Sharing Hope!

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

admin — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:01:37 +0000

Found this great recipe on allrecipes.com, submitted by Elena. Thank, Elena!

Just put everything into your slow-cooker, and turn it on!

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound shredded, cooked chicken

1 (15 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, mashed

1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

1 medium onion, chopped

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chile peppers

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups water

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt (optional)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 bay leaf

1 (10 oz) pkg frozen corn

1 tblsp chopped cilantro or parsley (to suit your taste)

Broken pcs of tostadas

DIRECTIONS:

Place first six ingredients into slow-cooker. Pour in water & broth, put in seasonings & bay leaf. Stir in corn & cilantro/parsley. Cover, and cook on low setting for 6-8 hours or on high setting for 3-4 hours.

TO SERVE:

Sprinkle broken tostada pieces on tops of hot bowls of soups. Yum!

How To “Rev” Up Your Personal Time With God

admin — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:53:22 +0000

Several months ago I tried to come up with another term for “quiet time” or “devotions”; however, nothing ever came to me. Regardless of what term we call it, our daily time with the

I will lift up my eyes onto the hills...

Lord is extremely special and crucial to our everyday walk with Him.

Personally, I like to picture Father waiting for me each morning, with great excitement and anticipation of my arrival. I often think of the reunion between a military member and his or her loved one at the airport – running into one another’s arms and embracing with great joy of being together once again. That should be our expectation for meeting with the Lord each and every day!

Once settled in our favorite place for the time spent with Him – the question can easily be asked, “Now what?” Here are some simple and creative ways to inject new life into our quiet time:

Read the Word aloud – The Father loves to hear His words spoken back to Him!
Write your prayers in a journal – not just prayer needs and requests, but whole sentences, just as you would pray.
Pray aloud – keeps us on track and the devil HATES to hear us pray – give him something to worry about!
Softly play worship music that is conducive to intimacy.
Have a daily prayer focus. For example: Monday – pray for your pastor or priest, church leadership, and all the prayer concerns that were brought to your attention the day before. Tuesday – pray for the country, the government and its leaders, including state and local leadership. Wednesday – pray for foreign and local missions, missionaries, the persecuted church and any ministries that you personally support. Thursday – pray for specific needs in your immediate family and marriages that are suffering setbacks. Friday – pray for businesses and work situations of those you know are having difficult times. Saturday and Sunday – pray as the Spirit leads about everything and anything.
Select a devotional which truly ministers to you – there are thousands to choose from. Seek recommendations from believers that you look up to and those that you know have a strong personal relationship with God.

If it has been a while since having a personal devotion time, don’t dive in and declare that ‘you are going to start spending two hours with the Lord every morning.’ Take baby steps – find your perfect meeting place (comfy chair in the den or at the kitchen table) and meet with Him – simply talk to the Lord, share with Him your heart and let His soothing balm (of Gilead) pour over you and surround you with His joy and pleasure of spending time with you – over the next weeks and months you will come to realize that God is the very air you breathe and the only bread that truly sustains.

Parenthood is Hard; Single Parenthood is Harder!

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:32:30 +0000

For the past several weeks we have been blessed with a visiting family in our yard. A North Carolina Wren built her nest in a birdhouse hanging from our tree. Birds teach me so much about God, His love and His merciful provision to even the smallest of His creatures. The wrens painstakingly got their nesting exactly as they wished. We watched them for days bringing twigs and fuzzy things to the house. Both Mom and Dad wrens were quite industrious and finally their mission was accomplished. Soon we saw Mrs. Wren enter the house and stay for hours at a time. This went on for days. One day when we knew they were both nowhere in sight, my husband opened the birdhouse (he crafted it with knobs that would separate the top from the bottom), and found four small brown eggs. Quads, right in our own front yard – how exciting!
The time came when the eggs hatched and the feeding schedule began. Feeding always involves both Mr. and Mrs. Bird and as we watched for several days, we realized that there was only one wren doing all the hunting and the feeding. There is no way of knowing whether it was the male or the female – we only knew that something must have happened to the mate and this hard-working wren was wearing itself out feeding four baby birds. It is fairly normal for baby birds to be fed for about seven to ten days before flying away and becoming independent – but because there was only one bird doing the work of two, the feeding went on for a full two weeks. Our garden was the wren’s hunting ground for bugs, worms, and anything else that would serve as food!
Last night we watched the wren go back and forth, back and forth and as it began to get dark, the bird entered the house to spend the night with her fledglings. I told my husband, these babies are going to fly soon – they are just about coming out of the hole when the food is being delivered. This morning, the announcement was made – the feathered quads flew away! My first thought was, that single parent went into that birdhouse last night and delivered the final lecture…”Okay kids, this is it. I am tired, worn out and you are old enough and healthy enough to fend for yourselves – in the morning you are being pushed out of here so I can get some rest!”
Well, that’s just what happened. Is there a moral to this story? Yes, parenthood at its best is hard and all time consuming; single parenthood is twice as hard and twice as time consuming. I know from first-hand experience. Do we know any single Mom’s or Dad’s? Let’s offer them our support, our help when possible, and most definitely let’s pray for them. We could be helping the “least of these.”