Sunday, October 14, 2012
Making Memories ... One Fun Thing After Another: Apple Fritter Bread
ButterYum: Honeycrisp Apple and Vanilla Crumble
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Cinnamon Roll Cake. Easy, breezy, beautiful.
This is SO going to be on my Christmas brunch table this year! :) Yummy! :)
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
This prayer is so powerful and so thought provoking. We are to forgive! It is as plain and as simple as that! There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. We are to forgive. Not hold this against them the rest of our lives or theirs. UNFORGIVENESS hurts US more than anyone else... and it certainly does not set an example for other Christians!!!! All I can say is WOW... and pray!
A Prayer about Old Pain and the Journey of Forgiving
Scotty Smith posted on October 04, 2012 05:28
Then Peter came up and said to him [Jesus], “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” Matt. 18:21–22
Jesus, I come to you right now with joy in my heart and knots in my gut. The joy is about the exhaustive forgiveness I have in you. The knots are about the costly implications of that same forgiveness. As I pray for myself, I pray for others with the same struggle to love well in broken stories that just won’t seem to go away.
How long does it take for the hurt to heal, Jesus? When will I be completely free—no longer having a beautiful day sabotaged by an unresolved conflict? Running into an old friend, with whom I’ve shared a lot of life and no small heartache, reminded me that everything’s not right yet. That run-in was kind of like bumping a previously broken shin into the corner of a low-sitting coffee table. I winced with pain, thought less than loving things, and simmered for a couple of hours. That’s not the way of grace, but it was my way, nonetheless.
Jesus, I thought I’d already forgiven him from my heart. I thought I was already healed. I thought I’d dealt with this thing a long time ago. That’s just not the case. Out of sight might be out of mind, but it’s not out of the memory band of betrayal and loss.
So I come to you today for seventy-times-seven grace. I’m being held hostage by my own unforgiveness. Certainly the gospel is big enough and powerful enough to set me free. So I humble myself before you, Jesus. I may never enjoy the gift of my friend’s repentance, at least this side of heaven, but there’s no justification for me tying my repentance to his.
I’m to forgive him as you’ve forgiven me, Jesus. It’s as simple and as costly as that. No, I’m not to be a doormat, but I am to be a doorway to the miracle of reconciliation. By the work of the Holy Spirit, I ask you to show me what that will entail in these next several weeks. Some broken relationships are less complex than this one. Some are no-brainers in terms of applying the gospel. But this one’s different.
Jesus, you’ve promised me all the wisdom I need, and I’ll take it. But I also ask you for a great measure of determination, strength, and follow-through. Low-sitting coffee tables can morph into coiled rattlesnakes in time, and the venom of unforgiveness is just too toxic to ignore. Untie the knots in my gut with your liberating hands. So very Amen I pray, in your redeeming and restoring name.
Scotty Smith
Founding Pastor
Christ Community Church
801 Highgrove Circle
Franklin, TN
37069
It's good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace Hebrews 13:9
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Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Plain Chicken: Slow Cooker Ham & White Beans
Plain Chicken: Slow Cooker Ham & White Beans: This is the last recipe from our Christmas ham. I always look forward to finishing off the ham with a nice big bowl of white beans and sl...
A Prayer for Grace to Accept Disruption and Change
A Prayer for Grace to Accept Disruption and Change
Scotty Smith posted on September 30, 2012 05:07
A Prayer for Grace to Accept Disruption and Change
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Heb. 13:8
Dear Lord Jesus, I really don’t like change. I like newness, excitement and adventure, but when it’s all said and done, I love to come home to the normal and the predictable. My passion for the known and familiar goes deep—maybe too deep. Grant me grace to accept change, because there’s so much change going on everywhere I look.
Another freshly planted “For Sale” sign confirms old friends are moving away. A favorite tree, whose leaves gave the relief of shade and a vibrant tapestry of fall color, is taken down by a storm. The regular voice of a beloved pastor is taken away by his call to another pulpit.
The restaurant which served great food, rich conversation, and the ambiance of welcome had to close. Friends divorce, pets die, jobs are lost. I don’t like it, Jesus. Change is disruptive. Precious things don’t become vintage things overnight.
How thankful we are that there’s one part of our lives that will never change, and that’s you, Lord Jesus. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. That certainly doesn’t make you predictable, and, even less so, manageable. But it does mean that we can trust you without any reservations whatsoever. In fact, it’s only in knowing you that change is put into perspective.
The most fundamental change we should always welcome is becoming like you, Jesus, and that process is the most disruptive and painful change we will ever go through. Yet with the knowledge that one Day we’ll be as lovely and as loving as you, we gladly surrender to the painful and liberating work of the gospel in our lives. Lord, may it hurt so good, if growth will reveal your grace and glory in my life.
Likewise, Jesus, the better we know you, the more we come alive to your promise to make all things new. Change has no sovereignty. Only you are Lord. Nothing is random in this world. Nothing catches you off guard. The scary becomes the sacred when we’re wearing the lens of the gospel.
Jesus, help each of us see and accept changes as part of a far better story than we could ever hope to write. You are making all things new, right now—right before our very eyes, if we have eyes to see and a heart to accept. Because of your life, death, and resurrection, we’re heading towards a place, family, and eternity in which it will all make sense and everything will be the way it’s supposed to be. Hasten that magnificent Day!
Until then, Jesus, may we love you with abandon, serve you without question, and order our lives after your transforming purposes. So very Amen we pray, in your merciful and matchless name.
Scotty Smith
Founding Pastor
Christ Community Church
801 Highgrove Circle
Franklin, TN
37069
It's good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace Hebrews 13:9
A Prayer about the Orphan in us...
A Prayer about the Orphan in Us... in Me
Scotty Smith posted on October 01, 2012 05:25
A Prayer about the Orphan in Us… in Me
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Gal. 4:4–7
Dear Lord Jesus, I praise, worship and adore you for a promise made, and a promised kept. You promised not to leave us in an orphan-like state—you promised to send the Spirit of adoption into our hearts and you did. You love us with a filial affection far beyond all imaging. Great is your faithfulness. Great is your generosity. Great is your grace and glory!
But there are moments, days, even much longer stretches when I begin to think, feel, and live as though I am still very much orphan—as though I don’t really have a heavenly Father who loves me deeply and is involved in every detail of my life—as though you never actually send you Spirit of adoption into my heart, by which I cry, “Abba, Father!”
When I get sucked back into this temporary state of unbelief and gospel-forgetfulness, my spirit shrinks and my fears enlarge. My peace says, “Goodbye,” and my control issues return with a vengeance. I get defensive and I go on the offensive. Instead of having a love for the lost, I get lost in my fretting and plotting. In short, I’m no fun to be around.
I wish there was a button I could push or a switch I could throw and all of a sudden “snap out of it.” There’s no such shortcut, but there is gospel and repentant faith, which is better by far. So I begin today by preaching the gospel to my heart—the gospel that we believers need as much as non-believers—the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, at every stage in our journey to the new heaven and new earth.
Jesus, you haven’t left us as orphans. You fulfilled the all demands of the law for me that I might know the full delights of the children of God. You’ve made this rebellious enemy of God a beloved son of the Father. The saints in heaven are more happy than me, but they are not more secure; they know the Father better than me but they aren’t known by the Father any better than me. Not a hair can fall from my head nor can a breath be taken from my lungs apart from his sovereign purposes. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, you never have and never will abandon me. Right now, I abandon myself to you and to the resources of the gospel, the Spirit of adoption and the hope of my inheritance. I take my eyes off myself and set my gaze, heart and affections on you. Free me to love others today as you so lavishly love me. So very Amen I pray in your gracious and glorious name.
Scotty Smith
Founding Pastor
Christ Community Church
801 Highgrove Circle
Franklin, TN
37069
It's good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace Hebrews 13:9
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The Daily Spurgeon: Worship is our privilege
The Daily Spurgeon: Worship is our privilege: The genius of the Christian religion is joy, its proper spirit is delight, and its highest exercise is praise. “They s...
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
From An Igloo: One Hour Sundress
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From An Igloo: Art Bag Tutorial
Not my picture... from the following website. I love this! Check out her blog for the tutorial! Got to make this for my younger grandchildren! :)
From An Igloo: Art Bag Tutorial: First off, I promise not all of my posts will be sewing related. This one is though, so if you like to sew read on! This is not so much a...Friday, May 11, 2012
~*~ Glossy Bookmark/magnet ~*~
I am always looking for fun, inexpensive gift ideas. This is an easy tutorial from Inspiring Ideas. The picture is hers. Hop on over and check it out!Saturday, May 5, 2012
Sew Much Ado: Tutorial: Sleeved Toddler Bib
Sew Much Ado: Nursing cover tutorial.
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