Loving My Life In Hillbilly Heaven

      

Our home…I’ll show you more later!  

I have used the term a great deal ‘Hillbilly” this or that.  During the time Daryl and I were basically homeless and living in a 27 foot trailer for 7 months, that word came to me and has just stuck.  I mean no disrespect to anyone, and in all actuality, it is really a supreme compliment because living this ‘new’ life has been heaven for me!

If you are new to the blog, I’ll quickly catch you up.  I heard God tell me to sell our house, I went to hubby and he agreed, we put it on the market, less than 3 months later it sold for the exact asking price, we moved into our travel trailer in my parent’s backyard and stayed there until God led us to our ‘dream home’ 7 months later!

A typical day for me now is going to the market in a nearby town of 230 people, having breakfast at the grocery store (the owners are dear friends and go to our church), have some friendly conversation, I come back home and go through my house staring and thanking God for such a blessing, grabbing a cup of coffee, going outside to look at our new 5 plus acres filled with oak and fruit trees, and listening to what the Lord wants to tell me that day.  I later go back inside to my new kitchen and decide what is for supper that night and my daily routine continues until it is time for bed.  

It isn’t uncommon for someone to ‘drop’ in and they usually have a gift in their hand for me.  It may be jelly, extra Christmas decorations for my tree, or it may be a pot of soup and cornbread with a scented candle.  Whatever it is, it is a tremendous show of love!

Yesterday as I sat at the ‘Country Store’ waiting for my breakfast order to be ready and sent out to me, I heard my friend working behind the counter whistling “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him”.  I had my Kindle and was reading “A Lineage of Grace” which is about brave women of the Bible, and LIFE IS JUST GOOD!!!  Peace swept over me and it was as if I was back in ‘the good old days’.   People would walk into the store, look my way, introduce themselves, and tell me “Merry Christmas to you”.  

We have found home and great friends.  God led us every step of the way, and when He seemed late, little did I know what a glorious miracle He was working on our behalf!  It was worth the wait!  

You are not forgotten, friend.  God is working on your behalf, too!  Be still, don’t back down in your faith, and watch God pour out on you a blessing that is a dream come true!  Simply~Juliana

My Sweet Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 (81/2 ounce) Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

1 cup Jiffy Golden Yellow Cake Mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup milk

1 can cream style corn

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl mix the first six ingredients by hand.  In a large eleven and a half inch skillet melt four tablespoons of butter. Pour 2 Tablespoons into the batter and the other 2 Tablespoons remains in the skillet.   Pour the cornbread batter into HOT buttered skillet and bake in a HOT oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  This can also be cooked in a 13×9 pan.

 

 

My God Given Authority

jmcinnis91109

Authority, in the Christian world, is not something that you have to work for, but something you receive. It’s very much like having a God given talent such as singing. This is a gift you’ve received, nothing can change that. However you still have to do certain things to maintain and develops this gift, like practicing, taking voice lessons,etc to see that your gift reaches it’s full potential. With a believer, the power and authority of the Holy Spirit is received at salvation, but most don’t tap into it because they don’t know about it or understand it. This is why, in order to tap into and exercise the fullness of this authority, much like the singing, we have to do certain things to maintain and develope it. Studying God’s word, seeking His face (communion with Him), learning to listen to His voice, pray scripture, rely on revelations from Him…

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Approval Addictions and How to be Free of Them

 

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Colossians 3:12

This past week was a trying one for me.  This week was not looking any better…until today.  Yesterday I was told by a loved one that I was not as loved as others in my family.  I had always suspected this, but never had this person ever come right out and said it.  You can imagine the hurt this brought to my heart.

Today when I awakened, Satan was right there to remind me of the horrid conversation  that took place the day before.  God warned me an attack was coming and to be prepared for it.  I did not remember that prophecy at the time, but today God reminded me of it.  He cautioned me not to fall into offense because if I did it would lead to destruction…my own.

I thank God for warning me in advance.  Thank God I was not blindsided by it.  As I thought about the prophecy today, and the attack that took place on me emotionally, I was grieved by it.  But God had something to say about it all.   He told me something that would set me free and something that will keep me free from the approval and disapproval of man!  Since a blog is a journal, I am writing it down in its purest form to always remind me.

God said, “If I (God) saw you the way you and the world see others, how would I think?  I could easily say that I have been with you all your life.  You were raised in church, but yet you still miss the mark daily and fail me. 

The things you could do for me and toward me you don’t.  You don’t praise me everyday as I have asked you to.  You don’t read the Bible as you know to do.  You make sure you know what time it is every Tuesday so you can be ready for your favorite television program and can sit in deep concentration for a full hour,  but many days I am fortunate to get thirty minutes.  Life is busy right?  How I would love to have the attention you give to everything and everyone else. 

I am not happy.  Your behavior has made me unhappy, and my happiness is contingent on the way you treat Me and what you do for Me.  If you had given Me the attention I have so craved, if you had met all of MY needs, if you would bother to try to understand Me, then My life would be happy.  Your approval is necessary to my happiness and if you don’t give it,  I won’t have it. I have forgiven you time and again, yet you still miss the mark and don’t do enough to keep me happy and satisfied. 

I can no longer take your behavior.  I have decided My life would be better off without you.  I am not going to be around anymore.  You have become unhealthy for me.  I don’t want to see you, hear from you, or see anything that even reminds Me of you.  I have given you grace before and mercy, but you have used it up.  My life would be better without you since you don’t fulfill me or bring the happiness I require. 

I am not going to allow you into heaven because then I would have to see you all the time, and I just can’t deal with that.  You will have to go to hell so I can be happy without any reminders of you and all the ways you hurt Me over the years.  I wish you the best, but I have to love you from a distance, so don’t call Me and I won’t be bothering you.

Harsh words, but true thoughts.  How many times have I treated those who have hurt and wounded me this way?  Oh I didn’t realize it at the time, but today God showed me the receiving end of this stick.  When He did He reminded me of the debtor who owed millions of dollars to his master who he was indebted to (Matthew 18:23-35).   He knew he would be thrown in a debtor’s prison never to see his family again and begged for mercy and forgiveness.  It was given and his debt was wiped out, just as Jesus’s blood wiped our debts out when we came to Him for mercy and forgiveness.

Not long after the man was freed from the bondage of that debt he saw someone who owed him.  This man owed him very little, yet he grabbed him by the throat and demanded payment in full and threatened his life if it wasn’t paid in full (this is the way we are when we walk in the our way instead of God’s supernatural way). 

When the master who was owed the millions heard of this he was furious and called for the man who had been forgiven of his great debt to be brought to him.  Because of his behavior and lack of mercy and grace toward the one who owed so little the master, who forgave much, withdrew that forgiveness and enforced the original sentence to life in a debtor’s prison…what the man had actually deserved.  Thank God for grace which absolves us of guilt and all we deserve.

When we deal with people by holding their feet to the flames, so to speak, we have positioned ourselves for dire consequences as well.  That path leads only to destruction…not the destruction of the person who did us wrong, but destruction to ourselves.  I am responsible for my happiness.  That power does not rest on you, but on what I choose to feel and think.  As I thought about what God was showing me, I cried out to Him for forgiveness.  I had no idea my thoughts and actions had become so ungracious toward others.  Were the ones who hurt me wrong?  Yes, but so was I.  The irony was I was hurting myself worse than anything anyone else had done because I was moving myself away from God’s will for my life, which carries great promise and great reward.

I remember when Jesse Ventura said Christianity was for wimps.  Show me where doing supernatural things in the natural is even possible, much less ‘wimpy’ or easy.  The Christian walk cannot be done without God, it is such a difficult one.  You have to have God’s super on your natural to forgive the unforgivable, to give grace and mercy when maximum punishment is rightfully due.  To pray for those who use you and persecute you to be blessed is impossible to mean if not for God giving us a supernatural ability to do it…yet, it can be done! 

Now when I look at others, I will ask myself if God were to see me and think toward me the way I am thinking and feeling toward that person, how would I feel. Would it be what I would want done to me? So simple…how did I miss it for so long? 

I felt the weight of the world lift from my shoulders when I came to this realization today.  I don’t have to be concerned with what anyone is thinking or saying about me.  I don’t have to worry if I am loved as much or less than someone else.  My present and future does not rely on anyone’s approval but God’s.  I have His approval and He is the last say on where I spend eternity.  Whether people think I deserve it or not, I will be blessed if I stay in love.  The only one who can stop His blessing is ME!!!  I don’t have to worry where my needs are going to come from and that includes my most basic needs which is love, for God is my Source!  He will open doors people cannot open and He will do it in the face of my enemies…HE sets a table before me in their presence (Psalm 23). 

Far too long I have worried about the approval of people.  I have sought to find my worth in it.  I have mourned and have allowed myself to feel less than when I was found lacking by one or by many.  How frustrating to seek what is impossible to ever have.  No one can make me happy or that my life is of infinite value except God and me. 

I have to choose to put on the robe of righteousness (His way of being and doing).  I have to choose to put God first, and that means what He thinks above all others.  I have to choose to let my good character speak for itself, and if I am judged or misjudged it is on God’s shoulders to make it right and He will.  But if there are critics that refuse to see what God sees, and their minds never change I still win because I am exactly as I should be in my Father’s eyes and He will cause everything to work out for my good.  You see it is a win/win, no lose situation.  When you truly realize that, you are free to love, free to forgive, you are free indeed! 

Men die for freedom.  Jesus died for mine and yours.  That is how important freedom is.  It removes fear of people, fear of society and its dictates, and fear of never being all I want to be and should be, the fear of disapproval. 

Fear is a heavy weight.  It stops you and hinders you from joy, happiness and contentment.  It hinders you from leading life to the fullest and stepping out in faith because fear produces the opposite effects of faith which is rooted in God’s way of loving and brings courage. 

His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  God never intended for me to walk in the wounds of rejection, nor the need for approval of anyone other than Him.  Thank God He set me free to love not just the loveable, but the unlovable…just like me.

 

 

Does Anyone Remember Benghazi? Does Anyone Care?

 Photo courtesy of Google/freerepublic.com

We all know the media basically shapes the majority of American‘s views of the world, the nation, the government, and social issues.  We know “the pen is mightier than the sword”.  Words can stir a frenzy or bring a calm.  The Bible tells us they can set an entire forest ablaze!  In other words, words can incite great anger and produce great emotion.

While we have heard much adieu about the IRS and the targeting of conservatives and people who belong to, or are for the Tea Party (my family fits in this bracket and my husband is an IRS agent; ironic isn’t it?), and while we have heard of the Trayvon Martin case, why have we NOT heard anymore about Benghazi?

Is not ALL life precious?  Especially those who put their lives on the line and die to serve our country for our freedom, to maintain allies, and bring about peace if possible?

Whose bodies are in the draped coffins in the picture above?  Those bodies COULD be your child or mine!  Does the death of someone’s beloved child or loved one not matter??  Shouldn’t there be accountability for all murder and injustice?  According to Hillary Clinton  at the Congressional hearing concerning Benghazi and Chris Stevens’ death her reply was , “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?” Clinton asked the Republican Senator who was asking for details about Benghazi. “It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.”  Yet, what measures have been taken to do this?

Photo courtesy of Google/lonelyconservative.com

Now we see Hillary Clinton being painted “friendly”, a luncheon being given in her “honor” and, here comes the hypnotic trance government wants to put you in.  Guess who they are grooming for the next President of the United States of America?  The one that says, “What difference does it make?”  as she yells and pounds her fists on the table to questions of an Ambassador and his aides representing our country and our country’s well-being and why they were not given the protection they asked for and why they lie DEAD today!!!

If our children, husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers were killed today and someone from OUR government who is meant to serve and protect said, “What difference does it make?” just what would our reaction be?  I do not believe it would be agreeing with the standpoint of “What difference does it make?”

While smoke was being pumped by media as to the IRS scandal, the Trayvon Martin trial, we were being lulled into an amnesia of another set of murders and the very person who could have prevented those murders is now being platformed as a leader that deserves to run the affairs of this country.  Someone who allegedly has the protection and well-being of the citizens of this great country at heart!  Don’t forget, if you are an American, the next President directly effects your future and mine!

According to newsmax.com there are eight Congressman who remember Benghazi.  They remember our Ambassador Chris Stevens, along with another diplomat, Sean Smith and two U.S. security men.  Their article reads as follows:

Eight Republican lawmakers have drafted a letter to new FBI Director James Comey, demanding that he expedite the probe of last September’s terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead.

“It has been more than 10 months since the attacks,” the lawmakers write in a draft letter obtained by CNN.

“We appear to be no closer to knowing who was responsible today than we were in the early weeks following the attack. This is simply unacceptable.”

According to CNN, the draft was produced by Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Sen.  Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Other signers include Sens. John McCain of  Arizona, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. In the  House, Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, and Jim  Jordan of Ohio, added their names.

Republican sources told CNN the letter  was scheduled to be sent to Comey on Wednesday or Thursday.

“Rumors  continue to swirl about the whereabouts of suspects involved in the attack,” the  draft states. “The FBI continues to add pictures of potential assailants to its  website and asks the Libyan people to assist with identifying the alleged  perpetrators. We struggle to understand why we don’t know more about those who  attacked two U.S. compounds and murdered four brave Americans.”  SOURCE: newsmax.com

In Texas there was a battle where brave men were slaughtered at the Alamo in defense of this great land!  When the Battle of San Jacinto was fought, the army of men who fought it ran forward yelling, “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” and those words are remembered to this day!  Justice came for those dead heroes that day!  I tell you, remember Chris Stevens!  Remember Benghazi!!   Am I to wonder today, the ones who could have offered protection and sustained the life to our ambassador, are the very ones who are being pushed  and promoted to hold the highest and most honorable office this nation knows??

You may say to me, “But no one knows for sure about Benghazi!”  My question to you is, “WHY NOT???”  We should care greatly to know that answer, and demand it!  Please, never forget the principles of freedom, justice, and honor this country is built upon and the honorable men and women who died to secure it…including Chris Stevens!

Yes, Hillary Clinton, to many of us no matter what the party name,  IT DOES MATTER!!

Loving My Life In Hillbilly Heaven

                    

Our home…I’ll show you more later!  

I have used the term a great deal ‘Hillbilly” this or that.  During the time Daryl and I were basically homeless and living in a 27 foot trailer for 7 months, that word came to me and has just stuck.  I mean no disrespect to anyone, and in all actuality, it is really a supreme compliment because living this ‘new’ life has been heaven for me!

If you are new to the blog, I’ll quickly catch you up.  I heard God tell me to sell our house, I went to hubby and he agreed, we put it on the market, less than 3 months later it sold for the exact asking price, we moved into our travel trailer in my parent’s backyard and stayed there until God led us to our ‘dream home’ 7 months later!

A typical day for me now is going to the market in a nearby town of 230 people, having breakfast at the grocery store (the owners are dear friends and go to our church), have some friendly conversation, I come back home and go through my house staring and thanking God for such a blessing, grabbing a cup of coffee, going outside to look at our new 5 plus acres filled with oak and fruit trees, and listening to what the Lord wants to tell me that day.  I later go back inside to my new kitchen and decide what is for supper that night and my daily routine continues until it is time for bed.  

It isn’t uncommon for someone to ‘drop’ in and they usually have a gift in their hand for me.  It may be jelly, extra Christmas decorations for my tree, or it may be a pot of soup and cornbread with a scented candle.  Whatever it is, it is a tremendous show of love!

Yesterday as I sat at the ‘Country Store’ waiting for my breakfast order to be ready and sent out to me, I heard my friend working behind the counter whistling “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him”.  I had my Kindle and was reading “A Lineage of Grace” which is about brave women of the Bible, and LIFE IS JUST GOOD!!!  Peace swept over me and it was as if I was back in ‘the good old days’.   People would walk into the store, look my way, introduce themselves, and tell me “Merry Christmas to you”.  

We have found home and great friends.  God led us every step of the way, and when He seemed late, little did I know what a glorious miracle He was working on our behalf!  It was worth the wait!  

You are not forgotten, friend.  God is working on your behalf, too!  Be still, don’t back down in your faith, and watch God pour out on you a blessing that is a dream come true!  Simply~Juliana

Low Carb Cheesy Broccoli Chicken Casserole

Recipe:

2-3 lbs of chicken cut into small pieces
Cook in butter and while cooking, add Parmesan cheese (topping for spaghetti).  In a separate medium sized bowl, add 3 cups of mayo, 8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese, and 8 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 can of cream of chicken soup (9 carbs in entire can).  Fill empty can with heavy whipping cream. May also add 1/2 can of 2% milk along with heavy cream to moisten consistency. I added 1/2 cup of flax meal which has 3g carbs per 2 tsp.. Salt pepper & stir.

Bake 350 for 30-40 minutes.
I used microwave steamed broccoli as my base. You may bake with or without broccoli.

Enjoy!!!!!!!

Bible Verse of the Day-See How Very Much Our Father Loves Us!

Bible Verse of the Day-See How Very Much Our Father Loves Us!.

Hello…I Am STILL HERE, But in a Different Place

Hi all!! I just wanted to let you know, simplyjuliana.com is still up and running! We have gone from .com to .org and I am so sorry if this has been confusing! We decided to do an upgrade that offers so much more for our readers! I hope you will drop by and continue to read, and see the new and improved site! As always, you will type in ‘simplyjuliana.com’ into your search bar. You won’t see my picture in reader but you will see the name! Please, know it is the same person and we still are doing the same Verse of the Day and Devotions. We have added a recipe tab as well! I hope to see you soon!! Blessings as always!! Juliana

Obama’s Plan for Prolonged Detention For Crimes Yet To Be Committed

A must see.

Reality Of Christ

I though this was a great video to share in light of the fact that Christians have been put on the terrorist watch list. And I’m sure they are among the ones being monitored by our government through PRISM (A group that monitor phone records, emails, and internet sites of American Citizens unlawfully). This is a must see, if you haven’t seen it already….

Just who is it that the Obama administration plans on detaining without cause? If I were to guess, according to their most recent documents sent to the IRS and CIA, it would be Christians! After all, we are already on the terrorist watch list; making we Christians, terrorists!

Do you want to know what their definition of a Christian is? It is this: those who believe in the one world order, those who believe in Biblical Prophecy, those who are against homosexuality…

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