2012 Christmas Tea is coming!

Love & Fear

“Perfect love casts out fear.”  1 John 4:18a

Love.  American culture uses “love” for so many things:

We “love” God, our ball team, pickled beets (…at least I do, anyway), and, of course, we love our mamas.

What in the world is love???  That’s a whole different post, but one thing the Lord has been teaching me recently is a HUGE thing that love does –

“Perfect love casts out fear.”

As I was reading through this Scripture the other day, I sat there and chewed on it for a few minutes.  The Lord gave me the best picture to illustrate how His perfect Love casts out fear – it was of a club, and LOVE was the bouncer.  And what does that bouncer do?  He escorts out the lowlifes that are causing trouble and does it none too gently. 

I asked the question, “Who is the lowlife?  Who is Fear?” 

My first thought was that it was the weasel in the corner. 

Nope, though, he wasn’t it.  So who was it?

It was the bully -- the guy paralyzing a girl with his threats; the guy keeping her from doing what was right; the guy making her feel like she was worthless or helpless.

Isn’t that what fear does to us?                                                  

It paralyzes us and somehow keeps us from seeing who we are in Christ and the power that we have in Him. 

So when we call on God’s Perfect Love (Jesus),

He comes over,
seizes that bully Fear by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants,
roughly ushers him to the door,
then hurls him into the puddle in the middle of the street. 

And then Jesus comes back to us, binds us up and brings us to wholeness and truth in Himself.

That's what Love does...for me...and for you.  Wow. 

Trusting Him,
Carrie

 

Friday Foodie Tip

Perhaps I am the last girl on the planet to learn this nifty trick, if so, be gentle in the comments!  :-)

How many of you shred chicken?  Whether we poach our chicken, grill our chicken or use a rotisserie chicken from Walmart or Harp's, we shred our chicken.  It's great for quick fajitas, chicken salad, chicken soup, you name it.  The drawback is the number it does on our hands as we use our fingers to pull apart that hot chicken or two forks to shred those breasts.

I have found a quick, easy, and painless solution, Ladies!

If you have a stand mixer, no longer must you slave over shredding your chicken!  Ta-daa! 

Two chicken breasts and just a few moments on medium-low in the mixer (with the paddle attachment), and you have perfectly shredded chicken.  Lovely! 

So the next time you need some shredded chicken for a recipe, or you go out and get some bulk chicken breasts through Zaycon and need to freeze some of that yummy goodness, pull out your stand mixer and put it to work!  (I did about 10 pounds of chicken breasts in just a few minutes!)

(A quick note -- be sure to watch it as it goes, or you'll end up with chicken paste.  Just sayin'.)

Til next time!

Trusting Him,

Carrie