Facing the Future with Faith and not Fear

I'm not a negative person, I have never seen the point. That being said, I am human, and I do have fears.

Sometimes the unknown can be a little scary. I am a person who plans ahead. I have menus, schedules, lists and more lists. I can usually deal with tomorrow, next month, maybe even next year, but beyond that the future is a little frightening. I fear losing my parents, my husband or a child...I fear being sick myself and leaving my family. Maybe what I fear most is for my children. I wonder/worry what they will face. Our freedoms are threatened now....what of the morrow? Will they have the strength to stand? I am parenting right?

Sometimes, yesterdays mistakes can influence tomorrows fears. I hope I am learning from the past, so that I do not repeat the same mistakes. I hope I am healing from the hurts...but not just healing...learning. Learning that everyone hurts. The cause of our hurts are not all the same, but the pain is always similar.

I ran across this quote the other day and I really liked it, so I put it on a picture of my kids. I think it's appropriate since their future is one of my greatest sources of fear. I must go back, again and again and place my future in the SAFEST place--God's hands. He has told us not to worry--that he will provide. My duty is to live today--to enjoy today--to love my family and know that God loves them even more.

"If what lies before you, scares you

And what lies behind you, hurts you

Look above~

He will always help you!"

Crepes

I have had a couple of requests for my crepe recipe recently. Here is the one I use. I got it from Taste of Home many years ago and made a few little changes. It's a little involved the first couple of times you make it, but trust me, after a while it becomes second nature.

Ingredients •1-1/2 cups milk •3 eggs •2 tablespoons butter, melted •1/2 teaspoon lemon extract •1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour •2 tablespoons sugar •Dash salt •TOPPING: •1/2 cup sugar •2 tablespoons cornstarch •3/4 cup water •1 tablespoon lemon juice •1 teaspoon strawberry extract •1/4 teaspoon red food coloring, optional •4 cups sliced fresh strawberries •FILLING: •1 cup heavy whipping cream •1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened •2 cups confectioners' sugar •1 teaspoon vanilla extract Directions •In a large bowl, combine the milk, eggs, butter and extract. Combine the flour, sugar and salt; add to milk mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.•Heat a lightly greased 8-in. nonstick skillet over medium heat; pour 2 tablespoons batter into the center of skillet. Lift and tilt pan to coat bottom evenly. Cook until top appears dry; turn and cook 15-20 seconds longer. Remove to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter, greasing skillet as needed. When cool, stack crepes with waxed paper or paper towels in between• In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in water and lemon juice until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 1 minute or until thickened. Stir in extract and food coloring if desired. Cool. Add strawberries.• In a small bowl, beat the cream until stiff peaks form; set aside. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth; fold in whipped cream. Then we just add the desired amount of fillings to a crepe, roll it up and try really hard not to eat too many. =)

Of course you can use any combination of fruit and berries for these. My personal favorite is fresh blackberries from my back yard.

All about St Paddy

The girls and I use every imaginable excuse in the book to have a little fun. St Patrick's Day was no exception. We had green kool-aid, pork and rainbow jello. We even tried to fold the napkins into clover shapes.

I used 3 small balls of dough to make "clover rolls."
We made fruit kabobs into a rainbow shape. (Idea for this came from pinterest.)

For dessert, we made grasshopper cake. It was pretty good. The minty flavor even made the chocolate okay in my book.

Kaite had her hair done in a 3-leaf clover. It was cute.

Lastly, I'm going to copy and paste something my husband wrote regarding the REAL St Patrick. If you have the time to read it, it's interesting and inspiring.

I inadvertently discovered some interesting things about St. Patrick’s Day.

My Sunday Morning message was titled “Send the Rain.” Revival is a spring time theme and draws so many parallels with the earth’s awakening and renewal after the long, cold winter. The message was lifted from the story in II Kings 17 of the great drought sent by the God of Israel to turn their hearts toward revival. Elijah was an amazing example of the persistence and grit it takes to work for God in the midst of dark and evil days. The apostle James provides great commentary on this story in Jas 5:17-18 where he says. ”Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

So Elijah was a man “that got out of bed and put his pants on one leg at a time” just like any other. In other words he was human. He was frail. He got dry and hungry sometimes. He got discouraged and almost gave up on at least one occasion. He was incredibly average in so many ways. The only thing that set him apart was his faith in Someone Far Above Average.

Following that famed contest on Mt. Carmel the leather faced old prophet said this to Ahab in 1Ki 18:41, “Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.” You know it took an awful lot of faith to say these words to a crabby king on a scorching hot afternoon where a single drop of rain had not dropped from the sky for three and a half years! However, by this time Elijah had his homework done and he was on believing ground. Before the rain could come the false gods had to be destroyed and gotten rid of. So Elijah was a revivalist, and a mighty good one at that! As you know, the rain did fall and the preacher ran so fast he overtook the king’s chariot and was sitting in dry clothes sipping hot coffee by the fire long before Ahab stomped the mud off his boots in the foyer.

In preparing for this message I turned to seek inspiring illustrations of revival and found one with Elijah’s trademark all over it. What I wasn’t prepared for was a connection to St. Patricks’ Day. The story took place in a little town called Coleraine. This town is near the mouth of the River Bann in Northern Ireland. The story of how the town came by its name is the connection to St. Patrick.

I had my great revival illustration but my interest was piqued. I wanted to know what St. Patrick was all about. To my surprise he did not like green beer or ever nurse a fondness for leprechauns dressed in green. I even have my doubts whether he played an accordion for he lived in the mid A.D. 400’s! He was born in western Scotland into a Christian family but by his own admission he “did not know the true God.” At age 15 he was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. He was put to work as a shepherd and in desperation at that point in his life he began to seek after Christ.

In his Confession he wrote, “I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.”

After six years of slavery, Patrick escaped and returned to his family in Scotland. However, he felt impressed in a series of visions that God was calling him to return to Ireland as a missionary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God gave him a passionate love for the Irish people and he spent the next 20 years preparing himself for the work. He became a priest and ultimately a bishop. In 432 he returned to Ireland with a small band of helpers to begin evangelizing what then was a most heathen country. The Celtic people worshipped multiple deities and included human sacrifice in their rituals. Patrick showed them that Jesus was the last human life that needed sacrifice. Jesus paid the full cost for their pardon and peace with God. For the next 30 years Patrick had fruitful ministry and many thousands upon thousands were brought to Christ. So you see St. Patrick had a lot more to do with revival than shamrocks or getting pinched because you forget to wear green.

Now I return to this interesting town called Coleraine. St. Patrick was well received here in his travels and the local chieftain gave him some land on which to build his church. The spot was next to the river Bann and was overgrown with ferns. This incident led to the area being called Coleraine meaning a “nook of ferns.” Ferns of course are very green. This perhaps is your final connection to St. Patrick’s Day.

Fast forward to 1859. Coleraine comes under the influence of the Ulster Revival. Open air meetings were conducted here where reports were given of conversions taking place in nearby towns. The spirit of revival began to ignite here as well and great changes took place. Even the children were impacted. One day the schoolmaster observed a boy so much under the Spirit’s moving that he could not do his studies. The master sent him home with an older boy who had been saved the night before. On their way they saw an empty house and went in to pray together. They stayed with it till the younger boy prayed through and found peace. Rejoicing in this new experience, the little fellow said, “I must go back and tell Mr.Murphy.” The little boy who, a little while ago had been too sorrowful to do his work, soon entered the school with a beaming face, and going up to the master said, “O Mr. Murphy, I am so happy! I have the Lord Jesus in my heart!” The impact of that simple childish testimony was unbelievable. Other boys were smitten and one by one silently slipped out of the room. After a while, the master stood on something that enabled him to look over the wall of the playground outside. There he saw a number of boys ranged around the wall on their knees in earnest prayer. The scene overcame him and he asked the pupil who had already prayed his young friend through to victory to go out and pray for these other boys likewise. He did so, and their cries out to God reached the upper floor of the school where the girls were in study session. They to then were touched and began to kneel in prayer. The surrounding neighborhood heard the volume of prayer and soon the whole school was filled with young and old praying to God for the salvation of their souls. Meals and studies were forgotten and business was conducted with God! The last person finally left the schoolhouse at 11pm that night.

During this revival in Coleraine the community was so transformed that the crime rate fell off drastically. The courts and constables were idle. The Saturday after the revival came was market day—usually blighted by much drunkenness. But this week there wasn’t a single incident. The newspaper mentioned one pub which on this day had not sold a single glass of whiskey up to 3PM—unheard of on market day.

The revival in Coleraine meant that the newly finished town hall which was to be opened with a grand ball was instead kept open all night as a “hospital for souls” where clergy were kept busy answering the questions of citizens looking for peace with God. The town hall also began hosting daily prayer meetings attended by 1,000 people. The rain had fallen and dry, parched earth was watered. The seeds of new life sprung up and the fruits of the spirit multiplied abundantly.

Of course revival is cyclical just as the seasons of the year. The fight must be renewed again and again. The prize of revival is well worth it when the long winter is past and hope springs new.

Rev. Warren Peel, the present pastor of Ballyclabber Reformed Presbyterian Church (ballyclabber.org) in Coleraine wrote this in a church publication last summer, “The ugly, evil things that have happened in our town in the last few months are a stark reminder to us that our town still needs today, more than anything else, this powerful, life-transforming work of God. At the end of the day the heart of our problem is the problem of our heart—we have all tried to live as though God is not God, and for that we deserve his judgment. But the good news is that there is mercy and forgiveness available for anyone who asks God for it. God’s power to save was shown in a dramatic way in 1859, but he still saves people today.”

My heart was touched as I considered this bit of Irish history—from the mid fifth century where a homesick shepherd slave named Patrick heard the convicting call of Jesus to look at Calvary for peace to 1859 where a small boy sitting at his school desk heard that same still, small voice and sought forgiveness of his sins. One day I too heard the tender voice of He that is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” My life has never been the same!

Today I long to see revival, personally, and in the hearts of my friends and family. Perhaps I should say, “I’m green with envy”---in a good way! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

(Hos 10:12) Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

Rick Bork