Smores' Brownies----------Reconciling Worlds

The Food Stuffs:

Prep:

This one is super easy and quick! Gather a boxed brownie mix, marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate chips. 

Putting It All Together:

Follow the usual directions for the box of brownies. Cook until the top of the brownies are just about two minutes from fully cooked. They should already look fully cooked when you pull them out. Place marshmallows all over the top. Add crushed graham crackers and chocolate chips. Bake until the marshmallows have ballooned and the chocolate chips are soft. 

Notes:

-Small marshmallows are probably best. If you only have big ones (I did,) just tear them up. 

-Cake-like brownies are great in this recipe. Just add an egg to the ingredients!

Thoughts on Reconciling Worlds

I'm sure I'll write about this again. I'm sure that this won't be eloquent and may have no fine points or conclusion. I'm sure someone will disagree with me on this...

Loving the Lord is lonely and difficult. The way is narrow. We are fleeting, unstable, easily swayed beings. I am so easily overcome by simple thoughts, worries, memories, and feelings. And I don't think it's just me. 

One of my friends tells me how he just can't discipline himself enough to read the Bible everyday. Not even a sentence. Yet I have witnessed how much he strives to glorify the Lord. Another friend tells me how her mind wanders; she cannot think about or pray to God for long. These people love Christ. They set aside time, they are devoted to Him. I can't even focus to write this post even though I've been thinking these thoughts for a while now. 

How much more do we struggle apart from the "Christian" times of day, week, or whatever? When we're conversing with people, especially with people who don't like or aren't comfortable with God being a part of the stories we share. When we play games, do our jobs, and complete mundane tasks. We grow so disconnected from this eternal, heavenly world we are living for and the world of grace and mercy in Christ that we have been redeemed to operate within. We are tempted, distracted, and swayed by everything. There is always an excuse, convenient, ready in evil hands to turn our eyes away from the reality of our sinfulness. 

The worlds of the flesh and the spirit oppose each other.

This human world is staunchly against the heavenly realm.

Life before Christ is constantly grasping at us, desperate to drag us back away from the path of Christ. 

It is lonely and it is difficult to constantly be deciding. To be choosing between the opposing forces. To be walking away from the identities, relationships, temptations, and temporal glory of this world and this life. Especially because all of these things we do are just to be a small step closer to a God we can't see. That we can't always hear. And we certainly can't fully understand or figure out at all. Who we constantly fail. 

But, he is a God, the one God, that does not demand from us. He does not command our attention and threaten us. He is firm, but he is just. He is honest, but he is gentle. He accepts us but we have to choose to be his. 

Thank the Lord for his mercies. His many mercies. Thank the Lord that these worlds we create, this world we live in temporarily, is within His own. I cannot reconcile any worlds. Not within myself, not around me, not between my past and my new life hidden in Christ, not between this crazy thing right here, right now, not at I think about heaven and ponder arriving there as soon as possible....I cannot reconcile anything.

And weakness like this, for me, is lonely. It is hard for me to feel love while recognizing that I am at someone else's mercy. Even's God's. But I don't think that's just me. And I do know that this one with me, watching me, working in me...He is faithful. He is merciful. He is gracious. And nothing of His depends on me. Thank God!

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship." Romans 12:1