Oysters

Oyster Casserole

Ingredients

1 pt oysters

2 cups Ritz crackers, (crushed)

½ cup butter, melted

½ tsp salt

¾ cup heavy cream

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup oyster liquor

1 tsp Texas Pete or Tabasco Sauce

Directions

Drain oysters, reserving liquor.  Chop ½ of oysters, keeping the rest whole.  Combine crumbs, butter, salt and pepper.  Spread 1/3 of crumbs in greased 8 inch baking dish.  Cover with ½ of oysters, and spread another 1/3 of crumb mixture over top of oysters.  Add remaining oysters.  Combine cream, Worcestershire sauce and oyster liquor and mix well.  Pour over oysters.  Top with last of crumbs.  Bake in 350° for 45 minutes. 

© Crackerberries 2011

Brandied Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

Brandied Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

¼ cup coffee brandy

1 cup raisins

¾ cup butter flavored Crisco

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

2 eggs

1½ cups all purpose flour

2 cups rolled oats

Combine brandy and raisins and soak for at least ½ hour.

Preheat oven 375º

Cream together Crisco, brown sugar until fluffy; add eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended.  Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and ground cloves and mix well then add to brown sugar/egg mixture.  Once all blended add oats and raisins and stir just to combine.  Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375º for 10 minutes.

Yield 57 cookies at 63 calories per cookie

© Crackerberries 2011

Sweet Potato Cake Roll

Sweet Potato Cake Roll

One more sweet potato recipe...  ☺

¾ cup all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp allspice

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes

1 tsp lemon juice

1 cup chopped pecans

Confectioner’s sugar

Combine flour, spices, baking powder and salt in small bowl.  In large bowl beat eggs on high speed for 5 minutes and add sugar.  Stir sweet potatoes and lemon juice and add flour mixture and mix well.  Spread into a greased and floured cookie sheet (15”x 10” x 1”); sprinkle nuts on top and bake at 375º for 15 minutes. 

Turn out on towel sprinkled with Confectioner’s sugar and roll starting at narrow end.  Let cool completely and unroll and spread with filling; then re-roll.  Chill, slice and serve.

Filling: 

1 cup Confectioner’s sugar

6 oz cream cheese

4 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

Combine in mixing bowl and beat until spreadable consistency.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — G

G is for God

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

God is good, God is great and His love we shall not hate. 

God is jealous, God is just and He will punish us for lust.

God is righteous, God is true and He is faithful to me and you.

God is King, God is Lord and His word is more powerful than a two-edged sword.

God is omnipotent, God is wise; our sin we cannot hide from His eyes.

God is foreknowing, God is here; He is Most High, whom we shall fear.

God created heaven, God created earth; He is the reason for our human birth.

God is long-suffering and gives us free will to choose eternal life or to choose evil.

God of the Bible, God has eternal power; His Son will return, which no one knows the hour.

God is unchangeable, He cleans our heart; confession of sin is the place to start.

God Almighty has vengeance and wrath; sin means death when we continue down that path.

God has mercy, He gave us His Son, to die for our sins and the payment is done.

Today is Thanksgiving and we have so much to be Thankful for; our Healthy-Lifestyle after we acknowledged the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Necessity of accepting Him for the Kindness He showed us with His Self-sacrifice.  For the Grace shown us each day when we fall under the chains of Idolatry and forget to remember the Vagabond showing Ignorance to God’s Word. For He is always faithful and true because without Him we are Nothing.  Thank You, God for everything.

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless you all.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — N

N is for Nothing

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

The day before Thanksgiving and I have nothing to write today.  I spent the whole day making nutritious and delicious appetizers and desserts to go with tomorrow’s dinner.  Look for recipes next week. 

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — I

I is for Ignorance

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

Ignorance: the state of being ignorant; lacking knowledge; uninformed; being unacquainted with certain kinds of knowledge familiar to others and having certain other kinds of knowledge that others know nothing about.

Ignorance gets a bad rap.  People use it as a slang term and treat it as though it means people are just plain stupid…goes to show how much ignorance we have in this world.  People strive for wisdom, they want to be smart. Think about how much money is spent every year on further education for people to better themselves with knowledge.  Think about this, the truth is all the knowledge in the world cannot save a person’s soul.  A person has to humble themselves and give up their pride, give up what the world says is true and what they want to believe and live for what the Bible says is true. 

Ignorance is not to be confused with ignoring.  Romans 10:3 for they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God.  True righteousness is a matter of faith.  We cannot pick and choose the parts of the Bible that we like and live by them and ignore the parts that we don’t like.  We cannot determine what parts of the Bible we think are true and what parts we think are not true.  We cannot say yes, we believe there is a God and create the kind of god we want for our lives.  God is a just and righteous God.  He forgives ignorance, but He hates pride and arrogance.  Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent Acts 17:30.  If we are truly living by faith and for God, then we will understand this mystery and not be ignorant.

We come in contact with ignorance every day.  We should be compassionate to these people and their lack of knowledge.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — V

Vis for Vagabond

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

Vagabond:  a vagrant, a wandering, homeless person.

When I think of Thanksgiving, typically the four F’s come to mind: family, friends, food and football.  I think of watching the annual Macy’s Day parade followed by the Westminster Dog Show and topping the day off with a win by the Cowboys.  In most cases we eat too much, drink too much, spend too much on the meal and make too much food.

Every Thanksgiving starts the holiday shopping season, which lately seems to start sooner each year.  Commercialization is huge and everyone wants to make a buck and the people that are willing to spend the money have it made because those businesses are going to cater to them.  Personally I believe it is all just hype and they really aren’t saving a dime.  I love the people who go out shopping and come back saying, “Yeah, I saved this much money so I was able to buy this, this and this!”  Hello?  You didn’t save a dime because you spent it on something else. 

My heart goes out to those less fortunate.  I think of the people that cannot afford to buy a turkey and all the fixings.  I think about the people that don’t have a home to cook the turkey and all the fixings.  I think of the people that are alone and have no family to spend the holiday with.  This is a hard time of the year for so many people that are down and out, alone and depressed. 

James 1:27 says we are to visit the orphans and the widows in their trouble.  Deuteronomy 10:19 says “therefore love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”.  God sees no partiality.  We are to provide for the disadvantaged as away of following God’s example.

Too many people will grumble about the company they have coming, the food they have to cook for the company they have coming, the money they have to spend for the food they have to cook for the company that they have coming.  Then after it is all said and done they will grumble some more about all the mess they have to clean up after cooking the food that they spent so much money on to feed the company that came.  Too many people find fault and something to complain about instead of being content in whatever situation they are in.

There is always someone out there that is worse off than us and there is always someone out there that is better off.  Comparing ourselves to someone else is a waste of time and it serves no purpose.  Instead of agonizing over our external circumstances and what we have to do, we need to put our sights on someone less fortunate than ourselves and do something kind for them.  Invite them to join our family for dinner, bake them a cake or a pie, maybe it’s just a kind word or a smile or perhaps a hug.  One small gesture can mean something big to someone who is down and out.

© Crackerberries 2011

Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potato Pie

This concludes the sweet potato challenge.  Thank you to everyone who submitted recipes. 

1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell

2 cups mashed cooked sweet potato

2 tbsp butter

3 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp flour

¾ cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ginger

¼ tsp salt

½ cup evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 400º.  Mix all ingredients together in large bowl and blend with an electric mixer on med/high speed until well combined.  Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake at 400º for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350º and bake an additional 45 minutes longer.  You may want to cover edges of pie crust with aluminum foil if they start to get too brown.  Remove from oven and cool on wire rake.  Serve with whipped topping and garnish with pecans if desired.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — I

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving

I is for Idolatry

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

Idolatry: The worship of idols or gods supposedly dwelling in images or represented by them; excessive admiration or devotion.

Ephesians 5:5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

I had to look into myself to effectively write this article.  As I looked around my desk area I was exposed to some of the items that would be considered idols; zebra knick-knacks, a huge pen collection, different colored stationary, to name a few.  They are items I can do without by all means, but they are things that I surround myself with at my desk and I seem to collect and hold value to.  Not something I am in any hurry to get rid of.

It is easy for me to look at people and presume what they idolize.  Men that spend their Sunday afternoons camped out on the couch obviously have a high regard for whatever sport they are watching on the boob tube.  Women that are adorned with oodles of jewelry and smell like they bathed in the latest new scent of perfume either have a self esteem problem or are trying to impress someone.  The teenager following his parents around in the grocery store clicking away at the device in his hand clearly would rather be somewhere else.  The three year old sitting in the shopping cart screaming at the top of her lungs for the green stuffed frog instead of the pink stuffed bear is providing her parents a teaching moment regarding idolatry.  The parent fails the test, idolizes the child’s desire, gives into her demands and thus the little girl learns in order to get her way, all she needs to do is scream.

Anytime we go against the Word of God, we are giving into idolatry.  The second commandment instructs us “You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.  For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…” Exodus 20:4-5  I remember when I first learned the Ten Commandments I was so proud of myself for the ones that I hadn’t committed.  Then I learned what Jesus said about the commandments and I came to realize that if we are completely honest with ourselves we have broken every commandment created.  The law was created so that we could see how we are sinners and recognize the need for our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

What do you idolize?   Is it an I-gadget: I-phone, I-pad, I-pod, or maybe it is a television show or a movie star or a singer or an athlete, or maybe its food or a diet or exercise, or how about your job, your car, your reputation in the community, or it could be as modest your spouse, your parents, your children?   Anytime something other than God is put first it is considered idolatry.  God is jealous and hates all types of idolatry.

1 Corinthians 10:14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — G

G is for Grace

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

Ask some people what grace means to them and these are the kinds of answers one might get, “She’s my Aunt from Alabama” or “it’s what you say before supper, ‘God is great, God is good and we thank Him for this food, amen’” and still others, “it’s how a deer runs through the forest, you know, with grace.”  All good answers and all correct in a sense.  I was looking for the definition that most people can’t fully understand and appreciate until they have gone through the conversion process of being born again.  Grace: a delay granted for payment or obligation.

When I really thought about this, I came to realize how truly blessed I am. My payment for sinning is death.  Before my conversion and my relationship with Christ I could have died and spent eternity in hell.  Just thinking about that wipes me out.  When I hear the song, “Amazing Grace” I cry every time because I totally understand how true it is and how amazing God’s grace really is.

I think this song pretty much sums it up.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — S

S is for Self-_________

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident.  Proverbs 14:16

Self: the identity or character of any person; one’s own person as distinct from all others; one’s own interests or advantage.

There are 74 “self-blank” words in the dictionary that I use.  I have incorporated 36 of them in this blog.  That has to say something for how important the word is itself.  Isn’t it so easy to look at a person and see how they are wrapped up in their self-importance?  They talk all about what they’ve done, what they are doing and what they are going to do.  Do you know people like that? 

When I first began this Twelve Days of Thanksgiving challenge I was not expecting the acronym to be so self-revealing.  I have learned so much about myself and now that we are on the “S-word” I don’t think there is a better word than “self-something” to plunge into. 

It is self-evident that I have been self-absorbed with this challenge.  I see how other people are self-occupied with their own self-conceitedness, but once I turned the word around on myself, I am guilty of the same self-centeredness that I blame others for.

I decided to take a look at myself to see how self-involved I was.  Once upon a time I was self-serving and my self-confidence was at a high level.  I was self-aggrandizing and I didn’t care who I stepped on.  I didn’t need anyone; I was self-sufficient and very self-satisfied.  Eventually my self-will and my self-interest became lonely and I realized that my self-made situation was all well if I wanted to spend the rest of my life by myself.  I started to get involved in self-abusive behavior and my self-catering began to take a toll on my self-control.  I was self-indulging more than I should have been and my self-seeking lifestyle was not healthy.  I needed to stop the self-deception and self-justification I created and gain control of my self-respect.

The first thing that had to happen was to lower my self-esteem and practice a little self-denial.  This was not self-acting on my part and although it took some self-determination, it all started with self-reproach.  After that the self-preservation process started and I became aware of self-abnegation and self-sacrifice. 

Today’s “S-Word” is somewhat self-opinionated.  I didn’t want to write it in a self-righteous tone but I think that it is important to step back and look inside ourselves.  We should always remember where we came from and how we got where we are.  And every once in awhile it is good to ask ourselves, “Self, what is your self-confession? What is your self-worth?” 

Deliberating ourselves at all, we should always look to the ONE who gave Himself for us.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross so that who ever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16.  That is the ultimate “S-word” self-sacrifice.  Thank You, God.  Amen.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — K

K is for Kindness

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

Kindness: The old English ancestor of kind = gecynde which meant “natural, inborn, inherent” and was used for fearsome things such as death and thunder.  In the 13^th century it went through a melioration and kind was meant to mean “well-born” and “of good nature”.

I like to think that I’m a pretty good judge of people and their character.  I can usually tell if someone is doing something genuinely out of kindness or if they are doing something because they expect something in return.  Maybe I’m a good judge of character because I remember how bad my own personality used to be.  Isn’t it true what they say, that a good convict used to be an ex-cop?  Or maybe it’s the other way around; an ex-convict makes a good cop.  People sometimes do nice things in hopes of gaining stature or prominence in the society or maybe advancing themselves in wealth.  Then there are people that do things genuinely out of the kindness of their hearts. 

Where we shop there is a person that is all about kindness — warm-hearted, friendly, generous, always has a nice word to say.  When ever we shop if that person is working he is always in an excellent mood and I really believe he would give us the shirt of his back if we needed and we don’t even know his name.  We would all be in a better world if more people acted like that.

I thought about that this morning as I reflected on my own kindness.  I like to consider myself a kind person.  I do nice things out of the kindness of my heart and think that I always have been “well-born”. After I recalled an incident that happened yesterday morning at church, I am somewhat convicted.  Following the first song our pastor encourages us to “meet & greet” — say good morning, hug or high-five someone we haven’t spoken to.  Some mornings I don’t feel like being a social butterfly, but obediently I do as the pastor suggests.  Yesterday I came to this one old southern woman whom held out her hand for me to shake and I pulled her in for a hug instead and said, “Good morning, how you doing’?”  As she responded with “Oh, I’m alright, I guess.” I was already looking for the next person I could greet.  Ouch.  How many times in our show of kindness do we miss the opportunity to demonstrate the real sincere kindness that God has put in our hearts?   The “Oh, I’m alright, I guess,” clearly indicated this woman could have used a kind ear to listen to what she may have had to talk about.

Kindness is not something we are born with.  In fact we are born selfish and spiteful.  If you don’t think so, watch a couple of two year old boys with one Tonka Truck.  Unless they are taught to share and play nice they will fight tooth and nail for that truck.  Even though a child can be taught to share and be kind, only the Holy Spirit can fill your heart with the fruit of kindness.  Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.

The next time I do something kind, I am going to be sure that I am doing it genuinely out of the kindness in my heart and not because it is expected of me or because I am doing it out of obligation.

© Crackerberries 2011

Sweet Potatoes — Bread Machine Yeast Bread

Sweet Potato Yeast Bread

We are on week #7 of the sweet potato challenge.  Can you believe Thanksgiving is almost here?  EMAIL me your favorite sweet potato recipe and you can see it right here next Friday.

½ cups mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup warm (75º) half & half

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp butter, softened

1 tsp salt

3¼ cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup pecans, finely chopped

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2¼ tsp dry active yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine in order given.  Set to basic 1½ loaf.  Remove from bread pot immediately.  Let cool completely before slicing into 14 portions lengthwise and then cut each slice in half.  Each half slice equals 68½ calories.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — N

N is for Necessity

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

Necessity:  something that cannot be done without.

Lots of “N” words came to mind for today’s Twelve Days of Thanksgiving challenge.  I decided to lounge on “necessity”.   Our basic necessities are food, shelter, and clothing and then of course that need for companionship.  God, Himself said, “It is not good that man should be alone”.

Obviously to write this I had to consider my own necessities and it became very convicting and difficult to write.  It is always a challenge to look at something that is very comfortable and routine and make changes to it.  How does that old saying go, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? 

Recently taking a look at our finances we recognized we are falling behind and need to take a look at areas where we can cut back.  Our biggest expense is food.  Not your typical “eating out” kind of expense.  In fact, we have only eaten out once in the last two years and my BFF and her husband treated us in celebration of my birthday.   Food is one of the difficult areas in our life that we have recently tried to change.  I love to cook and my husband loves to eat what I cook.  And although we don’t waste food (leftovers go in the freezer for another meal), some of the meals are a little more extravagant and mucho calories than we need as a regular meal plan.  The past three weeks have been grueling but I am seeing a huge change in how much we need to buy at the grocery store.  Changing from super sized quantity to single portion amount can make a big difference, not only on a waist line but in a wallet as well.  Making these subtle changes I realize what cooking for necessity is and what greed is.  We are blessed to have the luxury of not digging food out of a dumpster like some people do to survive. 

Speaking of waist lines, clothing is another area of need verses greed.  At one point in my life my closet was lined with 52 skirts, 28 pairs of jeans, 8 leather jackets, 3 wool coats and more pairs of shoes than I could count.  It has taken five years, but I am down to 8 skirts, 8 pairs of jeans, 1 leather jacket and I am working on the shoes.  I had a wicked shoe fetish.  I have not bought clothes in over five years.  I have found that if I wait long enough, the fad will come back and the jeans that were out of style eventually will be back in style.  Going to the storage unit was kind of like going to the mall, (which I have not frequented since November, 2006).  When I see people in third world countries that are wearing everything they own, it breaks my heart and I realize how spoiled I am.  I know a friend of mine whose husband recently took on a challenge to clean out his closet and bureau and keep only 100 articles of clothing.  I am seriously considering doing just that.

The storage unit was another luxury that we decided to cut out and use the expense toward something else.  It was rough to part with items that we had not used in the past five years.  Some items we did not want to part with, therefore we moved them into the small house that we rent.   Our living area is a little overcrowded but still cozy.  Better to be cozy and overcrowded than to be vacant and formal.  We have been to houses like that…just not very inviting.

Shelter; the house we rent is 150 years old.  It is not insulated so when the sun shines just right we can see the ground in the cracks of the wood floors in the bedroom.  Slippers are very handy in the winter time but not a necessity.  The cold floors in the morning tend to help with getting us motivated to move and start the day to keep warm.  We do not have the typical heat or air that modern houses have so it isn’t like we can just turn the thermostat to 68º in the winter time and to 78º in the summer time.  We chop, split and lug wood for a woodstove to heat the house in the winter time.  Wood will warm you up three times over…try chopping, splitting and lugging and you will know exactly what I’m talking about.  In the summer a window unit air conditioner cools the combo kitchen living room where we spend most of our time.  The cool air is nice; however the electric bill that comes after running it for a few weeks is not as nice as the cool air.  At least we have that option… it is not a cardboard box that some people find refuge in.  Try to imagine a family of five living out of a cardboard box that once held a refrigerator. 

Companionship:  one that accompanies another.  I know some people might argue that companionship is not a necessity.  I beg to differ.  God’s word tells us in the very first book of the Bible that it is not good that man should be alone. (Genesis 2:18)  God made woman for man to be his helper.  In our society men and women alike take this way out of context and turn it into something that they want it to be.  This subject is a whole other blog to dig deeper into.  Let’s just leave it at this:  if you have been blessed to marry as a man and a woman do not take it for granted and treat each other as the king or queen that they are.

Food, clothing and shelter are the basic necessities of life that most people take for granted.  I know I did and sometimes I still do.  Things like electricity, indoor plumbing, running water and appliances are all luxury items.  Items we can live without but choose not to.  I just made a cup of tea with my tea kettle on my electric stove… luxury items.  As I type on my antiquated laptop and wait for the lengthy upload for my internet connection I take into account that it is a lot slower and archaic where there is none.

I like to think that I have become frugal and have learned to give up a lot of the luxuries that I thought I needed before Christ took over my life.  Things like make up and hair spray and curling irons and blow dryers were all things I thought I needed.  I needed them because they helped me change the appearance of the person I saw every morning when I looked in the mirror.  I didn’t like who I was so I covered her up. Once Christ got a hold of my heart He made me realize that all the Mary Kay and Avon in the world could change my outside appearance but it was not going to change the person inside.  He was the only One who could make me into someone that I liked.  It doesn’t matter what other people think.  I like the person I see now and I realized that I don’t need to cover her up and make her into something she is not.

Need verses greed; an interesting concept.  Internet, cell phones, computers, Laptops, IPods, I Pads, Notebooks, Kindles and so many other technological things that I can’t even begin to pronounce are all luxury items.   How many vacations do you take a year?  How many vehicles do you have sitting in your drive-way?  How about boats and jet-skis and hot tubs and swimming pools and campers and motor-homes and dirt bikes and four-wheelers and snow mobiles?  What is in your closet that you don’t wear?  How many times do you go out to eat or stop for a coffee or a soda and a bag of chips a year, a month, a week, a day?  What kinds of luxuries can you give up?  Living down to our need instead of up to our greed can make a huge difference.  Think about it.

© Crackerberries 2011

Twelve Days of Thanksgiving — A

A is for atonement

Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas.  I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving:  the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.

Atonement: the reconciliation of humankind with God through Christ’s self-sacrifice.

There was a time back in high school only driving on my learner’s permit, which back then there could only be one licensed passenger in the vehicle with the person on the permit and there could be no driving after dark.  My father used to take me out driving in an old scout that we had.  Him and my mother never used it because it needed work on the brakes, which as I recall in order for it to come to a complete stop the brakes had to be pumped once straight to the floor and then another two quick short pumps.  The long pump would slow it almost to a stop, but the two quick pumps made it come to a complete stop. 

It was a Friday or Saturday night and my mother and father were going out to visit some friends.  I don’t remember all of the details but I do remember this one very important detail.  My father specifically said, “BEHAVE”.  Well “behave” meant not to do anything that would make him yell, mad, embarrassed, discouraged, outraged, you name it.  It meant to be the perfect little angels my parents thought my sister and I were.

They left and we (I say we because my sister did go along with it, whether she had anything to say about it or not) being the disobedient teenagers that we tried to be, decided to go pick up a few friends and head down to the gravel pits.  Now that I reminisce about this whole incident I can see so much wrong with that bad choice.  God definitely had a guardian angel looking over so many of us that night.

1.    Learner’s permit

a.    Driving after dark

b.    Driving without a licensed driver

c.     Driving with more than one passenger

2.    Bad brakes on scout

3.    Gravel pits (sex and drugs and rock & roll)

4.    Father said, “BEHAVE”

Well we picked up our friends and I tested the brakes and just as always when I had been out driving, if I pumped the brakes once hard to the floor and then two quick little pumps the scout would stop.  No problem.  When we arrived at the gravel pits there were lots of kids already there.  A bunch of our friends came running over to the scout and were slapping the sides of the doors and windows and hooting and hollering that we came. 

One boy, John, jumped up on the front bumper and really started banging on the hood of the scout hard.  I yelled at him to stop it and get off the bumper but he just kept beating on the hood.  (This was the worst of the bad choices that I made all night).  I had watched plenty of movies and seen how it happens so being as brazen as I thought I was, I decided I could drive forward a little, fast and then stop quick and John would fly off the bumper.  Just like in the movies.  Apparently in my moment of thinking I was going to be really cool, I forgot about the brake issue and John went flying off the front bumper but the scout didn’t stop.  I had neglected to do the two quick short pumps and instead of coming to a complete stop it dragged his leg completely under the front tire. 

It was terrible, it was scary. We were immature and had no idea what kind of ramifications could come from something so stupid.  We promised never to speak of it again and went home.  To this day, I never was confronted by anyone about the incident.  It was as if someone took the blame for my carelessness.

As sad a story as that is, (and wherever John is, I hope he knows that I am so terribly sorry for running over his leg), that is nothing compared to the Atonement of Jesus.  When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge after God commanded them not to, they brought sin into the world.  They were cast out of Paradise by God and our union with Him was broken.  Everyone falls under that rule, no matter how good you think you are, how perfect you think you keep God’s laws, how righteous you live, we all have sinned and fall short the glory of God.  There is only one way back to God and that way is through Jesus.

God came in the flesh, Jesus and He lived a perfect life, He never sinned.  He was tempted, but He overcame the temptation and lived a perfect life. Then He put His arms on the Cross and He made a way for our separation to God to be reconciled.  For the sin that happened in the garden by Adam and Eve, for the sin of the very conception of our existence, for the sin of every single man and woman on this earth today, The Cross is our bridge back to God, back to Paradise.  No sin is too big or too small.  Jesus paid it all when He took upon Himself the sin of the whole wide world.   All we have to do is believe on Him.  One day we will all be judged — if we trust and believe in the Jesus who is the Son of God, who sacrificed His life for our sins — we will have everlasting life.  John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him.  We are saved from the wrath of our sins through the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who paid it all upon the Cross being our Atonement.

© Crackerberries 2011