So here I am at day 9 of trying to commit to the OMAD lifestyle and abolishing heavy whip as a dietary cornerstone.
I have continued to be fine without the heavy whip, and I am grateful.
I have also learned that my daily coffee consumption is directly related to my heavy whip consumption, and I am down to about four cups a day from double that.
I have lost seven old pounds and am depuffing. Dairy is naturally inflammatory, so dumping it is always a great way to also get rid of body water. I have four old pounds to go before we get into new pounds territory, and last year when I decided to simply maintain my weight, I had eight pounds to go to get to my goal but was already at a healthy weight and great stats. I was in a safe zone to hang for awhile.
So we talked about fasting as a discipline, not as a punishment or as starvation. Starvation is when your body will eat your organs and muscles and has already eaten through its fat stores, and you have no nutrition happening. This isn't that. When you eat after your fast, you eat WELL and with nutrition as the focus.
I use my free Zero App to track my fasts and time between them to work on my eating windows, and this has been working really well.
I do weight myself and have a fancy Renpho scale that tracks everything, and I do believe in using scales. I also measure my chest, waist, hips, thighs, and left bicep as well, because when nothing is happening on the scale, a measuring tape will reveal activity you may feel in your clothes and see in the mirror.
I also use my free FatSecret app to design meals and track my macros. I don't love that it doesn't automatically subtract fiber and sugar alcohols from my daily totals, but it's been the best app I have found so far for my current needs. As a homeschool mom of two middle schoolers, I am doing math daily, so I am capable of subtracting those myself.
All that said, when you are eating keto, you are basically looking for a macronutrient profile of 70-75% healthy fats, 20-25% proteins (naturally fattier ones are best), and no more than 10% carbs (always subtract out any sugar alcohols and fiber). Even fewer total carbs is better, and if you are trying to lose, 20g of total carbs or less total carbs is the magic number.
OMAD is tricky in that you still need lots of calories within that one meal. If you cut too many calories, it will slow your metabolism down making it more difficult to lose weight. And because you are only eating one meal, the meal has to be very calorically and nutritionally dense. Hence, this is why I will sit and design my one meal, and even prep it, so that I am ready to nourish and satisfy my body when it's time to eat.
This is my favorite meal to break my fast:
3 Organic hard boiled eggs seasoned with pink Himalayan salt and pepper
204 cal. 0 carbs 18g protein 12 g fat
A whole medium avocado seasoned with pink Himalayan salt
260 cal. 12 g c/10g fiber. 2g protein. 24g fat
20 raw pecan halves
98 cal. 2 g c/1.4g fiber 1g protein. 10g fat
Nicole's Tomato Basil Soup
145 cal. 8g c/2g fiber/3g sugar. 10g protein. 8g fat
4 pieces of uncured bacon, oven baked
160 cal 0g c 10g protein. 14g fat
1 Nicole's keto no grain banana walnut muffin
242 cal. 10g c/4g fiber/3g sugar. 7g protein 20g fat
1 tbsp Kerrygold Irish butter
100 cal 0g c 0g protein 11g fat
___________________________________________________________________
1,111 cal. 32 c/7g sugar/16g fiber. 48g protein. 99g fat
I will also add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast and a teaspoon of organic flax seed into my soup, which has a base of bone broth, full fat organic unsweeted coconut milk, and is PACKED with spinach.
I may add a bell pepper to scoop up my avocado, and sometimes the eggs, bacon, and avocado will go into lettuce scoops to make "sandwiches" if I have them on hand.
The total net carbs above is 16g, which firmly places me losing, which is my current goal. When I want to stabilize my weight, I may add a meal, increase total calories and macros, and increase my total carbs, but not over 50 or so. It's usually in 30-40g range, and I will still track my macros, especially if the scale starts to move, and then make adjustments.
This is a very filling meal, and it's harder to get fiber into your meals than you may realize. The veggies, and in this case, spinach, don't have as much as you think but do have important nutrients your body needs.
The big winner is for fiber is the avocado, and when I do two meals, I will eat an entire avocado with both meals. One strategy to make the two avocado thing work is to add a second meal in a small eating window--I generally will use a 1-3 hour eating window depending on what is happening during my day--to get the extra calories and fiber in. If I can eat more, I do. It's how long I am fasting, what I am eating, and how often I am eating that tells my body what to burn for fuel and turns off fat burning. Doing a nutritionally dense meal like this is VERY filling.
We could get more technical about hormones being turned on and off by food and what all that means along with what is so great about eggs, bacon, bone broth, and avocados, or why spinach is a miracle when it comes to getting in the right amount of daily greens, but for today, I will just introduce the meal itself.
Simple, easy, filling, nutritionally dense, and very easy to enlarge if you are a bigger person or are still hungry simply by enlarging your portions of any item or all. This is all that fits for me without trying to add a second meal into the small eating window, and usually I am so full, I can't do it.
My FatSecret App, like I mentioned, will not subtract out fiber from total carbs, but my ratios are approximately 75%/20%/5%. It's one of the reasons this is a cornerstone meal for me right now: it's easy.
There is nothing wrong with easy, friends. That is why Slimfast is trying to sell you a keto bar. Please don't buy it and stick with real foods. What we are all really after is healthy, nutritious real foods in their whole state with nutrients that are naturally bioavailable without preservatives. That essentially eliminates anything prepackaged from Slimfast.
The soup and muffins are my own recipes modified out of other recipes, and at some future point, we can get into those too.
May your day be blessed and one meal less, Nicole
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Keen observations from someone who put her pants on backwards
I wanted to thrill you with my very keen observations today, but I discovered at the gym that I had put on my Adidas tights backwards, and then I thought if I am going down this road, I had better start with that information so that you will know that I can be just as deft.
That said, I have a pair of Apple earbuds my husband gave me as a gift, and I love using them at the gym with my Apple watch that has my playlist loaded on it so that I never have the hassle of carrying my enormous iPhone, which is the direct result of my age and needing reading glasses pretty much all the time. They earbuds are noise canceling, and truly, if you see them in my ears, I cannot read lips and cannot hear you.
Unless you happen to be the two ladies talking on the treadmills next to me on the elliptical this morning. Seriously, y'all: if I can hear you over my music with these in, you are being rudely loud. I am not the only one being bothered. I appreciate the desire to visit and share, and that there are no kids around. I am a mom of four, and no one appreciates the ability to visit with a female friend without the constant interruption of children like a homeschool mom, but the whole 'do unto your neighbor as you would yourself' still always applies, even during a conversation on the treadmills between moms.
I had considered asking them if they could talk a little quieter, but much like the speeders and stop sign ignorers I wrote about previously, I tend to think they don't care and would consider me to be the rude one.
I was glad when the 20 minute HIIT session was up.
Which leads to the matter of the hamster-wheel elliptical devotee.
Can I just help someone here?
In my former life before I was home full-time, I was a trainer of trainers, a trainer myself, and a group fitness instructor. I have even spoken on sports nutrition at an international conference in the absence of a scheduled physician. I don't know it all, but I do know at least a little to get to do that, especially when it comes to exercise.
I would love to lead with safety. If you aren't doing something in a safe manner when you are exercising, there is a good chance you will at some point sustain an injury. It's a great reason to hire a personal trainer to show you the ropes and design a program for you that targets your personal goals. It's an investment in yourself.
That said, let's move on to the hamster-wheel thing. This applies to anything, not just the elliptical: if you don't put some resistance on the machine, your body will not be doing enough work to be effective. It can also be very dangerous and cause an injury.
Even if you are a novice, this applies and should simply be adjusted accordingly so that movement is natural, but not easy. If your legs or arms are flying, you have no control over the equipment or yourself. I cannot explain how many times I have had to correct this when teaching instructors and students. When you train instructors, they may occasionally challenge something, but generally, they realize that the one teaching them has more experience, special training, and knowledge, and if something they have been doing needs to be adjusted, they will change it and be thankful for more information to help their clients. With students, you have to generally earn their trust first if they have been doing something the wrong way for a long time. I have never minded spending that time because who and what is more important than the client whom we are trying to serve? But it's also true that the more you incorrectly perform a movement, the harder it is to correct. This is again why you need to hire a great trainer who will make absolutely sure you understand and that they spend time working on your form and really watching you move.
Now that brings me to the hamster-wheel devotee.
I tend to just look away. I am there for my own workout.
There are personal trainers to hire employed where I work out, though I have never seen any of them address unsafe and ineffective things happening with anyone they are not directly working with paying them. I actually think that is a missed opportunity to develop a new client, but I digress.
I am not saying that I never butt in and offer some help. I have many times, but I have realized that it's not entirely appropriate for me to do this. I have no liability policy and don't represent the gym. It's a difficult position to be in trying to decide if I am compelled to help because I know how to or if I am compelled not to because they have someone for that, and it's not me. So with feet flying six feet away from me for years now, I am dying to help but won't. Instead I am writing this hoping to make some change in this world.
Maybe she will read this.
Maybe we can just all share the knowledge and somehow, it will make its way back.
Please: there is no such thing as a sprint without it being unsustainable due to speed or resistance resulting in your body forcing you to slow down and recover. You cannot deeply affect your muscle fibers without the strain. And while the next thing I would advise is to please do everything safely--it should never be so difficult that your movement isn't still smoothly done, even as you overcome the inertia of resistance. Let it be said if your feet are flying even with resistance, you didn't put enough on there. If you are in a class, like a Spin class, and you are told to sprint: 1) if you are new, you need a good solid base first. Give it a few weeks of consistent training, and you will be ready. and 2) there should also be instruction on loading up that flywheel so it's hard to get it going, but it should produce smooth pedal strokes, unattainable effort pretty quickly causing you to back off and need to recover. If that isn't what is going on, I would find a new instructor.
If you are looking for a great trainer for at least some basics, look for someone walking the walk and in great shape. Yep, I just said that. I cannot advise you to trust someone who isn't. Make sure you take classes from great instructors who keep your safety first and pay lots of attention to your form and make the class about you. It isn't their workout, and they should be there to lead the class and help individual students. You rarely ever get a group class that doesn't have a mix of experience levels.
And please, never any hamster-wheel legs.
Let's just not.
Maybe my next creative endeavor should be to create a heavier hamster wheel abolish stereotype and help hamsters everywhere exercise more effectively too.
May your day be blessed with quiet and enough resistance to make you stronger, Nicole
That said, I have a pair of Apple earbuds my husband gave me as a gift, and I love using them at the gym with my Apple watch that has my playlist loaded on it so that I never have the hassle of carrying my enormous iPhone, which is the direct result of my age and needing reading glasses pretty much all the time. They earbuds are noise canceling, and truly, if you see them in my ears, I cannot read lips and cannot hear you.
Unless you happen to be the two ladies talking on the treadmills next to me on the elliptical this morning. Seriously, y'all: if I can hear you over my music with these in, you are being rudely loud. I am not the only one being bothered. I appreciate the desire to visit and share, and that there are no kids around. I am a mom of four, and no one appreciates the ability to visit with a female friend without the constant interruption of children like a homeschool mom, but the whole 'do unto your neighbor as you would yourself' still always applies, even during a conversation on the treadmills between moms.
I had considered asking them if they could talk a little quieter, but much like the speeders and stop sign ignorers I wrote about previously, I tend to think they don't care and would consider me to be the rude one.
I was glad when the 20 minute HIIT session was up.
Which leads to the matter of the hamster-wheel elliptical devotee.
Can I just help someone here?
In my former life before I was home full-time, I was a trainer of trainers, a trainer myself, and a group fitness instructor. I have even spoken on sports nutrition at an international conference in the absence of a scheduled physician. I don't know it all, but I do know at least a little to get to do that, especially when it comes to exercise.
I would love to lead with safety. If you aren't doing something in a safe manner when you are exercising, there is a good chance you will at some point sustain an injury. It's a great reason to hire a personal trainer to show you the ropes and design a program for you that targets your personal goals. It's an investment in yourself.
That said, let's move on to the hamster-wheel thing. This applies to anything, not just the elliptical: if you don't put some resistance on the machine, your body will not be doing enough work to be effective. It can also be very dangerous and cause an injury.
Even if you are a novice, this applies and should simply be adjusted accordingly so that movement is natural, but not easy. If your legs or arms are flying, you have no control over the equipment or yourself. I cannot explain how many times I have had to correct this when teaching instructors and students. When you train instructors, they may occasionally challenge something, but generally, they realize that the one teaching them has more experience, special training, and knowledge, and if something they have been doing needs to be adjusted, they will change it and be thankful for more information to help their clients. With students, you have to generally earn their trust first if they have been doing something the wrong way for a long time. I have never minded spending that time because who and what is more important than the client whom we are trying to serve? But it's also true that the more you incorrectly perform a movement, the harder it is to correct. This is again why you need to hire a great trainer who will make absolutely sure you understand and that they spend time working on your form and really watching you move.
Now that brings me to the hamster-wheel devotee.
I tend to just look away. I am there for my own workout.
There are personal trainers to hire employed where I work out, though I have never seen any of them address unsafe and ineffective things happening with anyone they are not directly working with paying them. I actually think that is a missed opportunity to develop a new client, but I digress.
I am not saying that I never butt in and offer some help. I have many times, but I have realized that it's not entirely appropriate for me to do this. I have no liability policy and don't represent the gym. It's a difficult position to be in trying to decide if I am compelled to help because I know how to or if I am compelled not to because they have someone for that, and it's not me. So with feet flying six feet away from me for years now, I am dying to help but won't. Instead I am writing this hoping to make some change in this world.
Maybe she will read this.
Maybe we can just all share the knowledge and somehow, it will make its way back.
Please: there is no such thing as a sprint without it being unsustainable due to speed or resistance resulting in your body forcing you to slow down and recover. You cannot deeply affect your muscle fibers without the strain. And while the next thing I would advise is to please do everything safely--it should never be so difficult that your movement isn't still smoothly done, even as you overcome the inertia of resistance. Let it be said if your feet are flying even with resistance, you didn't put enough on there. If you are in a class, like a Spin class, and you are told to sprint: 1) if you are new, you need a good solid base first. Give it a few weeks of consistent training, and you will be ready. and 2) there should also be instruction on loading up that flywheel so it's hard to get it going, but it should produce smooth pedal strokes, unattainable effort pretty quickly causing you to back off and need to recover. If that isn't what is going on, I would find a new instructor.
If you are looking for a great trainer for at least some basics, look for someone walking the walk and in great shape. Yep, I just said that. I cannot advise you to trust someone who isn't. Make sure you take classes from great instructors who keep your safety first and pay lots of attention to your form and make the class about you. It isn't their workout, and they should be there to lead the class and help individual students. You rarely ever get a group class that doesn't have a mix of experience levels.
And please, never any hamster-wheel legs.
Let's just not.
Maybe my next creative endeavor should be to create a heavier hamster wheel abolish stereotype and help hamsters everywhere exercise more effectively too.
May your day be blessed with quiet and enough resistance to make you stronger, Nicole
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Fasting, but Not as in Speeding
You may be wondering if whip has broken me this week.
Or you may be wondering why I am not doing laundry instead of trying to engage in the daily discipline of writing because reading about my whip addiction was super lame.
I didn't publish yesterday after sitting down and writing. But it was on something technical, which took me down a rabbit hole. I realized my subject was important but needed quite a bit of time to organize and edit. I hit save and patted myself on the back for sitting down and doing the thing rather than whether I hit publish. That is my goal right now. Just sit down and write.
So it's Thursday, and I am happy to tell you that I am surviving the lack of heavy whipping cream just fine. I am also very thankful that the latest run into HEB with my husband didn't include him asking me if we needed to get whip and that he took me very seriously when I was very honest about how I was feeling physically and knew that I had a problem and needed to stop ingesting this.
It is a very powerful thing to have accountability, and when you are married, habits can be very intertwined. Having real support is important.
Now I also did something else a bit extreme the same day I gave up whip, which was I began fasting and accidentally did an almost 24 hour fast with a 1 hour eating window on Monday, and then I repeated this the last three days. When I do eat, I follow a healthy ketogenic plan that also always includes bone broth and tons of veggies. And no dairy.
Some of you eating the keto way may still be scratching your head over how to do this without dairy. I know those recipes have cheese on everything. It can be done. You just need some ideas. I promise to try to help with this.
One meal a day is also known as OMAD if you do any reading up on it and find the acronym and are wondering what it stands for. OMAD has always seemed a little elusive to me as a dedicated lifestyle, but I have to tell you that after you let a hunger pain wane, it will pass. I am actually having one right now as I am writing this, but I know it will leave eventually.
I was revisited the last few days with memories of when I began the Bone Broth Diet with its mini fast days full of cups of bone broth, which I could have now and probably should, but many times I am just doing stuff and don't think about it. It is an answer to the waves of hunger that is allowed and beneficial to health, but when I break my fasts, I am drinking my keto tomato Florentine soup which is made with bone broth, so I haven't worried too much.
Fasting has a lot of health benefits and is a powerful partner to ketogenic eating for health and weight loss and weight stability. I just want to say that if you go on the journey, it's one without end. You hear about the people who lost all kinds of weight on (any) diet only to gain it back: that is because they went back to eating the same things that got them into that mess to begin with. You can't do that, and it's not the diet's fault if that is what happens. It's YOURS. That is the cold, hard truth, and it's too important not to mention.
Now I do have this one friend whom I have known since the ninth grade, and she has always been and can still eat whatever she wants: she is an exception. And we can all be envious, but most of us can't do what she can, and that's okay.
I have never spent a day doing this that I felt hungry without being able to address it if I choose to in a healthy way. Fasting is not akin to suffering or starvation.
Fasting is very much about discipline, and honestly, if you can control what goes in your mouth (and what comes out!!) whether it's not eating OR what you do eat, that is a big deal. It means you can largely and positively impact your health.
So after three days of successful (if not accidental) OMAD, and my intent for now is to continue. If you have known me a long time, you might know I had 8 lbs left to lose last year when I stabilized and stopped working on dropping. We had a very stressful event happen in our family, and stress affects weight loss. We are in a much better place a year later, not stress free, but back to normal stress levels, and my goal has been to kick this process back off. My husband has a much easier time engaging in all this when I am leading the charge.
If you find yourself facing a major life event causing a lot of out of the ordinary stress, that is a time to dig into your routine, eat as healthy as you can, but not make losing weight the focus. Just stay stable and entrenched in your good habits. Don't start drinking heavy whip again like I did! Or whatever that thing is for you.
My husband and I both slide around on the scale in a window that gets really small--like 2 lbs--when we are very strict and expands to 5-7 pounds when we aren't. That is all water, friends. We don't sweat it. That isn't fat that is coming and going in what feels like a revolving door. Real losing is definitely an intensional process that involves a formula. Point: the scale didn't move the first day, but I dropped three pounds after the second day. I haven't weighed myself today yet and may not until tomorrow, but OMAD paired with keto should begin the loss process again. It really does work. And the first goal is to drop to the bottom of my window and then keep going onto new lost pounds.
So two more things and I will do something about the laundry:
When you do eat--anytime but especially with OMAD--your nutrition needs to be dense, high value foods with the correct macro ratios that look like 70-75% healthy fats, 20-25% protein, and 5% or less total carbohydrates to lose. If you are trying to be stable, you will need to work on how many carbs (total carbs - fiber) you can tolerate without gaining. I use my Fat Secret app to figure out what that one meal will be beforehand so that when it is time to eat, I go right to my fridge and know what I am pulling out. Planning is key, which leads me to my second point.
Your calories will naturally be reduced doing OMAD, but the goal is not really to go low calorie. The goal really is to get in 1200-1500 calories in that one meal, and it may take 1-2 hours to eat to get all of it in. I struggle with this part to get in enough calories, which is why I plan the meal beforehand. What you eat and how often will tell your body what fuel to burn, not just a lack of calories. I will review what I have been eating in a future post. Knowing what to eat to get your macros right takes practice! Use a tool like Fat Secret to help and take the guess work out of this part of the process.
Laundry calls, so may your day be blessed and one meal less, Nicole
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Drive Friendly
In lieu of my lack of decision making over the direction of my content, I have decided today to briefly discuss something that gets my goat and may get yours as well. Or maybe you are guilty.
Let's talk about speed limits or more specifically: SPEEDERS.
This has become a more troublesome personal issue since moving to our current home five years ago. We are in an acreage community with horses but no sidewalks. We have a really long driveway, so you can ride a bike on the driveway, but because of speeders, I have never felt comfortable letting our kids ride around the hood or even on just our road. I am sure you just rolled your eyes and thought, " Helicopter mom much?" But I promise it's worse than you can fathom.
No matter what you think about any posted speed limit, the thing is someone with the power to decide, who is not you, made a choice about that limit. They may have done something like a traffic study or considered what was on that road to determine the limit. The point is that YOU, the driver, don't get to choose what goes on the signs. Anywhere. And no one cares how you feel about it like if you feel that it should be greater because you feel like you should be able to go faster.
Now as far as speed limits go, I tend to go under them, and I have always been this way. Maybe my mom always drove this way as a role model, and I should ask her. I know that she taught me to never allow my gas tank to go under a quarter tank, which I have in turn taught my kids. And kids, if you are reading this and you run out of gas, it won't be because I didn't warn you. She also liked to use the word unsanitary, and I use that word in the same context she always did.
Now, just so we all know that I am not perfect, there was this one time that I did go 32 mph down the main drag in my hood like a year ago, and a neighbor lady walking down her long driveway to her mailbox KNEW I wasn't going 25 mph and took off screaming at me down her driveway. And I saw her, and I knew why. I felt overwhelmingly guilty, and obviously, I slowed down. I even considered going back and explaining to her in my own defense how I generally never speed and apologize, but then I wondered if that would be too weird. It certainly would have set one heck of an example to my kids who were in the car with me and probably would have been the first of its kind maybe in all world history for neighbor introductions. Instead of being really weird, I just went home and slowed down.
Anyway, back to speed limits: what I don't understand are people who just do this.
It's who they are. They don't care, and it doesn't bother them that this bothers me. They think I should speed up and shut up.
And I am not talking about folks who cruise three miles over the limit.
I am talking about the ones who are going 45 mph in a 25 mph for instance in under a quarter mile on a cul de sac street by the time they pass our driveway and are the reason I don't feel like I can let the kids ride there without risking their lives.
I am talking about the ones going 72 mph in a 60 mph zone.
And what I am saying is that these same people will speed regardless of whatever the posted limit is and wherever they are driving.
The reason that I don't understand is not because I generally don't speed, but because this person is making a deliberate choice that is an actual danger to others. It goes beyond a lack of manners. These folks are young and old, driving trucks and cars, male and female. We also have a chronic stop sign running issue that is even scarier in my hood, and despite laying on my horn every time I see it, what I know is I better completely stop myself because the person who runs the sign is usually the same person who is speeding, and they aren't looking for me as evidenced by blowing the sign.
Is this the genesis of generations of bad examples from parents? Is a lead foot genetic?
I don't really know how to find out the answers.
I have considered becoming an anti-speeding activist.
I could go out like Ray Comfort does, identify speeders, and ask them if they feel they are a good driver and then explain the dangers of their behavior and ask if they want to repent.
Alas, I don't think I have time to do this since I am a full time homeschooling mother who needs to go teach a middle school writing class to two of our kids, which leads me to the most obvious rally point to deal with this issue plaguing our society (or at least my hood): teach my own kids not to do this.
Maybe today, we will write a paper on ten reasons why we should obey driving rules and laws. I was looking for a subject.
Our pastor has quipped many times that we are sinners by nature and sinners by choice. So whether scientists ever identify a lead foot gene or we come to a consensus that everyone had one parent who caused the other parent constantly ask them to slow down, which causes kids to have to choose who to model, speeding is a choice, which means it's a behavior that can be changed. And that means I have to start with me and those in my house who will be taught to love Jesus and to show they at least see they have a neighbor who is also going somewhere by slowing down.
Either way, as we say in Texas: drive friendly!
Which means slow, if you aren't from Texas and needed a translation. We are our own country, after all. And if you are from Texas, we have the best of everything. Let's be the best drivers too, which are slower ones. Nonspeeders. Stop sign obeyers .Turn signal users.
I am sure you know where I am going with this, and please, if you are following, don't speed.
May your day be blessed and at least 3 mph under any posted speed limit, Nicole
Let's talk about speed limits or more specifically: SPEEDERS.
This has become a more troublesome personal issue since moving to our current home five years ago. We are in an acreage community with horses but no sidewalks. We have a really long driveway, so you can ride a bike on the driveway, but because of speeders, I have never felt comfortable letting our kids ride around the hood or even on just our road. I am sure you just rolled your eyes and thought, " Helicopter mom much?" But I promise it's worse than you can fathom.
No matter what you think about any posted speed limit, the thing is someone with the power to decide, who is not you, made a choice about that limit. They may have done something like a traffic study or considered what was on that road to determine the limit. The point is that YOU, the driver, don't get to choose what goes on the signs. Anywhere. And no one cares how you feel about it like if you feel that it should be greater because you feel like you should be able to go faster.
Now as far as speed limits go, I tend to go under them, and I have always been this way. Maybe my mom always drove this way as a role model, and I should ask her. I know that she taught me to never allow my gas tank to go under a quarter tank, which I have in turn taught my kids. And kids, if you are reading this and you run out of gas, it won't be because I didn't warn you. She also liked to use the word unsanitary, and I use that word in the same context she always did.
Now, just so we all know that I am not perfect, there was this one time that I did go 32 mph down the main drag in my hood like a year ago, and a neighbor lady walking down her long driveway to her mailbox KNEW I wasn't going 25 mph and took off screaming at me down her driveway. And I saw her, and I knew why. I felt overwhelmingly guilty, and obviously, I slowed down. I even considered going back and explaining to her in my own defense how I generally never speed and apologize, but then I wondered if that would be too weird. It certainly would have set one heck of an example to my kids who were in the car with me and probably would have been the first of its kind maybe in all world history for neighbor introductions. Instead of being really weird, I just went home and slowed down.
Anyway, back to speed limits: what I don't understand are people who just do this.
It's who they are. They don't care, and it doesn't bother them that this bothers me. They think I should speed up and shut up.
And I am not talking about folks who cruise three miles over the limit.
I am talking about the ones who are going 45 mph in a 25 mph for instance in under a quarter mile on a cul de sac street by the time they pass our driveway and are the reason I don't feel like I can let the kids ride there without risking their lives.
I am talking about the ones going 72 mph in a 60 mph zone.
And what I am saying is that these same people will speed regardless of whatever the posted limit is and wherever they are driving.
The reason that I don't understand is not because I generally don't speed, but because this person is making a deliberate choice that is an actual danger to others. It goes beyond a lack of manners. These folks are young and old, driving trucks and cars, male and female. We also have a chronic stop sign running issue that is even scarier in my hood, and despite laying on my horn every time I see it, what I know is I better completely stop myself because the person who runs the sign is usually the same person who is speeding, and they aren't looking for me as evidenced by blowing the sign.
Is this the genesis of generations of bad examples from parents? Is a lead foot genetic?
I don't really know how to find out the answers.
I have considered becoming an anti-speeding activist.
I could go out like Ray Comfort does, identify speeders, and ask them if they feel they are a good driver and then explain the dangers of their behavior and ask if they want to repent.
Alas, I don't think I have time to do this since I am a full time homeschooling mother who needs to go teach a middle school writing class to two of our kids, which leads me to the most obvious rally point to deal with this issue plaguing our society (or at least my hood): teach my own kids not to do this.
Maybe today, we will write a paper on ten reasons why we should obey driving rules and laws. I was looking for a subject.
Our pastor has quipped many times that we are sinners by nature and sinners by choice. So whether scientists ever identify a lead foot gene or we come to a consensus that everyone had one parent who caused the other parent constantly ask them to slow down, which causes kids to have to choose who to model, speeding is a choice, which means it's a behavior that can be changed. And that means I have to start with me and those in my house who will be taught to love Jesus and to show they at least see they have a neighbor who is also going somewhere by slowing down.
Either way, as we say in Texas: drive friendly!
Which means slow, if you aren't from Texas and needed a translation. We are our own country, after all. And if you are from Texas, we have the best of everything. Let's be the best drivers too, which are slower ones. Nonspeeders. Stop sign obeyers .Turn signal users.
I am sure you know where I am going with this, and please, if you are following, don't speed.
May your day be blessed and at least 3 mph under any posted speed limit, Nicole
Monday, October 21, 2019
Hello after Seven Years and the Dangers of Dairy
Hello!! I logged on and saw I had not written a blog post in SEVEN years. I was lucky that my computer had at some prior time recorded the password, or I would have had to start over again and rethink what to title my random thoughts.
I still don't know how to do anything but write. I may need to consult my 13 year old on how to make my blog more visually interesting. I am sorry it's just words for now because there is Instagram. I even have an account. I try to use it, but I am still a little lost.
But you should get proper punctuation and no homophone mix-ups here. I may still use subordinate clauses as if they are complete thoughts, but that is acceptable for bloggers to do this because it's cool to express things that way, or at least forgivable.
Now, I have written, but not here. And not like this. More along the lines of personal rants and cynical remarks. And this may turn out to be that too. We are only in the fourth paragraph.
But this is my last year in my forties, and I am realizing daily that today is all I really have, and my todays seem to be passing even faster as I celebrate birthdays. Maybe someone cares or maybe no one does about what I think, but if I don't begin, we won't know the answer to that.
When I began this blog in 2009, I wasn't sure about content past my daily life, hence its title. And guess what?! I have not evolved!
I am a very ordinary person. But maybe there is something even in the ordinary that could be shared which may be helpful or amusing or absolutely boring to someone else if we explore a little.
Starting with my top five life things going on today, let's see what we can sift out:
I am a homeschool mom in our tenth year.
I am fasting today for at least 20 hours. I am in hour 15 and feeling good.
I have finally restarted my commitment today to no dairy.
I have been eating a ketogenic diet for almost two years and lost more than 40 lbs WITH my husband who did the same.
I own a Newfoundland, which is more interesting than the fact that I also own two Corgis.
So let's do what we do when I work with my daughter to create synecdoches and understatements and choose one: let's look at #3 because its so disturbing.
Dairy is my nemesis. This is not a joke.
The worst is heavy whipping cream added to my coffee. I can easily skip any other form of dairy, but heavy whipping cream has my name written all over it.
It calls to me from the fridge when I make a cup of coffee, hence I have had to completely stop buying it, regardless of my daughter wanting some for her hot chocolate to make it creamier, so that when it calls to me, it's from the HEB fifteen minutes away, and I stand some small chance of using my willpower to drink my coffee black. My husband expresses no similar complaints, which is completely shocking, so I have been walking this particular road a-l-o-n-e. I have already explained to my daughter I am saving her from years of heart ache and regret.
Now, I don't hate black coffee because its coffee. But it's just so much better with Central Market Organics Heavy Whipping Cream.
And maybe a future blog will need to explore my relationship with coffee. But let's just battle one demon at a time, shall we?
I kicked this nasty heavy whip habit and then I fell back into it during a very sad trip about a year ago that involved a great deal of stress and deep grieving. It's important mention this in order to understand the trigger that turned my head and caused my downfall.
All dairy contains natural opioids which attach to the same receptors in our brains as heroin does. Yes, you read that right. Those receptors release dopamine, and it lies to you that you are feeling good. And if you cannot actually feel good, why not just add whip instead and embrace the lie?
An ounce of this in my coffee would give me a temporary fix.
I was hooked again, and it started another long downward spiral that involved me looking into the mirror wondering: who are you??
And that ends today.
Mostly because I am officially out of heavy whip. But to be very honest, I refused to stop drinking it until it was gone. My husband volunteered to help, and he made sure he added some to every cup until it was gone. Thank you, love. You are the most self-sacrificing husband on the planet! He actually is the best, but I am not sure this act is the best illustration.
So here is the thing: my body aches when I include any dairy. It magnifies any sort of negative effects of monthly hormonal shifts. It makes me feel tired. I can't stop at just one tablespoon in one cup. There are usually a handful of them through a typical day for me. These are the ugly truths after the dairy high wears off. I actually feel like garbage when I consume it.
I personally found that kicking all other starchy carbohydrates and sugar was easier than giving up my heavy whip. I really wanted cookies at the beginning of my keto journey and just really, really, really MISSED cookies.
Any cookies.
No cookies allowed in the house for anyone! EVER!
And I missed whip.
Forget the keto flu: that is over in a week! This is multidimensional and haunting.
Eventually, I stopped thinking about and missing cookies, but every time there was coffee, I could hear the pint calling my name wanting to be included in my beverage.
No one really tells you when you eat dairy that you may develop an addiction.
While not all ketogenic diets discourage dairy eating, my cornerstone (The Bone Broth Diet by Dr Kellyann Petrucci) does on the basis of all dairy being naturally inflammatory, which is at the heart of many health issues and excess weight. Dr Petrucci gave a small one sentence mention to the opioid thing, and I think that may have been in one of her other books. But honestly, I have spent almost two years battling this beast and feel all dairy should come with sort of warning label that consumption could be habit forming. Someone needs to blow this dairy situation wide open!
I think I could actually base my entire blog on battling dairy, but I am not sure I am clever enough to come up with a good name for it. You also would miss all the other misadventurous things going on in my life if I dedicated all my time to my dairy addiction and yours, which would be why you would read it religiously, but I digress. I wouldn't want to disappoint you that way.
If you find that you just reviewed all your eating habits after reading this and are so grateful the day I chose to come back is today while I am writing about whip and have found you are adding cheese to everything, you are in good company! There is a real dairy conspiracy going on out there! This battle is not for the weak!
I am also considering starting a dairy addicts support group. This blog post may not be enough for me to work through my own issues, much less for the many in the same boat who will read this and demand a safe space to talk about it.
May your day be blessed and dairy free, friends. Nicole
I still don't know how to do anything but write. I may need to consult my 13 year old on how to make my blog more visually interesting. I am sorry it's just words for now because there is Instagram. I even have an account. I try to use it, but I am still a little lost.
But you should get proper punctuation and no homophone mix-ups here. I may still use subordinate clauses as if they are complete thoughts, but that is acceptable for bloggers to do this because it's cool to express things that way, or at least forgivable.
Now, I have written, but not here. And not like this. More along the lines of personal rants and cynical remarks. And this may turn out to be that too. We are only in the fourth paragraph.
But this is my last year in my forties, and I am realizing daily that today is all I really have, and my todays seem to be passing even faster as I celebrate birthdays. Maybe someone cares or maybe no one does about what I think, but if I don't begin, we won't know the answer to that.
When I began this blog in 2009, I wasn't sure about content past my daily life, hence its title. And guess what?! I have not evolved!
I am a very ordinary person. But maybe there is something even in the ordinary that could be shared which may be helpful or amusing or absolutely boring to someone else if we explore a little.
Starting with my top five life things going on today, let's see what we can sift out:
I am a homeschool mom in our tenth year.
I am fasting today for at least 20 hours. I am in hour 15 and feeling good.
I have finally restarted my commitment today to no dairy.
I have been eating a ketogenic diet for almost two years and lost more than 40 lbs WITH my husband who did the same.
I own a Newfoundland, which is more interesting than the fact that I also own two Corgis.
So let's do what we do when I work with my daughter to create synecdoches and understatements and choose one: let's look at #3 because its so disturbing.
Dairy is my nemesis. This is not a joke.
The worst is heavy whipping cream added to my coffee. I can easily skip any other form of dairy, but heavy whipping cream has my name written all over it.
It calls to me from the fridge when I make a cup of coffee, hence I have had to completely stop buying it, regardless of my daughter wanting some for her hot chocolate to make it creamier, so that when it calls to me, it's from the HEB fifteen minutes away, and I stand some small chance of using my willpower to drink my coffee black. My husband expresses no similar complaints, which is completely shocking, so I have been walking this particular road a-l-o-n-e. I have already explained to my daughter I am saving her from years of heart ache and regret.
Now, I don't hate black coffee because its coffee. But it's just so much better with Central Market Organics Heavy Whipping Cream.
And maybe a future blog will need to explore my relationship with coffee. But let's just battle one demon at a time, shall we?
I kicked this nasty heavy whip habit and then I fell back into it during a very sad trip about a year ago that involved a great deal of stress and deep grieving. It's important mention this in order to understand the trigger that turned my head and caused my downfall.
All dairy contains natural opioids which attach to the same receptors in our brains as heroin does. Yes, you read that right. Those receptors release dopamine, and it lies to you that you are feeling good. And if you cannot actually feel good, why not just add whip instead and embrace the lie?
An ounce of this in my coffee would give me a temporary fix.
I was hooked again, and it started another long downward spiral that involved me looking into the mirror wondering: who are you??
And that ends today.
Mostly because I am officially out of heavy whip. But to be very honest, I refused to stop drinking it until it was gone. My husband volunteered to help, and he made sure he added some to every cup until it was gone. Thank you, love. You are the most self-sacrificing husband on the planet! He actually is the best, but I am not sure this act is the best illustration.
So here is the thing: my body aches when I include any dairy. It magnifies any sort of negative effects of monthly hormonal shifts. It makes me feel tired. I can't stop at just one tablespoon in one cup. There are usually a handful of them through a typical day for me. These are the ugly truths after the dairy high wears off. I actually feel like garbage when I consume it.
I personally found that kicking all other starchy carbohydrates and sugar was easier than giving up my heavy whip. I really wanted cookies at the beginning of my keto journey and just really, really, really MISSED cookies.
Any cookies.
No cookies allowed in the house for anyone! EVER!
And I missed whip.
Forget the keto flu: that is over in a week! This is multidimensional and haunting.
Eventually, I stopped thinking about and missing cookies, but every time there was coffee, I could hear the pint calling my name wanting to be included in my beverage.
No one really tells you when you eat dairy that you may develop an addiction.
While not all ketogenic diets discourage dairy eating, my cornerstone (The Bone Broth Diet by Dr Kellyann Petrucci) does on the basis of all dairy being naturally inflammatory, which is at the heart of many health issues and excess weight. Dr Petrucci gave a small one sentence mention to the opioid thing, and I think that may have been in one of her other books. But honestly, I have spent almost two years battling this beast and feel all dairy should come with sort of warning label that consumption could be habit forming. Someone needs to blow this dairy situation wide open!
I think I could actually base my entire blog on battling dairy, but I am not sure I am clever enough to come up with a good name for it. You also would miss all the other misadventurous things going on in my life if I dedicated all my time to my dairy addiction and yours, which would be why you would read it religiously, but I digress. I wouldn't want to disappoint you that way.
If you find that you just reviewed all your eating habits after reading this and are so grateful the day I chose to come back is today while I am writing about whip and have found you are adding cheese to everything, you are in good company! There is a real dairy conspiracy going on out there! This battle is not for the weak!
I am also considering starting a dairy addicts support group. This blog post may not be enough for me to work through my own issues, much less for the many in the same boat who will read this and demand a safe space to talk about it.
May your day be blessed and dairy free, friends. Nicole
Friday, May 25, 2012
First, I want to say that Facebook hates me. If I write more than a few sentences, it has no idea what to do with me other than lock up the page! Apparently, I must be meant to be a blogger. I do like being able to edit, edit and edit some more what I write.
So, a bit of a different entry today, thanks to Facebook. :) Here we go. I will try to make it more like my usual flair.
There is nothing like vacumming or outdoor exercise to clear the mind or think on something. The Lord's Word is always, always on my mind, and I find as I think on something I have read today or at another time which has ended up in my thoughts at His prompting while I am doing either, it's interesting what He might point out that I may not have seen and considered before. Yet another reason to vacuum or exercise, yes?!
So today, I am vacuuming my stairs as my children are chasing one another playing and Shaun the Sheep is on the television not being watched....wouldn't want anyone to think that my house was actually quiet. Totally unnecessary for the Lord for a suburban stay at home mom, thankfully, to have a quiet home to think on His Word or I am not sure what I would do. I digress....
But I am thinking on Revelation 6, the fifth seal, which reads:
9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
There is something interesting here. I have never noticed it before, but this is what I was thinking about on the stairs and decided to write about it today. I will also say that I am not sure that I am right, but I think it's worth writing about. We will know for sure when we are in Heaven.
The Rapture of the Church happens at the beginning of chapter 4, as promised by the Lord, and all real believers who have truly repented of their sins, dead and living, who asked Him for His payment for their sins, the finished work of the cross, are kept from His wrath (Jn 14, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thess 4). This is a group of Tribulation saints (the Tribulation is seven years long (see Daniel 7) and starts with the opening of the first seal, which is the rider on the white horse, the anti-Christ) who become believers after the Church, Christ's Bride, has been taken to Heaven for our wedding. These 7 years are 360 day years, per the Bible's account of how long a year is to the Lord for us (not our current calendar), and this group of Tribulation Saints have no idea how long the brutal killing of believers will go on and ask Him that very question. That is very interesting. Why don't they know?
A little more information to consider:
We see in the next chapter a parenthetical view of the ministry of the 144,000 Israelites who preach the Gospel during part of the Tribulation and are sealed by the Lord for His work. No mention of anyone else being sealed and divinely protected from death and the other judgements---just these 144,000 men. We see a huge harvest of souls--more martyrs and not the last time we are going to see this in Revelation either--- in Heaven as we continue to read through that chapter who come out of the Tribulation that are a result of their ministry. This is not the Church and cannot be for all kinds of reasons, first of which is the promise Jesus made to keep all true believers out of that time (Rev 1-5, Jn 14, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thes 4, 2 Thes 2) and we are told to comfort one another with this knowlege AND to be always alert, watching and sober looking for Jesus to come for us. How comforted do you think the believers in Revelation 7 are through the breaking of those seals? They are already in the Tribulation and the Word there says they washed their robes in the blood of the Lord and came out of that very time. How does this even get taught? Are we reading the same book? Digressing again.....
While we know that one generation will see ALL the signs He gave us in Matt 24-25/Mk 13/Luke 21 will also see His return, there is also the parable of the fig tree, the fig tree always represents Israel in the Bible, illustrates the prophetical rebirth of Israel as a nation starting that time clock for that same generation...that was May 14, 1948. Tick tock.
So here is this group back in Rev 6 of martyrs whose blood has been shed at the Heavenly altar for their belief in the Lord Jesus and His Word and they have no idea how long this will go on. Their understanding of His Word is limited, aparently to not much mor than a saving faith before their life is taken from them. Now, not every Christian today knows how long the Tribulation is, so I don't want to make a real believer feel any condemnation for not knowing, though I do want to encourage all to study your Bibles and beg the Holy Spirit to hide it in your heart and illuminate and teach the Word, which is a lifelong process. These martyrs don't have a clue here. Why ask the question if you know the answer? And this trial for believers is only for a very, specific time. The Bible is very, very clear about this.
The world at the time of the Rapture is going to go from the Church being here, then being taken (2 Thess 2) and no believers left on earth, the current ministry of the Holy Spirit finished. The Church is the only group of believers who is the Bride of Christ, began at Acts 2 the Feast of Weeks/Shavuot/Pentacost and will stop at the Rapture (Romans 11, as well) when the Lord is going to turn His eyes back on Israel, pour out His wrath on an unbelieving world, and it's going to be unlike any time in history (see Revelation). Satan and his fallen buddies all know exactly Who Jesus is and they have far better knowlege of the Scriptures than we d0, and neither of those things makes them saved from eternal destruction. There are many within the Church who are unsaved today. The Restrainer, Who is the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell inside the heart of every real believer at the moment of belief, will be taken out of the way (2 Thess2).
How did this particular group we are shown here come to faith in Jesus? There are some Bible teachers who teach that if one has rejected the Gospel before the Rapture, they will be deluded afterwards without a choice. There are definitely two times the Bible mentions when someone can no longer accept Christ: one is after death. The whole teaching of purgatory completely flies in the face of the entire volume of Scripture, and I pray any Catholic who reads this might grab a Bible, do some studying on your own and check out places like Luke 16, just as a for instance. The second is found in Revelation 13 when someone knowingly takes the mark of the Beast (the anti-Christ) and worships his image. Other than that, the Lord is the discerner of hearts, and while someone will end up with a hard heart walking in continual sin away from the Lord, only the Lord knows what it will take for that person to come to a saving faith, if they are going to. We are never told to stop praying for those we witness to who reject the Lord or to stop sharing with them. I do not personally subscribe to that train of thought that they are doomed to delusion, and I am not sure that I see Biblical evidence that is what 2 Thessalonians 2 is teaching. I also know the Lord remains unchangingly merciful and gracious because that is His character, and that it is we who have hard, sinful hearts. I read through Revelation and see My God of Grace and Mercy on every page always wanting all men to repent and come to a saving knowlege of His Son, the Only One Who can save!
So here is the reason I sat down to write and felt I had to: it may be that those martyrs we see in Revelation 6 at the breaking of the fifth seal are those who have come to a saving knowlege of Jesus because of sharing the Gospel right now by those believers who are faithful to share it today. The prophet Amos records:
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it. Amos 8:11-12
Sharing the Gospel with the lost is for every believer--it's called the Great Commission. It's awesome to help storm victims, feed the poor, clothe the needy, but that is not the Gospel! The Gospel is the sharing with words the Good News of Who Jesus according to the Holy Bible and what He did on the cross to pay for sins so that some will believe and be saved from eternal separation and punishment in hell. We also cannot earn salvation. Ephesians 2:8-10, just as one example, is so clear about this very thing. Apart from works, free from the Lord's grace, no boasting flesh--just the Lord being glorified. The end. If you are taught salvation by any other way, the Bible says that is false teaching, the doctrine of demons. If that is what you have been taught, might you cling to the Everlasting Word or to a body that is leading you to eternal hell? Wow, Nicole, that is a very serious thing to say, offensive to some even. Yep, it is, but that is what the Bible says. The Lord says He places His Word above His own Name (Ps 138:2). Are you going to believe the Lord (go look it up!) and place your faith in Him or trust a bunch of men who are teaching contrary to His Word? His Word is the measuring stick for doctrine, not the other way around. And the Bible is very confrontational to false teaching and beliefs. I say that in love, understanding that the Lord's heart is for none to perish but all men to be saved. Most reject Him. What say you?
Take an imaginary journey with me for a minute and consider a Sunday morning if the Rapture took place then........do we really believe that everyone around us in our fellowships is saved? Who might be left when we who are saved go home to be with the Lord? Who might we have shared with and prayed for many times who is finally convicted of their sins and who Jesus is who ends up under that altar? How many pastors, worship leaders, Sunday school teachers, generous givers will be left in those seats? How many will know what happened? This group of Trib Saints group seems to only have enough knowlege to be saved from their sins and not much else. This is something to really think on and consider today as believers. We are called to be seed planters and waterers. God gives the growth. The harvest belongs to Him, not to us. Are we going to be faithful to do His work? Many reject the teaching of the Rapture, but the Bible is very clear about it in many places and with my types as well of it in the Old Testament, and you will probably be told you are crazy to believe it. Just wanted to warn you. Blessed are you who suffer for rightousness in Jesus, my friend. It's a narrow and difficult path that few find but praise be to Him who secures our footing on the Rock of our salvation. Take heart and be of good cheer and courage! The cross is the power of God to those who are saved and foolishness to those who are perishing, Paul writes to the Corinthians. Speak boldly of your faith in Jesus and let His Spirit work on conviction of sin and righteousness!
The Bible says that all in our churches are not saved in more than one place, but I would point right to Revelation 2 and 3 to those letters and what Jesus has to say about this very thing AND the time of the Tribulation specifically right now. Our fellowships are a place where we should share the Gospel everytime we meet. Unbelievers are there, but the lost are mainly out in the world and we are called disciples....that means "sent out ones" "set apart ones". We are not going to be popular. We are going to be hated and persecuted by the world and they are not going to give us any more of a warm reception than Jesus received---He promised this would be so! We are set apart and sent out to share the Good News of Jesus Christ so that some might be saved--our lives don't have meaning or value apart from Jesus and eternal things. This life, this world, they are passing away and set for judgement, and that time is very near. If those signs of the Tribution are here, how much closer are we to the Rapture, a signless event? Are you ready to share your testimony of Who Jesus is and What He did with someone gently at any moment like Peter exhorts us to? Some might be saved now. Some might be saved later.
I believe we are very close to the time of the Tribulation. The signs are not only all appearing, they are also accelerating and becoming more intense. You won't understand them without your Bible, and you won't understand your Bible unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit and in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have not done the last, you will have a great deal of trouble with the other, and the Church is so filled with false doctrine now, as prophesied throughout the New Testament, that it's become very difficult to hear the Bible taught on a Sunday, much less taught correctly. The Lord defines all symbols used---no guessing required or allowed---and He means what He says. His Word is not allegorical, it's literal and plain, and pay special attention to pronouns! I cannot tell you how many times I have ended up confused because I forgot I was an "us, we, you" and not a "them or those". And we grow up in Christ. We don't come in as grown ups, but we can be malnourished. We can be immature. Pray for wisdom--He says He wants to give it--and cling to Him, wanting only His Truth. There are plenty of things to learn out there, but only one Truth, Jesus, and then you are going to have to check His Word to be sure it's the same Jesus!
So, that's it for me today on this beautiful and hot day in Houston, loving Jesus and His Word and praying for the lost and for those of us who belong to the King of Kings to be praying people and evangelising people and to depart not only from iniquity but from false teachings as well and cling to the Only One Who can save.
Blessings in Christ, Nicole
So, a bit of a different entry today, thanks to Facebook. :) Here we go. I will try to make it more like my usual flair.
There is nothing like vacumming or outdoor exercise to clear the mind or think on something. The Lord's Word is always, always on my mind, and I find as I think on something I have read today or at another time which has ended up in my thoughts at His prompting while I am doing either, it's interesting what He might point out that I may not have seen and considered before. Yet another reason to vacuum or exercise, yes?!
So today, I am vacuuming my stairs as my children are chasing one another playing and Shaun the Sheep is on the television not being watched....wouldn't want anyone to think that my house was actually quiet. Totally unnecessary for the Lord for a suburban stay at home mom, thankfully, to have a quiet home to think on His Word or I am not sure what I would do. I digress....
But I am thinking on Revelation 6, the fifth seal, which reads:
9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
There is something interesting here. I have never noticed it before, but this is what I was thinking about on the stairs and decided to write about it today. I will also say that I am not sure that I am right, but I think it's worth writing about. We will know for sure when we are in Heaven.
The Rapture of the Church happens at the beginning of chapter 4, as promised by the Lord, and all real believers who have truly repented of their sins, dead and living, who asked Him for His payment for their sins, the finished work of the cross, are kept from His wrath (Jn 14, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thess 4). This is a group of Tribulation saints (the Tribulation is seven years long (see Daniel 7) and starts with the opening of the first seal, which is the rider on the white horse, the anti-Christ) who become believers after the Church, Christ's Bride, has been taken to Heaven for our wedding. These 7 years are 360 day years, per the Bible's account of how long a year is to the Lord for us (not our current calendar), and this group of Tribulation Saints have no idea how long the brutal killing of believers will go on and ask Him that very question. That is very interesting. Why don't they know?
A little more information to consider:
We see in the next chapter a parenthetical view of the ministry of the 144,000 Israelites who preach the Gospel during part of the Tribulation and are sealed by the Lord for His work. No mention of anyone else being sealed and divinely protected from death and the other judgements---just these 144,000 men. We see a huge harvest of souls--more martyrs and not the last time we are going to see this in Revelation either--- in Heaven as we continue to read through that chapter who come out of the Tribulation that are a result of their ministry. This is not the Church and cannot be for all kinds of reasons, first of which is the promise Jesus made to keep all true believers out of that time (Rev 1-5, Jn 14, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thes 4, 2 Thes 2) and we are told to comfort one another with this knowlege AND to be always alert, watching and sober looking for Jesus to come for us. How comforted do you think the believers in Revelation 7 are through the breaking of those seals? They are already in the Tribulation and the Word there says they washed their robes in the blood of the Lord and came out of that very time. How does this even get taught? Are we reading the same book? Digressing again.....
While we know that one generation will see ALL the signs He gave us in Matt 24-25/Mk 13/Luke 21 will also see His return, there is also the parable of the fig tree, the fig tree always represents Israel in the Bible, illustrates the prophetical rebirth of Israel as a nation starting that time clock for that same generation...that was May 14, 1948. Tick tock.
So here is this group back in Rev 6 of martyrs whose blood has been shed at the Heavenly altar for their belief in the Lord Jesus and His Word and they have no idea how long this will go on. Their understanding of His Word is limited, aparently to not much mor than a saving faith before their life is taken from them. Now, not every Christian today knows how long the Tribulation is, so I don't want to make a real believer feel any condemnation for not knowing, though I do want to encourage all to study your Bibles and beg the Holy Spirit to hide it in your heart and illuminate and teach the Word, which is a lifelong process. These martyrs don't have a clue here. Why ask the question if you know the answer? And this trial for believers is only for a very, specific time. The Bible is very, very clear about this.
The world at the time of the Rapture is going to go from the Church being here, then being taken (2 Thess 2) and no believers left on earth, the current ministry of the Holy Spirit finished. The Church is the only group of believers who is the Bride of Christ, began at Acts 2 the Feast of Weeks/Shavuot/Pentacost and will stop at the Rapture (Romans 11, as well) when the Lord is going to turn His eyes back on Israel, pour out His wrath on an unbelieving world, and it's going to be unlike any time in history (see Revelation). Satan and his fallen buddies all know exactly Who Jesus is and they have far better knowlege of the Scriptures than we d0, and neither of those things makes them saved from eternal destruction. There are many within the Church who are unsaved today. The Restrainer, Who is the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell inside the heart of every real believer at the moment of belief, will be taken out of the way (2 Thess2).
How did this particular group we are shown here come to faith in Jesus? There are some Bible teachers who teach that if one has rejected the Gospel before the Rapture, they will be deluded afterwards without a choice. There are definitely two times the Bible mentions when someone can no longer accept Christ: one is after death. The whole teaching of purgatory completely flies in the face of the entire volume of Scripture, and I pray any Catholic who reads this might grab a Bible, do some studying on your own and check out places like Luke 16, just as a for instance. The second is found in Revelation 13 when someone knowingly takes the mark of the Beast (the anti-Christ) and worships his image. Other than that, the Lord is the discerner of hearts, and while someone will end up with a hard heart walking in continual sin away from the Lord, only the Lord knows what it will take for that person to come to a saving faith, if they are going to. We are never told to stop praying for those we witness to who reject the Lord or to stop sharing with them. I do not personally subscribe to that train of thought that they are doomed to delusion, and I am not sure that I see Biblical evidence that is what 2 Thessalonians 2 is teaching. I also know the Lord remains unchangingly merciful and gracious because that is His character, and that it is we who have hard, sinful hearts. I read through Revelation and see My God of Grace and Mercy on every page always wanting all men to repent and come to a saving knowlege of His Son, the Only One Who can save!
So here is the reason I sat down to write and felt I had to: it may be that those martyrs we see in Revelation 6 at the breaking of the fifth seal are those who have come to a saving knowlege of Jesus because of sharing the Gospel right now by those believers who are faithful to share it today. The prophet Amos records:
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it. Amos 8:11-12
Sharing the Gospel with the lost is for every believer--it's called the Great Commission. It's awesome to help storm victims, feed the poor, clothe the needy, but that is not the Gospel! The Gospel is the sharing with words the Good News of Who Jesus according to the Holy Bible and what He did on the cross to pay for sins so that some will believe and be saved from eternal separation and punishment in hell. We also cannot earn salvation. Ephesians 2:8-10, just as one example, is so clear about this very thing. Apart from works, free from the Lord's grace, no boasting flesh--just the Lord being glorified. The end. If you are taught salvation by any other way, the Bible says that is false teaching, the doctrine of demons. If that is what you have been taught, might you cling to the Everlasting Word or to a body that is leading you to eternal hell? Wow, Nicole, that is a very serious thing to say, offensive to some even. Yep, it is, but that is what the Bible says. The Lord says He places His Word above His own Name (Ps 138:2). Are you going to believe the Lord (go look it up!) and place your faith in Him or trust a bunch of men who are teaching contrary to His Word? His Word is the measuring stick for doctrine, not the other way around. And the Bible is very confrontational to false teaching and beliefs. I say that in love, understanding that the Lord's heart is for none to perish but all men to be saved. Most reject Him. What say you?
Take an imaginary journey with me for a minute and consider a Sunday morning if the Rapture took place then........do we really believe that everyone around us in our fellowships is saved? Who might be left when we who are saved go home to be with the Lord? Who might we have shared with and prayed for many times who is finally convicted of their sins and who Jesus is who ends up under that altar? How many pastors, worship leaders, Sunday school teachers, generous givers will be left in those seats? How many will know what happened? This group of Trib Saints group seems to only have enough knowlege to be saved from their sins and not much else. This is something to really think on and consider today as believers. We are called to be seed planters and waterers. God gives the growth. The harvest belongs to Him, not to us. Are we going to be faithful to do His work? Many reject the teaching of the Rapture, but the Bible is very clear about it in many places and with my types as well of it in the Old Testament, and you will probably be told you are crazy to believe it. Just wanted to warn you. Blessed are you who suffer for rightousness in Jesus, my friend. It's a narrow and difficult path that few find but praise be to Him who secures our footing on the Rock of our salvation. Take heart and be of good cheer and courage! The cross is the power of God to those who are saved and foolishness to those who are perishing, Paul writes to the Corinthians. Speak boldly of your faith in Jesus and let His Spirit work on conviction of sin and righteousness!
The Bible says that all in our churches are not saved in more than one place, but I would point right to Revelation 2 and 3 to those letters and what Jesus has to say about this very thing AND the time of the Tribulation specifically right now. Our fellowships are a place where we should share the Gospel everytime we meet. Unbelievers are there, but the lost are mainly out in the world and we are called disciples....that means "sent out ones" "set apart ones". We are not going to be popular. We are going to be hated and persecuted by the world and they are not going to give us any more of a warm reception than Jesus received---He promised this would be so! We are set apart and sent out to share the Good News of Jesus Christ so that some might be saved--our lives don't have meaning or value apart from Jesus and eternal things. This life, this world, they are passing away and set for judgement, and that time is very near. If those signs of the Tribution are here, how much closer are we to the Rapture, a signless event? Are you ready to share your testimony of Who Jesus is and What He did with someone gently at any moment like Peter exhorts us to? Some might be saved now. Some might be saved later.
I believe we are very close to the time of the Tribulation. The signs are not only all appearing, they are also accelerating and becoming more intense. You won't understand them without your Bible, and you won't understand your Bible unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit and in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have not done the last, you will have a great deal of trouble with the other, and the Church is so filled with false doctrine now, as prophesied throughout the New Testament, that it's become very difficult to hear the Bible taught on a Sunday, much less taught correctly. The Lord defines all symbols used---no guessing required or allowed---and He means what He says. His Word is not allegorical, it's literal and plain, and pay special attention to pronouns! I cannot tell you how many times I have ended up confused because I forgot I was an "us, we, you" and not a "them or those". And we grow up in Christ. We don't come in as grown ups, but we can be malnourished. We can be immature. Pray for wisdom--He says He wants to give it--and cling to Him, wanting only His Truth. There are plenty of things to learn out there, but only one Truth, Jesus, and then you are going to have to check His Word to be sure it's the same Jesus!
So, that's it for me today on this beautiful and hot day in Houston, loving Jesus and His Word and praying for the lost and for those of us who belong to the King of Kings to be praying people and evangelising people and to depart not only from iniquity but from false teachings as well and cling to the Only One Who can save.
Blessings in Christ, Nicole
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Identity Crisis Averted
The Lord woke me up this morning with some verses and something on my heart for my son, but really it's for anyone, so I am writing. I had the misadventure of going with my husband yesterday to get his haircut and out of morbid curiosity pulled a fashion magazine and read it, which is really funny all by itself. I am thinking if I went to an ivy league college, that might be my best career choice (writing for one). Thank the Lord for His strange plans for my life. I know that I have people in my life that look at me like my potential has been stumped at home raising my children, and for a long time, I believe that I went through an identity crisis that I attempted to solve through the means most of the world does---if I get married, I belong to someone. If I have children, I have someone to love and take care of. If I have a career, I can do something with that brain of mine, etc.
Am I down on any of these things? Oh, not at all, but the Lord says that He has plans and ways that are not like ours, and like my pastor talking about the mess of the back of a tapestry, there is a day when the Lord's plans look like a beautiful piece of artwork, His poema. That's my life. That's your life, if you belong to Jesus and give it to Him. We only get to see the mess most of the time and He gets to see the artwork He is creating, but every once in awhile, He might turn it around to give us a glimpse that that mess was His handiwork and the other side of it is incredibly beautiful because He is doing it!
How do you avert that identity crisis? Well, I am watching our oldest go through it, and I believe that even as off track as he has been, it only takes the Lord a moment to solve this for us if we will humble ourselves before Him and ask Him to solve it. We just have to want the Lord to show us and be led by Him rather than attempting to blaze our own trail and do things our own way. We have an identity crisis for that reason to begin with. The fall of man in the Garden of Eden was created from a departure from the Lord, His plans and ways and man thinking the Lord was holding out the good stuff. We are truly kidding ourselves when we think that doing it our way, smacking with such pride, coated over with indignation and pain from our past hurts and mistakes, is brave and makes so much sense and then we have the unmitigated gall of seeking encouragement from others who will support our delusions rather than seeking the Lord and those who know Him who will speak His truth into our lives and saylet us know own way looks like a tornado made touch down everywhere we have walked.
Oh, harsh, I know, but really, is that not the truth? There are some who pull this off and it looks prettier on the surface or from the fence they have built that only allows you to get so close, but underneath, not so, kind of like our current home. It was 9 years old when we bought it and figured we had a good base and would update and do some things to it to personalize it as we lived in it. Well, no matter how those walls looked, once you got the speed square out or took off a switchplate or outlet cover to put something prettier on, all you would end up seeing is the nothing was square and that the part was the cheapest one made in China not hooked up correctly and that we were just lucky we hadn't had a fire....and it happened over and over again. Same thing with those who want to do that. Some might just decide not to pull off anymore switchplates when they know they are just going to find a new mess. Trouble with that is that it's a bad plan if you want to keep your house from catching on fire at some point. We need not be fooled thinking that others aren't as much of a mess as us. Not so. It's those who trust in Jesus with their lives who have their walls put into square, even if they have to be ripped down, who are no longer in danger of fire because they were totally rewired and given brand new parts put in correctly!
It's the identity crisis that leads us either into the arms of Jesus and ends it with the beginning of a new life in Him or straight to hell with sincere intensions to stay ignorant and distracted or to fool ourselves into thinking we are making a good show of it. Those who know Jesus, as flawed as they will always be as humans, they know the truth and will continue speaking it into the life of the one who is still lost. Better for the storms in life to be circumstantial and we held steady through it, than the storm being inside us and we are tossed every which way and lucky if we survive. If you are in the world without the Lord, you are "lucky" to survive. If you have the Lord, you don't even have to spend a moment worrying, about anything!
So there was a passage in the Bible that I planned to get to with all this, and I was thinking about our oldest because he is almost done with the first part of discipleship and getting ready to enter very much unwillingly into the next part where there is much more interaction with the world and feet on the Word of God being fed into him these last weeks to see if he cannot get beyond an identity crisis and wondering what is next . Jesus said in Luke 8:22-25:
" 22 Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. 23 But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. 24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
When you get into the boat with Jesus, you are going to make it. He didn't say that trouble wasn't going to be part of the crossing, but He said, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake." When you get into the boat with Jesus, you are going to make it. It won't be easy, and if you read your Bible, you find out that He tells us that too many times! I don't know, y'all (that is whoever reads this), but you want to go it alone through the storms that life brings that only the One who controls them knows about and see how it turns out or would you rather get into His boat and let Him rebuke the wind and the raging of the water for you and know that what He commands must come to pass down to the last detail? Faith is not some arbitrary, intangible thing, as some say when they tell you, "Just have faith." Oh, baloney! That is not how that works or what that means. Stop ripping the Words of the Living God out of context and misapplying them by voiding Him out of His Own Words!
My faith is in Jesus. It's not random and being led and cared for by the Lord involves Him imputing His strength to me. I have to admit that whatever it is that I have, it's not strength at all when I compare it to His and what He has is so much better and more effective. What I have is a lack and need that He alone can fill. When I sit down in a chair, I know it will support me and I don't spend my time worrying about it collapsing underneath me. That is my relationship with Jesus as well. I know He is not going to collapse underneath my weight. He is able to hold me in His hands. And He is more than able to hold our struggling son as well and anyone else too and forever solve the question of who each of us is: His! And then the next quandry as well of what to do about all my needs and plans for my life. He will fill them and He has plans for us already (Ep 2:10).
My Jesus spoke His Word in my heart this morning as I slept and I woke up with Matthew 6 in my heart:
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
Verse 33 is the answer to the human condition of identity. Seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness and all the other things that we need will be taken care of---note, not by us, but by the Lord Himself! He does the "added unto you" part.
Jesus, as John accounts, prayed for those who would become His;
"9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me,[b] that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world,[c] I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept;[d] and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth." Jn 17:9-19
I love this. Jesus prayed for me and for all those who are going to answer His call to come to Him for rest. Sanctify means to be set apart as holy or for a special purpose. The world has one way, and Jesus has one that is not only different, but that the world will never receive and is emnity to it, yet He prayed not that we would be taken out of it but keep us from Satan and set apart for the special purpose of God in Christ, which is to be a light set high up on a hill for Him making Him known, His holy name, not our own, His purposes which is salvation of souls from perishing, not our own which are selfish and glorify ourselves. The more you get to know Jesus, the more you realize how ridiculous the world is and how ridiculous you are when you follow after it. The way of the world is the broadway leading to hell, not to Heaven, and going the opposite direction of the Creator of all. The world isn't going to tell you that, by the way. They are apparently going to tell you to do it your way, that you can buy a pair of shoes that will make you think you can conquer the world (yes, that magazine actually wrote that!) or that couples that take Lexapro stay together (yes, there was an entire article espousing this as truth). No wonder our nation and our world are crumbling around us! Apparently, most are seeking this advice out and then following it to the letter!
Sigh. Really, this seems good and makes sense to millions? What can I say but tell you that surely you have a Creator who has something better for you than magical pumps and an antidepressant!
I will end with this: the Lord is amazing and when I finally humbled myself as I read His Word and understood that what was missing in my life was a contrite heart that would bow down only before the One who made me and repent (which means that I agree with Him and turn to Him and give Him control of things by His Spirit and follow His holy Words by the power of His Spirit) of my sins and receive the forgiveness He wants to give the one who asks, I will receive that and so much more, including an identity that makes me accepted in the Beloved as one of His sheep who dwells with Him eternally fed with the Bread of Life and given Living Water than eternally quenches my soul.
23 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Amen!
Am I down on any of these things? Oh, not at all, but the Lord says that He has plans and ways that are not like ours, and like my pastor talking about the mess of the back of a tapestry, there is a day when the Lord's plans look like a beautiful piece of artwork, His poema. That's my life. That's your life, if you belong to Jesus and give it to Him. We only get to see the mess most of the time and He gets to see the artwork He is creating, but every once in awhile, He might turn it around to give us a glimpse that that mess was His handiwork and the other side of it is incredibly beautiful because He is doing it!
How do you avert that identity crisis? Well, I am watching our oldest go through it, and I believe that even as off track as he has been, it only takes the Lord a moment to solve this for us if we will humble ourselves before Him and ask Him to solve it. We just have to want the Lord to show us and be led by Him rather than attempting to blaze our own trail and do things our own way. We have an identity crisis for that reason to begin with. The fall of man in the Garden of Eden was created from a departure from the Lord, His plans and ways and man thinking the Lord was holding out the good stuff. We are truly kidding ourselves when we think that doing it our way, smacking with such pride, coated over with indignation and pain from our past hurts and mistakes, is brave and makes so much sense and then we have the unmitigated gall of seeking encouragement from others who will support our delusions rather than seeking the Lord and those who know Him who will speak His truth into our lives and saylet us know own way looks like a tornado made touch down everywhere we have walked.
Oh, harsh, I know, but really, is that not the truth? There are some who pull this off and it looks prettier on the surface or from the fence they have built that only allows you to get so close, but underneath, not so, kind of like our current home. It was 9 years old when we bought it and figured we had a good base and would update and do some things to it to personalize it as we lived in it. Well, no matter how those walls looked, once you got the speed square out or took off a switchplate or outlet cover to put something prettier on, all you would end up seeing is the nothing was square and that the part was the cheapest one made in China not hooked up correctly and that we were just lucky we hadn't had a fire....and it happened over and over again. Same thing with those who want to do that. Some might just decide not to pull off anymore switchplates when they know they are just going to find a new mess. Trouble with that is that it's a bad plan if you want to keep your house from catching on fire at some point. We need not be fooled thinking that others aren't as much of a mess as us. Not so. It's those who trust in Jesus with their lives who have their walls put into square, even if they have to be ripped down, who are no longer in danger of fire because they were totally rewired and given brand new parts put in correctly!
It's the identity crisis that leads us either into the arms of Jesus and ends it with the beginning of a new life in Him or straight to hell with sincere intensions to stay ignorant and distracted or to fool ourselves into thinking we are making a good show of it. Those who know Jesus, as flawed as they will always be as humans, they know the truth and will continue speaking it into the life of the one who is still lost. Better for the storms in life to be circumstantial and we held steady through it, than the storm being inside us and we are tossed every which way and lucky if we survive. If you are in the world without the Lord, you are "lucky" to survive. If you have the Lord, you don't even have to spend a moment worrying, about anything!
So there was a passage in the Bible that I planned to get to with all this, and I was thinking about our oldest because he is almost done with the first part of discipleship and getting ready to enter very much unwillingly into the next part where there is much more interaction with the world and feet on the Word of God being fed into him these last weeks to see if he cannot get beyond an identity crisis and wondering what is next . Jesus said in Luke 8:22-25:
" 22 Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. 23 But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. 24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
When you get into the boat with Jesus, you are going to make it. He didn't say that trouble wasn't going to be part of the crossing, but He said, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake." When you get into the boat with Jesus, you are going to make it. It won't be easy, and if you read your Bible, you find out that He tells us that too many times! I don't know, y'all (that is whoever reads this), but you want to go it alone through the storms that life brings that only the One who controls them knows about and see how it turns out or would you rather get into His boat and let Him rebuke the wind and the raging of the water for you and know that what He commands must come to pass down to the last detail? Faith is not some arbitrary, intangible thing, as some say when they tell you, "Just have faith." Oh, baloney! That is not how that works or what that means. Stop ripping the Words of the Living God out of context and misapplying them by voiding Him out of His Own Words!
My faith is in Jesus. It's not random and being led and cared for by the Lord involves Him imputing His strength to me. I have to admit that whatever it is that I have, it's not strength at all when I compare it to His and what He has is so much better and more effective. What I have is a lack and need that He alone can fill. When I sit down in a chair, I know it will support me and I don't spend my time worrying about it collapsing underneath me. That is my relationship with Jesus as well. I know He is not going to collapse underneath my weight. He is able to hold me in His hands. And He is more than able to hold our struggling son as well and anyone else too and forever solve the question of who each of us is: His! And then the next quandry as well of what to do about all my needs and plans for my life. He will fill them and He has plans for us already (Ep 2:10).
My Jesus spoke His Word in my heart this morning as I slept and I woke up with Matthew 6 in my heart:
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
Verse 33 is the answer to the human condition of identity. Seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness and all the other things that we need will be taken care of---note, not by us, but by the Lord Himself! He does the "added unto you" part.
Jesus, as John accounts, prayed for those who would become His;
"9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me,[b] that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world,[c] I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept;[d] and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth." Jn 17:9-19
I love this. Jesus prayed for me and for all those who are going to answer His call to come to Him for rest. Sanctify means to be set apart as holy or for a special purpose. The world has one way, and Jesus has one that is not only different, but that the world will never receive and is emnity to it, yet He prayed not that we would be taken out of it but keep us from Satan and set apart for the special purpose of God in Christ, which is to be a light set high up on a hill for Him making Him known, His holy name, not our own, His purposes which is salvation of souls from perishing, not our own which are selfish and glorify ourselves. The more you get to know Jesus, the more you realize how ridiculous the world is and how ridiculous you are when you follow after it. The way of the world is the broadway leading to hell, not to Heaven, and going the opposite direction of the Creator of all. The world isn't going to tell you that, by the way. They are apparently going to tell you to do it your way, that you can buy a pair of shoes that will make you think you can conquer the world (yes, that magazine actually wrote that!) or that couples that take Lexapro stay together (yes, there was an entire article espousing this as truth). No wonder our nation and our world are crumbling around us! Apparently, most are seeking this advice out and then following it to the letter!
Sigh. Really, this seems good and makes sense to millions? What can I say but tell you that surely you have a Creator who has something better for you than magical pumps and an antidepressant!
I will end with this: the Lord is amazing and when I finally humbled myself as I read His Word and understood that what was missing in my life was a contrite heart that would bow down only before the One who made me and repent (which means that I agree with Him and turn to Him and give Him control of things by His Spirit and follow His holy Words by the power of His Spirit) of my sins and receive the forgiveness He wants to give the one who asks, I will receive that and so much more, including an identity that makes me accepted in the Beloved as one of His sheep who dwells with Him eternally fed with the Bread of Life and given Living Water than eternally quenches my soul.
23 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell[a] in the house of the Lord
Forever.
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell[a] in the house of the Lord
Forever.
Amen!
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