Author: ObtainingMercy

Grandma’s Vegetable Soup

by ObtainingMercy, posted in Food and Drink, Household, Recipe, Uncategorized

This is one of our favorites, especially during winter months when we’re craving something hot and filling to warm us up.

 

Grandma’s Vegetable Soup

Cook roast. (Any kind of roast will do. We prefer Shoulder Roast if we are cooking it in the slow cooker. We usually pop ours into our Nesco roaster to give it a yummy “roasted” flavor.) Save broth. Shred beef to be added later.

1 large bottle tomato juice

1 large bottle water (I use the tomato juice bottle)

1 can kidney beans

1 can corn

1 can green peas

1 can butter beans

1 onion, diced

2-3 potatoes, cubed

2-3 carrots, sliced

3 stalks celery, sliced

1/2 large head of cabbage***

2-3 tsp Better Than Bouillon, vegetable base

Combine all ingredients in large pot, including shredded beef and  broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer. Cook until fresh veggies are done.

We often do a vegetarian version on this soup. Simply leave out the beef and its broth.  It is still amazing!

I know people can have very strong opinions about cabbage. Or, conversely, they are ambivalent and leave it out, thinking it won’t be missed.  I will tell you, the cabbage is the absolute SUPERstar of this soup.  Don’t leave it out!  You will be disappointed.

You could substitute almost any canned vegetables for the ones listed, but we’ve always stuck with this combination and really like it.

The Better Than Bouillon stock bases are our favorites. We use the vegetable one, almost exclusively.  It is so much tastier than the little cubes in the foil wrappers. 😉

I hope you enjoy this favorite soup of ours.  My husband grew up eating it and I was so thrilled when his Grandma shared the recipe with me.

Let me know if you try it! I’d love to hear from you.

It’s a Fearsome Thing

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, Uncategorized

Fear, that is. Fear is crippling. Fear is defeating. Fear is debilitating. Fear freezes our natural impulses and thwarts our ability to respond to life.

“The person who is fearful approaches everything with the anticipation that they cannot do what God has told them to do…

“Because I anticipate God intervening, I have a desire to go through with it. Because I believe that God is going to help me, I have a desire to do what He would have me to do. Fear makes excuses. Faith takes steps of obedience, no matter how bad the odds are.”

~from Weathering the Storm by Dennis Corle

II Timothy 1:7 – For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Step out in faith today. Ignore the circumstances, forget the odds, don’t worry about failing…just step out and do what God has told you to do.

Lessons From the Storm

by ObtainingMercy, posted in Uncategorized

These thoughts are from the book Weathering the Storms of Life, Volume 1,  by Dennis Corle, and are based on the story in Matthew 14:22-34.

  1. Jesus will send you into the storm. (verse 22)
  2. Jesus will pray for you during the storm. (verse 23)
  3. Jesus will come to you in the storm. (verses 25-25)
  4. Jesus will teach you some things in the storm that you could learn nowhere else. (verses 26-30)
  5. Jesus will bring you through the storm (verse 32-34)

“Many times we just don’t understand why the storm comes into our lives. It just may be that you are a chosen vessel.  Paul was one of those chosen vessels, and the Lord said He would show Paul what great things he must suffer.  It just may be that God has given you the privilege and honor of going through some storms that no one else is going through.  Maybe you are vessel that God wants to use to bring more glory and more honor to Himself.  Look to God with faith in your storm.  Depend upon Him and trust in Him…and you can come forth as gold.  Going through the fires of tribulation will purge out the dross.  It will make you a better Christian than you have ever been in your life.”

Oh my friend, I know the storms of life are difficult.  I know they batter and bruise us and we feel shattered and wounded.  But He is growing something in us through these circumstances.  He is drawing us to His side.  He is making us more like Him.  He is letting others see our faith grow.  He is showing us truths that we need to know so we can share them with others.

Have faith, my friend, He is going to bring you safely through this.  He will never leave your side.  He will bring healing and hope to your battered heart as you walk with Him through your storm.

When You Are Feeling Shattered

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, A Season of Thanksgiving, How Great is Our God, Just My Thoughts, Thoughtful Thursday, Uncategorized

“God said, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee,’ for in your weakness My strength is made perfect. In your brokenness, My light shines forth. In your affliction, My power flows out. In your brokenness and insufficiency, My sufficiency is evidenced. In your lack of power, My power is seen.”

“Many times those who are unbroken sit in judgment of those whom God has broken. He has shattered them and leveled them and taken all their pride away. Now they are more useful than ever. Instead of us praising God for His grace and the usefulness, we sit in judgment of the shattering experience.”

“Those that have broken hearts and shattered dreams, those whose lives have been leveled, make the best servants of God because they realize that they have nothing of their own.”

“God can get more glory out of you when you praise Him in brokenness, than when you praise Him on the mountaintop. Anybody can praise God in the good times, but when you are broken, your will is broken, your life is broken, your dreams are shattered, and you praise God, He gets more glory.” (excerpts “Weathering the Storms of Life” by Dennis Corle)

 

In this season of Thanksgiving, even if you are broken and shattered, give God the glory. He is preparing you for great things when everything that YOU are is out of His way to make room for all that HE is.

The Soundtrack of My Life

by ObtainingMercy, posted in Uncategorized

Sometimes it is difficult to choose a song to sing for church.  For times like that, every singer has a “go to” song…or two. 🙂  This is one of mine.  The reason that I choose this song again and again is because every single word of it is true, and it has resonated in my heart many times over the years.

If I want anything to be true about my life it is this:

I want to live so that others can see how thankful I am for Jesus dying in my place and paying the price for my sin.

May this song be my constant refrain:

When Others Judge My Broken Heart

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, How Great is Our God, Just My Thoughts

[67] Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
[68] Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
[69] The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
[70] Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.
[71] It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

“It is a rather humbling thing when God begins to break us.  Sometimes the very thing that God uses to make us good Christians is the thing that everybody else will sit in judgment of.”

~ Dennis Corle from Weathering the Storms of Life

If God is working in your life…let Him work!  Don’t be embarrassed by what He is doing, even if He is chastening you.  That chastening work, when you respond to it properly, will make you more like Christ.  Ignore what others say, and what their opinions are of your brokenness.

Let Christ work to make you more like Himself, that He can draw others to Himself, through the light that is shining out from your broken vessel.

All that He is = All that you Need

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, How Great is Our God

He is everything you need.

He is healing to the sick.

He’s sight to the blind.

He’s life to the dead.

He’s salvation to the lost and forgiveness to the fallen.

He’s rest to the weary.

He’s peace to the troubled heart.

He’s hope to the hopeless.

He’s love to the unlovely.

He’s deliverance to the captive.

He’s grace to the broken heart.

He’s everything thing I need in crisis.

Nothing takes Him by surprise.

There is nothing He can’t handle.

He is everything I need.

~ Weathering the Storms of Life by Dennis Corle