Krystal and I are excited to share our lives with you. As you probably know, there is a lot going on currently in our lives. While life brings both tough and wonderful times, we are excited about what God is doing and look forward to sharing this great journey of life with you.
I hope that you will enjoy visiting here. Posts will vary from sermons, studies, and devotionals to pictures of family and my own brand of quirky humor. You never know what you’ll find, so check in often and see what’s going on!
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8 weeks down and now we’ve completed 2 books! I hope you are getting a lot out of the readings. It is amazing how God continues to reveal verses to me that I’ve read over time and time again. Continue seeking God in these daily readings.
Praise God that we are in the much easier to read section of Isaiah! Chapter 40 begins what scholars call the “book of comfort”. It is filled with promises of God’s loving restoration of Israel and speaks of God’s salvation to come through Jesus. One of my favorite chapters of scripture is Isaiah 44, which speaks of the foolishness of idols. It’s great to read and see the fallacy of idols exposed, but it is also a great challenge to us. While we may not carve out idols from wood or shape them from metal, there are many things in life that we put ahead of God. There are any of a number of things that we give worth to that really have no eternal value and can give us nothing in return. We can get lured into believing that money will bring happiness, but it won’t. Neither will selfish living or good deeds or power. While these may at times give us a false sense of worth, their ‘blessings’ are fleeting. We’re left with nothing but emptiness and a continued longing for worthiness.
We worship what we think will give us worth. But all the ‘worth’ of the world will never really fill the need of our souls. Our true worth is an eternal worth that can only be given by God. Jesus came to give us worth – to be the way by which God adopts us into His family. Our worth is in Christ alone, and nothing of this world will replace that worth.
We can either continue to see after worthless idols, or we can seek our worth in Christ.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the standard rotel-velvetta queso that dominates the queso landscape, but there are times when I want a queso that doesn’t come from a can and a box of cheese that is shelf stable. So I went on a search for queso recipes with fresh and perishable ingredients to fulfill my quality queso urge. Surprisingly, there aren’t that many out there – good ones at least. The best I found was actually from a Texan living in New York. Living in Texas and having some better resources available, I’ve adapted it a bit for my taste.
Chile Con Queso
Ingredients:
1/2 onion diced (about 1/2 cup)
3 jalapeno peppers diced fine
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1 1/4 cup of milk
3 cups of shredded cheese, (preferred Queso Asadero or Queso Quesadilla. You can mix with cheddar if you like)
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
Salt to taste
- Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat, and then cook the onions and peppers for about five minutes or until onions are translucent.
- Whisk in the flour and cook for about 30 seconds.
- Add the milk to the pot, and cook on medium, whisking constantly until sauce is thick, about five minutes. Stir in tomatoes.
- Turn heat down to low, and a 1/4-cup at a time, slowly add the shredded cheese stirring into the white sauce until completely melted. Repeat. (Key to smooth sauce is adding slowly and allowing each batch to completely melt)
- Add salt to taste.
7 weeks down! Next week will be 2 months! Keep it up!
We had a number of wonderful readings this week – from Isaac not learning his father’s lesson about lying about his wife to a shift in the readings in Isaiah to some narrative for a change, but I want to focus on our reading from Matthew and point out something that you likely missed. Jesus tells his disciples that the key to becoming the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is to humble yourself as a child. Now in today’s society that hold children in high regard, this doesn’t seem to make much sense. If you are a parent, your life today likely revolves around your children and fulfilling their needs and encouraging them to grow in a number of ways. We fill our schedules with events and programs to benefit our children and help them grow into well rounded adults. But in the time of Jesus, this was not the case. Children were considered to be among the lowest of society and had no real value attached to them until they were old enough to begin to provide value – i.e. – able to help with the crops or animals or whatever the family business produced. Jesus’ call to humility wasn’t a call to place ourselves in a position of reliance alone, which kids today still need adults to provide for them. His call was also to discovering that our only worth is to our Heavenly Father – that the world around us places no real value on us unless we can produce value.
Our worth does not come in who we are or what we do, but in who God is. We have eternal worth because God has chosen to adopt us into His family. The world around us could care less about us outside of what we can do for the world. But God loves us regardless of what we can do. God’s love is what gives us worth. And it is being considered worthy by God that makes us the greatest in the Kingdom of God.
The church season of Lent has historically been a time of introspection and devotion. In order to highlight our dependence on our selves and our earthly desires, many Christians choose to forgo something during Lent as a way to sharpen their faith. The concept is to replace a dependence or desire for something earthly with a dependence or desire for Christ. Recently, some have also taken spiritual disciplines on during Lent – adding to their spiritual growth regiment either in addition or instead of choosing to give something up. As you approach Lent (which starts tomorrow!) here is a list of 12 things to either give up or take on to grow your soul this Lent.
Things to give up
- Coffee or Chocolate – These are traditional for many, but also very good at pointing out our desires & dependence on ourselves and the world.
- TV or Internet – While you may not be able to give these up completely (particularly if you need to email for work) but you can vastly limit your time.
- Going out to eat – Has a two part effect – easier on your pocketbook as well as helping you see a dependence.
- Radio – Use the silence of your commute as a time of prayer
- Excessive sports – No, I’m not saying to stop exercising, but if it is filling your schedule, this might be a place to look at to give that time to God.
- Video games – These can take up a lot of time and energy – what could you do for God in that time instead?
Things to take on
- Scripture reading – I’m a big proponent of learning about God and about yourself through scripture. It’s never too late to start. If you want to read along we me use this guide. We are on week 7.
- Exercise – If you are not in shape, how can you be ready when God calls you to serve? Take Lent as a time to start an exercise regiment and begin to get your body right.
- Scripture memorization – “Thy Word I have hidden in my heart that I may not sin against Thee.” – Psalm 119:11 – true words and a great Lenten discipline.
- Fasting – Nothing shows dependence stronger than fasting. Try starting with one meal a week and then move on to one day a week.
- Sacrificial giving – Best when used in conjunction with giving something up. Give the money that you would have used to fulfill your earthly desires for God.
- Silence – Turn everything off and learn to enjoy stillness and silence. Sometimes God’s whispers can only be heard when we are still and quiet.
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