Archive for November, 2009
A Useful Vessel
by PRRussell on Nov.25, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
A Usefel Vessel
“If you give up your life for Me, you will find true life.” Matthew 16:25 NLT
When you’re full of yourself, God can’t fill you.
But when you wmpty yourself, God has a useful vessel. Your Bible overflows with examples of those who did.
In his gospel, Matthew mentions his own name only twice. Both times he calls himslef a tax collector. In his list of apostles, he assigns himself the eighth spot.
John doesn’t even mention his name in his gospel. The twenty appearences of ”John” all refer to the Baptist. John the apostle simply calls himself “the other disciple” or the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”
Luje wrote two of the most important books in the Bible but never once penned his own name.
“Cure for the Common Life” by Max Lucado
A True Family
by PRRussell on Nov.24, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
A True Family
My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants. Mark 3:35
Does Jesus have anything to say about dealing with difficult relatives? Is there an example of Jesus bringing peace to a painful family? Yes there is.
His own…..
It may surprise you to know that Jesus had a family at all! You may not be aware that Jesus had brothers and sisters. He did. Quoting Jesus’ hometown critics, Mark wrote, “[Jesus] is just the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And His sisters are here with us” (Mark 6:3).
And it may surprise you to know that His family was less than perfect. They were. If your family doesn’t appreciate you, take heart, neither did Jesus’…..
[Yet] He didn’t try to control His family’s behavior, nor did He let their behavior control His. He didn’t demand that they agree with Him. He didn’t sulk when they insulted Him. He didn’t make it His mission to try to please them.
“He Still Moves Stones” by Max Lucado
When God Says No
by PRRussell on Nov.22, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
When God Says No
Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty. John 6:35
There are times when the one thing you want is the one thing you never get….
You pray and wait.
No answer.
You pray and wait.
May I ask a very important question? What if God says no?
What if the request is delayed or even denied? When God says no to you, how will you respond? If God says, “I’ve given you My grace, and that is enough,” will you be content?
Content. That’s the word. A state of heart in which you would be at peace if God gave you nothing more than He already has.
“In the Grip of Grace” by Max Lucado
What Makes God, God?
by PRRussell on Nov.19, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
What Makes God, God?
If we are not faithful, He will still be faithful, because He cannot be false to Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13
God’s blessings are dispensed according to the riches of His grace, not according to the depth of our faith….
Why is that important to know? So you won’t get cynical. Look around you. Aren’t there more mouths than bread? Aren’t there more wounds than physicians? Aren’t there more who need the truth than those who tell it?
So what do we do? Throw up our hands and walk away? Tell the world we can’t help them?
No, we don’t give up. We look up. We trust. We believe. And our optimism is not hollow. Christ has proven worthy. He has shown that He never fails. That’s what makes God, God.
“A Gentle Thunder” by Max Lucado
It’s Your Choice
by PRRussell on Nov.18, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
It’s Your Choice
If people want to follow Me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing even to give up their lives to follow Me. Mark 8:34
On one side stands the crowd.
Jeering.Baiting. Demanding.
On the other stands a peasant.
Swollen lips. Lumpy eye. Lofty promise.
One promises acceptance, the other a cross.
One offers flesh and flash, the other offers faith.
The crowd challenges, “Follow us and fit in.”
Jesus promises, “Follow me and stand out.”
They promise to please. God promises to save.
God looks at you and asks, “Which will be your choice?”
“A Gentle Thunder” by Max Lucado
Immediate gratification? Has no one learned anything????
by PRRussell on Nov.18, 2009, under ♥ My Personal Blog
Okay, I am feeling a bit frustrated beyond belief today so I am going to lay it all out. Here’s my rant:
I agree, the Republican plan was not the best. I personally don’t think nationalized (socialized) medicine is the way to go though. It will cost a fortune we do not have. What happened to personal responsibility? I shouldn’t have to pay for someone elses healthcare and by the same token you should not have to pay for mine. I don’t say that lightly either. I have been without insurance, I’ve lost jobs and had to go on COBRA to stay covered, I have been denied for pre-existing conditions, I almost went blind b/c I needed retinal surgery and I missed my pre-existing 90 day exemption period by one day! I have gone without doing a single blood sugar test for more then a year b/c it was all I could do to buy the insulin I needed. I have had insurance but paid so much for the monthly premium I couldn’t afford to see the doctor or get any tests done anyway b/c I couldn’t afford the copays and that plan didn’t even cover test strips! I have seen the ugliest of the ugly. So I don’t say these things lightly. I should be getting disability right now but I refuse. I don’t like the cards God dealt me but He dealt them to me all the same and I can take care of myself. I don’t want the govt or my neighbors paying my way. My annual healthcare costs are just north of $300,000 each year!!!!!! I am only ONE person!!! What about all the other chronically ill people? There are over 20 million Type 2 diabetics, about 3 million Type 1’s like me, then there’s MS, MD, cancer in it’s multitudes of forms and on and on…. we can’t afford it! Why should you have to pay my $300,000 a year healthcare costs when right now I am doing fine on my own? Granted, if reform is not done and costs continue to go up more and more ppl who are doing fine this year won’t be in the future and the number of uninsured will keep rising. That’s why we need reform to control costs……. socializing medicine and making you pay for my $300,000 a year is not the answer though and that’s not lowering cost! That’s everybody throwing their money into one big pot and us trusting the govt to take care of that money. Yeah right, they’ll watch over it and take real good care of it for us *rolling eyes*. Then the govt can tell me they only have so much money in the pot so I can’t have the kidney transplant I will need in (let’s just say) 20 years because….. “you’re rather old after all, Mrs. Russell, and you’ve had diabetes for 49 years.” DAMMIT!!!!! It was my money that went into the dam pot in the first place!!!!! If you’d just let me keep it and let me take care of myself I could get the dam kidney transplant!!!! Now I’ll just have to lay here quietly and die. That’s what will happen and we all know it. Right now I am doing fine on my own!!! Insurance is a priority in my life. I NEED it. I cannot live without it, literally. So I make life choices and life sacrifices to make sure I have the insurance I need. Right now, if I needed a kidney transplant and I went to a facility approved by my health insurance company I will pay NOTHING!!!!!! They would pick it up 100%!!! I did not come by this insurance by accident. I have made choices in my life specifically to line me up to have this!!! I take responsibility for me. I could have lived above my means but I didn’t so I have very little debt right now. I could have gone out and gotten a house I couldn’t really afford a few years ago but I KNEW I couldn’t afford it so I didn’t and I am still in an apartment today. So many ppl made wrong choices in their lives… bought houses they could not afford… never gave insurance a second thought until they needed it and didn’t have it. I am SO TIRED of paying a price for those ppl!!!!!!! I play by the rules of personal responsibility. Healthcare must be reformed to get costs down so ppl can afford it but just throwing everyone’s money into a big pot that they never see and handing the money back out to them that they never see is not the answer. Socialized healthcare is NOT FREE!!!!!!!! Nearly every country that has socialized medicine is currently changing things so they can get out from under the financial burden because it is destroying their countries. WHY WOULD WE DO THAT TO OURSELVES??????? For the immedicate gratification of having every single person covered even though we know a few decades down the road it will bring this country to it’s knees and our grandchildren will pay the nasty price for our immediate gratification????? It’s a HUGE problem that will take a while to fix. People will suffer in the meantime but haven’t we learned anything about immediate gratification in this society yet???? For cryin’ out loud already! As for Obama, this is all his fault. He had a choice. He could have written the bill himself and moved it into the legislative branch to get tweaked and voted on. George W. Bush did it with the Social Security reform bill and Bill Clinton did it with the Healthcare Reform bill and there have been other examples. The WH could have written this bill for the most part but he chose to hand it over to Pelosi and Reid to do. If he cared so damn much about it he should have done it himself. The truth is the American people DO NOT WANT socialized medicine. That is why it has never been passed for the past 60 years. The Dem’s need to give it up. They need to put their own selfish, power-grabbing, wanting-us-to-be-dependant-on-them desires aside and stand up and claim this issue as their own if they want it so bad. Poking it with a stick and stirring up a hornets nest every 15 years or so is not the way to do it. They need to take it slow… small steps. I think nearly all Americans no matter their political viewpoints want reform for healthcare. I am a huge State person myself but I’m from the South so it’s in my DNA. I think the States should be left to figure it out on their own for their own state. The Federal govt needs to keep their damn nose out of it. Alot of states have already developed programs to address the situation. They should be encouraged and offered some help along the way. Of course, Mass. did a terrible job with theirs… they went the socialized route and now the cost is too high… higher than the national cost…. and it’s getting worse by the day and they still don’t have everyone covered. So anyway, that’s my 2 cents. Probably enough to make some ppl really mad and others would back me. I’m just one person and that’s how I feel about it.
Spiritual Life from the Spirit
by PRRussell on Nov.17, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
Spiritual Life from the Spirit
Now we do not live following our sinful selves, but we live following the Spirit. Romans 8:4
Perhaps your childhood memories bring more hurt than inspiration. The voices of your past cursed you, belittled you, ignored you. At the time, you thought such treatment was typical. Now you see it isn’t.
And now you find yourself trying to explain your past. Do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses?
Think about this. Spiritual life comes from the Spirit! Your parents may have given you genes, but God gives you grace. Your parents may be responsible for your body, but God has taken charge of your soul. You may get your looks from your mother, but you get eternity from your Father, your heavenly Father. And God is willing to give you what your family didn’t.
“When God Whispers Your Name” by Max Lucado
Gluten Free Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes
by PRRussell on Nov.17, 2009, under ♥ My Celiac Blog
This is SOOOOOOO good! I only make these once a year at Thanksgiving because they are obviously not healthy being very high in sugar and calories but a couple little squares a year is okay and well worth the wait every year!
I list the brand names I use to make this recipe gluten free but please keep in mind that you absolutely MUST read all ingredients on all items priot to ingesting them. Food manufacturers will change recipes in a heartbeat to go with the ingredient that is cheapest at the moment so please use my suggestions as guidelines only. Enjoy and Happy Eating!
GLUTEN FREE PUMPKIN GOOEY BUTTER CAKES
This recipe is from Paula Deen. I have simply revised it to be gluten free.
Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 50 min
Level: Easy
Servings: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
Cake:
1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix (Betty Crocker GF mix/GF Pantry)
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted (Land O’Lakes)
Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin (Libby’s)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted (Land O’Lakes)
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar (Domino)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (McCormick)
1 teaspoon nutmeg (McCormick or whole fresh nutmeg that’s grated)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.
Serve with fresh whipped cream.
Variations: For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.
For a Banana Gooey Cake: Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.
For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.
Take Heart
by PRRussell on Nov.16, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
Take Heart
May the Lord lead your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
The majority is not always right. If the majority had ruled, the children of Israel never would have left Egypt. They would have voted to stay in bondage. If the majority had ruled, David never would have fought Goliath. His brothers would have voted for him to stay with the sheep. What’s the point? You must listen to your own heart.
God says you’re on your way to becoming a disciple when you can keep a clear head and a pure heart.
Do you ever wonder if everything will turn out right as long as you do everything right? Do you ever try to do something right and yet nothing seems to turn out like you planned? Take heart-when people do what is right, God remembers.
“The Inspirational Study Bible” by Max Lucado
Saying “Thank You”
by PRRussell on Nov.15, 2009, under ♥ My Spiritual Blog
Saying “Thank You”
Thank the Lord because He is good. His love continues forever. Psalm 106:1
Worship is when you’re aware that what you’ve been given is far greater than what you can give. Worship is the awareness that were it not for His touch, you’d still be hobbling and hurting, bitter and broken. Worship is the half-glazed expression on the parched face of a desert pilgrim as he discovers that the oasis is not a mirage.
Worship is the “thank you” that refuses to be silenced.
We have tried to make a science out of worship. We can’t do that. We can’t do that any more than we can “sell love” or “negotiate peace”.
Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer and by the delivered to the Deliverer.
“In the Eye of the Storm” by Max Lucado