LAZY Crock-Pot Freezer Cooking

Most areas of my life both suffer and benefit from my unpredictable moods. One week I'm in a mood to clean the house as if I'd invited Martha Stewart for brunch, and other weeks I let the dishes pile up until I have to hunt for something *anything* to contain my morning cereal. One week I'm Julia Child, the next week we're eating frozen pizza. One thing that makes the most of my manic housekeeping personality is occasional freezer cooking.

Two Saturdays ago I decided to shake things up and try a new kind of freezer cooking. Instead of chopping veggies for hours, standing over a hot stove for a few more hours, and cleaning up for hours after that, I turned to my beloved crock pot for a gentler, happier freezer cooking experience.

I love my Hamilton Beach 6-quart Set-n-Forget Programmable
Slow Cooker more than any appliance I've ever owned.
Even my Kitchen Aid mixer! Don't tell her, though! ; )

This is how I made a ton of delicious food while socializing, reading, going to church, and watching TV:

1. I prepped each recipe, generally with little effort or time investment, right before I plopped it in the crock pot. This required a cutting board, knife, and sometimes a frying pan. 

2. I chose the appropriate cook time and setting for my schedule. I cooked three of these recipes on high for 3-4 hours while doing other things. The other two I cooked for about 8 hours on low overnight. While the recipes were cooking I washed off my cutting board and knife and put any other dishes in the dishwasher.

3. Once each recipe was finished, I immediately emptied the food into a different dish to cool, cleaned the insert (careful not to burn!), and started the next recipe in minutes. This is the key - no letting the dirty insert cool with caked-on food, and no wasted time! While the next recipe was cooking I divided the cooled food into freezer bags and froze them flat on a cookie sheet until stiff and ready for stacking.

In a little over 24 hours I had made enough food to last us at least three weeks.

All of these recipes are from the Crock Pot Original Slow Cooker Recipe Collection cookbook. I've tried them all and they're delicious! Anything in italics below is my own addition or substitution.

Chipotle Chicken Stew
This is somewhere between chili and chicken tortilla soup.
With minimal prep work!

Chipotle Chicken Stew

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
1 can (15 ounces) navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 ounces) crushed tomatoes, undrained

1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup orange juice

1 medium onion, diced

1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf

Cilantro sprigs (optional)

1. Combine all ingredients, except cilantro, in a 4 1/2 quart crock pot (mine holds 6 quarts - worked fine). 
2. Cover; cook on low for 7 to 8 hours, or on high for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Remove bay leaf before serving. Garnish with cilantro if desired.

Yield: 6 servings

Cream Cheese Chicken with Broccoli - picture it over pasta.
This was our favorite! Probably the least healthy, but most delicious!

Cream Cheese Chicken with Broccoli

4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 package (1 ounce) Italian salad dressing mix - I added an extra package at the end of cooking
2 cups sliced mushrooms - I used 16 oz fresh mushrooms (we love extra mushrooms)
1 cup chopped onion
1 can (10 3⁄4 ounces) condensed low-fat cream of chicken soup, undiluted 

1 bag (10 ounces) frozen broccoli florets, thawed
1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed (or Neufchatel cheese)
1⁄4 cup dry sherry

1. Toss chicken with olive oil. Sprinkle with Italian salad dressing mix. Place in 5-quart crock pot. Cover; cook on LOW 3 hours.

2. Coat large skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Add mushrooms and onion; cook 5 minutes over medium heat or until onions are tender, stirring occasionally.

3. Add soup, broccoli, cream cheese and sherry to skillet (and second salad dressing mix); cook and stir until hot. Transfer to 4 1⁄2-quart crock pot. Cover; cook on LOW 1 hour (I recommend uncovered to thicken!). Serve chicken and sauce over pasta.

Yield: 10-12 servings 

Mama's Beer Chili
The beer adds sweetness and the corn adds texture.
We ate this with Fritos and shredded cheese. Yum!

Mama's Beer Chili

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large vidalia onion, diced
4 tbsp garlic, crushed
1 1/2 - 2 lb ground turkey
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
1 cup beer, (dark preferred)
3 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp curry powder
3 Tbsp hot sauce
1/3 cup honey
10 oz frozen corn
1 can (15oz) pink beans or kidney beans
1/3 cup canned green chilies
3 beef bouillon cubes
1-2 tbsp flour, to thicken

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat until hot. Add onion, cook and stir 5 minutes. Add garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes.

2. Add turkey to skillet. Cook and stir until turkey is no longer pink. Drain fat and discard.

3. Add remaining ingredients, stirring until mixed. Transfer to 4 1/2 quart crock pot. Cover; cook on low 8-10 hours or on high 4-6 hours.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Nice 'n' Easy Italian Chicken - picture it over pasta.
Not the prettiest dish, but really tasty. I love that it has so many veggies,
but they cook down so that you don't notice them -
would still be good for picky eaters.

Nice 'n' Easy Italian Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)

8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 26-oz jar pasta sauce

I added: garlic salt, oregano, and crushed red pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except pasta in slow cooker. Cover; cook on low 6-8 hours or until chicken is tender. Serve over spaghetti.

Yield: 4 servings

Country Sausage and Bean Soup
The sausage and tomato are a nice change of pace from plain
black bean soup. This stuff is really hearty and filling!

Country Sausage and Bean Soup

2 cans (14-oz each) chicken broth

1 1/2 cups hot water
1 cup dried black beans, rinsed and sorted
1 cup chopped onion
2 bay leaves
1 tsp sugar 
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
nonstick cooking spray
6 ounces reduced-fat country pork sausage
1 cup chopped tomato

1 Tablespoon Worchestershire sauce (I used more - love that stuff!)
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Combine broth, water, beans, onion, bay leaves, sugar and ground red pepper in crock pot. Cover; cook on HIGH 4 hours, or on Low 8 hours

2.  Coat large skillet with cooking spray.  Heat over medium-high heat until hot. Add sausage; cook until beginning to brown, stirring to break up large pieces.  Drain fat.

3. Add sausage and remaining ingredients, except cilantro, to crock pot. Cover; cook on high 15 minutes to blend flavors.  To serve, sprinkle with cilantro.

Yield: 6 servings

I hope you'll give these incredibly easy and tasty recipes a chance. I'm loving the flavors and the fact that I haven't had to cook dinner for two weeks! As a bonus, these recipes are budget-friendly and pretty heavy in veggies and legumes.

What are your favorite crock pot recipes? What do you like to freeze for a rainy (or lazy!) day?

2012 Books in Review

This year I rediscovered a love for reading that I haven't felt since my high school book club days. Funny what starting over in a new town with no friends and TV season breaks will do, huh? I've actually been slacking in my reading now that we've settled into life here in the Memphis area, but I'm looking forward to hitting the books hard to start the new year. Without further ado, here's my reading list from 2012.

1. A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Sign of the Four - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
4. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
5. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
6. A Meal with Jesus - Tim Chester
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
8. Voices of the True Woman Movement - Nancy Leigh DeMoss
9. This Momentary Marriage - John Piper
10. Knowing God - J.I. Packer
11. Just Do Something - Kevin DeYoung
12. Tempted and Tried - Russell Moore
13. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Schaffer
15. The Runaway - Terry Kay
16. The Lords of Discipline - Pat Conroy
17. Murder on Astor Place - Victoria Thompson
18. The Gospel and Personal Evangelism - Mark Dever
19. The Testament - John Grisham
20. Awaiting a Savior - Aaron Armstrong
21. A Hunger for God - John Piper
22. Delighting in the Trinity - Michael Reeves
23. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
24. Conversation Peace - Mary Kassian

Sorry to those of you who might like these books, but I wouldn't recommend...

• Murder on Astor Place may be the worst book I've ever read. With a terribly repetitive writing style and disgusting twists at the end to try to make up for an otherwise predictable plot, this book had me shaking my head.
• I felt compelled to read Catching Fire and Mockingjay immediately after finishing The Hunger Games (which I devoured), but I wish I'd stopped after the first book. I was hoping to grow to like Katniss in the last two books, but instead I hated every decision she made. Her world devolved into a nightmare, but not in an interesting way. I came to expect that the worst would happen at every pass and in this way things became very predictable and tiresome. These were two long books of disappointment and death - not what I was hoping for on my beach vacation!
• The Testament was my first Grisham novel, and maybe not the best to start with. I found it very slow-moving. A travel narrative was an odd choice for someone with such a straightforward, business-like writing style, and I think he tried to make up for it with laborious descriptions and lengthy dialogue. It was a long book and nothing special.
• Speaking of slow-moving, A Prayer for Owen Meany may have taken me longer to finish than any other book I've attempted. I started it over a year ago and stopped many times since. I enjoyed very little of it except the occasional humorous story, but most of them are just quirky rather than funny. I found Owen less than compelling as a Christ-like, all-knowing wonder boy, which left me with a "so what?" attitude throughout the book. Without empathy for the characters this book was just a bunch of disjointed stories about people I don't like.
• One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp isn't on my list because I didn't finish it. I will qualify my criticism by stating that some of my most respected friends love this book and highly recommend it. Voskamp has a love-it-or-hate-it writing style, and unfortunately, I hate it! When I read it I was looking for serious encouragement and this just didn't cut it. The book is essentially the journal of a woman who learns to love life again by savoring the green of the grass and blue of the sky. I really tried to be encouraged by these things, but they only annoyed me.  I know that her purpose is to find joy in everyday things, but the things she chose for inspiration felt unoriginal and superficial. When I read this book I was battling depression and I wanted a Christian writer to show me how to fix my eyes on Jesus, not raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. That's where J.I. Packer came in.

Here are my favorite fiction books of the year...

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was nothing short of delightful. I wish I had ten more books like it to get lost in when I'm feeling down. Every once in a while I love to read something that is character-driven instead of plot-driven so that I can just enjoy the people. This was that book for me.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the opposite. Although the characters were intriguing, the plot had my eyes glued to the page until the end. I would love to read the other books in the series, but won't due to the very graphic nature of some of the pivotal scenes in this one. My understanding is that the next book delves into the heroine's violent past, which I'm sure will mean more rape scenes. I don't think it's worth it to read something so disturbing, but I'm sure they're otherwise spectacular books.
• The Runaway filled my longing for a good Southern novel. If you like To Kill a Mockingbird, All the King's Men, The Help, or anything by Toni Morrison, you would probably love Terry Kay. He writes about Georgia, which fills my heart with joy, even if the stories he tells are often sad. The book was slow to start, but I didn't want it to end. It's written beautifully enough to be taught in an English class and engaging enough to read for fun.

And lastly, here are a few of my favorite spiritual growth books of the year...

• Knowing God is, without a doubt, one of the best books I've ever read. It echoed so many of the beautiful things I learned about God while we were members at our church back in Georgia, so the whole time I was reading it I felt like I was saying a long goodbye to that chapter of our lives. What a precious gift to have all of those lessons condensed into one book! To read a whole post on my thoughts about this book click here.
• Just Do Something is the book I've most recommended to friends since I finished it. It's relatively short and a fun read - so if you're interested at all, you should pick it up now! If you ever struggle with indecision, delaying responsibility, or fear of the unknown, this book will give you a swift kick in the pants. To read a whole post on my thoughts about this book click here.
• This Momentary Marriage sums up everything I want my marriage to be like - a picture of the perfect love of Jesus. I often struggle with Piper's writing, but I enjoyed this book immensely. It's full of both practical and theological wisdom and a worthwhile read for anyone, including those who are single. To read a whole post on my thoughts about this book click here.
• Delighting in the Trinity is a surprisingly readable book on a prickly topic. It's actually a fun read, not only about the dynamics of the Trinity, but God's character in general. It tackles big questions like, "What was God doing before creation?", "What is the role of each person of God in creation, salvation, adoption, etc.?", and "What does it mean that Jesus is the Word of God?" Reeves is great at expressing things that I already vaguely know in a much better way than I've ever thought or heard them.

Join me on GoodReads!

For a while I tried to blog in-depth notes on my favorite books, but that became a burden and took away from my reading time. Instead, this year I'll be rating and writing brief reviews on all of my books on goodreads - a helpful site that helps me organize my reading and follow my friends' updates on their books. Feel free to "friend" me by searching for Angelyn Vaughan. I'd love for us to spur each other on in our reading goals. 

Happy New Year!

Ruffled Burlap Table Runner

After sharing a tutorial for the pallet wall art in our living room, which I made from a few ideas I found on Pinterest, my plan was to write about some other recent Pinterest successes. But since I just followed someone else's instructions for this project, this isn't a tutorial. It's more like a thumbs-up for this lady's tutorial.

My new runner!

I pinned the image for this adorable table runner before we moved into our new house and then forgot about it.

The oh-so-pretty white and silver runner I got last Christmas from Z Gallerie just didn't look right with the creamy trim and earthy tones in our dining room, so it got banished to the closet. It'll probably make an appearance at Christmas when shiny things are a must. But for a while my table was looking pretty naked. And then I remembered the burlap.

My Z Gallerie runner.
Beautiful - but just not right for the space.

This is the biggest thing I've sewn so far. Really, it's the only thing I've sewn that isn't a burpcloth or a lopsided pillow case, but it only took me two evenings (probably about 4.5 hours) to finish. I was a little nervous about the ruffles. But I'll tell you something important for your future crafting knowledge: burlap is very forgiving.

I purchased the burlap about 3 months ago, so when I finally summoned the motivation to tackle this project I went for it. No delays for photos or blog notes. Just lots of measuring, cutting, pinning, and sewing. And since the lady who wrote this tutorial knows much more about sewing than I do, I just followed her steps.

Her pictures for measuring and cutting were really helpful and her instructions were easy to follow. But I will elaborate on a few things in case you are an inexperienced seamstress like me.

The first step that tripped me up a bit was attaching the ruffle to the body of the runner. She mentioned pressing it first and then sewing it on. But I couldn't figure a way to do that without making it more of a pleat than a ruffle. So I just pinned it the best I could (it takes a ton of pins to hold ruffled burlap!) and guided the fabric to the machine so the ruffles were somewhat evenly spaced. And it worked. No biggie. Since the burlap is loosely woven my sewing machine just skimmed over it without any hangups.

I didn't mean to turn under the ends of my ruffles
- it just kind of happened.

The most important thing I learned by experience was to be sure the final seam matches up the top and bottom fabric on the ends. For some reason, my 17-inch-wide pieces were slightly different lengths. Meaning that from the top everything looks great, but if you flip the runner over you can see the seam used to hold the ruffle to the top piece of fabric. I should have taken a little extra time to make the pieces even. I chose not to worry about it (who's going to look at the underside of my table runner?), but I would be a little more pleased with the project if it were neat on top and bottom.

The bottom - from far away it looks fine

But up close you can see my seams didn't all meet up

Here's the finished product:

The centerpiece will get a little more festive soon!

I like that it's still a little puffy rather than flat and thin.

Now for curtains to add some color...

So, what do you think? I love that this project only required one fabric, which was ridiculously cheap with a coupon. The whole thing cost less than $6! I love that it adds a little texture to a room that was previously all hard surfaces. And I especially love that it only took a few hours to complete. Thanks to Confessions of a Plate Addict for the great tutorial. It was a success!

July Books: Tempted and Tried by Russell Moore

Russell Moore is a great writer. He's a good writer when it comes to concepts, but he's a great writer when it comes to stories. Having listened to him read the audio version of his fantastic book Adopted for Life, it was fun to hear his voice in my head while I read this one.

If Michael hadn't read and liked this book it certainly never would have made it on my reading list. A book on the temptation of Jesus seemed a little narrow in scope and not particularly pertinent to my own spiritual life. I realized quickly that this was a silly assumption. After all, there are few certainties in life, but temptation is definitely one of them.

This book individually examines the three temptations of Jesus and their implications about His character, Satan's methods, and our lives. I'll admit that I had difficulty following some of his points, but Moore provides the most thorough and insightful interpretation of this passage that I've ever heard. It occasionally felt like he was reading too much into the text, but considering he's dean of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, it's probably just that he knows much more about the rest of the Bible than I do. Yeah. That's definitely the case.

The three temptations of Jesus are:

• provision - turning stones into bread
• protection - bringing angels to the rescue
• exaltation/inheritance - taking on Satan's domain

Moore argues that at the core of each of these temptations, and the ones you and I face today, is an invitation to cast off the fatherhood of God. With God as our perfect Father, we have access to all of these things, but only in his timing and control.

"In every one of the temptations, Satan attempted to counteract God's voice at this point: 'If you are the son of God, then...' This is the equivalent of the Edenic 'Has God really said?'"

"Most people don't first conclude that adultery is right and then start fantasizing about their neighbor swinging from a stripper pole... It happens in reverse... First, you do what you want to do, even though you 'know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,' and only then do you 'give approval to those who practice them' (Rom 1:32) You start to see yourself as either special or hopeless, and thus the normal boundaries don't seem to apply."

"It's not that you are deficient in your ability to diagnose the situation. It's that you slowly grow to believe that your situation is exceptional."

"Eve started to see God not as Father, but as rival, and that's when she struck out to grab what He was holding back from her. Her appetites, Satan said, were a more reliable guide to what she needed than the word of her God."

"Cycles of abundance and abasement are part of God's strategic purpose, not because of his ignorance of human need."

"To lose control of your appetites is to lose sight of the gospel itself, the truth that God knows what you need to survive - the broken body and spilled blood of Jesus."

"Why do we never ask why it might be better to live in a one-bedroom apartment or a trailer park than to outsource the rearing of one's children? It's because the American way of life seems so normal to us that such things do not even seem to be options at all."

The reason Satan still uses the same methods as he did back then is that they still work. Left to our own devices, we will succumb to his schemes. But Jesus is triumphant. I've always been hasty in reading the account of his temptation because I know Jesus won't sin. It's a given. But what I learned from Russell Moore is that his triumph over Satan - not just in his resurrection, but in resisting temptation, gives us hope.

"We overcome temptation the same way He did, by trusting in our Father and hearing his voice."

"God's testing and Satan's tempting may coincide in the same event, but they are radically different, with different motives and different intended outcomes."

"The world around you often defines you in terms of what you want... If you want to have sex, then that's your 'need' and you must 'be true to yourself.' But you do not live by bread alone. You are not what you want... You are who you are. And that's defined by the Word of God."

"The Spirit of Christ compels us toward contentment. We are able to be free from the love of money when we recognize our identity and our inheritance in Christ and cling to the promise, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.' (Heb 13:5)."

"(Jesus) was willing to trust God's Word and to be seen to be wrong in the meantime."

"If you are in Christ, God will not allow you to enter his reign with a kingdom-grasping pride. You will be stripped of every haughty look, every personal empire, in order that you may enter as a little child, looking for a Father's inheritance."

"One of the first ways you can tell you are moving beyond temptation into a pattern of sin is if you find yourself in a time of prayerlessness. That isn't just a' spiritual maturity issue' - it's a gospel issue"

"Stop seeing yourself as an isolated individual, and start seeing yourself as the gospel does, as part of a head/body unity between Christ and his church... If you are in Christ, your desires will line up with his eventually. Count on it"

"As you read Scripture, ask God to discern your heart and to discipline you."

If, like me, you just read this book and move on to other things you will only find it interesting. If, like I should have done, you put it down and pray for grace at the moments that you identify your struggles, you will be changed. Revisiting the book for this post has made it clear to me that that's something I need to do. I hope you will, too.

July Books: This Momentary Marriage by John Piper

This book is one of those that you'll underline and highlight to death - assuming you're like me and you have a lot to learn about being a good spouse.

One of the things that I love about John Piper is that he publishes his books online for free. So if you're interested in reading this one and okay with not holding it in your hand, click here for the PDF.

I love that this book both glorifies marriage by demonstrating that it is a holy calling and humbles it by showing that it's a fleeting shadow of things to come.

"The highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be, that should be your dream."

Marriage is wonderful, but it's not essential to following Christ faithfully. Piper writes an excellent chapter on God-glorifying singleness and constantly warns his married readers not to think of themselves as better than their single friends:

"Romance, sex, and childbearing are temporary gifts of God. They are not part of the next life. And they are not guaranteed even for this life. They are one possible path through the narrow way to Paradise."

Having experienced for myself and from others how beautiful it is to be part of a an unconditional marriage covenant it makes me sad that most people in our culture think of marriage as a conditional contract instead. While I've known all my life that God requires us to be faithful to our spouses, I don't think I quite understood the lavish grace that God intends us to extend to them until I read these words from Piper:

"As the Lord counts you righteous in Christ, though you are not righteous in actual behavior and attitude, so count your spouse righteous in Christ, though he or she is not righteous... Marriage is meant to be a unique matrix for this display of God's grace." 

I've known for a long time that God intends marriage to make us holy through constant accountability and responsibility to someone else, among other things. But I think I had forgotten that most of that sanctification comes from extending extravagant, Christ-like, forgetful grace to the other over and over again.

"If we are to return good for evil in general, how much more in marriage." 

To me, this is the quote that most completely summarizes the book:

"Keeping covenant with our spouse is as important as telling the truth about God's covenant with us in Jesus Christ. Marriage is not mainly about being or staying in love. It's mainly about telling the truth with our lives. It's about portraying something true about Jesus Christ and the way he relates to his people. It is about showing in real life the glory of the gospel."

And I also love this quote about parenting:

"The chief task of parenting is to know God for who He is in his many attributes - especially as he has revealed himself in the person of Jesus and his cross - and then to live in such a way with our children that we help them know this multifaceted God. And, of course, that will involve directing them always to the infallible portrait of God in the Bible... His design is that children grow up watching Christ love the church and watching the church delight in Christ."

If you want to watch a video with a beautiful, heartbreaking, God-glorifying application of the principles in this book, click here. Go ahead and get a box of Kleenex ready. And your sleeve.

I hope you'll read this book and be humbled, encouraged, and instructed as I was.

July Books: Knowing God by J.I. Packer

I could write a book on this book. I don't want to do that. I've never read a book so rich in biblical doctrine and so practically applied. So here's a bullet-point summary of what I learned.

Things I didn't know or had misconceptions about:

• There are places in the Bible where Jesus displays a lack of knowledge, indicating that he drew on his omniscience intermittently - not that his power was reduced, but restrained. I've never seriously pondered this on my own, but reading it made me realize I'd always felt uncomfortable with those texts!
• Packer spends a chapter equating icons and images (including crucifixes and pictures of Christ) with idolatry. I'm not sure that I'm totally tracking on that one, especially with how far he draws his boundaries on it, but it's something to ponder.
• Although all people are made in God's image not everyone is a child of God: only the elect are. I've believed that for a while, but not applied it to the "we're all God's children" ideas so prevalent in pop culture. 
• I know I've opened a big can of Calvinist worms here, which I don't want to debate right here. But to read more about what I believe on this subject check out this site.
• Adoption as sons of God is the highest privilege given to believers. Justification (being made right with God) is just the beginning of God's special grace to us.
• In the context of adoption, The Sermon on the Mount should be read as a family code of conduct like moral instruction from parent to child.

Areas of muddy understanding or forgetfulness:

• The Holy Spirit is Jesus' agent among us. We should focus on His main ministry: giving peace, joy, hope, etc. more than His extraordinary and sporadic ministry: giving gifts like healing or tongues. Also, one of his most important roles is deepening our filial relationship to our Father.
• The four main analogies for knowing God are son/father, wife/husband, subject/king, and sheep/shepherd.
• I learned many details about the persons and relationships of the Trinity.
• I've never enjoyed wisdom literature and all the exhortations to wisdom in the Bible, but the chapters on wisdom put me in my place. Wisdom is seriously important to God!
• Note: I read this right before I  read "Just Do Something," which really put this talk about wisdom to work.
• Being made in the image of God means that we are made to display his communicated attributes (attributes God shares with us, like wisdom). Redemption means that this is possible even after sin.
• Our works provide an index of what's in our hearts - that's why we'll be judged according to them.
• God's wrath simply confirms/executes judgements sinners have already made on themselves through their choices. Another can of worms. I know. : )
• God shows his common grace to all (blessings) and special grace to some (salvation). His generosity is how we experience the rest of his attributes.
• God's threefold purpose: judgement/rule, redemption/choose people, be loved/glorified.
• God's righteous jealousy for us demands that we be zealous for him.
• The authority, affection, fellowship, and honor God gives to Jesus are extended to us in adoption.

I usually prefer to write in actual paragraphs, but in this case it's definitely best that I stuck to bullet points.  

I highly recommend this book. I plan to reread it in the future to remind myself of God's goodness, wisdom, and truth. Thanks for stopping by!

July Books: Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung

I read some fantastic books last month. Fantastic. The kind of books that shift around ideas in your mind so that they'll never go back to where they were before.

Because these books were so great, I wanted to record my thoughts on them so that I can look back at them in case I find myself forgetting. When I read novels I'll probably just write a few paragraphs, but when I read books for spiritual growth I'll probably write much more. Although I know these posts may not be the most fascinating for everyone, I think they'll be really helpful for me. If I can be disciplined in doing it, that is. You might notice that we're already a few weeks into August. Oh well...



Just Do Something - A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will

I love this little book. I wish I'd read it 10 years ago, but it hadn't been written yet.

It's full of tough love - maybe a little tougher than some like. Its purpose is to encourage people to make wise, God-honoring decisions in the many situations where they don't have crystal clear direction from above. DeYoung's intent is not to discourage us from seeking God's will, but the opposite. He teaches that many of the attitudes Christians employ in making decisions demonstrate a lack of faith and ignorance of scripture.

He interprets the following familiar verse, which concludes Jesus' teaching on worry and God's provision, to mean that those who are seeking after the things of God (who know the scriptures, submit to God's authority, and seek to please Him with their lives) will make decisions that honor Him. And "all these things" - non-moral decisions like where to live, whether to go on that mission trip, or what to eat for lunch today, will be added unto them. In other words, God isn't witholding his will and waiting for us to mess up. It is his will that we ask for wisdom and trust Him along the way.

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33

I think most believers would benefit from reading this book, but especially two types of people: those who fear missing God's will and those who feel like they receive less spiritual guidance than their friends.

The first type of person describes most of the Christians I knew in college. And myself for my freshman year at least. We tried every major, every campus ministry, and every new Christian fad just in case God's will was hiding behind it like a door on a game show. Trying out new ways of living is part of growing up, but after four (or five, six, seven...) years, hopping from one job, church, location, or relationship to another becomes frightening rather than fun. And at some point you realize that a significant portion of life has passed you by while you were trying to find God's supposedly elusive will. Whether it's fear of working in the wrong field, marrying the wrong person, or generally missing God's best for your life, fear of taking the wrong steps can keep us from maturing in many aspects of our lives. I love the following quotes on relationships and church involvement. If only this were required reading for college freshmen...

"Guys, if you like a girl and you're both Christians and your friends and family aren't alarmed and she actually likes you back, you should probably get married." p 106

"My fear is that of all the choices people face today, the one they rarely consider is 'How can I serve most effectively and fruitfully in the local church?' I wonder if the abundance of opportunities to explore today is doing less to help make well-rounded disciples of Christ and more to help Christians to avoid long-term responsibility and have less long-term impact." p 36

Chances are, if you were friends with a lot of the first type of people I described you've at least felt like the second one. In high school and college my friends were always feeling led to do this or that. I often was, too. I can recall times when the Spirit led me to buy a meal for a homeless person or to become better friends with someone I didn't know well. But in the big decisions, like where to go to college, I heard nothing but silence. I remember the guilt I felt when friend after friend talked about how they wanted to go to one college, but felt led to go to another. All I could think was, "I want to go to UGA, so surely that's not God's will." Wrong! I'm so glad God made me to love downtown Athens and Georgia football and the palpable energy of Sanford Avenue on a fall afternoon. And I'm thankful that I didn't swerve from my inclinations. Most of all, I'm thankful that I met a man there that I married without any thunderbolt direction from the Lord. That man isn't tossed about by fads or feelings, but consistently perseveres in his preparations to fulfill a decision He made in high school - to take the gospel of Jesus where it's never been heard. The biggest decisions of our lives have been determined by our own wisdom (sought from the Lord) and confirmed by God's grace along the way.

“We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known to us but because it is known to God. And that's all we need to know. Worry about the future is not simply a character tic, it is the sin of unbelief, an indication that our hearts are not resting in the promises of God.” p 48

 
I could write much more about this book, but instead I'll close out this post with a few more of my favorite quotes from DeYoung:

"We need the firm reminder that many of us expect too much out of life. We’ve assumed that we’ll experience heaven on earth, and then we get disappointed when earth seems so unheavenly... When every experience and situation must be rewarding and put us on the road to complete fulfillment, then suddenly the decisions about where we live, what house we buy, what dorm we live in, and whether we go with tile or laminate take on weighty significance." p 32

 

"God promises to work all things together for our good that we might be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28). And the degree to which this sounds like a lame promise is the degree to which we prefer the stones and scorpions of this world to the true bread from heaven (Matt 7:9-11)…He promises to make us loving, pure, and holy in Christ. In short, God’s will is that you and I get happy and holy in Jesus." p 61

I think you should go read this book! It might be God's will for you. : )