Author: casualchef

2.27.21
Luke 2: 25-38
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss^[a] your servant in peace.
³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹  which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and the glory of your people Israel.”
³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
³⁶ There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.^[b] She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸ Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

What are you currently Hoping or Waiting for? How can you keep moving forward in Patients as you wait on Gods timing?:
Selfishly I am Hoping and Waiting on my Forever. As already said in Hope and Waiting I am not good at this.
I need to trust that what I pray if coming but that I am Patient in Gods word and his timing to fulfill it.
To move forward I need to stay obedient to the Word and focus on the Word. His timing is His and it is what I need to accept and follow.

2.26.21
[[Reposted and some updates on 4.12.21 as I turn these into individual blog posts]]

Psalm 27:13-14
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Write about a time of waiting and what you learned from it:
I have never really “waited”. What have I learned about Waiting by not doing it? That I need too.
I allow my head to get involved. I hear the first part of a message, then I reason my own way through it…Instead of listening to God or my Heart and Waiting for the whole message, I go to work on it with my Mind and problem solve it to get the rest of the message. I need to Wait. What is God trying to tell me? What am I missing?
“Waiting on the Lord isn’t for the faint of heart. While we can know deep in our heart that His timing is the best, that doesn’t make the waiting any easier.” Page 18 of 40 Days of Intentional Living says, and it is right. It is NOT EASY to Wait. As humans we want to go forward, we want to move. As someone who is very intelligent (or at least I think I am hah), why Wait when I can Reason out the rest of the message? Because I maybe wrong. Even if I am right, I did not wait, maybe there was a Blessing coming in the Waiting? And I missed it…
I need to learn Patients
I need to learn to Wait
I need to Listen and not act until I know what the Path or Message is
I have to work on this.

2.25.21
[[Reposted and some updates on 4.12.21 as I turn these into individual blog posts]]
Read Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

What does hope mean to me?
So first this book started out on a crazy cool note, they quote The Two Towers in it… Sam says ” Its only a passing thing, this shadow. Even the darkness must pass. A new say will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.”
So for those that know me, I am a HUGE Lord of the Rings fan, so literally page 1 of this Faith Exercise quote LotR… SO what Faith book quotes Lord of the Rings? AMAZING!

So how has Hope carried me in the past? What part of my life do I need hope right now?
Hope is how I have lived in many ways. I believe Hope is self generated, its a gift from God, but he instills Hope in us, for us to use as we need. We all have the power of Hope, we just have to use it.
I hope to find my Forever.
I hope to be successful.
I hope to have the Time and Money to contribute to His Kingdom in a big way.
Hope keeps me positive and going. It helps me see the Good in things. Seeing Hope in myself and other things make it easy to get up in the morning and be confident in all that I do.

2.24.21
[[Reposted and some updates on 4.12.21 as I turn these into individual blog posts]]
I have always believed. As a kid I rarely went to Church, unless friends invited me and it was donut day or something. As a family we did not go to Church except for wedding and funerals. My father grew up going to Church as a kid, I feel that my Mother did also, but I cannot say I have actually had that conversation with her, I believe she went in college as part of her sorority activities… (?) But as a family we never went.
In 2000/2001 I decided to start going at the age of 30ish. After my cousin’s bday part, a long day and night of drinking (which I actually barely drank anything at the party, unusual for me back then), a girl friend and I got into a fight about if she was driving home or not. She was using a truck that my parents owned, so in addition to not wanting her to drive drunk, I also did not want my parents on the hook should something happen and it be their vehicle. I got arrested that night, a charge that was later dropped, no penalty at all. But I spent about 40 hours in King County because of when I was arrested and then when morning court was based on my arrest date.
That weekend, that fight that lead ultimately to a break up, I decided I needed to do something at least a little different.
A friend of mine who I did some gaming with (D&D to be specific), MA, and I often talked about God and Faith, he had invited me to Church on multiple occasions over the previous couple of years, a week or two later I started to go.
Over the last 20 years, I have gone off and on, usually in couple of year stretches, then a year or two off, and back again., and so on.
The last two or three years (2018-2020), I have not been going.
It is time again…
I pray on a regular basis, often multiple times per day, but I have been part of Fellowship for a few years, and even when I went on a regular basis to Church, I was not part of regular Fellowship since moving from Federal Way Nazarene to Marysville Nazarene (now Generations Church).

This is FOR ME. Why am I putting on my quasi business website that involves cooking, wine and travel? Because I do not have another outlet, and I do not want to set up another one up. Plus this is ME.

40 Days of Intentional Living
I will be working through the book “40 Days of Intentional Living, a challenge to cultivate faith” Target has it on sale for 30% off right now, so def check it out.
My goal is post a couple times per week about this journey.
Please join me on this! Find this book. Do the 40 Days. Lets get inspired and move our Faith Lives forward.

–Chris Anderson “The Casual Chef”