Crustless Mini Quiches

Following the blessings of LOVE Week, the Elevation Worship LIVE Recording and Student Takeover, we’re trying to get back to some healthier food in our house. (too much takeout for the past few weeks) Here’s a favorite in our home. Thanks to Melissa at smellslikebrownies.com

Smells Like Brownies

I’ve been a bit discombobulated lately. I’ve been cooking and baking and taking all these pictures—but my own dinky camera was out of commission and my laptop was out of commission, and let’s just say that when my routines are disturbed sometimes I become a bit befuddled.

But! Today is Secret Recipe Club reveal day! So I’m gathering my wits to share a super simple and healthy breakfast recipe with you: crustless mini quiches. (If quiche is crustless, does actually that mean it’s a frittata or an omelet? No idea.)

This month my assigned blogger was Laura Rees. While her tastes and mine diverge pretty significantly (er…I am a vegetarian who doesn’t eat fruit…so I do kind of fall into a specific niche of eaters), her take on mini quiche struck me as interesting. I set out to make a vegetarian version that I could bring to brunches with…

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You are so brave.

Our church has this beautiful song I love called “Mighty Warrior.”

It reminds us that our God is fighting for us. That he is victorious. That HIS name is power.

I want to remind you today that you are so brave. That in Christ, you too are a mighty warrior.

Today, I’m reminding myself I’m brave. Because a friend of mine needs our help.

Last February, when a small team of us from Elevation went to visit East Africa to document the impact we’re making together through the generosity of our church – we met a young man named Francis Kome. He was born in the Nuba mountains region of Sudan. His people are being terrorized by a dictator who is criminal wanted by the UN for the genocide in Darfur. Today I’m asking you to consider helping my friend Francis and his people.

Francis faces real fear every day. Not just the fear of failure, or the fear that I’m not smart enough, not pretty enough, or not good enough. Those are my fears. His are that his family and everyone he knows will die. At any moment. And that is a daily threat. Yet he has such a strong faith, and he inspires me. And it is my brave wish today that we will stand in the gap for my friend Francis. That we will give what we can to help him go to university in Nairobi so he can bring hope and practical help to the people of Nuba.

You can read more of his story here on a You Caring site we’ve created for him.

When you give today, we’ll send you a gift from the people of the new nation of South Sudan.

Please pray for Francis and his people. For peace. For provision. For freedom. For continued bravery and strength in the face of fear. Pray that they are reminded today that our God is a mighty warrior who is always fighting for them.

Every Friday, Lisa-Jo Baker at lisa-jobaker.com provides a prompt for 5-Minute Friday. She explains it here. The idea is for anyone to write for five minutes on a word that Lisa-Jo posts at 1 minutes past midnight (Eastern Standard Time) every Friday. No preparation, no editing, no perfectionism. And then you post it on your blog, the only rule being that you visit the blog of the person who posted before you. Today I dedicate my five-minute Friday to everyone who’s ever let fear hold them back. The word is mighty.

Lisa-Jo has a beautiful new book coming out this Tuesday. It’s called Surprised by Motherhood. My friend @LysaTerKeurst says “Lisa-Jo inspires me to look for God in every moment of my own beautiful but imperfect motherhood journey.” – See more at: http://lisajobaker.com/surprised-by-motherhood/#sthash.cS0u5CnD.dpuf

What brings you hope?

 

We are not alone. There are more than 7 Billion people on the planet with us right now.

There are people in our homes, next door to us, across the street. We cross paths with people every day on the way to work, to school, to buy groceries. So why is it we can be in a room full of people and feel so alone? Researchers say it’s not the quantity, but the quality of our relationships that matters. It turns out that loneliness may be more dangerous than obesity, and an even higher risk-factor for early death than smoking.

An AARP study of adults 45+ shows loneliness has doubled. 40% of adults in two surveys said they were lonely, up 20% from the 80’s.

It turns out we need to be known. “Our very health and well being depend on our ability to form and maintain satisfying social connections with one another,” says researcher and author of Loneliness, John T. Cacioppo.

Isolation, loneliness, and discouragement can cause us to lose hope. In her recent “Crash the Chatterbox” sermon, Holly Furtick referenced the story of Leah and pointed to 6 ways we can conquer discouragement in our lives. She talks about choosing to praise – even when we don’t feel like it.

Of course my favorite point in Holly’s sermon was to “look beyond.” Seeking out someone else who needs a lift is a great way to boost our own spirits. Luke 6:38 says “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

This weekend at Elevation Church, we’ll be announcing some of our new outreach initiatives. One of them is a focus on seniors. We believe we have an opportunity and responsibility to lift up and encourage our elderly neighbors. Together we’ll be working with our current outreach partners like Hands on Charlotte and new ones like Blessed Assurance to spark and nurture new relationships with older friends.

Together, we can help others find their hope – thereby renewing our own. Enjoy this extended version of Hillsong’s “With Everything” and let your hope, rise. Tell me what brings you hope – and let me know how I can pray for you.

Hillsong – With Everything from With Everything on Vimeo.

Why gratitude?

I often feel like I’m a fraud. Because “cultivating gratitude daily” (the current subtitle of this blog) is more like a dream than it is a reflection of my life and the reality of what I’m actually doing and feeling.

But then I recall the truths God has been teaching me through his servants: “our feelings lie and we get to boss them around” (via @JoyceMeyer) and because “some of this disappointment is neurotic… worse than trivial; it is simply the sour fruit of self-absorption…” (via @JohnOrtberg) and because I’ve come to believe that gratitude changes everything – “Perspective can always adopt gratitude *and gratitude always parents joy.*” (via @AnnVoskamp) I’m “staying at it.” (via @KenJCosta)

Thankfully, the more I fill my mind with the right human voices that tell me “Don’t Stop on 6” and “Cancel the Audition” and to “Pound the Ground” and the more I get into God’s word to know HIM he guides me to remember his truths about who I am in him.

I didn’t expect this to be a daily battle (even minute by minute battle). I thought somehow that when I accepted Christ, and when I really decided to devote my life to him that somehow the enemy IN me would shut up. But it doesn’t get easier to choose gratitude over self-pity and self-absorption. It’s just better.

I’ve been in the self-pity place. In the self-absorbed place. Where did that get me? Stuck. Paralyzed. Angry. Frustrated. Overwhelmed.

I choose gratitude because I know when I do, it’s a shot at the devil. I pick up my sword and I fight the battle. I sling another stone at that loser who keeps trying to keep me from doing what God’s called me to. I pray for my husband (even though this is not what I want or how I feel or what seems natural). I pray for my children (even though they’re ungrateful, and self-absorbed and say the rottenest things) and I remember this verse:

But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners,

Christ Jesus might display his immense patience

as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

(1 Timothy 1:16 NIV)

Because without Jesus, I’m just like my children.

Ungrateful. Self-absorbed. Prone to saying all the wrong things.

But in Jesus, I am Beautiful. Loved. Lovely. Encouraging. Joyful. Peaceful. Patient. Kind.

And you are, too lovely friend. In Christ you are perfect. Thank you sweet friends for sharing this journey with me.

From determined to devoted

My super-woman sister reminded me this weekend about how our father taught us NEVER to use the word, “can’t.” It’s not a word he would say. We don’t use that word in this house. You CAN.

This is the kind of determination I learned growing up. To jut out my chin and put up my fist and say “Yes I can!”

The trouble was my father would use plenty of other words (other than can’t) in our house that seemed just fine. The four-letter kind I learned to utter in my own frustration. This and other crazy things that happened in my house growing up led me to constantly question, “Does my father really love me?” .. because the words and the actions didn’t always match up.

Of course I knew my earthly father loved me, the best way he knew how. I’m so grateful for how he gave me so much. But I’m learning now that his imperfect love led to a lot of confusion in my little girl heart.

My dad was bullied and beat up as a young boy. So he learned to raise his fist at the world and with a long list of curse words say, “YES – I – CAN!” He was determined to live. To survive. To prove those guys wrong.

No matter how imperfect my dad was, I always admired his determination. But like any good human quality like passion, intelligence, confidence, and even courage – if we’re not rooted in the right place we will find these qualities can only get us so far. And I’m finding, they can actually keep us from the life God wants for us.

Philippians 4:23 says “I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens me.”

I’m grateful for the opportunity to be under the teaching of the best of the best. Pastor Steven Furtick’s book Crash the Chatterbox is a must-have for anyone who’s ever struggled with the lies of insecurity, fear, condemnation, or discouragement. This past weekend at Elevation, his wife and my friend Holly Furtick preached an incredibly practical message on discouragement I know I’ll go back to again and again.

Through this consistent teaching, and studying God’s word on my own, I’m learning how instead of overcoming my fears through Christ’s power IN me, I’ve been consistently denying my fears and pushing past them in my own strength. And with two little boys and a husband and a rewarding ministry and demanding schedule – my strength is a limited resource.

Today, I’m learning how to move from being determined (in my own strength) to being devoted to the one whose resources are unlimited.

Thank you, Jesus for this day. I am a limited being. I can’t do everything in front of me today on my own. But your word says that IN YOU I can. I have to be smart, Jesus – I can’t say YES today to everything that’s placed in front of me, so I ask that you’d sift the work of my hands. Help me to discern what tasks are mine alone God – which ones I can delegate to others on this journey with me – and which ones I should push aside for another day. More than anything God today I want to know you better, and be devoted to you. I trust that as I devote my life to you, your love will overflow through me so I can bring YOUR peace, YOUR joy, and YOUR love to those around me. Thank you for first loving me. Amen.