slow-cooker teriyaki pork

okay, by now we all realise that i love to cook and that i should have been food blogging long ago. it's just too much fun. this recipe, however, has not been mastered by me but by my fabulous husband who is often handed recipes that involve the preparation and cooking of raw meats. yes, i'm that girl :). we've tried the recipe several times now, and we're equally delighted every time, which is confirmed by lots of "MMM" sounds floating around the room :P. super simple and easy. we usually serve it with crispy potato wedges or whole grain basmati rice and a salad. last night, though, i made some super yummy zucchini chips on the fly :D.  ENJOY!

serves 4-6 
INGREDIENTS (measurements in English and Swedish):

• 2 tbsp/msk olive oil
• 2 lbs/1 kg pork loin (the cheaper and fatter the cut, the better, actually. think BBQ)
• 1/2 c/1 dl teriyaki sauce
• 1/4 c/0,5 dl brown sugar (farinsocker)
• 1 c/2,5 dl chicken broth (kycklingbuljong)
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 fresh red chile peppers, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• pinch/nypa black pepper

DIRECTONS

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Brown pork on all sides, which, depending on the cut of meat you use, should take 5-10 mins. Meanwhile, mix together teriyaki sauce, chicken broth, and brown sugar in a small bowl.

2. If you're a) using a large cast iron pot (like a LeCrueset), you can brown the pork and then add in the teriyaki mix, chiles, onion, and pepper at this point. Otherwise, b) transfer all ingredients to your slow-cooker. 

3. a) Put the pot in the oven at 165 C/325 F, and let bake a few hours; turn 2-3 times to ensure even doneness. When the pork falls into pieces, it's done :). b) Cook on High in the slow-cooker for about 4 hours. 

Sadly, I don't have a picture of this culinary delight to share, but if you just imagine the best BBQ you've ever had and how it looked, this is better :P. 

homemade chicken enchiladas and fredagsmys

while we're on the recipes kick, last week i went into google land in search of a recipe that would enable me to use up the cottage cheese that i had randomly purchased but failed to use. my search surprisingly lead me to the absolute best chicken enchiladas i have ever eaten, EVER. as most swedes don't even know what enchiladas are, i have never been able to find enchilada sauce in the stores here. and i must note that most swedes refer to all things mexican as "tacos". "tacos" have even become the national choice food for the incredibly swedish concept of "fredagsmys," loosely translated as "cosy fridays," friday evenings that generally consist of staying in, making dinner with friends and/or family, watching movies and/or playing games, and eating chips and/or candy. cosy, huh? :P and don't get me started on the extreme lack of authentic mexican food in this country. some days, i don't know how i'm gonna survive ;).

wow, that spiraled out of control! anyway, so i was basically forced to make my own sauce to accompany these delectable enchiladas, creating quite a bit more work for me, but OH, OH, OH! it was sooooooo worth the effort!

i made them in advance, so my husband and i both ate them first for lunch the next day. just after i'd eaten mine and ooh'ed and ahh'ed over them for half an hour, i got a text from him saying that i had made him the best lunch box he'd ever had :)! these little pieces of heaven were the result:

now you really want the recipe, right? well, you can check it out here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cottage-Cheese-Chicken-Enchiladas/Detail.aspx

as usual, i made slight modifications: less cheese on top; whole wheat flour tortillas; light crème fraiche instead of sour cream; and enchilada spices instead of taco seasoning mix. and the crazy thing is that after chopping the chicken in the food processor, i started filling the tortillas without frying the meat and adding the spices. NO PROBLEM! i just sprinkled some of the spice into the whole mixture and added some fresh sprigs of coriander/cilantro (as we're slightly obsessed with it), and they turned out FABULOUSLY! i even had some extra spice mix left over, so i used it to season my whole grain & black rice with black beans side dish i whipped up, and it was SUPER yummy! :P 

one modification i should mention, though, is one i read in the comments of the recipe. using my scrumptious homemade enchilada sauce, i covered the base of my 9x13 dish and then basically covered each tortilla with sauce (inside and out) to keep everything juicy and flavourful...so glad i did! not a cruncy bit of tortilla to be found!

oh yeah, i also made a few changes to enchilada sauce; what else is new? i didn't have any ancho chiles at home, so i used the regular chiles that i did have and added in some chipotle sauce and smoked paprika spice that i had on had to give it that lovely smokey taste. and since the half-full tube of tomato paste i had at home wasn't quite enough, i threw in a handfull of sun-dried tomatoes and puréed away! perfect! (i love improvising in the kitchen; keeps life exciting!) :)

happy creating!

chorizo and other randomness

okay, so i SERIOUSLY need to start blogging more frequently. thank you, sister, for helping me realise that!!

i think i got bogged down with thinking that i had to write something profound everytime i posted. well, if you know me well enough, then you know that that doesn't happen all too frequently. i'm way too practical to be profound! :P

and then the other day i started to look up a recipe for some dish i'd made awhile back, and i remembered that i'd taken a pic of it and put it up on FB. and i thought, why don't i have some sort of food blog?? but i obviously can't have several blogs if i have trouble keeping up with one. THEREFORE, i have come to the conclusion that this blog is going to be all about whatever the heck i feel like writing at the moment. how freeing!!! so watch out. this is your warning. there could be everything from deep theology to a quirky thought to a random recipe to all the miraculous things i see God doing in everyday life. you just never know...;)

we'll start with something easy like chorizo. see, my fabulous husband and i try to sit down together once a week and plan out the week's menu; it's honestly fun and it seriously saves us heaps of money. we're all about saving money and being wise with the resources with which the Lord has blessed us AND all about creating good, healthy, exciting food, so it's just what we do.

anyway, there was a deal on chorizo and other spicy sausages this week, so my smart man said that we should make this recipe we tried at a dinner party with friends (after first eating it at our friends' cathy and gustaf's) that we just loved. barley, chorizo, pears, red onion, balsamic vinegar...it's healthy and the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. unfortunately i don't have a great picture of it, but you get the idea. we generally serve it with salad greens on the side, and this time around, we had hearty muffins with zucchini and feta cheese to boot...nice!

this pic from www.recept.nu where we found the recipe--mine recipe is a bit modified, of course--is much better and enables you to get a better look :).

so, here it comes, european measurements and all. if you're an american reading this, convert or learn the metric system. it's so much better, simpler, smarter, and easier. enjoy!

Ingredienser

• 150 g rökt sidfläsk, skuret i tärningar (salt pork, chopped into small pieces)...we actually omit this ingredient. totally unnecessary, and that's saying a lot since we love bacon so much!
• 3 st päron, urkärnade och klyftade (3 pears, deseeded and sliced into wedges)
• 2 st små rödlökar, finhackad (2 small red onions (or one large), diced)...we normally slice them into pretty strips instead :)
• 1 msk rapsolja (1 tbsp rapeseed oil)...we normally use olive oil
• 0.5 dl balsamvinäger (.5 dl balsamic vinegar)
• 4 st chorizo (eller annan smakrik korv) (4 chorizo or another spicy sausage, sliced into small wedges)
• 4 dl okokt matvete (uncooked barley)
• 100 g plocksallad, till exempel ruccola, mangoldskott, machésallad (salad greens, i.e. arugula, maché, baby spinach) 
• 0.5 kruka färsk timjan, bladen plockas från kvistarna (1/2 cup fresh thyme, leaves only)
• havssalt och svartpeppar (sea salt and black pepper)
• ev hyvlad eller riven parmesan (eller annan smakrik ost) (sliced parmesan or another flavourful cheese)

Gör så här

1. Stek chorizon tills de får en fin stekyta. Lägg åt siden. 

2. Koka matvetet enligt förpackningen och låt stå. 

3. Fräs rödlök och päron på svag värme i olivolja ett par minuter. De ska inte få färg utan bara mjukna något. Salta och peppra och slå slutligen på balsamvinägern. Låt allt koka samman i någon minut. 

4. Blanda samman balsamicofräs, matvete och chorizo med valfri plocksallad och färskplockad timjan. Smaka av med havssalt och svartpeppar och servera eventuellt med hyvlad parmesan.

Instructions in English

1. Fry the chorizo until golden. Place to the side. 

2. Cook the barley according to directions on package and then let stand.

3. Sautée onion and pear in olive oil on medium-low heat until soft. Add balsamic vinegar and let everything cook together a few mins until the vinegar dissolves. Add salt and pepper if needed. 

4. Blend together barley, chorizo, and the balsamic mixture and then toss in thyme and salad--we normally serve the salad on the side to keep things fresher just in case there are leftovers!--Add sliced parmesan.

an update, of sorts, on my life as a missionary in stockholm...

several people have asked me lately exactly what i do as a missionary. here in sweden, missionaries are not common, and what you do is often equated with who you are. may i remind us all, however, that our identities are in Christ alone and who He has created us to be and never in a job or task or any thing. but sometimes i forget that myself. i get caught up in what society thinks. sometimes i find it very easy to answer the question posed by others, and sometimes it's a bit more difficult. lately, it's been difficult. i have succumbed to satan's lies that what i do doesn't matter or that God's not using me or that i'm not where i'm supposed to be or that i don't have a real job. but just in the nick of time, God sends people like berit* my way. she came into my office to meet with a psychologist but was used by God in the process! she came and signed in for her appointment and then, just as she was turning to leave, said, "you are always so kind. you are the right person for this job, at the right place at the right time." wow! thank you, Jesus, for speaking through that sweet woman.

other than working as a part-time administrator at a local psychiatric office, i do a lot of other administrating within church ministry. what really moves my heart and brings me deep, God joy, though, is developing and strengthening relationships. i get the greatest high from entering into intimate conversations with friends, co-workers, and strangers about the greatness and complexity that is a personal relationship with Jesus.

let me tell you about veronika*. we met and worked together for only one year, but we spent endless mornings discussing everything from life's daily struggles to meeting Jesus in the midst of sorrow and crisis. i loved spending time with veronika. we've kept in touch since God called me elsewhere, and we recently met for lunch. at one point during the fantastic conversation, she shared with me that her daughter has become very interested in Christianity, that she's started participating in some activities in the local church, AND that they've started reading the Bible at home! my heart soared! moments later, as our chat led into faith and what it really means to believe in and to have a personal relationship with Jesus, veronika said that she desperately wanted to believe but that she's afraid that she won't be able to keep it up, that she'll give into doubt. oh, satan, you're so crafty with your lies. i responded that faith was a decision and that even the "strongest" believers, if they're honest with themselves and God, have moments, sometimes even long periods, of doubt. we are still human after all...please pray for veronika and that God's Word will become living and active in her home and family as they read it and that she will dare to believe!

then there's denise*. we work together three days a week and share our frustrations and moments of joy together throughout the day. just before easter, we had a long talk about demons, the afterlife, faith, church, creation, God in psychology...you know, things everyone talks about on the job :P. she came with question after question, amazed that Christians didn't have to be boring and so far-removed from the real world as so many swedes think that they are (and often with good reason). after hours of talking with her about these things, i was filled with joy. our relationship had reached a new level of intimacy, and it was beautiful!

two days ago, after dealing with a difficult situation between myself and one of the doctors here (which had taken it's toll on me over the past month), said doctor "randomly" approached me in the hallway with a smile (instead of the usual avoidance) and said that he was sorry for things that had happened and misunderstandings that had ensued and that he hoped that we could work things out. that in itself was the answer to a prayer that i'd been praying for weeks. but what really brought joy to my heart was the conversation that ensued with denise afterward. she had overheard my conversation with the doctor and surprisedly asked how that came about. 

"well, it's the answer to my prayer," i said quite frankly. 

she then, of course, wanted to know what i meant by that and what i'd prayed. that question was followed by, "do you pray for me?"

"of course," i answered.

she placed her hands across her chest as a huge smile lit up her face. "really? what do you pray?"

"well, i pray that God will bless you...and i pray that you'll soon have a personal relationship with Jesus because i believe that you want one." (oh my goodness! did i REALLY just say that???)

her entire face aglow, she replied, "i do want that! i do!"

then a patient came in, and our exciting conversation was paused, but it WILL continue :). pray that denise's heart will indeed be open and that she'll invite Jesus in!

i have also spent quite a bit of time recently with a group of short-term missionaries from palm beach atlantic university in florida who are here working with our church. they've shared their hearts with me and why they're here, why they want to reach swedes, and i've shared my passion for reaching swedes, what's effective here and what's not, and the crazy story of how God called me here. and every time i meet with them, i get excited...excited about how God is using them, excited that people's eyes are being opened to how desperately sweden needs to be exposed to the real, unconditional, unfathomable, grace-filled love of Christ. it fills me with hope, hope that God hasn't given up on his precious children here in sweden, and that makes my heart sing. 

tomorrow i'm joining the team as they once again enter into the local high school on the island of kungsholmen (where we have a church plant), serve breakfast sandwiches and coffee to the students, and chat with them about all things under the sun. then we'll invite them to a café night we're hosting on saturday in the church and pray that they come so that we can delve into more intimate relationships with them. please pray for us!

hope, grace, and the love of Christ over you! thanks for reading and especially for praying!

*names changed to protect privacy.

bad needles, grace, and provision

yeah, it's been awhile. it's been way too long, in fact. and of course the day i actually sit down in front of the computer long enough to write, i can barely move my left hand. no, nothing is broken. i just had a bit of blood drawn today. no, i take that back. i was supposed to have blood drawn today. the oh-so-friendly nurse who greeted me when i walked into the lab waiting room to take a queuing number said--this whole scenario occurred in swedish, but i'll save you time and translate :)--"um, we're not taking anyone else today." "yes, well, the doctor sent me up here to you and said that you would see me," i replied. "hmm," she said as she closed the door to the lab. long story short: after she unsuccessfully stuck me in each arm, she stuck my left hand, which didn't produce what she considered to be enough blood into her little vile but which shot it out like a cracked water pipe when she removed it. nice. i'll allow you to keep the last meal you ate down by not including a photo and just say this: i have a wretchedly obscene blue bruise-welt on my hand shaped like italy that makes typing a blast! thank you.


but really, that's not why i thought i should blog today. or the day before. or the day before that. or someday last week. i want to blog because i have a lot on my heart. but take a breath. i won't put it all in one blog entry. trust me, that's a relief for all of us!


what i do want to write about today is God's grace and provision. they're not exactly the same thing, but i think they're pretty closely linked. for instance, we don't deserve all the blessings God gives us, but he loves us, and he pours out grace over us, and in that beautifully inexplicable process, he provides for needs we sometimes don't even know we have.


that's how it was with suppe. i'm madly in love with him (no, that doesn't mean that he escapes from driving me totally mad some days :P), but i am constantly made aware of how God knew so much better than me--just look at my previous boyfriend choices for proof there; sorry guys--that he was exactly what i needed in a husband. God knew that i needed a man who would just envelope me and love me without words all the times that i felt that my world was falling apart (yes, i know that i can be a bit of a drama queen at times). he knew that i would need a man who wouldn't scream back at me or walk away from me in my random moments of anger (although the not screaming back can sometimes irritate me even more...i'm just being honest here). i see so much Jesus in suppe and the way he (and HE) loves me that it's almost incomprehensible...


but then there are times that we are acutely aware of our needs (occasionally leading to other moments of freaking out) and wonder if God will indeed "supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4.19). and, honestly, i want to kick myself every time i wonder and doubt that because the truth is that God is ALWAYS faithful to me (and you!!) even when we don't deserve it! 


i'll give you an example from three weeks ago. suppe and i were looking over our finances and realised that we had just enough money to buy groceries for the next few days. we didn't panic, but i'll admit that the feeling was a little scary. why should it be, though?? hours later, i talked with my best girl linds about the stress of living as a missionary/part-time administrator (and full-time student) and not making lots of money. moments later, her friend who had made a promise to God to give away $500 within a certain amount of time and who still had $200 to give away to someone in need just decided to give it to us! just like that! straight into my paypal account! WHAT A BLESSING! he doesn't even know us!!


oh, and it doesn't stop there it never does. i could give you countless stories of how God always provides for us, and my mom as well as a lot of strangers are included in quite a few of those! a few days later, we had a guest speaker/teacher/preacher in our church with whom i talked and prayed after the service. i walked away from that prayer time truly blessed, but God wanted to heap on the blessing! while i was speaking with another girl from his team, he slipped 1000 kronor (that's about $140) in cash in suppe's pocket!! wow! wow! 


that's what i mean when i say that grace and provision go hand in hand. they do. we don't deserve the grace and goodness of God, but he lavishes it out on us in incredible ways and always just in the form of blessing we need. believe it. it's true. don't let satan tell you otherwise, because he's trying really hard to make you believe anything but the truth! but that's a whole other topic for another day...


oooh, i just thought of what i want to write about tomorrow. yes, i said it. i want to write tomorrow! hallelujah! stay tuned! and be aware of the Lord's blessings, grace, and provision in your life today!

details...

...i love them, and sometimes i'm bothered by the fact that others don't seem to love them as much as i do. okay, well, maybe they do love details, just not the ones i think they should :).

for instance, i love that i just discovered the "glory revealed ii" CD on spotify. it came out in 2009, but i missed that somehow, and i'm just happy to have found it. the lyrics are songs of Scripture, God's Word in action, psalms! but how about the fact that one song is labeled "psalms 23" with an "s," in plural form. as far as i know, there's only one psalm 23, and there's certainly only one mentioned in the song. i get that in the big scheme of things that it's not so important, but to me, that mistake makes the whole CD production just a little less special [sigh]...i could go on with heaps of examples here, but i'll spare you.

that in mind, i'll share that suppe and i are reading through the whole Bible in a year, which isn't always easy to do. these past few days, we've been reading through exodus, and starting in about chapter 25, the LORD goes into great detail about how the sanctuary and and ark of the covenant, among other things, are to be built. and honestly, right about the time i got to the third two-and-a-half cubits with gold overlay section, my mind started to wander, and it ended up here: why were all of these details included in the Bible, and why in the world did it matter if something was 2.5 or 3 cubits or purple or blue? what is a cubit, anyway?

but in that moment, God spoke to me: i care about details, about all of them, and that quality of Mine is one of the greatest blessings in your life. and it is. no, i haven't missed the irony here. i'd spent the past few days complaining about others' lack of concern with detail, and here i was complaining about the Lord's over concern. but there was just so much detail in all these verses...

i started thinking about what that meant in my own life. firstly, God is God, and i have no right to question what He thinks is important or not, and, secondly, would i rather serve a god who didn't care about all the minute details?

david knew all about God's concern for detail. in psalm 139, he pours his heart out to God, saying, "13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand...(ESV).

Jesus continues this line of thinking in the famous "sermon on the mount" when he says, 30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. 34 Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes" (the message).

a few chapters later, Jesus adds, 28"Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands. 29-31What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries" (matthew 10.28-31, the message).

okay, so i hope you get the point here. we are privileged and blessed beyond measure to be called sons and daughters of the Creator of the universe who made all the stars in the heavens and flowers in the fields and us, and even though he's running the whole world, he still knows when a hair falls from our heads or a tear from our eyes...because he's a God of grace, mercy, love, and detail.

so the next time i'm annoyed or bothered by the fact that God gives us a lot of "details" to live by, i'm going to do two things: 1) praise God for the amazing blessing of him caring about the details of my life, and 2) ask him to give me patience and understanding in dealing with the people in my life who don't seem to care or notice or place importance on the details i do.

easy? no. possible? yes. worth it? absolutely.

silly peter, silly me...

so i was reading matthew 16 yesterday, a chapter i have read more than 10 times over the years, but, as the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword...(hebrews 4.12), the Lord spoke something new to me through it as i was reading. i love when that happens, by the way. your average novel won't do that for you, you know. 

anyway, Jesus is asking the disciples who they believe He, the Son of Man, is. um, Jesus, that's a trick question, right? you just gave us the answer here... but it's not so simple. sadly, we are often as dense as the poor disciples--they were the rabbinical rejects, you know--and Jesus has to give us a little help with the answers, too. but back to the story. so good 'ole peter chimes in saying that Jesus is, "the Christ, the Son of the Living God," (v 16), and Jesus, like a proud teacher says, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock [the greek words for peter and rock sound similar] I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (v18). super strong words coming from Jesus, and he's claiming them over peter and the disciples and over us as well. i don't know about you, but i'm pretty sure i'd have all the confidence in the world to kick satan's ass at that very moment...booyah! :).

but, as life goes, Jesus is soon talking about how He's going to have to suffer and die. peter, not wanting to hear that, rebukes Jesus and says that He can't go through that kind of [worldly] suffering, that it's just not okay. he's worried. just like me. just like a lot of us. and frankly, as ballsy as it sounds to rebuke Jesus, that's exactly what we do...all the time. He says "wait," and we say, "um, why should i have to wait?" or "why should i have to suffer?" or in this case, "why must You suffer, Lord?" but this is the clash between our worldly perspectives and Jesus' heavenly perspective. the way we see it, suffering sucks. so of course peter doesn't understand why Jesus, of ALL people, should have to go through what He's describing. 

but it's at this point that Jesus says something that i've pondered over for years and that my seminary classmates and i used to say to one another in jest (yes, you develop a very warped sense of humour in seminary...). Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance [or stumbling block] to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (v 23). Or, as The Message puts it, "Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works." 

Now at first, this modern-day translation doesn't seem to be saying the same thing as the more literal one, but actually, i think our best understanding comes from marrying the two. i do believe that Jesus is actually telling satan, and not peter, to get behind him here because it's blasted satan that puts all kinds of worrisome thoughts into our heads (like the ones peter's carrying around). and what do those thoughts do? they take our focus away from Jesus.

peter obviously doesn't have any idea how God works, which is what makes him a hindrance to Jesus and the work of building His Kingdom. instead of focusing on the actual suffering, which is exactly what most of us do, we must train ourselves to focus on how God can use our present situation/circumstances/issue/crisis to build His Kingdom and bring Him glory (leave a legacy). it's only then that our perspective will totally change, and we'll be a help to Jesus and not a hindrance.  

but how do we do this? really. honestly. practically. we are just like peter in so many ways, claiming Jesus' identity and power over our lives one minute and doubting and hindering him in His work the next. even as i write these words, my cheeks are stained with tears because yet another day has gone by with no word from swedish immigration. and, yet, there is a peace deep inside me that i know is there, that has come to the surface just because i have written out the Truth of God's Word here. 

we are in a battle, peeps, a battle against the powers of hell that wish to fill our lives with twisted lies and paralyzing fears, most of them based on our worldly reality. but the Good News, the amazing news, is that Jesus' reality is so much better and so much more, well, real, leaving us with several truths:

1) we've been given all the battle gear we need. Jesus even talks about it in this same chapter when He says in verse 19, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” are you claiming that in your life today? (you can also check out more about spiritual battle gear in ephesians 6.10-18).

2) we go from VICTORY to VICTORY (even though it feels quite the opposite sometimes...hello broken world) because, according to romans 8.37, "we are more than conquerors through him [Christ Jesus] who loved us."

3) the ultimate victory over sin, hell, death, and all sorts of drama and crap, is Christ's, and he won that battle on the Cross. hallelujah!

4) regardless of the lies that satan (through all of sorts of things in our world) tries to feed us about our identities, our worries, and our struggles, we can fight back each one of them (using Scripture just as Jesus did when He was tempted by satan in the desert in luke 4) with the truth of romans 8.1, which says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  none, not one little bit. crazy little thing called grace :).

so, in light of all that heavy stuff, i'm praying a simple prayer of obedience today. Lord, teach me to trust in You completely and to take my focus off my junk and place it on YOU, the Author and Perfecter of my faith. thank you for your abundant grace. amen