Sunday Scripture

 

Time for another Sunday Scripture!  As I explained several weeks ago, I've made some changes in  my Sunday posts,  using the Daily Grace Co. book Fix Your Focus, which is really not a Bible study as such, but more of a guide to help you fix your focus on God, His Word, prayer, gratitude, and spiritual growth, every week for 52 weeks.  I encourage you to follow along with us as we journal, look at Scripture, pray, and face the challenges of our weeks with our focus on Him.  I truly hope that others are finding this as helpful as I am.

This week's lesson was actually done by me the week of August 4,  but I am working ahead of you readers.  So here goes!

🌿 WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE CHECKLIST is further on in each week's section. But since I am working on Fix Your Focus all week long, I find it works best for me to do this checklist first. This checklist offers us four points:  

* To make a plan for reading our Bibles and praying.

* To add any upcoming events to our calendars.

* To jot down a to-do list of tasks that must be completed this week.

* To make a note of our top three priorities for this week.

This last point is one that I need to pay special attention to every week.  I've been finding it so helpful.  (The other three points are things that I'm consistently doing.) 

For this week, my top three priorities are:

1) Health -- dentist appointment, walk as often as possible, exercise daily.

2) Communicate -- notes to grieving friends; note to Airbnb hosts; try to contact Jennifer.

3) Ministry -- SS lesson prep, blogging, host home prayer meeting at our cottage; cleaning the church.

[If you are following along with our study, this is the place to make a Week-at-a-Glance checklist and/or priority list for yourself!]

🌿 The first actual prompt for each week is JOURNAL.  We are encouraged to take a few minutes to our fears, joys, worries, desires and stressors concerning the week ahead.  [If you are following along with us, take a moment in a journal or notebook to do just that.]. Here's what I wrote on Monday, breaking it down into the suggested categories:

Fears: No real fears going into this week.  If I had a fear, it would have been that the dentist would find some tooth that needed work.

Joys: Ministry is a joy.  We take joy in hospitality, especially at our little cottage. We planned a staycation day for the Monday with several joys in NH state parks -- an aerial tramway ride, coffee atop a mountain, a picnic by a lake.

Worries: I try not to worry.  If I were to worry, it would be about my dentist appointment or my hubby's psoriasis.

Desires: That the answers to some perplexing questions might begin to be revealed.  That God would be glorified in the events of this week.  That people would be encouraged by my communication with them.  That Steve would be completely healed from psoriasis.

Stressors: Always the constraints of time, energy, hot weather, and aging.   Trying to balance everything is challenging.

🌿 The next prompt is PRAYER. It was suggested that we use several prayer prompts to have a conversation with God about the week ahead.  [You can do the same.  Use the very same prompts for your own prayer.]

* Lord, You are ... in full control of every aspect of this week.  You are omniscient and You are the One "who revealed secrets".  You are sovereign over my concerns and my limitations.  You are able to give me strength far beyond my own.  You are able to expand my time.

* Lord, I feel ... so inadequate for all of this -- and, in my own strength, I am indeed inadequate.  I feel blessed and privileged to be Your child and to have Your Word.  I feel free to live in such a beautiful area and to be able to visit state parks for free.  I feel grateful to have our cottage, blessed by the peace and rest we enjoy there, and by the hospitality we're able to extend.

* Lord, help me with ... Wise use of my time every day.  Help me with self-discipline and diligence.  Help me with my character flaws and sin issues.  Help me with my Scripture posts and Sunday School lesson preparations.  Help me to be wise in planning meals within the restrictions of my hubby's diet.

* Lord, forgive me for ... times when I worry or stress about situations.  Times when my attitudes are not right or when I'm tempted to manipulate circumstances.  Times when I'm unwise in my use of time or my choices.

Make a note of four or five people you are praying for.  I listed  a young couple looking for a new home, an unborn baby whose birth is overdue (and her parents, feeling a bit anxious), and a retired couple in a life transition.

🌿 The next section in this helpful guide is SCRIPTURE MEDITATION.  I chose to first meditate on this week's Scripture, Psalm 56:3, using the SOAP method, and then answered several suggested questions.   [You can use your own preferred method to meditate on this verse, and answer the questions below for yourself.]

S= "When I am afraid, I will trust in Thee."  (Psalm 56:3)

O = C.I. Scofield, in the Scofield Reference Bible, titles this Psalm "Reliance upon God."

The ESV titles Psalm 56 "In God I trust."

The biblical heading for this psalm in the KJV is "To the chief musician upon Jonath-elem--rehokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath."

The ESV translates this heading "To the Choirmaster according to the Dove on Far-off Terebinths.  A Michtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath."

"Michtam" is probably a musical or liturgical term.

"Trust in" literally means "lean on".

Cross-references for "trust in Thee" -- "Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him."  (Psalm 2:12)

"In the LORD put I my trust; how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?"  (Psalm 11:1)

A=  To help with my application of this verse, I answered the three questions from Fix your Focus:

* Reflect on what this verse tells you about who God is.

He is a God who can be trusted.  He can be trusted even when I am afraid.  (Considering all of the incidents in Scripture where He tells people to "fear not", maybe especially when I am afraid.)

* Think about what this verse tells you about who you are.

I'm a frail, fallible human being who is prone to fear.  I'm also a child of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise God who is completely trustworthy.  I live in a world, in a culture where things often feel uncertain and unsafe, but I can trust God regardless of the circumstances..

* Throughout the week, consider how this verse should affect the way you live.

 I should live as a person who trusts in God even when I am afraid, considering all of the attributes that He will bring to bear on my behalf, in my situation.

Charles Spurgeon wrote: " It is a blessed fear which drives us to trust. Unregenerate fear drives from God, gracious fear drives to him. If I fear man I have only to trust God, and I have the best antidote. To trust when there is no cause for fear, is but the name of faith, but to be reliant upon God when occasions for alarm are abundant and pressing, is the conquering faith of God's elect. Though the verse is in the form of a resolve, it became a fact in David's life, let us make it so in ours. Whether the fear arise from without or within, from past, present, or future, from temporals, or spirituals, from men or devils, let us maintain faith, and we shall soon recover courage."

"There is nothing like faith to help at a pinch; faith dissolves doubts as the sun drives away the mists. And that you may not be put out, know that your time for believing is always. There are times when some graces may be out of use, but there is no time wherein faith can be said to be so. Wherefore faith must be always in exercise ... Let it rain, let it blow, let it thunder, let it lighten, a Christian must still believe. 'At what time', said the good man, 'I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." John Bunyan.

Albert Barnes wrote, "It is a good maxim with which to go into a world of danger; a good maxim to go to sea with; a good maxim in a storm; a good maxim when in danger on the land; a good maxim when we are sick; a good maxim when we think of death and the judgment--What time I am afraid, I WILL TRUST IN THEE." 

Spurgeon quotes Bishop Beveridge: 

                                What is there in God we ought to put our trust in? 

                                1. In His promises. 

2. In His properties. His power, wisdom, justice, mercy, all sufficiency.

 Why should we in all our fears put our trust in God? 

1. Because there is none else can secure us from our fears. Whereas, 

2. There are no fears but God can secure us from them, either by removing the thing feared, or by subduing the fear of the thing.

P= "Lord,You know that I am a frail, fallible human who is prone to fear.  I'm living in a culture and world where things often feel uncertain and unsafe.  Yet I am Your child!  I have a relationship with the all-wise, all-powerful God of the universe and I can trust You to care for me in any fearful situation.

"I pray that You will help me to live every day as a person who trusts in You in every circumstance of life, even when I am afraid.  I thank You for how You will help me with this, in Jesus' name, Amen."

🌿 GRATITUDE is the next prompt.  We were to reflect on the way God has shown His faithfulness to you over the past week and list five things we are thankful for.  [If you are following along with us, be sure to make your own list of five things!]. Here is my list:

1) Safety traveling to and from Boothbay,

2) Light rain as we traveled back, but fine weather while there.

3) Having found a new-to-us Airbnb that we really liked and would love to stay at again.

4) Good fellowship, calm seas, and the delightful experience that is the Cabbage Island Clambake.

5) A good outreach at the outdoor market.  It was lightly attended even by vendors, but we had some excellent opportunities with people.

🌿 SPIRITUAL GROWTH is the next prompt, and this week there's an emphasis on  FASTING. We were to make a plan to fast from something this week, and to consider how we would replace our fasted item with the pursuit of God and His Word.  [And again, if you are following along, please think about this for yourself.]

I do intermittent fasting every day and find it does open up more time for prayer and Bible study.  Whenever we are at our cottage, we are fasting from internet and social media, as we have no wi-fi there.

🌿 Lastly is a GOSPEL-CENTERED AFFIRMATION: 

The trustworthiness of the Lord calms my fears.

We can take this comforting thought into the coming week as we seek to trust the Lord at all times, especially when we are afraid.

And that's the Sunday Scripture for this week!

Cookie Dough Brownies

 

Probably back in the 1990s I found a recipe for Cookie Dough Brownies in Taste of Home magazine.  I made those brownies many times and people always enjoyed them.  Over the years, though, I've done a lot of tweaking, the most notable being to use a completely different, old favorite brownie recipe for the brownie base.  Another was to add a third cup of mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough filling.  

 In the past year or so, my hubby has started baking the cookie dough brownies, and he added some tweaks of his own.  For instance, he decided there wasn't enough chocolate in the topping, so he uses more chocolate chips.

One of his flag wave friends asked for the cookie dough brownie recipe a few months ago.  I knew I would be seeing her on Saturday, so I got ready to print the recipe.   And that's when I came to the realization that the recipe had been tweaked so much that I would have to completely rewrite it.  Since I had to do that anyway, I thought I would share the retooled recipe with my blog readers.  Here it is:

COOKIE  DOUGH  BROWNIES

BROWNIES:
3/4 cup melted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

FILLING:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tblsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

GLAZE:
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 Tblsp. shortening or butter
Chopped walnuts if desired

    FOR BROWNIES, in a large bowl, beat together the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; stir into mixture in bowl just until flour is incorporated well.   Pour into a greased 13x9-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350º for 25 minutes or  until brownies test done.  Cool completely.

    FOR FILLING, cream butter and sugars in a mixing bowl.  Add milk and vanilla; mix well.  Beat in flour. Stir in the miniature chocolate chips.   Spread filling over the brownies; chill until firm. 

    FOR GLAZE, melt chocolate chips and shortening or butter in a saucepan or microwave, stirring until smooth.  Spread over filling.  Immediately sprinkle with nuts (if using), pressing down slightly. 

Yield: 2 to 3 dozen

(The cookies in the photo at top don't really look like mine, but just imagine them with chocolate mini chips in the filling and no walnuts on top. Or, if you want them to look like the photo, leave the chips out of the filling and add chopped walnuts to the top.)

Hodgepodge with a side of fun and ice cream

It's Wednesday again -- and time for the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond, where Joyce writes the questions and bloggers provide the answers!  Here we go ...

 1. What's worth standing in line for? 

Homemade ice cream!  Especially with homemade waffle bowls.

2. Tell us about a favorite food related memory. 

Since it's still August, I'll continue with the ice cream theme.  When I was a child, it seemed that a few times a summer when relatives would visit at my grandmother's on a weekend afternoon, homemade ice cream would be made.  The flavors I remember being made most often were pineapple sherbet and chocolate ice cream.  That is my grandmother's sherbet recipe, below.

3. What are some things you find particularly peaceful or calming?

Watching ocean waves crashing in and ebbing out.  Sitting by a lake shore smelling sun-warmed pine needles and hearing the soft swish of gentle waves against the shore.  Looking up at the night sky full of stars. 

4. Is there something you do now that gets you just as excited as it did when you were a child? 

Making things that are beautiful, useful, or just fun.

Beautiful -- a Scripture sampler

Beautiful -- another Scripture sampler

Beautiful -- a Country Baking sampler in progress

Beautiful cross-stitch picture -- "They thought we were sisters... but we were closer."

Useful -- an apron

Useful -- pillow cases

Useful -- dish towels

Useful -- crocheted dishcloths

Just fun -- four kinds of felt pie slices!

Just fun!  Felt popsicles

Just fun -- pillow fight shields

Just fun -- a shield in use!

5. To what degree are you in touch with friends from grade school? high school? college if you attended college? 

To almost no degree.  Occasionally I see a friend or two from grade school/high school in the grocery store or at some other event, but there is no keeping in touch.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

After super hot temps last week, we are down into the 60s and 70s during the day.   It's fine -- I really prefer it not so hot -- but it was a sudden transition!

And there's the Hodgepodge for this week!

Sunday Scripture

 

Time for another Sunday Scripture!  As I explained several weeks ago, I've made some changes in  my Sunday posts,  using the Daily Grace Co. book Fix Your Focus, which is really not a Bible study as such, but more of a guide to help you fix your focus on God, His Word, prayer, gratitude, and spiritual growth, every week for 52 weeks.  I encourage you to follow along with us as we journal, look at Scripture, pray, and face the challenges of our weeks with our focus on Him.  I truly hope that others are finding this as helpful as I am.

This week's lesson was actually done by me the week of July 28,  but I am working ahead of you readers.  So here goes!

🌿 WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE CHECKLIST is further on in each week's section. But since I am working on Fix Your Focus all week long, I find it works best for me to do this checklist first. This checklist offers us four points:  

* To make a plan for reading our Bibles and praying.

* To add any upcoming events to our calendars.

* To jot down a to-do list of tasks that must be completed this week.

* To make a note of our top three priorities for this week.

This last point is one that I need to pay special attention to every week.  I've been finding it so helpful.  (The other three points are things that I'm consistently doing.) 

For this week, my top three priorities are:

1) Ministry -- cards to grieving friends, Sunday School lesson prep and teaching, blogging, phone call with Rebekah, farmer's market outreach.

2) Time away -- Tuesday through Thursday will be spent in Boothbay, Maine!

3) Fellowship --  time with friends in Boothbay and while traveling.

[If you are following along with our study, this is the place to make a Week-at-a-Glance checklist and/or priority list for yourself!]

🌿 The first actual prompt for each week is JOURNAL.  We are encouraged to take a few minutes to journal about our fears, joys, worries, desires and stressors concerning the week ahead.  [If you are following along with us, take a moment in a journal or notebook to do just that.]. Here's what I wrote on Monday, breaking it down into the suggested categories:

Fears: No real fears going into this week.  

Joys: A getaway to Maine will be a joy.  Time spent with friends in a beautiful setting will be a joy.  Ministry is a joy as well.

Worries: Not really worries.  A few concerns about the trip and how my hubby plans to deviate from his special diet.

Desires: As always, for God to be glorified in the events of the week.  For nice weather, safety, and a relaxing getaway.  For an effective outreach at the Saturday outdoor market.

Stressors: Travel in a busy tourist area in summer always has the potential for stress.  Limitations of time, energy, and aging.  Staying in a new place.  Concern for things at home.

🌿 The next prompt is PRAYER. It was suggested that we use several prayer prompts to have a conversation with God about the week ahead.  [You can do the same.  Use the very same prompts for your own prayer.]

* Lord, You are ... sovereign over all the events of this week.  You are so good to provide Christian fellowship and friendship and a time of vacation in a beautiful area.   You are aware of all of. our concerns and potential stressors and can be trusted to take care of each of these.

* Lord, I feel ... unready for this trip, and yet in some ways I'm better prepared for a trip than I often am.  I feel enthusiastic about the trip and am hopeful that it will be relaxing.

* Lord, help me with ... my attitudes and the way I deal with stress.  Help me to leave all of my concerns in Your all-powerful hands.

* Lord, forgive me for ... attitudes, words, and actions that are not pleasing to You.  For times when I worry or fail to trust You.

Make a note of four or five people you are praying for.  I listed  a young couple seeking God's direction, a couple in ministry with some vehicle needs, a family member who needs to get on track with God..

🌿 The next section in this helpful guide is SCRIPTURE MEDITATION.  I chose to first meditate on this week's Scripture, Mark 8:35, using the SOAP method, and then answered several suggested questions.   [You can use your own preferred method to meditate on this verse, and answer the questions below for yourself.]

S= "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it."  (Mark 8:35)

O = Verses 34-38 of Mark 8 are titled "Cost of discipleship" in the Scofield Bible.

Verse 35 begins with the word "For".  What is it looking back to?

To verse 34: "And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, Whosover will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

Cross-references for "whosoever" -- "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world  shall keep it unto life eternal."  (John 12:25)

"He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."  (Mark 10:39)

The word "but" signifies a change of direction.  A change of direction in attitude (and actions) marks a change in one's eternal destiny. 

Cross-references for "gospel" -- "And Jesus answered, and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house or brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life."  (Mark 10:29-30)

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."  (Revelation 14:6)

Cross-references for "and the gospel's" -- "And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker of it with you.."  (1 Corinthians 9:23)

"Be not,  thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the pow.er of God."  (2 Timothy 1:8)

"Whom [Onesimus] I would have returned with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel."  (Philemon 13)

A=  To help with my application of this verse, I answered the three questions from Fix your Focus:

* Reflect on what this verse tells you about who God is.

The issues of life and death belong to Him.  He is the One who declares the terms of serving and following Him.

* Think about what this verse tells you about who you are.

I'm a disciple of Jesus, and as such, I must understand that discipleship comes with a cost.

* Throughout the week, consider how this verse should affect the way you live.

 I should live every day in a way that glorifies God and points others to Him, regardless of what it costs me personally.  My life is not to be carefully guarded and protected; it is to be spent and invested in serving God and others.

"To lose yourself is not an act of desperation; it is an act of devotion. But we do not stop there: personal devotion should lead to practical duty, the sharing of the Gospel with a lost world." -- Warren Wiersbe

William MacDonald writes in  Believer's Bible Commentary: "The natural tendency is to save our lives by selfish, complacent, routine, petty existences. We may indulge our pleasures and appetites by basking in comfort, luxury, and ease, by living for the present, by trading our finest talents to the world in exchange for a few years of mock security. But in the very act, we lose our lives, that is, we miss the true purpose of life and the profound spiritual pleasure that should go with it! On the other hand, we may lose our lives for the Savior's sake. Men think us mad if we fling our own selfish ambitions to the wind, if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, if we yield ourselves unreservedly to Him. But this life of abandonment is genuine living. It has a joy, a holy carefreeness, and a deep inward satisfaction that defies description."

C. T. Studd (1860-1931), missionary to China, India, and Sudan, said, “We will dare to trust our God ... and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man”.

P= "Lord,I am thankful for Your Word and how clearly it teaches us how You would have us to live.  You are the King and You set the terms of how we are to live and follow You.  I know that You would have me to invest my life into serving You and others, not carefully guarding it for my own use.

"I pray that You will help me to live every day in a way that glorifies You and points others to You regardless of what the cost might be. I thank You for how You will supply the strength and energy I will need , in Jesus' name, Amen."

🌿 GRATITUDE is the next prompt.  We were to reflect on the way God has shown His faithfulness to you over the past week and list five things we are thankful for.  [If you are following along with us, be sure to make your own list of five things!]. Here is my list:

1) Time to meet with Rebekah on the Monday,

2)  Plenty.of food provided for the fellowship meal.  There were many extra people, but more than enough food for everyone.

3) A generous offering supplied for our missionaries from South Africa.

4) Healing, ever so slowly, of Steve's psoriasis.

5) Getting some homemaking tasks taken care of in Zone 3, the bathrooms.

🌿 SPIRITUAL GROWTH is the next prompt, and this week there's an emphasis on  REST. We were to make a plan to intentionally rest this week.  [And again, if you are following along, please think about this for yourself.]

 During our time in Boothbay, we planned several rest periods into each day.  We also made a plan to spend Saturday night at our cottage.

🌿 Lastly is a GOSPEL-CENTERED AFFIRMATION: 

Living in a self-focused way leads to loss; living in a Christ-focused way leads to true and lasting life.

We can take this affirmation as a challenge as we go into the coming week.  Are we living in a self-focused way or a Christ-focused way?  Something to consider!

And there's the Sunday Scripture for this week!

Spinning a random post from one Hodgepodge question

 

 This week there is just not time to write a Hodgepodge post.  Sometimes when that happens, I'm able to answer just one question and that works out great.  Not this time, though.  The one question I would have answered would have been about my favorite cookbook(s). 

That would take way more time than I have today, so I'm simply spinning it into a post about cooking magazines, vintage and newer, which I have always enjoyed cooking and baking from.  Most of the text is coming from a draft of a book I'm thinking of publishing about kitchens I have known and loved. 

You may never have heard of Farm Journal, a magazine which was subscribed to by farmers and ranches all over the United States — maybe Canada too.  In the 1960s my family subscribed to it.  Near the back of this magazine was a fairly hefty section just for women.  Loads of wonderful recipes that had been sent in by readers or developed in the Farm Journal test kitchen were featured here.  The recipes for a specific issue of the magazine often had a theme — say, garden produce, gifts from the kitchen, cakes, beef or chicken main dishes, or whatever.  When the Farm Journal arrived in our home and I got my hands on it, the recipes were the first things I turned to.  I imagine a lot of country women and teen girls did the same.  

Farm Journal cover from December 1961

And then, logically enough, Farm Journal began to produce cookbooks.  How I loved these books!  My mother purchased many of them — and later on, so did I.  There was a cookie cookbook, a large, comprehensive Country Cookbook, a freezing & canning cookbook, an Informal Entertaining Country Style Cookbook (one of my top favorites), a chocolate cookbook, a family favorites cookbook, a healthy snacks cookbook and many more.  

The Farm Journal Homemade Cookies cookbook

Thanks to the evocative and folksy writing style of Nell Nichols, the Farm Journal food editor,  I could read those volumes by the hour.  The recipes were so delicious, too.  The chocolate cookbook is completely spattered and freckled with brown from baking so many of the sweet treats.  The Family Favorites cookbook is another from which I made recipe after recipe.

When Taste of Home magazine came out, both my mother and I subscribed.  I had been  cooking in my own kitchen for some time at that point.  I think the reason we instantly fell in love with Taste of Home is that it had that same folksy feeling as Farm Journal.  Indeed, the reason Farm Wife News, of which Taste of Home was an offshoot, had originally been started was that all of the older farm magazines and journals had begun to discontinue their women’s sections.  Understandably, rural women missed that and were thrilled when Reiman Publications stepped into the void with Farm Wife News.  My mother subscribed to that, as did I after it became Country Woman.  Then Reiman branched out even more with Taste of Home, a cooking magazine loaded with recipes, and a staff of field editors from all over the United States and Canada.  I still have every Taste of Home issue I ever received, and I've cooked and baked from them often.  When Quick Cooking, later renamed Simple & Delicious, came along, I subscribed to those too.

When each new issue arrived, I would always find a new recipe — usually many more than one — that I couldn’t wait to try.  My mother was the same, and so was my friend Marilyn — and later, my daughters when they had their own kitchens.  We would so often compare notes about what recipes appealed to our families and which one we would like to try first.  Some of my very best recipes came from Taste of Home or other Reiman publications.  Although I enjoyed submitting recipes to their contests, it came to the point where I was limited into which ones I could send in.  So many of our favorite recipes had come from there in the first place!

I stopped subscribing to any cooking magazines some years ago.  I have all of the recipes I will ever want or need (although that doesn't stop me from pinning more to my Pinterest boards!) and right now I am cooking with very limited ingredients due to a special diet my hubby is following.  And yet a couple of weeks ago in Maine, I picked up a free 2024 issue of Taste of Home in a thrift shop.  Must be I still find them somewhat irresistible!

Sunday Scripture

 Time for another Sunday Scripture!  I'm continuing to base my Sunday posts on the Daily Grace Co. book Fix Your Focus, which is really not a Bible study, but more of a guide to help you fix your focus on God, His Word, prayer, gratitude, and spiritual growth, every week for 52 weeks.  I encourage you to follow along with us as we journal, look at Scripture, pray, and face the challenges of our weeks with our focus on Him.  I truly hope that others are finding this as helpful as I am.

This week's lesson was actually done by me the week of July 21, but I am working ahead of you readers.  So here goes!

🌿 WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE CHECKLIST is further on in each week's section. But since I am working on Fix Your Focus all week long, I find it works best for me to do this checklist first. This checklist offers us four points:  

* To make a plan for reading our Bibles and praying.

* To add any upcoming events to our calendars.

* To jot down a to-do list of tasks that must be completed this week.

* To make a note of our top three priorities for this week.

This last point is one that I need to pay special attention to every week.  I've been finding it so helpful.  (The other three points are things that I'm consistently doing.) 

For this week, my top three priorities are:

1) Personal -- daily health goals; sew summer pajamas; Etsy listings; time at camp, dealing with extended family.

2) Homemaking --  catch up with homemaking tasks; declutter in zones 3-4; menu planning/grocery list/shopping.

3) Ministry --  Work on Sunday School and blog posts; meet with Rebekah; try calling Jennifer; food prep for fellowship meal.

[If you are following along with our study, this is the place to make a Week-at-a-Glance checklist and/or priority list for yourself!]

🌿 The first actual prompt for each week is JOURNAL.  We are encouraged to take a few minutes to journal about our fears, joys, worries, desires and stressors concerning the week ahead.  [If you are following along with us, take a moment in a journal or notebook to do just that.]. Here's what I wrote on Monday, breaking it down into the suggested categories:

Fears: No real fears going into this week.  

Joys: I find joy in ministry, joy in homemaking, Etsy, getting outdoors, joy in making things when I have time.

Worries: I try not to worry.  I do have concerns for my husband's health, mostly health concerns and family issues.

Desires: To glorify God in all that I do.  To minister to others and love them well.  For a family situation to get satisfactorily resolved.  To do some sewing.  To complete my blog posts for Christmas in July.  To get some solid work done on Sunday School lessons, household tasks, and decluttering.

Stressors: Limitations of aging and time, health concerns, family situations.

🌿 The next prompt is PRAYER. It was suggested that we use several prayer prompts to have a conversation with God about the week ahead.  [You can do the same.  Use the very same prompts for your own prayer.]

* Lord, You are ... in full control of this week and sovereign over every one of its events.  You are aware of its stressors and you are able to help me handle each one.  You are all-knowing and all-wise and know exactly what I need for this week and how it will go.

* Lord, I feel ...not ready for this week, but it's here and is in fact already Tuesday!  I feel sad about the course some things seem to be taking.  I feel overwhelmed over all that needs to be done in the house.  

* Lord, help me with ... everything on my plate this week.  Help me to have your wisdom for every situation and to use my time as wisely as possible.  Help me to have the energy needed to accomplish all that you would have me to this week.  Help me with physical issues and with complicated emotions.

* Lord, forgive me for ... times when I waste time or use it unwisely.  Times when I allow myself to become stressed or overwhelmed or resentful over situations that You are in full control of.

Make a note of four or five people you are praying for.  I listed a family member; a friend and her daughter traveling out of state; a young couple seeking God's direction.

🌿 The next section in this helpful guide is SCRIPTURE MEDITATION.  I chose to first meditate on this week's Scripture, Isaiah 55:11, using the SOAP method, and then answered several suggested questions.   [You can use your own preferred method to meditate on this verse, and answer the questions below for yourself.]

S= "See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men."  (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

O= The ESV reads "See that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good unto one another and to everyone."

Cross-references for "none render evil for evil" "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that ye are called to this, that ye should inherit a blessing."  (1 Peter 3:9)

 "Recompense no man evil for evil.  Provide things honest in the sight of all men."  (Romans 12:17)

Cross-references for "follow that which is good" -- "Let love be without hypocrisy.  Abhor that which is evil; cling to that which is good"  (Romans 12:9)

"As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."  (Galatians 6:10)

A= To help with my application of this verse, I answered the three questions from Fix your Focus:

* Reflect on what this verse tells you about who God is.

God is veery specific about how He wants His children to live and about how He wants them to treat one another.  It goes far beyond keeping commandments.  Here He states (via the Holy Spirit through Paul) that believers are not ever to return evil for evil.  Instead, we are to always follow what is good, both among our fellow believers and with all people.

* Think about what this verse tells you about who you are.

I'm a believer in need of God's instruction and am so thankful for the clear teaching He gives.  I'm a person who interacts with others --  both inside and outside the family of God -- and who should follow His guidelines for those interactions.  I'm a person whose natural bent is to render evil for evil and to follow the world's dea of what is good.

* Throughout the week, consider how this verse should affect the way you live.

 When I am mistreated in any way, I must not repay that with mistreatment toward the one who hurt me.  That's definitely challenging at times.  A pastor from my early Christian life often counseled, "Keep your own heart warm", and that absolutely fits here.  I'm to continually follow what is good, among my church family and fellow Christians in general but also in my dealings with unbelievers.

All of the verbs in this verse are in the present imperative, meaning that all of these actions are to be carried out continually, empowered by God's grace and strengthened by His Spirit.

"This we must look to, and be very careful about, that is, we must by all means forbear to avenge ourselves. If others do us an injury, this will not justify us in returning it, in doing the same, or the like, or any other injury to them." -- Matthew Henry

We are not to return evil for evil, and the word "but" indicates what we need to do instead. One writer says, "Christianity does not merely prohibit retaliation but as Paul commands should seek to "counter" it with "active good". And when is this commanded? Always - on each and every occasion this is to be our practice! No exceptions! Try to do this in your own strength!"

The word "good" here is the Greek AGATHOS, which means profitable, benefiting others. Here good is whatever is useful and helpful and would benefit those to whom it is done. So instead of retaliating true Christian kindness actively returns beneficial good for injurious wrong.

Matthew Henry wrote, "in all circumstances, whether men do us good turns or ill turns; whatever men do to us, we must do good to others. We must always endeavor to be beneficent and instrumental to promote the welfare of others, both among ourselves (in the first place to those that are of the household of faith), and then, as we have opportunity, unto all men."

P= "Lord, how I praise You for the clarity of Your Word .   Although we may sometimes find (or think we find) "gray areas", yet basically You leave us in no doubt as to how we are to live our lives as believers.  Since we interact with all different kinds of people, it's so helpful to have Your guidelines for how to treat them.

    "I pray that You will help me to not repay evil for evil or hurt for hurt, but always to be kinder than necessary.  Help me every day to follow what is good in my interactions with everyone I encounter.  I thank You for how You will help me with these things, in Jesus' name, Amen."

🌿 GRATITUDE is the next prompt.  We were to reflect on the way God has shown His faithfulness to you over the past week and list five things we are thankful for.  [If you are following along with us, be sure to make your own list of five things!]. Here is my list:

1) Steve's checkup going well.  Good results on many of his numbers.  Getting the OK to go off his blood pressure medicine after decades.

2) Strength for both of us for Terry's graveside service.  The opportunity to share the Gospel with the folks who attended.

3) Strength and forbearance in dealing with extended family.

4) The time and ingredients to make a batch of whipped tallow balm to soothe the psoriasis.  It came out perfectly and I'm so thankful!

5) God's Word so readily available to us, to guide and encourage us through life.  So thankful for how He brings Scripture to mind just when we need it!

🌿 SPIRITUAL GROWTH is the next prompt, and this week there's an emphasis on SERVING. We were to think about our available resources and how we could serve those in need this week.  [And again, if you are following along, please think about this for yourself.]

 I can use time and writing talents so write blog posts that minister to others.  Time and teaching gifts to prep for Sunday School and to write Scripture posts.  Time and energy to meet with and encourage Rebekah.  Time, energy and resources to prepare extra food for Sunday's fellowship meal with missionaries. 

🌿 Lastly is a GOSPEL-CENTERED AFFIRMATION: 

I choose to repay evil with good, knowing God deals with evil justly.

We can take this encouraging thought into the coming week as we seek to treat others in ways that please the Lord.

And there's the Sunday Scripture for this week!