trying to speak from my heart…

I showed my Mom my most recent blog post. Mom said that I’m being preachy. She didn’t have anything else to say about it. This bothered me because Guinever had said the same thing to me not too long ago about something else… that I’m being preachy. I took it to heart, because I do become very critical and judgmental towards the people closest to me. I wish there was an easy way to change that, I don’t want to be so.

 

 

(Guinever asks why I hold back.) Maybe it’s partly because this is the way I come across when I open my heart to my family. I don’t want to be critical of others. Yet I don’t want to remain silent either. I have been praying that God would teach me to speak to others in love and for some reason I had thought that this post was an improvement. Yes, I do not deny that it comes across preachy, I think that I sort of had that intention while writing it. But I didn’t intend to be critical of my family. When I asked them to look at it, I thought I was showing them what is coming from my heart right now.

 

 

I feel so secluded, and it hurts. I do hope that I learn the lesson that God is teaching me. Possibly I can change the wording to make it more clear… that it’s my own spiritual battle. But I was influenced by sermons which could have contributed to the manner in which I communicated in the post. It does I admit resemble a sermon.

 

 

When I talked with Guinever on the phone about it she also said that she wouldn’t have read it if it wasn’t on her sister’s blog. That hurt. Not what she said really, but the way I heard it. I was asking for her input and I’m glad she gave it. I don’t write on my blog for people other than my friends and family, I wouldn’t expect other people to care what is on my blog.

 

 

I know I should not let the approval or disapproval of others control me so. I should give it all to the Lord. As for being preachy, I do long to be able to minister to others. I want to be an encourager. I have to say that there isn’t hardly anything more encouraging to me then a good sermon that is convicting and points me to Christ. This is not a woman’s place I suppose. That place is for the Pastors, Elders, and Deacons.

 

 

What is my role in the church, and yes, in my family also?

 

 

Pray for me my dear family and friends!! I love you! Possibly an updated version of, “To The Best Of Your (my) Ability” that just speaks of my own spiritual growth will appear in the near future.

 

 

Standing in Christ’s love

To The Best Of Your Ability

This past Sunday evening, our worship service was canceled so that we all had the opportunity to attend the installation of a new minister at Faith Presbyterian Church in Akron. Rev. Carl Bogue preached from Ephesians 4:1-16. The title was Christ’s Gift Of Ministry.

 

 

I wish I had still been taking notes when Pastor Wright presented the charge to the Rev. Scholten. One thing I do remember is, “When you sense the congregation’s anticipation… Preach!” then he said, “When you don’t sense the congregation’s anticipation… Preach!” Amen Pastor!

 

 

An awful lot of things were said that evening that were very, very good. I have to say, one thing that really stuck in my mind, was the emphasis that Elder Caler put on this phrase; “to the best of your ability.” George Caler presented the charge to the congregation. And part of that was reviewing the membership vows that are found in the Book of Church Order. I think it is always good to reread and consider what we have committed to when joining a church. So much more is required of us then just showing up on Sunday morning and giving the tithe.

 

 

This is membership vow # 4, “Do you promise to support the church and it’s worship and work to the best of your ability?”

 

 

How many things do we actually strive to do to the best of our ability? What things do we actually strive to do to the best of our ability? Do we remember where our abilities came from? Who gave us our abilities? When we support the church, do we strive to do it to the best of our ability?

 

 

Something to think about.

 

 

So many of us go to church with the attitude that it’s all for us, me, ourselves…

 

 

(This is something that I need to hear too.) Please remember that we need to make ourselves more aware of what is going on in each other’s lives, how we can pray for one another, build one another up in the faith… Talk to others about you’re spiritual life! No matter if it is dry or overflowing.

 

 

If you find yourself in a low place and with little thirst for the word, first of all pray! Then go to a Christian friend and talk about it, ask he or she to pray for you! Believe it or not! God will be using you in their life too! They will be growing in their prayer life and you will be giving them the opportunity to minister to you.

 

 

God wants us to minister to one another and pray for one another! We are a gift from God to each other! That’s what Pastor Bogue’s sermon was about. I know that he was addressing a pastor but I think that we can apply this to ourselves to an extent.

 

 

If you find your self overflowing with joy in the Lord and thankfulness to him for your salvation… Why are you keeping it to yourself??? Rejoice already!! Tell others what God is doing in your life and what He is teaching you through His word! God will use your testimony to bless others and you will be giving Him glory and honor. Tell others the good news!

 

 

Please let us not forget the importance of the church. Christ gave us the church. The church is for our good and for His glory.

 

 

Let us ever shout out and praise God for His sovereign mercy, for without it we would be without hope for we are sinners and deserving of His displeasure.

 

 

Let us never forget the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, may we rest upon Him alone for our salvation!

 

 

Let us endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ!

 

 

Let us support the church to the best of our abilities.

 

 

Let us submit to and respect the government of the church, and not neglect the study of it’s purity and peace!

 

 

Pray for your Pastors and Elders and Deacons! They are sinners too and in need of God’s grace as they also bear our burdens. Take time to pray and prepare your heart before coming into the house of the Lord. Put aside the cares of the world and open your hearts to the word of God preached. We sadly take for granted the availability of God’s word to us today, let alone the studies and efforts of our ministers. It has not always been so. Let us cherish it, treasure it, praise God for it, and lay it up in our hearts. Let us read it and know it. For we are Christians, we are sons of God, we are bought by the blood of Christ Jesus! How are we to spread the word if we don’t know it?

 

 

Please stop and think for a moment before you criticize your Pastor or Elder. Pray about it. If it’s something that he needs to hear, consider how you might respectfully reprove him in love.

 

 

Seek ways to encourage your Pastor! I know it’s something that I crave, but they need it!

 

 

God Bless You!

A Taste Of Heaven…

“In your glorious presence is fullness of joy”

 

God is so good to us! He gives us a taste of heaven, He asks us only that we seek Him. God gave us an order to follow. Why do we complain and grumble when he made it so easy for us? The first day of the week He set apart to be devoted to His worship and Praise. When we obey this command, He bestows on us blessings upon blessings, too many to be numbered. They are oh so sweet, yet how soon we forget…

 

God gave us the church (each other). We are not alone. We have fellow Christians to teach us, to pray for us, and to reprove us when needed. He provides others to care for our needs, to rejoice with us and to weep with us.

 

God calls us His own. Christ came among us and endured all the miseries of this fallen world, He remained steadfast in the midst of temptations of the worst kind imaginable. When we rejected Him, when we sought the pleasures of this world above His glory, Out of love, he gave His life and suffered a miserable death on the cross. He took on all of our filthy sin and paid the price for our salvation. God reached out and plucked us out of the filth and cleansed us in His blood. He calls us His own.

Planning A Party

It was my daddy’ Birthday, and I still hadn’t planned or done anything special for him at all. I called my sister in law and invited her and my brother to join us for dinner after church the next day. I stopped at a grocery store on the way home from work with hardly any idea for a menu. I had only briefly considered BLTs (something easy) and had asked Jennifer to bring something that’s good with sandwiches.

While I was in the store, I was wishing that I could do more for daddy. I thought, maybe I’ll invite one or two families from church too. Then it would be more like a Birthday “Party”. Think, food for more people. I’ll get some deli meat too, and more bread. I’ll make a bean salad, and I can ask anyone who comes to bring some kind of salad, that should be enough.

A cake, a cake… What to do about a cake? I admired the selection that the in-store bakery displayed. I really like to do my own baking though. Do I have time for that?

Hmmm… I have to make a birthday cake for my daddy.

The problem was, I was in no mood for cake. Bleh! What is it about being a female and being in the mood for certain foods? (Or in this case, not in the mood for certain foods). And I don’t have Jennifer’s excuse of being pregnant either! Go figure!

So as I was going back and forth along the bakery display (not coming any closer BTW, to making a useful decision). I remembered that I had to get milk, or it would be dry cereal in the morning. That was my reason for stopping at the grocery store in the first place! I swung my cart around and made a bee-line for the dairy section located on the other side of the store. While all along dodging other grumpy and frazzled Saturday afternoon shoppers who just want to be done with all this craziness and go home, relax and enjoy the weekend.

Then there it was! Cream Cheese! Daddy likes cream cheese! I want cream cheese! (Strange, I used to very strongly dislike cream cheese.)

note: to all (who actually are smarter than I am and won’t have this problem…) Helpful tip, Do not go grocery shopping – 1. without a list , 2. after a full day of work on your feet, and 3. when the last thing you eat was an apple at 1pm and it’s now half past 5pm.

I’ll make a Cheesecake! (Do I have a spring form pan, you ask?) No, I”l just make it in my rectangle cake pan. It’ll taste the same right? Of course not! It’ll be better!

There’s another problem, I don’t have a recipe. I don’t know what I need for the cheesecake.

I went over to the freezer section and wasted precious time reading the list of ingredients on the box of a frozen cheesecake. Believe me you! That was pretty scary! (Do you know what’s in those frozen cheesecakes?) This is why I’m making it myself. So I go back to the dairy section and grab a carton of eggs, whipping cream, two packages of cream cheese and… Oh yes! Milk! I hope, hope, hope that I’ll have all other ingredients in the pantry at home. I know that I do have graham crackers for the crust.

When I got home, I put half of the bacon on my new Pampered Chef Baking Stone, slid it into the oven, then proceeded to search on the Internet for a really good Cheesecake recipe. Well, what do you know? 99.9% of the recipes I clicked on called for “three” 8oz packages of cream cheese. If you remember, I only bought “two” 8oz packages of cream cheese.

(I have another grumpy moment…)

Thankfully, I found a recipe that called for one package of cream cheese. Which in turn, gave me the option to double the recipe so it would be able to serve more people. The recipe was for Creamy Lemon Squares. There was one other recipe that looked really tempting. (Which called for three packages of cream cheese.) It had a bar of melted white chocolate mixed into the batter. Yum!

So I substituted the White Chocolate for the Lemon. It tuned out amazing! Before I artistically placed each slice of cake on the plates, I drizzled a bit of dark chocolate syrup.

Anyway, the Bacon was great on the sandwiches. Each family brought something to contribute. We had a very nice afternoon and enjoyed each other’s company.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

MISS LIZZIE

Our 5th grade composition class at the Study Center wrote an acrostic for me last week.

 

Merciful, motherly, magnificent
Interesting, intelligent, inviting
Super, sympathetic, sweet
Swell, swift, sincere

 

Loving, likable, lender
Invincible, in charge, ideal
Zippy, zany, zealous
Zestful, zoomer, zuper
Investigator, intriguing, inspector
Encourager, enjoyable, endurer

 

The only thing that I take into question here, is their claim that I am Invincible.

Why clean the floors if everyone will just walk on them again?

I don’t know where that second wind came from after a long day at work. I came home with the groceries and as I started to put them away, I decided to clean the refrigerator. It’s time to take out the trash especially with all the old leftovers that I dug out of the fridge. Well, one thing came after another. I spent a long time cleaning my sink (Fly Lady would be proud!) Plus I scrubbed the dish drain and the counters all around and under all the counter top appliances. I even cleaned the walls.

Then as I started on the floor, Grandma came in to take her pills. She said, “You’re doing all this work scrubbing the floor and I’m in here messing it all up!!” “I’ll get out of your way in just a minute.” My goodness Grandma, you’re hardly ever in my way!! She can’t possibly be adding even a speck of dirt to my “clean” floor with her dainty little house shoes, ever so careful steps, and all 90 lbs of her… Yes she is tiny, I’m trying to put a few lbs on her. The problem is, that doesn’t help me lose any weight.

So, why clean the floors if everyone will just walk on them again?

Here’s my sister’s perspective on the subject, to quote from her blog… “I love walking on clean floors, but I only get to when I’m visiting a friend without young children!”

What is it they say about cleanliness being a virtue?

I think, when you let dirt accumulate on the floor, it eventually becomes invisible to you and it starts to creep up into the rest of your home without your notice and then you become overwhelmed with filth and misery. It’s kind of like sin in your life. When you don’t attend to the problem and eliminate it, it will seep into the cracks and and take over your heart, will, and desires. Corruption at it’s best.

May we daily attend to the “housekeeping” of our hearts, by examining the nooks and crannies for sin, by seeking God’s forgiveness through prayer, and seeking his will which is revealed in his word.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest… Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Psalm 51:1-4, 10-12

Welcome, you’re just in time for tea.

In our pantry we have a Tetley English Blend and a large assortment of herbal teas to choose from. My Grandma’s favorite is the Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Orange Zinger, she likes it piping hot with sugar and lemon in it. My favorite tea (at the moment) is a Pomegranate Green Tea by The Republic of Tea. This tea is sweet enough not to add anything and it’s good for you too. What a plus! I do add honey and lemon to most herbal teas. A locally farmed honey that’s not refined or processed or anything like that, and the juice squeezed out of a fresh “real” lemon, not a squeeze out of a bottle of Real Lemon from the door of the refrigerator. I like to use my electric tea kettle, so I don’t have to worry about turning off the stove when the water gets hot.

Tell me what your favorite kind of tea is and why!!