"Why does God care about who I sleep with?"

Considering the condition of the world nowadays - with its loosey-goosy morals and lack of a true, stable, meaningful foundation - I think a lot of people might find some encouragement in this sermon from Willow Creek.  For being such a sensitive topic, this pastor did a great job addressing it (though I agree with him that he could've spoken a lot longer and covered a lot more about it): 

"Why does God care about who I sleep with?" 

Hardest Spiritual Lesson #1: Let Go

 I wrote about some of the "hardest spiritual lessons" years ago on another blog of mine, but I am updating and reposting it here.  These are normal, typical (often painful) lessons that we will all eventually struggle with (it's okay to struggle) if we continue to walk with God and to chase after a deeper relationship with Him.  (And I know there are more than I've listed here.)  

In no particular order (and broken up into individual posts), here are some of the hardest lessons I've learned over the years when it comes to faith and walking with God:

1.  Let Go or Hold on?

Low-sugar Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Banana Breakfast Cake

I realized the other day that I had a jar of peanut butter I had to use up soon.  And when I opened my freezer, I found three frozen bananas.  And that's how this cake came about.  It's a thick cake and sticks to your mouth, but it's filling and low-sugar, making it great for breakfast.

Grease a 9x13 pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a big bowl, mix these together:

3 mashed bananas

1/3 cup to 1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup to 1 1/2 cup water (I actually used an 11.1 oz. container of coconut water that I had to use up)
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup softened butter or oil (I used olive oil)

Then mix and add the dry ingredients:

4 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cocoa powder

1 cup chocolate chips

(Add a bit more water if too thick or a bit more flour if too thin, enough to make a thick batter)

Pour into greased pan, sprinkle a spoonful of sugar on top.  Bake for about 50 minutes or till done, covering with foil last 15 minutes if necessary.

Let it cool then eat (and store leftovers in the fridge).

Totally cool!

I just gotta share this one...

I have always LOVED watching baptisms (and even more so when people share their testimonies too).  It's a special once-in-a-lifetime moment when someone vulnerably stands up in public and declares their faith in Jesus.  And it's a moment we should all celebrate and feel honored to witness.

Well, today my neighbor - whom I've been doing Bible study with (along with her aunt) for the last few years after she became a believer in 2020 (see here) - decided (rather spontaneously) to get baptized during a church service at the beach.  

And not only did I, her aunt, my husband, and my son get to go with to support her, but I got to get in the water with her (in my jeans, because I didn't know this was going to happen), pray with her, and help submerse her in the water too.  

Totally cool!  And I am so honored and humbled to be a part of this amazing moment in her life!

(And now we keep praying for her husband.)

Two songs for the presidential election

I posted these for the 2020 elections too, but here they are again for this election season:

A couple of Tim Hawkins songs as this election season gets under way, just for fun:

Jimmy Buffet for President

The Government Can

If you can't do anything about it, may as well have some fun with it!

Those darn price-tag stickers

 

What's marriage like?

It's like this:

The wife goes to bed before the husband and is just falling asleep - perfect comfort, perfect temperature, perfect silence - when the husband finally comes to bed.  And while he's rooting around for his pajamas with his phone's flashlight, adjusting his blankets, and shaking the bed while getting adjusted, he wakes the wife up.  

And then, since his added body heat quickly causes the bed to get a lot hotter, the wife becomes overheated and has to throw the blankets on and off again until she adjusts to the temperature change.

And then as the husband falls asleep quickly, the wife - having been thoroughly woken up now - realizes she has to go to the bathroom.  And so she gets out of bed to use the bathroom, waking herself up even more, while the husband lays there asleep - perfect comfort, perfect temperature, perfect silence, snoring gently.

Yep, that's what marriage is like.

Okay, that's kinda cute

I'm no country music fan (no offense), but I just saw this video and gotta say that it's kinda cute and catchy and a whole lotta fun: 

Songs about Whiskey from Christian singer, Anne Wilson

Listen to it before you judge it.

Calvinism for beginners

How do you help someone understand the errors, dangers, and cult-like tactics of Calvinism when they aren't even really sure yet what it is or what it teaches?  Where do you start?  

My kids know that my husband and I believe Calvinism is a corruption of God's truth and character.  They know because we left our church over it in 2019 - the church they grew up in for many years - and because we haven't stopped researching and talking... venting?... lamenting?... complaining?... about it since.

They know we want them to avoid it.  But I'm not sure how much they really understand for themselves what it is and why it's wrong... or if they would know how to recognize it if they encountered it unexpectedly in a church or book, if we weren't there to point it out and explain it.  

And so to help them (teenagers right now) understand for themselves what it teaches and why it's wrong, we recommended that they watch some Soteriology 101 videos about it.  But then after clicking on a few, I realized how overwhelming it could be to try to find clear, concise videos that would help a beginner understand the basics in a simplified, easy-to-understand-yet-comprehensive way.  Many videos about Calvinism online seem to jump right into the middle of it, assuming that you already know something about it, about its teachings, errors, use of terms/Bible verses, tactics, about what Scripture really teaches, etc.  

Stop!

I saw a meme like this the other day and thought it was great.  But they left out one of the "stops," and so I had to fix it: