Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

Roberta's Tomato Soup 

has been the goal of my culinary efforts for years.  Serve Dan a bowl of this priceless mix of ingredients and we are sure to have a lovely evening at home. Add a grilled cheese, Monterey Jack cheese on Publix's multigrain whole wheat with real butter used to grill in an iron skillet, and you have a supper fit for a king!  At least the king of our castle, Danny, loves it!

However, the ingredients of the soup I serve are clearly not Roberta's 'scratch' recipe.  Danny's mom, Roberta Betzer Pearl, never wrote down that famous dish Dan drools over. Nevertheless, Danny, being a consummate gentleman, always raves over whatever is tasty and good served to him. 

The next best thing is to use Progresso Tomato Basil Soup and add a few spices or even a few diced canned tomatoes and we are good to go. Roberta's real deal tomato soup is certainly nowhere to be found at our house -- only my version of it when I make his favorite from scratch. (Recipe to be found in various cookbooks. . . ). Actually, this experiment with tomato soup is my love-gift to Dan. . . appealing to his taste buds and knowing his great affection for his mom's famous tomato soup and her homemade pies (which I don't attempt).

I have an ulterior motive with tomato soup and grilled cheese -- I am lovin' on my husband in a way that is a reminder of his wonderful idyllic childhood, too!  Can't miss with that! 

The congregation where Dan is the messenger for the services hears him say that he loves to come home to me every night to enjoy the above menu served on laptrays while we eat in our double recliner. This part is true.   The menu is NOT always the same, of course.  However that is the what some people think we have for our nightly fare at home. 

I mention this because it is one of the staple ingredients of Pastor Dan's message when He is preaching on the godly home. It works.  The image of contentment and enjoyment of each other and the evidence of love for one another -- it is there in that picture of our life at home. Oh, I know Pastor Dan comes home because it is where home is. But he would not feel the same way about home if I weren't there. I am always there to greet him eagerly and be lavish with my love in ways I've learned delight him. I want to daily reestablish our home as the best haven for refueling.  The house doesn't do it without my being there. It is our being together that recharges us both at the end of a long day of pouring out our lives for our Lord.

We love together, laugh together, pray together, play together when we can, plan together, and live together in harmony and oneness in Christ Jesus.  We intentionally bring our lives into harmony with each other, tuning up our focus as we eagerly encourage one another in our obedience to the Lord who is our Life. We are able to serve Him joyfully as the Holy Spirit leads us. Dan  encourages my call to the ministry and allows me freedom to obey all that God puts on my heart. We are equal in this journey, however our roles are defined by the Word of God, therefore we always need time for a constant refreshing of our attitudes toward the Lord and each other and our family and those of our congregation and those not yet part of the family of God.

It is the washing of the Word of God which cleanses us from the dust and debris of the world system's philosophies which govern the communities we and our congregation live in.  So we need to have the Holy Spirit continually bring our minds back to the way God works, His Kingdom rule  and God's Presence and His Divine order, so as not to let the love of the world, the influence of the godless world system's ways, become part of our personal lives. 

It is our personal surrender to Christ as Lord of Life which gives each one of us a trust in the other. Because I know Dan's highest order of his day is to honor the Lord in all His ways, I am able to release Him to God's call as pastor/teacher of God's people and example to the watching world.  I do not have to monitor his life and ways in order to have peace of mind.  I trust the Lord, His God, who is Lord over both our lives.  We are "eaches" but first we each are the Lord's!!  

There is personal peace during each day we have to fulfill God's purpose in our lives.  He is the One who guides our way.  We each live by the Word, especially this admonition: "Trust in the Lord with all our heart; lean not to your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path" Proverbs 3:5,6. 

The keeping of our personal lives is our individual responsibility toward God.  Because God has been invited to be the Lord of each of our lives, we come together before Him to present ourselves as "living sacrifices" each day -- not as a ritual, but as a habit of our attitude which has been developed in our daily worship of the Lord.  How amazing it is to trust the Lord in life to bring us to pay attention to matters which God knows could distract us from His purpose and calling.

The Holy Spirit is continually bringing us to attention to the focus of our living and ministry: Jesus Christ, Lord of all. This evidence of the Holy Spirit's daily teaching and training us in God's ways is no different from any other believer, or disciple of Jesus Christ.  We must have the Holy Spirit's gifts and power to minister each day as unto the Lord. We each give ourselves in daily worship as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to Jesus Christ, which is our duty or reasonable, or expected service to the Lord. It is God's intention to have us as His personal possessions to use as He chooses to accomplish His will and purpose for our lives. 

The joy of belonging to the Lord is a secure feeling which nothing can remove, except for a willful disobedience to the Lord and His Word.  God does not change in His desire and delight to bless His faithful children.

Unfaithfulness to the Lord brings pain--loss of peace and fellowship with the Lord. I find there is no delight at the moment of disobedience and the resulting chastisement. Yet, once that chastening season or moment is over, there is delight in being able to feel our Father's love in the restored fellowship.  His correction prompts me to seek forgiveness, cleansing and restored wholeness.

The Holy Spirit is not always subtle in bringing correction, but He is loving and does not letup until the desired wholeness is attained.  What a comfort it is to me to know that God convicts of sin.  His conviction is immediate.  When we walk in the Spirit and have our senses tuned to the Lord and His Word, we are easily able to detect conviction of sin!  It shows up in the sense level immediately. . . that is, unless you have chosen to harden your heart by habitual sinning - disregard for the Lord.

There is nothing more grievous to my heart than to realize that I have been out of harmony with the Lord concerning some part of my life of devotion to Him.  The first place it shows up is in my relationship with Dan. . . my first love after my love for the Lord. So maintaining my relationship with the Lord and responding to His grace will always assure a smooth relationship with my husband. The heart cannot hide sin without marring the flow of love!

God is patient in His prodding to restore wholeness and become full of the Spirit's overflowing River of Life -- the welling up within of the Saving Life of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the Father's love outpoured day after day.

There is nothing more important to my personal spiritual progress than paying attention -- returning my attentiveness to the Lord. This requires an intentional act of hauling myself out of the muck of the deluge of words from the world system into the inner chamber with God. It is there where His is the only voice--His alone is the voice of reasonable wisdom and the sanity of full knowledge and understanding of all things. God recognizes my foundation of the fear of the Lord, the beginning of all intelligence that is truth concerning all things for life and godliness. Being embraced in that inner chamber restores my focus and grants supernatural strength for the spiritual ministry required of all Kingdom subjects who live on Divine assignment in this life. 

This process of our gracious God's training of His beloved  children for Kingdom-living goes on moment by moment. Never are we severed from His Love, but we must respond to His Presence.  We have been birthed into His Life and have been given a Life-attachment internally with the Living God...through our faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit creates a bond of Divine Unification with our human spirit, making us alive, quickening us with His Resurrection Life, the same life that raised Jesus from the dead, so that we now live, dead to the old self-which was crucified with Christ, but now made alive to God through the Resurrection Life we have been given through Jesus Christ.

This reality gives us Christ as the solid Rock beneath our feet. . . an unmovable foundation for living. . .a Life that has conquered death, hell and the grave. This Jesus has become the Spirit of Life which courses through our being and grants to us an ability in living which enables a change of character, a new nature in Christ Jesus, and an awareness of the power of God which is animating our new way of living in Christ.  

Through Christ Jesus we live free to enjoy God's recipe for life success!!! Life that endures! Life! Not the dying we see all around us. Dead men walking. Those people who have yet to receive Jesus. . . God who is Life! Today we live Christ and speak of Him in words which are Life-giving! Not sure about supper after church tonight. . .it may be my version of tomato soup and grilled cheese, a not-so-subtle reminder that pleasing my husband is part of pleasing my Lord and receiving the Lord's blessings. I love the simple blessing of sitting with Danny B in the double love-seat recliner holding our lap trays, enjoying Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese. . .and finally, holding hands -- feeling so secure in Dan's love. . . .one of the joys of honoring him. ~

The Three J's

Last week brought three J's to my life -- Jon, Jordan and Joseph -- all who died in the crash on Joe's birthday. I know more about them now after attending their funerals than ever I did when they were alive.  They have become boys who were honored by their parents during the gatherings of this community this past week.

It is amazing how their choices to buck the typical agendas at times -- choosing rather to be unique in their choice "not to party" where liquor was present. . . but rather, go to one of the boy's homes one time.

None of us will ever know the final conversations in the car that rainy night when they were headed to Jordan's house. . . but we do know God received them when they passed from this life to their eternal home in heaven where their Savior and Lord awaits all who love Him and obey His commands.

My thoughts now are with their parents, some whose family members, traveling from afar, were here for the events of last week but must have returned to their jobs back home.  So perhaps the houses are now quiet and the deafening silence is almost more than they can bear. . . except for this assurance:  All who are IN CHRIST JESUS, when passing from this life are immediately in the presence of the Lord Jesus and at home with their heavenly Father.

This comforting assurance gives hope of reunion one day.  The loss of a child is not the natural sequence in life.  Parents are to die first. Then the children according to their ages, right?  Yet, our days are numbered.  The breath of life is from God at birth and is removed at death.  The body dies, yet the soul and spirit are alive forevermore in the one who has been Spirit-birthed into New Life in Christ Jesus.  Eternal life begins at that moment and continues for all eternity.

The comfort of mourning with hope of reunion is a gift given by the three J's by their sons.  Grief will do its work of healing broken hearts and shattered dreams which these parents had for their sons.

They mourn, but not as those with no hope!  This gift is such a comfort today! Time will bring God's comfort in many ways and healing will be complete -- though the loss will be felt all their lives.  The anticipated joy of reunion and the awareness that now their sons are among the cloud of witnesses in heaven. . .that is part of the comfort which comes to all our hearts today.

Our prayers are for the family members and close friends who remain to live in a way worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, obeying all His commands and teaching others to do the same. This leads to Life eternal and hope of heaven , forever with loved ones who have gone on before into the presence of Jesus!

The testimony is that these boys were ready for Jesus. . . and we know Jesus was ready for them  on that rainy night some days ago. . . .

JESUS SAID: "EXCEPT YOU BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN"

"Except you become as little children. . .". words of Jesus. 

Insight into the rules of the  Kingdom of God is critical to entering it!

So how can we get into God's Kingdom?  It's so simple.  Become like a little child again!

Jesus' disciples shooed the children away from Jesus and we see the picture of our Lord rebuking his very own chosen and selected disciples!  You would think Jesus would treat his own staff, his chosen and personally selected future messengers with a bit more dignity and respect. Right?  After all, look who Jesus is: the Son of God come to reveal God to His people.

What a significant reality in learning how God is in His nature. He does not tolerate abuse of His Kingdom realities.  Sooner or later, God is going to teach people that His creation -- all of it -- was designed by Him for His and our benefit... and how we treat each other has to begin with His original design in mind.  We start with honoring Him and revering Him for Who He is. . . and nobody gets in the way of anyone coming to God. Even Jesus' own leadership in training!

What spontaneous joy Jesus experienced as he saw the delight in the eyes and hearts of those who believed Jesus could help and bless their child!!! Jesus felt their worshiping moment when he was adored and revered as Divinity!  Blessing, healing and curing and touching lovingly -- His reputation preceded Him.  People knew was not a mere mortal. . .and some were sure God was present among them -- and bringing their child to Jesus for a blessing indicated that they knew He was a priest of God. . . if only they could get to Him for His blessing.

So then, what's the big deal about children to Jesus?  It is everything.  For only with a child-like spirit, demeanor, attitude and simplicity, do we have any entrance into the Kingdom of God. We bring nothing with us when we come to the King Savior to access entre into God's domain of rule. He refuses to accept what is not created or birthed by Him into in His Kingdom. He needs nothing from outside the Kingdom to enable its complete function and fulfillment for all eternity.  In fact, God guards everything carefully, lest His Kingdom be perceived as originating in man!  Jesus was sent from heaven to make clear the difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Darkness.

Fallen mankind can't conjure up or create the Kingdom of God.  Only that which is birthed by the Spirit of God has any possibility of lasting forever.  He is the only one with eternal life DNA in His being.  All else is going to pass into eternal darkness forever banished from the Kingdom.  Nothing will be able to harm or hurt the Kingdom of God once the King is established and Satan has been bound and cast into hell for all eternity! There will be no more darkness, no opposing forces able to operate and to interfere with the King and His Kingdom. God's Divine order will restore total freedom and liberty for all who have been birthed into His Kingdom and have endured until their death.

The Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ will include all things everywhere. God will have restored all things to Himself. He will have destroyed or bound in eternal darkness all that is not of His Kingdom.  What a triumph!!!  The person with the child-like spirit that trusted in Jesus to gain new birth creation will now enter into the Kingdom  and will have God's DNA to prove citizenship in God's eternal Kingdom.

Clue: Only the one who has a child-like spirit will ever see the Kingdom! God's words!
Application:  Humble yourself and become as a little child (in your demeanor and spirit). Acknowledge your need of God and call upon Him. He will make you to know His amazing grace and mercy and will hear you when you call upon the name of Jesus and place all your faith in Him as Savior and Lord.

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word.  Just to rest upon His promise. Just to know, thus saith the Lord.  Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him.  How I've prov'd Him o'er and o'er.  Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for faith to trust Him more.

I'm so glad I learned to trust Him.  Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend.  And I know that thou ar't with me. Will be with me to the end.

Blessed are those who come as a child to Jesus, the friend of children, their trusted Savior.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! Oh, how He loves you and me.

--dlb 3.10.2014