Beauty from Ashes: Certainty in the midst of an uncertain time

My dear friend, Karen Springs  who works for CBN's Orphan's Promise office based in Kiev, Ukraine wrote a great article on her blog.

Check it out here - she's live from Kiev.

Ukraine: The Heart of Man Wages War

Many are watching the news today and are seeing bloody, horrific images coming out of Ukraine. Many of my family and friends are asking today, "What in the world is going on in Ukraine?" In a nation so far removed from our every day life in the USA, it is hard to understand what the protesters are fighting for, and why it affects us as Christians.

The protesters in Ukraine are asking for the current President, Viktor Yanukovych to step down, and to hold new elections. Yanukovych tipped his deplorable ratings when he refused to to enter Ukraine into an agreement with the European Union. It was immediately following this that Ukrainians took to the street, in peaceful (for the most part) protests. They wanted a leader who would listen to the people, who was not corrupt or under the hand of Russia's command, who served the nation and the Ukrainian people. I think most Americans can relate to that, as our Congress and President currently have dismal approval ratings. We can certainly understand the protester's point of view for leadership with quality character.

Yet, the more and more I follow politics [those that know me well, know that I am a political junkie] the better I understand God's heart about politics. His heart is to turn the heart of men back to him. It's really that simple. We get the rulers our hearts have embraced. While that may sound discouraging, it to me IS encouraging! Because God also provides a way out - by seeking Him, His Kingdom, His heart, His love, the nations of the world will change; because God starts with the individual. Through the individual, nations are changed.

"If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

The hearts of men wage war against the things of God.
If you look at the history of Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, it is utterly obvious that when men removed everything about God, every evil thing was allowed to thrive. Ukrainians turned their hearts towards communism in 1922 because they wanted to HOPE in something. They were utterly worn out after the economical collapse caused during WWI and the Russian Civil War (1918-1921) that left them bitter towards the ruling family and provisional government. The communist faction that rose to power during this time promised to end Russia's involvement in WWI [which it did], provide collective farms to feed the nation and improve the quality of life in Russia and its regions. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well so did that infomercial that so brought in millions of dollars last year - the fact is people want to HOPE in something!

Can we really put our hope in men? A man's heart is fickle. [So is a women's, ask her husband how many times she changes her mind.] The soul of man wages war on the things of God, because he is filled with a sin nature. Yet he is drawn to the things of God - things that represent God's character. Ukrainians are drawn to these same character traits and are fighting for a leader who stands for justice, righteousness, is not corrupt and who is a servant leader. I think most citizens of the world would like a leader with these character traits. So Ukrainians have FAITH and HOPE that their voice will be heard above the atrocities, the brutality and the force shown from their leadership.

What does the Bible teach us? That FAITH, HOPE and LOVE remain. "And so faith, hope, love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope—joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love." I Corinthians 13:13
Men can have faith and hope in a cause, but if they have not love, the greatest of these, their cause will flounder.

Ukraine's struggle is NOT unique. Let us take a lesson from Judah. 

Ukraine has a long tradition of religious history,  including a visit from the Apostle Andrew and the entire region being baptized and becoming Christians in 900AD. The history of this nation is thick with the people's love and devotion to God. Yet over time, through generations, the history of this nation was disregarded. The stories of Olga and Vladimir, of Apostle Andrew and others ceased to be shared; and the Christian heritage of this nation was forgotten. 

The sin in the hearts of men flourished, the Tsar ruled with authoritarian power; and then was overthrown for the the Soviet Union.While the hearts of men were hard, they suffered greatly as a nation. The effects of their decision to turn away from God are still felt throughout the nation of Ukraine today - the corruption, greed, fear, and oppression are what the protesters are fighting against on the streets now.

It reminds me of the Kingdom of Judah. This kingdom had seen several generations of leaders who served and loved the Lord. The kingdom had thrived and was prosperous. Then, King Ahaz, whose heart waged against the things of God, lost all that the two previous generations had gained, and the Kingdom of Judah lost its sovereignty, becoming a puppet nation to the Assyrians. It was dark times in the land of Judah. The Assyrians demanded the majority of the crops that Judah produced, all of its gold and most of its resources. King Ahaz worshiped false gods, and children were being sacrificed as burnt offerings to this false god in order to appease the wrath that Judah was feeling. The people forgot all the things the true God had done for them in previous generations and embraced King Ahaz's false god. The people of Judah had turned their back on God. Every evil thing came out of the heart of man and evil attacked them on every front.

Yet, there was a boy. His grandfather, Jotham, was King of Judah and was a godly man. He instructed his grandson, Hezekiah, about God's character.  He made sure that Hezekiah knew the history of Judah and the heritage of its people - the favor of God upon them and all He had done for them. 

When Hezekiah was nine years old, his grandfather passed away and his father assumed the throne. Shortly thereafter, Hezekiah's older brother was offered as a burnt sacrifice to his father's false god. The sacrifice of his sibling turned his heart to stone against his father. In just a short 16 years, his father, King Ahaz, had lost all that Judah possessed and became enslaved to the warring Assyrians.Yet, the evil king would not rule long. 

At the age of 25, Hezekiah became king over Judah. THIS IS WHERE EVERYTHING CHANGED. 

Hezekiah's heart did not wage war against the things of God. Instead, he sought out the very character of God and all of God's wisdom for the benefit of his kingdom and people. Immediately, the false god and place of sacrifice was destroyed. The burnt offering of children ceased. The house of God was restored and the priests put back to offering prayers and petitions to the true God. Hezekiah put his house in order first; and then the Kingdom was restored. 2 Chronicles 7:14 tell us this truth about the character of God and his restorative nature.

One thing that struck me as I was re-reading 2 Kings was how Hezekiah dealt with his enemies. Ukrainians have many enemies in their own government and police forces - they are seeing first hand the brutality and oppression set against them. Yet they can learn a great lesson from Hezekiah and how he handled the Assyrians. He asked GOD to deal with the problem [2 Kings 19:14] of his enemy. He understood God's restorative nature (2 Chronicles 7:14) and what he was to do as a follower of Christ. So after hearing the news of an impending attack, he went to church and petitioned God. He didn't seek out the leader of the army first, or the consult with his generals about what to do next. He went to the only one who could save Judah - GOD. 

As a result, the God of Israel slaughtered 185,000 enemy soldiers in one night.

If Ukraine wants to see change in their nation from the top down, it starts from their knees. The Church must hit their knees in prayer and fasting and ask God to deal with their enemies.

God's character is restorative. He loves the Ukrainian people on both sides of the fight. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we must stand with the Church in Ukraine and pray and fast along side of them. Petition God to deal with their enemies [both in flesh and in the spiritual realm] and deliver this nation to a leader who seeks after the heart of the one true God.

"All the ends of the world shall remember & turn to The Lord, & all the families of the nations shall worship before You."  Psalm 22:27

Disturb Us Lord

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

-- Sir Francis Drake

Stove-top Baking: Brownies!

I know, you all think this is probably just a missions blog, but it's our "life" blog too. So you have to suffer through my random cooking experiments, squatty-potty stories and comments on parenthood. 

Now that you've been forewarned, we can continue!

Did you know you can bake on your stove-top? No? 
Yeah, neither did I. I read a blog about it, so I figured I would try it. I was craving chocolate and I just happened to have one of those terribly bad for you but taste so delicious boxes of brownies in the pantry.

It was all very simple. Get a pot with a lid big enough to put a cake pan in. I had to try three pots to get the cake pan to fit. Preheat the pot (no lid or anything on it) for 5 mins on HIGH while you are mixing up the batter. The "oven" pot may start to smoke during this, so turn the heat down just slightly until the major burning goes away. If there is any oil or residue on the "oven" pot it will burn off and be a bit smelly.

Fill the cake pan with your batter. 

Next place some sort of spacer between the "oven" pan and the cake pan. This could be flat rocks, or some other spacer object. I pulled out the pot holder from my pressure cooker and placed it in the middle of my stove-top "oven" pot. 

 

Next place your cake pan on the spacer...VERY CAREFULLY! I ended up using tongues because the pot is very hot and the space wasn't big enough for my fingers. Cover with a lid.

 

The blog I read was rather vague about the heat setting, other than to turn it way down. So I turned it down to simmer level (about a 2 on my stove). After 30 minutes it was cooked on the outside but the middle was rather soggy. Definitely not brownies. Alas, I'm not one to throw in the towel in the kitchen,  I turned the heat up to about med-low (4 on my stove) and put the timer on for another 7 minutes. About 6 minutes in, I heard sizzling sounds and I thought maybe the batter had somehow boiled over. I was happily surprised to find that it was just condensation forming on the lid dripping onto the "oven". My brownies, however, were cooked through! 

The brownies easily popped out of the pan. It didn't have quite the same taste as oven baked, but I didn't care...it was CHOCOLATE after all! 

 Here it is - a stove-top baked brownie! I enjoyed this baby while watching Call the Midwife Christmas Special that I missed a few weeks back. Not a bad way to spend the evening! 

PS I apologize for my terrible food photography. My iPhone photography skills leave a lot to be desired. But trust me, I'll be using this method in the summer when it's hotter than hades in my house! Enjoy!

This is me...waiting...

This is me...waiting for my Amazon package to arrive. Nothing spiritual, nothing exciting. Today was spent working from home, recovering from a nasty sinus infection that laid me out yesterday, and patting myself on the back for having all my "dump" crock-pot meals to choose from when I didn't feel like cooking. 

Back to my waiting: What's in this package that I'm so excited about? Well, it's probably not as exciting for anyone but me. It's my brand new up/down travel converter with adapter set - and usb ports. It's uber lite weight, and has USB ports. My old up/down works fine. It's just heavy, and has no usb ports. Can you tell I'm excited about the usb ports? I know, I'm weird. 

What other goodies will arrive? Well, this pay period we used some funds to get a few items for traveling and living overseas. These include some Exofficio clothing items (quick-dry), jewelry travel case, and a book by Rolland Baker "There's Always Enough: The Miraculous Move of God in Mozambique".  

So now I'm waiting. It should arrive on Friday (except for the book, that will be another TWO weeks...but when I only paid $3 for it...). 

P.S. I should mention that I LOVE online shopping. My kids don't have meltdowns in the store, I can wear my jammies and not brush my teeth or put on any make up and NO ONE cares!! It's a mom's paradise. The end.