I need a recipe

I need the recipe from Sunshine's old yellow cookbook for German Potato Soup. Would someone post that on here for me?

Thanks!

From Beth Moore's Series "Get Out Of The Pit"

Mind the Holy Spirit’s Warning!
with Beth Moore

“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that toChrist I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should beled astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 11:2-3)

A young woman confided to me that she had fallen into an area of sin after swearing just the day before she would never do such a thing! What is being eroded to give the enemy that kind of entrance to overtake the externals of our lives and our actions? We cannot be possessed by Satan when we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and totally secured by Christ's salvation, but what happens when we slip into his seductive trap?

The Bible shows us that someone can be suddenly and unexpectedly overtaken in sin. Even the most spiritual person can be totally guarded in one area of their life and be trapped by the enemy in another unguarded area. That seems to be the real art of Satan’s plan of seduction.

The day-to-day warfare Christians experience may be the hard ball, but seduction is the curve ball that comes from a direction we are not expecting. No child dreams of being an alcoholic or a drug addict. Nobody plans a sexual addiction. The curious person that viewed pornography for a few moments never intended to be so obsessed that they spend their work hours craving more images.

The truth is that the enemy has planned an addiction for you and he drapes the rope of bondage very loosely at first, then suddenly jerks on the other end and you slip into his pit. We can’t walk in fear or hyper-legalism, but we must learn to walk in the spirit so we sense God’s warning signals.

On occasion, I have walked away from a place or a situation without knowing why. I just sensed the Spirit’s caution. Jesus abides in us by way of His Holy Spirit once we receive Him as our personal savior. It is imperative that we ask Him to fill us so when the Holy Spirit checks us, we will obey His warning regardless of how it appears in the natural.

I asked Christians who’d found themselves in a seductive mess if they were given a warning.
Every person said, “Yes.” “Why didn't you heed it,” I asked. The consistent answer was,
“I thought I was imagining it, so I talked myself out of it.”

Galatians 5:16 commands us to, “Walk in the spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” When we sense the Holy Spirit is alerting us, we must learn to mind the spirit.
He will also tell us when a person is worthy of being helped, but we are not the one to help them. We have a very mean-spirited enemy who turns something that looks good into something evil. We may find ourselves broken, devastated and humiliated if we fail to heed the warning.

The voice on the airport tram warns, “Please step away from the door,” meaning if you don't get back, this door will take your head off! Under the open eyes of the Holy Spirit, we hear signals communicated from inside of us. If we don't learn to listen and walk in the Spirit we will feel it and slip into an early grave the devil prepares for us. He wants to bury us alive so far under the mud that we see no way out.

Often we won't make cry for help because we're too ashamed reveal the mess we are in. God has a rescue plan and if we obey Him, we will be able to say as the Psalmist did,

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fearand put their trust in the LORD.
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.
(Psalm 40:1-5)

This Week
God wants you to come before Him and cry out, “Here I am—with all the broken mess I have made of my life. Here I am.”

Prayer
“Lord, pull me out of the enemy’s pit, and put my feet on The Rock, so I have a firm place to stand. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I will not be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

Worry and Prayer

No one can pray and worry at the same time.
When we worry, we aren’t praying.
When we pray, we aren’t worrying.
When you pray, you “stay” your mind on Christ, resulting in peace.

- by Max Lucado -
- from Every Day Deserves a Chance -

....To Go Along With Class

I get daily devotions from MaxLucado.com from his book "Everyday Deserves A Chance". Today's devotional thought reminded me of Gabe's class on Wednesday night.

"We each have our own cross to carry – our individual callings.
Yours awaits you like a snug-fitting shirt.
It matches your passions and enlists your gifts and talents.
Want to blow the cloud cover off your gray day?
Accept God’s direction."

Are You Controversial?

As you may have figured out already, I receive emails on a regular basis from Jerry Falwell....at least until he died recently. His two sons have taken over their father's responsibilities and one of those responsibilities includes sending out the newsletters like I receive. I loved the one I received today because the beginning part really got me to thinking. I was going to just post the first part but decided that I should post all of it. This way, you can get the full picture.

I want to encourage all of you to be controversial! Why not try and see if you can get people to try and stone you? Afterall, isn't the world suppose to hate us as Christians? They hated Jesus. If the world loves us, maybe it's time we take a close look at ourselves and make some changes that bring about a real Christian life.

I once heard a man telling a story about a king and one of his servants. The servant was going out, with the title of his king, and doing things that brought disgrace upon the king and his kingdom. The king summoned the servant and told him that he either needed to change his ways or change his name.

It's time we did the same. If we are going to call ourselves CHRISTian, we better start living like one. Otherwise, we need to change our name.

Jennifer


Here is the email from Jonathan Falwell:



FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL
Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and
The Liberty Alliance http://www.moralmajority.com

From: Jonathan Falwell
Date: June 8, 2007

Are You Controversial?

This week, a local television station conducted an interview with me and asked an interesting question: Am I going to be as controversial as was my father?

My answer was this: “If your definition of controversial is that we are going to continue to speak to the issues of the day, speak out against abortion, speak out in favor of traditional marriage, speak out in favor of the family, then I can assure you we will be.”

After that interview, I began to think about that question and my answer.

And it suddenly dawned on me that, in this modern culture that largely encourages secularism and hazy diversity, you really cannot be an effective Christian without being controversial.

If we embrace the Word of God and its standards for Christian conduct, we are going to unavoidably find ourselves at odds with the mainstream.

In this regard, my father wasn’t really controversial at all. He was just a Christian following the tenets of the Bible.

Also this week, I read a report from Planned Parenthood Federation of America showing that the organization had conducted 264,943 medical or surgical abortions in their facilities during 2005 (or 5,095 per week).

Those are shocking numbers. And I believe, as Christians, we must speak out against this continuing American holocaust.

In Psalm 139:13, the Psalmist writes, “… thou has covered me in my mother’s womb” (KJV). The NIV translates this passage, “… you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

What a beautiful image of a sovereign God at work in our lives from our very inception.
How can we not then, as Christians, oppose abortion that halts the heartbeat of innocent babies who are in communion with their Maker?

Controversial?

So be it.

Let’s add to the controversy.

Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, a great pro-life organization, is an expert on Planned Parenthood and has authored books and articles about Planned Parenthood. He studied the aforementioned Planned Parenthood report, which shows a total income of $902.8 million dollars, a record number for the organization.

“Once again, Planned Parenthood took in much more money than it needed,” Mr. Sedlak stated. “This marks the 34th year in a row that Planned Parenthood has reported ‘excess revenue’ – otherwise known as profit. Over the years, Planned Parenthood has reported total profits of over $700 million. It has amassed a treasure chest of assets worth $839.8 million.”
But the controversy continues.

That’s because a key Planned Parenthood revenue source is the American taxpayer, with the organization receiving taxpayer funds totaling $305.3 million, “a whopping $32.6 million (12 percent) more than last year,” as Mr. Sedlak noted. Taxpayer money now accounts for 34 percent of Planned Parenthood's income.

This is a national disgrace.

With Planned Parenthood suffering losses in donations, taxpayers — you and me — are being compelled by our government to fund this organization that is killing more than 5,000 babies a week.

“When you study the work of Planned Parenthood, you come to realize that it really considers itself an entitlement program,” says Mr. Sedlak. “It believes it is entitled to our money. Never mind the horrible work it does or the fortune it has amassed over the years at our expense. It is Planned Parenthood; therefore, it should get our money – that's how it feels.”

It may not be popular and it may be considered controversial, but I believe Christians need to rise up and oppose this outrage. Life is precious — a gift from God. I pray that we never become so comfortable and complacent in our faith that we will not speak out to protect innocent life in our nation. I believe that, as Christians, it is our inherent responsibility to do so.

Small group sample links

Here are 3 links to congregations which promote small group ministries. These are examples of how larger congregations promote and manage small group ministries. I hope this will provide some good examples of how this might look.

Check them out at let us know what you think.

* Richland Hills Church of Christ
*Southeast Christian Church
*Bridgetown Church of Christ

Quote for the day---

"While the kind of structure a church has does not cause growth, it does control the rate and the size of the growth. And every church must eventually decide whether it is going to be structured for control or structured for growth. This is one of the most crucial decisions your church will ever face."
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church

Rules of Engagement --A surprising correlation between colleges and the Church

Jason has been posting for some time about involving ourselves in the life of the church and that there are not enough opportunities for involvement -- for everyone. I think he's probably right because the church is referred to as the "body" of Christ -- every part but the head (which is Christ himself) is to be occupied and operated by believers. This gets a little difficult because noone wants to be a toenail or a fat cell -- both however, quite necessary. Not finding areas to become meaninfully involved has two direct causes -- 1) there are not enough opportunities, and 2) people are too lazy to grow spiritually and create opportunities.

In terms of colleges and universities, Pascarella & Terenzini - two widely published authorities on student success -- made a sweeping statement in their 1991 How College Affects Students that said "What students do in college counts more in terms of what they learn and whether they will persist in college than who they are or even where they go to college." While these two guys are secularists and have no spiritual intent for this statement, let's rephrase this sentence:
"What Christians do in the church counts more in terms what what they learn and whether they will remain in the church than who they are or even where they go to church." In very basic terms colleges and churches somewhat concerned with the same mission: to create change [learning]. Obviously the end goal is different, but the missions are still interestingly similar.

Alexander Astin (another secular education researcher) wrote in his 1984 Student Involvement Developmental Theory that "...involved students tend to be more satisfied with their educational experiences." Let's rephrase this statement: Involved Christians tend to be more satisfied with the church experience. Again, interestingly similar.

Higher education, like Christianity cannot effect the change [learning] it is supposed to when participants are merely spectators. It simply cannot work. Back to my 2 causes for not getting involved. The ways we work to rectify lagging engagment in our students are #1 to create an environment that is supportive of new initiatives, and #2 to empower the students when they take initiative. In the other case, when students are lazy positive reinforcement encouraging/facilitating their interests within the context of college is the best way to change behavior. While we certainly do not have to option to "punish" the students, experience tells me that negativity works to inhibit desired behavior. Discipline without support seems only to create problems. Encouraging active participation includes an examination of how our policies and procedures either encourage or discourage involvement. In college, there are a set of benchmarks for engagement that represent literally thousands of pages and countless hours of research. These benchmarks are a recipe for success in terms of student involvement, satisfaction, retention, and graduation. They include: level of academic challege; active and collaborative learning; student interaction with faculty and staff; supportive campus environments; and enriching educational experiences. Once again, these are from secular researchers but can easily be edited to apply to the church. For example "level of academic challenge can be rephrased to setting ambitious goals. "Collaborative learning" can become interactive bible studies in informal group settings. "Student interaction with faculty and staff" becomes Christian's communication and working with the Church's leadership. "Supportive campus environments" becomes Support for ideas that do not conflict with scripture. And, finally, "enriching educational experiences" becomes conferences, seminars, & fun outings that direct attention toward God and spiritual growth.

Of course parameters must be set that always hold to Biblical truth as the supreme standard, and that also reflect the mission of the Church -- which should obviously include evangelism and fellowship.

So having said all of that...It would seem that rather than just create additional opportunities (which is a good thing!) we should also strive to be a supporting environment (and I believe we are) and take great pains to reach out to those not just in our inner circle -- that reaching out includes supporting their initiatives. If we become a Christian culture known for rewarding good ideas with support and encouragement, I think it will go along way toward motivating the spectator into action. All of this material regarding engagement also reflects a need for a better understanding of what actually motivates folks: some key theories from secular researchers that seem to be right in line with biblical truth include: McClelland's need theory - that people will be motivated to be involved if their needs for achievement, affiliation, and power (meaning they have what it takes to succeed) will be met in some way through that involvment; the Intrinsic reward theory that suggests people will get involved if what they are doing is internally rewarding; and that folks will get involved if that involvement facilitates progress toward an important goal.

I didn't mean to write a dissertation, but these are just some of the aspects of involvement that I see a great correlation with the church -- after all, we are an organization made up of redeemed humans -- and we all need to feel meaningful. Jesus took the most diverse and average 12 men and gave them the most meaningful involvement opportunity ever -- He used it to change the world.