) and all things were made “for Him” (Col. 1:16).  All things, therefore, work together for His purpose, that is, His Word in all things, for all things.  Thus this “all sufficiency” is unto us, for us, and for our use “always”.

All Things

Sufficiency in all things is God’s adequate provision in all things that make all things profitable instead of vain and useful to God’s eternal purpose in Christ.  All things in this life are all the various relationships, scenarios, situations, circumstances we could ever be in, to work for and toward all things in the life to come, thus fulfilling His eternal purpose in Christ.

Your marriage, your parenting, your childhood, your church, your business, your work, your supervision at work, your subjection at work, your government, your paying of taxes, your nation, your neighborhood – nothing is excluded.  Our “always having all sufficiency” is to be worked “in all things” that we may: 1) abound to every good work, and 2) have such righteousness that remains forever.

Abound to Every Good Work

No thing is excluded in these lives for His grace to touch, for His grace to influence.  First, He supplies His grace that we might “[have] all sufficiency”, to then bring “all things” godly profit.

Righteousness that Remains Forever

The other side of the coin of “all things” is that His sufficiency toward us “may abound to every good work” in this life, but also such “fruits of…righteousness” (2 Cor. 9:10) “remaineth for ever” (2 Cor. 9:9).  These “fruits of…righteousness” are of use, suitable and profitable for His “mighty power” in the “principalities, powers, mights, thrones, and dominions” “in heavenly places” in the “life to come”.

Therefore, there is nothing that God hasn’t given to us in Christ to fulfill His eternal purpose in Christ.  We have contained in the Word of God, Christ; to know Him and live His life, which is our sufficiency in all things to abound to every good work and gain the profit of being profitable for God in this life and in the life to come.

Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher

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Back up to the Configuring Category

From AAISP Support Site
Revision as of 01:05, 18 August 2018 by Reedy (talk | contribs) (clean up)

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This page describes the various account logins and passwords that apply to our various systems. Different systems have different levels of password security depending on the requirements.

When changing passwords always be sure to use a secure password! Most of our systems have a 'Generate Password' button which you can use if you wish. The Information Pack contains some of your account details.

Click the 'Expand' link to view the details.