Musings of a Snickerdoodle

"Self is a fleshly weapon. It's useless in spiritual battles." I really liked this study that Rick Lambert (author of Polycarp: A Destroyer of Our gods ) is doing on 'self control', that the term is actually translated incorrectly in our Bibles and that there is a better term that captures the meaning of the original greek word better.  He is working on a book that will deal with this concept (among other things). In this talk, he is doing a test run to try to get his explanation of the concept perfected.

  The Journey of the Purple Heart by Robert Baumer is an interesting account of his uncle (also his namesake) who fought and died in World War II.  This book follows Bob Baumer, a soldier, from the start of World War 2 all the way to his death just after Normandy. This book has a unique twist in that it is written in the form of a novel. The author does admit that he takes some liberties but all with a good knowledge of what his uncle was actually like (he interviewed family members, friends, fellow soldiers, read his letters...etc.) so it is quite an accurate account. It starts and ends by telling about the author's research into his uncle. With the semi-fictional retelling of his uncle's history in the middle. It  is written from various perspectives, that of Bob's mom, his brother and of course Bob himself. It also gives high level overviews of what was happening at various times. I t 'pulls you in' in many places, making you feel as if you are with them while