Sandra Lee has made a living sharing recipes that are “Semi-Homemade.” This means you don’t have to start from scratch to come up with something that tastes like it’s homemade! Box cake mixes are really versatile and useful. Some of them are really better that the consistency of a cake made from scratch!

Well, here’s a biscotti recipe made from a brownie mix. Biscotti looks really impressive and intimidating. Impressive, it is! But there’s no reason to be intimidated by this treat. This cookie is baked twice, giving it its pretty shape and crunchy texture. A sweet friend of mine shared her recipe with me and it is soooo yummy! Take a peek…

22-oz. pkg brownie mix

8 T butter

2 lg eggs

1 C all-purpose flour

3/4 C nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and roll into 2 small loaves, approx. 8″ x 2″. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes. Slice diagonally and place on sides. Bake again for 10-12 minutes. Store in Zip-lock bag.

With all the flu bugs that travel from house to house during the winter, it’s nice to enjoy the comfort of a hot bowl of chicken soup. However, if you’re sick, you don’t feel like going to much trouble! Here’s a quick fix soup that will make you or your loved one feel better soon, but this is so good, you’ll be fixing it when everyone’s well and you need a simple lunch!

Chicken and Rice Soup:

In a saucepan mix a can of Cream of Chicken soup

1 can of chicken stock (instead of milk)

1 cup of cooked Rice (I usually cook up extra and keep some in the freezer for this soup)

If you have cooked chicken from a Rotisserie chicken or leftovers from another meal, you can add that too, if desired. Heat until hot.

I trust you’ll try these and enjoy them as much as we do! I pray it will bring some winter comfort in the middle of this season!

Boones Creek ladies, let me remind you of our Ladies’ Winter Tea scheduled for Monday, January 31st. Be sure to invite an unsaved lady or unchurched lady to attend with you. I am so excited about the night. The theme is Whiter than Snow and will be reflected in the decorations downstairs. Then we’ll go upstairs for the special music and drama, When Jesus comes. Please be praying that God will use this to bring glory to Himself and that ladies will come to Christ Monday night!

See you in church!

With love,

I’m sitting here giving an occasional glance out the window – we’re expecting another winter storm in East Tennessee. I’m not sure how many red alerts I’ve seen on the weather channel for our area this winter, but it seems like lots! I don’t mind the snow, but I am not a huge fan of gray days. But I’m not going to let it get me down or cause me to complain.

The winter blues hit lots of people – especially mid-January and February when you’ve played in the snow, had plenty of cancelled school days and church services and are now kind of ready to move on!

Winter is here until the Lord moves it onward, so why not make the most of it and encourage yourself while you wait for the first daffodil to pop its welcomed little face in your yard? Here are some ideas to Refresh you and help you to make even a gray winter day a blessing.

1. Keep little lights on around the house so it’s not dark! If you don’t want to burn much electricity use hospitality lamps. Burning votives is another cheap way to add light. I got a bag of 144 for less than $7; that’s .05 each! They burn for a couple of hours. I love to walk into a room in the middle of a gray day and be met with a flickering flame.
2. Create a Winter Tea time each afternoon. If you’re not a fan of tea, try coffee or hot chocolate with a little treat like biscotti or cookies. Drink it from a special cup.
3. Create some fun – have some friends over for brunch or lunch.
4. Be creative. Get sewing, scrapbooking, quilting, card making, jewelry making, or whatever you love to do, but usually don’t have time for!
5. Move the furniture around! This always gets my adrenaline flowing! Poor Dale! Even changing around the accessories is fun! Look for a spot where you can create a cozy reading corner. Add a small table in your bedroom for candlelight dinners or dessert. Create a new centerpiece for your kitchen table using what you have – fruit, a pretty dish, kerosene lamp…
6. Turn on some music that will lift your spirits. I love listening to Anne of Green Gables soundtrack.

First and foremost, however, make sure you’re letting in the Light of God’s Word each morning. It will melt any icicles that are forming! Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Psalm 119:9

What do you do to chase away winter blues? Come back tomorrow; I’m going to share two great winter recipes. One starts with a can of soup to make the best soup (and yummiest) for flu days. The other recipe starts with a brownie mix for delicious biscotti!

With love,

I have had several conversations with people recently concerning children being saved. This is one topic that is a real burden on my heart. Perhaps it’s because I was saved when I was seven and I know what happened to me that day; it changed my life! So, out of that burden, I want to address some good questions that I’ve been asked.

They are:

• How early should you start telling a child about the cross and what Jesus did for them?
• Should you ask them if they think about asking Jesus into their hearts?
• By asking them questions are we being pushy and forcing a decision on them that they will forget or realize later in life was made only to please an adult?
• Are they old enough to really understand what salvation is all about?

I asked my daughter, Whitney to share her personal testimony with you. By reading this, you can hear from a young woman, who was saved as a little child, just what was in her heart in that early decision to accept Christ.

I was saved before I was four years old. Having grown up with a foundation of the gospel firmly set in my heart, I was aware of God’s love for me and of my need to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I don’t remember the situation where I knelt and prayed with a child’s faith, but I know I became His child at a young age. I never doubted my salvation (I might have prayed a sinner’s prayer during Tom Farrell’s sermon on hell…during a thunderstorm….when the power went out…but who wouldn’t have?). =)

When I was in high school, I began to feel the Lord drawing me to Himself. As I studied the Scriptures, I could see that He wanted an intimate, personal relationship with me. The greatest joy of my life has been to learn what my salvation, the gift I accepted so many years ago, really means to me. The assurance of my salvation can be expressed in the song I’ve loved since I was a little girl, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!”

Now, using her testimony, let me answer the previous questions.

• How early should you start telling a child about the cross and what Jesus did for them? In the hospital nursery would not be too soon! Really, from the time my children were in the womb, I was singing songs about the cross, reading Scripture, and praying out loud. These are all great ways to prepare their heart for the message of salvation. It starts then and it should never stop. A child raised in a Christian home shouldn’t remember when it began. It should begin before they can even understand.
• Should you ask them if they’re thinking about asking Jesus in their hearts? Asking them a question is not forcing a decision – it’s asking a question. Do you ever say, “Would you like a snack?” Sure, but that’s not forcing them to eat between meals – it’s giving an offer. Satan lies to us and tries to scare us about sharing the most important Truth with our children. Give the Truth and give it in love. I talked to my girls about Jesus’ great love for them. I taught them about their sinful nature when they disobeyed. I told them my own salvation testimony. Understanding that Mommy had to be saved will make them understand that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” These things all open doors for you to lead them (not drive them) to Christ.
  

  The night Whitney got saved we weren’t doing anything spiritual – we were in our daily routine when she told me she wanted to ask Jesus to come into her heart. I questioned her to make sure she understood what that meant, and she did in her simple child-like way. Again, we’d gone over this many times in casual settings. After she prayed, I never reminded her of that day – I wanted to make sure it was true in her own heart. Though it never happened, if she had ever come and told me she needed to be saved later on, I would have simply said, “Okay, let’s take care of that.”

• Are they old enough to really understand what salvation is all about? A nearly four year-old surely doesn’t understand reconciliation or sanctification, but they can understand all that’s necessary to be saved – I’m a sinner and Jesus died to take the punishment for my sin. If I accept what He did for me, I will go to heaven some day. Just as Whitney said that it wasn’t until later on she realized that God wanted to have an intimate relationship with her and she grew to appreciate all that her salvation meant, the same will be true for any child that accepts Christ early on. They grow up spiritually after they’re saved and learn all that happened on that day.

So much more could be said, but for now let me just encourage you not to be afraid of a child making a decision too early. Tell them now. Invite them now. Their heart is soft and tender and so reachable. So what if they do have to make an assurance decision later. It is better to have them make a decision when it might seem too early rather than waiting until it’s too late.

With love and a desire to see little ones come to Christ,

P.S. Were you saved as a child? If so, how old were you when you received Christ? Do you have other questions concerning children being saved?

The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene hampered him and he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, “Let’s go! Let’s go!” The pilot swung the plane into the wind and they soon were in the air.

“Fly over the north side of the fire,” yelled the photographer, “and make three or four low level passes.”

“Why?” asked the pilot.

“Because I’m going to take pictures,” cried the photographer. “I’m a photographer and photographers take pictures!”

After a pause the pilot said, “You mean you’re not the instructor?”

Ever feel like someone was out to get you, or that absolutely nothing was going the way you thought it would? I don’t know who to feel sorrier for in the story above, the photographer or the student pilot! We all have times like that in our life. Wrong things ordered, wrong things sent, missed flights, overbooked flights, mistreatment at the license branch, incorrect medications given…the list of frustrations can go on and on. We look at the situation and say, “I can’t believe this is happening to me!”

When we meet Joseph in Genesis 37 we almost immediately see this poor teenager in trouble. It isn’t very long in the story until he’s sold by his brothers because of their intense hatred for him. I wonder if, while in prison, he thought about his dreams where his family bowed down to him. Did he ever wonder, “Lord, what about that? How is that going to be fulfilled? Did I read into that one?”

As I studied that passage this morning I read this comment written in the margin of my Bible: Even when people are at their worst, God is working out His plan. Whatever seeming blunders are going on in our lives right now, God is still working out His will for you and me. We can’t let ourselves wonder if He missed this one. He is sovereign. He is at work and He is even using the situation that you’re in right now (even if it’s due to another person’s mistake) to accomplish His purposes in your life.

Where was God when Joseph was imprisoned? The same place He is right now…He’s right here. Let that encourage your heart to keep flying!

With love,