Love Buzzard's Crafts & Life

My two favorite little goblins came by for goodies.  Bryce was the Mad Scientist and Brody started out as the Dragon Cowboy but did not like wearing the top to the costume so he ended up at my house in just his regular clothes.

This weekend Ashley made this jack-o-lantern that shows what happens if you eat too much candy,  :O)  She is one clever lady and is always doing the neatest things with the boys..  I wonder if Bryce and Brody have eaten all the candy.

When the boys and Ashley came to my door tonight, they had a treat for me.  Ashley made these ‘hands’ for her first grade class.  Note the candy corn fingernails.

This has been pretty much a very nonproductive week but at least tonight I finally completed one project.  My twelve boxes for Operation Christmas Child are all packed and ready to be sent to the distribution center.  They are stuffed as full as possible and I just hope that the rubber bands holding the tops on do not pop.  I am seriously thinking of putting on double rubber bands since the boxes are so full.  I still have to put a label on each box saying if for a boy or girl but waiting to do that until I have the money in hand to pay the shipping.  Now one can pay online and when the boxes are delivered, Samaritan’s Purse will send an email informing me where my boxes ended up.  It is fun to know the final destination.  Last year my twelve boxes were divided between four different countries.

A Year with Jesus by R.P. Nettelhorst is a daily devotional book that is based entirely on the words of Jesus that are recorded in the Bible.  The words of Jesus from a chosen scripture begin the page for each day and that is followed by the words of the author as he gives his insight and explanation for the scripture passage.

The book is broken down into sections on different subjects.  The divisions are Love and Hate, Truths and Lies, Arrogance and Humility, Friends and Enemies, Belief and Disbelief, Patience and Impatience, Deserved and Undeserved, Good and Evil, Fidelity and Treachery, and Life and Death.  Under each division there are numerous entries with the words of Jesus that deal with that particular subject.

Personally I like for daily devotional books to be numbered with the date and this would be the only thing I do not like about the book.     For this reason, the first thing that I did after receiving the book was to date each page to make it easier for me to follow.  I would recommend this book to anyone to use during their morning or evening quiet time with God.  It is also a great book to pick up at any time and randomly pick a page to read or to read an entry on a specific subject.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

This has been an absolutely wasted day.  In my defense I must say that my knees and back have been hurting all day long and still hurting as it gets near my bedtime.  When I got up this morning I could hardly walk because of the backache.  Funny thing is that it is the muscles on each side of my lower back and does not seem to be an arthritic ache.

I did do one good thing today and that was my daily Bible study.  Since I did not get up until quite late this morning, it was early afternoon by the time I had finished my studying and had eaten my lunch.  I spent a good part of the rest of the afternoon reading the twenty-third book in a series of forty.

I am hoping that tomorrow I will be in less pain and can get some sewing done on the charity quilts.  I need those finished by the first week of December.  It will not take too many days to get them all made once I get started.  Getting started is the problem.

This has been a great day.  Our new pastor is visiting all the church members and he has started with the senior adults and he came to see me today.  Had a great visit with him and got some of my theology questions answered.

I have been wanting some taco soup so I called my friend to get her recipe and then I combined it with one I had gotten off the Internet.  That called for a trip to Walmart to get most of the ingredients.  I was going to cook in the crock-pot but there was so much that the crock-pot was full to the very top.  The instructions that came with the crock-pot said not to fill more than three-fourths full so I dumped the soup into a large pot and cooked on the stove.  I had a taste and it was way too spicy (read HOT) for me.  I think the spiciness would have been fine if I had not added the juice from the Rotel tomatoes.  That stuff is hot!  And I also put in a tiny can of chopped green chilies.  Next time I will just use the chilies and leave out the Rotel.

I called Ashley and asked her if she liked taco soup.  She said YES so I told her to text Buster and tell him to come by and get a big bowl of it for them.  She said that she was in Ruston but had to come to the Karate school to pick up Bryce so I told her to just come on to my house and she could pick up the soup.  She left here with a big bowl and was overjoyed for she also had been wanting taco soup.  I told her that it probably would not be hot enough for her and Buster.  She can add more hot sauce, or cayenne pepper or whatever she wants to make it hot.

I finally had a bowl of the taco soup and was rather disappointed.  It was not as good as I remembered.  Guess my taste for that particular soup has changed.  I make some Brunswick stew last week and it was really good.  Maybe I will stick with that and forget about the taco soup.

Close Enough to Hear God Breathe by Greg Paul was somewhat of a disappointment for in my opinion I do not think that the author really told me how to be close enough to God to hear him breathe.  The sub title of the book is The Great Story of Divine Intimacy but I felt that the author never managed to show how to have divine intimacy.     The title of the book is what caught my attention and the reason I chose to read the book.  I found the writing somewhat hard to follow for he would be telling one story, then would go to a story from the Bible, and then would go to a third story.  Because of his style of writing I had trouble following his thoughts and meanings.  Probably half the stories in the book were about street people and the rest were stories of his family.  Even though they were interesting reading, I did not feel that they showed me how to get close enough to God to hear Him breathe.

As is true of many Christians, I have trouble really understanding the Trinity.  I really liked one thing that the author had to say and that was his description of the Trinity as being a kind of holy family.  What really caught my attention was naming the Holy Spirit, Mother Spirit.  Some of the things that the Holy Spirit does are things that Christian mothers do and I am probably way off base in my theology, but thinking of the Holy Spirit as Mother Spirit appeals to me by making the Trinity a little more understandable.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Billy Graham in Quotes by Franklin Graham with Donna Lee Toney is a wonderful book for anyone to read from the newest Christian to a retired minister and everyone in between.  When I saw that the book contained the words of Billy Graham I had to read it for I have the greatest respect for him and his message.  When I first got the book I was picking and choosing quotes to read and then I decided that I should start reading at the beginning and read to the end.  Every quote is a nugget of wisdom and the quotes cover 107 different topics from abortion to young people.  The topics are alphabetized   and this makes it very easy to choose quotes to read on a certain subject.  Before each section of quotes, there is a Bible verse that deals with the issue that the quotes cover.

It is hard to pick favorite quotes but I do have some that really spoke to me and I want to share them.

…”Fear not the future; God is already there.”

“We cannot inherit Christianity…God has no grandchildren.”

“I have read the last page of the Bible.  It is all going to turn out all right.”

“Happy is the person who has learned the secret of being content with whatever life brings him, and has learned to rejoice in the simple and beautiful things around him.”

“God first, others second, self third.”

“There are two ways of being rich—have a lot, or want very little.  The latter way is the easier for most.”

“Peace—[the ability] to sleep in the storm!”  (This one especially spoke to me for just a few weeks ago I was sound asleep when tornadoes were touching down all around me.)

“Too often we use petty little petitions, oratorical exercises, or the words of others rather than the cries of our inmost being.  When you pray, pray.”  (I especially like this one for so many times I feel that my prayers are just repetition of what I prayed earlier.)

“The greatest waste in all of our earth is our waste of the time God has given us each day.”  (This one really hit me where it hurts for I am retired and many times at the end of the day I feel that I have done absolutely nothing for God, for others, or even for myself.) “Heaven is full of answers to prayer for which no one ever bothered to ask!”   (I had heard this one before and it really made me stop and think.)

I definitely give this book five stars and believe that everyone will benefit from reading this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Secrets of the Vine for Women by Darlene Marie Wilkinson is based on John 15.  “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.”  John 15: 1-2 NLT.

This scripture is not that easy to understand but Darlene explains it very clearly as she tells the story of a vinedresser and his daughter.  The story illustrates how God is the vinedresser, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches.  By pruning our branches, God is disciplining us and helping us to grow as Christians.

Darlene lists three secrets of the vine.  The first secret is that if we as Christians do not bear any fruit then God will discipline us so that we will bear fruit.  The second secret is that is we bear only a little fruit then God will prune us so that we will bear more fruit.  And the third secret is that if our lives bear much fruit, God will bring us deeper into His presence and in that we will produce even more fruit.

The author states that in spiritual pruning we must let go of what we think is pretty good so that God can give us His very best.  The whole idea of pruning is that we lose something now to gain something later.

At the end of the book is a study guide for each chapter that gives the reader a chance to further the study of spiritual pruning.

”I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.”

Jolt ! By Phil Cooke is a very good book abounding with good advice for those who want to change their lives and is definitely worth reading.  One thing that I really like is that all the changes that Phil Cooke mentions include God in the equation.   I thought that the book was aimed more for people in the work force but the advice and suggestions will work for anyone, for what gets results in the work place can also bring about results in one’s personal daily life.   Even as a retired, senior citizen, I found two or three ideas that I can apply to my daily life to make good changes.

The book is divided into five Jolt sections: ” Your Direction, What Matters, Your Potential, Your Heart, and Your Future.”   Each of the sections is made up OF five different suggestions or jolts.  Even though all the jolts are excellent, my favorite was number twenty, “Discover The Power of Faith.”  Just my opinion but I think one of the most important statements in the book is, “If we want to change the world, we have to start by changing our spiritual outlook.”  And another important point that Phil makes is that the time to change is now and to bring about change we have to change our thinking.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Amazing Love by Corrie Ten Boom is a very uplifting and encouraging book.  I thought it interesting that Corrie called herself a troubadour for Christ.

The book consists of twenty-seven chapters and each one is more or less a short story or maybe testimony would be a better word.  The chapters include such things as redemption, forgiveness, finances, intercessory prayer, the second coming, and everlasting life.  There were several statements in the book that I really liked but I think my favorite was: “Yesterday is a canceled check, today is cash, tomorrow is a promissory note to those who accept the victory of Jesus.”  Every chapter offered words of wisdom from an author who was in a position to offer such words.  Corrie’s deep faith and love for Christ comes through each word in the book.

Nadia May is the narrator and does an excellent job.

I received this audio book free from christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for posting a review.   (http://christianaudio.com).