Caribbean Cooking - yummy!

So I passed my College my husband bought me a present of a Caribbean Cookbook. I and my daughters have been having tremendous fun trying out new recipes. So we put a little less chilli in then recommended but so far the dinners have been delicious. We have all decided it is great food for giving when guests come around.

So those of you who read this blog what sort of tasty foods do you serve your families and guests. We are planning on having a lot of folk around during the summer so post your recipes here please.

So what next?

So now I have passed the next stage of my college work what do I do? First off, I have to pack this house up and move to another one.

We have been in our current place nearly 14 years; the longest I have ever lived anywhere. I have made mistakes; lots of them. I want to take the lessons painfully learnt and build on them in our new church. I still have a lot of working of things out to do and the change is going to spark a lot more analysing I am sure!

Finishing the course has made me realise that a lot of who I am is wound up in my place here. I have become a more confident person and Christian. I am hoping that as we as a family move down South I will have the ability to just be who God is moulding me to be, wife, mother, friend, ???. I am not perfect and am definitely a work in progress but I have learnt a lot whilst living here. What I am going to do when I get there I have no idea but God has it worked out. I have my husband and my children to help me and me to help them. I want to use the training I have received over the last 2 years to serve Him. The details are not clear at all but I have a heart for families, for those who are disadvantaged in some ways. I may even do further study. I want to teach myself to be a better cook and pass on those skills to my daughters (especially my eldest who is showing a great interest.) I would love to teach myself and the girls to quilt. I have many thoughts and plans but at the moment I am content to leave the details in His hands.

So those of you who read this regularly pray if you have a moment that I will grasp this opportunity and run with it as I have a tendency to cave in under change and lack of direction.

Friends and family. What a great invention.

I always think it is amazing that when Jesus was on this earth He chose to have friends. He was God but still needed people to share His life with. When we think of the Church (universal) today we realise that this pattern continues. When we repent of our sins and enter into the family of God; we enter a world-wide community of believers. When this happens it will be like having a family, for wherever we go if we meet other Christians we will have something in common - Jesus, His kingdom and His command that we share the good news with others.

This sometimes blows my mind as I think about the Christians I have met in RL and on-line. This isn't some loose connection; if we take seriously what we have in Jesus we should NEVER feel alone. 1) We have a friendship with Jesus Himself and 2) We have a family that can't be counted.

If this is the case then I wonder why it is that myself and other Christians seem to want to go it alone. Where on earth did we get the idea that we should fly-solo? Why do we often look for what divides us more than what unite us? If friends and community were good enough for Jesus, then they should be good enough for me. Who am I to argue? This should spur us into being friendly and community centred. 'My house as my castle' and all the thinking that goes with that isn't what Jesus had in mind when He thought up His kingdom.

My personality.

Apparently I am a an Attentive Realistist. Not really sure what that means but the blurb they wrote with it seemed pretty accurate. DH thinks it is about right.

Shame

Do you ever have days where you are so ashamed of yourself that you don't want to ever face the world again? Today is that kind of day for me. I have a hard time some days. I know that in the grace of God He forgives and loves.

God spoke to me when I heard a testimony of a Christian who had been brutally attacked for their faith. The things that are a worry to me seem so small in comparison. Oh God, please allow the way that spoke to me to change me. Feelings are no good unless they change our hearts so that we long to serve God more. Read the testimonies of Christians in countries where they face persecution each day and allow them to put things into perspective.

Dreams and the lessons from a tomato.

We were at church last week and some of the chaps were talking about their dreams which involved lots of sun and olive groves. Neither of their wives seemed to be sharing the dreams or enjoyment of their husbands telling them. On asked me 'What are your dreams?'

It got me thinking. Then my husband told me to read the new book by Phil Vischer about the rise and fall of Big Ideas. Wow, that man had a big, tremendous dream. A dream to take on the giants at Hollywood with his own company. It was a good and honourable dream but it becomes clear whilst reading the book that the dream overtook his delight in God. His dream came crashing down in 2003. The last few chapters of his book are the things he learned from that experience. Through Christians speaking to him, sermons he heard and books he read he know that he had spent years being busy for God. He spent a lot of time just read and praying. He learnt through it all that God was enough.

Here is a quote: "At first I was anxiously expecting God to reveal the next 'big thing' - the next mountain He wanted me to climb - the next life-changing story he wanted me to write. But after a few weeks stretched into a few months, I didn't care so much anymore. Eventually it struck me that I no longer felt the need to write anything. I didn't need to have have any impact at all. Whatever needs I had were being met by the Scripture I was reading and by the life of prayer I was developing. My passion was shifting from impact to God.
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There is a scene in C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader involving Eustace, a boy so selfish, prideful, and greddy that he wakes up one day to find he has literally turned into a dragon. life as a dragon proves so lonely and the dragon skin so uncmfortable that he soon longs to return to his friends, longs to be human again. In this scene, Aslan the lion leads Eustace the dragon to a pool. Eustace enters the pool and tries unsuccessfully to scratch off the aching dragon skin. then Aslan says, "Lie down. This is going to hurt." And with a long, terrible claw, Aslan digs deep into Eustace's skin, ripping it wide open. It is the most painful thing Eustace has ever experienced, but when it is over, he stands up, a boy again. Reborn.

God could have spared me from the pain of Big Idea's collapse. He could have speared me from the consequences of my own mistrakes and missteps. But He didn't. And it wasn't about "God and Big Idea". I was about "God and Phil". My ambition, my dreams, my misplaced sense of identity and value were dragged kicking and screaming up onto the altar. And now they were dead. Ripped apart like dragon skin.

I realised this when I heard myslef say to my wife one night, "I don't want to write anything". I as ready to be done, if that's what God wanted. To just rest in Him and let everything else fall away. At long last, after a lifetime of striving, God was enough. Not God and impact or God and ministry. Just God."

This just spoke volumes to me. I want my life to be about 'Just God' but am scared at what that might mean. My dreams have to be that I will be in the centre of God's will and do the good works that GOD has prepared for me. He will show me but they are not for me to be concerned about.

So if you get a change read: 'Me, Myself & Bob. A True Story about Dreams, God and Talking Vegetables.' It spoke volumes to me and may God use it to get me living for God and not what I can do for Him.

Where is the love?

James in the Bible says 'Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.' Sometimes when I think about how I am it would say 'Know this my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to listen to me, stop so I can speak and get used to my quick-fire response.' And sometimes I wonder if this is a general response of a lot of Christians! If we were more ready to listen and less ready to talk and become angry we would have fewer communication breakdowns. I have a heavy heart sometimes when I think of how I respond to things people do or say to me and when I think of how other Christians respond to things.

'Where is the love?', The Black Eye Peas sang and the following verse could be applied to my heart, to Christians, to the church:

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm getting older y'all people get colder
Most of us only care about money makin
Selfishness got us followin the wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting their young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what the see in the cinema
Whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness and equality
Instead of spreading love, we're spreading anomosity
Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feeling under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feeling down
It's no wonder why sometimes I'm feeling under
I gotta keep my faith alive, until love is found

Furthermore, I was really challenged by reading the book of 1 John in the bible. It is all about love, God's love for us, our love for God and our love for our fellow Christians. Wow, if as Christians we had that love for one another our churches would be such wonderful places to be. I know my heart is quick to see the ulterior motive in people but I have to start looking with the love of Christ and realise that people are just like me; forgetful, busy, tired, lazy, sad, lonely, grumpy, DRS etc and this will make them act in ways that don't look good. Love should be an overriding emotion in my heart and in the church of Christ. His love for us brought Him down from heaven to the cross and an extremely cruel death.

So thanks to the Bible and the Black-Eyed Peas for the inspiration for this post. May I live it and not just type it out.