What's the Difference???

Here is some food for thought for the break. This article is very important to me bcause it addresses exactally what I am struggling with right now(and all the time).
I am horrible at following these Biblical truths and embracing them; I am praying for that to change. Will you pray with me? I belive we all could use a little shaking up. Lord may we treasure YOU about All things, heralding You to the world as all sufficent. May we embrace a wartime lifestyle that does not seek our own selfish gain. Teach us these things that our sinful selfish hearts have such a hard time embracing!
longing to truly desire to make much of him,
Melissa
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness


What's the difference between living for the Kingdom and living for the American dream?
By John Piper
December 12, 2007
The following is an edited transcription of the audio.

What's the difference between living for the Kingdom and living for the American dream?

The essential difference is, What are you trying to make much of? Do you want to make much of Christ in the world, or do you want to make much of yourself, your business, or your family? What are you passionate about seeing exalted, praised and enjoyed?

I want to put that central because if we don't ask the question day by day–What am I going to make much of today?–then we will gravitate towards making much of the same things that everybody around us is making much of, like sports teams, food, or a new computer program. None of these things are sin unless they become the thing that we're driven by.

The difference between a Kingdom mindset and a worldly mindset is the King. What place does the King have? Is he central in our affections, our vocabulary, and in what we want to see happen at work, church, and in our leisure?

Does the "wartime lifestyle" come easily to you?

No, and I don't think it comes easy for anybody. If it starts coming easily then it may result in pride. That may not always be the case, because the things we work hard at are sometimes the things we boast in the most. Pride is a very insidious and subtle thing.

When I say "wartime lifestyle" I mean something very complex. That's why I say "wartime" and not "simple" lifestyle because of this complexity. In wartime you may need to build a B-52 bomber, which costs millions and millions of dollars, in order to win the war. In a simple lifestyle, however, you wouldn't fiddle around with bombers. Instead you would just move out to Idaho, plant potatoes, and be irrelevant.

In a wartime lifestyle you always ask yourself, How can my life count to advance the cause of Christ? And if it means buying a computer to keep in touch with your missionaries through email, then you're going to invest several thousand dollars into a computer and software. That's a wartime lifestyle. But you might not eat out as often, or you might buy a used car so that you can buy that computer. That's what I mean by wartime lifestyle. The alternative is to just go with the flow. Everybody gets his toys: bigger house and car, more clothing, more fine food, etc., without even thinking about how the war effort is advancing.

Personally, I must battle everyday against drifting. It isn't about making choices so much. The battle is primarily against becoming comfortable with things that aren't essential to the war effort. So you have to check yourself. Sit down with your wife and ask, How are we doing with our spending? How are we doing with the use of our discretionary money for leisure?, etc.

I admit that this is difficult. I don't have any laws to lay down about what specific things you should be doing either once a week or never or whatever. It's just tough, which is why it is tough for me.

How does what you're saying accord with the prosperity gospel–the belief that external signs of wealth are a key testimony to the world of God's blessing?

It doesn't accord. We must reject the prosperity gospel. It's just dead wrong. The world is not impressed by the prosperity of Christians. What the prosperity of Christians says to the world is nothing redemptive.

I'm not saying that all prosperity is necessarily wrong. I'm just making the point that the prosperity of a Christian says absolutely zero about Christ to the world. Christians who simply follow the American trend of "moving up" financially and materially causes the world to simply say, "They're just like us! They love the same things we love and do the same things we do." This has zero witness to the world.

The person who follows the prosperity track must find other ways to testify to the world about Jesus, because their wealth, health, and prosperity are not saying anything redemptive.

My way of remedying this lack of witness is to identify that the prosperity gospel is wrong. Don't go that direction! Don't believe that prosperity is our evidence to the world that we belong to the King. It doesn't work that way. In fact, if you look in the New Testament you'll see that the things that bear the clearest witness to our faith are the occasions when we're willing to suffer for him.

A little child can understand that. Something is valuable to you to the degree that you're willing to suffer in order to have it, not to the degree that it gives you other things that you really like. God is not shown to be valuable because he gives us other things that we like more than God. God is shown to be valuable when we're willing, for God's sake, to let certain things go which we wouldn't let go if he wasn't so precious to us.

Our testimony to the world works precisely opposite to what the prosperity gospel says. When Christians are willing to suffer for the cause of the unborn, for racial justice, and for spreading the gospel, then the world is going to say–just like it does in 1 Peter 3:15–"Where is your hope?"

Our answer will not be, "In houses, cars, and lands." Rather, we will say, "My hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to take me to himself. To live is Christ and to die is gain. I'm here on earth to spread the gospel. I'm going to keep my life as wartime as I can in order to maximize my effect for showing Jesus as valuable, not things as valuable."

Ten Cent Friday

So....Brownwood may not have a Target, AE, Anthropologie, or World Market or H.E.B. but....we do have an amazing Salvation army that has ten cent Friday's. On Friday's EVERYTHING is only ten cents! It's amazing! So last Friday I cleaned house. Here are a few of my finds.

For those of you who love shopping but can't afford it...find yourself a Salvation Army with ten cent Friday's!

love to you all.....

-Melissa

Whole Wheat Apple Bread

I made this bread Sunday morning and it turned out great.....so I thought I would pass it along.....

WHOLE WHEAT APPLE BREAD


1 c. oil
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
3 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. chopped apples
1 c. chopped pecans
2 tsp. vanilla

Combine oil, sugar, eggs. Combine flour, salt, soda and add to oil mixture. Add apples, nuts and vanilla.
Spoon into two greased 9 x 5 inch bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done. Turn out of pans before cooling completely.

Wedding Web Site

Hey everyone....just wanted to let you know that our wedding website is officially up and running...YEAH! There are few small editing details we need to take care of but it's MOSTLY finished!

You can check it out at:

www.tristanandmelissa.com

Hope you enjoy it.......love to you all.....

Melissa

Hot Coco

So....I have decided to post recipes on here as I make new things.
Today I made a bulk hot coco mix. I am happy with how it turned out and with how much it made for how little it cost! It makes about 1 gallon of mix and you can buy great value(Wal-Mart) brand and get the most bang for your buck! Since it made so much I put it in an old clear Cookie Jar that my grandma Betty gave me that has a lid and handle.....so it looks cute enough to keep it out on top of the fridge! I am thinking this will be a great way to go for hot coco because it's enough to last all winter(hopefully) and if I want to bring a hot drink anywhere it will be easy to just grab the jar to take camping or to get togethers. So here it is...enjoy!

HOT COCO MIX
2 c. powdered sugar
25.6 oz. box powdered milk
8oz. non dairy creamer
1 lb. box Nestle's Quik(I just used the off brand for everything)
1 c. cocoa
Mix above ingredients well.
Stir 3 to 4 heaping tablespoons(or however little or much you want depending on how rich you like it!) into mug of hot water. Enjoy!

Fall is here.....

I love fall.....so much that it might actually be my favorite season? The first day the weather changed I immediately went out and bought a wreath and JR and I had some fun on the porch with the camera. What made the first fall day so perfect was that Dr. Carpenter just the night before had brought Tristan and I some AMAZING loose leaf tea from Teavana, a loose leaf brewer, and some gorgeous stirring spoons. Nothing is better than a good cup of tea on the first day of fall!

In Every Season Praise the Lord!!!!!!

Here I go again....

So....
Here I go again trying to keep up with my a blog. I have so many wonders of the Lord to speak of... and... I really need to let more people know more frequently about what He's doing in my life......so....
Here I go again......

Truth & Oxygenation

Ok...today is the day before the day before I take my state boards....and finally I am getting nervous. I am ready for it all to be over. I will keep everyone posted on how things turn out. I should find out the results on friday....YIKES! Get this....this is the horrible part....you can either wait two weeks to recieve your letter that says eithe one of two things; you passed or, you failed...no real score...just pass or fail. So here is where it gets better....or worse .....depending on how you want to look at it. If I want to speed the process a long and not wait 2 weeks I can pay seven extra dollars by credit card on-line and find out the "unoffical results" two days later which equals Friday in my case. The thing that erks me about doing the quick computer thing is "page loading"....."if you know what I mean"! (totally doing the SNL quotes here.... sorry) Having the results pop up on the screen and then just staring there and looking at them...aghh! Anyway, enough freaking! His grace is sufficent for even me and His strength can be made perfect in every weakness...so then...when I am weak I am made strong! ahh....sigh of relief there! Ok...now I am deep breathing...feels so good. I love the effects that good oxygenation and truth have on the body! I highly recomend both.