Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.
Beethoven who was a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew.
Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee.
Balzac is said to have drank more than fifty cups of coffee a day. Maybe that is why Baudelaire referred to him as the author of “energy and will.”
Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to oil.
The average cup of coffee contains more than 1000 different chemical components, none of which is tasted in isolation but only as part of the overall flavor.
Coffee trees are evergreen and grow to heights above 15 feet but are normally pruned to around 8 feet in order to facilitate harvesting.
By 1850, the manual coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens of the U.S.
__________
__________
Accordingly, whatever in secular histories runs counter to it [Scripture] we do not hesitate to brand as wholly false, while with respect to nonparallel matters we remain indifferent.
~ in The City of God, trans. Gerald G. Walsh, Demetrius B. Zema, Grace Monahan and Daniel Honan (NY: Image, 1958), page. 408.
He that is good is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though, he be a king.
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.
Total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
When facts are reported, they deny the value of evidence; when the evidence is produced, they declare it inconclusive.
~ in The City of God
Thou has made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.
~ in Confessions
__________
A society in South Africa once wrote to David Livingston: “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want tot know how to send other men to join you.”
Livingston replied: “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”
__________
I was driving through Fort Worth listening to an audio book of Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings In The Middle East Will Change Your Future. I had kind of drifted off into distant thoughts when the book’s author, Joel Rosenberg, who was reading the book said something that caught my attention. He indicated that the mistaken idea that Islam is the worlds fastest growing religion has reached almost “urban myth” status. That Islam is the fastest growing religion in North America and Europe, but that worldwide Christianity is the world’s fastest growing religion.
“Hmmmm,” I thought, and then went back to negotiating traffic.
A few days later I picked up Dinesh D’Souza’s book What’s So Great About Christianity and was again hit with the information that Christianity is spreading quickly through Asia, Africa, and South America.
And, today I read in VirtueOnline about a conversation between Muslim Scholars on Al-Jazeerah in which they express concerns over the large number of Muslims who are converting to Christianity. Specifically, they address the six million conversions which are taking place each year in Africa.
Does anyone good resources on this topic that they would like to recommend?
