Saturday, February 15, 2025

Banana Nut Bread

 

 


Ingredients
2 1/3 CUP BISQUICK MIX

1/3 CUP VEGETABLE OIL

1 TEASPOON VANILLA

1 ½ CUP MASHED BANANAS

½ CUP PECANS (CHOPPED)

1 CUP SUGAR

3 EGGS

Directions
STIR ALL INGREDIENTS TOGETHER AND BLEND WELL.

BAKE IN A GREASED 9 X 13 PAN OR A LOAF PAN.

BAKE AT 350 FOR 40 TO 45 MINUTES.


I invite you to try my book Hurt, Hope, and Healing in eBook or paperback. If you seek hope and healing because of the hurts you have faced, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on FacebookTwitter, and Linkedin.

Friday, February 14, 2025

Not about Me - Martin Wiles

Not about me

If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? 1 John 3:17 NLT

Opportunities abounded. All we had to do was walk a few feet.

My wife and I lived in a small patio townhome community. Many of the residents were senior adults, many of whom were widowed. My wife—the one in our marriage with the more sensitive heart—discovered numerous ways for us to help them.

Two of the neighbors—one widowed and one not—needed their grass cut. While the homeowners’ association paid someone to landscape the front area of the townhomes, the small back yards were the owners’ or renters’ responsibility. When these two asked if I’d cut their back yards, I said, “Sure.” I didn’t have a lawnmower, but I didn’t need one. The yards are so small a weed eater worked fine. Fifteen minutes was all I needed to finish a yard.

One of these neighbors also watched her husband have several strokes, leaving him unable to walk, tend to himself, and eat solid food. My wife loves to cook—large meals. And sharing our food with neighbors was her way of showing love. After taking a meal to this neighbor, the neighbor asked her if she’d be willing to cook a meal a day for her. Of course, my wife couldn’t resist. Our neighbor became a good friend—with a full stomach. In addition to taking her food and cutting her grass, we checked on her almost daily to see if she needed anything from the store and to see how her husband was doing.

The other of the two neighbors also received some of our food occasionally. She also asked my wife to fix things she had messed up on her smart phone. And any little odd job around the house she needed doing, she called me. In addition to cutting her grass, I sprayed her weeds, put out Snake Away when she saw a snake, lifted bags of mulch when she decided to do more landscaping, helped her move a piece of furniture, changed her house filters, and anything else she asked.

A third neighbor lived across from us. She, too, was a widow, but, unlike the other two, had no children to help her. When she went to the post office, she asked if we needed her to take anything. Sometimes, she invited my wife over to see her flowers. If we went off for a few days, I asked her to watch the outside of our house. And since she was a neighbor to the other neighbor who hated snakes, I sprinkled some Snake Away in her yard, too.

All small acts of kindness, but love nevertheless. As Christians, we proclaim our love for others, but John says if that’s all we do we haven’t done much. Nor have we shown actual love. We must match actions with words.

I’ve found God will more likely send opportunities to be neighborly if we ask Him. But busyness often consumes our schedules, so we also have to pray for spiritual eyes to see those opportunities when He sends them. Otherwise, we’ll miss them every time.

Sometimes, the neighbors’ requests came when I had other things on my agenda. If I wasn’t careful, I found myself complaining when I should have been thankful for the opportunities. A regular check on our attitude always proves appropriate. God loves a joyful giver, whether the giving is monetary or otherwise.

Life is not all about us. In fact, it is about God and others, and the sooner we discover this the happier we’ll be and the more fulfilled life we’ll live.

Think of ways to show a neighbor some love.

Father, I ask for opportunities to demonstrate Your love to others.



I invite you to try my book Hurt, Hope, and Healing in eBook or paperback. If you seek hope and healing because of the hurts you have faced, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on FacebookTwitter, and Linkedin.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Tutored by God - Martin Wiles

Tutored by God
The law was our guardian (tutor) and teacher to lead us until Christ came. So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God. Galatians 3:24 NLT

Tutoring isn’t usually initiated by students. And it wasn’t in my case.

Parents who observed their children struggling in grammar class approached me about giving their child extra help. Tutoring comes in several varieties. Some children need remedial tutoring. They haven’t grasped concepts learned in an earlier grade, making it difficult or impossible for them to keep up in their current grade. Others just need extra help understanding current concepts. A little one-on-one time with a tutor is all many children need to scale the hump. And then there’s the rare occasion when a student wants to get ahead of the class. This tutoring involves introducing concepts that would normally be introduced later in the year or even the next year. On whatever level of tutoring a child stands, teaching and understanding are the goals.

Paul considered God’s Old Testament law a tutor. God’s law was designed to guard or tutor until Christ fulfilled it. The sacrificial system tutored the people about the concept of the innocent being sacrificed for the guilty. Animals were slain during the Old Testament period, but Christ was slain in the New.

Now that Christ has fulfilled the law, God’s Spirit is the new tutor. Jesus said if He went away He would send a Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He is our tutor who guides, teaches, encourages, and comforts us. All traits of a good tutor.

God’s Spirit tutors the lost by introducing them to the way of salvation. He often uses people as the means to do that. After we’ve trusted Christ as our Savior, we should tutor others in the way of salvation. This tutoring can be accomplished by praying for the lost, being prepared to witness when the opportunity arises, taking training courses in how to witness, and by being sensitive to witnessing opportunities.

God’s Spirit tutors believers by guiding them to understand God’s truth as revealed in His Word, by teaching them how to apply that Word to everyday situations and circumstances, encouraging them to pick themselves up and try again when they fail, and comforting them in times of failure, sorrow, and grief.

Tutors have been trained in the material they teach. Believers have been tutored by God so they might become tutors as well. Make sure to tutor those God sends your way.

Father, thank You for the tutoring of Your Spirit. May I take what I learn and use it to tutor others.



I invite you to try my book Hurt, Hope, and Healing in eBook or paperback. If you seek hope and healing because of the hurts you have faced, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on FacebookTwitter, and Linkedin.


Monday, February 10, 2025

God’s Light - Martin Wiles

God’s Light
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. Ephesians 1:18 NLT

My world came crashing down, but it was too dark for me to see it.

On one of the first few camping trips my brother and I and my two children took together, we discovered the need for a good tent. I had purchased two small tents—one dome shaped and the other military style. My son and I slept in the military style.

During the night, our tent came tumbling down. I fumbled for my flashlight, and after turning on the light understood why. My son had dislodged one of the poles. Not only had the pole collapsed but the guyot line had unhooked from the stake. Luckily, I located the stake, re-attached the line, and re-erected our tent. But only because I had light.

The light Paul wanted early Christians to be flooded with didn’t come from a flashlight—or in his time an oil lamp. Rather, it would come from understanding the wonderful present and future they had because of God’s light of salvation.

When God’s light shines into our lives, it enables us to understand Him. While the process of fully understanding God is never complete—His ways and thoughts are higher than ours—knowing Him as our Lord gives a fuller understanding of who He is. He’s not just a far-off deity who really doesn’t care about our affairs. He’s a close-up friend and Savior who has our best interests at heart.

God’s light helps us comprehend His plan. He has a unique plan for each one of His followers. We don’t have to aimlessly wander around pondering what we’re supposed to do. We can know God’s desire and join Him in fleshing it out.

God’s light shining into our lives allows us to see a bright future. Life on earth can be abundant, but life in the future will be more so. Regardless of what we have or don’t have on earth, or regardless of how we’re treated, we will be loved for eternity by the one who gave His life for us.

When God’s light of understanding pours into our lives, we’ll see the matchless inheritance we’ve been given. Everything that belongs to God’s Son belongs to us. We are joint heirs with Christ.

It’s amazing what a little light can do. Make sure you are experiencing God’s light.

Father, flood my heart with light so that I might understand all You have in store for me.


I invite you to try my book Hurt, Hope, and Healing in eBook or paperback. If you seek hope and healing because of the hurts you have faced, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on FacebookTwitter, and Linkedin.


Saturday, February 8, 2025

Baked Beans

 



Ingredients

4 16 ounce cans of baked beans (drained)        


1 onion (chopped)


2 cups brown sugar


1 bottle chili sauce    


1 pound thick bacon (cooked and crumbled)


Directions

Combine all ingredients.


Stir until blended.


Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.



I invite you to try my book Hurt, Hope, and Healing in eBook or paperback. If you seek hope and healing because of the hurts you have faced, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on FacebookTwitter, and Linkedin.

Friday, February 7, 2025

Thankful for What - Martin Wiles

thankful for what
We praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. Ephesians 1:6 NLT

Complaints and questions rolled off my tongue like water cascading over a waterfall.

Wasn’t I working a full-time job? Wasn’t I taking every opportunity that presented itself to make extra money? Wasn’t my wife doing all she could to sell items on Facebook? Why, then, was the freezer empty and our cupboard bare? Why was the bank account sitting on empty, just like the gas needle in our car? Why did I have to worry about whether our insurance company would cancel our renter’s insurance?

“I put a little surprise in your car,” a church member and friend whispered. When I looked in the bag after church, I discovered several things we were out of. Since we hadn’t shared this information with her, I figured God must have.

“She also gave us this card,” my wife whispered. I slithered my finger under the flap and removed the card. After reading the outside, I opened it to peruse the inside, but first, I had to remove the fifty-dollar bill. There was the remainder of what we needed to pay our renter’s insurance. 

The above episode was topped by another the next day. As my wife checked our bank account balance to ensure we still had the same four dollars we had the last time she checked, she discovered a twenty-dollar deposit had been made. Calling the bank to check on this mysterious deposit, my wife was informed she had made the deposit. But she hadn’t. Now we could gas up the car.

Suddenly, my complaints seemed selfish. I had forgotten I served a big God. Paul reminded first-century believers of the same.

God’s kindness is worth thanking Him for. He has poured out His love through the sacrifice of His Son. We can have all the earthly goods we desire and never have to worry about some of the above things I’ve mentioned, but if our sins remain, our account is still in the negative. God offers freedom from the debt we owe for our sins if we simply ask for forgiveness. Along with forgiveness, He gives wisdom and understanding so we can make sense out of life. And even when it appears senseless, we can thank Him because we know He understands it when we don’t.

Think of things to thank God for rather than complain about.

Father, I thank You for the many gifts You give me, but most of all for allowing Your Son to pay my sin debt. 


I invite you to try my book Hurt, Hope, and Healing in eBook or paperback. If you seek hope and healing because of the hurts you have faced, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on FacebookTwitter, and Linkedin.

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Your Heroic Moment - Abigail Skelton

Your heroic moment
We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 NIV

Corrie Ten Boom is a household name today in the Netherlands. And for anyone who has read the Hiding Place or her other books, she is remembered as a hero for helping hide Jews from the Nazis. 

But isn’t it noteworthy that Corrie was in her fifties before anything grand and heroic happened in her life? In the years leading up to Hitler’s invasion of the Netherlands, Corrie worked in her father’s watch shop, volunteered with young adult Bible studies, helped special needs youth, and furthered her own education by reading books in other languages … including German. Her habits and discipline when it came to spending time with God and learning Scripture may have seemed insignificant for years, but when trouble hit, she was more prepared than most. She had already spent a lifetime readying herself for heroism.

We see examples of this all throughout the Bible as well. Moses grew up with the education and connections to Egypt, which later probably came in handy when he sought an audience with Pharaoh. 


David spent years herding sheep and talking to the Lord out in fields, which was clear preparation for shepherding the people of Israel and living on the run, dependent only on the Lord. 


Even Paul had the education, citizenship, and discipline needed for his calling to bring the gospel to new lands and to testify in Rome.


Sometimes even when our situations or skills seem random, God is at work in the background, preparing us for a moment when He can use what we have for His purposes—if we are willing participants. 


In most situations, heroes have chances to turn back, to live for themselves, and not bother with risks. We have that choice as well. But if we do decide to join God in what He is up to …perhaps even our daily routines and personality quirks can be instruments for the kingdom. Perhaps God is already getting us ready for our own heroic moment.


Pray that God will reveal His heroic moment to you. 



Abigail Skelton
 is from beautiful Southern Oregon, where she grew up with an avid love for Jesus, chocolate, and writing. She has lived in three countries while involved in missionary work and frequently travels and studies foreign languages. You can connect with Abigail on her website: https://abigailskelton.com.



I invite you to try my book Hurt, Hope, and Healing in eBook or paperback. If you seek hope and healing because of the hurts you have faced, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on FacebookTwitter, and Linkedin.