Check this out! Great Recipes

Kim has had fun trying out some recipes today! Pretty cool stuff. Rocked my world with mashed potatoes and a Basmati Rice/Black Bean medley. You wanna know the coolest part? Wait for it, wait for it. . . cheese! Nope not real cheese of course, but crushed cashews! She just ran them through the food processor to crumble ‘em up. Sprinkle that on top of your potatoes or anything else for that matter! Like crumbled cheese!

Check out this site Kim found. It’s full of Daniel Fast approved recipes.

http://www.ultimatedanielfast.com/

Rockin’ Smoothies and Stirfry

I pulled out some frozen zucchini and squash from the freezer for lunch. (Thank goodness we filled the freezer last summer from the garden!) Tossed those in the frying pan with some onions and olive oil and sautéed them. A little sea salt and some fresh ground pepper set it off. Kim made it home with tofu just as I was wrapping things up. Tossed that in the pan, seared it then served my veggie wonder on top of a helping of wheat spaghetti noodles and hey, not too bad! Never been a huge fan of tofu, but I think I’ll be able to make this work! Did you know it comes in three different consistencies? Harris Teeter caries it in 1 lb packages for about $2.00. Really took the place of chicken in my dish with the consistency of thick cheese. Even Reggie liked it!

I came home from school this afternoon and we were both jonesing for something tasty. I was dreaming of fried pork chops and gravy on top of some buttery mashed potatoes, Kim – a HUGE coffee Unfortunately, the mashed potatoes are the only part of that dish I could ‘legally’ make happen and Kim sure couldn’t have the coffee. So I whipped out the old smoothie machine to make some fruit smoothies. Turns out Kim doesn’t like my flavor of choice, so we made two batches. Dare you to try one – a basic blender will work just fine.

Mine – a cup of water, 1/4 cup of soy milk, 4 frozen strawberries, 1 banana, a frozen peach and a spoon full of organic peanut butter. WOW! Totally digging that thing right now!

Kim’s – 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 cup of soy milk, 5 frozen strawberries, 5 frozen cherries and a spoon full of natural honey. Quite the happy little girl.

And We’re Off!

After quite a day, Kim and I finally made it to Harris Teeter about 5:30 yesterday to do our first shopping for the Daniel Fast. Two hours later and after quite a bit of debating and budgeting, we made it out with a cart full of approved food!

Fruits – mostly frozen because they were cheaper, some Veggies – we put away a lot from our garden last summer , Ezekiel Bread, Unsalted Nuts – hard to find, Beans, Lentils, Whole Wheat Noodles of all varieties, Basmati Brown Rice, and Honey – had to have honey.

For breakfast Kim just toasted me some Ezekiel Bread. With a gleam in her eye, she handed me a slice and said, “try it! IT’S GOOD!”.

Two days and counting

We start the Daniel Fast in two days! Needless to say there has been ample red meat in my diet today. Awesome burgers on the grill for lunch followed by what I hope will be an AWESOME steak with my bride at OutBack.

We tried out the veggie menu at my favorite haunt yesterday – Bdobo! I think I’ll just start traveling with sea salt and olive oil in the bag. Should be able to set this thing off in style! I’m looking forward to the fast, Wow, 21 days pointing my heart and body toward God on a whole new level.

I can’t wait to see what God does in the hearts of my River peeps this month! I’m praying that families thrive, Starting with mine.

Two days and counting! What are you giving up for God?

Wow!

Kim, Ethan, Emily and I had the honor of attending a planning session yesterday evening. Not quite what I envisioned, but man let me tell ya. It was cool to see such a diverse group of people from all over Brunswick County come together for one purpose – to see teens of this county reached for Christ.

I think the best comment of the evening came from a 70 plus year old gentleman who when speaking of disciplining his children’s children said, “I don’t care who’s child they are, If they need’s a whoopin’, I’ll whoop ‘em!” That was said with him standing between a Superior Court Judge, a County Sherif and a County Commissioner! It was a belly roll moment!

The Judge made a passionate plea from the heart, essentially declaring how fed up he is seeing people lean on the court system to solve temporary problems with permanent solutions. The church has the answer, but we’re keeping it to ourselves! 110,000 people living in Brunswick County. Of those, more people attended each of the South Brunswick and West Brunswick Homecoming games than attend an evangelical, protestant church week after week in the county. There is a great need for the people of God to work together in a united effort – as ONE CHURCH – to reach those far from God. WOW! A judge made that comment!

It was an honor to be invited. Not what I envisioned. We thought we were headed to a planning session for a Youth Concert. God had greater plans.

Wow!

HAVE YOU MADE YOUR CHOICE?

Monday, January 9 is a day which will mark the beginning of an amazing journey. With so many things vying for our time and attention, it’s hard to imagine giving something up. But you know what, it’s necessary from time to time.

When we take time to truly put God first in our lives, to intentionally put him at the TOP of our to do list, he actually has a chance to speak to us. Most of our lives are crazy. We run from this to that, making plans for every moment of free time we might have. Our diets are crazy too! We do what ever it takes to get filler into our belly to fuel the rapid fire pace we live.

For 21 days, River of Leland will be focusing on God’s will for our lives. During these three short weeks, we hope to hear Him more clearly than we have to date. We’re praying for you that your life would be transformed. We are praying that marriages be restored. We trust that finances will be flipped right side up again. We pray most of all that God will make Himself known to you in a brand new way during these days.

So, have you made your choice? Do you know what level you’ll take this Fast? Will you be giving up Soda, coffee, caffeine, or something you really enjoy doing? How about something which you know chews up time you might other wise spend with family or with God?

As a lead team, we have committed to pursue God through continual prayer and the Daniel Fast – nothing radical, unless you consider dropping all things processed and all meats from the diet radical. We invite you to join us in our quest, our pursuit of God during the month of January. Whatever level you choose to join us, we know that God looks at the heart. He wants to see hearts sincerely pursuing Him!

Are you ready to Thrive in 2012?

The River of Leland Fast:
Begins January 9 at 9 a.m.
Ends January 29 at 9 a.m.

Check out these links from River of Leland.com to help you prepare if you choose to pursue the Daniel Fast with us.
Guidelines:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.nm-storage.com/riverofleland/downloads/Daniel_Fast_Handout.pdf

Preparation:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.nm-storage.com/riverofleland/downloads/Preparation.pdf

Food List:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.nm-storage.com/riverofleland/downloads/Food_List.pdf

Recipes:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.nm-storage.com/riverofleland/downloads/Daniel_Fast_Recipes.pdf

GEARING UP

Man,

I was thinking yesterday how cool it has been to look back and see how River has grown since September of last year. Not just in numbers, but in faith. Serious faith! I love these guys and gals!

19 YEARS TODAY! January 2, 2012

Wow! It’s hard to believe, time really flies by! Kim and I celebrated 19 years as husband and wife today! How cool is that?

We’ve spent the day hanging out, not doing much of anything important. Except for the fact that we hit one of the most AWESOME stores in the world – Bass Pro in Myrtle Beach. Man I love that girl!

I CAN RUN FAST IN THESE SHOES! December 16, 2010

I presented an urgent need to River and friends on Monday of this week. By Tuesday night huge hearts had responded in style! We’ll still be collecting more goodies for the kids through Sunday of this week, but I couldn’t wait to share this update from a friend who’s in contact with the kids every day:

Hey Pastor JMac, please pass this along to the gang!
 
    The two school aged children were back at school today after being out sick yesterday.  I was in the community liaison’s office today when the
KG girl got her coat and shoes.  I had to choke back tears to see her excitement!  She loved the “fuzzy” lining and it even had a HOOD!  I put the shoes on her and she hopped all over the office and said, “I can jump in these!  My old shoes are hard and I can’t jump in them very good.”  I took her back to her classroom and she had to model her new coat and shoes (a hopping kind of modeling) and wanted everyone to see that she had a warm coat, shoes and gloves that even matched!  It was very difficult today for her to follow the “walking feet in the hallway” rule! She was VERY upset that we didn’t go outside for recess today.
 
   I wasn’t present when the  first grade brother was given his coat, shoes and gloves.  From what I understand he was more excited than his sister was!   He was thrilled with his shoes because he said he would be a ” fast runner”  like the other boys are.  I’m kind of glad that I wasn’t there when he got his coat, shoes and gloves because I probably wouldn’t  have been able to make it through the day.
 
  I can’t remember ever being emotional about a coat or shoes when I was a child.  It wasn’t really that big of a deal.  I needed a coat, I got a coat. I needed shoes, I got shoes.  I’m sure I probably had input when selecting them, but It wasn’t a particularly exciting shopping trip.  Getting things I needed were just not really a big deal. 
 
   I was humbled today. 

Wow. . . God is Pretty cool, Hu?!

WOW! December 13, 2010

Life can be a whirlwind! If you’ve followed my Ramblings over the past two years, you’ll know I’m no stranger to utter chaos. But you’ll also be keenly aware that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God shows Himself more clearly during times like these than in any other.

In the past year I’ve had friends in great need receive God sized blessings! I’ve prayed in unison with other great friends as they’ve watched loved ones suffer. I’ve begged God for financial answers to God sized problems for several families. I’ve seen a rag-tag group of dreamers set out to change the world starting with the tiny little town of Leland. Now I’m pleading with my mom for healing of an incessant wound on her leg at the same time Kim’s dad is struggling to turn his world back around on the heels of a pretty nasty stroke two weeks ago.

Seems I know the meaning of WOW! Wow, my friends are amazing. Wow, some of these problems and challenges are pretty darn frustrating. Wow, some of the illnesses my family and friends are dealing with just aren’t fair! Wow, God’s blessings are so undeserved. Wow, God’s hand is so obviously holding me right now in the midst of an amazing storm. Wow, God has one HUGE plan for my life and for the lives of those I’m blessed to serve with! Wow, I can’t wait to see where we are in a year’s time!

WOW!!!! God is Crazy Good! Get you some!