2011: A NEW Year!

I've always been comforted in scripture by the never-ending mercies of the LORD. Every day, every hour, moment by moment we have the chance to start fresh RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. The beginning of a new year is that same feeling multiplied. What is it about simply turning to a brand new page in a brand new calendar that makes me feel like I have a chance to really change? Like somehow today is different than yesterday was.

Hope - Hope in Christ and his promise to finish what he has started in me. Paul talks of forgetting what is behind and reaching forward - pressing on! - to what is ahead. Remembering that the Lord's mercies are new every morning - Great is his faithfulness.

Not too coincidentally, the chapter that I am currently reading in Born Crucified is on discipline. We are soldiers for the Lord and must bring our bodies into submission in order to successfully face the trials that WILL come our way. This was a good thought: Salvation does not mean that we will be placed in a soft and comfortable baby carriage and be wheeled into heaven. We need to work, to harden our flesh both physically and spiritually, deny its wants and pleasures no matter how innocent they may be if they interfere with our service and usefulness for the Lord.

This is all culminating for me into the resolve to finally get fit this year (off to a good start with almost 20 lbs. lost so far), resolve to train my children, by the Lord's grace, to be more disciplined in their own lives, to love more, to pray more, and to take the time to laugh more; to seek out ways to put more "hands" and "feet" into my walk with Christ, and gain a little more control over my tongue - both to not speak those things that are not edifying and to DO speak the things that are needful.

I sometimes feel very limited in my sphere of home, chores, cooking, and schooling, but I know that this is a season which is coming to an end sooner than I realize. May I serve wholeheartedly now, while I am able, and be tested and tried so that I am able to be of even greater use when the time comes - - -

I welcome your prayers -

Born Crucified

I've been reading this book for several years. Years? Yes, years. It is rich, rich, rich in self-examination and reproving truth and so, as sinful and selfish as my heart is, I am only able to read a paragraph or two, small snippets, at a time.

Tonight's reading was no less an appeal to lay down self (die) and live for Christ, the only true life worth living.

"The purpose of the Cross of Christ, as all His teaching, was to set self aside and to bring our hearts and wills into harmony with God. The whole of redemption is to save man from himself and from his wicked pride and self-exaltation. It is the power of the Cross to work in us the blessed will of God. 'Such a claim does the Cross lay upon our hearts that, though our deepest attachments be violated, and what we love more than anything else in the universe, namely, 'self', be crucified, we give our consent. We cry out: 'Spare nothing, O God, in me that would keep me from merging my life with thine in an everlasting union of love.' Here lies the supreme glory of the Cross, and the reason why it is, as Paul says, 'the power of God, and the wisdom of God.' It disposes us to die to 'self'. That is why it saves. It gets the consent of our wills that we be detached from ourselves and attached to God. Any other kind of salvation would necessarily be fictitious."

The last line was truly a Selah moment for me. (Thank you, Brother Barba)

Any other kind of salvation would necessarily be fictitious. Any kind other than less of me/more of Him, none of me/all of Him, my weakness for His strength, giving up my unsettled thoughts for His perfect peace. Stepping out, reaching out, speaking a word or life when Pride would have me stand still, don't touch, be quiet.

Detaching from the idol of self and attaching, clinging, cleaving to God in Christ.

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If you've never heard of this book before then may I point you HERE where you can read the entire book on-line, or you may find it in e-book format from Christian Book Distributors or Amazon.

Best Triple Ginger Cookies

Posted especially for my Heritage family who enjoyed these cookies at church this morning!

I was never exposed to ginger (except the powdered stuff) as a child, and as a young grown-up I didn't try it because it sounded strange. A friend made a gingerbread cake many years ago, with fresh ginger in it. I raised my eyebrow but tried it because she also made some scrumptious lemon curd to go with it. Being a lover of all things lemon, I gave it a shot. From that first bite ginger became of wonderful friend of mine!

This is a great gingersnap recipe which I use as is, except that I load it with fresh grated ginger and chopped candied ginger, too, to make them over the top good! As I frequently do, if I go to the trouble to make something wonderful like this, I usually double it so that there is plenty to share. I think my friends appreciate that :-)

Grandma's Gingersnaps (from Betty Crocker)

1 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup molasses
1 2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. each salt, ground cloves, ground ginger
fresh grated ginger and chopped candied ginger, at least 3/4 - 1 1/2 cups of each, depending on your taste

additional sugar

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Melt short. and butter in small saucepan over low heat. Allow to cool 15 minutes.

2. Mix shortening, molasses, sugar and eggs in large bowl until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients except additional sugar.
(You can bake cookies now or refrigerate the dough for later)

3. Put additional sugar into small/med. bowl. Shape dough into 1 in. balls; roll in sugar. Place about 2 in. apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set. Cool 1 - 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Makes 4 to 5 dozen cookies.

For Extra special cookies: melt three 6 oz. packages of white chocolate/baking bar with 1 T. shortening. Dip half of cookie into chocolate and place on wax paper until chocolate is set.

Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Chicken

This is from a Gluten-free cookbook I have. Really flavorful - it was gone in no time and one of the children even wrote "It's Really Good!" on the recipe page. ;-)

Thai Coconut Chicken

1 green chili, seeded and roughly chopped
1 sm. onion, roughly chopped
3 (+++) cloves garlic, chopped (I added at least 1/2 a head - we LOVE garlic)
3 cups fresh cilantro
2 tsp. Thai fish sauce
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
1 stalk lemongrass (now available at Raley's!), roughly chopped
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
2 tsp. superfine sugar
1/2 in. piece fresh ginger root, roughly chopped (again, I more than doubled this because we LOVE ginger, too!)
4 skinned boneless chicken breasts
1 TBS peanut oil (I just used veg./olive oil)
2 cups chicken stock/broth
1 can coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste
roughly chopped cilantro for garnish

1. To make the curry paste, put chili, onion, garlic, cilantro, fish sauce, turmeric, lemon grass, lime zest and juice, sugar and ginger in food processor and blend until smooth, scraping mixture down when necessary.
2. Cut chicken into small pieces and season lightly. Heat oil in large saucepan and gently fry for 5 min. (You want to sear the chicken on the outside but not fully cook it.)
3. Put chicken stock and curry mixture in a separate pan and bring to a boil. Cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes.
4. Add chicken and coconut milk to curry stock and cook for about 20 minutes until chicken is very tender. Garnish with cilantro and serve with fragrant rice or rice noodles.


Yummmmm- delicious!

Family & Remembering

Today was spent with family. The children and I walked with sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and more for the 2010 Alzheimers Memory Walk. There were 600+ people there and it was a really nice way to spend the morning and have some fun with family that we don't get to see that often. Afterward we all went to lunch and then it was home for us.

I couldn't go home, though, without making a stop to remember my grandparents. I went out to the farm on my way to the cemetery and got a few branches from their grapevine to leave at their headstone. It's so much more personal than buying flowers.



Recently, at the funeral for my grandmother's sister, I realized that my grandfather has been gone for half of my life; and yet I miss him probably more, not less, as time goes on.

A Happy Habit Birthday for Husband

Elisha: God's Messenger of Grace, pt. 3

Reading the other night in this gem of a book and came across the following paragraph:

As it was in the days of Elisha, so it is still true today. Whatever children are not, they undoubtedly are good imitators. What my father does, that will I do -- what my mother says, that will I say -- is the rule which most children follow. If the child hears true religion lightly spoken of at home, if he is accustomed to hear God's ministers or God's Word ridiculed, he may soon grow up to do exactly the same. Let us, then, who are parents walk very carefully. Bright eyes are on us, watching our every movement, scrutinizing our every action; quick ears are listening to us, hearing and storing up in the memory each careless, thoughtless word. Those eyes are our children's eyes, those ears are our children's ears, and each of those children is a trust, put into our hands by God, and of each such trust we shall be called upon to give an account.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Especially for Mrs. Mincy!!

Combine:

• 2 cups diced chicken
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup OR 1 can each cream of chicken and cream of celery (may wish to use low sodium)
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 1 T. dehydrated minced onion
• 1 small can diced green chilies

Grease 9x13 dish. Tear 4-6 flour tortillas into bite sized pieces and line bottom of dish. Spread 1/2 of chicken mixture carefully over tortillas and top with grated Monterey Jack cheese. Repeat tortilla, chicken and cheese layers. Bake about 45 minutes at 350F or till bubbly in the middle. Remove from oven and allow to stand to 10-15 minutes (this makes cutting and serving much easier)

This dish freezes well after preparing (before baking).


Shared with me by my sister-in-law Debbie many years ago, this easy and delicious casserole is a favorite of the children and I!

Elisha: Barren or Healing?

And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.
And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.
And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.

2 Kings 2:19-22

The chapter we read tonight had to do with Elisha healing the barren spring of Jericho. The people had to travel far each day to gather water from the Jordan because the spring that was outside of their own city gate was no good. I so very much enjoyed how Mrs. Walton drew the parallel from the barren spring to our own self-loving hearts and the healed waters to those who seek to use their lives in service to bless and encourage others to grow in Christ.

May I quote directly from the book?

"And in that spring we have a picture, a double picture. We can see in it, if we will look, a very good representation of a great many people’s lives.

The lives of some are like that stream before Elisha visited it: going on through this world of sin and sorrow and misery, and yet doing no good to anyone, carrying misery and spiritual barrenness wherever they go. They are living for self, and they have no care for those around them, they bring unpleasantness and not comfort into the hearts of others. Their example is evil and not good; their influence is on the side of this present evil world, with all its sinful and God-forgetting ways.

But the lives of others are strangely and wonderfully different. They resemble Elisha’s stream, not as it was in the days of its barrenness, but as it was after the prophet visited it. They are like Elisha’s stream at the present day. They carry joy and comfort and refreshment wherever they go. They are a blessing to everyone. They cheer all within their reach. They bring ease to the weary, encourage the weak-hearted, and visit the lonely. Wherever they go, they are a quiet power for good, a source of goodness and joy, a lovely stream causing an oasis in the desert life around them.

Let us ask ourselves, Which life is mine? Am I like the stream as it was in its barren days, a useless one in God’s world, bringing no joy or gladness to those around me, the aid of spiritual life and fruitfulness to no one, or am I like the lovely beautiful stream — a helper of many, a blessing in the world? Thank God that just as the Jericho stream by the power of God was changed in its nature, so can our lives be changed.

Elisha gives us the recipe for changing a useless, harmful life into a useful and blessed one. It is the same recipe which the Master gives us in Mark 9:50, where He bids us, "Have salt in yourselves." The salt, put upon the waters of Elisha’s spring, entirely changed its character, and the purifying grace of God can change my life from being an empty, frivolous, useless, mischievous life to being one which will be a blessing to all around me, because of its utter unselfishness.

But one thing we must carefully notice, and that is the place in which Elisha put the salt upon the water. He did not cast it on the waters of the stream half a mile or a mile from the spring. He was careful to go to the source and to cast it on the water at the very spot from which it came bubbling out of the rock. So the Lord would have me learn that if my life is to be different, me heart must be different. If I am to live a changed life, it must be because the source, my innermost heart, has first been changed by the grace of God."

Elisha: God’s Messenger of Grace, by Mrs. O.F. Walton, available from BibleTruthPublishers.com

(Originally published @ homesteadblogger.com/butterandhoney)

Elisha: God's Messenger of Grace

We have started reading in the evening again, and I SO enjoy it. Everyone is comfy and snuggled in bed as we read/sing/pray. It’s just a wonderful way to finish the day and prepare for the next.

In addition to our Bible reading, I’ve started reading Elisha: God’s Messenger of Grace by Mrs. Walton. It is one of the books I ordered as a result of a post on Godly, Uplifting Reading Material. The first chapter spoke of who Elisha was before the call of Elijah. I’m sharing the last few paragraphs below. I hope you are blessed by them.

Elisha’s heart was being tested. He must not look back even as he put his hand to the plow of serving the Lord. No one who does this is fit for the kingdom of God. The old prophet realized this fact, and he answered accordingly. Gravely he said to him, "Go back again: for what have I done to thee?" Why take leave of your family and friends to come with me? The choice lies in your own hands; I will not force you into the work. Go back to your plowing; why leave it? It is evidently a great sacrifice to you. You can remain as you are.

But Elisha has already made up his mind to choose the better part. He turns back to the oxen and servants. Taking the two oxen he was using, he kills them, lights a fire with the plowshare, and cooks them. Then he feasts his servants with the meat. Why does he do all this? He would have them know that the day of God’s call is one of joy, not sorrow. He kills the oxen, the very means of his living, that he might step out in faith to follow wholeheartedly the call of God. Then, leaving father, mother, servants, cattle, land and comfortable home, he sets out to follow the homeless wanderer.

Several thousand years have gone by since that sunny day when young Elisha received his call from God. Yet our God changes not. What He was then, He is now. What He sought then, He seeks now. What He did then, He still does now.

Is He calling you today just as he called Elisha? do you not hear His loving voice saying to you, "Follow Me?" Leave all and follow Christ. But remember, God seeks now just what He sought then; He seeks an undivided heart. He wants your all. If He tests your heart and asks, "Go back again: for what have I done to thee?’" what will your answer be?

Remember, too, that God is now just what He was then, the strength-giving God. He gave Elisha the power to obey that call. He will give the same power to you. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Yes, you can even leave all and follow Him.

Chapter 2 is titled "The Heir Becomes a Servant" and gives a beautiful picture of Elisha, forsaking his riches (he was the heir of an estate), his power (he was placed over his father’s many servants), and his comfort (a good home and every food and luxury available) in order to become the servant of Elijah. This is then paralleled with the picture of our Lord Jesus leaving his heavenly home -

Elisha did not know it, but this change in his life from master to servant was a picture of the great Coming One, the Christ, the Messiah! Elijah, his master, was like John the Baptist in so many ways. He dwelt in the wilderness, feeding on wild fruits and herbs, dressing in the skins of beasts, and preaching repentance to his nation. And, just as Elijah was the picture of John, so his successor, Elisha, tells us of our Lord Jesus Christ who left His home and place in heaven to come down into the world and become a servant.

I’ll stop there – but the humble beauty of this book in turning our eyes to those worthy examples in scripture who point us to our greatest example, the Lord Jesus himself, has been a blessing and touched my heart in a beautifully deep way.

Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. 2 Kings 3:11

Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. Philippians 2:5-7

. . . whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:26-28

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. John 12:26

(Originally published @ homesteadblogger.com/butterandhoney)