This weekend my husband and I attended the funeral of the 25 year-old brother of our music leader who died in a motorcycle accident. Our hearts hurt so for the family…I cannot imagine the loss they are feeling right now. However, because this young man, Troy, knew Christ as his Savior, as does his family, there was a tremendous display of the grace of God at work in each of their lives. Christ was magnified in the service and the Gospel was shared.

I don’t think it’s possible to witness a funeral without being touched by it; I’m sure there are some who harden their hearts, but the Lord spoke sweet things to me as I sat there. I write them here so I won’t forget.

I was reminded that if a person knows Christ as their Savior, there’s nothing to fear in death. Because Christ died and rose again, He conquered death. It is only a shadow now, and a shadow cannot hurt us.

As the siblings sang “Amazing Grace” I heard the words of the verse that said, “He will my strength and portion be, as long as life endures, and I was reminded of my life’s verse – Psalm 73:26. The verse says, “My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” He is my portion now, as long as life endures, and throughout eternity. He will be enough when I face death. He will be enough when I face the death of a loved one. He is exactly what I need – He is my portion.

As I sat there and listened to Troy’s friends stand and share memories of him I wondered what people would have to say about me when I’m gone. Will there be anything of eternal worth? Will I have made an impact on others’ lives? I long so much for my life to count for Christ. It was a sweet time of asking the Lord again to use me and make my life count for Him.

My husband was seated beside me of course, and I became very aware of his hand in mine, the sound of his voice singing the hymns we sang congregationally, and the comfort of his presence. How easy it is to take for granted just being with the ones we love. We walk out the door with a quick goodbye and seldom take the thought that we might not return. This was a reminder to buy up every moment with my loved ones and not take our time together for granted or leave with words I would regret if they were my last to them.

Troy’s father made a statement that will forever be stamped in the memories of my husband and me. He said, “You prepare your kids to live, but not to die! But yet they’re never really ready to live until they’re prepared to die.” The most important thing we can instill in our children is a love for God so they will accept Him as their Savior and be prepared to meet Him in eternity. If they never excel at math or sports, but have a relationship with the Lord Jesus, we will have equipped them to really live!

While our hearts are broken for this hurting family, I pray I can apply to my heart what the Lord wants to teach me, and make even this moment, this day count for Him.

A week ago I went to the mailbox and found a sweet card from a friend at church who is also a reader of my blog (always an encouragement to hear someone’s reading this!). She refreshed me by her sweet words and by the recipe she included. It was for a Taco Soup. She said that she likes to put the soup in the crock pot on Sunday morning before church so she can come home to the smell (and taste) of the delicious recipe after the service.

I LOVED that she shared her recipe with me. We love tacos and we love soups, so I’m excited about trying this one!

Taco Soup

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey, beef, or shredded chicken
1 small onion, diced
1 (15.5-ounce) can chili beans
1 (15.5-ounce) can pinto beans
1 (15.25-ounce) can whole kernel corn
1 (15-ounce) can ranch beans, undrained
1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies
1 1/2 – 2 C water
1 (1 1/4-ounce) envelope taco seasoning mix
1 1/2 (1-ounce) envelope Ranch-style dressing mix

Preparation:
Brown meat and onion in a stockpot, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink; drain.

Place meat in crock pot. Rinse and drain pinto beans, corn. Stir in all other ingredients into crock pot; cook for 1 hour on high and then set to warm.

To serve, top each bowl with tortilla chips, Colby Jack cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

You could make up the soup on Saturday night and then put it in the crock pot before leaving for church. This would also be a great soup for having guests over after the Sunday evening service!

I pray you’re having a great day!

This blog entry is a review of the DVD lesson that we had on Monday night. For those ladies at BCBC that are signed up for the study, but missed out on the evening, I’d like to get you caught up on what you missed.

Elizabeth was married to a Christian husband, but she was unsaved. Their unequal yoke brought many difficulties to their marriage. After five years they had two daughters. Their home was one of real chaos because there was no leader; no directives to follow. She left her girls at daycare to follow a career in counseling, causing even more disorder in their lives. Life stayed busy with dropping the girls off before daylight and picking them after sunset, then coming home to feed and bathe them, get them to bed, and then getting up the next day to begin it all again. “No home will ever be a heaven on earth when you are neglecting the marriage, the family or the home, and I was three for three!”

But at the age of 28, the Lord saved Elizabeth and she became a new creature in Christ.. II Corinthians 5:17 Now she was God’s child and for the very first time she had something to live her life by – the Bible. She began building her life on the sure foundations of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit began working in her life and changing her heart and making it one for Him. She had a hunger for the Word and devoured its Truths and sought to obey it. She lifted her Bible up to show us and it is tattered and torn, and it’s her third copy of the Scriptures! It reminded me of the saying, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who is not!” That’s certainly true of Elizabeth. She loves God’s Word and sweetly studies it and shares it with others.

In Isaiah 40:31 we read about the eagles. Elizabeth and her husband, George, live in the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington and God has given them an eagle that flies past their house early in the morning. They watch for it and have learned many things about eagles, and about waiting on the Lord. Elizabeth said that in the spiritual realm as we wait on the Lord we are rewarded for our patience. We have His strength for our trials for that day. Here in God’s Word he give us a visual aid of what He wants us to do when it comes to His Word – to be a woman after God’s heart. We must be like the eagle and tend to first things first.

How does your day begin? With the alarm clock beeping? Hitting the freeway to get to the job or the kids to school? We usually begin by thinking, “Oh no! Not another day!” There are so many things to do and we feel overwhelmed. But God’s Word says “this is the day the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” We look at all the things that need to be done and we think “I’ll never get it all done – and I’ll really never get it all done if I take time to read my Bible and pray!” But the exact opposite is true. John 15:5 says, Without me, you can do nothing. And the contrast in the Word tells us that we can do all things through Christ’s strength. We must tend to first things first. We must spend time in God’s Word and prayer. Our problem isn’t organizational skills – we’ve got that down! But we need to learn to manage our spiritual life.

Here is a three-step method she encourages us to follow:

1. Time – We must give time to spend in God’s Word. II Timothy 3:16-17 says that all Scripture is profitable. That means that we’re never wasting time when we spend it studying our Bible.
2. First time – Like that eagle, first things first. Proverbs 3:9,10 Time is a substance that we all have. We need to give God the first bit of time we have been given in the morning. We are blessed in our spiritual lives when we give God the first portion of the harvest of every single day. We’re given 1,440 minutes every day as a gift. Couldn’t we give some of that back to Him?
3. Early time – So many Psalm 63:1 – David said, “Early will I seek thee; my soul thirsts for you.” Abraham met early with God. There was a place and a time. In Mark 1:35 Jesus rose up early in the morning and went to a solitary place and there prayed. We have so many examples in the Scriptures of saints who sought God early. We need to get our spiritual food for the day to prepare us for what is coming.

Meet with God before the heat comes on, before other predators come and steal away your time, and before the pressures of the day. You know how all day long – you were going to meet with God, you were going to spend time in prayer…”as soon as I do this load of laundry, as soon as I get done with this phone call, as soon I get the dishes off the table, I’m going to meet with God!” Then later that night you lay your head on the pillow and think to yourself, “I never did it! I never spent time with the Lord.” This will help – time, first time, early time.

Remember – you’re never wasting time when you spend time with God! If this is the only thing you got done all day, it would have been a profitable day!

Yes, but how?

• Refuse to miss a day
• Be a woman of one book – The Book!
• Get up before your family does
• Purpose to get up

Ladies, my prayers are with you as you begin the lessons in your book this month. Begin by doing Week One in your book. You will have the whole month of October to do five days of study! Do a little bit each day. Follow Elizabeth’s encouragement as stated above and saturate your heart with the study of the Word and prayer so that at the end of this first month you will see that you are becoming a woman after God’s own heart!

Yesterday morning when I was having my prayer time the Lord whispered something in my heart that I thought about all day long. I prayed, as I often do, that the Lord would direct my steps for the day ahead. As I said that the Lord brought to my mind the thought that He is indeed concerned with each little step I take all through the day. I don’t know about you, but when I think about the Lord directing my steps, I think of chunks of time – a morning or an afternoon. Or sometimes even larger things are considered in the Lord directing our steps, like our career or our marriage. But at that moment that I was praying the Lord very clearly reminded me that He will literally direct me as I place one foot in front of the other.

Since God directs each one of our steps that means He is watching over each of us! Just as a parent whose baby is taking its first steps and the parents are very near, ready to stabilize the little one if they stumble, or ready to turn them away from an area that could be dangerous, our God is watching over each part of our lives.

It also mean that God is in control of our steps. Because He is a sovereign God He is the One who turns us this way or that. He leads us where we need to be.

Not long after my prayer time we got the news that the brother of our music leader had died in a motorcycle accident just a few hours earlier. How our hearts are saddened for their family! I was taken back to what the Lord had taught me in prayer – He directed Troy’s steps, and his motorcycle. God didn’t get caught unaware. He never lost control of His child. Yes, even the steps that might lead to our death are directed by a sovereign God.

Lastly, as I think about my God directing our steps I’m reminded that He loves us. Why would He care to watch over my steps? I’m a nobody! But He loves me enough to be there for each decision, each word, each action that goes on in my life today. He loves you too, dear friend.

Look down and your feet and be reminded that He’s directing your steps – every single one of them. What a wonderful God He is!