The Reason For the Garment of Praise

Proverbs says that heaviness in the heart of a woman makes it "stoop", but a good word makes it glad.

There is no greater heaviness than to be, to even the smallest degree, responsible for your own righteousness before a holy God. (If you think you can handle that, you don't understand His holiness. Or you have a skewed opinion of how very much you fall short.)

There is no greater good word than the Gospel. If you are continually exposed to the preaching of it, if you continually soak yourself in the reading of it, your mind begins to be renewed in it. There is such power in the good news of the finished work of Christ.

Your falling short was credited to Him, and His obedience is credited to you. The mountains will melt away and the hills depart, and in fact, God will no longer be God, if He breaks His promise to never be angry with you, once your life is hidden with Christ. God would have to be angry with Christ.

Your woman's heart, with all its overload of guilt and depression, loneliness and stress and responsibilities, can completely trust in the lovingkindness of God, through the cross of Jesus Christ.

The law as a standard of righteousness?

Yes.

The law as a means of righteousness?

No.

When a woman's heart looks to the law, even partially, as a means of right standing, and therefore blessing and favor, the door is thrown open to all kinds of psychosis. Dis-ease in the mind always results in disease in the body.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician? Absolutely, there is. And He has clothed you in righteousness, and topped it with a garment of praise. Put. It. On.

You cannot know how personally I know these things.

Grace IS The Balance

I'll never forget, when a friend of mine made the remark, in our church's online ladies' "Cafe". The question on the table (about three years ago - we've come a long way since then!) was "do we balance law and grace"?

My friend said, "Grace IS the balance."

So, so true. For all human history, from Mt. Sinai until a mere 2011 years ago, law held full sway. Most legalists and their legalista counterparts, don't take the law nearly far enough. They pick and choose the parts of the law (about less than 2% of it) that are palatable to them, and try to claim they are "blessed" by keeping those parts...that 2%.

Let me point out - the law was radical. If you - regardless of your age right now today - dishonor your parents, for any reason, you forfeit a great deal of blessing. A rebellious son or daughter was stoned. For most of us, both we ourselves, AND our children, should not be living long lives on the earth. And if you were the source of sin in the camp (greed for financial gain, for example)...well...

But it was not so, from the beginning. I say this, not because God changes, He does not. I say this because Christ is the exact image of God, not the law, not the Torah. Before there was a law, there was Christ, planning in His wisdom to die for us. Before there was a law, God knew that the law, once it was given, would not be kept by any human being from Adam till Christ.

Therefore, a righteousness by the law was not the plan from before the beginning! (And a truly mature believer knows He who was from the beginning...very significant!) Nor was it so, under the Abrahamic covenant, which is the covenant in force through "the seed, singular", Christ Jesus. God made that covenant with Himself, by Himself.

And don't even bother to wave the Scripture under my nose where God says, "Be ye holy as I am holy." You still aren't getting it.

That would be precisely like me telling you, "You must be an Atchley, as I am an Atchley." To accomplish that, I would have to adopt you.

You can't be holy as God is holy! Are you crazy?? Friend, you have to be adopted! You have to have the mystery, once hidden from the ages, now at work in you, that being, "Christ IN YOU, the hope of Glory!"

You've forgotten that holiness has less to do with your petty behaviors, and more to do with His Name. Oh, His Name is Holy! To be a Holy one, you have to be adopted into the Holy Father's family. You can't keep the law good enough to earn the name.

Here is your takeaway:

The law, as a schoolmaster, to teach us what righteousness looks like?

Yes.

The law as a means of righteousness?

No.



We are no longer blessed by keeping the law. Suddenly, a radical change came about, as it pertains to the promises of God. (Any and all promises of blessing...)

The change? Suddenly, after thousands of years of blessings coming through obedience to the law, today every promise of God is now "yes and Amen" through Christ Jesus, not through the law. If even one promise was "yes and Amen" through keeping the law, the Holy Spirit would not have made this distinction.

Funny thing is, those of us who have repented of our law addiction, who have had our veil removed, are characterized by keeping the law. We sort of bear the kind of fruit, against such there is no law.

But that's another post for another day, delving deeply into the book of Isaiah, side by side with Galatians, and going back and forth, letting Scripture confirm Scripture.

And your problem with any of this is....?

They Add Such Sparkle to Life...

...and they pull your tablecloths off.

::sigh::

Glad there was nothing on it! He was doing this, and I happened to catch him in the act, when I came around the corner. No more tablecloths for this grandmommy. That makes me sad, but only a little.

He's so worth it.

Superfood Breakfast - steel cut oats

Oatmeal is a known "superfood", but not the oatmeal you might think. Not the kind in the little packets, that comes in "flavors". Not the instant kind.

Think steel cut, whole grain oatmeal instead. The difference in appearance is big. The difference in nutrition is big. Difference in taste is....big. Think margarine-versus-butter-kind of big difference in taste.


Steel cut oats. Beautiful.

It's a big deal, people. Superfoods are a big deal. I have been incorporating them into my diet more and more, with the goal being almost every meal featuring a superfood. It is a slow process, because I also prefer to eat seasonally...so I won't be eating alot of pumpkin (also a superfood) until the fall.

Guess what else is a superfood? Blueberries. Guess what goes together beautifully? Oatmeal (the steel cut kind) and blueberries.

How to prepare steel cut oats? A pre-soak is best. About a cup of water, to 1/4 cup of oats (for one serving), and soak it overnight.

Next morning, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer it for about ten or fifteen minutes. (If you don't presoak, make that thirty minutes). Add some butter, some brown sugar, some salt, and even some cream...I do it. Not everyone does it, but everyone should.

That's my motto.

...and lots of blueberries.

Local Church 101

"Some are called and sent.

Some got mad and went."

Which are you?

Gluten Free Dessert Deliciousness - Zabaglione

If you are into summer berries or peaches, if you are a lover of cloud-like creamy awesomeness, and if you need your desserts to be gluten free...

...read on. Imabouttatellya my new favorite indulgence.

Zabaglione = love. Egg yolks + sugar + Marsala = zabaglione, which is love at first bite. Therefore, zabaglione = love. It sounds fancy, it sounds difficult, but it isn't. Here are your ingredients:

4 eggs (you'll be using only the yolks)

about 1/3 cup of sugar

about 1/3 cup Marsala wine

a dash (1/4 to 1/2 tsp.) vanilla

...and berries or peaches or whatever. I had blackberries, just picked last night. Yum! Okay...on to the easy-easy instructions.

Create your own double-boiler, by putting some water on to simmer...not boil...just simmer it.


Get your big metal or glass bowl out, put it on top of your saucepan, and have your whisk ready!

Put your egg yolks in, and start whisking! (save your whites in a small container! "Waste not, want not".)

whisk, whisk, whisk, and while you do, add your sugar, your marsala, and your vanilla...whisk, whisk, whisk...

...and whisk...


keep whisking...

...for four minutes straight, at least. Whisk until the egg yolks nearly double in volume, until you don't see any of the brown Marsala wine, until this stuff gets luscious and thick and fluffy-cloud-like...

Pour some over your berries (this will make enough for about 4 people)


Enjoy. You will so want to hug me, if you make this!

Happy 4th of July

Last week, we received an invitation to be the guests, this 4th of July. We haven't been the guests very often in the last couple of years...we are usually the hosts. We like it that way - however, I do admit that I was relishing the idea of being guests.

Honestly, we became torn, because our good friends the Buycks have moved back to Knoxville and to Harvest, and the whole church was invited to their home, where they provided most of the meal for everyone, plus water festivities! But we had already accepted our other invitation....so today, we happily loaded up the whole family, grandson included, Jonathan and Sarah too, (Isaac and his sweet girlfriend had already committed to the 4th at her family's house)

...we spent the afternoon with some new-ish members of Harvest. We were treated to ribeye steaks, shrimp, homemade salsa (two kinds, one hot, one mild), salad (two kinds), corn on the cob, baguettes with garlic and butter, an amazing homemade cake...and I seriously could go on.

Timothy loves swimming in Mr. Don's in-ground pool...next year, he will be big enough to go down the slide!

Heartmeltingly adorable. Tim shot some video of Timothy "swimming"...I hope to be able to post it. He really does think he can swim. In fact, if Hannah takes our hosts up on the open invitation we have, he actually will be swimming by the end of summer, even as young as he is. He totally "gets it" and is unafraid to put his face in the water.

Tuckered out daddy and son...

We ate (and ate and ate) and I was invited - nay, pressed upon - nay, forced! to peruse our hosts' lush and large garden. I was prevailed upon to pick a bucketful of blackberries from a thornless blackberry patch, pick at least ten beautiful squash, a half dozen cucumbers, and to harvest all the herbs I wanted. Later, there will be about thirty tomato plants ready to pick, at which time I will get canning lessons. Then, potatoes and garlic and corn will be ready to harvest.

And I haven't even told you about the sewing room, with its four top notch sewing machines plus a serger. Not even lying. Or all the Belgian hand-embroidery going on in that room.

Or the beautifully landscaped property outside.

And I haven't even told you about the fireworks we were treated to, as the sun went down. And I've been asked not to tell you about the cinder block that the men blew up....accidentally. You see, Mr. Don is a former cop, and a firearm safety expert (he trained the men who patrol our southern borders!), and this couple wants to host our teenagers and our families with little ones, and so they don't want anyone thinking that they don't care about Safety First.

So I'm not going to tell you.

Now, it is eleven o'clock, and we are back home...and here is what we are doing:

Cut-throat. These people are brutal board gamers.

Lastly, we miss our son Josiah. We are so proud of his service to this country, as a United States Marine...he is at Camp LeJeune today, unable to come home for the holiday weekend...

We sure wish he could have enjoyed a big ol' ribeye steak with us today. Our hosts would have welcomed the opportunity to spoil him, as they spoiled us.

Happy 4th, everyone!