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Coffee Break – 01.12.2015

How has the weather been where you live? The past several days have been pretty cold around here. So grab a cup of hot coffee and enjoy this week’s selection of links.

Coffee Break

7 Easy Tricks To Make Your Coffee More Eco-Friendly – In a day and age where people are concerned about our environment, we strive to use less, recycle, or upcycle. But how does this affect our coffee consumption? Here are some ways that you can be more eco-friendly and still enjoy your favorite beverage.

19 Secrets Of UPS Drivers – I love it when UPS or FedEx pulls into the driveway. I can hardly wait to see what they are bringing me. Here are a few facts about those guys and the work that they do. I never realized many of these. It makes me see those drivers in a whole new light.

Why It’s So Hard To Catch Your Own Typos – As a writer, I tend to get a little frustrated when I realize that I have published something with a mistake. It is incredibly difficult to spot your own typos. One solution is to have someone else proofread, but that isn’t always a viable option. Regardless of how you combat this, here is a look at why it is so difficult.

Between Days – This is a short documentary about a Bosnian couple who had been married for fifty years. Due to a series of strokes suffered by the wife, they had to live separately. This a touching story depicting the brevity of life.

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Memorize Scripture: Titus 3:3

As Paul begins to wind down his brief letter to Titus, he takes some time to lay out the simple message of the salvation that came through Jesus. In this week’s passage, he describes our condition before salvation.

You can see this description in Titus 3:3:

Titus 3:3

Our lives before Christ saved us were bleak. Even if we had a “good” life, without Christ, we had no hope, no purpose, no identity. And, as sinners, we were a mess.

Paul gives a brief description of this deplorable state before moving on the the grace of God in his salvation in the next few verses. But before we can see just how good the Good News is, we must first see just how bad we are without him.

In that light, Paul describes our state before Christ, and he paints a very dark picture.

However, we must remember, as we reach out to those who do not know Christ, that we were once just the same, lost in our sins. Paul realizes this, and knows that he was once just as bad everyone else. As we share our faith, knowing what we were saved from can be a vital part of our testimony to others.

Here are some of the terms Paul uses to describe himself when he was unsaved, and by extension, to all who do not know Christ:

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Making The Perfect Cup Of Coffee – The Grind

Most people don’t stop to consider just how important it is to grind your coffee properly before making coffee to ensure that you get the best possible extraction of the flavors.

Making the Perfect Cup of Coffee - The Grind

Most people take the grind for granted. As long as the coffee is ground, then it should work, right?

Well, that depends on several factors. What brew method are you using? How strong or weak do you like your coffee? How much do you need to grind at a time?

All of these factors and more contribute to getting the best grind. Coffee ground to the wrong size for the method you use to make your coffee will result in not getting the most from your coffee beans.

It’s worth doing right.

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Coffee Break – 01.05.2015

Happy New Year! It’s 2015! I’m very excited about what this year has in store and the things that it will bring for my family and for myself. I am pretty excited about what I have planned for JeffRandleman.com, too!

Coffee Break

French Press Tutorial – A lot of people I know like to use a French press, or a press pot, to make their coffee. Frankly, I prefer other methods, such as the Chemex, but if it is done right, a press can make a pretty good cup of coffee. Most people don’t take the time to learn the proper method though. Here is a brief tutorial, with a troubleshooting guide, showing how to get consistent coffee, every time.

Beautiful Chemical Reactions – The wonders of creation! There are beautiful things happening, even though we may not be able to see them. The reactions in this video are simply beautiful.

25 Precarious Cities – Beauty isn’t simply found at the molecular level. There is beauty in the architecture found around the world, especially when it is built right on the edge of nature’s beauty. Check out these cities on the edge.

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Memorize Scripture: Titus 3:1-2

Throughout much of the second chapter, Paul focused on giving Titus instruction of what to teach, and to keep it in accordance with sound doctrine. That theme continues into chapter three, with the focus being on good actions or behavior.

You can see this week’s passage in Titus 3:1-2:

Titus 3:1-2

As Paul continues his instructions to Titus, he shifts his attention just a bit to be more specific about how people are to behave in certain circumstances.

In these two verses, he focuses our attention onto two different settings: How to behave towards government officials or superiors, and how to behave towards our fellow citizens.

This jumps directly off of Paul’s last portions of chapter 2. In verse 14, he explains why we should be eager to do what is good. These two scenarios are examples of what that looks like. Interestingly, both of these categories are made up of people who are probably not a part of the church in Crete. That lends a bit of context to Paul’s instruction here, helping us to see just how important our behavior is around such people. This kind of behavior provides both an example and a witness to those who do not know God.

The first phrase used here is that Titus is to remind the people in the church that their behavior is significant. This implies that this is not new material for the believers in Crete. They know this. But a continual reminder is necessary to keep their focus, and ours, on track.