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Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.  For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.  He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.  He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves.

God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.  Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.  For God is the king of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm.

God is king over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.  The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham.  For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted.

Psalm 47

It is time to play a Wild Card! Every now and then, a book that I have chosen to read is going to pop up as a FIRST Wild Card Tour. Get dealt into the game! (Just click the button!) Wild Card Tours feature an author and his/her book’s FIRST chapter!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

The First Escape

SaltRiver (August 20, 2008)

A motorcyclist and former rock band roadie turned Anglican minister, Graham Peter (G. P.) Taylor has been hailed as “hotter than Potter” and “the new C. S. Lewis” in the United Kingdom. His first novel, Shadowmancer, reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2004 and has been translated into 48 languages. His other novels include Wormwood (another New York Times bestseller which was nominated for a Quill book award), The Shadowmancer Returns: The Curse of Salamander Street, Tersias the Oracle, and Mariah Mundi. Taylor currently resides in North Yorkshire with his wife and three children.

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $ 19.99
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: SaltRiver (August 20, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414319479
ISBN-13: 978-1414319476

This first in a series book introduces us to a trio from a school for wayward children.  These three include a pair of fourteen year old twins, Sadie and Saskia Dopple and Erik Morrissey Ganger.  The girls become separated when Sadie is adopted and Saskia is left behind.  Trouble has a way of finding Saskia, but Erik helps her escape the orphanage and together they go off to find Sadie.  Meanwhile Sadie discovers secrets that endanger her life.  How do they escape the perils and finally find each other?  Buy the book and have a good read.  A bonus is the delightful illustrations and the ingenious way the text and illustrations are combined.  The way this first chapter came out makes it a bit difficult to read.  You can download the first chapter here in a pdf file.

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Working through our Christmas gift lists, let’s start with the children.  Have you decided what to make for the children in your life?  I’m starting with a couple fleece quillow’s.  You can go here to find links for patterns and instructions for constructing and folding.  You can find a pattern for a fleece quillow here.  Quillows do not have to be fleece.  I think they probably started as a quilt with a pocket to fold it into and make it a pillow, hence the name.  I choose fleece because it’s fast and easy.  I am quilting a Spiderman panel to make the pillow for one.  The other is going to be fleece, but I’m planning on putting interfacing on it to give it a bit more body.

Repurposed denim can be used for lots of gift ideas.  I’m making a denim skirt from a lady’s denim dress.  It’s simple enough not to need a pattern.  Elastic waist, a machine embroidered design and either a self-ruffle or a cotton or lace ruffle around the bottom makes an easy skirt.  The hip pockets from jeans can be embroidered with a small design or an applique applied to make a purse for any age. 

There are many stuffed toy patterns on the internet for the little boys in your life.  How about that old standby, the sock monkey?  You can find pattern links at The Ink Blotter.  You need a pair of Rockford Red Heel Socks to make your monkey.  You can even buy sock monkey fabric to make your little one a monkey shirt to go with his monkey.

You can find patterns for dolls and teddy bears at Penny Lane.  Kids of all ages love teddy bears.  At age 78, my mother turned into a bear collector.  Maybe you can get someone started with a bear collection.  That certainly makes it easy to come up with a gift for any occasion.

I’ve shared some of my gift ideas with you.  Do you have some to share with us?

Just read a breaking news alert from the New York Times which was posted less than 20 minutes ago.  Hilary Rodham Clinton is giving up her senate seat to accept the job of Secretary of State.  We will now have both Obama and Clinton on the same ticket.  It’s just not the ticket that Hilary supporters had in mind.

Senior Obama advisers said this morning that the offer had not been formally accepted and no announcement will be made until after Thanksgiving.  It certainly won’t look very good if Hilary decides not to take the position, but since it’s being broadcast to the world, it must be a pretty sure thing. 

Is Hilary giving up more than she’s receiving?  Probably not, but it’s all in the way you look at it.  A try at the top position in 2016 is still a possibility.

I know why they call it Black Friday.  When I used to indulge in all the sales the day after Thanksgiving, I would drag home with bags of bargains and impulse shopping.  This was even when I had all my Christmas shopping done and thought I would just pick up a few more things.  That led to, “Well, I can’t get this for one kid and not even it up for the other.”  And you know that just led to more of the same when I would spot just the perfect thing for someone else on my list.  By the time I would get home I was in a black mood.  You know the kind when you see a large, dark cloud over a cartoon character’s head.  I was dragging the entire cloud burst through the door when I got there.

That was one black mood, but nothing compared to the super black mood when the credit card bills started to arrive.  I was miserable for months and continued to pay for all that stuff for most of the year.  Sometimes Black Friday would roll around again and I was still paying and adding more so I could share a majorly black mood with my poor family. 

I finally learned my lesson, but am still working my way out of debt.  It’s easier when you don’t add more on top of what you already have.  Debt sucks big time.  I’ve discovered the joys of simple, frugal living.  I no longer put myself through the torture of Black Friday.  There’s nothing I want badly enough to go through that again.  I don’t do the after Christmas sales either.  If something happens to be left over and marked down on one of my regular shopping trips to the grocery or pharmacy, I’ll look it over and occasionally buy something.  Usually, I don’t want it badly enough to bother with it. 

That said, do you indulge in Black Friday?  If so, check out The Official Black Friday 2008 Website.  They manage to get just about all Black Friday ads leaked to them in advance.  If you feel as if you need to do this Black Friday thing, then sit down with paper, pen and this website to plot out a course of action.

It is time to play a Wild Card! Every now and then, a book that I have chosen to read is going to pop up as a FIRST Wild Card Tour. Get dealt into the game! (Just click the button!) Wild Card Tours feature an author and his/her book’s FIRST chapter!

and the book:

100 Ways to Simplify Your Life

Publisher: FaithWords; Lrg edition (November 12, 2008)

JOYCE MEYER is one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, she has written more than seventy inspirational books, including The Confident Woman, Look Great, Feel Great, and the entire Battlefield of the Mindfamily of books. She has also released thousands of audio teachings as well as a complete video library. Joyce’s Enjoying Everyday Life® radio and television programs are broadcast around the world, and she travels extensively conducting conferences. Joyce and her husband, Dave, are the parents of four grown children and make their home in St. Louis, Missouri.

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $16.99

Paperback: 240 pages

Publisher: FaithWords; Lrg edition (November 12, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0446509396

ISBN-13: 978-0446509398

Joyce Meyer has never failed to inspire me, both with her books and her TV programs.  I’ve been trying to downsize and simplify my life and this book is really helping me see so many areas that can be changed one baby step at a time.  Every suggestion in this book is simple and straightforward.  Taken all together, they can definitely change both a person’s life and a person’s outlook on life.  Join me on the path of simpler living through this book.  I will be posting more about this book as I embark on this course of 100 ways to change my life.   

Everyone has them: those days where nothing seems to get done, except maybe what you’ve added to your already lengthy to-do list. Are you tired most of the time? Are you spent? Do you find yourself wish- ing for a better day—a simpler day? Too many things compete for your limited resources of attention, energy, and time. You may be suffocat- ing and not even know it. If you feel like this, you’re not alone.

Most people today live complicated lives that leave them frustrated and confused, weary and worn out. But I have good news: your life does not have to be that way. You can choose a life of simplicity, fruitfulness, fulfillment, peace, and joy. I want to warn you, however, unless you are determined not to, you will do what everyone else does. You will get sucked up in the system and spend your life wishing things were different, never realizing you are, in fact, the only one who can change things. Unless we are resolute and remain undaunted in our quest for simplicity, we are destined for complication and frustration.

I recall a time when I was complaining to God about my schedule being absolutely insane. How could anyone be expected to do all I had in front of me? Then the realization hit me that I was the one who made my schedule and nobody could change it but me. You can spend your lives wishing things were different, but wishing won’t change anything. Smart decision making and decisive action is what changes things. If you picked up this book looking for change, are you willing to make a decision and follow it up with action?

I wasted many years hoping life would change and things would calm down until I finally realized life itself doesn’t change; in fact, it has the potential to get worse. I understood my only real option was to change my approach to life. I had to say no to another day of rushing around and feeling frustrated. I didn’t want the doctor giving me another pre- scription to mask another symptom of the real problem—stress.

In my search for simplicity, I have come to believe life can never be simple unless I learn to approach all things simply. It is my attitude toward each event in life that determines how easy or complex each situation will be. Perhaps life is complicated because people are compli- cated. Is it possible that life is not complicated, but rather, individuals complicate life in the way they approach it?

I discovered it wasn’t really life or circumstances or other people as much as it was me that needed to change. My problem wasn’t the problem—I was the problem! When you spend your life in frustration trying to change the world and everyone in it, you fail to realize it could be you just need to change your approach to life. It can be very easy for someone to live an entire lifetime and never entertain the notion that the way they do things is the real problem.

Have you ever attempted to have friends over for what you initially intended to be a simple afternoon of food, fellowship, and fun, but somehow, it turned into a complicated nightmare? I remember those days vividly. I’d be at church on Sunday and, without much forethought, invite three couples over for the following Sunday to a barbecue. My initial thought was hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, baked beans, potato chips, and iced tea. My motive was fellowship and fun, but by the time the guests arrived, I didn’t even want them there. Fun was not going to happen, at least not for me. Why? I turned my simple get- together into a nightmare of preparation, expensive food, and fourteen people instead of the original six. My complicated approach to life and my complicated thought process convinced me hot dogs and hamburg- ers weren’t nice enough so I bought steaks we could not afford. My potato chips turned into a huge bowl of homemade potato salad. The simple baked beans became four side dishes I labored over.

Insecure and wanting to impress everyone, I had to spend the week cleaning and getting everything in the house to the point where I thought it would be impressive. Of course, the lawn chairs were old, so I bought new ones. I got angry at Dave because I thought he wasn’t help- ing me enough, and by the time our friends arrived, I resented them, wished they hadn’t come, and had a miserable day of pretending to be the happy hostess when in reality I was frustrated and miserable.

I could not figure out why I wasn’t able to enjoy much of anything in life until God revealed to me I was killing my joy with complication. For years, I prayed God would change the people and circumstances around me when, in reality, He wanted to change me and my approach to life. He wanted me to simplify so, ultimately, He could be glorified.

Let me share with you 100 ways to approach living that can simplify your life and, in turn, release and increase your joy. I believe they will dramatically improve the quality of your everyday experience if you incorporate them into the way you do things. Jesus said He came so we might have and enjoy our life in abundance (see John 10:10). His prin- ciples are simple. Faith is simple! Trusting God is simple! A childlike approach to Him is simple! The plan of salvation is simple!

Jesus offers us a “new way of living,” and I believe it is a simple, yet powerful way that enables us to enjoy everyday life. Are you ready to simplify your life? Are you ready to say good-bye to the complexities you’ve allowed to take over? Let’s get started.

Do One Thing at a Time

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything elseówe are the busiest people in the world.

ÓERIC HOFFER

Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection].

—Hebrews 12:2

When we do things without truly focusing our minds on them, we immediately decrease our strength to do the work before us and do it well. By putting our hands to one thing and our mind to another, we divide the muscle behind our abilities and we make the task much more difficult. It’s like removing an egg yolk from the egg white—both can be used separately but the result isn’t as effective (or tasty) as it would be if we leave the egg whole. However, by directing all of our faculties to the one thing we are doing on a particular day, at that hour, at that moment, we find it much easier to do. The ability to concentrate and stay focused can only come from discipline.

The apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6 to be anxious for nothing. Anxious people are always trying to live ahead of where they currently are. They spend today trying to figure out tomorrow and the result is the loss of simplicity. God expects us to trust Him with tomorrow just as He instructed the Israelites to do when they crossed the barren wil- derness, pressing toward the Promised Land.

Practice living one day at a time; give yourself—your thoughts, your conversation, your energies, every part of you—to the day at hand.

100 Ways to Simplify Your Life

1. Develop an ability to give yourself to what you are doing. You will sense an awareness enabling you to enjoy the current activity, instead of going through each day in a blur of activity and confusing thoughts which leave you drained and exhausted.

Do you fear you will not accomplish as much if you try to live this way? It’s true you may not do as much, but you will also enjoy what you do a whole lot more. One key to simplicity is realizing that quality is far superior to quantity.

A breaking news alert from the New York Times states that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is stepping down as soon as a replacement is found.  Yang has been in the news recently with Yahoo’s little dance with Google and Microsoft.  You can read more about this at Boom Town, including the memo that Yang wrote to Yahoo employees.  Further reading can be found at Techland.  Right now everyone seems to be speculating on the replacement and what this will mean for Yahoo.  Will the replacement be able to turn the company around or will Yahoo’s stock continue to fall?

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.  They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.  In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 1

Godly Love: A Rose Planted in the Desert of our Hearts by Stephen G. Post

It’s the 15th, time for the Non~FIRST blog tour!(Non~FIRST will be merging with FIRST Wild Card Tours on January 1, 2009…if interested in joining, click HERE!)

The feature author is:

Stephen G. Post
 

and his book:

 

 

 

Godly Love: A Rose Planted in the Desert of our Hearts

 

Templeton Foundation Press (September 26, 2008)

 

 

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Stephen G. Post has spent a lifetime studying love in its theological, scientific, and practical dimensions. He is president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (IRUL) and professor of bioethics and family medicine in the School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Post has published one hundred thirty articles in peerreviewed journals and has written or edited fifteen scholarly books on subjects relating to the dynamic of love in our lives. His most recent book is Why Good Things Happen to Good People, coauthored with Jill Neimark. Dr. Post has chaired nine national conferences in his field and has received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Board of the Alzheimers Association. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with his wife, Mitsuko, and their two children, Emma and Andrew.Product DetailsList Price: $12.95
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press (September 26, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599471515
ISBN-13: 978-1599471518

We all need love.  More than that, we all need Godly love.  This small book packs a powerful punch.  It speaks to the heart, sharing the attributes of God’s love for us.  A life without love is empty and meaningless, causing bitterness and hatred.  This book brings Isaih 35:1 to us, showing how Godly love plants a rose in our hearts when we are experiencing the dry deserts of life. 

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

 

Godly Love and Human Hatreds

In March 2007 I had the honor of spending several days north of Paris with the great Jean Vanier, then in his early eighties. Jean had founded L’Arche (“The Ark”) some four decades earlier, when he was inspired by an experience of Godly love to invite two men with cognitive developmental disabilities into his home. Over the years, L’Arche homes have flourished worldwide as volunteers dwell with the disabled in communities of faith, prayer, and Godly love. I had attended meals in L’Arche homes in Cleveland on a number of occasions, and I had heard the grace said before eating, the hymns sung, and the lives of those caregivers and in the experience of those they cared for and lived with.

Jean struck me as one of the most loving, Godly, and humble men I had ever met. He spoke quietly and brilliantly, and he exuded an infectious sense of fun. On one Sunday evening there was a Catholic Mass in an old renovated chapel from the fourteenth century. About one hundred people had gathered there, mostly L’Arche volunteers and people with disabilities. I saw a volunteer wheel one older man named David up to the priest for communion. That night, at dinner, I asked Jean what he thought David had gotten from receiving communion, for David was probably the most severely disabled and agitated person I had encountered there. Jean said, “Whenever David receives communion, he becomes more peaceful, and that is the power of God’s love. Remember, Stephen, we do not know much about the mystery of God’s love and presence.” Jean’s pure, enduring, and expansive love clearly encompassed such a severely disabled man, and counted him among God’s blessed.

Evil in God’s Name

When I encounter a man like Jean Vanier, I feel that we must all stop thinking of God as the epitome of awesome power and strength in the conventional sense. This convention may be partly true, but we need to set it aside; otherwise, we begin to think of God primarily in terms of might, and human arrogance propels us into thinking that because my God is stronger than your God, violence is justified in God’s name. If we think about God in terms of power, then religions become tainted with human arrogance. Far too many prayerful people are carrying rifles in the spirit of pure hatred and pretending that their hatred is somehow divinely sanctioned. This amounts to shallow religiosity, which only causes pain and undermines Godly love. The Lord of power and might is first and foremost the author and giver of all good things, the Divine Entity who nourishes us in love and brings forth from us good works.

We need to stop thinking that our definitions of God are finite and that our knowledge of God’s will is total. Our definitions, even if divinely inspired, are still products of the human mind, and we can never fully understand the Divine. Religious doctrines, if adhered to arrogantly, tend to separate us from one another and shatter the unifying spirit of Godly love that all spirituality seeks to cultivate. When religions place doctrine and force above love, they foment massive evil—from torture to terror, from coercion to conflict. Religious wars exemplify human tribalism and arrogance, both of which bring out the worst in us.

Hatred, hostility, and revenge are such strong emotions that they can crush our fragile sense of Godly love. The pseudospirituality of hatred runs counter to all genuine spirituality, which is always an adventure in love, an expression of love’s deepest desires.

Countering Hatred with Godly Love

The love of power can sometimes overwhelm the power of love, so we must remain humble and guard against this. No matter how little we know about God, we can still experience Godly love. Only by taking Godly love much more seriously than we do now—even inculcating a profound love for one another among ancient, sworn enemies—can we expect to head off a spiral of widespread destruction.

Most of religion and spirituality is rooted in healing emotions, grounded in love. We will never achieve sustained peace in the twenty-first century unless all religions live up to those intrinsic ideals of Godly love, applying those ideals to all of humankind without exception.

The world shows no signs of becoming any less religious; we as humans will always have a passion for Ultimate Truth that provides safe haven and emotional security in times of distress. Yet we will only have a human future if we infuse universal Godly love into the rituals that religions create, and express through our actions spiritual emotions such as forgiveness and compassion. If our religions fail to promote universal Godly love, violence will sweep us all away in a cataclysmic firestorm.

Promoting Harmony and Peace

Godly love alone can realign the world in harmony and peace. Too many kill in God’s name, claiming that they alone know the destiny God intends for humankind. Our limited human knowledge of any divinely inspired destiny to be played out on the human stage belies this specious—and dangerous—claim.

Love is the source of our greatest happiness and security; therefore love is the Ultimate Good, the Supreme Good. Nothing else comes close, for love underlies the creative energy that propels us from birth to death. The withholding of love drives to destruction those deprived of love’s nurturing, its compassion, and its life-giving blessings. This occurs most notably in critical developmental periods during childhood. And it holds just as true for a child in a nursery as it does for an older adult in a hospice.

Our religions, which offer models of righteous living, must put into practice their visions of Godly love, or they risk becoming sidelined, or, worse, irrelevant.

Today we are once again traveling back to the kitchen for more freezer cooking.  I’m going to give you a few recipes to try out for your freezer meals. This is another freezer prep day for me.

The first recipe is one from my OBC years.  It’s Florence Douglas’s Chicken Pie.  The second is Sheila McKinney’s recipe for All-In-One Spaghetti Supper.  Sheila was a friend and neighbor when our children were small.  The recipe for Chicken Salad Bake is from a very special lady, Thelma Sanders.  Thelma is my mother’s cousin, an RN club member and a friend.

CHICKEN PIE

Stew 1 chicken or parts until tender.  Season as desired.  Cool and remove bones.  Make a rich gravy with the broth.  If you don’t want to make gravy from scratch, here is where those nice gravy mixes or jars of prepared gravy come in handy.  Also, you can cook the chicken in the crock pot the day before you want to prepare the chicken pies.  You can separate the chicken into individual casseroles or make one large pie.  If desired, add some peas or mixed vegetables to the gravy.  Cover with the gravy and then make the following batter.

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp shortening or butter
• 1 cup milk

Mix all together and drop by spoonfuls over the chicken and gravy.  Bake in 350F oven until the dumplings are nice and brown – about 20 minutes

ALL-IN-ONE SPAGHETTI SUPPER

Cook and drain one box spaghetti.  Then brown

• 1 lb ground beef
• cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves garlic (sliced)

Add

• 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 6 oz can tomato paste
• 1 pt can tomato juice
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tsp salt
• dash pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp sugar

Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer 30 minutes.  Stir spaghetti into sauce, cover and simmer 30 minutes.

CHICKEN SALAD BAKE

• 4 cups cooked chicken, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup water chestnuts, sliced
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp Real Lemon juice
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup potato chips, crushed

Mix all ingredients except potato chips.  Place in casserole or 9″ x 13″ baking dish.  Top with potato chips.  Bake 30 minutes at 350F.

Are you ready to get in that kitchen and get some meals in your freezer?  Right now I have spaghetti sauce in the crock pot and the ingredients for a tuna casserole and a pizza casserole ready to put together and into the oven.