HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!

A GLIMPSE OF HUNTING SEASON

Riding to deer camp

Kiana in camo

My friend Jamie and I... not sure what I'd do without her!

Aden walking around camp

Evan's mulie buck

The Uncanned Condensed Soup

(from Whole Foods For the Whole Family)

Due to a request for this recipe, I decided to post it here so more people can use it! Enjoy!

3 T. butter
3 T. flour
1/4 t. salt
dash of pepper
1 1/4 C. milk or broth

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour and seasonings. Cook over medium heat until bubbly, stirring frequently. Add milk slowly, stirring with wire whisk to prevent lumps. Cook until thick. May add any sauteed veggies or liquid combinations you choose or substitute stock for milk or oil for butter. Yield: 1 Cup (This is so much better than store bought soups!)

Tomato: Use tomato juice for liquid. Add dash of garlic and onion powder, basil and oregano

Mushroom/Celery/Chive: Saute 1/4 C. chopped mushrooms, celery or chives and 1 T. minced onion in butter before adding flour

Cheese: Add 1/2 C. shredded cheese after the liquid. Stir until melted.

Chicken: Substitute chicken broth for half or all of the liquid. Add 1/4 t. poultry seasoning or sage.

"NOW" written by Karen S. McGary

The time is here for the church to wake up! No more complacency, no more apathetic lukewarm excuses! We must come before the Lord with desperate hearts! We must throw aside everything that entangles and every sin that holds us back and fall on our faces before our King. We must let the Holy Spirit turn up ground that has never seen the light. We cannot care any longer what others think of us. We cannot let fear rob us of what God Almighty longs to do in our lives and through our church! Arise church! Wake up! Do you want Him completely? Or do you want just a safe measure of Him? How can we have tasted of all His goodness and not give ourselves over to Him with reckless abandon!? What can the world offer us but heartache and deception; fleeting pleasures that wrap us in defeat? The Lord gives us life! Life abundant, forgiveness and truth! The church for too long has been sleeping and now that the last days are upon us we must wake up before it is too late! Know Him now! Surrender completely now! Serve Him with hearts brimming with love and adoration! Worship Him because He is worthy! Enter into prayer. Fast and seek Him wholeheartedly! Listen and cry out! The world wars for your soul but greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world! Do you believe that church?! We always want to make it someone elses fault: "well, they aren't seeking the Lord with passion" or "that person isn't opening up and letting the Spirit move." Is the Lord asking you to be the first? Is He asking you to lay your life down? Radical faith is our desperate need right now. Faith that is bold enough to throw caution to the wind and obey His voice.

TACO CASSEROLE

4 cups cooked brown rice
5 cups cooked pinto beans (I cut back on beans and added 1 lb. ground meat)
16 oz. frozen corn
1 1/2 qt. canned diced tomatoes, processed in blender (didn't do the blender thing)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
15 oz. can olives, sliced
1/2 tsp. onion powder
grated cheese

Mix and simmer all ingredients (except cheese) for 5 min. Put a scoop of mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish. Spread a layer of tortillas on top of the mixture. Spread another layer of mixture, layer with cheese, and then top with tortillas. End with mixture and top with lots of cheese. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes.

This can easily be cut in half for a smaller crowd. This made a huge casserole! Could probably put 1/2 in freezer and get two meals out of each batch for our big family.

SIMPLE THOUGHTS ON REPENTENCE

Growing up, I always had it in my head that to repent of my sin, I had to sit down, tell God I was sorry and pray for Him to forgive me and not do it again. There is huge merit in this, and I am attempting to teach my own children to do this. What I didn't also realize is that there are some things I have repented of, but never really put a whole lot of mental effort to, except that I knew it was something I shouldn't do anymore. Let me explain. To repent means to turn the other way -- 180 degrees. Frequently in the gospels, Jesus tells people to "Go and sin no more." He is telling them to repent. He doesn't say, go and pray about your sin and then stop sinning. In a nutshell, that's what repentence is -- going and sinning no more! Sometimes I believe that may mean spending time weeping before the Lord over it, and other times, just to stop doing it. Either way, the 180 degree turn is the repentence, not the prayer. So many times, a person will say they are sorry, cry to God for forgiveness, and then two days later, be back in the same sin. They never repented. True repentence means to turn and not go back. No, we will not be perfect, and we may slip, but we will be moving in the direction of becoming more Christ-like and making huge strides in that direction.

MYAH'S BIRTHDAY

It came and went, and I have not had a chance to share pictures yet. She turned 9 this year. Can't believe we'll hit double digits next year already. She had two of her local friends over for a sleepover this year. I loved the giggles all night long.


Myah is an amazing child, whose dream is to someday train horses and be a missionary. Her favorite thing to do is train her baby goat, ride horses, anything with art, and read, read, READ! She's a farm-girl through and through, loves every kind of animal that God created, loves to run, milk goats, and play with her calf. When she's not outside, she's usually curled up in one of her favorite spots reading a book. God has truly blessed us with Myah in our family, and we know that He has big plans for her. We are excited to see what He has in store every day for her! (The photo above is a recent painting she did of mountain goats. We just sent it in for a contest. She named it "King of the Mountain".)


My prayer for you, my daughter, is that you will serve God with all that is within you, seek to know His will every day He blesses you with, become passionate about KNOWING HIM and His Word, and become an amazing prayer warrior that God uses to change this world. I love you so much!

The girls painted on aprons for a craft project. Myah painted Noodles, one week before He died. Noodles was her first horse.

Her cake request was chocolate cherry with mint frosting. It was yummy!

Brittney, Joel, Kiana, Faith & Myah.

ISAIAH 43

Karen passed this on earlier this week, and I FINALLY got a chance to sit and read it. It was so good, I had to share some of it. It was all good, but I did pick through it a little to condense just a bit. This is from David Guzik's commentary on Isaiah 43:1-7. In light of the past couple of weeks, this has been powerful to me personally!



Reasons not to fear.


1. (1) Fear not, knowing you belong to the Lord.


But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.”


a. Says the Lord, who created you . . . and He who formed you: God speaks to His people as their Creator. God has a special and unique claim upon us because He is our Creator. When men forget or reject God as Creator, they fail in the most basic obligation they have to God.


b. Fear not: This is a command, accompanied by promises. By outward circumstances, the people of Judah had reason to be afraid of Babylon’s army and exile. God points them past the present circumstances to both this command and promise.


c. For I have redeemed you: Not only did Israel have obligation to God as their Creator, by also as their Redeemer. He is the one who bought them out of literal exile and spiritual slavery.

d. I have called you by your name; You are mine: God twice owns His people. He has right of ownership both as Creator and Redeemer. His ownership is personal, because He says I have called you by your name. His ownership is certain, because He seals it by saying You are mine.


i. Knowing we belong to the Lord is a wonderful answer to fear. We can know that He holds us, protects us, guards us, and cares for us. We can know that He would not have created, redeemed, and called us unless He intended to finish His work in us. How can we be afraid when we know this God is for us, is looking out for our interests?


2. (2-7) Fear not, knowing the Lord is with you.


When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.


a. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you: Through any potential obstacle, God will be with us. Deep waters? I will be with you. Must you walk through the fire? Then you shall not be burned. When God is with us, He is for us, and who can be against us?


i. Israel had and would have their trials, but we have ours also. Trials are inevitable; it doesn’t say if you pass through the waters, it says when you pass through the waters. The text doesn’t say, “When you walk on a luxurious padded carpet, I will be with you.” It says God will be with us in the toughest of circumstances. Trials are varied; sometimes we face waters, sometimes rivers, and sometimes fire. Floods overwhelm, fires consume.



b. But God helping us, we can walk through the fire. We don’t have to panic, we don’t have to fear, and we don’t have to run as if we didn’t trust God. He can so strengthen us in our trials that we can walk through the fire!

i. “Walking is the pace at which you go when you are not in a hurry, when you are not concerned or alarmed. When you are not burdened or anxious, then you walk. ‘He that believeth shall not make haste’ (Isaiah 29:16).” (Redpath)

c. Since you were precious in My sight: God here describes the motivation for His work of redemption. He loves us! We are precious in His sight! This is an Old Testament example of the truth in John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.

d. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east: God’s presence and blessing with Israel would also be demonstrated by unleashing the shackles of their exile. They could have hope for the future because they knew they were called by the name of the Lord, and they were created for His glory.

i. Whom I have created for My glory means that God not only has created us, but that He has created us for a purpose. If we have no Creator, then we are purposeless; but God has created us and He did it for a purpose, creating us for His glory. This means that when we are glorifying God, we are fulfilling the purpose we were created for, and will therefore be the most happy and fulfilled.

GOD'S HELP AND GRACE

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

God gave me these verses last week, and this morning, I had the Psalm 121 song running through my head. You can listen to it here. (I wish I knew how to post youtube videos!)

I will lif tup my eyes to the hills -- from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve you going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. Psalm 121

The battle has been heating up. The enemy is not turning his head away from what we are trying to do for the Lord with attempting to teach our children the things of the Lord, and also on Thursday nights. We are not dumb to think that my car accident, broken water lines, sick children (had it not been for the albuteral inhaler, we may have been in the ER with Kiana again this weekend!), and now our seven year old horse getting a rare infection and dying in less than a week, comes from anywhere but the enemy. But we will not be discouraged! God is allowing these things in our lives to build character, and He is not leaving us to fight the battle by ourselves. "My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth!" "His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in our weakness!" Praise Him!



We may feel in over our heads on Thursday nights, but we are not alone, and that is right where Christ wants us -- totally dependant upon Him. We feel weak, but His strength is greater! The One who created everything goes through those doors with us. He is the One who must do the work. We are just not to get discouraged and we are to plug along. We are also learning so much through this experience. We can have confidence because of the One who gives it, and must be willing to not focus on meaningless or worldly things, but we must be willing to die in the battle of fighting for the Lord.

Praise Him that we don't have to do it alone!

So the enemy better watch out! We have the King of kings on our side! He may be trying to distract us with stuff going on all around us -- insurance companies, setbacks on building the barn, and even touching where it hurts, but the more he fights, the stronger we fight back. We are standing at the gates of hell trying to share the gospel to this very dark community. We were naive to think it was going to be any easier than it has been.

Please keep us in your prayers! Pray for safety and health for our family, and for perseverance for us as well! God bless you for fighting with us!