Bible Study and a little rant, maybe some clarification, maybe

good morning y'all!!!          I sure hope you're doing well this morning.          we're in for another rainy day here in my neck of the woods.         we're about rained out, expecting to get between 6 and 8 inches over the next several hours.        can't say that I look forward to it, but it will be what it will be.       we went on our walk this morning and it was 20 degrees!!!!         yes, I said 20 degrees.        that's pretty chilly but we both dressed for success and we made it.      yay!!!        I hope and pray that if any of y'all are in harms way with the weather, that you stay safe.        if you need to leave, do so before you're trapped in a bad situation.         just praying that we will all be safe and stay out of harms way.       

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y'all know I do a lot dehydrating.        I started dehydrating probably 30 plus years ago.          I started out with a single temp dehydrator.         I used it for years and had no complaints.         I didn't know what I didn't know.          the temp of the dehydrator was 165*.          everything that came out of the dehydrator was dark.        you couldn't tell what was what.         but, I used it all because it was food that I had preserved.         I'm not wasteful and never have been, so it was used, and I didn't know that my dehydrated food had to like that.         that was all I knew and I didn't know anyone else that dehydrated food.          as time went by, we moved from one house to where we have been for the last 25 years, and my dehydrator got put back and I almost forgot about it.       I was cleaning out the cabinet and seen the dehydrator and got it out and started using it again.        and still, I ended up with all dark produce, and still thinking that was the norm.       I started looking and trying to learn more about dehydrating and trying to find more info.       I found some people on youtube that was sharing their skill about their dehydrator and I seen that their food was dark just like mine was.        so it was good, right.

the kicker is this, they had the latest and greatest and was still getting dark food.      even with the latest and greatest adjustable temp dehydrators.       I got to looking on line at all the different brands and all the different temp setting for this and that.        I just couldn't get it out of my head that something isn't right with adjustable temps and seeing people still having dark produce, so that MUST be the way it is, right.        my mind was reeling and I just couldn't make heads or tails out of what I was seeing and what I was reading.

I finally started talking to my husband and he doesn't know anything about dehydrating but he does know about machines and how they work and the like.        his design engineering kicks in with every thing we talk about.       hahaha          so we talked about it for a while and what he is talking about is over my head and what I'm talking about is over his head.         hahaha        but we kept on kicking what little info we had around every once in a while and I finally asked my husband if he would agree to me getting a new dehydrator.         he was all for it.         so I got a weston dehydrator with my built up credit card points and it didn't cost any money outright.       and it was less than 70 dollars if I had bought it with money.      we always saved any built up credit card points for me to get small kitchen appliances with.        that's how I got my very first cuisinart electric pressure cooker about 20 years ago.     

anyway, after I got it, I got it all cleaned up and ready to use.        I just about memorized the little instruction manual that came with it.        so I got my first batch of onions on the weston and dehydrated it at the  recommended temp, I think it was 135 degrees.       I really  wish I would have documented  the process I done, but I didn't.         I don't think I even had a cellphone that took pics at the time.         when the onions were done, they were a very nice "dark" chocolate color.         not what I was wanting, but what I got.       I finally decided I would just do one half of an onion at a time, instead of doing a whole 6 trays full of onions.

I lowered the temp to 130 degrees and dried the half onion.          still dark.        next half, I lowered it to 125 degrees, still dark.        next onions I lowered it to 120 degrees and it was still dark.        you guessed it, next time I lowered it to 115 degrees, and now we're getting somewhere!!!!         the color is starting to look like I want it to look.        so the next onions I dehydrated at 110 degrees!!!!          folks, we're talking pure perfection!!!!!     

yes, it takes longer to dehydrate at 110 degrees!!          it does, it's not for the faint of heart.        but, I can tell you this, my dehydrated produce no longer tastes burned after it's dehydrated.        it no longer looks like it's covered in coal soot after it's dehydrated.        I can look at any jar I have and know what's in the jar by the beautiful color alone.         I still see people showing their dehydrated goods and using higher temps than necessary and I wonder why they never think about it.

along comes freeze dryers.          ok, so if they had come out when I was young woman, I would have  definitely had one, but it's not feasible at my age to get one, especially with a tight budget.        if money was no problem, I'd probably have one anyway.        but I don't.       so let me say this right out of the gate, I'm not against freeze dryers, because I would have one under the right circumstances.       if a company offered me one, I'd take it in a heart beat, but we can't afford to purchase one. 

what does bother me about freeze dryers is not necessarily the freeze dryers, but the owners.        as soon as they get a freeze dryer, they start talking about the quality of their freeze dried goods over the quality of the dehydrated goods.        well, I'm here to tell you that when you do that, you're comparing apples to fish.        you can NOT compare the 2 ways of preservation because they are totally different.

the owners will always say that their freeze dried goods are far superior to dehydrated goods.        in their minds, maybe.        the 2 processes are completely different.        you can safely freeze dry a lot of goods that are not safe to dehydrate because of the temp for the duration of the process being in the danger level.       a lot of people will still dehydrate foods that they shouldn't and they'll get someone killed some of these days.        yes, I would love to have a freeze dryer for the preservation of a lot of things that I can't preserve now.        but I don't have one.         I'm not knocking them at all.        I just don't like for the owners of freeze dryers  to kick dehydrating either.       it's like they have forgotten where they came from.        

and I'll put my dehydrated goods up against anyone else's dehydrated goods any day of the week if we're comparing nutrients or loss there of.       over lots of time and studying the process, I have learned that what makes the produce turn dark at high temps is the natural sugars and starches in the produce.      the sweeter the produce or the starchier the produce, the darker it will turn at high temperatures.       in my process of learning what I now do, I found that keeping my temps no higher than 115 degrees, and preferably 110 degrees or lower  will preserve the natural color, the long term flavor and I'm 100 % convinced that more of the nutrients are also preserved.        

will my dehydrated goods have more nutrients preserved than freeze dried goods?       I absolutely do not know.         that's comparing apples to fish.          but I'll compare my dehydrated apples to anyone else's dehydrated apples any day.        I do not fear that comparison at all.        and if you have learned to dehydrate what I call, "low and slow", you have nothing to fear either.        knowing what I know about food and what I have learned about dehydrated goods in general over the last few years, I'd say that my dehydrated goods have retained much more nutrients than most other peoples dehydrated goods.      

dehydrating at the recommended high temperatures for produce just sets us up for poor quality and poor color.       do the manufacturers know that?        I doubt that anyone working in any of the companies have ever used a dehydrator.       if they did, they would the temps are too high!!!        I'm convinced that poor color can and does lead to poor quality and less nutrients.        do I have proof?          no, I don't.        I don't have any more proof than the people with freeze dryers saying that their product is much better than dehydrated products.         I say prove it.       they can't and they don't.        again, I'd love to have one, but I can't afford it and I'm not buying something like that on credit.        so, I'm not trying to beat anyone up.        all I'm saying, is don't lord it over those that don't have a freeze dryer, that your products is MUCH better than dehydrated products, because it's not.       at best, it's just different.       

years ago when I was looking at machine embroidery sewing machines I went to every sewing machine place in 3 counties looking at all the available machines.       the first thing that would happen when I went in, they would start talking about what a different brand would NOT do.         they had more to say about their competition than they had to say about their own product.       after the first five minutes of listening the spiel, I stopped the person talking and asked if I could say something.       I just told him that I wasn't interested in learning about any other brand than what you sell here.       I'll look at all the other brands when I'm ready to.          but for now, I want to learn about this brand.      he was really dumbfounded and couldn't even tell me about his product because he had his spiel down pat on what the others wouldn't do.          I finally told him thank you and left.        I never knew what his machine was capable of because he didn't know.

after about 30 years of working with and dealing with my dehydrators, I know what they'll do and I know what to expect every time.         I've learned that low and slow gives me what I want.       it gives me beautiful produce.       it takes up much less valuable space.       and I'm convinced that it gives me quality, nutrient dense food.

so, for now, I dehydrate a lot more than any other way of preservation.       a one gallon jar will hold about 15 to 20 lbs of diced and dehydrated onions.         that same jar will hold a ton of diced bell peppers.       that same jar will  hold many many lbs of dehydrated mushrooms and I could go on and on.        so in a small space, I can store a LOT of food.          and, if I put it in the proper jars with proper lids and make sure everything is bone dry, cracker crisp, and rock hard, my produce will last me a good 5  years or longer.         I can't complain about that one little bit.        and I'll not let anyone make me feel bad or cut the process of dehydrating down by bad mouthing it.         I'll not do it.       and if you have your process worked out and you're getting beautiful healthy produce, you don't have to let anyone make you feel bad about dehydrating either.

I also put a lot of produce in the freezer and I can.         I just don't have a lot of space to store canned goods.         so I opt for dehydrating.          and from what I have been able to see from others sharing their freeze dried goods, their goods  don't shrink  at all and they take up as much space as does canning.         I guess they can store their bags of goods in boxes and that may take up less room.        but for now, until someone gives me a freeze dryer, I'll still be very happy with my 2 dehydrators.       😂😂😂        you be happy with what you've got too.          sounds like a plan to me.        now, off my rant box.          but I do plan on revisiting this in the near future.

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it's time for our "giggle for the day":

what did the horse say after it tripped?

help, I've fallen and I can't giddy-up!

🤣🤣🤣

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we're picking up with Ezra Chapter 1 today.

the book of Ezra shows us that God kept His word, the temple is important to God as well as proper worship.     it also shows us that when we remain faithful to God, He will continue to bless us.       we are living in a time when we need to remain faithful to God, more now than ever.       our times are perilous, almost to the point of biblical proportions and we need to draw close to God and stay there, that's where we will find safety.      

one of the things we see in this book is the struggle to restore the temple and the need for spiritual reformation.        God kept His word and it shows us that when we stay faithful to God He will continue to bless us.       we also see that Ezra studied the law of God and he put into practice what he learned and he also taught the law of God.         these are 3 very good practices that we should be doing today.      study, learn, teach, repeat.        each one teach one is a message that I used to hear.      

we need to keep seeking Gods heart and let Him stir ours to action.        when we seek the heart of God, He can and will give a bold faith to do what we could not do on our own.        when we seek the heart of God, He can and will stir us to true repentance.         these are some of the lasting lessons to be learned from this book.          because Ezra listened to God, he is seen as one who played a huge part in restoring the value of scriptures and the need for God in their lives after the captivity.  

Jesus is seen in every book of the Old Testament and this book is no different.      Jesus is seen here as being the perfect priest that leads us to freedom.        that's where our freedom comes from, Christ.        Ezra prayed on behalf of Gods people and Jesus pleads on my behalf.         

Ezra also speaks against marrying people who are not believers.        Ezra called them foreigners.      most of the time, foreigners worshiped other gods and Gods people had been marrying these unbelievers and worshipers of foreign gods.        have you ever stopped and thought about that, I have.        I can't imagine being married to someone who doesn't know and love Christ.        I don't know how a man could love his wife if he doesn't know and love Jesus and I don't know how a wife could love her husband if she doesn't know and love Jesus.         marriage, at best is hard, but take God out of it, and I can't imagine being married.     

Ezra took courage because the hand of God was on him and if the hand of God is on us, we can be courageous too.       when he read the word of God to the people, they wept, because the law revealed their sin.        the main message in this whole book is that God kept His word.        we can count on God always keeping His word.       read Psalm 119, some say  that Ezra  wrote it  and more than likely he did.       a beautiful testimony of God keeping His word.

years ago a very dedicated man of God preached  a sermon telling why it's not safe to come near the cross.        one of those reasons is because our sin is exposed when we come near the cross.        and that is so true.        nothing can bare our souls like getting in the presence of the Lord and Savior.        but that is the only place we'll ever find saving grace.      

next time we'll start in Nehemiah.

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well, I guess that about wraps it up today.         stay tuned to find out how much rain we get.        stay in the word and keep seeking the heart of God.         God will never turn His back on someone who is looking for Him.        blessings on each of us and our day today.      may we all find a way to serve the Lord in all we do.        hugs and love, patty

Almost the middle of July

Wow, wow, wow, where has this year gone?       Time seems to be passing so quickly as one day runs into the next.       With the passing of time comes the contemplation of how one has spent that time.        We take each day as it comes and deal with each problem or item on the agenda and at the and of each day, we praise God for it.         The day may not have turned out as we would have liked.        We may not have gotten as much accomplished as we wanted to.           Some days, we even accomplish more than expected.           The simple fact of the matter is that if you or I got to participate in the day, we truly are blessed.         I try to remember that any day my feet hit the floor, it's a blessed day, it's a good day, it's a day to praise God.          So, I'd just like to thank God for His awesome presence in my life, with each breath I take.         He has authority over every second of my life.         And for that, I'm truly thankful.

The summer has turned off to be a hot one this year.           We finally got an inch of rain over the weekend.         It was desperately needed.          I truly pray that it helps our farmers and that they get more well needed rain.         The farmers are truly in the hands of God and I pray that He prospers them in spite of what the enemy is doing.         

During the dry spell, I have been watering my little deck garden and it is coming along pretty good.        I've go a bunch of strawberries.       They are doing pretty good.          They are an everbearing kind, so they will set fruit, and then after those come off, they set more fruit.         We're on the second set of fruit and I'm hoping for a 3 set.        I believe they will actually set that 3rd set of fruit this year.          I have several tomato plant and peppers, some okra, just saw some blooms on my fingerling eggplants, beans, cukes, zucchini, yellow squash, red beets and orange beets and I can't remember what else off the top of my head.        I have been harvesting steadily.           Not a whole lot of produce, but something is better than nothing.           And it's a delicious.         I think it's more delicious when you grew it yourself.         I may be a little biased on that opinion, but I still believe it.      hahahaha

What we don't use immediately, I will dehydrate and have for later use.           I have several zucchini and yellow squash dehydrated and ready to use for fried squash, like fried green tomatoes.        Speaking of fried green tomatoes, I have several pkgs of those in the freezer.          We went to a local farm store and got the green tomatoes and then I sliced them and done my usual dredge on them and froze individually and then wrapped 6 or 8, depending on size in freezer paper.           I will air fry them and they are so good!!!!           That's the only way I'll ever fix them again.           No grease is always the way to go, especially for us.   

Well, I don't have much more to write about right now.            I sure wish I did, but I don't.         I do want you to know that God loves you so much.         Enough so, that He provided a way for us to be in right relationship with Him and that's thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ.          You'll have no better friend than Christ, ever!!!!           He is always with you, but you have to believe in Him and accept Him as your Lord and Savior and repent of your sins.            Once you do that, instantly you are in the family of God thru Jesus Christ and you'll never spend another second alone or lonely.          All you have to do is call on Him and He will be with you.             I pray that if you haven't accepted Christ as your personal Savior that you will consider today the day of salvation.         You won't regret it.      

As I leave you, let me just that I love you all and Jesus loves you more!!!!   blessing and hugs, patty

  

Are you lost or are you a Hypocrite????

Good morning Y'all!!!     It's been a while again, but I've been busy here lately.    Trying to stay busy is more like it, and I have been succeeding in that endeavor.     I think of my blog often, but feel I don't have much to share anymore.      Mostly I have started using it to write my feelings down for me and then I share it with y'all.     It seems my heart is full of mixed emotions and aches and longs to see our fellow beings, being a little more caring and compassionate.     More on that in a minute.

I hope and pray that wherever Y'all are that you are enjoying this beautiful day.  It is an amazing day to be alive.      This is a unique day in the life of this world.      Up to this particular day in history, there has never been another day quite like this one.      And tomorrow will be uniquely different from today.     So, while it is today, enjoy this day.     

The sun is shining in my neck of the woods, but it's still a wee bit chilly.      I don't remember how much I have said on here about my little greenhouse sitting on my deck, but it got way down below freezing this past weekend and a couple nights early in the week and it took out my pot of tomatoes and my pot of peppers which had blooms.      I would have had tiny peppers by now, but they are gone.      All I had to do was take them to the garage, but I really didn't think it would get cold enough to hurt them.     Was I ever wrong!!!!!      Well, I know that I can grow them, so I will start them early next year and get my starts ready to transplant as soon as the weather permits.      I have some fresno and shishito pepper seeds that I really to hope to be able to grow.      I love them both and will try to have both of them.   

I have been baking lots of bread this year.      Dehydrating lots of veggies and fruit also.      If you haven't done any dehydrating, I would encourage you to try it.     It is a wonderful way to preserve food, even for long term storage.     I have just started my hand in fermented foods.     I am loving that too.   I make kombucha on a weekly basis.    I also make my own yogurt.     I make fire cider every 3 or 4 months.      I also make elderberry syrup, which is so good to have on hand this time of year.    So, all of this keeps me busy and I am loving it.     I would encourage y'all to try any or all of these methods of food preservation or making some of your own foods, and also some of your own medicines.     You would be surprised how simple and easy some of it really is.  As I type this, I have lemons, mango, papaya, and pineapple in the dehydrator right now.      The lemons are good to put in hot teas.    I also use them in the making of my fire cider.     There is a lot to learn and a lot to do.     I look forward to adding more skill and knowledge to my skill sets.     Learning is a good thing no matter what age you are.      I am also trying to eat better and lose a little weight.     Story of my life.    So, there's that.    hahaha      We'll see how it goes.

There is something that has been on my mind as of late.     Look back at the title of this post.     Are you lost or are you a hypocrite???      Strange question I guess.      But it's one that needs to be addressed and I figured it was as good a time as any to pose my question here and then deal with it.     I know I'm not lost.    I got that settled over 40 years ago.     Jesus died on the cross for me, He rose again in 3 days, and He sits by the Father even now, continually covering me with love, mercy and grace.      I feel like I need to keep reminding myself that I belong to Him and NO ONE can change that fact, because this world is in a mess.     It is!!!!!    And we can't deny that anymore.      I'm not gonna quote scripture here today.     I just want to get something that I know for sure out there.      And this is it:   Jesus loved and loves the lost or as scripture puts it, "sinners", but He hated and hates hypocrites.     

So, who are the lost, or "sinners"?      They are those people who have not trusted in Christ as their Savior and Lord.     They have not accepted Him into their hearts and lives yet.    They maybe don't even know they need Him.     They are not necessarily "bad" people, just people without the influence of Jesus in their lives.     These are the people that Jesus has always loved.     Praise God for that!!!!!      Jesus dined with the "sinners" in the Bible.      Jesus loves them!!!   Again I say, Praise God for that, because He loves me!!!!       How can I say that?????      I can say that because I have accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior.     That doesn't make me perfect.      It makes me a saved sinner.     As long as I'm in this bag of bones and flesh, I will still sin.     I know that, because I know me.      But with each sin, Jesus loves me thru it while I find my way back to the foot of the Cross.      You see, as long as I'm in this earth suit, I still have the ability to sin, even though I wish I didn't, but I do.     I struggle with my sin on a daily basis.     I struggle thru each day, realizing that I've let my Savior down again and again.    It truly breaks my heart, that I keep sinning.     But I'm so thankful and appreciative that Jesus keeps forgiving and covering  me with His love and mercy and grace each day.   And each day is another opportunity to praise Him and ask Him again, to help me be better today than I was yesterday.      If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you know all about my struggle.

Who are the hypocrites???      In short order, hypocrites are church people with a holier than thou attitude.      That my friend is who a hypocrite is.      Just so you know, Jesus despised the hypocrites of His day.     They were the church people of His day and they were jealous of Him to the point that they actually killed Him.    If you don't believe me, get your Bible out and look it up.    It's all there.     The hypocrites were always trying to trick Him or catch Him in a lie and always tried to use Old Testament Laws against Him.     They didn't get it.      They accused Him of all kinds of things.      It's all there, look it up.     Jesus despised the hypocrites.     The hypocrites put more faith in their own words and works than they did in Jesus and who He claimed to be.     Although these people had a form of being religious, they didn't know God.     Their people had long abandoned the word of God and believed that it was more important to wash their hands than to wash their hearts.     Everything that a church person done, was to be seen by everyone and they would make fun of people.     

There was one account where a lady put every thing she had in the coffers, and it didn't even make a sound when it hit the other money already given.   The hypocrites would put in their money so it would jingle and jangle till it landed and then gloat over how much they gave.     Understand, I am paraphrasing and making it simple to understand, but that's what happened.    Jesus told those people that the lady that gave everything gave more than the hypocrites.    She gave all she had which was a few cents, they gave a little of what they should have given and thought they had given much.   Jesus said the lady gave way more than they did, because she gave all and they gave just a pitiful little bit.

Basically, she gave her whole life.     She trusted Jesus with everything she had.      The hypocrites are wolves in sheeps clothing.     They want you to think they are everything and a piece of cake, where as they are actually imposters.     They live make-believe lives.      As the saying goes, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.     We can NEVER fool God either.    

How does that fit todays world????     Easy.     If you claim to have Christ in your life, you will not be perfect, but you WILL have some compassion in your heart for others.     You just will.     If you don't have compassion for others, then very doubtful if you have Jesus in your heart.     People don't want to hear that.     They want to go to church, hear a sermon that doesn't apply to them, make fun of their neighbors,  make fun of any situation that would put them in the hot seat for their attitude towards others, plot and scheme of ways to get rid of people that will call them on their hypocrisy and make everyone else out to be the bad guys.     Does any of that sound familiar????     It does to me!!!!      The hypocrites of Jesus's day are the same today.     The church is full of hypocrites!!!      Why?     Because the church is made up of imperfect people.     But there also a lot of imposters that have been allowed to sneak in and gain a foothold.     Those are "wolves in sheep's clothing".     Those are the ones setting snares and traps  and literally tearing the kingdom of God down right before our very eyes.     It's painful to say it, but it's true.

Again, how does this apply to today???     If you have a facebook account or any other account with the various platforms on the internet, you can see people spewing forth all kinds of filth.     Participating in all kinds of filthy acts, immoral and disgusting acts.     There are people making fun of covid 19!!!  Calling it a hoax and every time someone says something about it, what they will say is that it has a 96 to 98 percent survival rate.      That my friend, is a statement right from the pits of hell being made by hypocrites in the church who are wolves in sheep's clothing!!!!!      If you don't have compassion for others, this is how you might feel.      

Another difference between "sinners" and hypocrites is this: most sinners have compassion for others, they just haven't found Jesus yet.    Hypocrites have no compassion for anyone.    Oh, they may act like they do, but in reality, if it doesn't benefit them, they won't have anything to do with it.  

If you want proof of what I'm saying, just watch your face book feed and see who says what.    If you pay close attention, you'll see a lot and it's pretty disgusting. especially when it comes from people that profess to be a christian but obviously having no form of godliness in their lives.     This is to call them out!!!     I have shared a couple of things recently on my face book page about it and you would be surprised at who DOES NOT acknowledge it.    I always have 3 or 4 long distant friends that will acknowledge it, but not the people in my life that I know personally or any of my own family.     So, what does that say?      I know people will look at this and think this is being hypocritical.    Maybe it is.    I just pray that if it is, God shows it to me, and I will do an addendum to this post and share what He will show me.     What I do know is this, I struggle every day when I see people that claim to be Christ followers, sharing what would be considered hurtful, hateful, critical posts on their face book pages.    I don't understand how a true Christian would be inclined to say something like "it only has a 2-4% death rate"!!!!!     It may be easy to say if you haven't lost someone to it.     Praise God, I haven't yet, but I have friends who have, and my heart bleeds a little bit every time I see this.    Because I know my friends will see others saying the same thing and it could not hurt any worse than a dagger to the heart.  People with true compassion and the love of Christ in their lives, could not be party to such heinous and hurtful and hateful words.  

There it is, in a nutshell!    Are you lost or are you a Hypocrite?     Only you can truly answer that, but let me remind us, that our actions show a whole lot more than we may think.     People are always watching.     You either make a good impression or a bad impression.     Remember that.     God loves us all, but He certainly doesn't love the way we act sometimes.     If you have compassion in your heart, please show it.     The world needs to see it.     The world needs to see godly people loving others.

Please forgive any typos in this, I just typed as the words came, and I did very little correction.  

I pray that you have a blessed day and that you will tell someone today that Jesus loves them.     I know He loves us and I love y'all.   hugs, mercy and grace be yours today, patty