'It is not uncommon nowadays to hear people say, "I could never believe in a God who ____," as if God could not possibly be anything other than what is congenial to our own thinking. If a laboratory scientist took such a cavalier attitude toward physical reality, he'd be laughed out of his profession. If he said something like "I could never believe in a phenomenon as destructive as nuclear fission," his foolishness would be obvious. The truth would still be true whether this fellow approved of it or not. Why then, when the realities, are spiritual, do we think we can predetermine what we'll allow to be true and then judge God accordingly? Facts are hard things. They rarely shape themselves to fit our feelings. Whatever God is, that is what He is -- and the sooner we lay aside our brash demands concerning what His nature "must" be, the sooner we can get on with real religion.'

~ Gary Henry, Diligently Seeking God, June 26th: "Seeking God and Seeking Truth"

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Beauty + a Bible Verse ...

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Beauty:

Home-grown roses a patient brought in to the office last week, out of the sweetness of her heart. (One of my favorite patients y'all. ;o) The pictures really DON'T do them justice - they're the most incredible roses I've ever seen! You don't have to put your nose up to these to get the fragrance - you can catch it from feet away!! It's at times like these I feel especially blessed to work at the front ... I may or may not have teased my co-workers in the back about the advantages of this. ;)

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Bible Verse:

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;

I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.

But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame,

And they became as detestable as that which they loved.

Hosea 9:10

I'm reading through the minor prophets currently and this verse in Hosea 9 stood out for me particularly last week ... it's a simple lesson, but one that I think deserves attention early and often. The depraved hearts of the Israelite people in Hosea's day were a result of, bottom line, loving the things that they loved. Their hearts weren't always this way! See the beginning of the verse! But slowly, little-by-little, their single-mindedness was eroded and they began to love many things ... and those things were not their God. As Christians we are reminded on a regular basis that we need to guard against worldliness, to be in the world but not of the world, etc., etc ... but do we ever just bring it down to the simplest equation possible, that we are what we love? Because I think it is one of the most important steps we will ever take towards maintaining our place in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ -- taking the time to simply, intentionally think on and be aware of what we love. Our music lyrics, movie/TV show/book themes, clothes, the content of our daydreams and thoughts, you name it! Get to know what you love. Truly come to an understanding of the "themes," if you will, that control your heart and your mind. And make sure that, whatever they are, they are pleasing to your Creator and your Savior ... because you are what you love. 2 Corinthians 13:5!

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In Which I Realize I AM My Mother. Or, Herb Rubbed Roast of Beef.

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First, let me explain that there's a running joke in our family, which is that my mum could not keep to a recipe if her life depended on it. We have come to take it for granted that anything we eat of her making has been indelibly marked with her stamp. :o) Thus, when she begins her usual response to questions of content with "Weeeeell, it called for this, but I didn't think it sounded great, so I put that in instead, oh, and I left the other out, and I added ..." we smile and nod and say, "Yes, mother, that goes without saying!!"

Not so much me, however. I'm a bit less creative than my mama in the kitchen and usually stay within safe bounds of the instructions, which, after all, are there for the purpose of instructing. (At least, that was always my philosophy.) 

But last Monday I tried a new recipe for roast and after dinner was done, the kitchen cleaned, the evening begun and I had time for reflection, I found myself staring at the numerous notes and additions and scribbles on the page of the recipe ... and I realized, laughing, that it hardly resembled the one I had begun with. Mama, you've marked me for life and I don't know how it happened!! 

Not that that's a bad thing. :o)

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Incidentally, I think this is one of my favorite beef roast recipes now ... loooove the herb combination.

• 2 t. dried oregano
• 2 t. dried basil
• 2 t. crushed rosemary
• 1 t. dried thyme
• 2 t. pepper
• 1 t. salt
• 1 - 3.5 to 4 lb. beef roast
• 1 T. olive oil
• 4 carrots, cut up
• 3-4 potatoes, cut up
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2/3 cup chicken or beef broth 
• 3 T. flour (for thickening, and this is optional)
• 4 cloves minced garlic

Mix oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, pepper, and salt, and set aside. Coat roast with olive oil on all sides. Sprinkle herb mixture over meat and rub in.

In a crock pot, stir together carrots, potatoes, onions, broth, flour, and garlic. Place roast on top of vegetables. Add extra water if necessary. Cover and cook on low heat for 11-12 hrs or high heat for 5-6 hours, or until done.

Slice the roast thin for yummy sandwiches the day after!

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(Original recipe from "Better Homes and Gardens" Cook Once Eat Twice. Changes made by me.)

Over the Misty Mountains ...

May was A Month. A Crazy and Delightful Month. :) I trekked -- err, winged my way to Pennsylvania again for a little over a week ... and what a trip! Two gospel meetings -- a weekend of singing, hiking, visiting, spiritual conversations of the best kind including bedtime ones that lasted till 3AM, and just general shot-in-the-arm time with dear friends -- Frozen (twice) -- putting too much salt in the pancakes -- ice cream at 10pm, thanks to our lovely hosts -- falling asleep twice in the middle of a friend's description of FAR camp for my benefit, and waking up suddenly to "Are you okay?" -- and in between all of that jollification, a little bit of family time to visit some historical places and breeze through Amish country again. It was really hard to come home. :) I thank God for His encouragement through the people I spent time with and the friendships that were made or grew further! Here are a few (read: a LOT, sorry in advance) pictures and brief chronicles of some of the spots we got to spend time in ...

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Goodbye, mountains ... 

Heading north out of the capital. There are so many US flags flying in DC -- I love it!

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One of the historical places we visited was the Ephrata Cloister, the home of a religious German sect that was active during the 1700's. These people definitely had some odd religious ideas, but they were interesting to learn about from a historical perspective. They remained unmarried, much like the Shakers, and slept on boards; ate one meal a day and only slept about 6 hours a night ... with the goal of becoming more like God, whose nature of course needs neither physical nourishment nor sleep.

 Seems to me they were conveniently passing over a few important factors in their search for putting on the nature of God ... but I won't quibble over details. I mean, I guess little food and little sleep is undeniably one way to shed one's physical nature more quickly ...

Ooold stone foundation.

An oven ...

And the back of one ...

The cloister's cemetery, where the sect's leaders are buried.

A Revolutionary War soldier is also buried here. How cool is that?!

Really lovely landscape.

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Stop number two, Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster County!

This Pennsylvania German community was originally settled by the Landis brothers, who were of Mennonite descent if I remember correctly.

Some really beautiful buildings!

Cool root cellar entry.

A kindly old gentleman with a very serious beard, the descendant of "Dunker" brethren who originally inhabited the region along with Amish and Mennonites, gives rides around the farm in a blue wagon. :o) Dunkers actually believed in water immersion for salvation (hence the name Dunker), which I thought was cool. I really wanted to tell him that we believe the same thing, to pique his interest ... only unfortunately, yelling from the back of a bumpy wagon is not the most auspicious manner in which to begin a spiritual conversation. ;)

 

One of the original brick homes.

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And finally ... Lancaster farm country. *sigh* I have mentioned that I really, really like this area, haven't I? If not, I do. A lot. A really lot.

 If you look, you can see the red windmill in the left hand corner!! It's the little things. ;o)

Neat and tidy rows ...

 

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I also love the neighboring and extremely tiny town of Bird-in-Hand!

 Coming into town off a side road, out of the farm land.

One of my sister's main objectives that morning was to mail a postcard home, so we stopped at the post office. However, they were closed for lunch right then -- actually not just then, but from 11 to 1pm! Employees of tiny post offices in Amish country have it made, that's all I have to say!

Another spot we have fun popping into is the Bird-in-Hand Bakeshop, which is run by either Amish or Mennonites ... they have some yuuummy rhubarb pie!

And a fun petting area where you can feed the goats, which my sister loves. She's a wonder around animals. :)

Kinda ended up with more than just rhubarb pie ...

This is just cool.
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We came across several unassuming and adorable one-room Amish school houses scattered throughout the country side ... right in the middle of farmland. They are not really labeled at all, so it was difficult to see what they were until we were already upon them! Thus, drama ensued while trying for pictures ... "Dad -- DAD, SLOW DOWN! Back up! AN AMISH SCHOOLHOUSE!"          
 "There's a semi behind me ..."
"A pump! It's got a water pump! And a BELL! I've got to get a picture!"
"Oh rats, I just caught the corner of it, turn around --"
"Bother, it's not on my side anymore. I got Mom's head and the mirror in it, can we go back again?"
Et cetera.
You'd think we had never watched "Little House on the Prairie" before. All I can say is, my Dad is extremely long-suffering ... and I hope the people who witnessed us stopped in the road for minutes at a time understood ...

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One of my personal favorite pictures!

And another!

There's a buggy ...

... and what appears to be a contrail. How did I not notice that in one of my Amish country pictures.

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Another Amish town ...

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And bird houses. We saw a ton of these bird houses throughout the area.

This one was in Strasburg ... neat, huh? Birdhouse Hotel!

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One of the last things we did in Lancaster was to visit an Amish-run natural food store, Miller's, that we came across quite by accident. It was so fun to walk through, and we came out with several more things than we went in with. ;) No electricity, and just about everything you could think of or want in a natural foods store -- we have to mail order many of the things that they have right at the customer's fingertips!

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But it was finally time to head home ... back to our mountains and our dog and our lawn which looked like a beautiful, uninhabited grassland, the vegetation was so long. But I won't show you pictures of that ... you can imagine the beauty for yourself. ;o)

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