SKELETONS! - Link to Classic Mary Moments

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With Halloween around the corner, thought I would put this interesting link re why we as Christians shouldn't celebrate it. . . Please have a look at this eye opening post and perhaps check out some of the links I put on it.

Here it is:

http://cheryl-g.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-story.html

Speaking of Halloween. . .

The other day one of my favorite bloggers wrote this post called "Skeletons" that came from a dream that Mary had from God.   I must say that this made me contemplate what I allow in my home once again. 

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Here's the post:

I looked at the big garbage bag full of totally cute, babelicious and waaaaaaaay adorable stuff. Was I REALLY doing this??? Was I really going to get rid of all these beloved items??? YES... I WAS!!! And it had ALL started with a dream...

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I had this dream one night several months ago, that our whole house was decorated in Halloween stuff! Ghosts, witches, ghouls, monsters, skeletons...EWWWW… it was so creepy!!! In the dream I remember I was in my room with Kim and I was just like, I CAN NOT believe that my sister decorated the house in all this junk!!! She HATES THIS STUFF!!! I remember feeling so appalled. This is HORRIBLE!!! I said to Kim. I do NOT want this stuff decorating my room.

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When I woke up in the morning, I thought oh man that was a weird dream...I am really glad to know that my sis and I would never decorate the house in all that stuff. Later on in the day I was thinking about it, and although it wasn't like an audible voice or anything, I REALLY felt like God impressed something on my heart.

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I felt like he told me that there was some skeletons in our house, but we couldn't see them. I felt like he told me there were things that look sweet and innocent, but they are really representing evil. Although we wouldn't ACTUALLY decorate our homes with Halloween stuff, in a way, we still were by allowing these things into our home. I was like OH WOW!!!

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I was like BUT WHAT??? I mean we don't have TV or Movies or video games or NOTHING of the sort...but still, I felt like God was specifically telling me that there was INDEED stuff that we needed to get rid of in our home. So in my morning prayer, I began asking God to open my eyes to stuff and to give our household convictions about stuff that he didn't like.

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WEEEELLLL God moved in on that prayer VERY quickly!!! The first thing he showed me that he didn't like was...MAGIC!!!! Anything, that was magical was not pleasing to him...I'm like WHAT??? I mean, I’m like the BIGGEST fan ever of ALL the Disney princesses, how could magic possibly be unpleasing to God?!?! However, as I thought about it, it began to make sense. Anything that mysteriously happens, if its not YOUR IMAGINATION and its NOT A MIRACLE OF God it is Magic. Now if it’s not from our own human minds and its NOT from God, that only leaves one other option…Satan.

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I know it sounds creepy, and fanatical, but I really believe that when it comes right down to it, magic is of the devil. Magic is the PRETTY, SWEET version of something else we all know as WITCHCRAFT!!! Ooooo I know it sounds extreme, but it’s true... I mean bibbidi bobbidi boo... it seems soooo innocent but what does it mean??? I would hate to find out that I’m spouting out some sort of devilish chant.

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I remember as a child, troll dolls were very popular. Everyone at school had them and a lot of the kids at our church even. My mom would NEVER let us have troll dolls. I used to wine and complain about not having a troll doll like all the other kids. I remember thinking, WHY DOES MY MOM have to be so strict? What could possibly be wrong with a troll doll when EVEN the pastor’s daughter had one? (with clothes on)

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Well, my mom told me WHY she didn’t like trolls and WHY she would NEVER allow one into our home. She said that trolls were nothing new. They had troll dolls when she was a child. She said that what most Apostolic people probably didn’t know about trolls, but she did because she was not raised in the truth, was that each troll represented a different spirit. She said that her and her friends would line all their troll dolls up next the Ouija board and play. Now if you don’t know what a Ouija board is, it is a board game that plays with spirits. As soon as I found out her reason for me not having one, I NEVER again asked my mom for a troll doll. It made sense to me. Why would I want something that represented evil?

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So often we think that the people are fanatical because they won’t celebrate a certain Holiday or participate in certain traditions. But if we get the whole scoop and find out the meaning behind these things, we would be able to understand WHY they have a conviction. You say, Oh I don’t want to know the history or the meaning behind something, it takes the fun out of EVERYTHING. Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil…and the evil way.” If we are God’s people, why would we even want those things?

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There are so many things that we try and hold on to or get away with, but why? We wouldn’t let a witch doctor come into our home and cast a spell on our kids, but we’ll read about it to them in a book? “Neither give place to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:27) The devil disguises evil as fun and cute, JUST so he can get a foot into our homes. The devil knows how us Apostolics are. We’re not Gothics, ready to hang up straight evil on our walls, so he has to disguise it.

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We’re in a battle in a spiritual battle. What I write about is not to put people on a guilt trip, but to encourage us as Christians to search our homes for skeletons and to pick up the sword and start fighting against evil coming into our homes. As David says in 1 Samuel 17: "Is there not a cause?" How important are our families and children to us? Are they not a cause WORTH fighting for?

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“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

To be continued…

♥Mary Frances :)

LEFTY'S HEFTY CHILI - link to Crock Pot Turkey Chili

Well, Thanks Giving is over in Canada.  It is always nice to reflect on the blessings of God but this holiday really makes you appreciate them.


This year I  got some left over turkey, the organs and drippings; my Chinese friends, my son Shane and myself had a wonderful Thanks Giving meal because of the generosity of my friend. God is good!  I made some delicious bread stuffing out of the drippings, organs, celery, onions fried in butter and seasoned with salt, pepper & sage. We had some tender turkey boiled in some more of the drippings & mushroom soup; some steamed Swiss chard (from my garden) and mixed veggies. The drippings & soup made fantastic gravy for the mashed potatoes! mmmmm


To top it off, we had store bought pumpkin pie and homemade apple-crisp with medium to small green apples which was a blessing from a friends tree - turned out perfect being it was a little tangy with the addition of Breyers vanilla ice cream!


What made it REALLY special is spending it with my son, Tracy & her husband Colin. ♥  Thank the Lord for  family& friends!

A while back, my boss told me about a chili recipe that had cocoa powder as one of its flavorings.  Perfect for the cool days; such as it gets in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Because it makes so much, I decided to split it in half. If you decide to double it, it freezes really well.) This chili recipe is from a restaurant in California called "Lefty O'Doul's" He said that it is really tasty, so here it is.

Ingredients: 2 tbsp vegetable oil (Coconut oil is the best for frying anything)

1 large onion
2 large garlic cloves minced (I would put 3 cloves of garlic)
2 pounds of lean beef stewing meat, cut in small cubes - 4 cups (you could probably use lean ground beef)
1.5 pounds of bulk pork sausage - 3 cups (if you don't like pork, try other sausages such as turkey)
1 large can of cubed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato paste
3 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 small can of baked beans
1 tsp salt (sea salt for me)
1 tsp sugar (brown for me)
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 small can kidney beans drained
1 small can pinto beans drained

In a large heavy sauce pan, heat the oil. Saute the onion and garlic until soft but not brown. Add the beef and sausage and brown. Pour off fat. Add tomatoes, meat mixture, tomato paste, spices, baked beans, salt, sugar and cocoa. Simmer partially covered for 2 hours, stirring often. If mixture becomes too dry add water as it cooks. Stir in the the beans and cook 30 minutes longer or until meat is very tender.
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Makes about 5 1-cup servings.
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I think 1 cup of fresh or 1/2 a can of mushrooms and even 1/2 cup of bell peppers cut up would taste great in this. Chili is great on brown rice or brown toast. For that matter, try this on my crepes with shredded cheese on top:

 http://cheryl-g.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-crepe-recipe-link-to-how-crepes-came.html


MY APPLE CRISP RECIPE:


To make the Apple Crisp, I turned on the oven to 375 F. and then greased my large corning ware dish with lots of real butter (I think it is 10" X 10" X 3").  

To begin, I sliced one green apple at a time in segments and cut out the core, peeled each piece, rinsed it in water and placed it in the dish.  Did that until the whole bottom was totally filled with apple.  When that was done I sprinkled the apples with cinnamon, 1/16 inch of cane sugar, a tiny bit of flour and dabbed it with I would say an 1/8 tsp of butter everywhere strategically 2 inches apart.  When that layer was done, I proceeded to do another good size layer of apples & cinnamon (leaving an inch of space left on top for the crumbs). 

To make the crumb mixture, I creamed 1 cup of cane sugar with about 1/3 cup of butter.  Added to that was 1 cup of large flake oats and 1/2 cup of flour.  It was stirred all together until it looked like crumbs and was spread on the apples.  The now full dish was placed in the hot oven to bake for 45 minutes.

Num, Num.  It turned out magnifico and just finished baking when we sat down to eat. 


After I got it in the oven, I made the supper. 


Thank God for my son helping me by picking the Swiss chard and cleaning up a bit. 

PS:  Check out this AWESOME no bake pumpkin pie recipe :

          http://cheryl-g.blogspot.com/2011/03/pumpkin-fluff-pie-link-to-never-fail.html