So I put on a video for Lydia this morning, sit down at the table with my coffee and bible and open it up to where I had stuck a bookmark in no particular spot. I was ready to ask God to show me something of Him this morning. If you have not done this before, opened up the bible that is, I would hightly recommed it. There was a time I used to think it was a waste of MY time and so was God, but He certainly changed my attitude on that. :)
So before I even start to pray, I look at the page and there it is. The passages that I needed to read today. How appropriate for this week. How appropriate for every week, every day...
John 15:10-13 "I have obeyed my Father's commands, and I remain in his love. In the same way, if you obey my commads, you will remain in my love. I have told you these things so that you can have the same joy I have and so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy. This is my command: Love each other as I have loved you. The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."
The disciples did not fully understand what Jesus was saying and what was going to happen in just a short while. The depth of Jesus' love for them, for us was about to be displayed.
Jesus, the perfect role model of faith, obeyed God to the point of death. He looked beyond His very painful circumstances and He knew what His sacrifice would bring...Life to others.
This next passage is from the book, God Came Near by Max Lucado...Read this slowly and soak it all in.
He looked around the carpentry shop. He stood for a moment in the refuge of the little room that housed so many sweet memories. He balanced the hammer in his hand. He ran his fingers across the sharp teeth of the saw. He stroked the smoothly worn wood of the sawhorse. He had come to say goodbye.
It was time for him to leave. He had heard something that made him know it was time to go. So he came one last time to smell the sawdust and lumber.
Life was peaceful here. Life was so...safe...
I wonder if he wanted to stay....I wonder because I know he had already read the last chapter. He knew that the feet that would step out of the safe shadow of the carpentry shop would not rest until they'd been pierced and placed on a Roman cross.
...If there was any hesitation on the part of his humanity, it was overcome by the compassion of his divinity. His divinity heard the voices...
And his divinity saw the faces....From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in the world as you read these words, he saw them all.
And you can be sure of one thing. Among the voices that found their way into that carpentry shop in Nazareth was your voice....
And not only did he hear you, he saw you. He saw your face aglow the hour you first knew him. He saw your face in shame the hour you first fell. The same face that looked back at you from this morning's mirror, looked at him. And it was enough to kill him.
He left because of you.
He laid his security down with his hammer. He hung tranquility on the peg with his nail apron. He closed the window shutters on the sunshine of his youth and locked the door on the comfort of ease of anonymity.
Since he could bear your sins more easily than he could bear the thought of your hopelessness, he chose to leave.
It wasn't easy. Leaving the carpentry shop never has been.
Even though Jesus left the comfort of his carpentry shop to do God's will, to endure such pain and suffering, He could see the joy that lay ahead. He knew there was a divine purpose to what He was doing. He was willing to step out of his comfort zone and take on our sins to fulfill God's plan so that we could know a peace and joy that is not found in this world, but in Him, in eternal life with God.
Are you willing to look beyond your pain and find God's purpose for your struggle? for your pain? for your difficult time? There is great joy to be found in our sufferings, a joy that surpasses all understanding in this world.
So be encouraged today that we can be joy-filled in all circumstances because of what Christ did for us. We are called to follow the perfect example of Jesus, who overcame difficult circumstances. Wow!
To that I say, AMEN!!!
Monday, March 29, 2010
I said I wanted to start a blog so here I go...
So one day I wrote a status update on Facebook stating that I wanted to write a blog and asked what it should be about. Here are some of the things people wrote: Nothing, me, healthy recipes/cooking, life on the farm, cooking through The Encyclopedia of Cooking (which would take me until about 2013)...
These are all great things but I still could not land on one or even two ideas.
I really wanted to focus on one thing but I am the kind of person who likes to talk about a lots of things. So I have decided that I will do just that...talk about a lot of things and also focus on one thing (in between). That's kind of how my brain works. I can get a single thought in my head and then talk about it and before you know it I am rambling on about a lot of things that DID actually have something to do with the original thing I started talking about (I think). Then when I realize that I have gone off track, I start the process of tracing back each thought to my original thought. Ever do that? My poor husband wishes I would just get to the point. He occassionally puts up that invisible plexiglass window when it looks like there is no end in sight to my conversation...or rather my monologue. But this is the beauty of a blog. I can write what comes to my mind and you can either read it, read and respond, or put up your plexiglass window. Are you ready? Here we go...
Let's start with the one thing I want to focus on in this blog.
About a year ago I had a taste for sushi and asked a few gals if they wanted to join me in a sushi dining experience. I think there were about 13 or 14 of us that went to a little place in Stillwater, MN. Some loved sushi already, some never tried it before and liked it and some tried it and decided it was not happening again. We talked about getting together again and trying another type of food. This was the beginning of the Girls' Night Out-Eating Around the World in the Twin Cities group. My idea was to go to a restaurant each month that represented a different country. There are approximately 195 countries so I knew we had our work cut out for us. I wanted to bring women from all different circles together to have food, fun, and fellowship with one another. It was also a good way for me to get out with the girls and enjoy something that I love, love, love...trying different cuisines!! I love my husband dearly, but his idea of a good meal will always consist of red meat (with ketchup) and a starch (limited to potatoes or rice)---and usually hold the starch and just eat the meat. Afterall, he is a beef farmer. So it makes sense, right? ;)
Up until now, we have gone to: Japan, Thailand, Italy, England, Ethiopia, The Caribbean, Germany, Afghanistan, and Ireland all via restaurants in the twin cities and western Wisconsin area who make authentic cuisines . It is important to me to make sure the restaurants we go to are authentic and reflect that countries' culture in their food. I research the web mostly to find these restaurants and read their reviews. So far so good.
So, my idea for the one thing to focus on or rather the constant in this blog will be to take a recipe from each restaurant we go to, make it at home, and blog about that experience. I am in the very beginning stages of my thought process on this idea but I am excited to see what happens. And then inbetween all of these cooking experiences I will blog about life on the farm which out of that comes some crazy stories. I will also blog about my cooking concoctions that I like to make just on a whim, and also my thoughts as I dig into God's word to find out more of who He is and what that means for me, my kiddos who are always interesting (in my opinion of course), and probably add a whole lot of "nothing" in there as well.
So keep an eye out for a post on the first meal I make from Ireland. It won't happen until next week so don't hold your breath...
These are all great things but I still could not land on one or even two ideas.
I really wanted to focus on one thing but I am the kind of person who likes to talk about a lots of things. So I have decided that I will do just that...talk about a lot of things and also focus on one thing (in between). That's kind of how my brain works. I can get a single thought in my head and then talk about it and before you know it I am rambling on about a lot of things that DID actually have something to do with the original thing I started talking about (I think). Then when I realize that I have gone off track, I start the process of tracing back each thought to my original thought. Ever do that? My poor husband wishes I would just get to the point. He occassionally puts up that invisible plexiglass window when it looks like there is no end in sight to my conversation...or rather my monologue. But this is the beauty of a blog. I can write what comes to my mind and you can either read it, read and respond, or put up your plexiglass window. Are you ready? Here we go...
Let's start with the one thing I want to focus on in this blog.
About a year ago I had a taste for sushi and asked a few gals if they wanted to join me in a sushi dining experience. I think there were about 13 or 14 of us that went to a little place in Stillwater, MN. Some loved sushi already, some never tried it before and liked it and some tried it and decided it was not happening again. We talked about getting together again and trying another type of food. This was the beginning of the Girls' Night Out-Eating Around the World in the Twin Cities group. My idea was to go to a restaurant each month that represented a different country. There are approximately 195 countries so I knew we had our work cut out for us. I wanted to bring women from all different circles together to have food, fun, and fellowship with one another. It was also a good way for me to get out with the girls and enjoy something that I love, love, love...trying different cuisines!! I love my husband dearly, but his idea of a good meal will always consist of red meat (with ketchup) and a starch (limited to potatoes or rice)---and usually hold the starch and just eat the meat. Afterall, he is a beef farmer. So it makes sense, right? ;)
Up until now, we have gone to: Japan, Thailand, Italy, England, Ethiopia, The Caribbean, Germany, Afghanistan, and Ireland all via restaurants in the twin cities and western Wisconsin area who make authentic cuisines . It is important to me to make sure the restaurants we go to are authentic and reflect that countries' culture in their food. I research the web mostly to find these restaurants and read their reviews. So far so good.
So, my idea for the one thing to focus on or rather the constant in this blog will be to take a recipe from each restaurant we go to, make it at home, and blog about that experience. I am in the very beginning stages of my thought process on this idea but I am excited to see what happens. And then inbetween all of these cooking experiences I will blog about life on the farm which out of that comes some crazy stories. I will also blog about my cooking concoctions that I like to make just on a whim, and also my thoughts as I dig into God's word to find out more of who He is and what that means for me, my kiddos who are always interesting (in my opinion of course), and probably add a whole lot of "nothing" in there as well.
So keep an eye out for a post on the first meal I make from Ireland. It won't happen until next week so don't hold your breath...
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