I sure have seen the word "treasure" an awful lot lately.
Hmmm....
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday Funnies - She Walked the Walk - Chonda Pierce
Okay, so everybody who's had a fried bologna sandwich signify by saying, "aye."
"Aye!" (My Kentucky roots are showing.)
They're great, aren't they? If you haven't tried one, just throw a slice or two of bologna in the frying pan, (don't forget to make a slice from the center of the bologna all the way to the edge so you don't get that big bubble in the middle), cook it, flip it and cook it some more, and put it on your favorite bread with your choice of condiments. Me? I can't let any sort of condiment get between my and my bologna.
I think only in the south, though, is bologna considered a cut of meat. Maybe the rest of the country will soon catch on to this delicious and inexpensive delicacy.
I hope along with that we'll all open our eyes to the needs around us and catch on to the delicious and very rewarding gift of sharing. If we ever needed to step out and show the love of Jesus, it's now.
Happy friday!
"Aye!" (My Kentucky roots are showing.)
They're great, aren't they? If you haven't tried one, just throw a slice or two of bologna in the frying pan, (don't forget to make a slice from the center of the bologna all the way to the edge so you don't get that big bubble in the middle), cook it, flip it and cook it some more, and put it on your favorite bread with your choice of condiments. Me? I can't let any sort of condiment get between my and my bologna.
I think only in the south, though, is bologna considered a cut of meat. Maybe the rest of the country will soon catch on to this delicious and inexpensive delicacy.
I hope along with that we'll all open our eyes to the needs around us and catch on to the delicious and very rewarding gift of sharing. If we ever needed to step out and show the love of Jesus, it's now.
Happy friday!
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Long and Winding Road
The Lord and I have been on a journey for a very long time now. At times the journey has taken me to places so dark I was completely unaware of His presence. But He was there. I’ve been on a journey with God since I was a young girl, but this particular road that I’ve taken veered off my beaten path about five years ago when God called to me four times within a 6-week period of time to “be strong and courageous.” You don’t always want to hear those words formed by the voice of God and directed at you like that, but there it was.
I had no idea at the time what that meant, but in February of ’04 when a skyrocketing blood pressure landed me in the ER, I had my first clue. Since then I’ve experienced health issue after health issue, symptom after symptom, and doctor after doctor, with no answers in sight.
What ensued was a roller coaster of emotions and spiritual lows that I thought I would never see. I wondered where God was, I wondered where my friends were, I wondered why people around me who were getting sick were being diagnosed and at least knew they weren’t going crazy. They had found a doctor to help them and friends to support and pray for them, but I kept being told that I was just depressed. And then I felt forgotten, and like maybe I really was going crazy.
Recently, though, God’s been doing a new thing. The details are long so I’ll give you the short version.
Months ago, God spoke to my heart and told me that He was my Morning Star. I knew I had read that in the bible before, but I honestly didn’t understand what it meant. So I decided send an email asking the question of the meaning behind that name to a local pastor who has a sort of question and answer email he sends out to whoever signs up to receive it. I had no idea if my question would be answered and posted but I gave it a try. Months went by and in a period of time when God had been speaking volumes to my heart, I received an email. It was from the local pastor who had featured my question and his answer in his group emailing. (If you’d like to check out his website, it’s calvarycorner.com.)
The gist of his answer was this: Jesus refers to Himself as the bright Morning Star in Revelation 22:16. In ancient literature, Venus is often referred to as the morning star. The brightest appearing star at the end of a dark night is often Venus. When Venus rises, the sun soon follows.
My dark night has lasted a very long time. But the Lord was telling me that He is my bright Morning Star. And He had been revealing Himself to me in ways that He had not in a very long time. I was seeing the brightest Star at the end of that blackest night. The morning would soon be dawning and light would fill my life once again.
Not that Jesus has not been with me, but He was telling me that things were about to change. And change they indeed have. Stay tuned for the story of the dawning.
I had no idea at the time what that meant, but in February of ’04 when a skyrocketing blood pressure landed me in the ER, I had my first clue. Since then I’ve experienced health issue after health issue, symptom after symptom, and doctor after doctor, with no answers in sight.
What ensued was a roller coaster of emotions and spiritual lows that I thought I would never see. I wondered where God was, I wondered where my friends were, I wondered why people around me who were getting sick were being diagnosed and at least knew they weren’t going crazy. They had found a doctor to help them and friends to support and pray for them, but I kept being told that I was just depressed. And then I felt forgotten, and like maybe I really was going crazy.
Recently, though, God’s been doing a new thing. The details are long so I’ll give you the short version.
Months ago, God spoke to my heart and told me that He was my Morning Star. I knew I had read that in the bible before, but I honestly didn’t understand what it meant. So I decided send an email asking the question of the meaning behind that name to a local pastor who has a sort of question and answer email he sends out to whoever signs up to receive it. I had no idea if my question would be answered and posted but I gave it a try. Months went by and in a period of time when God had been speaking volumes to my heart, I received an email. It was from the local pastor who had featured my question and his answer in his group emailing. (If you’d like to check out his website, it’s calvarycorner.com.)
The gist of his answer was this: Jesus refers to Himself as the bright Morning Star in Revelation 22:16. In ancient literature, Venus is often referred to as the morning star. The brightest appearing star at the end of a dark night is often Venus. When Venus rises, the sun soon follows.
My dark night has lasted a very long time. But the Lord was telling me that He is my bright Morning Star. And He had been revealing Himself to me in ways that He had not in a very long time. I was seeing the brightest Star at the end of that blackest night. The morning would soon be dawning and light would fill my life once again.
Not that Jesus has not been with me, but He was telling me that things were about to change. And change they indeed have. Stay tuned for the story of the dawning.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Friday Funnies - Tim Hawkins
Why hasn't somebody told me about Tim Hawkins until now?! I saw a video of his about a week ago and he cracked me up. I just finished watching about 6 or 7 of his skits trying to decide which one to post. I've discovered a good way to get an ab workout.
So, to head us off into the weekend, I give you.....Things You Don't Say To Your Wife
Laugh on my bloggy friends.
So, to head us off into the weekend, I give you.....Things You Don't Say To Your Wife
Laugh on my bloggy friends.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Things That Make You Go Hmmm...
A truth God recently poured into my guarded heart:
God's light shines brighter through a transparent soul.
Hmmmm........
God's light shines brighter through a transparent soul.
Hmmmm........
Friday, March 13, 2009
Food Friday - Dark Chocolate Raspberry Scones
By way of special request (thanks, Lynn!), I’m posting my recipe for Dark Chocolate Raspberry Scones. Why wait for a special occasion to have a special breakfast? These and an iced mocha…mmm….or just a hot café mocha…any way you wanna put together coffee, milk and chocolate is okay by me.
Make ‘em for somebody you love.
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Scones
2 ¼ cups cake flour
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
½ cup unsalted cold butter, cut into cubes
1 cup dark chocolate chips
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup frozen raspberries, drained if needed
powdered or granulated sugar for sprinkling
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub in butter to form a course meal.
4. Add chocolate chips, mix together.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, egg and vanilla.
6. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients; add buttermilk mixture. Using a fork, lightly mix to form a moist dough. Just before all the dry ingredients are completely mixed in, fold in raspberries. Be careful not to overmix.
7. Generously spray baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and drop scones by spoonfuls onto the baking sheets.
8. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned on top; cool on wire rack. You can sprinkle them just out of the oven with the granulated sugar, or wait till they’ve cooled and sprinkle with the powdered sugar.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 light-as-air scones.
Make ‘em for somebody you love.
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Scones
2 ¼ cups cake flour
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
½ cup unsalted cold butter, cut into cubes
1 cup dark chocolate chips
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup frozen raspberries, drained if needed
powdered or granulated sugar for sprinkling
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub in butter to form a course meal.
4. Add chocolate chips, mix together.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, egg and vanilla.
6. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients; add buttermilk mixture. Using a fork, lightly mix to form a moist dough. Just before all the dry ingredients are completely mixed in, fold in raspberries. Be careful not to overmix.
7. Generously spray baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and drop scones by spoonfuls onto the baking sheets.
8. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned on top; cool on wire rack. You can sprinkle them just out of the oven with the granulated sugar, or wait till they’ve cooled and sprinkle with the powdered sugar.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 12 light-as-air scones.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Friday Funnies - Let There Be Light
Some sweet day, I'm going to give Patsy Clairmont a hug. I've never met her or even seen her speak in person, but I love her. I've watched her videos and have been blessed to win one of her very own books from a contest she held on her blog (which I am reading right now, by the way).
It's hard to believe, watching her now, but Patsy used to suffer from agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces. I don't know for how long, but when God healed her of that, He really healed her!
Today's post isn't all funny, although in her blessedly gifted way, Patsy is able to interweave humor even into the most serious of subjects. But today, I need hope and thought maybe you did, too.
Happy Friday my friends.
It's hard to believe, watching her now, but Patsy used to suffer from agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces. I don't know for how long, but when God healed her of that, He really healed her!
Today's post isn't all funny, although in her blessedly gifted way, Patsy is able to interweave humor even into the most serious of subjects. But today, I need hope and thought maybe you did, too.
Happy Friday my friends.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Will My Prayers Be Answered?
Okay, how many of you wanted to be some sort of detective when you were growing up? Yep, me too. I think a lot of it stems from my desire to put the pieces of a puzzle together. But much more of it comes from my desire to see justice done. I want to know that in the end, right prevails.
So it’s this detective in me that has me watching these real-life crime shows on t.v. I love to see, at the end of the hour, that the truth has been revealed and justice is served.
But in real life, the answers to prayers don’t usually come in the span of 60 minutes. And people don’t always have assurance that, in the end, their prayers will be answered at all. But I want to try to give you some hope that your prayers are heard, and ultimately, they will be answered, in God’s timing and in His way.
I was watching one of these crime shows not that long ago, that was from a behind-the-scenes perspective. It focused on one of the lead detectives in the story of the so-called Green River Killer.
The murders began in the summer of 1982 and Dave Reichert was one of the lead detectives in the task force that was set up to find the killer of the continually mounting numbers of people. By 1984, police suspected that the same person had killed 42 young women. Years went by and families were demanding answers but were receiving none. And by 1991, the task force that was once 50 people strong, now was left with only one person, Detective Tom Jensen, with Dave Reichert having been elected sheriff. The investigation had cost $15 million. There was little hope that there would ever be any answers.
The loved ones of those killed accused Sheriff Reichert and his team of not putting in enough effort to find the killer. That maybe if their loved ones hadn’t been prostitutes, if they had been more respected members of the community, they would have some answers by now.
What the families didn’t realize was the enormous mental and emotional toll the investigation took on Dave Reichert. When he was at home, he had a hard time just being with his own family because of the overwhelming desire to find the suspect and bring justice to the community.
Hang in there with me, I am going somewhere with this.
How many times have we sought the Lord in fervent prayer on a painful issue, only to watch year after year go by with no answers? Have we ever accused God of not caring about us or about our circumstances? Do we wonder if He even hears us? God tells us in His Word that He does.
"…for He hears the cry of the afflicted." Job 34:28b
"But know that Jehovah has set apart the godly for Himself. Jehovah hears when I call to Him." Psalm 4:3
"The righteous cry, and Jehovah hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. Jehovah is near to the broken-hearted; and saves those who are of a contrite spirit." Psalm 34:17-18
"I love Jehovah because He hears my voice and my prayers. Because He has bowed down His ear to me, therefore I will call on Him in my days." Psalm 116:1-2
"And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." 1 John 5:14-15
Sometimes our preconceived ideas or expectations of how a prayer will be or should be answered can cause us to be disappointed when those expectations aren’t met. But God never tells us when He will answer our prayers or how He will answer, just that, if we are His, He will answer. Answers come in many forms and sometimes they just don’t come the way we want them to or when we want them to be answered.
But because we don’t see an answer right away doesn’t mean that God isn’t working on it.
The trials in our lives are not for us alone. God is busy weaving a deeper faith, more patience, and a more profound love into the hearts of many lives through each trial. He waits patiently as He molds souls into the image of His Son. And one day, when His purpose has been fulfilled, He will answer. Some answers come swiftly, some will not be revealed until the day we stand before our Savior in heaven.
Sheriff Reichert and Detective Jensen did eventually catch the Green River Killer, of course, and 21 years after the killings began, prayers were finally answered when Gary Ridgway was convicted of murdering 48 women.
God hears you and He is compassionate toward your suffering. And though the reasons for His waiting are unknown to us, we can know that we serve a good and faithful and loving God. Keep trusting Him, knowing that He will never leave you nor forsake you.
So it’s this detective in me that has me watching these real-life crime shows on t.v. I love to see, at the end of the hour, that the truth has been revealed and justice is served.
But in real life, the answers to prayers don’t usually come in the span of 60 minutes. And people don’t always have assurance that, in the end, their prayers will be answered at all. But I want to try to give you some hope that your prayers are heard, and ultimately, they will be answered, in God’s timing and in His way.
I was watching one of these crime shows not that long ago, that was from a behind-the-scenes perspective. It focused on one of the lead detectives in the story of the so-called Green River Killer.
The murders began in the summer of 1982 and Dave Reichert was one of the lead detectives in the task force that was set up to find the killer of the continually mounting numbers of people. By 1984, police suspected that the same person had killed 42 young women. Years went by and families were demanding answers but were receiving none. And by 1991, the task force that was once 50 people strong, now was left with only one person, Detective Tom Jensen, with Dave Reichert having been elected sheriff. The investigation had cost $15 million. There was little hope that there would ever be any answers.
The loved ones of those killed accused Sheriff Reichert and his team of not putting in enough effort to find the killer. That maybe if their loved ones hadn’t been prostitutes, if they had been more respected members of the community, they would have some answers by now.
What the families didn’t realize was the enormous mental and emotional toll the investigation took on Dave Reichert. When he was at home, he had a hard time just being with his own family because of the overwhelming desire to find the suspect and bring justice to the community.
Hang in there with me, I am going somewhere with this.
How many times have we sought the Lord in fervent prayer on a painful issue, only to watch year after year go by with no answers? Have we ever accused God of not caring about us or about our circumstances? Do we wonder if He even hears us? God tells us in His Word that He does.
"…for He hears the cry of the afflicted." Job 34:28b
"But know that Jehovah has set apart the godly for Himself. Jehovah hears when I call to Him." Psalm 4:3
"The righteous cry, and Jehovah hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. Jehovah is near to the broken-hearted; and saves those who are of a contrite spirit." Psalm 34:17-18
"I love Jehovah because He hears my voice and my prayers. Because He has bowed down His ear to me, therefore I will call on Him in my days." Psalm 116:1-2
"And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." 1 John 5:14-15
Sometimes our preconceived ideas or expectations of how a prayer will be or should be answered can cause us to be disappointed when those expectations aren’t met. But God never tells us when He will answer our prayers or how He will answer, just that, if we are His, He will answer. Answers come in many forms and sometimes they just don’t come the way we want them to or when we want them to be answered.
But because we don’t see an answer right away doesn’t mean that God isn’t working on it.
The trials in our lives are not for us alone. God is busy weaving a deeper faith, more patience, and a more profound love into the hearts of many lives through each trial. He waits patiently as He molds souls into the image of His Son. And one day, when His purpose has been fulfilled, He will answer. Some answers come swiftly, some will not be revealed until the day we stand before our Savior in heaven.
Sheriff Reichert and Detective Jensen did eventually catch the Green River Killer, of course, and 21 years after the killings began, prayers were finally answered when Gary Ridgway was convicted of murdering 48 women.
God hears you and He is compassionate toward your suffering. And though the reasons for His waiting are unknown to us, we can know that we serve a good and faithful and loving God. Keep trusting Him, knowing that He will never leave you nor forsake you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)