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Issue #25 November 2013

To Love Again Ministries

Content We Are The Light 4 The Foot and the hand 6 Table for Two 8 Hope Never Fails 10

Credits

Writers Debra Lilly Sarah Williamson Beverly Huffman Kimberly Borst

Editing Alan Porter

Photography Cover by jennnster (Photographers are named if available)

Design Kimberly Borst

Copyright © To Love Again

Ministries 2012, Photos © very

To Love Again

Ministries Pick of the month

This month we are highlighting an article by Francis

Frangipain featured on the

TheElijah List

The article is called A Special Word to the Women of God. You will have to scroll down a bit to get to the main article. It is very encouraging especially if you have engaged in intersession. God has a heart for women and a place in history for us! http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=12688

Gary Simmons

We Are the Light Debra Lilly

“You are the light of the world. A city set

on a hill cannot be hidden. (Matt. 5:14)

“Let your light shine before men in such a

way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5: 16)

We, who are allowing God to transform

us into the image of His Son will be used by Him to show forth His light and be the salt of the earth. What does salt do?

It brings out the flavor and adds

freshness or a stimulating quality… Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

We don’t always have to open our

mouths for others to ‘taste’ the Lord. More often, our actions speak louder than our words.

The Bible has much to say about the

darkness and that it will continue to get darker as time progresses. We are called out of darkness into His light. Jesus has transferred to us that very same light - to show forth His light to a lost and dying world.

This world is becoming more and more

corrupt. I don’t believe we, as believers, are ever going to change that fact – certainly not in our own strength. Of course, we are to do our part in what the Lord shows us to do. Our main focus is to be the light and show forth that light.

Anita Ritenour

As we lift up Jesus, He will draw all men unto Himself as He promised in His word.

How bright is our light? Can people see

Him through us? I don’t mean wearing a Jesus T-shirt or a shiny cross necklace – if we were naked and had no voice, could they still see Jesus in us? Our convictions, our actions, our words and our faith are who we really are – not what we portray on the outside.

Our lives are to be lived horizontally

showing God’s love to one another. How we love and treat others is a representation and similitude of how we love God (vertically). Love thy neighbor as thyself. Who is our neighbor? Matt. 25:40 …“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”

God did not call us to be on the defense,

but on the offense. Take the game of football for example - we aren’t the defensive side trying to hold back the opposition. We are the offensive team pushing through the darkness. There is a goal that we are to reach. The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and the violent lay hold of it.

We need to align ourselves with the

Spirit of God and allow Him to transform us in all aspects of our lives - into His image. Stop running from the darkness, turn around and head into it with our lights on high beam. Like the little girl who was given a new flashlight – she was excited and said, “Now I just need to find me some darkness so I can shine this thing!”

Ben Salter

I know of a woman of God who was

walking down the street one day in a ‘dark’ part of a city. The Lord told her to go back and walk into the bar she just passed. Being obedient, she turned around and walked into the bar and just stood there in the middle of it. A few minutes later the Lord told her she could go now. She didn’t think much of it and several months later, while she was in an airport restroom in another city, a lady came up to her and exclaimed, “I know who you are! You’re the lady who walked into a bar where I was and just stood there with your mouth open. Light was pouring out of every orifice in your head! I gave my life to Jesus because of you.”

May we be light and salt - advancing the

Kingdom of God wherever we go.

What if your left leg and right arm

switched places? Churches, employees, and families are like bodies. What if ‘Foot’ compared itself to others? It could say, “I want to be … and if I’m not that, I am not worth anything.” This is a classic case of “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.” It is romantic thinking. It is thinking other people have lives better than our own.

People may look good from the outside.

You may think, “Why can’t I be like them? Why can’t I be a hand?” It is important to be yourself. Other people cannot do what you do in the way you can do it because you are the only you!

If you feel like you have been thrown

under the bus, pull in your limbs. Wait for the bus to drive away. Get up. Brush the dead flies off and keep walking. Be all you can be where you are. Today is your launching pad. Don’t wait for a promotion. Make an opportunity for yourself to shine . . . whether other people notice or not. Shine!

You don’t decide what you want to be.

You discover what you were created to be. Search for your strengths like a miner digs for precious gold. What should you do when a foot wants to be a hand in your church, workplace, or family? To start with, out-of-place people are easy to spot. They are the

TThhee FFoooott aanndd tthhee HHaanndd

BBeevveerrllyy HHuuffffmmaann grumps, the gamers, and the pickle-face makers. They have scratches on their necks from reaching through the fence into the neighbor’s pasture.

It is the same thing a dog-tired three

year-old goes through when they will not go to bed. You say, “Go to bed, sweetie.” They throw themselves on the floor screaming, “No! No! Noooooo!” Why do they do that? They might miss something, or so they think. Adults play the same game. “Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe I better try this. Oops, maybe I better do that instead.” Fear drags them around like a yo-yo with the cord unwound.

What if you are being poked in the

back of the head with a barbed-wire fence? What if you are starving by eating bits from the neighbors’ grass while standing in a green-carpeted pasture of your own?

Learn from a child. I enjoy going to

garage sales and finding a child who has their own table of things for sale. Whatever they are selling, I buy. Two youngsters bravely embarked on a “designer lemonade stand.” The lemonade did not have the happy yellow color. One was purple and the other was, well, I don’t really know what to call its color. As they

expounded on their new product like a luxury car sales person, I considered which one I would be able to swallow. They tried their best. I would not smash their dreams no matter how bad it tasted.

One very small girl proudly declared,

“I made it this morning! You can give me a dollar if you want to!” She got two dollars from my friend and me. She dared to be herself. She was great at being a kid and she reaped the benefit from just being the kid she was. It is time to be grateful and give God credit for doing something right in your life. He created you to be the only you in the world. You are a one-of-a-kind; nobody can copy you, not even if they try. There is just something special about the way God creates. Just like snowflakes, fingerprints, and personalities are unique; you are the exact combination that gives God pleasure. Go ahead. Step out and do what God has given you the desire to do. Do it the best you can for His praise!

For thou hast possessed my reins:

thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139: 13-14

Victor Bezrukov

Table for Two Sarah Williamson

I went from a dine-out diva to cooking

regular meals almost every night. I was never completely interested in learning how to cook in the same way my sisters were. I always thought I had plenty of time to learn all that housewife stuff later on in life, but then I moved out and married young, which was not in the cards for my five year plan, but luckily God knew what he was doing. So, after saying “I do” I tried to be the best housewife ever. I bought a bunch of groceries for meal ideas that I didn’t really have recipes for; I just figured spaghetti is spaghetti right? After making a bunch of suspiciously awful looking dishes, I decided I probably just didn’t have the knack for it, and that would just have to be okay.

It wasn’t that I had given up

completely, this was the year I ended up sick on the couch for months followed by a surgery, followed by another surgery about a year later. I was lacking some serious energy and motivation because all the pain sort of drained everything inside of me. After a more in-depth second surgery, I started to have energy again. I decided it was time for me to give cooking a second try. I searched the internet for simple recipes to start with, and slowly I became more courageous and

Victor Bezrukov

Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

½ of a medium onion finely diced 1 Tbs. minced garlic ¼ cup butter 7 slices bacon cooked, drained, and chopped finely 1 8 oz. package cream cheese 24 oz. Mushrooms (preferably baby Portobello’s) remove stems

Sauté the onions, garlic in butter until

the onions are translucent. Warm the cream cheese (I used the microwave for 1 min.) then add it to your skillet and stir in the bacon. When the mixture is fully melted and combined, take it off the heat and spoon into the mushrooms. Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 min. until the cheese is fully melted and golden.

confident. I started planning meals a week in advance, and I actually looked forward to coming home and making something to eat. It had never occurred to me that I would enjoy picking meals that sounded good to me, rather than having someone else’s cooking decide what I should make.

When I first started trying out different

meals, it was a little rough. I made this one noodle dish that was so awful we ended up getting a pizza instead. We had some rubbery chicken meals, some meals that were too salty, and some meals that were burnt black. I was determined not to give up, and I was slightly encouraged, because for every three terrible meals I made, I was managing to make a couple that actually tasted okay. After reading through countless recipes, I started to learn what spices went best together and started attempting more complicated dishes. I went from thinking of myself as a bad cook to really enjoying cooking for me and my husband. If there is hope for me (the girl who once put a plate of nachos in the microwave for six minutes), I believe there is hope for you too. There are some awesome food blogs out there that really break down recipes well. My favorite food blog is Budget Bytes. It simplifies recipes with photos, and all of her recipes are pretty inexpensive to make. If you’ve found yourself almost in tears holding another burnt casserole dish while simultaneously ordering a pizza, you’re not a bad cook. Don’t give up! With a little motivation and perseverance you can tackle the kitchen with a new found confidence.

Maureen Clark

Hope Never Fails Kimberly Borst

How can we choose to love when there

is so much pain? Broken dreams and lonely nights surrounded by people who are supposed to love us and that we are suppose to love. And we do love them but how well? So many carless words, so many pressures, our hearts can become callused and disillusioned.

Even having a close relationship with

God does not inoculate us from difficult situations. God allows trials in our lives to produce character. So how do we remain soft hearted and not broken? 1Cor. 13 says love always hopes; Prov. 13:12 says hope deferred makes the heart sick. Hoping is a characteristic of love.

There was an old song that went “My

only hope is you Jesus, my only hope is you. From early in the morning till late at night my only hope is you.” We can hope that things will change or that people will change. We can hope the government will turn around or that we can find a new job. The problem with hoping for things is that things are not the solution. I doubt our circumstances will ever be so perfect that happiness will just overtake us and the overtures of heaven will break forth with song in our living rooms. It’s our hope in Jesus, no matter our lot, that produces a well soul.

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Only Jesus will never fail us. Even when circumstances don’t change, Jesus can give us the grace to get through them and get through them well.

As we hope in the Lord, He gives us

strength. His joy renews our strength. As we forgive His love can pour through us to our families, our friends, and even our enemy’s. Our ability to love comes from the Lord. With our hope renewed in God, we can love. His Love for us is enough.