God is Always Good

I was all ready, today, to encourage you, and to encourage myself, through this post.

But, as Jesus might say, the good in me for this post seems like it's been snatched away by a foul-hearted enemy who daily, and even hourly, seeks how to defile anything we're thankful for, and how to swoop in and devour whatever it is he sees or wants.

What I wanted to share, today, from a heart that's long been pure is thoughts about how not to grow too weary.

One of the ways of the Holy Spirit, that I've discovered over the past week or so, has been helpful to me in ways only Heaven may understand.

Do you remember how Jesus delayed going to see his friend Lazarus, who was dying? I don't know what Jesus was attending to at that time, but I know He once told someone to let the dead bury the dead.

For the life of me, I do not understand how anyone works in professions that daily require handling of the dead.

The spiritual passage of a saint from the earth realm to Heaven is precious as precious can be, in the eyes of Heaven. But physical death itself is so grievous. And, when an enemy wants home to become synonymous with physical death, and the handling of such, that enemy is hellbent on destroying heart and home.

So, I've found out the way to deal with that kind of scheme of the the enemy is to ignore the hell, ignore the horror that hell is forcing into your home, inasmuch as possible.

Pace yourself. Be patient in each task before you. Keep purpose in heart. Ignore the enemy.

Know that you live clean, that God has made the way, and that you've attended to clean living faithfully. (Satan is forever the liar.)

Know that witchcraft and hell has no place in your heart. Work on cleaning up whatever hell has done, in order of priority. Do not neglect yourself.

Rest your mind on God's word. Remain in prayer.

Then, when you've gathered your strength in Christ again, when you've gotten yourself and the better part of your living quarters together, for both your sanity and for the good of family, then tend to the hell or death that hell means to consume your heart and mind.

Keep your eye on the prize.

Know that the battle is not against flesh and blood, but is against a real wickedness that's on the rise.

And know that, no matter how much in authority any hell may become, God is still good; and so is home.

What a Blessing: Thankful for BBQ Sauce

I thank Heaven we live in a blessed nation, where we each can do things a little differently. And I'm thankful we always have blessed one another with all kinds of useful ideas.

In south Louisiana, people from many backgrounds (French, Spanish, Caribbean, African, Asian, Native American) historically shared ideas and arrived at eclectic of ways of cooking.

That history isn't in all ways good. But faithfulness has always overcome any evil of history — there, like anywhere else. And, whenever southern parts of the state have flooded, I've felt a little helpless.

There are so many good people there. ...

Years ago, someone from south Texas came to visit my elders, at least a couple of times in my witness. This visitor brought homemade jam each of the two times, and we learned about the loquat tree, which grows in abundance in south Texas.

I think the loquat may be an ingredient in a powder drink-mix that was popular when I was a child. That drink was the closest I was to being allowed, on a daily basis, to have something sweet, beyond dessert at school.

As an adult, I really appreciate sweets that are not super-sweet, especially if I know there's something healthy about a sweet.

So, I was thankful to find a way to make a healthy BBQ sauce this week, just using the few little things that may be in a pantry and fridge.

One of the things I made use of was Ms. Cynthia's* homemade jam from 2015. The jam does not include loquats. It has figs and strawberries. But any homemade jam or preserves, would have been good (rhubarb and strawberries comes to mind).

This is what I did to make a BBQ sauce:

• I cooked maybe three short stalks of celery in some vegetable oil with about two tablespoons of ginger root and four cloves of garlic, all chopped. What a blessing that both fresh ginger root and garlic are anti-inflammatory and immune boosting, something that probably was important to my elders' well-being in cooking with garlic almost daily. Celery is good for us, too.
• I decided to make the sauce in a kind of south-Asian way, using a few little spices still in our kitchen in lean times. Each spice is anti-oxidant in nature, a boost in battles against cancer. I stirred in less than a teaspoon each of ground mustard, cumin, and turmeric, while the vegetables were still simmering.
• I added maybe two or three teaspoons of red pepper flakes that I roughly chopped in a coffee-bean grinder. And I added in regular black pepper and a little onion powder.
• Then, I stirred in a 6-ounce can of tomato paste and probably six or so tablespoons of the old fruit jam, and let the pan keep warm over low heat.

I didn't do quite as well with the meat itself.

I'm not in practice of cooking pork, or any meat that doesn't have the immune-building micro-nutrients that are in baked or broiled chicken. There were long years when I even took a hiatus from pork for faith reasons, in consideration of neighbors and people I prayed for overseas.

But, this week, I had a change in heart, in favor of my freedom in Jesus. And I decided to use the pork ribs that we'd had for a little while. I directly seasoned the meat with salt, black pepper, and paprika.

I decided not to look at cooking instructions but to try to cook through guesswork. So I settled on 350-degrees Fahrenheit as a cooking temperature, knowing a low temperature would be needed to keep protein strands from getting dry and permanently tough.

But something I learned when I looked at actual instructions today, is some folk cook pork for hours, using even lower temperatures. Yikes!

For 350-degrees, it so happens I was in the right range of time with the ribs, but I needed to bake them covered for longer. And I needed to add the sauce at the very end, and put them back in the oven on broil for a short time.

The end result was okay, and I really wanted to send some to an elder's house. But the sauce was so good that neighbors swiped most of it off of the ribs, and left a watery something that tasted mostly like ginger!

While I hope neighbor's have gotten a little health boost from the sauce, I pray they will not do that again.

... Jesus is good, you all.


***

* Name changed for privacy

Odds and Ends

Verse after verse, the Bible isn't always easy to understand. One woman in a Sunday school class said we need to read whole books of the Bible sometimes, in order to put verses in the right context.

In fact, sometimes, we need to be in a Bible study group whose leader knows how one book of the Bible goes together with another. And, of course, we need to be prayerful, expecting Heaven to answer our heartfelt questions.

When some Bible verses haven't made sense to me right away, I've written question marks in the margins. And I've always gotten answers.

Sometimes, puzzling verses have begun to make sense sooner than later. At other times, it's a long while before answers happen.

For example, in Proverbs 30:29-33, it's puzzling that Agur talks about a strutting rooster and a goat, saying three or four things are "stately in their walk."

But Agur is only being sarcastic, saying people may consider a king stately in his walk but that, sometimes, his way is like a rooster or a goat.

Agur was a little like Solomon or whatever person wrote down instructions from Lemuel's mother, in Proverbs 31. The Proverbs 31 writer says a king should give beer to people and let them drink away misery (Proverbs 31:6-7); but the writer was being sarcastic, like Agur was.

The Proverbs 31 writer was talking about how kings used to treat people who are embittered. But the writer goes on to contrast the sarcasm about giving people beer, by describing how a king truly should treat people. The writer says, "Speak up for those who have no voice ... ." (31:8)

Sarcasm sometimes comes from bitterness.

Being embittered, Job complained that the unrighteous heap up riches for nothing (Job 27:16-17). And Job said terrors overtake such people. Job bitterly said people always behave unjustly: The unrighteous heaps it up, "but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide up his silver." (27:17) Job was asking why he should suffer, when other people were so unjust.

It's unsettling, knowing that, even when justice happens, there always seems to be some injustice still in the balance.

When Jesus was crucified, the unrighteous took His clothing, and the unrighteous Judas took the purse of money that people had given the disciples. Judas also took a bribe to betray Jesus.

... One life application, for me, is the observation that, sometimes, when Christians or Jews have been betrayed, Satan also has tried to reverse some promises that appear in scriptures.

It seems Satan thinks he can undo whatsoever is just.

Job, in 26:6, says hell is naked in God's eyes. So, Satan has tried to do a reversal of that justice, through making some Christians and Jews naked, though we shouldn't be (Matthew 25:36).

There are plenty of ungodly reversals of justice in these "last days" we're living through.

But thank Heaven that, in Jesus, "strength and honor" (Proverbs 31) can continue to clothe us, no matter our hardships.

In Jesus, there can be moments of childlike laughter, without fear of the future, a knowing chuckle even when we're not sure of tomorrow. Although we do care and can even be anxious for the fact that some souls may be lost, we try not to despair and completely lose heart.

That's one reason I'm thankful in being able to do the simplest of things. Clothed in my right mind, I'm able to forgive, and to offer my heart.

Faith, not bitterness, is a healer:

Freely ye have received, freely give.

Matthew 10:8

Sometimes, only Heaven knows how much of our hearts we've given.

Home Is ...

 

Home is where a parent has lifted you up: like the day my mom bundled me in a coat, held me close, and spun the two of us around on a brisk winter morning, in a way that felt like flying up to Heaven, far above the snowy ground.

Home is

... playful

... cooperative (or, well, errr ... living at peace, in agreement, I mean)

... creative

... surrounded by community

... safe

... where friends can gather.

... Home is in the heart.

An Article in Progress

This is just a loose thought for now, but I want to think a little further about how Christian service gets mixed up with the idea of being very busy, very industrious.

I think people who work in service industries easily fall into that frame of mind, in thinking doing lots and lots of routine things each day is the only kind of service Heaven needs.

I also think some service-industry folk may not be very understanding of how working at home can be different from washing loads and loads of dishes (and being up to the strictest industry codes on that), putting item after item into an oven each hour, or attending to an ever-increasing mountain of laundry (in the commercial setting).

At home, working with Jesus in heart is purposeful and not about doings loads and loads of things. But it does mean things need to be completed, and it does mean doing one thing and another thing and not just one thing.

There's a lot of self-teaching in working at home.

And, like teachers, who have mandatory breaks for lesson planning, work at home needs daily time for planning (and prayer!). Without planning, prayer, and enough breathing room for creativity, some things won't work out.

In what other ways are serving at home and in industry different? And in what ways are these different kinds of service alike?

Heavenly Sowing and Reaping Isn't Like Putting Into a Gumball Machine!

When we read Galatians 6:6-9 carefully, keeping everything in context, we avoid the pitfall of believing the expression "You reap what you sow" is about putting in money or goods and receiving the same or more back.

I never did think that's what Heaven was saying.

In Jesus, sowing and reaping isn't like putting into a gumball machine and getting some great prize in return. It's not like that at all.

Instead, the New Testament Bible is saying to avoid situations where people are looking for something worldly, or where people are prone to harm you, and just keep close to Jesus, to talk with Heaven in prayer but to also keep in contact with other believers, talking about faith and everything else that's good — and sharing from the good you've been given, out of good relationship.

And the scripture is actually saying NOT to give in order to receive some THING. But give good teaching because you've been given good teaching, Heaven's word is saying.

And, sometimes, teaching can mean giving even a little something, from the heart.

You see, in Jesus, it's about doing or sowing to the Spirit, not about pleasing anyone in a fleshly or worldly way.

It's about working together in the Spirit, and even crying out and pleading for help from the Holy Spirit.

It's true: Sowing to the Spirit can mean crying out to the church or to Heaven about even the most horrid problems, expressing your dependence on Jesus.

Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto [his teacher] all good things.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows [from a spiritual heart or unspiritual], that shall he also reap.

For he that sows [only to please] his [corrupt] flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to [please] the Spirit [in purity] shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galatians 6:6-9, with editor's notes

Skillet Cinnamon Rolls Recipe Link

This is a blessing,

especially if you skip making the syrup and frosting.