Healthier, Homemade Hot Chocolate

Our expected high will be 39 degrees. Calls for some hot cocoa, yes? Here's a mixture far healthier than the store-bought variety.




Basic Recipe print here
2 cups powdered milk
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine in an air-tight container. To make a single cup, measure 1/4 cup of mixture and combine with hot milk or water.

~ Vanilla enhances the flavor of chocolate, so you could bury a whole vanilla bean in the mixture.

~ Dutch cocoa isn't preferred. The dutching process strips a lot of the healthy flavanols found in chocolate.

~ Add 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon to the mix. Not only is it a great flavor addition but cinnamon also helps to mitigate the impact of the sugar on your blood sugar levels.

Enjoy!

Fruitful Fridays, Part 5, More Love

We continue our series on the Fruits of the Spirit today. Read part 1 here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Part 4 here. Our main text for Fruitful Fridays will be Galatians 5:13-26 (ESV). 

In part 4 I promised you a more studied post on love. Here then is my offering to that effect. We'll discuss what it means to love a person as yourself. We'll explore the intermingling of faith and love, and learn why the former leads to the latter. We'll learn that we're free to love, and why we're commanded to love. And lastly, we'll learn how to keep love in our hearts, ready to be distributed to our neighbor.

Galatians 5:13-14 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (emphasis mine)

We naturally love ourselves and care for ourselves. So another way of phrasing this command: You shall love your neighbor as you (already) love yourself. We feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, put shelter over our heads and try to make ourselves happy. "For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it."

Ephesians 5:28-29 "Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church." (emphasis mine)

Therefore, to love your neighbor as yourself means to meet his needs as you would meet your own: 

• to desire relief for his hunger, as you eat and feel relief from your own 
• to desire physical warmth for him, as you enjoy physical warmth yourself
• to desire a covering for his nakedness, as you feel the safety of clothes yourself
• to desire shelter from rain, snow, wind, and sun for him, as you sit back and enjoy your own shelter
• to desire a job for him, as you reap the benefits of your own 
• to desire a cure for his illness, as you obtain relief from yours 
• to desire a flushing toilet for him, as you watch your own toilet flush
• to desire plumbing and clean water for him, as you draw water from your own sink
• to desire Living Water through Jesus Christ for him, as you feel the joy of knowing Him yourself 

Whatever you need for yourself, you're to desire it for your neighbor too. And act on that desire, changing your lifestyle accordingly. Instead of buying that $50 plant to decorate your entryway, spend the $50 to buy a water filter for a third-world family. Instead of that money spent on a manicure or pedicure, spend it to sponsor a child who will be fed, given medical care and crises intervention, and come to know Jesus. Instead of buying that new gadget, send a family gift to your sponsored child's family, or buy extra food to give to a local food pantry.

Instead of procuring what you don't need, procure what your neighbor does need.

A supreme example of this desiring and acting is the Shaun Groves' family (Christian musician and speaker for Compassion International), who give away as much money as they keep for themselves. Yes, a 50/50 split. That is loving your neighbor as yourself, at its purest (so long as it's for God's glory, and not your own). 

A 50/50 split is not commanded in Scripture directly, except as it relates to loving your neighbor as yourself. Many of us are not ready for 50/50 yet, but God will eventually get us there, if we are disciples of Jesus. God can do amazing things in a faithful Believer. He can increase our wealth, if necessary, so that we'll still have acceptable clothing, food, and shelter, as we give away 50 percent. A person truly filled by God does not desire luxury, but merely what is needed.

Which leads me to my next point: the intermingling of faith and love. When I say faith, I don't mean merely the act of accepting Jesus as your Savior. I mean believing that everything Jesus promised will come to pass. This is walking by faith: believing in God's promises with a whole heart and living as such, even though the future is unseen. Faith conquers fear and allows love, with no holding back.

Only once in the whole Bible does God tell us we can test him (on a promise). Ironically, it is on the tithe. A tithe is giving 10% of our net pay (net resources) to God. We can give 2% or 5% instead, and see how God blesses and provides. God is willing to work with us to build our faith in this matter. As we build up testimonies about how he has provided for us in the past, we're able to step out in faith and give far more than that initial 5 or 10 percent. 

In order to love your neighbor as yourself, you have to trust in God's promises. You have to truly believe that he will work all things for your good. You have to truly believe that if you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, he will provide for your food, clothing, shelter. You have to truly believe that you can repay evil with good--you can love your enemies--because vengeance is mine saith the Lord. He will judge on the final day and you will be victorious. You have to truly believe that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. You have to truly believe that the Lord's yoke is easy and his burden is light...that he is gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul in Him.

Galatians 5:13 says: We are called to freedom. In Christ, we are free. We don't have to fear, worry, fret, be jealous, be envious, or repay evil with evil. We don't have to be self-seeking. We are free to love. To seek the good of others.

As we study the fruit of the Spirit, we'll continually be confronted with what seems to be an inconsistency in Scripture. If God is love and we have the Spirit of God within us, we cannot help but love. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, coming from His power within us, not from ourselves.

So, why then are we commanded to love? If love is natural for the Believer, why must a commandment be written about it?

1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Love is commanded because one of the ways God works love in us, is through the Word of God. Through the Bible. If we're not reading and studying the Bible, we're not loving our neighbor as ourselves. No transforming Word, no love. The Spirit within us speaks through the Word of God, which is "living and active". I often spontaneously recall a Bible verse when the Spirit wants me to behave a certain way. The Word exhorts us--convinces us, makes us willing and receptive and ready. (The Spirit speaks as we pray, too.)

If we just go to church and never open our Bibles, we don't know God and we're certainly not being transformed. To think God can transform our hearts without Scripture is laughable. We must remain in Him.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Pray through Scripture as you read it. Whatever the topic, ask God to work it in you. God, make me love my enemies. Make me desire their good, not their ill. Make me rejoice with those who rejoice, instead of envying them. Study and pray your way through Scripture. It isn't enough to open your Bible, read a dutiful 10 verses you may or may not understand, and then close your Bible, having done your duty.

As you read your verses for the day, remember that you're going to pray that God works that wisdom, that truth, in your heart, so read with this in mind. Read thoroughly enough to have something to pray about afterwards.

Before the Internet it used to be much harder to study the Bible. You needed extra books or a good sermon--commentary and application--to help you really understand and live Scripture (especially if you didn't own a Study Bible). But now with the click of a finger, you have thousands of resources at your disposal for free. You can Google sermons and Bible studies on any biblical topic, or on any individual Book of the Bible.

One more point about love, and then we'll close for today. Acts of the flesh--acts of our ego--are done to fill an emptiness. Those not born of God have an emptiness; they fill that emptiness by using others for selfish gain. Those born of God have a fullness; they use their overflow to serve others. 

We must ask ourselves...which do we have...the emptiness, or the fullness? They will know us by our fullness, by our love.

Friend, it is my sincere desire that you would have a fullness of heart and spirit, aching to nourish your neighbor with His overflowing love, much as the nursing mother with the aching, overflowing breast, nourishes her infant in earnest.

I have felt and seen a significant change in my heart and in my desire to serve others, not after I said a prayer and became, officially, a Christian, but after I began pursuing God through the regular reading and studying of His Word. Becoming a Christian, trusting in Christ for salvation, is only the first step. The Living Word in our heart is necessary for the seed of faith to take root on fertile ground....for the seed to bear fruit.

I urge you, sit down and plan your time in the Word for the coming week. What topic will you study? What Book of the Bible will you seek to understand? What Scripture verse will you hide in your heart?

Start today by Googling verses on loving others? Jot down the verse references and read them, and the commentary that goes along with them, throughout this week?

Write a focus for your time in the Word and stick to it. With a focus you're more likely to pick up your Bible. As you're out and about, do you have hand-held access to the Internet? Use that fancy phone for the best use possible...to study the Word. Go to biblegateway.com, type in your desired verses or chapter, and click on "show resources" to read the commentary after you read the verses, and then pray those verses into your heart.

John 13:35
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Prayer Time: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the love you poured out for us, as you sent your Son and allowed Him to die on the cross as propitiation for the sin that separated us from you. Thank you for your Spirit within us. Thank you for pouring out your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Make us draw from your Spirit within us. Send us daily to your Word that is alive and active and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, equipping the man of God for every good work. Make us repentant and pure of heart and ever thankful, regardless of circumstance. Make us instruments of your love, never taking more than we need, but using our excess for others' gain. May we truly understand what it means to "love your neighbor as yourself", and may we do this for your glory.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen

Giving Thanks Today:

• For the kind family who advertised their gently-used child's scooter on Freecycle, delighting my children with something they'd waited a few years to enjoy.
• For three quiet hours to study God's Word, uninterrupted.
• For a thanksgiving turkey already in the freezer from Aldi's.
• For plumbing, clean water, flushing toilets, shelter, warm clothes, and medicine for illnesses and disorders.
• For finally having a proper winter jacket for this Momma, after residing in Ohio for a number of years (also off Freecycle--yippee for free and gently-used!)
• For difficult biblical concepts explained and dissected, at the click of my fingers.
• For four children and their joyful noise.
• For a hardworking, loving husband.

Giving thanks today with Ann, and other thankful ladies.

Loving Against Culture

Sweet, fun-loving Beth coughed in my face just enough; I'm down for the count.  A shorter post today, but one that still has love as its theme. I'm trying to come up with the emotional and physical strength to cart my four children to Aldi's grocery, for the freezer is bare and dinner looms.

Just a few thoughts to share on birthdays today. Some might find this post irritating but I've decided to take that chance. I didn't ask for exhortation as a spiritual gift, and though I was given it, I still need practice in presenting topics delicately. So don't get too angry with me?

At birthdays we spend just $30 on each child. They know if they want a party or a fancy cake, that money comes out of their total money. It's wonderful to mark birthdays as a special family and friend time, but what our culture does to "mark" these childhood milestones becomes quite a spectacle.

It seems we've come to view children as princes and princesses. Sadly, the more we treat them as such, the less likable they become. The greater their sense of entitlement grows.

In my dicipling I try to combat the strong, alluring messages my children receive from the world. With no public school, and no TV signal for a number of years now, they weren't receiving many of the usual messages. But now, with neighborhood children coming through, the messages come through too. They've never seen a Wii, an Xbox, or any other such gadget or game, but now they're hearing of them and wondering why they don't have them (at least Peter is--my most impulsive child).

One of my main teachings is that materialism destroys us from the inside out. The more we encumber ourselves with things or with the desire for things, the less we can love others. The less we can bring glory to God--especially if we're just sitting and entertaining ourselves. Entertainment certainly has its place, but its become a huge idol in our culture.

When you begin these discipleship lessons with your children, or with yourself, you always come back to this one hurdle: Loneliness.

A child contemplates: But nearly everyone has a fancy cake on their birthday. Nearly everyone has a party. Nearly everyone has some sort of electronic game. Lately, nearly every child brings their iPhone by our house. More and more grade-school children possess these monstrosities. Younger and younger children are sexting, corrupting their minds with pornography because of unsupervised Internet time. Children envy their peers and apparently bug their parents relentlessly, until every fourth grader in the class has an iPhone--even if they don't have a winter coat.

Endeavoring to keep both feet out of the world leads to loneliness. When you stand on principal, you're often isolated. But the beauty of this phenomena? Loneliness leads us to God. And he truly satisfies. He truly fills.

Once we get past the envy and manage to live contentedly on the fringe with our Heavenly Father as our ever-present companion, the next thing we need to do is squash our judgments. A person has to fill up on God first, before they can stop filling up on the world. So to help them? We help them fill up on God. Judging someone who doesn't know any alternative is futile. That judgement only hurts God and us; it keeps us from loving our neighbor. It's hard to love someone for whom you feel disdain.

I admit I have to work hard to squash my judgments of neighborhood parents. I know they're simply trying to love their children, and in our culture, loving a child is synonymous with indulging them. Delighting them. Everyone wants to bring smiles to their children's faces. The trouble is, that smile we bring now could lead to spiritual dysfunction later--not to mention financial dysfunction.

We've struggled with the cake thing in the past couple years, but this year Paul was happy to decorate the humble but delicious cake I made, and in turn, I was proud of his maturity. Cake doesn't last...it's fleeting, like so many of the things we think we need.

 

 Here is his donated piano, close enough to his birthday to be considered a gift from God himself.

 God does provide for some of their wants, including a yearly praying mantis for Peter. This fall it was looking dim until a girl from church brought her praying mantis to a fall fellowship. Deciding it was too much trouble--catching those crickets and all--she gave it to Peter. And a week later, Peter had an egg sac! Daddy and Peter get so excited when something leaves us with an egg sac. :)

These faces? Nothing short of amazing. God is amazing!

The mantis, feasting. 

Now for some Scriptures about feasting on God.

John 7:38

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Isaiah 58:11
The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 44:3

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Isaiah 12:3

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

John 4:14

but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Matthew 6:24

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

God Reigns

My husband as a rule finishes all the food we don't finish. How he does this and stays lean, I don't know. 

Finishing up Beth's grapes this morning, he suddenly rushed to the sink to spit. Turns out that a line of snot propelled by her latest sneeze, ended up in her purple-grape bowl.

No wonder she didn't finish them.

And that's how it is here today. I had to cancel appearances at AWANA, speech, and physical therapy. And for two nights I've worked diligently, keeping wild-sleeper Beth upright enough to breathe.

Now that I've ruined your snack, how are things with you today?

I voted yesterday, but found neither of my choices acceptable. Whatever your post-election thoughts, let's remember God's reign and power. We're to carry on, humbly chasing after God, doing what He wills:  Love one another

Isaiah 26:4

Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Ephesians 6:10

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

Jeremiah 10:12

It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

photo credits here

Multitude Monday: Living Brave

We're about to do something brave. I go from scared to excited, all in the same minute.

We will write a proposal to our church for front money to begin a neighborhood ministry. It would start with The Jesus Storybook Bible, one per family, along with the accompanying curriculum kit for me to use in teaching.







Between my husband's theology degree and my teaching degree, we should be able to fill in any holes left by this curriculum.

Lord willing, the ministry would grow to include the neighborhood parents.  My husband could provide Biblical counseling for families, one-on-one discipleship for the men, and a men's Bible Study. I could encourage the women and lead them in a Bible study.

Other needs, such as clothing, food, paper products, home and vehicle repairs, could be coordinated through us and through various businesses represented in the church body.

Meeting the needs of our two special-needs children makes me wonder if we can manage. That could be a spiritual attack though; Satan loves to attack even the idea of a new ministry.

Thanks-living is brave living. Faith-filled living. The Lord plucked me out of this world and remade me. I bare no resemblance to the woman I once was. While I used to only shed tears over all He's done for me, I now feel a deep need and desire to live my thankfulness.

So, please pray? That the proposal would be well accepted? That God would provide strength for us? If Beth needs to go on the chemo drug (methotrexate) for her Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, we would have to worry about exposing her to viruses and bacteria. In that case, we might wait until Easter to begin our ministry and give the Bibles out then. God willing, her blood test, which she will have next week, will show reduced swelling, allowing us to once again forgo this cancer drug.

1 Peter 4:10
10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

1 Samuel 20:24
24 But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

Mark 10:45
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Luke 22:26-27
26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

Giving Thanks Today:

• Watching Mr. Popper's Penguins together as a family. Not like the book at all, but hilariously funny.
• Hugs from my husband on a weary day.
• Well over a week with no sun, but sun predicted tomorrow!
• Beth falling in love with the book Penny and Her Doll, by Kevin Henkes

• Reducing my headache medicine has made a positive difference. I take one now instead of the two called for on the bottle (extra-strength acetaminophen mixed with caffeine). This lower dose combats the headaches well.
• My aunt watched my children on Saturday so I could take another family to a free coat giveaway.
• Paul celebrated his 9th birthday with joy and thanksgiving.
• Beth looking at more and more books, now that the rain gutters display them optimally on the playroom walls. Books stuffed in shelves don't entice very well.
• Holding a sweet, tired four-year-old boy in my arms while we waited in line for his free coat.
• The Spirit instilling the desire to live my thanks.
• Prayers that instill bravery.
• The freecycle network in my area. What wonderful people! I learned about the free coat giveaway from them.

Giving thanks with Ann today, and other thankful ladies.