Renewing Reason: The Most Important Literary Work Of All Time

There is nothing I am more passionate about than sharing the real message of Christ. Willing to hear me out? I'd love that. And since you've arrived here at my blog, I hope you'll give me a chance.

Many people think that to become a Christian, they must better themselves up somehow before they can come to God. They must be a good man or woman. The crazy thing is that the opposite is true. Christ came to help us realize that we don't have to keep trying to be good enough. We simply have to understand that we are in fact, not good at all, and need a savior.

The wrong message of "be a good person to be a Christian" scares me. Parents teach their children to "be good little boys and girls because that is what God wants". This creates a sense of duty and obligation. We then begin going to church, choosing to do nice and kind and right things because we think we must, rather than because we want to because of what our God has done for us through Christ. We miss the whole point. God doesn't need us to make Him feel better. Required love is not genuine love. 

1 Samuel 16:7, "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."

This wrong message of "be a good person" can multiply. Reading the bible becomes an action to check off on our list of good things we can offer God (when in fact we simply need to come to God just as we are, broken and sinful and NOT good). When I was little, I used to attend Sunday School and hear my teachers share bible stories. To me, that is all they were: stories. In some ways, if I am being completely honest, I thought they were all made up to help us get to what I thought was the point: be a good little girl. Some of them seemed so ridiculous! Global floods and miracles and healings and talking donkeys. There is no way it could be REAL. 

Of course, it all changed for me when my dad passed away in the spring of 2003. I went through an emotional journey of confusion and anger and finally a friend shared the gospel with me: God loved me and sent Jesus to give me eternal life. I believed that. Soon, I began reading the bible because I knew it was how I would learn more about God. I was still skeptical, but I understood God's love for me and I wanted to believe what He had to say. 

It has been 12 years since I became a believer. And I can truly say today that I believe that the Word of God is the only source of real truth, a guide for my life, and an incredible resource of history. It is 100% accurate and authentic. My new passion is that I share with others some practical ways we can see that the bible is the most important literary work of all time. How can we show that it is TRUE and not just a bunch of made up stories? The amazing truth is that it is foolish NOT to believe that the bible is true. If you are willing to genuinely look at evidence and facts, you will see that the scriptures are THE most backed up literary source. If you look at the truth, you cannot deny it. 

Here are some main points to get you started (but I encourage you to seek out and learn more about each of these):

1. Copies of the Manuscript

Ancient texts, like those of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and Homer and also Old Testament Scripture, were copied by hand before the printing press was invented. The Scriptures are THE most copied manuscript and have the least amount of errors in copying as compared to other ancient texts. For example, Homer, who wrote the Iliad, has 643 copied ancient manuscripts. There are 24,633 copies of Scripture. The Iliad is presented in English classes across the world, the legitimacy of which no one would dare to question. And yet, many people question the legitimacy of Scripture. 

Check out this article link for more information if you're interested: http://www.icr.org/bible-manuscripts/

Or check out this powerpoint: wordalone.org/ppoint/Bibletrue.ppt

2. Archeological Evidence

There has never been any archeological artifact found that has disproved the Scriptures. In fact, the more we dig, the more scripture is seen to be true and historically accurate. 

Check out this article link for more information if you're interested: http://www.equip.org/article/biblical-archaeology-factual-evidence-to-support-the-historicity-of-the-bible/

3. Eyewitness Accounts

When you consider the New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they all share the same story. It is extremely difficult to get people to share and see the same story. Of course, each tells from a different perspective but all confirm the person of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. Others shared about Christ and were tortured or killed for it but never changed their story. It would be hard to imagine being willing to die for something that wasn't true. 

Try this link: http://www.tektonics.org/guest/truthfulness.htm

4. There is also evidence for the historical credibility of the Bible, and the life and resurrection of Christ outside of scripture that supports what scripture has to say. 

Consider this article: https://www.probe.org/ancient-evidence-for-jesus-from-non-christian-sources-2/

Another link I like that sums up some main points on the historical and logical evidence to back up scripture is here: http://www.essentialbibleblog.com/2013/03/top-10-reasons-bible-is-true.html

My hope is that you might begin to see that we have reason to believe that scripture is authentic and an incredible resource for our lives. We don't believe this "just because we are good little boys and girls and read the bible because we should". We can believe it intelligently and with confidence. There is evidence to support scripture. It is certainly not a bunch of made up stories. 

I do want to go back to a point I made in my first post in this series, which is this: there is still an aspect of faith to Christianity. Not because scripture can't be backed up, but because until our hearts have changed to be open to God and His truth, we are skeptical and our hearts are hard. Really, until we accept Christ, we are dead in our own sin and love being our own god, our own decider of what is right and wrong. But God is so good and saves us despite our sin. And the evidence is out there to help us along the way. 

My final point is this: the scriptures will change your life. When I first truly understood who Christ was and what He did for my life, I was hungry and desperate for scripture. The more you read, the more amazing it is, the more it fills your heart and your life. The scripture is full and rich. It is "living and active", continuing to be used for thousands of years by believers as a source of truth and a guide. 

Psalm 119 says it all:

Psalm 119: 72, "The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold."

Psalm 119: 102, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

And finally:

Psalm 119: 151-152, "Yet you are near, Lord, and all your commands are true. Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them to last forever."

Thank you, Lord, for your everlasting Word. 

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Renewing Reason: Why Christians Can't Defend Their Faith

As a junior high teacher at a Christian School, I get to see how faith and philosophy play themselves out in developing minds.

For me, I know that God called me and saved me when I was in eighth grade after my dad passed away. I needed God desperately and in Him I found very real comfort and peace. Emotion played a huge role. As I continued to commit to knowing God, I grew in the logic and reason I had to defend my Christian faith. I certainly didn't know a lot of theology (the study of the nature of God and religious belief) when I first committed my life to Him. But, one of the truly fascinating pieces to knowing God is seeing that there is rationale to the Christian Faith.

This is what I believe is lacking in Christ followers today (myself included, I'll admit!). We are saved out of darkness (we accept Christ for our lives), but no passion for the logic and reason of God follows.

2 things must be said here:
1) Faith will always be faith. I truly and ardently believe that I serve a God and a Christ who through physical, archaeological, philosophical and moral reasoning, and simple logic can be seen as real. But, at the end of the day, faith would not be faith if it could be completely and 100% be proven. (Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.") There will always be an element of mystery to God. We cannot know everything (otherwise why would we need God?).

2) The Holy Spirit must call you to know Christ. Reason and logic certainly have a place, but a heart that is softened and ready for Christ must happen through God alone.

That being said, a knowledge and zeal for the logic to defend our God and our Christ is missing today. What I see with the kids that I teach (and with everyone!) is that they want to see that God is real and that God has answers to hard questions. And He does! We do God a disservice by not being able to logically defend our Christian faith to others.

I observe my students saying the following things on why they chose Christ:
1) They are afraid of hell.
2) It is the right thing to do.
3) They feel they need to be a good person (see post here on why this is false thinking: http://lifewiththeluikens.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-danger-of-having-it-all-together.html)
4) They state they are from a Christian home (i.e. their parents told them to believe it)

These kind of answers scare me. Not only because they show of lack of understanding of the gospel and all we have in Christ  but also because they don't hit on the real and honest answers that others are seeking. When you look at the historical, philosophical, moral and logical evidence for Christ and for God, you can't help but believe in a real, good, and incredible God.

Without the logic and reason to defend our God and our Christ, we are left with viewing religion as self help. We are coming to Jesus to fix _________________. (self image, depression, divorce, etc)

And while we CAN trust that Jesus IS the ultimate healer, fixer, helper, and answer, we also trust in Jesus because we have good reason to! Kids want to know that we believe in Jesus because we have a logical and knowledgable reason to do so and not just because "I told you so".

We live in a culture where the bumper sticker "COEXIST" reigns. Our culture says "Christianity is fine for you, but _____________ is what I believe. And let's just love each other for who we are and not try to change each other. Who are you to tell me what to believe?".

If we believe all that the word of God says, Christ can't just be a compartment of our lives. The gospel should and will change every area of our life. It is not just a Sunday thing. It is not just a "to each his own" thing.

Thus begins my Renewing Reason series. My fervor for revealing the logic behind the Christ I serve has inspired me to write a blog series on the following topics:
1) why the bible is a legitimate source (and ultimately guide for our lives)
2) the problem with moral relativism (which states that there is no absolute moral law that applies to all people)
3) the problem with scientism (which states that science has more authority than God)
4) the problem with skeptics (who need lots of proof and love the question why)

The truth is we act according to what we believe. So we should know what we believe and why. And have legitimate reasons for our beliefs.

I don't have all the answers, but I serve a God who certainly does.

A little footnote:
A book that I highly recommend and that sparked my interest and excitement for this topic is called Love the Lord Your God With All Your Mind, by J.P. Moreland. It's a great resource!






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The Danger of Having It All Together

All across the world Easter will be celebrated this weekend. It is one of those Sundays that a person who does not regularly attend church may take a risk and give it a whirl. Moms will dress their little girls in sweet, perfect little yellow and pink and bow and frilly filled dresses. All in all, we want to present with our "best foot forward".

Man, I love Easter. And heck, I like to look good on Sundays too.

But, there is a message I fear will be 1) verbally presented in a sermon or 2) non verbally communicated through church goers.

The message is this: Be a good person.
Or maybe: Be just good enough that others and God see how awesome you are.
Or possibly: I've got it all together. Why don't you?

Jesus Christ never said we need to be good enough and have it all together. In fact, the opposite is true. He gave us permission to be free of the need to be good enough. None of us have "got it all together". Not one.

"For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

"We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sin sweeps us away like the wind." Isaiah 64:6

The message I wish I heard more on Easter Sunday and every Sunday in between is that the whole reason we are all going to church in the first place is to recognize the fact that every single one of us is a sinner, a "bad" person. But also to wildly and joyously celebrate that miraculously, amazingly, that is NOT the end of the story. Jesus died that we may have eternal life, despite the fact that we are sinners. Through HIM we can do righteous things. Yes, we can do morally good things. We can chose to be kind, loving, patient, forgiving, and generous. And when we step out to say boldly that we claim Jesus, God calls us to live in a way that reflects that exclamation. But NEVER do those righteous things merit eternal life. Not before you accept Christ and not after.

Instead, the message of "be good enough" is plastered across Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. And the message is look how successful, put together, perfect my family is. We live in a very individualistic world where it seems we all fall into the struggle of trying to gain our own glory, instead of God's. When we compare each other and judge each other and rank each other silently and try to one up each other, we are not living how God intended us to.

When we try to be superior, supreme, and satisfactory in our own right, we are walking in what I sometimes like to call "anti- gospel". We are listening to, living out, and preaching the absolutely wrong message. We can't ever be good enough. We have to stop trying to earn.

Instead, I propose that we are honest, vulnerable, and open about the fact that we DON'T have it all together. We are genuine and authentic about our shortcomings, sins, failures and weaknesses. We are warm and welcoming to others, no matter what they are wearing, their career is, their education is, their past is, or even their blatant sin is. We are straightforward and sincere about our enormous need for Jesus and HIS righteousness, love, and forgiveness. Because this IS how we are called to live.

"Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits." Isaiah 26:19

Happy, happy Easter. May the message of the HOPE we have in Christ fill you. He is Risen!

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What Your Mother Never Told You: Why Being A Good Person Is False Thinking

"I am so glad my kid isn't one of the bad kids."

"You deserve to end up with a good guy."

"At least I didn't do something THAT bad."

We desperately and wastefully spend hours of lives defining people and actions into goods and bads. 

I remember being a little girl and every year around Christmas time I would wonder, did Santa Claus really split all the little boys and girls into good and bad? I remember going over and over in my head all the things I had done wrong that year. When I did end up with presents on Christmas Day, I would sometimes feel guilty, thinking, but what about when I hit my sister, yelled at my mom, lied? Then I would triumphantly think, no I really was good, I deserve this! 

I have grown up with labels and stereotypes, surrounded by teachers and parents who use phrases like the good and bad kids. 

It  makes sense that as a parent you would want your child to learn to "be a good little boy or girl".

You leave your child with the babysitter saying, "Be good." 

I have used many of these phrases myself. 

I have also spent years of my life trying to "be a good person". I am definitely a striver. Even as a school age child, I wanted to "be the good little girl". I wanted to impress, to succeed, to be better, to earn, earn, earn, earn, earn. 

I have spent most of my life believing that if I work hard enough, I can get whatever I want. 

I recently had an eye opening conversation with a wise and wonderfully kind hearted friend who was sharing that she has a parent who has bought into the "I work hard enough = I can get anything" mentality. The conversation got to the point that I actually had to ask her, "What is wrong with that thought? I believe that too." She kindly explained that no matter how hard we work, if God doesn't want us to have something or it's not part of his plan, we won't get it. 

Our desire as humans is to want to earn. To feel we deserve good things if we work hard enough or do all the right things. 

Most of the religions in the world are based off the system of the goods and bads. You live your life, trying to do good deeds and be kind and loving to all, and if you do enough good things, you get to go to heaven. 

What I am finding is that we simply can't be good enough. Even if there was a scale, we could never achieve the good. Understanding you are a sinner and desperately evil is the first step in recognizing our need for God and ultimately a savior. 

"The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." Genesis 6:5

The truth is that at the end of our life, we don't go to heaven based on whether we are good or bad people. We're all "bad". We don't have to earn God's approval, but that it has already been earned for us through the blood of Jesus Christ. Our favor has already been earned. Our favor has already been earned. Our favor has already been earned. I can't say or share it or think it enough. DAILY, SECOND BY SECOND I have to remind myself of that truth.

No one can earn it. That's what makes is such a gift. That's why the word "GRACE" is the name of every other church, plastered on every shirt, blogged about and written about and talked about. And I don't care, because I need that reminder a bajillion times over and over again. I don't get to earn it. I don't. So I have to stop trying.

If I could pick one thing to be remembered for at the end of my life, at my funeral, it would be this: that I am a very bad person who believed in the very free and unmerited gift of eternal life with Christ. I, through no action or deed or even desire of my own, was chosen to be a daughter of God. And my hope is that the life I live here on Earth points to the great God who gave me that gift. 

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

Let's all stop trying to be good enough people. And let's walk in the truth that we really aren't that good after all. And let's fall on our knees, thanking God that we don't have to earn it, but that has already been done through Christ.

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Wells Upon Overflowing Wells

We are all thirsty for something. Reputation, money, a new house, health, happiness, marriage, babies, friends, a job, a better job, that new iPad, that new coffee maker, acceptance.

How well I know this. Contentment is the thorn in my side and always has been. Judgment and comparison have always been a way the enemy can so easily entangle me. A friend gets a new job and I consider: how well do I actually love mine? A friend gets married and I think: why couldn't my story be more like theirs? A friend gets a new haircut and I think: why couldn't this or that be changed about me? I think if only I had ______________, I would be happy, fulfilled, I wouldn't ask God for anything else.

The thirst is never quenched.

HOLD ON, WAIT, STOP.

Correction: the thirst is never quenched in temporary, earthly things. One truth I know: I serve a God who is Living Water, whose wells upon overflowing wells never, ever run dry. I am ever so glad for the grace upon grace that the Lord offers us in Him.

John 4: 13-15: "Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"

So, if I know that the thirst CAN be quenched, how do I practically live that out? How do I live a life that shows that no amount of earthly things could ever compare to Christ?

I am reading a book called Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I love her thoughts on this topic: "When it comes down to it, we don't believe God's word is truly sufficient to deal with our problems... I need God's word PLUS tapes and conferences and counselors. Sure, I need God. But I need Him PLUS close friends; I need Him PLUS good health; I need Him PLUS a husband; I need Him PLUS children; I need Him PLUS a job that pays enough; I need him PLUS a house with a microwave, a washer/ dryer, a garage...."

Questions I've been asking myself lately:

What kind of advice do I give to myself (how do I self-talk)? What kind of advice do I give others?

When I start to really listen to the words I am saying to others (and to myself) during the day, I have found that the advice I give is not from God's word. It is from selfish thinking and gain. If I truly believed God was enough, I would speak that truth to myself and to others. The only truth we can offer is in God and His word. So often I listen to advice from friends or I give advice to others that will NOT quench their thirst. It will leave them empty and thirsty again.

What do I listen for? Do I hear what I want to hear as opposed to God's truth?

Do I give my best to God?
I have been going through the Old Testament lately. It has been truly life changing. With a friend, I have read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. I can relate so much to the Israelites. One of the themes that has stuck out to me is that in sacrifices that were made to the Lord, the Lord required the Israelites to give their best. How often I want the best to be saved for me, not for the Lord or others. One example for me is in finances. My money is mine (false). I can do what I want with my money with no consequences (false). It's the Lord's anyways so my heart should be to honor Him with it.

Numbers 18:29 "You must present as the Lord's portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you."

Am I complaining? What does that say about my faith?
The Israelites really were a bunch of whiners and complainers. But how often do I lack faith that God will provide? I want my heart and the words I say to reflect that God CAN and DOES provide in practical, meaningful, and real ways. In ways that provide a wellspring of life and living water, wells upon overflowing wells.

Numbers 14: 2-3 "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?"

God's Word reveals that He HAS and ALWAYS will provide for us. And complaining about what we have does not honor the God we know provides and does not show a heart of faith.

What are my "empty wells"? What do I long for, seek, make my idol? 
In the end, Jesus Christ is the only well we can turn to that will never run dry. Our bodies, our money, our possessions, our families, everything will rot away one day and all that we have left is what is eternal.

Numbers 15: 39-41 "And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after... I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God."

Imagine it is the driest, hottest day you can imagine. You lips, mouth, tongue are cracking. You are so thirsty your throat hurts. Now imagine seeing a tall glass of cold water with ice sitting right in front of you dripping with condensation. You take the glass in your hands and finally, finally get to drink the cool water. It runs down your throat and tastes sweet, refreshing, energizing, invigorating, revitalizing. This is the option we have every day in Christ Jesus.

{May the sweetness of the cool, refreshing Living Water fill you. I need it bad.}

John 7:38 "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"

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Easy Freezer Meals For A Month: The Goods and Bads

So right before school started this year around the middle of August, I decided to try out an idea a friend told me about that she called her "marathon cooking day". The idea is that you set outside one Saturday or day you have off and spend that day cooking lots of meals in large quantities. Then, you freeze em and you have meals for a month! Ta da!

So, I decided to try it out. Because I am a truth seeker and lover of being honest, I will tell you all the goods and bads. I will give you some of the recipes I tried but please know I am not a pro and I highly recommend you seek other sources as well for ideas. This was my first time. :)

The Good:

- I always have meals ready to go. And for me, they have laster longer than a month.
- I don't have to always stress about what we are going to eat during the week.
- You don't have to plan to far ahead. You can just think about what you want to pull out the night before and there you go.
- If you make meals you like, its yummy and its fast.
- We used a vacuum sealer so that it would not spill and would last longer in the freezer with no freezer burn. I HIGHLY recommend this. But I know Ziploc bags can work as well. They just don't last as long.

The Bad:
- It can get repetitive. When I tried out this method, I made 6 different options:  breakfast burritos- sausage and bacon, enchiladas- beef and chicken, chicken broccoli bake, and honey glazed chicken. After you have had these meals for awhile, you don't necessarily want to keep repeating.
- I chose meals that were too similar (burritos and enchiladas). Again, too repetitive.
- It can be expensive when you buy a large quantity of food at one time.
- If you don't plan ahead, then it is going to take longer for your meal to defrost. If, for example, you take out the meal that morning for the night, it might not be ready to be cooked yet. This drives me nuts when I am hungry and it is taking longer to cook. :( So you do have to plan ahead a little bit (the night before)

If I could do it again, I would try to vary my meals a little more. I would also maybe plan for two days to cook so that I could have enough time to make different kinds of meals. I tried to find recipes that had ingredients that for the most part I had around the house. I didn't want to spend extra money on little ingredients. I recommend double checking your freezer to make sure you have enough room! I ended up not having to buy an extra freezer, but if you really want to go hard core, it could be a good investment. My friend makes cookie dough in advance to freeze, sauces, lots of things! It can be addicting!!

Here are my recipes: (Keep in mind I am a beginner and I recommend looking at other sources for ideas as well)

For All Freezer Meals
- get disposable casserole dishes- I suggest 9 x 13 aluminum dishes
- vacuum sealer
- sharpee for labeling once vacuum sealed
- make sure you have large mixing bowls

Chicken and Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients:
6 cups cheddar cheese
1 pack of white rice
2 cans of black beans
2 packs of FLOUR tortillas (I don't recommend corn- tried it and didn't work too well)
4 packs of taco seasoning
1 big pack of chicken breasts from Costco or Sam's club (I split up my chicken into what I wanted for enchiladas and for my chicken broccoli bake)
1 pound of ground beef
4 once can of green chiles
3 cans of enchilada sauce

Optional: Sour cream, green onions, toppings for when you are ready to cook

Steps:
1. Cook chicken. Suggestion: Use slow cooker the night before your marathon cooking day. Season with taco seasoning.
2. Brown beef. Season with taco seasoning.
3. Cook rice (I suggest rice cooker). Make as much as your rice cooker will hold or 3-4 cups.
4. Heat black beans.
5. Combine rice, black beans, and green chiles in a mixing bowl. Divide the mixture in half and put the half in another mixing bowl.
6. Once meat is cooked, add beef to one and mix it all up. Add chicken to the other bowl and mix it all up.
7. Grease your casserole dishes. I used about 5 or so.
8. Warm up your tortillas. (Zap em in microwave for 30 seconds)
9. Set up an "assembly line" to prepare your enchiladas. Take a tortilla, put about 2 spoonfuls of the mixture in the middle of the tortilla, roll it up, and set it in in your disposable dish. I was able to fit about 4-5 tortillas in a dish.
10. Add enough enchilada sauce to cover all the tortillas in each dish. Add cheese on the top of each dish.
11. Vacuum seal your dishes. Label with a sharper the name of the dish and date made.
12. Take the enchiladas out the night before you are ready to cook.
13. When ready to cook: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook for 30 minutes with aluminum foil on the top of the dish. Cook for another 15-20 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Add sour cream or green onions on top and serve! Yum. :)

I have also heard that others freeze separate parts of the enchiladas and assembly when ready to cook. An idea for thought!


Breakfast Burritos: Sausage and Bacon

Preparing the burritos is very similar to the enchiladas. Except that once they have been thawed, you can zap em in the microwave and they are ready to eat. Yes!

Ingredients:
2 packs of sausage (I like Jimmy Dean)
2 packs of bacon
2 dozen eggs
4-5 potatoes or a pack of hash browns
2 packs of flour tortillas
Gallon Ziploc bags

For serving later: salsa

1. Brown sausage.
2. Brown bacon.
3. Cook eggs.
4. Chop potatoes in 1/2 inch squares. (Or cook hash browns)
5. Mix eggs and potatoes all together. Separate into half- put half in another mixing bowl.
6. Add sausage to one bowl, bacon to another.
7. Warm up tortillas in microwave.
8. Get your "assembly line" ready. Get tortilla ready, add scoops of bacon or sausage mixture, roll up.
9. I used ziploc bags for the burritos or you can vacuum seal the burritos directly. (The enchiladas have the sauce which makes them a little harder to do this) Label with name and date.
10. Pull out the burritos from the freezer one day before.
11. I heat the burritos in the microwave when ready to eat!

Chicken and Broccoli Bake

Ingredients:
10 cups cooked rice (white or brown)
4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
4 cups broccoli, lightly steamed (you can use frozen or fresh)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans cream of chicken soup
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Ziploc bags or disposable aluminum dishes (2-3)
Butter for greasing dish

Steps:
1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix.
2. Separate into your greased dishes.
3. Vacuum seal or put in ziploc bags. Label with dish name and date.
3. When ready to eat: Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until bubbly.

Honey Glazed Chicken

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 pounds chicken breast

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients in a gallon bag OR separate into smaller quart bags (For Tony and I, smaller portions are better- up to you).
2. Take out the night before you want to eat it.
3. When ready to eat, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Empty contents into a baking dish, about 20-30 minutes. You can also dump into a crock pot (day of)- 6-8 hours on low, 4-6 on high or until done.

You can also call the chicken recipe a "dump" recipe, meaning you can just dump it and go. Super easy. Basically, you are marinating your chicken. I think the freezer option helps the flavors really sink in the chicken.

We eat the chicken with rice. You could do potatoes with it. Or you could make chicken sandwiches with burger buns. I like potato burger buns :)

Well, those are my recipes! There are LOTS of places online you can look up freezer meals and get some ideas. I recommend trying it out and seeing what you think. Stress free!

I also recommend this book: (My friend and I found lots of good recipes in there- but you can see what you have around and get some ideas)

Happy freezer meal making!!



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A Snippet of Life Lately

Life lately has been full of energy, bursting with the Lord's unceasing love. 

The Lord is lately teaching me that I don't have to do, do, do. My energy, my rest, my peace comes entirely from Him. Being in the Word lately has helped me immensely... the truth is setting me free from lies I believe. Lies that I can do more, I can do better. I am resting in the Lord. He works IN us and we don't have to impress, to achieve. 

Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." 

Biggest life updates from the Luikens include:

1) I am going back to school at Wayland Baptist to get my Master's in Counseling. This is in combination with my second year of teaching (need I mention I am still learning how to do that well). So my weeknights are full of writing papers, taking quizzes and tests, and then grading my student's papers and tests... :) Some Saturdays I am going to class from 8-3. I feel each day is full of new tasks, but somehow I am finding the Lord gives me what I need for each day, with strength not my own. I am not sure what I want to do quite yet with my degree.. but I love the idea of someday staying at home with a family but working part time with kids, with families, or at a crisis pregnancy center. The Lord is good so I am trusting where this will go and we'll see!

2) Tony is enjoying his new job at the airport and being in the National Guard. 

We are both learning to balance work, community, church, rest, and time together. 

Here are some picture snippets of our last few months:

Mom and her friend Art came to visit Tony and I in Alaska in the beautiful summertime

Laura, Mom, and I ran the Mayor's Half Marathon in downtown Alaska in June

Mom and I with our medals!! :) Hard work paying off.

Tony and I ran the Color Run in Anchorage with our friends Laura and Brian

We took in incredible trip to Valdez, Alaska with Tony's family. Absolutely breathtaking.

Valdez, Alaska

Jessie (my sister in law) fishing in Valdez, Alaska

We took a summer roadtrip and drove from Phoenix, Arizona to Seattle, Washington!! Made our first stop of course at the Grand Canyon. I got chills. Man God is amazing.

Of course we made a stop at In N Out Burger

Desert Mountains

Roadtrippin'

Made another stop in Boise, Idaho

Our final destination was Woodinville, Washington where we spent a few days exploring the wineries and just Seattle area. It was fantastic!!

Stopped at the market.

Mariner's Game!

Tony wanted to stop at this distillery that was in the middle of all the wineries. Great place!!

We also stopped at Chateau St. Michelle. We spent time with Tony's family but also had some great time together to end an incredible summer.

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