Fall Recipes is our topic at The Loft today.

I’ve been thinking pumpkin for weeks now. Mainly because I have some canned organic pumpkin that needs using.

And I’ve been thinking about cooler temps, sweaters, (that’s about all we are going to need in Lower Alabama, unless it gets really cold), pots of chili, Mexican cornbread, fireplaces and hot cocoa. The older I get the more I enjoy the Fall. Cool nights and warm covers, family gatherings with food, chatter and laughter. Mix all these things in generous portions and you have my recipe for a Happy Fall! I suspect, however, that is not the recipe expected for sharing at The Loft today.

My chili recipe is not really a recipe, I just throw what I got that resembles chili ingredients in the pot till it feels right and we eat it. I’m not kidding.

Soup!
Oh, I do that the same way. Hmm!

How about Carrot Cake? JT always uses a recipe for that. He’s so exact. He has made it for years and each time he gets out that recipe and follows it exactly. He’s so cute!

Carrot Cake
by Betty Downey (she’s a long time friend, now spending all her time with JESUS)
SIFT TOGETHER:
2 cups plain flour
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 cups sugar
2 t. cinnamon
ADD:
1 ½ cups cooking oil
4 large eggs (one at a time)
3 cups grated carrots
BEAT BY HAND FOR 15 MINUTES (not kidding! He sets a timer and beats that batter a full 15 minutes!)

Pour into 3 greased 8″ cake pans, bottoms lined with wax paper (comes out easier this way)
Bake at 350 degrees until cake tester comes out clean

Prepare ICING:
Cream together room temperature 8 oz. creamed cheese & 1 stick of butter
Then Add in
1 box confectioner’s sugar (slowly)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
2 t. milk if needed
Mix till creamy.  Lick the beaters while you wait for the cake layers to cool, then frost the cake. Store cake in Frig until you are ready to serve.

That’s it!

Happy Autumn is coming!

Until then + + + Kathie 
The Blood of Jesus is Enough

NO SIN GOES UNPUNISHED.
EITHER WE BEAR IT OR JESUS DOES FOR US; AND WE GET TO CHOOSE WHO DOES THE BEARING. 

I am appreciating an earlier morning thought from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.

“Each day is an important part of that journey.”

I’m thinking this ordinary Wednesday or Thursday or any day is an important day.

Today it’s sunny; tomorrow it may rain. Red and white is swaying gently from the gable.  A sturdy water oak extends her sheltering shadow as far as she can. Butterflies dart, rest and dart again from leaf to stem to blade. Life: it’s going on out there. 

It’s going on in here too. 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  (NLT)

19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the 
Holy Spirit,  who lives in you and was given to you by God?
 You do not belong to  yourself, 
20 for God bought you with a high price. 
So you must honor God with your body.

I watched a documentary yesterday, Monarch Butterflies. Every stage, every day is important. (And some of those days, she’s a real worm!) Each is needed to bring the Monarch to the beauty we appreciate. (Albeit, since yesterday those wormy days and dark in the cocoon days are wildly interesting with charms of their own.  You are tracking this with me, right?) 

Today is important. Submitting this ordinary  day, moment by moment, to the Lordship of our King brings us to our own unique beauty, ordinary day by ordinary day. As in each of the Monarch’s stages of being, we are not yet what we will be, but who we are today must not be wasted or thought little of  – every second given to Him is making us extraordinarily beautiful in our own ordinary way. 🙂

Which led me to this!:

4 You are as beautiful as Tirtzah, my love,
as lovely as Yerushalayim,
but formidable as an army
marching under banners. source

Jerusalem. Do you know of any place on earth more loved by GOD than Jerusalem? Me either. And formidable?! Could it be DADDY GOD is using this ordinary day to make us formidable in His Kingdom? Formidable as an army marching under banners. I don’t even know what all that means! but I’m thinking it has got to be good!

Did you click and see what Tirtzah means?  Oh yes! On this ordinary day I am Tirtzah! And you my sisters (brothers) are too!

Until then ~ ~ ~ Kathie 
The Blood of Jesus is Enough

NO SIN GOES UNPUNISHED.
EITHER WE BEAR IT OR JESUS DOES FOR US; AND WE GET TO CHOOSE WHO DOES THE BEARING. 

The subject matter at The Loft today is STILL. At this typing it’s after 10:00 PM and I’m void of writing inspiration – perhaps we could say I am ‘still’ 🙂

So I searched The White Stone to see if the subject of STILL could be found. It could! More than once. I settled on this one. How about a cut and paste?

August 22, 2008 
Stand Still and See

Do you love some one who is teenaged or all the way up to senior citizen age who thus far just has not surrendered all to Jesus? Does this loved one of yours love dogs? Then I have a book I strongly recommend you pray about purchasing and give to them. I am only on page 21 and thus far this book is extraordinary! I think for any dog lover, Lessons From a Sheep Dog by Phillip Keller, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit will hit a home run!

Returning to 2 Chronicles 20:15 And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. [source]

The message given to Jahaziel to give to the people was for ALL of them. From the lowest level servant on the street to the King himself; all peoples of Judah and Jerusalem were to receive the same message. And Yahweh said, do not be afraid or dismayed. Obviously, they were afraid or He would not have instructed them to not be. And from a natural view, they had reason to be afraid. There was a multitude of folks out there wanting to take their lives and their land. Not much has changed, huh? A multitude continues to try to take from Israel. I am confident you know my constant prayer is for America to continue to stand with Israel. But I’m not going there today, at least not right here. So. They had reason to be dismayed. I wonder if we know how strong a word is dismayed? My on-line dictionary describes it this way: a complete loss of courage in the face of trouble or danger. I thought first to describe dismay as being paralyzed but I think that does not accurately describe their condition here. Yes, I think they were rendered immobile to move forward but not paralyzed from retreating. The absence of courage often causes us to run and hide from the ‘multitude’. It takes a Word from the Lord to infuse courage into us. Let me tell you why I think Israel was paralyzed from moving forward but not from moving back.

17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.” [source]

What do you see in that text? STAND STILL. Often the most courageous and the most difficult thing for us to do is STAND STILL. We want to run away from the ‘multitude’. We want to hide from that necessary holy confrontation; we want to close our eyes and wish away the adversity. Here Abba told them to STAND STILL. He said the battle is HIS – He will handle it. And I believe that is Always true. The battle is always HIS. There are times, I think, we are called to STAND so close to the battle field it seems like we are doing the battling ourselves, but we are not. Hold this thought. I want to come back to it. For a moment look with me at this. I love it.

18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. From the King to the servant, ALL bowed before the Lord and WORSHIPPED Him! [source]

Did you notice verse 14 read all Judah and all Jerusalem and then King Jehosphaphat? And in verse 18 Jehosphaphat is taking the lead in worship! How good is that?! The King leads the servants to worship. The natural tendency of people is to go the way of the Leader. It takes a rebel pumped up by the Evil One to refuse to follow a king who is bowing to worship THE KING. And it takes a ‘rebel’ empowered by God to refuse to follow an unholy king. I urge you to ponder that one!
Lets look now to see how Israel was to Stand Still before The LORD.

20 So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” 21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the LORD, For His mercy endures forever.” 22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.[source]

When the people began to sing and to praise Him, the LORD set ambushes against the ‘multitude’ and they were defeated.
Do we want to see our ‘multitude’ defeated? Then we must believe the LORD and praise Him. That my Dear Ones is the way we STAND STILL and see the Salvation of the Lord on our behalf.

Father, from this I understand the battle is Yours and our contribution is only to believe You and praise You. That is more than our minds can conceive. Thank You that is it so. We believe You and we entrust ourselves and all our battles to You. Amen and amen.

GOD has made The Way ~ ~ ~ Kathie

For the LOFT. Graphic by Kerry Messer

Giving thanks.

That’s been our writing prompt this month. It’s a good writing prompt. It’s an excellent living prompt. 🙂

Today I am giving thanks for our dining area clock. It has been a fixture on our wall since, well, since I don’t know when. Some months ago with a little help of an elbow wrongly placed, it fell. It’s hands drooped, telling us only twice a day the correct time – 6:30.

We missed the clock.  We missed knowing the correct time. We thought of buying a new one but just didn’t get around to it. We often procrastinate at our house. 😉

 So this week we determined that’s it, we are going to buy a new clock. 😦

Oh wait maybe we could just buy new parts and keep the old frame. Yes, lets do that! So JT took the clock from the wall and began to disassemble it to determine what new replacement parts to buy.

Old parts in hand and under close examination, he discovered the jolt months earlier had only displaced the hands – reattaching them to their proper place, a new battery and ta da! She works!

You know if we had closely examined the clock when she and the elbow collided, we would have discovered the real reason she no longer responded as anticipated. We could have lifted up her hands and enjoyed her time keeping all these months. 

¹² Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, . . .  [ source – Hebrews 12:12 KJV]

How often in our haste or procrastination have we put aside what only needs some reattaching, some lifting up to its original place of honor, esteem, working order, etc. – be it clocks or relationships?

Yes, giving thanks today for clocks that teach lessons and tell time. 🙂

Well, Y’all the LOFT for new posts will be closed until December 2. As to The White Stone – we’ll see when the next time is

 ~ ~ ~ Kathie