Monday, July 24, 2017

Canning Season Once Again

Once again, tis the season to can foodstuffs.

My canning goals this summer are mostly related to the new pressure canner that Dad got on Black Friday last year.

We have canned chicken plain in broth, with salt and dried minced onion, as Bourbon Street chicken - minus the corn starch. My sister in law gave me a vegetarian Southwest soup recipe before she married my brother. It's quick to make and incredibly versatile. We've added cooked ground beef, or chicken to the soup with delicious results.

Dad and I canned several batches of the soup with chicken and beef. Sooo good.

Next up is sweet pickle relish. A LOT more than last year. It's delicious any way you eat it.
Sweet Pickle Relish

It makes homemade 1000 island dressing! Mom uses a 1/2 pint at a time in a batch of tuna salad for my Dad. Last year was, I believe, about 19 half pints and a few pint jars. (Nowhere near enough!)

It's been a few weeks since I started working on this post.
Now, we have pickle relish!!! 25 pints worth. 5 batches it took.

Plus I made a couple of new recipes. Corn relish and cherry relish from Linda Ziedrich's book The Joy Of Pickling. Both are hits with my dad and mom.
The corn relish in particular is simple and quick to make.
A total of 16 pints of this relish got made... We already opened and ate 1.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

My God is All Powerful!

I have a story to share with you today...had experience with God's awesome power yesterday. Just before 5 pm, I was driving to my parents and heard on the radio severe thunderstorm warnings for counties north of Indy.. (60+ mph wind gusts expected.)  When I was on the phone with my mom I simply prayed, "I bind the destructive power of those storms in Jesus's name." Mom, still on the phone, said, "Amen." And we continued our conversation for a short time.

Less than 10 minutes later another report on the radio. The warnings for those counties had been cancelled. I was raining, but the storms were no longer severe.

It's over 24 hours later, and I am still in awe at the power of Jesus!


Monday, July 10, 2017

Rahab's Faith


"And she said according to your words, thus it is. And she sent them, and they went, and she bound the scarlet cord, in the window."
                         Joshua 2:21
This passage stopped me in my tracks when I read it several years ago. The Lord brought that truth of, "Rahab didn't wait to do what the spies had told her to do with the scarlet cord!"
 There's an immediacy in the language of the Scripture here. To confirm this, I contacted a friend who studies Hebrew.

"I looked it (the words in Joshua 2) up today, and it implies actions that follow each other. " - R.D., a Hebrew scholar
In other words, Rahab did not wait for the return of the spies - and Israel. She knew that Israel would be swift in returning to the country, God was with them and that Israel would conquer. 

She placed her faith in the only true God. Then she followed up with action. She put 'feet' on her faith.



Many years later, Rahab would become one of Jesus's ancestors. The prostitute from Canaan is spoken of today because she believed in the one true God and His power.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

My Testimony: Part One

 I'm going to share a little bit of my testimony. It's a freedom story. Because Jesus (and only Jesus) is the reason that I can now face life with joy.

The song Glorious Day by Kristian Stanfill for Passion 2017 is my current favorite song. For the power of the words and because every time I sing it I remember where I came from

I struggled during my teenage years with self-pity. Self-pity so strong, that my own grandmother couldn't tell me a joke, or I would take it personally. It was a rare day that didn't pass without me crying my eyes out over some imagined wrong that have been done to me.

Finally, in my senior year of high school, I came to the end of my rope emotionally. There was no way for me (in or of myself) to try to undo the mental damage that had been done by my years of self-pity.
   So, I wrote about it in my diary (early Sept '08). About being so frustrated with all of the self-pity and then I circled it, put an arrow below to a brief prayer I wrote. It simply said, "Lord show me what to do about this."
    That prayer was answered. It would take me years to realize how quickly that prayer got answered by my Jesus.
Early that same month, on a Sunday, my pastor at the time, Mr. Krieg, started a series entitled, "Breaking Strongholds". The second week my pastor's words and several Scriptures were used by God to set me free from that stronghold.
The light bulb blinked on. I knew exactly what to do when those thoughts of self-pity came into my mind. I knew where those thoughts were coming from! I could tell the devil to get out of my mind!

Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
    - 2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV

Truly, I am not the same person that I used to be. I am a new creation, I am a brand new (wo)man. Old things are passed away, I've been born again.
I praise Jesus daily for the freedom He's given me. There is more freedom I've not yet stepped into. But by His grace and mercy, He will bring me into even more!