Espressoeyes's Blog

Jewish Christianity

espressoeyes — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:06:45 +0000

There are just certain things that go along with this season. As the culture celebrates Christmas and the birth of Christ, others (myself included) are lighting Chanukah candles and recognizing that Christ is the “light of the world.” Certainly, celebrating Jewish Feast Days does not mean you are removing Christ from the Christmas season, only that there is more. Although Chanukah is not a feast of Leviticus, Christ is also being celebrated in my menorah. I am a Christian that follows the Jewish Feast Days, loves God with and through the Old Testament, and seeks to live my life following His principles that scripturally bring prosperity. I celebrate Christ as my Savior, God in flesh, and the same God that said we will return to our homeland Israel. Whatever this season brings to you, I pray that God blesses you and that all may know Christ Jesus as the Savior and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as one God of our hearts.

New Direction

espressoeyes — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:31:45 +0000

I have been inspired and challanged to change the direction of my blog. Ever since I began writing on WordPress I’ve been committed to writing about life, troubles, joys, God and my daily realizations of His mysteries. Slowly but surely I believe He’s brought me to this point of using this as a new purpose in my life and therefore something new altogether for me. I would like to share my photography, write about it, and spill my heart out of God’s whispers in my sometimes hard-of-hearing ears. Please accept my adjustment and I hope it means as much to you as it does to me. My goal is to capture life in a photo or video and bring an explaination that will help you taste the life it brings.

It is fitting that my niece and sister are first. They have brought so much life and meaning to my life before I even knew the first thing about walking it out. My sister and I are very close and have come through so much together. Looking at this picture I can see our childhood, cries, and future now with Mia. She has expanded our sisterhood to pass down to the next generation…our babies. Although I haven’t had the absolute pleasure of touching little Mia’s sweet face, I know she knows me. I can hear her cry just as my sister and I have cried, I can hear her “speak” with no words just as my sister and I have always been able to speak without words. Mia’s “doll face” reminds me of our dolls, and its as though hers has come to life. A true and treasured soul that will sing Christmas carols just as you and I do, swing on a swing in the playground, dance to her favorite song with her daddy in the garage. These are life.

I said I would share my photography, and even though this is not my picture it is the most important picture to me in my life right now. I will have more come December, but for now this will do.

Royalty

espressoeyes — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:38:46 +0000

I am officially posting from my phone! Really different but I felt I’d be nice to have for moments like these (as though I post all the time…). My computer charger is not alive anymore so I am waiting on that before I can use my computer.

I dreamed the other night that I was royalty. Nothing short of the queen of England but without ruling power. Just royalty. A woman in our small cottage town died and there was a giant bow on top of her house. They then told me I was royalty and she left her home to me and I was to live it from here on out. I stayed one night and then told them it wasn’t me, it couldn’t be who I was, and they had the wrong person. Of course, all were sad and disappointed…..and then I woke up. I woke up with the most incredible feeling in my heart of joy and love but no true understanding of what I had just dreamed. I still don’t understand, but its one of those dreams that I will never forget.

My Thoughts Today

espressoeyes — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:54:15 +0000

So, when Chris and I make the drive down to Texas and back (32-35 hours round trip) is when God really presses on us and our personal lives. The time is incredible and truly one of the things I love most about living far away in Georgia. What’s hard is it’s usually something huge, life changing, and so so “gosh I wonder what the heck is gonna happen now.” It’s beautiful. This time, he laid going back to school on my heart. Something I’ve been wondering about since I stopped in January to go to work. It was truly a hard decision to make, I felt like I was giving up everything I had ever worked for, and I was. But then again, it was not at all a hard decision to make because it was for the sake of our little family unit. Even though I’ve never known that music/singing is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I knew that it was part of me. I need the singing, I need the music, I need the classical music specifically (along with worship of course).

So, now He might be pulling me in that direction. Not like it was last time, with 12 hours, no time, and loss of any connection between my husband and I – but more about the knowledge of what’s good (music) and all I know is I love it. If I get a piece of paper that says “You have a Master’s Degree”, fine. If not, I’ll write one out for myself and frame it and throw my own little graduation party. Not that a Master’s Degree isn’t valuable to me, but that can not define me, only because I care so much about the people I’m teaching. If I’m teaching them well, getting the knowledge to continue teaching well, and singing, that’s all I care about. You know, I don’t know much about what God has for me or what I want to do with my life, but I do know that I love music and singing. And that’s enough to go back to school I think. I went through a time where I rejected music, everything in my heart suffered. I didn’t know what value it had to me in life, I had just always done it, never actually cared about it. Well, it IS true that you realize the value of what you care about most when you’re in the valley. That was 2 years ago, and now I know what I love.

Praise God for His works! And Praise God for the gifts he’s given me.

Kingdom Mindset

espressoeyes — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:39:21 +0000

I’ve always wondered why I thought the way I did. Why the smaller issues in life meant nothing in comparison to what really mattered to me – my big issues – attitude, spirit, heart, etc. It’s as though I’ve never given myself the opportunity to deal with “things” that came up in my life, things that maybe needed to be dealt with, but in my mind, these things were solved when a change of heart or attitude was made. Or maybe if I could just know God more then it wouldn’t happen…? Those mindsets seemed so far away and unachieveable; just another expectation I had set on myself that I couldn’t meet. How do you create a change of heart? How do I just CHANGE my attitude or be closer to God (spirit)?? You can’t. God can. Praise God if you want him, and he will change your heart to his. Worship God with all of yourself and your attitude is never something you will worry about. DEEP issues of the heart and spirit that are the true issues of life but where the enemy places obsticles in our way and other small things to “care about” in order to sway us from what really matters. Is God what really matters? Well, that’s up to you. Is he what matters to you? That’s where I have to begin my everday right now. My faith is tested, my world is rocked, and questions about what the heck I’m doing come up everyday…but do I want him? or that? First choice of my day – Him. It’s not always this way, and it’s not always immediate. God does not work immediately all the time…but he DOES work all the time.

God is at work in his people. We are a part of his kingdom and yet, living in America, it’s hard for us to understand kingdom. The bigger issues that kings and queens deal with or try and solve…. their mindset could never be focused purely on circumstance (as I mentioned above), but on future, on what’s good, on the root of change. A kingdom can not be run by the situations that come, it can only be run by the Governor General that is God. If God let his kingdom be run by situation, then the devistation of Christ’s death would have ended it all I’m sure. But he used the hurt for good that by accepting God, we now are citizens of the kingdom of God.

“Don’t ask why a man says what he says, find out what made him say it.”

…it takes a little more time to wait, and that’s just enough time for God to work. We can apply this to whatever situation in our lives, but realize that it’s even bigger than that. It’s about a KINGDOM.

Thank you Rabbi Ralph Messer for showing us so that God can teach us who we are.

The Terminal

espressoeyes — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:09:51 +0000

Yes, God speaks to me through movies, and yes, there are several that take/create things out of the movie and it’s context trying to apply it to something spiritual in their lives. However, when the realization of something through God is right there infront of you, there’s really not alot of creating you have to do. It’s just there! This realization was through the movie The Terminal with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones, GREAT movie! In this movie he is stuck in the New York International Airport because his country was attacked while he was in the air and has no government so they can not allow him into the USA without his Visa/Passport/Country recognition. He lives in a run down gate for 9 months I believe, and you find out later that all of this trouble was for a promise he made to his dad. All of his struggles, waiting, hard work, and care came down to one promise he made to his father to go to New York and get an autograph from a jazz saxophone player. What incredible dedication and faith he had to wait. It never occured to him that he would not be getting out, it was just a matter of when. He would push through whatever was thrown at him and have patience through the quiet times all to get a result he wanted. He was so faithful in waiting and continuing toward his goal.

God spoke to me and said “this is about your healing – sometimes you have to wait, but what are you doing in the process? I want you to be diligent and faithful in prayer, patient in waiting, and never doubting that it will come.” It’s so clear to me what I want, but it’s not for healing that I pray. I will pray for my healing and I WILL be diligent, but it is not for my healing that I pray to God, it’s because He’s so good. I love Him, and he’s lead me to Himself through Torah, Christ and relationship. I will never understand everything he does for me and why, but I know he loves me, and this is just another snippit of what he’s done for all of us.

You Are What’s Good In Me

espressoeyes — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:25:42 +0000

No song can express what my heart says to You without words

When my deep cries out to You, I feel my God living in me.

No place is better than in my own heart with You.

I will only breathe Your words to inhale everything You are.

I will only exhale who You are and taste what is good from inside of me.

espressoeyes — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:49:56 +0000

I had no idea that there was SO much information out there about health and what to eat/what not to eat until I started eating that way. It’s so amazing how God is literally causing this change to happen in our lives. The other day I had chicken and it tasted bad…BAD. I’ve never had meat and thought “man, this is horrible!” However, today my research and heart was drawn to different things we need to include in our diets whilest not eating meat (or eating meat in moderation). There are several good things in meat that benefit us, but several things that do not. My first question was “Ok, if we’re not getting our protein from meat anymore, then how do we get it?” There are SO many veggie options out there with amazing amounts of protein in them. I also found that if you’re NOT eating meat and finding your protein in veggies then you aren’t getting all the different types of amino acids (so watch out for that). HOWEVER, it IS possible to not eat meat and get everything you still need. Protein is definitely an important PART of our diets, but it’s not all of it. So, eating large amounts of protein will not harm you, but it won’t necessarily do great things unless you include all of the other things your body needs to operate well.

So, then I started thinking about Calcium. A simple, not very recognized, ingredient that is needed in our bodies. We’ve tried all kinds of milk out there and honestly we liked them all, but only one really got our attention that we actually really enjoy! Coconut milk! Of course! Always heard about it, but never thought of it as an option in our lives. Well, now it’s all we drink! But it doesn’t have calcium. I looked into powdered calcium that you can put into drinks (or smoothies in our case) and found that it’s important to take magnisium along with it if it’s going to be supplimental. I’m not against suppliments, but if I can get something naturally instead of in a pill, why not?! Right?? So, back to veggies I went, trying to find those that had large amounts of calcium to see what we could do. According to my research we should have 1000mg of calcium per day…but how do we get ALL of that out of veggies?? Impossible really. Well, I found two seperate lists of veggies/foods that contain BOTH protein and calcium! So, I decided to combine them so we knew what we could eat to fulfill both of these needs our bodies have just by what we eat. There are several different calcium “infested” (I say infested because there simply isn’t another word for it – some of these are LOADED with calcium) veggies that were not listed on the protein list…however, it’s still needed! My thought was, if we could get both in one then why not?! But I’ll also list those that have a ridiculous amount of calcium, just because it’s kinda cool/crazy how much they have! Of course, there are different variations, and I’m sure, several different veggies out there that could be included, but here’s what we like, and what we personally can do on a day to day basis. Btw, depending on the way you eat the veggie, (raw, boiled, canned) the amount of calcium will vary.

Fruit/Veggie Protein Calcium

Asparagus 1/2 cup 36.10% 21mg

Broccoli 1 stalk 33.60% 112mg

Celery 1 cup 11.24% 41mg

Carrots 1 cup raw 6.46% 42mg

Bok choy 158mg

Beet greens 164mg

Collards 266mg

Mustard spinach 1cup 284mg

Soybeans 1 cup raw 504mg

(holy soybean batman!)

May 27th

espressoeyes — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:02:49 +0000

Streams in the Desert
L.B. Cowman
May 27th

Are you encompasseed with needs at this moment, and almost overwhelmed with difficulties, trials, and emergencies? These are all divinely provided vessels for the Holy Spirit to fill, and if you but rightly understood their meaning, they would become opportunites for receiving new blessings and deliverances which you can get in no other way. Bring these vessels to God. Hold them steadily before Him in faith and prayer. Keep still, and stop your own restless working until He begins to work. Do nothing that He does not Himself command you to do. Give Him a chance to work, and He will surely do so; and the very trials that threatened to overcome you with discouragement and disaster, will become God’s opportunity for the revelation of His grace and glory in your life, as you have never known Him before.

“My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19)
“Bring them hither to me” (Matt 14:18)
“How can He but, in giving Him, lavish on us all things” (Romans 8:32)

Spiritual Fitness

espressoeyes — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:41:23 +0000

So, yet another post about food and health! Hey, we eat three times a day with, say about an hour, for each meal. That’s 3 hours out of everyday we are choosing to nurish ourselves or “weigh” ourselves down (no pun intended) and a lot of thought and focus to what we’re eating. I think if we could only change our mindsets from “what can I eat” to “how can I FEED myself today” then there would be a significant difference of what we choose to put in our bodies! Obviously, the later quote has an attitude of a MUCH bigger picture whereas the first is about what is “good” now.

A while back I wrote a post called Honest Fitness. I spoke about my accomplishments in that day with exercise but I think at this point most importantly, food. Did you know 80% of your journey to getting healthy relies on what you eat?? I had NO idea. Food has probably one of the biggest obsicles in my life when it comes to health. When I was in high school I was anorexic, after I left that I gained about 80 lbs. DRAMATIC changes with what position food played in my life. First, I hated it, then I loved it…either way, I was obsessed with it and putting way to much emphasis toward food. I believe both ends of these ‘food confusions’ are eating disorders. Whether we’re obsessed with it by not eating it, or obsessed by eating too much. We’ve always heard that saying “to much of one thing is never good…”, but the only One thing I know that’s been good to me and for me through all of this is God. People, I have turned every direction; gone down every street; searched every corner and nothing will release you and help you know yourself more in what you are, than God. So what is it that made food jump to drastic places in my life? The fact is, it wasn’t the food.

We are a living physical manifestation of what is happening in our hearts and our spirits. Find out where something deeply went wrong in your life and you will probably find an emotional root to deal with. Mine for food? When I was young, my dad left. My parents got divorced, I had a pit fall with no father in my life, and I gained weight/went anorexic/gained weight again. It sounds so typical and blaming to surfacely find something that happened in your life and link it to who you are today and what you are today – but to be honest, it has everything to do with who and what you are today. Go back to the root, go back to the spirit, go back to God. God will direct you in which direction to go for this point in your life (I don’t think you get to choose ) Going back is not for blame, I believe blame is a lazy way of dealing with your problems because then you don’t have to take resposibility for them or do anything about it. (Taking responsibility does not mean your are taking the blame (there’s that word again ), it means you are accepting that whatever has happened, you and God can clean it up from here and move on.) Responsibility means so more blame, just moving forward.

Hope this helps you reach the spiritual side of our health and bleeds into all of the other areas of our lives.