I love Rachael Ray and Repentance
Last year for Christmas, my wonderful mother gave me a gift subscription to what I think is the coolest magazine out there: Every Day with Rachael Ray. I love Rachael Ray because she is spunky, cute, fun, italian (like me), and loves to cook (like me). And of course, both our favorite foods are Italian. When we had cable, we used to sit and watch "30 minute meals" while we ate dinner. I was in heaven. I think the magazine is even better than the show, though, because there's so much more inside, plus I'm not limited to a very short and specific window of time each day to view it. =)
So since I've been getting these awesome magazines every month, each with an average of 70 recipes in it, for almost a year, I decided I'd better start actually trying some of the recipes that look good, rather than just dog-earing (is that the right word, or is it ear-marking?) the pages. So, I determined that every weekend I would try a new recipe. Today, I made her Butternut Squash soup, which is topped with pecans that have been toasted in butter, brown sugar, salt, and chili powder (they're really not spicy at all though). Oh my gosh. Talk about awesome. And healthy. The main ingredients are: squash, onion, celery, chicken broth, and milk. All cooked up and pureed. The perfect autumn soup. And the pecans on top were awesome! I felt like I was eating a dish right out of Rachael Ray's test kitchen! Wow. This is a keeper. Especially if you cook the squash in the microwave for 15 minutes, rather than baking it for an hour. =) Yes, it was awesome. Or, as my favorite TV personality would say, "Yum-O!"
In other, more spiritual news, I went to a women's conference this weekend, which I was on the planning committee for. It was intended to bring as many of the churches in the Palouse (well, mostly Pullman) together, to minister to the women, and build unity among the churches. And it was amazing. I can tell the two speakers (from Tacoma) and the worship leader (from Yelm) have at least a little charismatic background, because I knew all but two of the worship songs, from our own church worship, and because they talked about things like 'breaking down strongholds', 'good vs bad spirits', 'deliverance', and then at the end they anointed each lady with oil and prayed a prayer over her, which included sortof a word of wisdom - like, I could tell the lady who prayed over me just got the word that she prayed over me, by listening to the Holy Spirit, because God totally used her to speak right to my heart and bless me immensely. It was awesome.
There were 16 area churches represented, about 2 dozen were from our church, out of 80 ladies total. The coolest thing to me, though, was that at the end, after a talk about how we can believe different things and do things differently, as long as we stick to the main truths of the Bible (for example, the Apostle's Creed), they had the 'leaders' of each of the churches come up - pastors, pastors' wives, and paid staff (that includes me!) And they had everyone else gather around us for prayer. First, they prayed for us, and for our congregations. Then, the speaker led us 'leader' type people in a prayer of repentance - repentance for sowing discord in the body, for tearing down other churches or Christians with our words, for gossiping, for backbiting, for NOT praying for other churches, and their pastors and their families...So in essence, we each repented on behalf of our churches, for not being Christlike toward other churches or other believers.
It was amazing. I cried. Afterwards, I sat alone and spent more time with God, repenting even further of ways I know that my church or the people in my church, past and present, have messed up. How we've caused people to stumble. How we've hurt people. How we've used the means to justify the ends. Don't get me wrong, I love my church and I love the leaders, but I know that we are all also human and prone to blow it. No church on earth can claim perfection. And to repent aloud, among all those ladies from all those other churches - ladies and churches that I know nothing about, because I haven't lived in this area long enough, had such an impact on me, and I felt that God heard my prayer, and accepted it. I don't know if any of our other leaders have ever done this, so I was so thankful to be there, on behalf of my church, and do it for them. It needed to be done. In a way, I am sad that our leaders were not there (they had a family wedding in Boise this weekend), because I think they should have been. But then, I do believe God will honor my prayer, and my heart, on behalf of them, and that just as Moses did for the children of Israel, He will allow me to stand in the gap for them.
That's about all I have to say. It was just amazing. I was so blessed to be there. I believe God will use it for good, and we will start to see more unity between the churches in our area. Thank you, Jesus. You just plain rock.
So since I've been getting these awesome magazines every month, each with an average of 70 recipes in it, for almost a year, I decided I'd better start actually trying some of the recipes that look good, rather than just dog-earing (is that the right word, or is it ear-marking?) the pages. So, I determined that every weekend I would try a new recipe. Today, I made her Butternut Squash soup, which is topped with pecans that have been toasted in butter, brown sugar, salt, and chili powder (they're really not spicy at all though). Oh my gosh. Talk about awesome. And healthy. The main ingredients are: squash, onion, celery, chicken broth, and milk. All cooked up and pureed. The perfect autumn soup. And the pecans on top were awesome! I felt like I was eating a dish right out of Rachael Ray's test kitchen! Wow. This is a keeper. Especially if you cook the squash in the microwave for 15 minutes, rather than baking it for an hour. =) Yes, it was awesome. Or, as my favorite TV personality would say, "Yum-O!"
In other, more spiritual news, I went to a women's conference this weekend, which I was on the planning committee for. It was intended to bring as many of the churches in the Palouse (well, mostly Pullman) together, to minister to the women, and build unity among the churches. And it was amazing. I can tell the two speakers (from Tacoma) and the worship leader (from Yelm) have at least a little charismatic background, because I knew all but two of the worship songs, from our own church worship, and because they talked about things like 'breaking down strongholds', 'good vs bad spirits', 'deliverance', and then at the end they anointed each lady with oil and prayed a prayer over her, which included sortof a word of wisdom - like, I could tell the lady who prayed over me just got the word that she prayed over me, by listening to the Holy Spirit, because God totally used her to speak right to my heart and bless me immensely. It was awesome.
There were 16 area churches represented, about 2 dozen were from our church, out of 80 ladies total. The coolest thing to me, though, was that at the end, after a talk about how we can believe different things and do things differently, as long as we stick to the main truths of the Bible (for example, the Apostle's Creed), they had the 'leaders' of each of the churches come up - pastors, pastors' wives, and paid staff (that includes me!) And they had everyone else gather around us for prayer. First, they prayed for us, and for our congregations. Then, the speaker led us 'leader' type people in a prayer of repentance - repentance for sowing discord in the body, for tearing down other churches or Christians with our words, for gossiping, for backbiting, for NOT praying for other churches, and their pastors and their families...So in essence, we each repented on behalf of our churches, for not being Christlike toward other churches or other believers.
It was amazing. I cried. Afterwards, I sat alone and spent more time with God, repenting even further of ways I know that my church or the people in my church, past and present, have messed up. How we've caused people to stumble. How we've hurt people. How we've used the means to justify the ends. Don't get me wrong, I love my church and I love the leaders, but I know that we are all also human and prone to blow it. No church on earth can claim perfection. And to repent aloud, among all those ladies from all those other churches - ladies and churches that I know nothing about, because I haven't lived in this area long enough, had such an impact on me, and I felt that God heard my prayer, and accepted it. I don't know if any of our other leaders have ever done this, so I was so thankful to be there, on behalf of my church, and do it for them. It needed to be done. In a way, I am sad that our leaders were not there (they had a family wedding in Boise this weekend), because I think they should have been. But then, I do believe God will honor my prayer, and my heart, on behalf of them, and that just as Moses did for the children of Israel, He will allow me to stand in the gap for them.
That's about all I have to say. It was just amazing. I was so blessed to be there. I believe God will use it for good, and we will start to see more unity between the churches in our area. Thank you, Jesus. You just plain rock.