Trapped

If You and your children had been saved from dangling over a freeway wouldn't you shout, "The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." Psalm 126:3

In January, 2012 Kelli Groves and her 2 daughters, Sage 10 and infant 10 week old Mylo were in a precarious situation. Their car was dangling 100 feet in the air on the side of a bridge, just south of Buellton, California. An 18-wheeler had crashed into their car, pushing their car over the guardrail, killing the 48 year-old big rig driver. 

As I watched the Dateline report on this accident I was struck by how many miracles were evident in this accident

• The car stopped on top of the guardrail
• Within minutes the fire dept was on the scene , 

"A fire captain said to his chief, 'We need a heavy duty forklift to secure that vehicle, but ours is 45 minutes away." "Unbelievably, that's exactly what passed by at exactly that moment. Only it didn't belong to the fire department, it belonged to the Navy Seabees.

• A crew of Navy Seabees who happened to be nearby provided a industrial fork lift that was able to stabilize the car. This gave the emergency workers the time they needed to rescue the family.

• 10 year old Sage had placed a blanket over her head to watch a video just moments before the accident that protected her face from shattered glass.
• Baby Mylo slept peacefully in her car seat.
• Although they all suffered injuries they have recovered and are doing well.

Breathtaking! Amazing, Miraculous! How could anyone survive? My mind was overwhelmed by the goodness of God in the midst of this horrible accident. Yet I was surprised by how the mother responded. Not with shouts of Joy to God for His provision but with surprise that all these events had shown up together, that everything worked out!  In my naivety I expected her to say, "God is so good!  He supplied our every need!" It mad me sad! Sad that people can not see the work of God in their own lives and in the lives of their children.  Sad that He is not being acknowledged. 

It was not luck, but His grace that intervened on this day! 

Hallelujah!

O my soul, praise God!

All my life long I’ll praise God,

singing songs to my God as long as I live.

Don’t put your life in the hands of experts

who know nothing of life, of salvation life.

Mere humans don’t have what it takes;

when they die, their projects die with them.

Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,

put your hope in God and know real blessing!

God made sky and soil,

sea and all the fish in it.

He always does what he says—

he defends the wronged,

he feeds the hungry.

God frees prisoners—

he gives sight to the blind,

he lifts up the fallen.

God loves good people, protects strangers,

takes the side of orphans and widows,

but makes short work of the wicked.

God’s in charge—always.

Zion’s God is God for good!

Hallelujah!

Psalm 146

Three Dollars Worth of God

I heard this poem for the first time this week.

What a deep reaction it caused within me. 

What  a sad description of someone who claims to be a Christ follower but only wants the bare minimum of Who He is and how He can change us. Unfortunately all too often I am that person. 

Lord change me and my mediocre faith. Transform me into what you want me to be and not what I have settled for. Focus my attention on the glory of who you are. 

Honor the LORD for the glory of his name. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. Psalm 29:2

Paleo Lemon Dill Salmon

I love the aromas of food cooking! I think it is why I enjoy creating meals.  There is a satisfaction that comes when my husband walks into the door and says, "What is that delicious food I smell?" Today was no different. He walked in to smell lemon dill salmon and roasted vegetables with bacon.

Lemon Dill Salmon 

Ingredients

Salmon

2 Lemons

Mrs. Dash

Salt and pepper

Ghee 

Directions

Cut Salmon into smaller portions

Mix together Lemon juice from half of a lemon

Zest of the lemon, dill and melted Ghee.

Pour over salmon then cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Roasted Vegetables with Bacon

Ingredients

1/2 onion

1 red bell pepper

1/2 orange bell pepper

2 cups brussel sprouts

1/4 pound of nitrate free bacon

1 TB olive oil

salt and pepper

Cut onions and peppers into strips

cut uncooked bacon into little strips

Mix all vegetables and onions together with olive oil.

Place in roasting pan, add salt and pepper. Cook at 350 for 30-35 minutes

What I learned
We have a choice every day to be a sweet pleasing aroma or an unwelcome one. 

We can choose to be 

Joyful or Sorrowful

Helpful or a Hindrance

Encouraging or Belittling

Kind or Inconsiderate

Faithful or Faithless

Sensitive or Hurtful

Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. 2 Corinthians 2:15

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Ephesians 5:2

May everyone we greet be overwhelmed with the aroma of Christ. Amen!

A little bit of a Distraction

Tap, tap, tap on my shoulder. "What is she doing?" The dental assistant tapped on my left shoulder as the Dentist applied the needle into the right side of my mouth.  Before I knew it the needle was out and I hardly felt anything. I'm not afraid of the dentist, but who loves to get a shot?  The little bit of a distraction kept my focus just long enough for the painful part to quickly pass. 

Laying there with my mouth wide open, drooling, water spraying, hose sucking and drill grinding, all I could think of was, 

"Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe who gave someone the knowledge to create Novocaine!"  

Funny but I was also distracted from the new fillings that were being placed into my mouth by the thought of what God had done! This distraction kept me from focusing on what was really going on inside of my mouth! Whizz, whizz, grind, spray, whizz, grind, grind! 

What I learned

We always have a choice about what we focus on. Like the woman tapping on my shoulder, God wants to take our attention off of our troubles and fix our eyes on Him.  Does it take our troubles away? No, but it does give us a new perspective. Life is messy but keeping our eyes, our hearts and minds securely attached to Jesus makes all of the difference!  Just give me Jesus and I will be alright!

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:18

Someone got an owee!

It is no surprise to many of you that my husband and I like to go biking.  Yes he is faster and has more endurance than I do, but we love to spend time together tooling around.  Sometimes he even let's me pretend that I can go faster than him!

After a steaming hot ride to Rockford, Mi. we found a nice shady place to rest before we began our trek back. I opted to go around the grassy area and my husband rode straight through the grass. As I turned the corner, I noticed that the man sitting at the bench was smirking in my husbands direction. Focusing my gaze towards my husband , I saw a man clad in biking gear, lying on the grass with 1 foot up in the air , his bike was on top of him and a kind man  rushing to his side. Instantly I knew what had occurred.

Fall over!

Fall over occurs when we are not doing the right thing. We are clipped into our pedals when we ride. This means that to put your foot down onto the ground you must twist your foot and unclip the shoe from the pedal. Sometimes when we do this it is easy to forget the other foot. This is unfortunate especially when you come to a complete stop, because if you begin to lean in the opposite direction it is very difficult to quickly get your other foot out!  Usually it ends up being a rather embarrassing situation! Thus the owee!

My poor husband landed on the roots of the tree!  He has the fall over marks to prove it!

What I learned

Sometimes we try to pick and choose the things that we want to follow Jesus in. When we do this we are like my poor husband who did only doing 1 thing. When we follow only some of His commands we too may experience fall over. 

There is only one way to avoid spiritual fall over... Follow his commands.

• Following His commands results in a blessing of Increase!

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. Deut. 8:1

• Following His commands results in Success.

"Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Joshua 1:7

• Following His commands results Love.

Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23

May you experience the richness of following after Jesus and be protected from falling over!

Paleo Enchilada Casserole

Growing up in Southern California there was always a plethora of Mexican foods available.  I remember our next door neighbor inviting us over for tamales, enchiladas and carne asada.  From a very young age, I acquired a love for Mexican flavors. One of the ingredients that makes Mexican cooking so tasty is cumin. 

Cumin has some amazing qualities. It has been around for thousands of years.  This small unassuming seed helps to boost our immune system, aids in digestion and adds a nutty peppery flavor to any recipe. To read more about cumin .

Paleo Enchilada Casserole

Serves 6

Ingredients

2lbs grass fed hamburger    

1/2 onion

2 TB minced garlic

1 head cabbage

5 oz can tomato paste

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup water

2 TB Cumin

2 TB Chili powder

Salt & Pepper to taste

Olive oil

1 can of green chilies chopped

Avocado

Lettuce

Cut cabbage from the head, removing the core. Place the cabbage into a pot of water. Cook until soft but not mushy. While waiting on the cabbage, brown the hamburger and onion, drain then add 1 TB cumin and chili Powder. Mix in the garlic then salt and pepper to taste.

In a sauce pan combine the tomato paste, chicken stock, water 1 TB cumin and chili powder. Salt and pepper to taste. Before using the sauce drizzle with Olive oil and mix together.

After draining the cabbage place a small amount of sauce in the bottom of  large Pyrex dish. Layer Cabbage, meat, green chilies and then repeat, finishing with a layer of cabbage. Pour the sauce over the top of the cabbage.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Finish the dish with some lettuce and slices of avocado.

What I learned

We may feel that we are small and insignificant but God has other plans for us.  He may want us to 

Flavor the world with His love.

Aid others in some way or

 Boost their spirits by encouraging them. 

You are the salt of the earth Matthew 5:13

I can't imagine Mexican food without cumin. I can't imagine the world without Christians who take their job seriously to flavor this world with the Love of God!

The power of Avocado

The Avocado is a super food! 

Did you know 

• European sailors used avocados in place of butter?
• There are more than 80 varieties of avocados.
• They are good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamins C,K, folate, and B6. 
• In 1/2 of of an avocado there are 160 calories, 15 grams of heart-healthy unsaturated fat, and only 2 grams of  saturated fat.
• A whole avocado contains more than one-third daily value of vitamin C, and more than half the day’s requirements of vitamin K.
• There are 10 great benefits of eating avocados!

Besides all of these facts, they are unbelievably delicious!

This week I made a chicken avocado salad and it met all three of my requirements, Paleo, tasty and quick!

Ingredients

1 Avocado

1/2 cup Spinach

1/2 of a Green Apple cubed

1/4 cup Minced Onion

1 stalk of Celery sliced

1 Carrot sliced

1/2 cup of Walnuts

2 Cooked Chicken Breasts

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/4 of a Lemon squeezed

Directions

Mix all of the ingredients together. Squeeze the lemon over it, add salt and pepper to taste. 

The combination of velvety avocado, sweet and tangy apples and crunchy vegetables really hit the spot!

This has me thinking about how we can include the super food of God's word throughout our lives, Mixing it into everything that we think, do and say!

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 119:14

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. 

Psalm 119:10-11

May you seek to have more of this in your life!

Fear

Spiders don't normally scare me. From a distance I know that they are there and if necessary I can squish most of them without even thinking about it. This week as I sat in my favorite chair I felt that slight tickle on my arm that sent a warning signal to my brain. I jumped up and brushed off the hairy black thing. The spider went running for it's life into the deep crevice of the chair.  The next morning after the coffee cup was filled, I sought out a safe place to sit in the living room. Remembering the spider, I opted to sit on the couch. 

I love quietly sitting in the morning with a hot cup of coffee.  It is so peaceful. In a moment all of this changed! As I reached for a tissue and brought it to my nose I was completely freaked out by what I saw!  That spider had returned and this time it was on a tissue right in front of my nose! Arms flailed, a scream was heard all over the neighborhood and now coffee was now all over the table, couch and carpet. Usually I would have turned my attention to the spilled coffee but that darn spider was trying to make an escape. In an instant my fear turned into rage and that spider was no more!

What I learned

The spider did not have a healthy fear of me and maybe it should have! 
We are often like this spider in regards to how we view God. 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding Psalm 111:10

Many times we go about our day with little or no thought who God really is. 

He is

• EL, ELOAH: God "mighty, strong, prominent" (Genesis 7:1; Isaiah 9:6)
• ELOHIM: God “Creator, Mighty and Strong” (Genesis 17:7; Jeremiah 31:33) 
• ELOHIM:God “Creator, Mighty and Strong” (Genesis 17:7;Jeremiah 31:33) 
• EL SHADDAI:“God Almighty,” “The Mighty One of Jacob” (Genesis 49:24;Psalm 132:2,5) – 
• YAHWEH-JIREH:"The Lord Will Provide" (Genesis 22:14) 
• YAHWEH-RAPHA:"The Lord Who Heals" (Exodus 15:26) 
• YAHWEH-M'KADDESH:"The Lord Who Sanctifies, Makes Holy" (Leviticus 20:8;Ezekiel 37:28) 
• YAHWEH-SHALOM:"The Lord Our Peace" (Judges 6:24)
• YAHWEH-ELOHIM:"LORD God" (Genesis 2:4;Psalm 59:5) 
• YAHWEH-TSIDKENU:"The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:16) 
• YAHWEH-ROHI:"The Lord Our Shepherd" (Psalm 23:1) 
• EL ELYON:“Most High" (Deuteronomy 26:19) 
• EL-OLAM:"Everlasting God" (Psalm 90:1-3) 

May your day be filled with a healthy fear of the Lord!