Who's Coming?!

Its coming! Whats coming you might ask?! Its a bird, its a plane, no its the doctor. Doctor who? Good question. ;) 

Make sure you don't miss the Doctor Who Blog party starting this coming week the 22nd of October. As I would say, " Its going to be EPIC!" ;)

Blessings,

Rebecca Ann

Contemplating God

Hi Ya'll!

I decided to do a vlog of my thoughts about the Savior Jesus Christ the Lord this morning after being convicted by Him that He is real and has created this universe for His glory. By no means am I perfect, I am a sinner saved grace and please do ponder all that I say and go to the WORD of God and not me for answers to- who created the world?, is God real? etc.

" I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD."
(Psalm 40:1-3 ESV)

I pray the video points to Christ!

 Blessings, Rebecca

A little More About my Beliefs and Convictions

Hey Ya'll,

I was just reading over an  This Birthday Post from almost 3 years ago from when I was 19 and had just graduated from homeschool high school and I was not sure where the Lord wanted me that new year in regards to education. I see now that I said some things in that post I have not kept up with doing on this blog. I want to start putting the music I am studying in the side bar each week. So I will try and do that when I get a chance. But I also noticed something very alarming from this post.

I thought I had just been saved 2 years prior to my 19th b-day. I just wanted to clear up for my own good and for my readers that I believe in justification and sanctification. I do not believe that I was not saved when I was 7 years old and I was baptized. I believe that right there in that moment when I heard the pastor ask anyone to come forward who wanted to except Christ as their Savior, when I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life He was then the Lord of my life. I was no longer a child of the world, but Gods child fully redeemed by Christs blood. I believe you can only be saved from your sin by Christ having died on the cross and you believing that He endured the penalty for your sin and now has become alive again and lives. Then the fruit of accepting Him as your Savior is wanting to live by listening to His Spirit more and more which is sanctification. 

I will just give a little definition in my own words for sanctification and justification. I am not a person with many degrees or a doctorates in the Bible, but this is what I believe these two words mean. Please do add in your two cents or if I am wrong in my definition please do chime in! :) I mean that. This blog is a place for us all to grow in our understanding of God, so yeah. :) But please do so kindly and in a Christ like manner.

I believe Justification is when we are saved by Christ, that moment we realize our sin is so big that we cannot save ourselves and God says to us I have saved you from your sin by the blood of my beloved Son who was killed and rose again for your sins. And you accept that Christ has done what you or anyone else could not do by enduring the pain of the cross to make up pure and unstained from sin. Of course we still have these sinful bodies, we will not be given new bodies till we go to be with the Lord, but that's when sanctification comes in for each saved Believer in Christ.

Then I believe after we are saved/justified we are being made more and more like Christ for as long as we are alive on this earth. The process of Sanctification is the process of our old selves, our sinful nature becoming less and less prominent and God encompassing us so that we are more and more like Him and long more and more for Him and to do His commandments and follow His leading and not our own wisdom. When we are justified/saved we are given the Helper, who is the Holy Spirit to help us listen to God and therefore become more and more like Christ.

I have been very encouraged by passages like John 14. In these verses Jesus says,“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you."
-John 14:15-17 ESV

So yes I believe that we are living under a Tri-God, one that is made up of three distinct persons, The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. So yes I believe that every Christian who is saved by faith in Jesus Christ has the Comforter, helper, who is the Holy Spirit, and the Father and the Son also are watching over us.

So if this is a shocker to you that I believe in these truths from the Bible don't be surprised. :) These doctrines of sanctification and justification and the trinity are precious to me and I believe important for every believer to understand. I pray the Lord would speak and not me in this post.

God bless you all and if you have any thoughts on this please comment. Maybe the Lord has taught you this about your own testimony as well? You can also email me too at ra.stricker@gmail.com.

Blessings,
Rebecca Ann

A Birthday Alternative to Cake (tart!)

Hey Ya'll! 

My sister Bethany had a birthday in September and I decided to make her a gluten free and sugar free alternative to a birthday cake. I thought to myself what would sound good and taste yummy for a b-day celebration that was just as good as cake? 

Then the idea came to my head, why not do a fruit pudding tart?! I had always dreamed of making some small personal tarts for myself and friends and family, but there was never an occasion. Now was my chance.

So I went to the dictionary/resource of all resources Google. :) I Googled fruit tart and up came this lovely blog. Then I wanted to do an arrangement of fruit on top that was different than her lovely tart. It was pretty, but I did not have raspberries and I wanted to use the fruit we had in the freezer and fridge.  I wanted to be frugal and not have to go to the grocery to buy anything and I did not have to.

So once again I went to Mr. Google and found some fun pictures for inspiration. Yes I know I should start using Pinterest and I might have found something even more epic, but alas I do not want to succumb myself to the temptation to be addicted to that lovely attraction. Although it sounds lovely, it could turn into a not so lovely addiction for me. ;) I regress.

Anyways, so I found this, this , this, this, and this to be very inspiring and helpful in figuring what design I wanted to do with the fruit I already had available.

Here are a few pictures of the 3 different tarts I made over the course of two different days of celebrating.

My dad even thought they were delicious and so did the birthday gal and my mother. We were all happy even without sugar or wheat in there. It was still tasty with a little honey in the vanilla pudding I made from scratch that filled the middle.

I used the crust recipe from the Gluten free fix blog and I used the Creamy vanilla pudding recipe from the Heavenly Homemakers blog. Both are so so so yummy! I substituted the almond meal flour in the crust for raw almonds, which I just chopped up into fine flour in our Vitamix. I also substituted honey instead of sucanat in the pudding since we are doing sugar free tarts. You really should make them sometime with or without the sugar. ;)

I hope you all are having a lovely day! And just to be honest this is the first day in quite sometime I have gotten up when its still dark outside to start my day and I am very excited about all the things I have gotten accomplished before 10am. ;) Am I the only one who has had a hard time getting into a good morning routine of getting up early? Its only by Gods grace and help I was able to. Praise the Lord for His help!

God bless,

Rebecca

The Doctor Who Blog Party

Now I am not a blogger who usually participates in blog parties, I must confess I have scoffed at many blog parties and that was not too nice. ;) This one I could not scoff at because its all about Doctor Who!!! If you are a close friend of mine you would know I love love love Doctor Who and many of my friends think I am weird for that, but hey its a cool show and is hilarious. I will be participating and you can too if you want to come out and admit you love the show too. Hop on over to Natasha's blog and Ashley's blog to find out more! 

Blessings,

Rebecca Ann, yes I am a Doctor Who follower, the truth is out. ;)

I Got the Sun In The Morning

Yes I am posting for the second time today because I am that cool. ;) I had to share a music video of me singing for once since I never seem to. Enjoy! yes I am not perfect, I am not a professional, and please keep the criticism and critiques positive and encouraging. Thanks!

God bless! I love to sing so please don't crush me with rude remarks if you don't like my interpretation of the song. Thanks! Just say your suggestions for how to improve my singing, not just saying you are terrible and thats it. ;)

Rebecca

Thoughts on TAP Program

Here is a video a did a week ago about the TAP program and how its not just for wanting to become a teacher and get certified in teaching or performing a certain instrument. Its also for aspiring musicians of all ages who just want to learn more about music and any instrument.

God bless!
Rebecca