This Week’s Topic: “Potluck: Best of 2014″
Graphic by Kerry Messer
And I’m not finding it easy to pick which of my blog posts for 2014 I think is the best. Mainly because I just flat-out have not put in the review time that is needed to make such a decision.
So here’s what I have done. I went back to January and picked the most uniquely titled one for that month – Armpits! Click HERE and visit if you like.
Well this must be the time to write it – I’ve been thinking about it for weeks now and have not stopped long enough with keyboard in hand to put words to the screen.
Reflections on 2014. Topic at The LOFT this week!
Graphic by Kerry Messer
Twenty-Fourteen (2014), day 336 in fact of 2014 – 29 days remaining and what have I learned, what has made a sizable impact on me? I need to write about it. I’ve known that as I said for weeks now. So here goes.
One.
In every moment, in every thing – GOD is ALWAYS good and I am ALWAYS loved. [source]
A succinct message. One that stays handy on the desktop of my mind because I often need it. It is an anchor for my soul when – when I can’t find my car keys and I should have left 10 minutes ago and when the CAT scan of one I love so much shows two spots on the brain.
HE is ALWAYS good and YOU and I are ALWAYS loved.
Say it again and again; as often as needed.
Two.
“Life is so urgent it necessitates living slow.”
[source, page 74]
I knew when I read the book and saw the video that I had been nailed! You see I default to hurry. It’s automatic for me. WHAT.EVER.IT IS. As soon as my mind has done it my body should be done with it too because in my mind I have already moved on to the next thing; next task, next conversation, next whatever. How many of you know that is no way to live? Is. Not. What. GOD. Intended! Search the Scripture. Have you ever seen GOD in a hurry? Have you ever read: ‘and in haste JESUS did this or that’? Thankfully, this year I have been properly told to SLOW DOWN. And slowly I am learning to slow down. :)
One more and I’ll put this to post.
Number three.
Weight loss. Exercise. Food Choices. Portion Size. Walking. Running. Workouts. Any discipline to improve one’s health and we say to them:
Do it for yourself!
And perhaps that will work for a time. But most often not long enough. Not long enough to produce new life.
So what does work?
Do it for JESUS!
Do it because it honors Him.
Do it because it helps YOU believe YOU are loved and that in Him you actually are worthy to work with Him to help others. At least that is what it did for me.
I’ve learned this year that there is NOTHING. Absolutely nothing concerning me that does not concern Him.
You name it and He is willing to help you with it – help you do it right or help you stop doing it because it is wrong.
There are no exceptions.
You SURRENDER it to Him and in His Time He will handle it!
’nuff said! :)
Better late than not at all – right? The LOFT
Graphic by Kerry Messer
topic this week is Fall Recipes.
Cranberry Pie.
I’ve been making this since about 2007 and it is one of my favorites. However, I dare not make it often as it is way hard for me to resist piece after piece. I have some right now in the frig that I am thus far turning a deaf ear to. :)
The recipe says fresh cranberries BUT if you happen to keep cranberries frozen in your freezer you can serve this pie anytime.
1 cup fresh cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts ( I use pecans)
1 egg
1/2 cup flour (cake flour works well)
1/4 stick of butter, melted
2 T shortening, melted (I use coconut oil instead – shortening is a no-no in my kitchen)
Line an 8-inch pie plate with wax paper – give it a little spray with oil. Spread cranberries over the plate, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of sugar and pecans. Beat egg, add remaining sugar, and beat well. Add flour, butter, and coconut oil and mix (if the batter is too thick I thin it with a little milk). Pour over the cranberry mixture. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes. Invert onto a serving plate. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I can attest it is delicious either way – warm or cold.
As with all my recipes, I tweak them almost every time. So with this one, I have been known to add more than 1/4 cup of pecans :) And with the flour, I throw in a pinch of salt and baking powder/soda – just a little because I like a cakey texture.
Oops! One more tweak! I always add at least a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter.
Hope y’all like it!
Graphic by Kerry Messer 
This Week’s Topic at the LOFT: “Intimacy with Jesus” (What does that look like for you? How do you abide in the vine? . . . )
How do I abide? Only by the Grace of GOD! I have said it more than once: If I were GOD I would have killed me a long time ago. And yet I’m still here – can only be His GREAT GRACE and His EXTRAVAGANT LOVE! It took a long time for me to come to the place that I was willing to admit to Him and to myself that I was a hell-deserving sinner but when I did, HE set me free! Owning (only by His grace) my innate depravity passed to me from Adam and Eve enabled me in a moment of saving faith to receive JESUS’ righteousness – His gift to me and the greatest happening in all my life. This fact, this knowledge, this knowing HIM keeps bringing me back to obedience again and again; to that state of abiding in Him – Intimacy with Him.
Prayer, Scripture, and obedience are my keys to sanity, peace, and joy. Prayer, Scripture, and obedience to Scripture is the only way I know to ABIDE in JESUS. And when I am faithful to Prayer, Scripture, and Obedience, His Presence is more real to me than breathing. Please don’t get me wrong, even in periods of slack, He is always with me. I am confident of that but when I am faithful to prayer and Scripture Obedience, we enjoy each other’s company a WHOLE LOT MORE. It’s good. Very good to enjoy His Company in the little things and the big things! I must always, always be mindful that HE IS GOD but I am also blessed to know He is my BEST FRIEND, and I am learning to be His Friend. :)
James 2:23 And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed), and he was called God’s friend. via James 2:23 AMP;CJB – And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled – Bible Gateway.
