February!  My mom’s birthday and my middle son’s birthday are both in February.  It looks like we are going to have a new addition to our family this month as well!  We are hoping to bring home a 6 year old foster (praying for adoption!) son this Tuesday!

This month of menus is not completely gluten-free.  I did seem to feel better gluten-free, but not EXTREMELY better and I’m not sure its worth it, especially with the big change happening in our family this month.  I’m doing my best to cut out wheat for myself where I can, and many of our family meals will continue to be gluten free.  But I’m not going to stress over it.

Breakfasts/Lunches:

M – Quinoa and Berries/Quesadillas

T – Oatmeal/Salami, Cheese, Crackers, Raw Veggies

W - GF pancakes/Nachos or burritos

Th – Omlettes/PB and J on whole wheat bread

F — Steel Cut Oats/Leftovers

Sat – Cereal

Sun – Eggs to order, sometimes bacon or sausage too/Out to lunch

Dinners:

Peanut Chicken

Migas Tacos

Spaghetti (with or without Italian sausage), 2x

Cheese Enchiladas 2x

Lentil Soup with Sausage (2x)

Cheeseburger Patties (2 times)

Pot Roast

Green Pepper Chicken

Black-eyed Pea Soup or this recipe from All Recipes

Spinach Minestrone

Cheeseburger Soup

Paula Deen’s Black Bean Soup

Pasta w/ tomatoes and sausage?!

Chili with cornbread (2 nights)

Mexican Rice Casserole

“Work is not a result of the fall of Adam, but work goes the difficult way it does because of the fall.  Prior to the advent of sin in the world, Adam was given the task of tending the garden and naming the animals.  We were created for work.  But when sin entered, God in His wisdom saw that thorns and thistles were now needed (Genesis 3:17-19).  In His grace, God cursed the ground.  Just as the law is a school-master to bring us to Christ, so is the sweat of the brow.  Sinners don’t do well living on the Big Rock Candy Mountain.”

–Douglas Wilson, “Laziness and Hard Labor,” Future Men

I have never thought of  the difficulty of work as evidence of God’s grace before!   In fact, I haven’t given any theological thoughts to weeding my garden, vacuuming the rug for the 6th time, or trying to fix something broken — past being a little annoyed with Adam and Eve for making things so onerous in the first place.

But seriously, is it not an inescapable fact that “sinners don’t do well living on Big Rock Candy Mountain”?  How many of us have watched children raised in wealthy families — having everything handed to them on a silver platter — grow up to be selfish little boogers?  How many of us know adults who have experienced “the easy life” only to become miserable and dissatisfied?

God in His GRACE designed us to need work to be strenuous!  Complications of work, frustrations of things not going as they should, having to constantly re-do that which we have already done — these are all things that should point us to our need for God!

Someday, when sin is obliterated, I suppose we won’t have such a need for thorns and thistles.  Won’t that be a glorious day?

With this new revelation in mind, I’m off to clean my kitchen.  Again.

A month of gluten-free ideas!

Breakfasts:

M – Quinoa and Berries

T – Oatmeal

Th – Steel Cut Oats

W - GF pancakes or waffles

F and Sun – Scrambled Eggs or omelettes (2x a week)

Sat – GF cereal (RICE CHEX)

English Muffins if we’re bored

Lunches:

M – Quesadillas

T – Salami, Cheese, Raw Veggies

W – Beans and GF cornbread

Th – Smoothies and PB Pancake Sandwiches

F – Leftovers

S – Roast Beef and Cheese Roll-ups with Chips and Salsa

Dinners (with leftovers and pot lucks, I think this will be more than enough meals):

Chinese Fried Rice w/ Bok Choy

Peanut Chicken

Migas Tacos

Spaghetti (with or without Italian sausage), 2x

Cheese Enchiladas 2x

Gluten Free Mommy’s Lasagna

Barefoot Contessa’s Chicken Chili (enough for 2 nights)

Gluten Free Sox Fan’s Yummerific Pizza

Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada Verde

Lentil Soup with Sausage (2x)

Beanadillas and veggie (at least 2x)

Cheeseburger Patties (2-4 times)

Potato Leek Soup or Corn Potato Chowder (2x)

Butternut Squash Soup (I’m going to bake the squash first for ease, and will add a sweet potato in place of potatoes per 1 review)

Superimmunity Chicken Soup (made with turkey broth saved from Christmas!)

Slow Cooker Meals:

Pot Roast (enough for 2 nights)

Green Pepper Chicken

Black-eyed Pea Soup or this recipe from All Recipes

Shredded Chicken Tacos

December 25th

Symbol:

A Cross or Empty Tomb

Scripture Reading:

Luke 23:1-5, 13-55; Luke 24:1-12

Main Ideas:

It’s a shame not to take more time here to study the life of Christ.  Please find the time to do this on your own!

What is Christmas, though, without the cross?  Jesus’ death and resurrection are what make us so excited to celebrate His birth — knowing He was born for this purpose.

We’re just reading from Luke today.  Though  the other gospels shed more on what happened during Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, you probably don’t have time to read all of it this Christmas Day! Because some of the answers to the questions below have answers in these other accounts, I suggest you reading the other versions on your own and simply explain these answers to the children you are sharing this study with.

This link will show you some of the messianic prophecies fulfilled by Christ in his death (if you have a better link to a prophecy chart, please let me know!).

If you’d like to read a short but excellent summary of what we’ve learned about God through this Jesse Tree study and why we need Jesus, please click here.  Also, here is a 4-minute video by John MacCarthur explaining The Real Christmas Story.

For Discussion:

1. Why was Jesus crucified? (Jesus, who had no sin, died in our place. He took God’s judgment of our sin—that is, death—instead of sending us to eternal death in the Lake of Fire.)
2. When Jesus rose from the dead, over what did he show his power? Over whom did he show his power?  (When Jesus rose from the dead, he showed his power over death, and over sin which causes death. In doing this, Jesus showed his power over Satan.)
3. How did Jesus fulfill that very first promise that was given to Adam and Eve, that one of Eve’s descendants would crush the head of Satan, and that Satan would wound his heel? (Satan was the one who deceived Eve and brought death into the world. So when Jesus died and rose again, Satan’s power over man through sin and death was destroyed. When Jesus died, it was as if Satan wounded him. But it was only a temporary wound because Jesus rose from the dead, completely defeating Satan, sin and death.)
4. What should a person do to receive the safety and salvation from sin that Jesus offers us? (According to Jesus words, we must believe who he is and what he did for us.)
5. What prophecies from our readings were fulfilled in this narration? (The Savior’s hands and feet will be pierced.  The Savior will die with the wicked. They will cast lots for his clothes.  They will laugh at him and curse him.  The Savior will be buried with the rich.  The Savior will become alive again.)

For more information on the tradition of using a Jesse Tree for Advent, please visit this Squidoo page!

For yesterday’s reading, click here.

For access to all the Jesse Tree readings, click here.

Main Resources used for this Jesse Tree Study:

* Christianity is Jewish

* The Story of God and Man a booklet that goes through “narrations” of scripture, starting at the beginning, and brings you through a biblical worldview while building up the story of our Savior.  Email me at onebeggarsbread@gmail.com for details about getting a copy.

*CRI’s Jesse Tree Scripture Reading List

December 24th

Symbol:

A Storm or Loaves and Fish

Scripture Reading:

John 6:1—15; Matthew 14:22—33; Mark 4:35— 41

Main Ideas:

Yes, it’s a bit untraditional to read about the life of Christ during an Advent study.  But if we stop with His birth — His Glorious Incarnation — we will have missed going deeper into WHO He was and WHY He came!

Please make certain that anyone you are sharing this study with knows that today’s reading is just a SMALL sampling of the many miracles Jesus performed while one earth.  The main idea is to notice that Jesus had/has power over earthly things.  He controls the wind, the rain, water, and even food!

For Discussion (Questions taken from Narration 30 of The Story of God and Man):

1. After Jesus multiplied the bread and fish, many people followed him. Why did they follow him? (They followed him because he fed them. They wanted to make him king, hoping that he would provide for them and free them from the rule of the Romans.)
2. Why did Jesus refuse to be their king? (Jesus knew that they didn’t want to be saved from Satan, sin and death. They only wanted a king who would give them earthly things.)
3. The night that Jesus was in the boat with his disciples, who did the storm obey? (The storm obeyed Jesus.)
4. Many people said, “Truly, this is the prophet that was promised by God.” And Jesus’ disciples said, “Surely you are the Son of God,” and “Who is this, that even the wind and waves obey him?” Perhaps you, too, have begun to ask yourselves, “Who is this Jesus?” Think about it!

For more information on the tradition of using a Jesse Tree for Advent, please visit this Squidoo page!

For yesterday’s reading, click here.

To proceed to December 25th, click here.

For access to all the Jesse Tree readings, click here.

Main Resources used for this Jesse Tree Study:

* Christianity is Jewish

* The Story of God and Man a booklet that goes through “narrations” of scripture, starting at the beginning, and brings you through a biblical worldview while building up the story of our Savior.  Email me at onebeggarsbread@gmail.com for details about getting a copy.

*CRI’s Jesse Tree Scripture Reading List

December 23rd

Symbol:

A Star

Scripture Reading:

Matthew 2

Main Ideas:

The story of the Wise Men is where our tradition of giving gifts on Christmas comes from, isn’t that neat?

I love the fact that God’s truth was blared from the heavens to “wise” men from another country.  God is there to be found if we seek Him, is He not?  Pray that He would give us and our loved ones faith to seek Him and find Him!

This year our family watched a really neat documentary called The Star of Bethlehem.  I highly recommend it!  (Although I LOVED this movie, I do not recommend using it as a witnessing tool.  The Word of God is enough to tell the Truth of the gospel, and there’s enough question about the science of tracking the star of Bethlehem that I just wouldn’t use the movie as a way to introduce my friends to Christ.  I do think the movie stirs wonder within those who are already believers — it just makes sense that our God would have everything so clearly spelled out in the sky!)

For Discussion:

1. What attributes of God did you see in today’s story?
2. How many wise men are mentioned in the scripture?
3. What did the wise men do when they found Jesus? (They worshipped him and gave him very valuable gifts.)
4. Who do you think gave Herod the idea that he should kill the baby Jesus? (Satan did that.)
5. Why did Satan not want Jesus to live? (Satan didn’t want Jesus to save people. He is a murderer and will always oppose God’s plan to save people.)
6. To what country did God tell Joseph to take the baby Jesus and his mother? (God told them to flee to Egypt.)
7. When they returned to Israel from Egypt, what prophecy from the Old Testament was fulfilled? (An Old Testament prophet said that the Savior would come out of Egypt.)
8. What other prophecy was fulfilled in today’s narration? (The prophecy that the Savior would be born in the town of Bethlehem.  And the last verse speaks of Jesus’ family moving to Nazareth, because another prophecy said Jesus would be called “a Nazarene.”)

For more information on the tradition of using a Jesse Tree for Advent, please visit this Squidoo page!

For yesterday’s reading, click here.

To proceed to December 24th, click here.

For access to all the Jesse Tree readings, click here.

Main Resources used for this Jesse Tree Study:

* Christianity is Jewish

* The Story of God and Man a booklet that goes through “narrations” of scripture, starting at the beginning, and brings you through a biblical worldview while building up the story of our Savior.  Email me at onebeggarsbread@gmail.com for details about getting a copy.

*CRI’s Jesse Tree Scripture Reading List

December 22nd

Symbol:

Baby in a Manger

Scripture Reading:

Luke 2:1-21

Main Ideas:

Edith Schaeffer, in Christianity is Jewish, points out something I never thought of before:  “…when you have followed the lamb throughout the Old Testament as we have just done…where else would a lamb be born than in a stable?  And so the picture became perfect:  this one who was to be the great Shepherd of all the sheep of His fold, this one  who was going to lay down His life for His sheep, had come to be the Lamb, the long expected Lamb, who indeed would be the atonement.  What a perfect place for a the detail-perfect God to choose for the birth of the Lamb!”  She says the fact that the birth of the Lamb was first announced to shepherds only adds to the beauty of this picture!

A few years ago I learned from a bible study speaker that Jesus was probably NOT born in an actual stable, but most likely in the section of a family member’s house where the animals were brought into at night.  Check out  this website or this one for more information.  Reading the Bible (and not Christmas plays) and considering the culture at the time gave me a whole new mental image of the story!

For Discussion:

1. What attributes of God did you see in today’s narration? (suggestions — God fulfills all His promises.  God knows everything even before it happens.  The fact that God fulfilled His promise to send a Savior shows us that He cares for and loves mankind. It is God who made this provision for man—not man doing something which causes God to save us.)
2. Do you think Mary or Joseph knew or remembered the little verse tucked away in Micah (Micah 5:2) about the Savior being born in Bethlehem?  (Somehow I doubt it was on their mind )
3. When the angels appeared to the shepherds, who did they say Jesus was? (They said Jesus was the Savior.)
4. Do you remember some promises that God gave long before this, that were about the Savior? (God promised Adam and Eve that He would send a Savior; also He gave His promise to Abraham and David, and even to other prophets.)

For more information on the tradition of using a Jesse Tree for Advent, please visit this Squidoo page!

For yesterday’s reading, click here.

To proceed to December 23rd, click here.

For access to all the Jesse Tree readings, click here.

Main Resources used for this Jesse Tree Study:

* Christianity is Jewish

* The Story of God and Man a booklet that goes through “narrations” of scripture, starting at the beginning, and brings you through a biblical worldview while building up the story of our Savior.  Email me at onebeggarsbread@gmail.com for details about getting a copy.

*CRI’s Jesse Tree Scripture Reading List

December 21st

Symbol:

Hammer

Scripture Reading:

Matthew 1:18-25

Main Ideas:

Joseph was a godly, upstanding man in his community who loved Mary.  Imagine his emotional response when he found out Mary was pregnant and he knew he had nothing to do with it!  Under the law, Joseph could have had Mary stoned but being a decent, kind man he decided to “divorce” her quietly (even though they weren’t yet married, the Jews of the time took engagement to be a serious commitment!).  Once God spoke to Joseph and explained, Joseph had faith (just like Mary had!) to believe and trust in God’s plan.

For Discussion:

There are 2 names given in this passage for the baby that was to be the Last Lamb.  What were the names, and what did they mean?

For more information on the tradition of using a Jesse Tree for Advent, please visit this Squidoo page!

For yesterday’s reading, click here.

To proceed to December 22nd, click here.

For access to all the Jesse Tree readings, click here.

Main Resources used for this Jesse Tree Study:

* Christianity is Jewish

* The Story of God and Man a booklet that goes through “narrations” of scripture, starting at the beginning, and brings you through a biblical worldview while building up the story of our Savior.  Email me at onebeggarsbread@gmail.com for details about getting a copy.

*CRI’s Jesse Tree Scripture Reading List

December 20th

Symbol:

Heart

Scripture Reading:

Luke 1:26-56

Main Ideas:

Shortly after sending an angel to tell Zecharias about his baby son John, God sends an angel to a young woman and to tell her she is going to be pregnant with the Son of God!  Surprisingly, even though Mary faced BIG TROUBLE with her fiancee and society-at-large for being an unmarried pregnant woman, she had the faith to believe God and accept — with joy — what was going to happen.

For Discussion:

1.  What do we learn about God from these verses?  (He brought about Mary’s pregnancy totally apart from normal human relations — clearly the power of the Holy Spirit of God. God keeps His promises. The Savior had been promised ever since the time of Adam and Eve is close to being fulfilled! God knows all things. Many, many years before, God had told King David that one of His descendants would be an eternal king. This is exactly what the angel told Mary about the child that would be born to her!)

2. Did Mary believe the angel Gabriel’s message? (Yes, she believed and praised the Lord for His mercy in fulfilling His promises.)

For more information on the tradition of using a Jesse Tree for Advent, please visit this Squidoo page!

For yesterday’s reading, click here.

To proceed to December 21th, click here.

For access to all the Jesse Tree readings, click here.

Main Resources used for this Jesse Tree Study:

* Christianity is Jewish

* The Story of God and Man a booklet that goes through “narrations” of scripture, starting at the beginning, and brings you through a biblical worldview while building up the story of our Savior.  Email me at onebeggarsbread@gmail.com for details about getting a copy.

*CRI’s Jesse Tree Scripture Reading List

December 19th

Symbol:

Honey

Scripture Reading:

Luke 3:1-22 and John 1:29-34

Main Ideas:

We’re going to skip ahead a bit in The Story today, to see that Zechariah’s words of prophecy did in fact come to pass.  Baby John grew up to become the prophet of the Highest (Luke 1:76), preparing the way for Christ!  At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, John would call Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”  After such a long time of sacrificing lambs, the last Lamb was here to take care of sin once and for all.

For Discussion (questions taken from Narration 26 of The Story of God and Man):

1. What did God say after Jesus was baptized? (He said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”)
2. Has God ever said that He is well pleased with any other man? (There is not any other person who is pleasing to God as Jesus was, because all other men are sinners.)
3. When John said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” to what was he likening Jesus? (He was saying that Jesus was like the lambs which for years had been killed and offered as sacrifices in the place of sinners.)
4. Think back through all the Bible stories you have heard. What other incidents do you remember where people sacrificed lambs to cover their sins so that they could approach God? (Abel offered a lamb when he worshipped God.  Abraham was about to kill his beloved son Isaac when he saw the lamb caught in the bush. God had put the lamb there so that it could die in the place of Isaac.  In Egypt God said that the eldest son of each family would die—unless they killed a lamb and put its blood on the doorposts of the house. That lamb died in the place of the firstborn.  On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest Zechariah killed animals and took the blood into the Holy of Holies to atone first for his own sin, and then for all the people.)

For more information on the tradition of using a Jesse Tree for Advent, please visit this Squidoo page!

For yesterday’s reading, click here.

To proceed to December 20th, click here.

For access to all the Jesse Tree readings, click here.

Main Resources used for this Jesse Tree Study:

* Christianity is Jewish

* The Story of God and Man a booklet that goes through “narrations” of scripture, starting at the beginning, and brings you through a biblical worldview while building up the story of our Savior.  Email me at onebeggarsbread@gmail.com for details about getting a copy.

*CRI’s Jesse Tree Scripture Reading List