Dried Up Skeleton Bones

Something my pastor always emphasizes is our ability to speak life into any situation. I've been thinking more about how to do that. Why is it so much easier to speak death than to speak life? Complaining is so much easier than actively deciding to encourage those close to me. Perhaps this is because it feels more genuine to talk about the way I'm actually feeling. The trick I'm trying to learn is how to acknowledge it when I feel rundown, but then move past that stage into forgiveness and optimism. It spreads death when I dwell on the bad parts.

In the literal sense, Ezekiel spoke life over dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14). He spoke the Word of the Lord and they actually came back to life! Ok, historically we know that this was a metaphor for the reconciliation of Israel and Judah (read the other half of chapter 37), but the Word is living and we can still learn from it today. When God asked Ezekiel to do something completely insane, (talk to actual human bones that had been lying out the desert for freaking ever?!) he just did it. He acknowledged that God might have something up His sleeve, and he did what he was asked.

Here's another twist though: Can we speak life into our own lives? When I feel dried up and bleached out and useless...can I speak the Word of the Lord and be revived? It is so difficult to do that. But I know I feel worse when I embrace depression and stay in bed. When all I want to do is lie flat in my defeat, it perpetuates the situation to do so. How do I speak life into my own life?


K

Scrumptious Italian Herb and Cheese Ring

Yesterday I made some of the most delicious bread!  It is is very easy and have had a request to share the recipe.  Sadly my photo was deleted. :(  If K. or J. has it, please send a copy back to me.  :)

I will list the ingredients here in bold (pardon the decimals...the superscript doesn't apply to blogging - or I'm just ignorant of how to do it online):

BREAD
4.5 - 5.25 cups of all purpose flour
.25 cup sugar
2pkg. yeast (4.5 teaspoons)
1 cup milk
1 cup water
.5 cup butter (1 stick if you are using sticks)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sesame seed (optional)


FILLING:
4 oz. (1 cup) shredded mozzerella cheese
.5 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning (I pumped mine up to a full teaspoon)
.25 teaspoon garlic powder
.25 cup butter softended (that's .5 of a stick)




In a large bowl combine 2.5 cups of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast; blend well.  In a small sauce pan, heat milk, water, and .5 cup butter until warm (120-130 degrees).  Add warm liquid and eggs to flour mixture.  Blend on low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes and medium speed.  By hand, stir in the remaining 2 - 2.75 cups of flour to form a stiff batter.  (it only took me 2 cups - but that's here in Missouri)


Generously grease a 12-cup bundt pan or 10 -in tube pan; sprinkle with sesame seeds (again this is optional).  In a small bowl, combine all  filling ingredients; mix well.  Spoon half of batter into greased pan; spoon filling mixture evenly over batter to within .5 inches of the sides of pan.  Spoon remaining batter over filling.  Cover loosely wiht plastic wrap and cloth towel.  Let rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees) until light and doubled in size, about 30 minutes.  (Don't know where to let your bread rise??  Find a chair and place your covered dough on top of a heating pad set on medium or high...helps create that warm environment and knocks a few minutes off the rise time. )

Heat oven to 350. Uncover dough.  Back 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when lightly tapped.  Immediately remove from pan; cool on wire rack.  Serve warm or cool.


Yields: 24 slices.
190 calories per slice... definitely a salad worthy side. 


Modified from the Pilsbury - Complete Book of Baking (1993)




Happy Baking!
-B.

Snow Dayz

I've been reading through the book of Revelation and as I came to the end of the book today, some bright imagery stood out to me on this particularly dull and gray day. John is describing the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:

9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."  10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. [4] Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits [5] by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Think of all the colors! My highlighting does the description no justice and I realize this post is a bit dorky, but I don't care! On a dull, gray, icy day like today isn't it cool to think about a place so bright and so colorful?! It just makes this world feel that much more temporary.

Stay warm and stay safe! :)

J