Isabel's favorite song for the past few weeks. :) We've listened to it over and over and I found the video today and thought I'd share it cuz it's so fun!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Pineapple Upside-down Cake
My grandpa's birthday was on Friday. My family always gets together for birthdays. We go to dinner and then go have cake and open presents. My grandpa's favorite kind of cake is pineapple upside-down cake. I have made it for him in the past and it went fairly well. However, I have had several "incidents" happen in the past when baking. I love to cook but I usually shy away from baking because my cakes have imploded, exploded, and somehow I always have a HUGE mess! This one definitely made a huge mess but Brian said he is willing to do ALL of those dishes again just to eat another pineapple upside-down cake like this one. Isabel helped me mix the dry ingredients (and placed the cherries) and the batter actually made enough for several cakes. So, I decided to make a personal mini cake especially for my Paw Paw. :) He LOVED it! I posted a couple pictures of it below! Isn't it cute?! 
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Hope!
This past year has been crazy...to say the least. What we imagine is terrible God intends to use for our good. Our family is seeing that. Tonight I heard this song again (Less like Scars) and I started thinking about how true it is...especially for our life right now. We are seeing healing instead of broken-heartedness. Our family has renewed passion and joy that we never could have anticipated. Even at church we are learning about Hope! So, what we thought were terrible circumstances or scars are now being redeemed and restored.
Romans 5:3-5 says: "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Here's the chorus of the song. You can watch the video below.
"And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars and more like
Character"
Romans 5:3-5 says: "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Here's the chorus of the song. You can watch the video below.
"And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars and more like
Character"
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Under grace
At our church we are studying Romans 5-8 all summer! I love it! We are currently in chapter 6. It's full of so much goodness, so much truth that we need to hear! I just felt like posting something that stuck out to me.
For far too long, Christians have been told...."if you could just get over that sin" or "if you could work harder on this" then you'd be a "successful Christian." On our own, we are not going to defeat sin. Pastor Alan said, "God is not looking for people who will try harder, He's looking for people who will yield to Him." What a beautiful thought, it's freeing, isn't it? If you are a follower of Jesus then you are no longer under the law....you are under grace! Because of what Jesus did for us, WE ARE JUSTIFIED. God looks at us "just as if we'd never sinned." Now of course sin exists....we know that. But if we started to see ourselves like He sees us then we wouldn't be overcome by sin.
Romans 6:14 says "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
Colossians 2:13 says "He forgave us all our sins having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Pastor Alan described Satan as a mugger who has a gun with no bullets in it. He tries to accuse us, but there is nothing to accuse us of! We have to stop putting bullets back in the enemy's gun.
So, let's live where we should be...under grace...and free.
For far too long, Christians have been told...."if you could just get over that sin" or "if you could work harder on this" then you'd be a "successful Christian." On our own, we are not going to defeat sin. Pastor Alan said, "God is not looking for people who will try harder, He's looking for people who will yield to Him." What a beautiful thought, it's freeing, isn't it? If you are a follower of Jesus then you are no longer under the law....you are under grace! Because of what Jesus did for us, WE ARE JUSTIFIED. God looks at us "just as if we'd never sinned." Now of course sin exists....we know that. But if we started to see ourselves like He sees us then we wouldn't be overcome by sin.
Romans 6:14 says "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
Colossians 2:13 says "He forgave us all our sins having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Pastor Alan described Satan as a mugger who has a gun with no bullets in it. He tries to accuse us, but there is nothing to accuse us of! We have to stop putting bullets back in the enemy's gun.
So, let's live where we should be...under grace...and free.