God-gurt

Last night Sam fell asleep on the couch while I was doing some baking for the relief workers.  I made brownies and peanut butter frosting and then topped it off with white chocolate chips and chopped milk chocolate.  It was about 11pm when I finished up.  I kept thinking about something Pastor Larry mentioned during our Wednesday night midweek church service; the word of God is sharper than a two edged sword.  I felt a need to soak this idea up.

I opened up e-Sword (if you don’t have e-Sword you should get it free online, awesome program), and started soaking.  Hebrews, starting in chapter 4 verse 12, reads:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two –edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

Living and active...when I read this I equated it to yogurt.  Yogurt is filled with live cultures that aid your digestive tract, and are very good for you.  The word of God is living and active, it is yogurt for our soul! Instead of Go-gurt, God-gurt!  {I smile}

Next I jumped over to Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10, the Holy Spirit was taking me places; I like his rides.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.  Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…

You may be asking yourself, “suppli-what?”  Supplication is a form of prayer where you pray for someone else.  You intercede for them; you step in and pray on their behalf.  This is a blessing and you should do it often.  I like to keep a prayer list of who and what I am praying for.   You should try this if you don’t do it already.  It helps me remember especially when I tell someone, “I will pray for you.”  It is easy to forget, but if you have a list you can keep it in front of you.  Sometimes I slack off though and don’t keep mine up-to-date, I am going to work at being better at this.  Supplications; that is good stuff! You see, when I write these blogs I am getting trained.  God keeps putting things on my heart and so that is what I write.  God deals with me daily, and I like that.  I like it because his word says (back to Hebrews!):

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (AHHHHH, I love this so much!!! Such good word! {Ronda, not the Bible here}), looking to Jesus, the founder and protector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?  “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved {corrected} by him.  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 

{Oh man, this is so good, you gotta look it up and read it.  I am going to skip ahead a little bit, but read all of Hebrews chapter 12, ok?  Ok.  I feel so recharged and energized right now.  Thank you Lord!  Skipping onto verse 11}

For the moment all discipline seems painful {yep!} rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained for it.

{This next part makes me want to sing, Oh, if the Bible is food, this is dessert!}

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Ok, that was so good, gonna lift up a prayer now.

Oh God, you are so faithful and so good.  I praise you and thank you for enduring the cross, and the shame of taking on my sins.  Thank you for working out every detail.  I can’t wait to see how your plan fits together.  I look forward to the day that I will stand in your presence and everything will make sense and I will marvel even more at the genius of your creation.  You are amazing!  You are so creative!  Thank you for reproving me and speaking to me through your word.  God, I supplicate for my friends and family who are reading these words, that you will give them special time with you as they get in your word and you get in their hearts.  Thank you for breaking down strongholds and correcting your sons and daughters.  Thank you for reaching out to us and not just leaving us here by ourselves.  Thank you for giving us your son, thank you for giving us your word, thank you for making a way so that we can have a relationship with you.  My God, my strength, author and protector of my faith, I give you all the glory, and all the honor, and all my praise!  I am going to daily lift my drooping hands, and let you strengthen my wobbly knees.  In Jesus name, AMEN!

Bringing this back up to the top…God is showing me that his word is my protection.  It is a weapon!  And I need to put on spiritual armor and be ready.  We are at war, this is not the time to slack off and let ourselves be lulled to sleep.  Protected and armed for battle, he told us how in his word.  PRAISE GOD!  So grateful that he didn’t leave us hanging, but gave us his word, the Bible (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, hehe, I like that).

Here are my “Thank you for coming to our town and serving selflessly to restore and rebuild our community” brownies.  Quite the mouthful, eh?  So for short we shall call them “Brownies.”

Brownies

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup cocoa powder

½ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

Heat oven to 350.  I greased a baking sheet with tall edges and then lined with parchment paper, because I did a double batch.  But for a single you can do this in a greased 8x8.

In a sauce pan melt your butter.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  Beat in cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder.  Spread into your prepared pan.  Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.  Be careful not to overcook.  A toothpick inserted should come out clean.

Peanut Butter Frosting

½ cup butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

3-4 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl with mixer on med-high whip butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy.  Add cream and continue to beat on med-high for about 2-3 more minutes.  Gradually add powdered sugar until your desired consistency and taste.   This is so stinking good, don’t test it too much or you may need to make another batch…and plus, I can’t imagine eating a whole batch of frosting would be good for you.

Frost the brownies and top with chopped peanuts or like I did with white chocolate chips and chopped milk chocolate chips.

Thank you relief workers for helping us fix this place up!  For those of you who are not here in Joplin with us here are some pictures I took today, almost two weeks since the tornado...so much work to be done, but were doing it!

The pictures do not even come close to doing justice to the astounding destructive power that hit this area.  The picture directly above is about a mile from my house.  And the video that I posted on my facebook with the people crowded in the Fast Trip gas station was on this corner.  A MILE!

Xoxo

Ronda

Wild Monkeys and Chunky Chippers

White Chocolate Chunky Chippers

Good morning, good morning, good morning!  The sun is shining bright!  It is no longer morning, but good evening, and the sun will be going down soon.  I started this blog before I went to work, but today was a very busy day and so I couldn’t finish working on it until now.  This week is Lake Invasion for our church youth.  The kids are so excited.  I remember what it was like to go to camp.  I was always too giddy to sleep the night before…I like that word, ‘giddy.’ You might be saying to yourself right now, “wow, Ronda is acting quite giddy.” And you would be correct, I am!  Kael slept well last night {Hallelujah!}, therefore so did I.  He didn’t wake up until 6am this morning.  This is the power of prayer straight up.  We didn’t use the weighted blanket, I forgot to give him the melatonin, we didn’t even put jammies on him last night (Sam put him to bed in his clothes, oops).  Thank you all so much for keeping us in your prayers for sweet sleep.

I decided to take the little boys grocery shopping with me after work yesterday.  Most of you who are mothers know that taking a toddler to the grocery can be a challenge.  Now imagine taking two monkeys with you to the grocery store and you will begin to understand what I go through.  The boys both wanted to be held or they both wanted to run free (in different directions).  I found that the best way to get most of my shopping done was to have one in the cart and one on my shoulders.  They each took turns giving mommy a new hairdo.  I got some looks of pity, some smiles, some laughs, and some people avoided making eye contact all together.  I will tell you if someone would have said to me, “Would you like me to help you push your cart?” It would have meant the world to me.  So next time you are at the grocery store if you happen to see a mother getting her hair ripped out of her head, whose one handedly trying to get the item off the shelf all while keeping the little monkey on her neck from grabbing everything within reach, offer to help her, you will bless her tremendously!  And you might make a new friend.  Or better yet, call a mother that you know and tell her that sometime if she needs to go grocery shopping you will go with her to help!

I sent my care package to Mom earlier this week, the one with the ‘Peanut Butter and Chocolate’, and ‘Lemonlicious’ biscotti I blogged about on Monday.  She called me last night when she got the box and said it was the best biscotti she had ever had and that she was already enjoying her second piece!  I was so happy my cheeks hurt from smiling.  I had another one of these moments yesterday, the kind where my cheeks hurt from smiling, when my dad sent me a picture of a good example of proper lighting technique.  I was expecting someone else’s photo, but it was one of my pictures!  J I was a happy lady.

Ok, so these cookies are scrum-diddly-umptious.  They are so yummy they are going on my: “Do not bake unless you are giving them away immediately” list, so that I am not tempted again like I was today.  It was a hard day.  I gobbled up several of these tasty morsels before I had to tell myself ‘no more!’  So I hope you give these cookies a try.  They are quick and easy and best right out of the oven. 

 

White Chocolate Chunky Chippers

2 ¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup of butter (2 sticks)

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup brown sugar (packed)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 ½ cups white chocolate chips

1 ½ cups chopped nutty mixture (I used a mixture with peanuts, dried apricots, almonds, dried cranberries, walnuts, raisins, and filberts).

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside

In a large bowl beat the butter with white and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy.  Reduce mixing speed to low and add vanilla and eggs (one egg at a time).

Gradually blend your dry ingredients with your creamed ingredients and then with a spoon mix the white chocolate chips and nuts in by hand.  Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets (there should be about 3 dozen cookies).  I put the sheets in my oven two at a time. 

I had to put my other two sheets on top of my cabinets to keep Kael, AKA: Grabby Grabberson from getting into them.  Bake for about 9 minutes and take a peek at them.  You want them to be golden brown, but not overcooked.  You can substitute Milk or Dark Chocolate Chips if you want, and you can leave the nuts out and just make them chocolate chippers, instead of chocolate chunkers.  Have fun with it!

Pray with me this weekend for our youth, that they will get more deeply rooted in God, and that this time away from home and school will refresh them.  Pray for safe travels and an injury free weekend.

This last picture is for Sam.  M & M's are his favorite candy and if he reads my blog today he will know where he can find them. :-)

xoxo

Ronda