Entries from March 1, 2010 - April 1, 2010
A Week That Would Change History: The Back Story
Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 11:45AM We don’t know the exact date these events took place, but we do know much of what happened before and during that extraordinary week. These events took place in a politically unimportant country, among a historically unremarkable people. No one in power was giving much thought to their “legacy” as they took their place that week on the world’s stage.
You see there was this carpenter going around Israel stirring up the people with thoughts that the Messiah had come. Rumor had it that this nobody was healing the sick, making food out of nothing, and - if you could believe it - raising the dead. Useful qualities in a Messiah if Israel as a nation planned open war against Rome.
It was bad enough that people thought they would finally be freed from foreign domination, the Roman authorities had crushed such foolishness before; this man was claiming to be divine, equal with the Lord himself. He was forgiving sin, healing on the Sabbath, flouting the oral traditions that had been devised by Israel’s rabbis so the nation would not break Torah again.
He was a blasphemer. The final straw for the authorities: He had just raised from the dead a man who was well known and respected by people living in Jerusalem a few weeks before Passover. Jerusalem will be flooded with worshippers; everyone will be talking about it. Rumors of this so called miracle will reach Roman ears....the leaders decided to act before the Romans became concerned about what was happening under their watch.
45Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place[c] and our nation."
49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
51He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
54Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
55When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple area they asked one another, "What do you think? Isn't he coming to the Feast at all?" 57But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him. John 11
Recovery Soup: A Second Cup Recipe Suggestion
Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 12:00AM Troll soup is all about using up leftovers. Recovery soup is all about vegetables. They are both made the same way. The purpose of the recovery soup is to recover from over-indulgence in high carb /high fat foods and a lack of vegetables. I made a huge pot of soup after Haggai went back home. It is fun to make a visiting child’s favorite childhood food all at once, but I now realized their favorites are mostly protein/carb based, prepared for 4 days in a row - that is heavy, heavy eating.
Recovery soup starts with cooked poached chicken (which means free broth), previously defatted poached chicken broth and a can of chicken broth. The chicken is set aside to cool. The broth is set in a bowl and put into the fridge to cool, so I can defat it before freezing. Into the pot goes the previously frozen chicken broth and the canned broth, sliced onions, garlic, carrots and celery. If there are leaves on the celery stalks they get added also. I like barley in recovery soup, and a dash or 2 of soy sauce. Let the whole thing simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Add back as much chicken as you desire. Pepper/salt to taste. Enjoy.
This soup is bland and can be spiced up if you desire, but it is just what my over carbed body needs. I can feel the nutrients from the vegetables course thorough my veins while I eat it.
Just Hungry has a simple explanation for poaching chicken. She seasons while making the chicken. I tend to season when I am using either the chicken or the broth in a future recipe.
Add a favorite soup recipe below if you desire to:
free chicken broth, how to make soup, recovery soup in recipes Aging With Grace: Make The Call Today: Schedule A Mammogram
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:00AM First published March 2009
If you are like me, there are some things in life I tend to put off. Last year I put off getting a mammogram. October is the traditional month for breast cancer awareness. However if you wait till then to schedule a mammogram appointment, that is a busy time of year and everyone is trying to make a appointment before year end.
Make The Call Now before summer and life are busy, before fall and all the kids activities start up again, before October and you are then trying to work one more thing in among the holiday activities.
Do it. You have heard of the game 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, for a horrific twist try 6 Degrees of Breast Cancer. Most of us won't make it past the 3rd level.
I went last Friday (with no complaining). Make the call!
What Is Success in Life?
Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 12:00AM We sat in the diner. Over coffee, a dear friend told me she felt like a failure. Her marriage was difficult and so were her kids. Her job was mundane. Life at 50 was not what she had hoped it would be. I have sat on that side of the table before, saying the same words with the same sense of quiet desperation and sorrow. It is a good thing we are not down at the same time.
If life is measured by the stuff we own, kids following the high school/ college/ career/ marriage/ children and stellar ministry in church pattern, being able to write that book on how to have a happy marriage - then we both have failed and our sense of despair mirrors the truth of our lives.
Do most women enter their 50’s with the regret of the “I coulda, shoulda, woulda’s”? I should have prayed for my kids/marriage more, I should have loved my husband more, I should have stayed home, gone to work, moved to Canada, gone back to school, waited to go back to school, been more patient, spoke up, held my tongue, saved more, enjoyed life more, not waited for my husband to lead devotions, left, stayed with contentment ....If only I had known how life was going to turn out.
I looked at my friend and spoke what is true. “I was there. I saw how you raised your children. You were not perfect but you loved them and taught them the truth. Yes, you could have done more or some things differently, as parents we all could but ...they are adults now, their choices are their own. While you had failures, you have not failed in loving and training your children for adulthood. “
“You have sustained a long term marriage to a challenging man in a culture that doesn’t value that commitment. And the truth is, you are not always a peach either and you will come out of this difficult time loving each other. You will do what we always do, pray for him and yourself, forgive what needs to be forgiven, seek forgiveness as needed. See God faithful to heal and restore. Remember, you and I have been here before in our marriages. Thank the Lord we don’t struggle at the same time. There is not enough coffee and chocolate to lift both of us up at the same time. And there are times it is a very good thing that neither of us know any hit men.”
“You like your job. You current boss is a pill. We can pray she gets a promotion (we have done that before). Your ultimate boss has a rewards package (Eph 6:7, a delayed one) that is out of this world. If you can’t please her, please Him.”
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.....Heb 12
Words said to me before, encouragement and hope passed on from one woman to another.
Except for the hit man reference.
Parenting Semi-Adults: The Secret Life of American Teenagers
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 12:00AM When Haggai moved to California, the stories started to be told of events that happened while he lived at home - that his father and I knew nothing about. That is when I formulated the rule “If you almost die for any reason, as long as you are currently alive and unharmed: I do not want to know.”
Now Princess is home for spring break from college. This is her first year living away from home. She had lived in our home until last September. The stories are flowing again. Stories about events that happened while she lived with us, that we knew nothing about. Not terrible, horrible bad things, just things we, her parents would liked to have been informed of and weren’t. Till now...... long after the events.
I am going to install GPS in the teeth of all children currently living at home.
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