Book Review: "Out Live Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference" by Max Lucado

Book Review: 

"Out Live Your Life:

You Were Made to Make a Difference"

by Max Lucado

                   

Hardcover                                   Kindle

16 Super Chapters. Or Super Dee Duper, as my niece might say.

I read a chapter a day.

Max Lucado takes the first chapters of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, a.k.a. the Book of Acts, but really the Book of that Acts of The Holy Spirit Working Through the Apostles and from those passages of Scripture as well as others, he demonstrates how we can out live our lives.

What will you do after you die? Whom will you help? What impact will you have on others?

The way to out live your life is by improving and rescuing the lives of those in need.

Near or far.

Those you see, in your neighborhood and hometown.

And those you don't see, in distant parts of the world.

We were made to make a difference! Not to get saved and forget about everybody else. And not even just to herald the Salvation Message to everyone we meet. We were made to feed the hungry, aid the destitute, help the oppressed.

An accomplished writer Max weaves modern stories and "parables" throughout his narrative to make his point. To illuminate Scripture.

I enjoyed the book. To me, it's like listening to the Michael Jackson song "Heal the World", which always makes me want to do something nice for somebody.

Click Here for the Official "Heal the World" YouTube Video

I apologize that my insomnia last night leaves me in such a stupor that I'm unable to articulate properly how powerful this book is.

Helping others is more than a great idea, more than the right thing to do, it's the command we have from Christ. When Jesus divides the sheep from the goats, the sheep aren't necessarily the ones who sang in the choir or had perfect attendance in Sunday School. The sheep are those who loved Him by loving others, by loving and helping the unlovable.

Blessings & Joy,
Dean

Yummy Healthy Pancakes

Dean Burkey's Cashew Oatmeal (Patent-Pending) Pancakes®©™

Vegan-friendly. Which also means vegetarian-friendly too. This should even be Gluten-Free, if you use European oatmeal. We're not as strict with keeping our grains from mixing together in our silos and such. But at least our women use deodorant and shave their armpits. And their legs.

God Bless America!

You can choose to use Gluten-Free oatmeal:

Special thanks to Ani Phyo for the great pancake recipe that inspired my version.

And special thanks to Rach and Me for inspiring me to tweak recipes.

(For more info on that, see my blog: Raving about "Rach and Me")

I use a scoop from a protein mix to make this.

But I'll convert the recipe into ounces, so you won't have to wait until the protein mix arrives to try this truly tremendous treat. ;o)

Dean Burkey's Cashew Oatmeal (Patent-Still-Pending) Pancakes®©™

Yummy, yet healthy! Easy to make. Easy to enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 ounces raw cashews

4 ounces raw oatmeal

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 ounces spring water

1 banana

Pure honey or 100 % maple syrup: 

However much you want!

(Within reason; or this'll no longer be healthy.)

(1) Spray a square griddle with cooking spray. Canola oil is healthy. (Or less unhealthy. Whatever the case may be.) To avoid the dangers of oil, especially oil sprayed from a can, consider using a non-stick griddle:

And be sure you use a griddle; and not a girdle. (Don't ask.)

(2) Set the stovetop to Medium Low.

(3) In a blender, chop the cashews into bits. Or smithereens. Whichever you prefer.

(4) Add the oatmeal and blend that with the crushed cashews.

(5) Add the cinnamon and water and blend that with the cashew/oatmeal mixture.

(6) Chop the banana.

(7) Put the chopped banana in the blender with the rest of the mixture; and hit Liquefy! Blend thoroughly.

(8) Scoop the goop (the well-blended mixture) onto the heated griddle into three tasty clumps.

Technically, you could skip Step 8 and the following; and just eat the delicious "dough" raw. But then you wouldn't be making pancakes, you'd be making drippy play-dough. Playdough that you can eat or throw! But that would make a mess; and you'd feel silly greasing the griddle and heating the stovetop for nothing.

(9) Using a spoon, smooth out the clumps into three circles. Or ovals. Or trapezoids. Whichever you prefer.

If you make one big circle with two smaller circles on the top right and top left (each) of the bigger circle, you can create your own Hidden Mickey.

(10) With the griddle heating while you prepared the mixture, the griddle should be warm enough to let the pancakes cook on one side for about 10 minutes.

(11) Flip the pancakes over; and cook for additional 5 minutes.

Cooking times may vary. The pancakes will look firmer and should emit a sensational cinnamon scent when ready to be flipped.

(12) Flip the pancakes onto a plate; cover with pure honey or 100 % maple syrup; and enjoy!

If so desired, sprinkle a dash of more cinnamon onto the top pancake.

This contains no high fructose corn syrup, no added sugar, and no animal products, making this a healthy vegan treat.

The healthier option is to use only organic ingredients.

To be even healthier, run several sprints before eating, so your metabolism will be high.

Also, drinking 8 to 12 ounces of water will help you eat less.

In retrospect, I should have taken a picture, but I ate them before they even cooled down.

And before I went to the store to buy maple syrup, so I used honey with a dash of cinnamon on top.

The cashews provide protein; the oatmeal, fiber; and the bananas, potassium. Cinnamon adds flavor and helps diabetics. Honey/maple syrup add sweet flavor. And we need water to survive, so you can see how healthy these ingredients are. Unless you over-indulge.

As with most things in life, moderation is important. If you do over-indulge in this delectable delight, then check out my blog: Most of What We've Been Taught About Weight Loss Is Wrong!

I cooked mine, but if you want to incorporate raw food recipes into your diet, be sure to buy:

For other delicious recipes that aren't necessarily raw or vegan, check out these great cooking blogs:

Rach and Me

and

Stepping Back In Time With My Cherished Cookbooks

Please let me know how this turns out for you, when you try this delicious delectable delight!

Think of at least three things for which you can give thanks today.

Blessings & Joy,
Dean,
Your Friend, the Author of "Holy Laughter! Humor in the Bible" and "Monster Laughs", and the Inventor of Dean Burkey's Cashew Oatmeal (What's-Taking-That-Patent-So-Long?) Pancakes®©™

Most of What We've Been Taught About Weight Loss Is Wrong!

Most of What We've Been Taught About Weight Loss Is Wrong!

Yes, wrong. Meaning inaccurate. Incorrect. Erroneous.

Or as my late cousin used to say: Wrongo in the Congo!

I wondered why my weight-loss efforts proved futile.

Wrong Teaching à Wrong Thinking à  Wrong Actions à Wrong Results

Improving your results starts with improving the teaching you receive.

Sometimes we learn from our own mistakes, but the best way to learn is from someone else's mistakes.

That is, from people who made mistakes until they finally corrected those mistakes, got it right, and can teach you what they learned.

In a Free Video, a former Army Soldier reveals the # 1 Worst Food That Causes Weight Gain!

Workouts That Last Than 15 Minutes. No Weights. No Starving. No Counting Calories!

To learn the Dirty Little Secrets that the Dieting Industry doesn't want you to know (because if you knew them, you could lose the weight you want to lose and wouldn't need their products and services), click below and watch the free video:

Free Video

Watch now before the video gets taken down.

For best results, participate in the program:

The 31-Day Fat Loss Cure

With its iron-clad guarantee, you have nothing to lose!

Except fat, weight, and low self-esteem.

Blessings & Joy,
Dean

Raving about "Rach and Me"

Within the past three quarters of a year, my sister has transformed into a master chef! And she shared her progress with humor and advice, wit and charm, in her blog:

Rach and Me

Oftentimes she gives tips on how to tweak the recipes she shares.

Maybe she’ll suggest half a lime, because Texas limes are so big. Or she’ll suggest using something instead of something else. Sometimes, simply because she doesn’t have the first ingredient. Or maybe that ingredient doesn’t suit her taste. So she’ll try something new; and then share her results with her readers.

I’m not much of a cook. I used to just add cinnamon and honey to everything I made. Delicious, to be sure, but not much variety.

Lately, I’ve been keen on the raw vegan diet.

I worked out at the Lake Miriam gym recently; and down the strip is a mini-branch of the local library, so I looked inside to see what I could find. I checked out “Ani’s Raw Food Essentials” by Ani Phyo, the author of “Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen”.

Obviously, not a “cook” book.

The cover says: “Recipes & Techniques for Mastering the Art of LIVE FOOD”.

Part of me reads that and thinks: Ew!

Because it sounds like they bite the heads of live chickens.

And that’s if you’re lucky. Could be worse. Could be rodents.

And not the tasty kind either.

But obviously, she means raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, which happens to be “The Halleujah Diet” too.

I thought I could glance through the book to see what spices she uses, so I could dash some of that onto what I eat to give my palate some variety.

While perusing through the pages, I found a recipe for pancakes!

Raw pancakes?

I saw the recipe for pancakes and checked the cover. Yep, it’s supposed to be raw food. And technically, I guess it is. She doesn’t cook the batter, she “dehydrates” it. For seven hours!

Two things were wrong right at the start.

I don’t have a dehydrator.

And I don’t want to wait seven hours!

The third problem was that I didn’t have or want all the ingredients.
So I made my version of the recipe, substituting oatmeal for flax meal and sunflower seeds for Brazilian nuts.
And I cooked them on the stovetop on Medium Low heat instead of dehydrating. When you’re hungry, Medium Low heat takes long enough! But that’s still quicker than seven hours.

I wasn’t even sure that would work, but I went back into the kitchen and could smell the cinnamon.

They tasted delicious! Next time, though, for fun, I’m going to replace the sunflower seeds with cashews.

And I’m going to need to get some maple syrup!

I didn’t have any, so I tried olive oil on one. Not recommended.

Honey on the others. Sweet! Way better than olive oil. (No offense to the love of Popeye’s life.)

(Ani Phyo's recipe for syrup was on a different page than appeared in the magazine article featured on her website.)

Ani Phyo's website

Ani Phyo's Pancakes

I had fun; and I enjoyed a delicious treat!

And I wouldn’t have tried any of that, if not for enjoying my sister’s blog so much.

Check it out. I'm sure you'll enjoy it too:

Rach and Me

Thank you Lisa for inspiring me to attempt new culinary endeavors.

Blessings & Joy,
Dean

Book Review: “The Known Unknown Secrets” by Yong Ho Nam

Book Review:

“The Known Unknown Secrets”

by Yong Ho Nam

I had high hopes for this book. But maybe my hopes were too high.

I blame the hype.

This book claimed to prove that God, The Bible, and Jesus are all real and true. The author offers several reasons why he believes and helps those who believe feel good about believing. We don't have a blind faith.

But proof? I don't think he proved anything. Except that he needs to learn how to write novels.

Besides not living up to his self-created hype, the other obstacle the author faced was the language barrier. Clearly, English is his second language. As such, several grammatical mistakes, misspellings, misused words, etc. convolute his writing.

Worse too, he prefers passive verbs, not active. He tells, not shows. And he crowds the book with expository material wherein he attempts to prove the tenets of his faith.

But then again, those expository chunks were the reason I bought the book.

He weaves a tale of a pastor chosen by God to protect a boy who will become a great Christian leader. From whom must he protect him? From the CIA agents enlisted by the Devil to kill the child.

That premise gives the Devil too much power. The author via the pastor, known only as Pastor Y, states we can know God wrote the Bible, because of it's fulfilled prophecies, because only God can accurately predict the future. So then, how does the Devil know the future of the boy? And if the Devil knows that much, how does he not know enough to tell the assassin, known only as the Devil's killer, where the pastor and the boy are? How can the Devil know the future if he doesn't know the present? That made no sense.

And believe me, I found the characters' lack of complete names annoying. Yes, referring to each character by who he is does help the reader keep track of who's who, but it'd still be nice if they had names.

I didn't like how the author referred to the GDs and the CRIPs like I should know who they are. Not until well into the book doesn't he offer some explanation. And he may have explained the OG, but I don't recall what that means. I also felt confused. The pastor was supposed to have come out of a treet gang where he had been a drug dealer, but then the street gangs seemed to be Christian organizations? Maybe I misread something; or enough wasn't explained.

I like the title "The Known Unknown Secrets". I find self-contradictory titles to be fun.

But not self-contradictory plots.

I don't regret buying the book. I don't mind risking $8 to find proof that Jesus and the Bible are true. (As mentioned in my last blog A Novel That Claims to Prove God, The Bible, and Jesus Are Real, even John the Baptist and the disciples had doubts, so what chance do we have?) What price can one put on one's soul? Proof would truly be priceless.

Sounds a little like a "Master" Card commercial:

Computer: $800

Ebook: $8

Proof of that Jesus and the Bible are true: Priceless.

With proof, I'd be better able to make Jesus my Lord and Master.

In the meantime, I'll do the best I can with the faith I have.

I believe the author did the best he could with his language barrier and wrote the best he could. And from a good heart, with good intentions. The story had some fun moments. Writing a novel isn't easy, so I give him kudos for a valiant effort.

Plus, sometimes I can learn more about writing from a badly written work where I realize what the writer should've done as opposed to a well-written work where I wonder what the author to create such a brilliant.

Besides, I actually enjoyed the expository chunks. I learned that Asian countries convert to Christianity more readily than other cultures, because the life rules of Christianity are so similar to Confucianism. He also explained how the cruelty of Japanese soldiers made that country odious to other Asian countries. As well as offering his "proofs" of the Christian faith.

So I found it worth the read. And I learned some things. Which is about all you can ask from most books anyway.

The book is an ebook, a PDF file of 265 pages, but the book itself must be much shorter, because there are often large gaps between sections of text.

I appreciate what the author set out to do, learned some things, and had some fun along the way.

If you want to "enjoy" the book for yourself: Click Here!

If you'd rather laugh and celebrate humor in the Bible:

Or save money with the Kindle edition (if you have a Kindle):

Or if you'd rather not contemplate religion too much and just want to laugh with a funny novel with lots of monsters:

Sorry, no Kindle version available for that one.

Blessings & Joy,
Dean

A Novel That Claims to Prove God, The Bible, and Jesus Are Real

"The Known Unknown Secrets"

I've come across a lot ads on the Internet, but never one like this:

A Novel That Proves God, The Bible, and Jesus Are Real

A novel that proves Christianity is true, instead of trying to discredit it? So what is that? The opposite of "The Da Vinci Code"?

That's quite a claim too! But if it's true, this will be the best $8 I ever spend.

Who wouldn't want proof?

Even John the Baptist doubted; and he baptized Jesus, saw the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove, and heard the Father declare from Heaven: "This is My Son, My Beloved, with Whom I am well pleased." How do you experience that and still doubt?

According to the Gospel of Matthew, even some of the disciples at the Ascension of Christ doubted. They spent at least three years with Jesus listening to His profound teaching and watching His amazing miracles. They watched Him suffer and die. And then they spent time with Him after His resurrection. And even after watching Him ascend into the sky; and this was long before jetpacks; they still doubted.

So then what chance do we have? Two thousand years later. Reading about those events in the Bible. What chance do we have?

Do you remember this scene from the 1975 movie "Jaws"?:

Hooper: "Martin, there are all kinds of sharks in the waters you know? Hammer heads, white tips, blues, makos and the chances that these bozos got the exact shark"--

Martin: "Oh! Now there's no other sharks like this in these waters!"

Hooper: "Martin, Martin, it's a hundred to one. A hundred to one. Now I'm not saying that this not the shark"--

Martin: "Come on!"

Hooper: "It probably is Martin, it probably is! It's a man-eater, it's extremely rare for these waters, but the fact is the bite radius on this animal is different than the wounds on the victim. I just, I want to be sure. You want to be sure. We all want to be sure. Okay? Now what I want to do is very simple. This digestive system of this animal is very, very slow. Let's cut it open, what ever its eaten in the last 24 hours is bound to still be in there. And then we'll be sure."

Martin: "May be the only way to confirm it."

And so, by buying this book. I'm cutting open the shark and peering inside. And I hope to find a lot more than a Louisiana license plate.

$8 is less than a first-run movie at night. Less than a large pizza. Less than 3 gallons of gas. Less than a decent haircut. Less than something that costs $9 or more. You can't put a price on your soul, but $8 to help ensure my eternal destiny sounds like a great deal to me. Besides, being a novel; it might be a lot of fun too!

If you want to join me in this adventure:
Click Here!

Blessings & Joy,
Dean

Book Review: “90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life” by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey

Book Review:

“90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life”

by Don Piper
with Cecil Murphey

I’m glad I read the book.

Pastor Don Piper chronicles his death, resurrection, and long road to recovery. I had hoped the book would be all about the 90 minutes though. That would’ve been cool. But he repeatedly reiterates his difficulty in expressing the inexpressible. He expresses some, but not as much as I wanted. I, like you, have many questions about Heaven: Who tunes the harps? Do the cool late night TV shows come on earlier? And, most importantly, are there rivers of chocolate?

The man died in a car wreck. His car got totaled. And so did he. Mangled. He shouldn’t have survived. In fact, he didn’t. He died.

Game Over.

Until another pastor (Dick Onerecker) in the long line of cars backed up behind the accident, got out of his car, and came forward to pray for whomever he could. Everyone else was unhurt. And Don Piper was dead. So it seemed like the pastor had no one for whom he could pray. And yet, God urged him to pray anyway. So he did. For quite a while. He prayed. And he sang hymns. During a rousing round of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”, the pastor felt astonished to find himself no longer singing a solo. The no longer dead Don sang along.

The pastor rushed out of the mangled car to tell the EMT in charge, but he didn’t believe him. He knows a dead man when he sees one. And Don was dead. And the EMT refused to believe he no longer was. Finally, the EMT agreed to check the dead man, because the pastor promised that if Don wasn’t alive, he’d stop pestering the EMT. And what do you know? He found a pulse, where previously there had been no pulse. No pulse for 90 minutes!

The book is a fascinating testament to the power of prayer. Don Piper recounts how he wished he hadn’t come back, because he left the glories and splendors of Heaven to suffer with constant pain and limited mobility. But despite that, or rather through that, and because of that, Don finds a purpose for his being here. God brought him back, so He must have a reason for his being here.

Don spends a chapter or two on Heaven, but the rest deals with his coping with “the new normal” he faces. As painful as all that sounds, and was, this is a powerful and moving book of faith, hope, and encouragement. Contains some fun moments too, like the mystery of his clasped hand.

God answers prayer.

Blessings & Joy,
Dean