Attempt Great Things (video sermon)

Expect great things from God; Attempt great things for God. -William Carey, missionary to India
To attempt great things for God you have to stand your ground. You can't expect God to do great things through you if you aren't willing to go out and attempt something for Him.
There's going to be doubters. There's going to be trouble makers. There's those who are going to hold on to the past and don't want to change. But God wants us to move forward. God will increase what we give to Him, but we have to give it first. We can't let the "nay sayers" sway us.
What do you think a soul is worth to Christ? Christ thought it was worth His life! He doesn't want us to spare when there's a field white unto harvest. It's worth doing and it's worth doing right! You might not see the results, but God does. Do you think it's worth the cost? God does!

Nutrition & Physical Degeneration book review

I know the title sounds like a mouthful, but this is a great book! Dr. Weston Price was a dentist in the 1930's who wanted to study the teeth of indigenous peoples to see how diet would relate to their dental health. What he found was amazing!
Our nutritional intake determines our health- our bones, our blood, our skin, and our teeth. Dr. Price found that people who had a "primitive" diet had an amazing skeletal structure and virtually no cavities in their teeth. Though these cultures ate vastly different foods, they all had one thing in common- good health.
The best part about this book is how it is written. It's not like a medical textbook, but more like an anthropological journal. You get to read about their culture, some of their history, how they live day-to-day lives, and how they viewed and cultivated, or captured, food.
This book will open your eyes to the true meaning of nutrition. It's not found on a label on the side of some package at the grocery store. It's not written on a chart on the wall or drawn out on some plate or pyramid. It's found in real food!

Funny Happenings- Teaching Our Children

I try so very hard to teach my children as much as I can. They get little snippets about health, proper English, science, and other things all the time. I'm especially known for yelling out "That's a lie!" whenever something about evolution comes on the television.
Evolution is being pumped into our children through school, cartoons, movies, and even commercials. Whenever it starts talking about millions of years ago my kids know I'm about to reprove the tv.
I am also very big on health. I buy this natural salt that hasn't been bleached. It has these really pretty flecks of blue and pink and other colors in the container. The outside of the container, however, is filled with junk about how this salt was made through millions of years of blah, blah, blah.
One day, we came to the table for dinner to find that my oldest daughter had taken a permanent marker to the salt container. My husband picked it up, looked at it and said, "Why did you do this?"
My daughter responds, "Because it was full of evolution lies."
My husband just kinda blinked at her and then turns to see me with tears in my eyes. "And what's wrong with you!?!" he asks.
I squeaked out, "I'm just so proud of her right now!"

Hero (song)

Don't Quit (poem)

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, 
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, 
When the funds are low and the debts are high, 
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, 
When care is pressing you down a bit, 
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns, 
As every one of us sometimes learns, 
And many a failure turns about, 
When he might have won had he stuck it out; 
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow– 
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than 
It seems to a faint and faltering man, 
Often the struggler has given up, 
When he might have captured the victor’s cup, 
And he learned too late when the night slipped down, 
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out– 
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt, 
And you never can tell how close you are, 
It may be near when it seems so far, 
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit– 
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

-John Greenleaf Whittier

Ham with potatoes and carrots recipe

7-8 lb fully cooked ham
8-10 russett potatoes, peeled and diced
10-12 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 lb bacon
1 small can pineapple juice

Preheat oven to 350*. Place ham into a large roasting pan and bake, covered, for 1 hour.
Coat the potatoes and carrots in olive oil.
Remove the pan from the oven and take the ham out. Place the potatoes and carrots into the pan, in the drippings. Place ham back in the pan on top of potatoes and carrots. Cover, and cook for 45 minutes longer.
Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Coat the ham with the brown sugar. Layer the bacon on top of the brown sugar coated ham.
Pour the pineapple juice on top of the bacon. Place the roasting pan back in the oven, without the lid. Bake until the bacon is crispy, around 30 to 45 minutes longer.

Note: This recipe will not make the potatoes or carrots extremely sweet. There will only be a slight hint of sweetness.

Moses' Wife

There was a movie put out a while back about Moses. He and his wife stand before Pharaoh, and, eventually, the children of Israel leave Egypt. Moses' wife and sister are singing and praising the Lord.
While this is a lovely sentiment, it is not how the story actually goes.
After Moses meets with God in the burning bush, he goes back to pack up his family and head to Egypt.
Exodus 4:24- And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
Wait! What? God just met with him and shewed him signs and wonders. He was told a new name for God and even commissioned by God for a job. Why would God seek to kill him?
Well, Moses has been with his new family for 40 years now. He has a wife and 2 sons. Being a Jew, he followed the Jewish law and had his first son circumcised. However, he didn't circumcise his second son.
I'm not sure if Moses thought he was never going back to Egypt and so he didn't have to follow the Hebrew custom, but I do know that his wife was the one who was against it.
Exodus 4:25-26- Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
Moses' wife was against this bloody Jewish ritual. She didn't want her son circumcised. In fact, she knew why the Lord was going after Moses. She was the one who saved him by performing the circumcision.
But, notice her attitude. She called him a "bloody husband". She was angry. She didn't want it done. And she didn't go with Moses to Egypt because of it!
Exodus 18:1-6- When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: And Jethro, Moses' father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
Why did Moses have her go back to her father? Was it, perhaps, because she was so angry with him that she would have only been a hindrence to his obeying God?
She was more than willing to leave. She had bitterness in her heart that caused her to miss her husband become the great man of God that he did. She missed witnessing the wonders of the great I AM against the country of Egypt. She didn't see Moses become the friend of God with whom God talked face to face.
How many men out there could do amazing things for God if only their wives would let them? I am afraid to say that there are many who will stand before God and hear him say, "I wanted to do great things through your husband, and I couldn't because of you!"
Now, I'm not casting all the blame on the women. Moses could have gone back with his wife and God would have sent deliverance through another. Each man has a choice whether to obey God or to pacify his wife. Each man will give an account before God for the things he didn't do because he would rather please his wife than God. But, the women will also give account of how they hindered, held back, and whined into compliance.
2 Corinthians 5:9-11- Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
Paul says that we will give account, and he points out the terror of the Lord during that time. This isn't a reverencing fear. This isn't a sweaty palm nervousness. This is a fall on your face trembling, and don't move terror!
I pray that God allows me to swallow my pride and the thoughts of what my rights are and that I step aside to allow my husband to follow the Lord's will for his life!