Through the narrow gate

Cecilia - singing Amazing Grace with the whales

2010-05-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

2009-11-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

Its been some time since I have posted anything, well, at least anything that had to do with me expressing myself anyway, and have been wanting to get back into it. Well, a very dear friend has given me a reason. Since breaking away from the "church" (the organization/building) I, and my wife, have had much struggle, doubt, and more than a little loneliness. We found many wonderful people here in blog-land, and connected with numerous avenues of receiving wonderful teachings and growing resources all centered around the wonderful grace of God. Admittedly however, I have been a bit out of it, consumed with a complete career change and more than a little difficulty in many areas. Because of these things I have been feeling a bit isolated again, and a bit scared. Thankfully I have two friends that I have meet here that have really made an effort to keep me feeling attached no matter how little time or peace of mind I had to even approach my computer. One of these dear friends recently sent me a spontaneous gift from his heart, a hat, and with an extra piece of personal thought added a pin. Now of course my email and "handle", if you will, is violablewings which simply means "easily broken wings", although there are many other likens to the word this is my idea of it. Anyway, I say that to say, that this friend of mine was out walkabout and found a pin of a set of wings that had a broken post and been run over many times. He fixed the pin adding a tack for a post and the pin works famously and like me carries the scars of its former position. I am posting this because of the way that act has touched me, and changed me, and helped me to get myself back on track. There is so much to be said for a simple act of kindness that comes not from a feeling of mandate "because I am a Christian, and that's what Christians do", but rather because I was being thought of, loved, and out of that a serendipitous find was made special. He sent my Annie a hat too, she of course was very touched as well, and prizes it for the love in which it was sent, but wouldn't let me take a picture of her lol. Thank you is a weak word for what I feel, but besides that and a big cyber-hug that's all I have. Thanks Leonard, we love you brother!!!

Free the naked Gospel EBook till October 1st

2009-09-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to pass along a link to the free download of the EBook "The Naked Gospel" available until October 1st. :-) and the website where the full sermons/teachings on the Naked Gospel can be heard. Click on Audio Series then scroll down to The Naked Gospel. It's a 7 part series and very good.

Amazing Grace in Cherokee

2009-09-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

This is Amazing Grace in Cherokee, I reckon its quite beautiful. Had to share it with whoever may stumble along, if not its ok, just gives me easy access to listen to it LOL. :-)

A timely video for me

2009-01-18T11:20:00.000-08:00

This is a really good video that I had come across and wanted to share. It reminds me of where my own strength leads me and leaves me, and where the strength of God lifts me from and places me.

2008-12-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

My Aunt emailed me the link to this video and I thought, man, what a odd, pointless, yet in a strange way amusing video, until I saw the end. Then I realized I had to post it LOL. I think you will find it pretty cool too :-)

Healthy living and a couple recipes

2008-11-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit different from most, its something that I have wanted to begin talking about off and on, and even though it may not seem like a spiritual thing I believe that it has a lot of spiritual aspects. I am going to share a couple of recipes that I really like that most people would run from :-) along with some information that I have come across. My wife and I have for some time now been actively interested in a healthier way of eating, mostly because of the mortality rate of the men in my family line :-(. In researching alot of this we found a common problem in diets of most people, especially the western countries. Food is not only devoid of life giving nutrients but they are added to with a host of deadly chemicals, altered genes, and a counter productive nature that strives against the natural healing properties so lovingly given to us by our God and Father. As soon as most people read something like this they think, "Oh man! Hear goes the health nuts telling us we have to eat yucky food to live!" Health nuts,,,,,,what an oxymoron LOL to say one is nuts for wanting to be healthy, granted alot of people do go to an extreme and become very legalistic about it (like the religious church organization can be). Anyway, I promise that this is not a rant against anything other than "health food" but rather information and observations gathered over a period of time and research. I myself hate yucky food :-) and have found that there are many things that I would not try because on their own they are yucky, or just because I already had my mind made up that it was yucky. Make sense? Well to shine a better light on it we will take cheese cake, obviously not a "healthy choice", but I always hated cheese cake because of the word "cheese" in it. I know, its cream cheese, but still.........., a couple of years ago my wife talked me into trying a bite of her cheesecake that she had ordered, the experience was euphoric LOL, now I love it, unfortunately its become a bit of a stumbling block to my health :-D. I also hated tofu, lets face it, tofu is nasty! The thing is, it is not only a known cancer fighter, rich in protein and calcium but it also takes on the flavor of what every it is combined with making it very versitile. I tried tofu finally in a smoothie first, not bad, then marinated and grilled, it was quite good. Lastly scrambled up with eggs, pepper and curry to make a spiced scramble, that one was very good, and very healthy. I say all of this to say, keep you mind open, there are alot of good foods out there that if prepared properly to taste, are a wonderful experience. The following recipies are "raw food" recipies, even though the one with tofu can't be legally classified as "raw" because anything that has ever been heated above 108 degrees can't be considered raw. I like raw food because that is the way we were made to eat, not being legalistic I know we have complete freedom but I do believe the freedom often has a price. My mom and dad always used to say, "as long as you bless it you won't choke" LOL or often indicated that blessing food would in fact negate the ill effect of toxic foods. Anyway, I did promise this wouldn't be a rant didn't I :-). I just wanted to point out the positives of raw food, the most important I will mention and that is that the valuable and incredibly important active enzymes are fully intact. Our body needs these because as life goes on we loose what we have and they are never replenished unless we replace them with either prebiotics and probiotics or a nice host of positive living foods, not to mention decreasing our intake of sugar, dairy, coffee (hard one for me an avid coffee drinker), and many other substances that kill everything good in our system. Hopefully this will all stimulate interesting conversation, don't be scared, lol, I'm not a health pharisee, just like to share what I have found and be of some help to any one who cares to hear. I am planning on doing a couple of additions to this post if anyone is interested giving more information that I reckon would be of great use to anyone, please let me know. :-)

Avocado Tofu Spread
Mash 1 ripe avocado with about 8 oz drained mashed tofu – about half and half if you are a beginner to tofu and are a bit scared you can use less tofu– and add 1 Tblsp of lemon juice, 1-2 Tblsp finely diced onions, 1-2 cloves of shredded garlic, 3 tsp of soy sauce, 1 finely diced jalapeño pepper, and season with chili pepper and ground cumin to taste.
Combine all of these very well.
My favorite thing to do with this is making a wrap of it, take a whole Romaine lettuce leaf and spread the avocado tofu mixture on it like a dressing, add a bed of alfalfa sprouts, a layer of chopped green onion, slices of cucumber, halved slices of tomato, and roll it up like a big green, raw burrito  very yummy and balanced.

Desert is......
Ron’s Raw Tart
Crust
1 cup of soaked almonds blended to a powder in a blender or processor (processor preferably as it will keep the almonds from heating and thus keeping the valuable enzymes intact.)
Pinch of salt
All of the contents of 2 whole vanilla bean pods (you can also use 1 tsp of vanilla extract; it’s just no longer considered “totally raw”.
1/8 cup of olive oil
2 tsp of agave nectar
Add the newly made almond flour to a bowl, with a pinch of salt and mix it. Add the vanilla bean and agave nectar to the olive oil and mix it well then add it to the almond flour/salt mixture and mix it well. It should be like stiff dough. Flatten the mixture out one a plate making a lip around the edge pretty much like a tart shell ( or as much as possible) and put it in the fridge until ready to put the filling in
Filling
Blend in a blender or processor
1 pitted mango
1 frozen banana
¼ cup of blue berries, fresh or frozen
½ tsp of flax oil
The smallest pinch of salt
Pour the mixture in the shell and put it in the freezer for a few to set a bit, slice it like a cheese cake and enjoy!! This is a wonderful tart, and completely raw with the enzymes intact, very health and delicious!

One strange dog....

2008-11-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

I just had to share this picture of our Standard Poodle, Lilly, she is an expert at getting herself as comfortable as possible LOL!!!

Personality Types

2008-11-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

My wife came across this about a year ago and we both found it to be extrodinarily accurate for us, it is a website that helps you to discover and understand different aspects of your personality and is based off of the psycological types theory by Jung. Just a couple weeks ago I happened on a file stored one of my backup DVD's that contained various documents inwhich I had placed information I was sure to forget, only makes sense that by and by I would eventually lose the DVD. Anyway, one of the things on it was a chart that you can create on the website after you take this personality types test charting the aspects of your personality. Out of curiosity I posted this to my friends in facebook to see if they found it as interesting as we did. As it turns out everyone that took the test was amazed at the results. Its really fun to share with one another the out come of this test. I believe that if there is an interest in understanding people, whether friends or family, it has to start with being able to relate with them on some level of thier personality, if not at least acknowledgment of their feelings (which is no small thing). So, if you feel complelled, check it out! It really is pretty cool, just be as completely honest as you can, and put down what you really feel and not what you think you should feel.
Both Anne and myself are personality types INFP "the Dreamer" (that is Introvert, iNtuition, Feeling, Perceiving).
I have put a badge of the ratios that show this measured on my blog page, unfortunatly I could only get it to fit at the bottom of my blog and had no time to fuss with it since it is 12:00 in the morning. If you click on it though it will take you to a large easier to read version of it. These can be made on the website along with the code to post if you so wish it.
click here for the Personality Types test they also have one called the multiple intelligences test which goes along quite well with the personality types test, I highly recommend it, have fun!

Light your Candle

2008-11-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

I really love this song, always have, but I have never listened to it with the ears of grace until today. I love the part that says "frustrated brother see how he's tried to, light his own candle, some other way" and "See how your sister, she's been robbed and lied to, still holds a candle, without a flame". Those couple lines alone made me post this video to share with you, I know the times I have heard this before no matter where, it was always under the idea that holding our candle out was some form of work, outreach ministry, or an outward action that gave a visual to us being a Christian. I believe in action, doing for others, just not as a work to show or prove to myself or anyone else who I am in Christ, but rather out of the knowledge of the love, compassion, and understanding of Christ that He had/has for me. Out of that knowledge comes the same love, compassion, and understanding that is in Him working through me, for no gain, proof, or show of my own, for anyone. "Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another." (from the Message) I have always struggled with this! How can I love like He loved? But I reckon that I have always thought of it in the wrong way, I really think that understanding and compassion are the key to the love that Jesus is talking about. No one wants anything more than to be understood, and when understanding come from a heart of grace, compassion and love are right there. I have often heard it said, "you don't have to like someone or what they are doing to love them" and it always vexed me. I think I understand that better now, there are admittedly alot of people that I have a hard time with, but those are personality things, and compatability things. The heart of it is that they are suffering from a world of misleading lies, and the pain of a loneliness that I don't see because of the mask they are wearing, and the covers they are expending so much effort to throw on top of it so it is not seen, and hopefully not felt, at least for a moment. Anyway, there's how I feel about that :-) and here at long last is the song.......

2008-11-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

Hmm, why does this somehow seem relevant and or familiar to me???

Riding the favorite alien wave :-)

2008-11-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

Since some of the blogs I go to were posting their favorite Alien, I really liked Pug the dog from RJW :-) I thought I would post my favorite alien or aliens. My wife can't stand the borg, but I think they rule. Besides, they give such a good example of the church enviornments that I and my wife, have been apart of in a kind of extreme idealogical kind of way.

2008-10-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went on a rather long nature trail hike today in the woods near the town we live in. Its a beautiful place (one of the trails pictured above) with many different trails anywhere from .5 miles to 6.8 miles in length. As we walked on into the trails we see signs off and on showing a man hiking and a similar one beneath it with a man riding a horse, the horse one however has a strike through it announcing that horses are prohibited on walking trails. Funny thing is, after we get into the trail a bit we find a multitude of horse tracks all along the hiking trails. I looked at them all and told my wife, "so much for no horses eh?! I mean man, they have many more horse trails in this area than hiking trails and still the riders insist on going where they are not supposed be." Then it popped into my head, isn't it just like people when it comes to any form of law or command, Gods law, or even mans law says "thou shalt not", and we stand up and scream, "I shalt!" (btw, I got that 'thou shalt not/I shalt' thing from Steve Brown lol) But anyway it just stood out to me and it felt really good to be just walking along and thoughts of spiritual growth meander their way through my head as I noticed little things like that. Its remarkable because lately I have been purposely trying to steer my mind away from anything spiritual at all, sort of an auto self protect mode since I couldn't be nice to myself when I did. I know its nothing enlightening, but for me its a marker for me to stake down in my heart as part of the right road traveled.

Finding Fellowship :-)

2008-10-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

I started this blog again for the sole reason to hopefully find "fellowship" with like minded believers. I have missed having some semblance of support, even though while plugged into the organized system was some what borg-ish (understood probably only by at least semi-trekies). I wasn't sure if it was possible to feel that connection or not, and even kind of afraid that I would, if that makes a bit of sense. To make a possible long story short, I did! And I am very grateful to the people who have reached out and been a hand of the "Church" to me. I have long felt that the church was so much more than the organizations that I have for so long been apart of but was held back by controlling propaganda, and my own fears. The love of Christ that these wonderful people in the blog world who have extended their hearts and experiences to me has shown me that what my heart cried to my mind is true, and I have learned an all new way of listening to the song Amazing Grace, as a particular line has taken all new meaning "I once was blind but now I see" (not to mention Chris Tomlin's "my chains are gone" version, a new favorite). I don't feel alot better, but I do feel a bit stronger (thanks to the support of my dear wife, and the rest of you). We are going to go and watch a movie tonight with my mom and aunts, please pray for me if you see this before 7-ish tonight to keep a firm grasp on my emotions and display some sort of control, I don't want to engage in any sort of spiritual discussion but I know what happens when remarks are made that open old wounds. Thank you for your prayers.
Ron

This made me think of Matthews "Cafe Mocha latte" post

2008-10-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

My sister sent me this picture, just had to share it. No spiritual insight in it just a picture that should be hanging in every starbucks..................

Obedience struggles

2008-10-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

I read a post today by bino, it was posted a few days ago and I was really blessed by it. The topic of it was obedience, something which I have had a great deal of problems with. I was by the most part raised in the Assembly of God church and taught that obedience was doing the will of God as defined by the 10 commandments, Gods moral law. I know that in being a child of God I have the desire to not sin, but it's a very hard struggle and in all honesty I have a hard time believing that I will ever come close to winning that struggle. I mean, I hate it when I sin, it makes me feel sick when I do, its just that there are so blasted many sins, seems like I can't turn around and smile without realizing I have done or thought something that was wrong. Good Grief! It wouldn't bother me so much I suppose if all the thoughts about losing my salvation wouldn't get in the way, many well meaning teachers have told me that salvation was a road traveled, and if a "saved person" strays off of the road they are ok as long as the do not go a so far off of it that they can no longer see the road (I know, I know how it sounds lol). I have come to understand the grace message enough to know better than that, but I guess it just hasn't fully superceded the old teachings yet (which is why bino's post and many of the comments there, were so spiritually thirst quenching to me). I remember a sermon one day that was very much concentrated on the sermon on the mount pointing out all of the ways in which we are to act as Christians and how easy it is to do the wrong thing. It was suggested that we know the bible so well that we should be like the priests that have the little scripture tied to their foreheads as a constant reminder. I actually memorized the sermon on the mount after that, sure that if I had it always there I wouldn't do the things that it says not to do and do the things it says to do. The result was a slow and arduous fall into failure and more sin. I now understand what Paul and so many of the brothers and sister have been saying out there, that more concentration on obeying the law trying not to sin actually brings about and gives life to sin. A friend at work told me about a restaurant that she went to and it really brought home the understanding of the concept of "doing what I am told not to do". In this restaurants ladies room, there is a large painting of a Scottish man wearing a kilt, the kilt however was not a painting but a real kilt. There is a sign next to it saying "Do Not Look Under This Kilt!" Come on, what are you gonna do? LOL. Problem is when you raise the kilt up it sets off a bell in the dinning room and every one out there knows that you peeked. I can imagine the lady coming out of the restroom after looking and hearing a bell go off outside thinking, "Oh Man, I have to go out there and really act like I didn't do this or look like a real fool!" At least that's what I would think anyway, and that is how I always thought when I did or thought something wrong, my look like a good Christian switch would come on. Anyway, I know I went on a bit and did not mean to go that far, I guess I'm just still struggling a bit with not being as perfect as I feel like I should be, I am only just starting to be able to read the bible again without feeling like I was going to hell if I die tomorrow, so my scripture knowledge is not really up to par as you can tell from the lack of scripture verse reference, which is fairly heavy weight in itself on my heart. I am glad to have a place to go and read the hearts and the love that so many of the brothers and sisters here pour out, it is healing salve to a wounded soul, not only to mine but many others as well.

Re-Starter

2008-10-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Re-Starter,,,,,,,seems like a fitting title because, in summary, I had a blog that I had started before called "Nervous Starter", it was mentioned that the content was possibly a bit personal. After looking at it for a while it made me feel tripped out so it had to go, I picked up the feeble amount grace understanding that I had and ran like mad lol.
Anyway, I shall wait until I get a bit more comfortable with people before saying much personal, even though I have an odd sense of what is considered personal most of the time :)
So here I am having another go, and will try not to run again.