The Path Less Followed

     As a christian I am to attend to my own moral path, not that of the world. I am to share the truth of my path, why I seek this "moral path" and that my God is love, He is full of loving kindness, He is sympathetic and paid a great sacrifice for us and has a narrow path that leads to the life He desires for me and you. However I am not to try to force others onto the path.
     God's moral path does have requirements for me and others, but I can't put my requirements on other people, that's between them and God. God will complete the work He has begun in each of us if we yield to Him. I don't want to be "that" child in school that is always telling the other children "but the teacher said to do this..", the teacher is quite capable of making themselves understood, they don't need me tattling! God is quite capable of dealing with His followers, He doesn't need me fixing them! I know I am to "love the Lord your God", to "love others as myself", then there are a lot of shall nots about things I should avoid~ shall not murder, shall not covet...judge not... of course there are a lot more in each group of "do and do not", but you get the idea right? These are things to apply to myself, not to others!
     God does have enemies-Satan and his followers, but we end up creating enemies of our Father when we don't walk as we should. We cause people to despise us and worse yet to despise our Father because of the things we do and say when we're not following His leading!  Jesus said that He did not come to judge, so let's not put ourselves in the place of judge either...just see to the log in our own eye and trust God to see the to splinter in our brother's eye!(Matthew 7:1-5)
     If we seek to walk in God's authority, doing His will, hearing and following His voice, doing His work then people will be drawn to us and to our heavenly Father. Then we will be the salt and light that He created us to be. We will draw people to our Father, not repulse them!
     The path is narrow that leads to eternal life- unfortunately many who claim to be Christians are not on the narrow path (this is according to God's word, not my judgement! Matt 7:13-14) and there are some "tares" that have been planted by the enemy in with the wheat, the wheat are God's followers, (For non-farmers the tares are weeds that look like wheat, but aren't.). The Tares cannot be separated until harvest and the tares lead many people astray and repulse others away from our Father with their pretense of being Christians.
     When I think about it I have to wonder "How does God tolerate us?". Many come to Him and fall away, back to their own desires or to their ways in the world and some never come -- and yet He is patient and long suffering, even knowing that few would find the way He sent His own Son to die as a sacrifice for our sins!
     Thinking of these things I encourage you beloved, choose the narrow path, walk uprightly, set your standard to His standard, look to be pleasing to Him, seek Him as your "True North" ~ seek for His will ~ try to get to know Him!  

Matthew 7-13 & 14 Amplified Bible
Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.

 

or same verses in the everyday language of The Message~

 

“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.

     Or, choose the path less followed and don't be surprised that there are few on it with you~

Life Goes On~

Just an observation~
     Life goes on, things we expected to happen never do and things we didn't expect are what we're living with today. No wonder God says to not worry about tomorrow...we can not possibly see what tomorrow brings with it.
     Yes, there are some things that we can prepare for, like buying groceries for tomorrow because we know we'll want to eat, but to worry or plan for much more than clothes to wear, food to eat, what more can we really know will happen?    

Why Do So Many Marriages End in Divorce? IMHO

     Just a thought about marriage. With so many marriages ending in divorce a person has to wonder what has happened to cause this?  A lot of time while I'm doing things like washing dishes, making the bed or cooking, my mind wanders to various subjects like, "why would our leaders want to give amnesty to a large group of law breakers?" or "why would our president and his advisers give orders to ""make life difficult"" for the citizens during the budget squabble?" or "why do homosexuals want the right to be married when so many marriages end in divorce?" or "why do so many marriages end in divorce?"
     Today my answer for the divorce question was that so many people are not prepared for the reality of marriage. Women think it will be a great romantic adventure and don't consider that they will be picking up this man's dirty socks for the rest of their lives, and not only picking them up, but washing them, matching them and putting them back in his drawer to start the cycle all over again! Yikes! And the woman is probably not prepared for the fact that she will need to feed this man that she is promising to "love, honor and cherish" "until death do you part"! And surprise, he will want to eat everyday! and in order to do this daily feeding, and another surprise, it's usually 3 times a day that he will want to eat...but in order to do this, she will need to go to the grocery store to buy something to cook, bring it home, put it up and at the appropriate time pull it off of the shelf to prepare and serve, then clean up the mess that she made preparing it. This may not sound too challenging, but if she does do the cooking for every meal in the first month of wedded bliss she will have been responsible for 90 meals and all of the planning, fixing and cleaning up that is included with that. Multiply that out and it is 1,080 the first year. Yes they will go out to eat, so if you want you can divide it by half and she's only had to take care of 540 meals in the first year, while at the same time picking up the dirty socks and washing them, matching them and putting them back up. I guess the point is that there is a lot of drudgery that people are not expecting in the married life. If the husband is not extremely loving, appreciative and supportive the wife can easily turn bitter about her chores and blame someone or everyone and most likely it will be the wearer of the dirty socks!
     I know a lot of people think we're supposed to be in a "new age" where the man takes care of his own socks, but realistically the woman needs to face the fact that in marriage she is the dedicated nurturer, and that includes feeding and caring for the family that she has, even if that's just a husband in the beginning. To fight this stereo type is a quick trip to divorce. If you want to argue this idea there's really no point in it, I'm only stating my opinion and you are free to have your own.
     There is another side for the men too. You may think you're marrying a playmate, but you'll be surprised that she will go through cycles where playing is the last thing on her mind. After taking care of your laundry and cooking, sometimes she might want some "conversation". Your life may not be the same free agent life you used to live, your friends may have to take a backseat to your new life with your wife. Or you may have to turn the video game off. With a wife the usual progression is that you add a pet to your twosome, then along comes a baby and you need a house for the growing family. You have stepped into the world of a responsible man but many of you are not ready to be a responsible man. Many of you have married someone thinking they will make your life easier or they'll take care of you, but surprise! You are the one that is supposed to be responsible and support your wife and they are to fall under the umbrella of your care! That's a shockeroonie isn't it?! You are the one to shelter and support your wife not the other way around.
     When all of the truths of real life hit these couples that have not been taught or prepared in any way by parents or grandparents to meet them, they are overwhelmed, they blame each other and then start looking for the next person that can live up to their expectations and make their fantasy world come true. They are not going to face the fact that real life is not a fantasy and if they don't want to deal with the drudgery part of marriage then they need to stay single and just take care of themselves. I keep thinking that until a woman is willing to take care of herself, she is in no way prepared to take care of a spouse. And until a man is willing to accept responsibility for caring for his wife, he is not ready either.
     It always comes back to taking two to make marriage work, so consider before you marry and choose carefully. First choice, are you mature enough for marriage? Second choice, is your intended really someone that will go the extra mile with you?

Season For Harvest

     Unfortunately I'm a philosophical person (a person involved in the rational investigation of the nature and structure of reality), always have been, always will be~ so with the approaching season of Autumn I have been contemplating the pattern of seasons to many things~ days, years, lives~ sometimes philosophy can be depressing! 
     With that said consider this verse "So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom." ~ Psalm 90:12  ~~
     Which season are you in? Are you living wisely? Are you making use of  your season?  (I'm also a "question" person!)  Are you recognizing that life does not exist on Earth for us forever?  Use your time wisely a "little folding of the hands" and ruin comes upon you (Psalm 6:9-11)  Or are you planting, watering and reaping?  Just saying, be aware, man's days are short, use them wisely~

  Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
  Then He *said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  
  Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
  Matthew 9:36-38

He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.
  Proverbs 10:5

~LK Mercer

Breadmaker Recipes

     We recently moved and I have had a hard time finding some of my recipes! In order to try to keep this from being a problem in the future I decided to put some of my recipes here! These are recipes that I have gathered over time, they are not my own creation and I am not even sure where they came from~  =}

Breadmaker Recipes

Honey Oatmeal Bread

1 c water                     1 t salt
3 T honey                   1 1/2 t yeast
2 1/2 flour                   1 1/2 T butter
1/2 c oats(instant)

Honey White

1 c milk               3/4 t ginger
2 T honey            3 T butter
3 c flour               1 1/2 yeast
3/4 t salt

Honey Wheat Bread

1 1/4 c water                         1 1/2 t salt
3 T honey                              1 t yeast
1 1/2 c flour                           1 1/2 T butter
1 1/2 c wholewheat flour

Farmhouse White

1 c milk                    3 c flour
1 egg                         1 1/2 T sugar
2 T butter                  1 1/2 t yeast
1/2 t salt                    opt-  2 T sesame seeds

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

 

 

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

Revere The Lord

This is from my study this morning, I think even when we revere the Lord, we're still a long ways from where we need to be~