Michele Huey's Blog: God, Me, and a Cup of Tea, page 58

Michele's homemade pizza

MIX together:

1 cup warm water2 1/4 tsp rapid rise yeast (one packet/envelope)1 tsp sugar1 tsp salt3 TBS vegetable oil (I use canola oil)ADD:1 cup of unbleached white flour or bread flour1 cup of whole wheat flour (If you don't want whole wheat in your crust, just use all white flour)MIX with wooden spoon until blended, then add another 1/2 cup flour.
Turn onto lightly floured counter and knead dough for 5 minutes, adding flour as needed. Dough should be soft and smooth, not sticky. (I use less than 3 cups of flour total.)
Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. (I put mine in my over-the-range microwave, with the microwave light on. This helps to keep it nice and warm, and prevents drafts from affecting the dough. NOTE: Do not run the microwave.)
Punch down and place on lightly floured countertop. If you're careful, the dough will remain in a circular shape. Toss or press out (with either rolling pin or by hand) until the size of large pizza pan. Transfer to lightly oiled pizza pan or stone and press to the edges.
Add toppings* of your choice. 
NOTE: Once the toppings are on, we like to let the pizza dough raise another 15-20 minutes before putting it in the oven.
BAKE at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
I use this recipe to make one 15" pizza (on the Pampered Chef large round stone with handles). This makes for a nice, thick crust. If you like a thinner crust, this recipe will make two 12" pizzas. 

*HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE:
MIX together:1 pint of tomato sauce (I used my home-canned sauce)1 6-oz. can tomato paste (with Italian seasonings is best)Season to taste with garlic powder, basil, oregano, sugar, and saltLet simmer for 20-30 minutes. I let this cool before spreading it on the pizza dough. 
This makes enough sauce for two 15" pizzas. 
*A NOTE ON THE CHEESE: Our favorite cheese is the Hillandale Farms Shredded Pizza Cheese, a blend of Italian cheeses. 

The right shoes

Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the Good News of peace. – Ephesians 6:15 (TLB)
     
     
I fell in love with hiking on the trails of Acadia National Park in Maine over a year ago. The maze of roots, rocks and boulders were challenging to this then-61-year-old, out-of-shape woman. And not having the proper footwear didn’t help my bad feet.
     
I’ve had problems with my feet since I was a child. One night excruciating foot pain kept me awake. The next morning my mother called the doctor, who diagnosed sprained ligaments in both feet and prescribed bed rest for a week and soaking my feet several times a day. He also recommended I wear shoes with more support—“ortho shoes” I called them and refused to even consider it. The kids at school made fun of me for far less.
     
But Mom, being Mom, prevailed, and we found a nice compromise—saddle shoes. They gave my feet the necessary support and actually looked cool. They were so comfortable, I bought new ones every year and wore saddle shoes all through high school.
     
Of course in my young adult years I had to wear shoes that made me look cool. Over the years,  though, I learned with the right kind of shoes—shoes that had the support my feet needed—I didn’t have any problems. Cheap shoes, flat shoes, all gave me pain. The more expensive shoes were worth every cent.
     
I didn’t have problems with my feet again until I developed heel spurs in my fifties. Once again footwear came to the rescue. The WalkFit inserts I ordered online were not only comfortable, but had me walking without pain within days. I wore them inside my shoes until I lost one. Then I graduated to just good shoes.
     
Then we went hiking, and sneakers just didn’t cut it. I didn’t want aching feet to prevent me from doing something I loved to do, so I bought hiking boots, a pair of merino wool hiking socks and another set of WalkFit inserts—best investment I made all year. I hiked and walked all last summer, and then hiked 17 miles of trails in the Great Smoky Mountains last fall—without pain.
     
The right shoes make all the difference.
     
We need “the right shoes” for what God has called us to do—take His Word to the world around us (John 14:27, Matthew 28:28, Acts 1:8).
     
What are the right shoes?
     
Peace. Peace with God, peace with yourself and peace with others.
     
You don’t find that kind of peace in stores or online. You find it only in God—in His Son, Jesus Christ, who said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). You find it when you fix your mind on Him (Isaiah 26:3). You find it when you pray and trust God for the answers and when you think the right thoughts (Philippians 4:6-9). You find it when you do all you can to be a peacemaker (Romans 12:18).
     
What will it be? pain? Or peace?
     
Having the right shoes makes all the difference.
     
       
Remind me each morning, O Lord, to put on the right shoes. Amen.



More tea: Read Ephesians 6:10–18

The perfect gift

Pete, Judi, and me August 7, 1999
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father. – James 1:17 NIV
   
   
When I opened the card from my sons on Christmas Eve, I cried. I totally didn’t expect a round-trip airline ticket to Montgomery, Ala., where my brother Pete lives.
   
I haven’t seen Pete since our sister’s memorial service nearly 11 years ago. You never know what’s around the next bend, so it’s a crying shame that over decade has passed since I’ve spent real-time, face-time with the only sibling I have left.
   
But life gets busy, and a trip to Alabama was more of an item for the bucket list than the do-list—for more reasons than I just couldn’t find the time.
   
First, the expensive airfare. Second, after my last flying fiasco, I vowed never to fly again unless it was absolutely necessary. Third, we didn’t have a vehicle that was trip-worthy until last year, and a drive to the Heart of Dixie wasn’t feasible or affordable. There were too many other, more immediate needs and concerns.
   
But when I bought myself a used elliptical machine two weeks before Christmas, my boys had to come up with another gift idea for me.
   
It was my husband who suggested it. He knew my brother, who is 5 years older than me, has been dealing with health issues for several years, and the past couple of months brought a few scares.
   
So today I’m flying out of Pittsburgh—first class—for a one-week visit with my brother and his wife—and I’m not taking my laptop. Work is not on the agenda for the next week. I’m going to spend the time with my loved ones.
   
It’s the perfect gift. My boys have not only given me something I couldn’t afford, they have also given me the precious gift of time with my brother.
   
Time is an excellent gift. It requires sacrifice—giving of something that you can’t get back, something that costs nothing in dollars and cents, but is priceless in terms of value.
   
You give the gift of time:

When when you stop what you’re doing and listen—really listen—to what someone is saying. When you put away what you’re working on and play a game with your grandchildren, even though you’re on a deadline. When you have lunch with a friend. When you make a pot of soup for a neighbor who’s ill. When you crochet afghans for each of your grandchildren. When you make your son’s favorite pie from scratch. When you make homemade noodles for your husband’s birthday dinner. When you do something that’s on your wife’s to-do list so she can have time to do something she really wants to do. When you stay with a young mother’s children so she can get some precious time to herself or go grocery shopping. When you spend two weeks at your daughter’s home while she recovers from surgery.
   
Look at the list of birthdays and anniversaries coming up. Where can you give the gift of time?
   
   

Father, show me more ways to give the gift of time. Amen.
   

Setting the record straight

Image courtesy of Free Bible Bible Images
THE MAGI AND THE KINGSpecial-Tea: Read Matthew 2:1–18
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. – 1 John 5:11–12 NKJV

“I, Jesus, … am the Bright and Morning Star.” – Revelation 22:16 NKJV

The more I study the Christmas story, the more I see where tradition has trumped the Word.

Take, for example, the Magi, whose kingly figures are incorporated into Nativity sets as soon as they’re set out.

When I was growing up, the three wise men weren’t added until January 6, when the church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were no longer in the stable. They were in a house (verse 11). Biblical scholars estimate Jesus was possibly two years old.

Unless you read the Word, you can get the story wrong. As a writer, I cannot stand to get a story wrong. So let’s examine this part of the Christmas story—the Magi and the king.

First, the wise men were not kings. They were high ranking members of an Eastern priestly class that originated in ancient Media and Persia who studied the stars, their alignment and what that alignment meant to men on earth. They served kings, but they themselves were not kings.

Their homeland likely was Babylon—the land from which God called Abraham, the land where the Israelites were taken into exile, the land where the Jewish prophet Daniel served high in the government, the land where the descendants of those Jews who didn’t return to their homeland after the exile still lived.

So the Magi were not unfamiliar with Hebrew culture.

In the months before the blazing star appeared, the Magi noticed a rare phenomenon in the sky: Two wandering stars appeared in the constellation Pisces, which represented the Hebrew nation. These moving stars were the planets Saturn, which designated the capital city of Jerusalem to the Hebrews, and Jupiter, which denoted royalty to the Hebrews (A Scientific Approach to Biblical Mysteries). This alignment occurred three times.

The Magi knew what this meant: A Hebrew king was to be born.

They did not follow the blazing star, which some believe was a nova (an exploding star), all the way from Babylon. If indeed the star had led them, they wouldn’t have had to stop in Jerusalem to ask for directions and they wouldn’t have been so overjoyed when they saw the star again after their summons to Herod (vv. 9–10).

Because there were three gifts, it is assumed there were three wise men. But Scripture doesn’t indicate how many there were. And they didn’t come alone. Three men, bearing expensive gifts, traveling alone on highways fraught with bandits wouldn’t have been safe. No, they brought their entourage of servants and bodyguards.

Image courtesy of Free Bible ImagesWhen they arrived in the capital city, they didn’t go to Herod first. They asked the citizens of Jerusalem, who had no clue what they were talking about. Word got to jealous Herod, who summoned the wise men to get more information so he could get rid of this possible threat to his throne.

So you see why Herod and all of Jerusalem were disturbed (verse 3) when the Magi arrived.

Okay, now that we’ve set the record straight, what does this all mean to us today?

In addition to making sure we get our information directly from Scripture and not count on tradition to give us the truth, I see in this story two ways to respond to Jesus.

Like Herod, we can perceive Him as a threat—to our way of life, to our control of our lives, to our beliefs.

Or we can worship Him as King and Lord. Think about it: Kings aren’t worshiped. They are to be obeyed. God alone is worshiped.

What about you? How do you perceive this person called Jesus?

Lord, may I always follow the Bright and Morning Star. Amen.

Photo by Justin Ng

The Road to Nowhere

 

 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28 NIV
      
      
Eighty years ago private landowners in Swain County, North Carolina, were forced to give up their property, which had been in their families for generations, when the government created the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Entire communities had to relocate. Access to ancestral burial grounds was lost when the Fontana Dam was built and the route was submerged beneath the waters of a vast manmade lake.      

To appease the people, the government promised to build a road through the park that would give them access to the ancient cemeteries. And so construction on Lakeview Drive began—and halted six miles into the park when environmental issues arose. The promised road ended with a tunnel and has remained that way to this day.


      
Although eventually the environmental issues were resolved and the feds paid the county $52 million in lieu of finishing the road, the locals, feeling betrayed, renamed Lakeview Drive to “The Road to Nowhere.” A sign was erected: “Welcome to The Road to Nowhere. A Broken Promise. 1943 – ?”
      
We visited The Road to Nowhere last fall during our camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and we walked through the dank, dark tunnel. True, the paved road ended when we emerged on the other side, but I wouldn’t call it “nowhere.” Golden trees framed hiking trails which wound through the mountains. True, this wasn’t what was promised, but it is what it is.
      
Life can be like that. Sometimes the road we’re on doesn’t lead us to where we expect or where we want to go. Sometimes we run into a dead end. Broken promises break our hearts and our trust. We can’t see how we can go on.
      
But it doesn’t lead to nowhere. All roads lead to somewhere. Just sometimes not where we’d chosen.
      
The older I get, the more I understand the wisdom of accepting and adapting. And moving on.
      
I’m not saying it’s easy—giving up those dreams, rebuilding your life after hope has been shattered.
      
But it can be done—with guts, gumption, grit—and God.
      
You see, I believe in a God who can transform what’s bad in your life into something good, what’s broken into something usable. A God who can turn your weakness into His strength (2 Corinthians 12:9) and loves you far beyond what you can comprehend (Romans 8:35–39).
      
He’s always in your corner (Romans 8:31) and wants to bless you exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). He’s a faithful Father who showers you with fresh mercies every morning (Lamentations 3:23) and who doesn’t break promises (2 Timothy 2:13).
      
So, dear child of God, “do not fear. Do not let not your hands grow weak. The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives great victory. He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on the day of a festival” (Zephaniah 3:16–17)
      
Remember that it’s God who’s in control, no matter what road you find yourself on.
     
      
Remind me, Lord, as I walk this uncertain road called life, that every road I walk with You will lead to somewhere wonderful. Amen.
Special-Tea: Read Lamentations 3:19–26

My bucket list

    
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
      
      
One of the things I did this past year was to compile a bucket list.
      
On it I put hiking, kayaking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, horseback riding in the Colorado Rockies, spending a month in Alaska and visiting the Canadian Rockies. Perhaps I should add “getting and staying in shape.”


I was hesitant at first to list anything. Unlike the two characters in the movie, I don’t have a billionaire to fund the fulfillment of the list of things I want to do before I kick the bucket. So phrases such as “we can’t afford it” and “be realistic” kept popping up.
      
We humans can come up with all kinds of reasons our deepest desires and wildest dreams won’t or can’t be fulfilled. So we plod on, not allowing ourselves to hope or dream because we don’t want to deal with disappointment. Or we make a bucket list of “safe” things—those that don’t border on impossible.
      
I had to push the hope-sucking words out of my mind with another phrase: “If money were no object…” and set my mind free to dream.
      
When I got brave enough to write my dreams down, I began to see the possibilities—how they can be fulfilled. I began to hope and dream again like I did when I was much younger.
      
What is life without dreams? Without hope?
      
In 626 B.C. God’s people thought they were without hope, too. Sent into exile for persistent willful disobedience, they were given these words: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
      
The next 70 years weren’t going to be pretty. Babylon would be a far cry from the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey God had helped their ancestors conquer. But don’t give up hope, He told them.
      
Hope—what we need to get us through our Babylon times, what we need to get us through life even when it isn’t tough.
      
There may be those who say this verse isn’t for us today—that it was meant only for God’s people at that time. There may be those who say this verse has been so overused, it’s become cliché.
      
But these 29 words say so much—and I believe they are for us today, too, for “the grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
       
“For I know the plans I have for you” —God has a plan for your life, a purpose for YOU.
      
“…to prosper you and not to harm you.”— Although life includes pain, God’s purpose is not to harm but to help you to grow. God’s plan for you is good.
      
“…to give you hope.” Life without hope is like soda without the fizz, like a long, dark night with no sign of morning. Hope comes from God, so ask Him for it.
      
“…to give you…a future.” God has a future planned for you, but He reveals it one day—one moment—one step—at a time.
      
Plans, hope, a future—Isn’t that what a bucket list is all about? It gives us hope that someday our dreams may come true.
      
So go ahead—let yourself dream again. Make up your bucket list. Then give it to God and watch your hope begin to grow.
      
      
Teach me to dream again, Lord. I’ve forgotten how. Amen.

Photo courtesy of Murray Pura
 Special-Tea: Read Psalm 139 

Merry Christmas!

 
May the God who gave the first gift of Christmaswarm your heart with love,light your way with hope,and fill your home with joythis Christmas and throughout the coming year.
Blessings,Michele 

Afraid of the dark

Image courtesy of Chris Sharp/FreeDigitalPhotos.net  
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:5 (RSV)
      
      
When I was a child, I was afraid of the dark. That was because my brother and sister, both older than me, would scare me with ghost stories and hide in the dark, making mysterious noises. I had a vivid imagination even then, and their antics only increased my fear. When I went upstairs at night, I had to flip every light switch along the way, and I couldn’t fall asleep unless the hall light at the bottom of the stairs was turned on, its beams reaching into my bedroom, dispelling the darkness and calming my fears.
      
When I grew up, however, I learned that no spooks lurked in the darkness, waiting to harm me, and the darkness held no real threat. But still, inky blackness had the power to resurrect old fears buried deep in the recesses of my heart.
      
I remember one time my husband, I and our three children were camping, and all the lights were extinguished. It was so dark I couldn’t see my hand two inches from my face. My heart began to beat faster, and I felt as though I couldn’t breathe.
      
“Calm down,” I scolded myself. I thought about turning on the reading light and reading through the night until I fell asleep, but the light would disturb my husband. So I squeezed my eyes shut, pulled the covers over my head and forced myself to breathe deeply and slowly – and think about something other than the blackness that still held terror for me.
      
While adults may scoff at a child’s (or another adult’s) fear of the dark, I believe we need to respect it for its power, for good and for evil.
      
The Bible tells us there are three kinds of darkness: Physical darkness is the absence of light and can be both good (rest) and bad. Our fears, worries and heartaches are felt more acutely at night, looming larger than in the light of the day. Spiritual darkness, which is not knowing what is right and true, also represents everything evil, gloomy or hopeless. Eternal darkness is hell, the absence of God.
      
As Christians, we are to avoid spiritual darkness, respect its power to destroy and send us into eternal darkness, but not fear it. Why?
      
“I am the light of the world,” Jesus tells us in John 8:12. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
      
Jesus, the Messiah, the only begotten Son of God, the child born in Bethlehem, the God-man who never sinned and became the perfect sacrifice, paying the punishment for our sin by shedding His blood and dying on a cross so that the darkness will no longer have power over us. Jesus, whose name means “God will save,” who overcame the eternal darkness of death and rose from the grave, continues to shine in the darkness, and the darkness has not, and cannot – ever – overpower Him.
      
Like that hall light when I was a child, His beams of love and life continue to reach me, surrounding me, enfolding me, dispelling the darkness around me and calming my fears. I know I need never be afraid of the dark anymore.
      
      
As I light the fourth Advent candle, dear God, remind me that in this season of long, dark nights, that I never need to fear the dark, as long as I walk in the light. Amen.


Special-Tea: Read John 1:1–18      

A season to believe

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles,/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
            
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14 NIV
      
Nothing, you see, is impossible with God. – Luke 1:37 The Message
      
I met Sue Swan in 1997 when I began a writers group in Punxsutawney. She and her family had recently moved to the area when her husband accepted a job as the director of a local ministry.
      
Sue was the answer to my prayers. I’d been writing and submitting my work, but I had much to learn about the craft of writing and the world of publishing. Even though I’d gotten several pieces published nationally and was a feature writer for the local newspaper, I felt like I was way out in left field, all alone without a clue what to do when the ball came to me.
      
Enter Sue Swan. She’d read my classified ad about a writers group I was starting and showed up at the first meeting. Not only was she a published author, but she was also a member of the board of directors for the St. Davids Christian Writers Conference, held at Geneva College in Beaver Falls every June.
      
We became fast friends. She had much to offer, and I was so hungry to learn. We discovered we had much in common: faith, a love for tea and reading, a desire to serve God through our writing, and our birthday—November 5.
      
Sue was instrumental in me attending my first writing conference, nominating me for a scholarship to the St. Davids conference, which I received. I couldn’t have afforded to attend otherwise. Eventually I became a member of the board of directors myself. Not only did I learn a great deal about writing and publishing, but I also made lifetime friendships.
      
Sue and her family eventually moved back to the Pittsburgh area. Her new job prevented her from staying involved with the St. Davids group, and we drifted out of touch. One year she showed up at the conference wearing an oxygen mask. A cylinder of the life-giving gas accompanied her wherever she went.
      
She’d been diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a chronic, progressive lung disease, which led to pulmonary arterial hypertension. There is no cure for either disease. Her only hope for her worsening condition was a lung transplant. Despite her prognosis, however, she remained cheerful and upbeat—and encouraging to others.
      
I continued to pray for her and receive updates, but the news was never good.
      
Until July 24, 2014—the day she was healed.
      
Yes, I said healed.
      
That was the day she and her husband, Tom, attended a breakfast session at the International Gideons Convention in Philadelphia, and a man asked to pray for her. She consented. Here is what happened, in Sue’s own words:
      
“I drew in a deep breath—and for the first time in ten years felt my lungs fully inflate. I took another deep breath with the same result. The constriction that had been getting progressively worse was gone. I jumped up, sobbing, laughing, and praising God. I threw my arms around Tom and said, ‘I can breathe! Sweetheart, I CAN BREATHE!’ ”*
      
I saw Sue in October. She drove up from Pittsburgh for the Punxsutawney Christian Women’s Conference and stayed with me overnight Saturday night. There is no sign of her illnesses.
      
Christmas is a season of miracles. Everything surrounding the birth of Jesus was miraculous: barren Elizabeth conceiving and bearing the forerunner of the Messiah; the appearances of angels to an old priest, to an engaged young woman, to a bewildered fiancé, and to a group of shivering shepherds; a virgin birth; a wondrous star that guided three wise men from the East to the newborn baby; the escape of that baby from a crazed king.
      
You’ve read the story.
      
But it’s more than a story. It’s more than God reaching down and touching mankind, blessing us with a miracle.
      
It’s God actually leaving the splendors of heaven to inhabit a human body and live with us on earth so He could provide the way for us to be with Him forever.
      
Christmas is the season we want to believe in miracles. So many need one now.
      
So go ahead—believe a miracle can happen. Believe in the impossible.
      
“We serve a God of power, love, and miracles,” writes Sue. “I am living proof that miracles did not end with recorded scripture. God is still sovereign and still delights in miraculously healing His children.”
      
      
I do believe, Lord! Help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24) Amen.

      
Special-Tea: Read Luke 1:26–38

NOTE: *To read Sue’s story, “God Still Works Miracles,” on her blog, click here.  http://susanreithswan.com/2014/08/03/god-still-works-miracles-part-one/

The story is told in four parts, which include her miraculous healing, the story of the man who laid his hands on her head and prayed for her, her subsequent visits to her doctors, and other “God-incidences” surrounding this miracle.

Christmas Joy

Dear Lord, I’m feeling down today,The bills are stacked up high;With Christmas just two weeks away,Our bank account’s run dry.The kids have all presented listsOf things they want to see;I hope and pray there’s nothing missedBeneath our Christmas tree.But I don’t have the money forExpensive clothes and toys;My credit card can’t take much more –Lord, where’s my Christmas joy?Perhaps it’s wrapped up in that hugMy daughter gave this morn;Or stacked with wood my son did lugTo keep us nice and warm.Perhaps it’s in my oldest’s eyesWhen he comes home on breakAnd sees I’ve baked those pumpkin piesHe wanted me to make.Perhaps it’s in the tired linesAround my husband’s eyes.Perhaps in love that’s grown with timeI’ve found the greater prize.A friend who gives a hearty smile,And cupboards that aren’t bare;And, even if they aren’t in style,I’ve got some clothes to wear.A family who believes in meIn all things, great and small –Dear God, I think I finally seeI am not poor at all.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.-Matthew 6:21 (RSV)
                     

© 1997 by Michele T. Huey. All rights reserved.