This is the best... and I mean the BEST!!!... grain-free pizza crust recipe I have come across to date. Seriously. Try it. You're welcome.

Grain Free Pizza Crust

(makes one 10-12 inch pizza)

For crust:

1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella

3 Tbsp cream cheese

1 egg

2/3 cup almond flour

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic salt

Preheat oven to 425F.  Microwave the mozzarella and cream cheese in a large bowl until soft, about 30 seconds.  Add egg, almond flour, oregano, onion powder and basil and blend well into a dough ball.  Press into a circle or square shaped pizza on a parchment lined baking sheet sprayed with a thin coating of olive oil or coconut oil.  Sprinkle garlic salt over surface of pizza crust. Pierce surface with fork to prevent rising of the crust while baking.

Bake crust in oven for 8-10 mins.  Pierce more holes with fork if bubbles form.  Bake another 2-4 minutes if crust has not already browned.  Do not overbake or it will dry out!

Add your pizza sauce and toppings, pop back in oven for 4-5 more minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Run, Christian, Run!

My rambling contemplations this September morning. The Spirit inside me speaks at times, and I simply can't keep it to myself:

Hebrew 12: 1-2
"Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith"

As I read this passage this morning, having read it probably thousands of times over the course of my Christian journey, I felt a pressing need to read it with fresh vision, to read with heightened understanding, to know more fully what the author was trying to convey to his readers.

The previous chapter details this "cloud of witnesses" that surrounds us:

~ Abel, who obeyed God's guidelines for making sacrifice
~ Enoch, who was a friend to God and has yet to taste death (Revelation gives clues as to God's exciting plan for Enoch in the Tribulation)
~ Noah, whose faith in an unseen God saved not only his entire family, but the future of all living creatures
~ Abraham, who packed up everything he owned and obeyed God's command to go, even though he didn't know where he was being led
~ Isaac, who blessed Esau and Jacob and detailed their futures by faith in the One who was able to bring it to pass
~ Sarah, who believed that God was faithful to fulfil His promises, even when he promised her a child in her old age
~ Moses, who walked away from his life in the Pharoah's palace to identify with God's oppressed people and lead them to freedom
~ Rahab, the prostitute who believed it was worth risking her life to help God's people, and from whose genealogical line Jesus came
~ The entire Israelite nation, who passed through the Red Sea with the Egyptian army in hot pursuit, because God parted the waters and told them to
~ Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, and many, many more men and women whose faith shines in the pages of Scripture and the annals of history

We have these examples, and so many more from more recent times, like George Mueller (one of my personal favourites), who so many times would sit down at the empty table with the children from his orphanage and begin to talk to God and say "Well, Father, here we are, ready to eat. What will You provide for us today?". Invariably there would be a knock on the door and a milkman would have a broken wheel and be unable to make his rounds, so would donate the milk so it wouldn't spoil. Someone would arrive with fresh produce, a dozen fresh loaves of bread, or an envelope of money with a note saying someone had felt a sudden and pressing urgency to send provision to George's ministry. All those hungry mouths, all those years of running the orphanage, and not one day did they go without a meal. And that is the God we serve. That same God provides for us.

These are hard times, and these are dark times. They will get harder and darker before it's all said and done. Our brothers and sisters are suffering and dying all over the world, and there doesn't seem to be any relief or escape in sight. It's so easy for us to sit here in the Western world and say that God has a plan, but what about those living with the reality of ISIS on their doorsteps, families drowning while trying to escape the oppression in their homelands, girls being sold into slavery and treated as disposable sexual trinkets, little boys being taught that the horror of beheading another human being is normal and acceptable.

An American pastor named Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran since 2012 for the crime of speaking about Christ in private homes. His wife Nagmeh and their two children, Jacob and Rebekka, have been praying for his release for three straight years, as they receive reports of his beatings and torture. President Obama has thus far refused to get involved in demanding the release of this American citizen. His wife has recently felt a strong sense that God is preparing her for something very difficult. Her hope and faith are being shaken.

The hope we have is only a tiny glimmer sometimes. We're not even sure if we actually see a flicker of light, or just imagine it on the distant horizon. But make no mistake... HE. IS. COMING. BACK!!!!!! In an instant, in the blink of an eye, this world will be plunged into terror and chaos as we who identify with Christ as our God will disappear. We will not be abandoned. This is just the waiting room to eternity. Which door we step through is the deciding factor to where we spend our eternity.

All the things that trip us up and hold us down in this world are temporary and unimportant in the light of eternity. Why do we spend our time and energy on things that won't last, that won't go into eternity with us? Women, why are we pouring our lives into our external appearances, our weight loss goals, our hair, our clothing, our perfectly decorated homes, our careers? Men, why are you chasing after possessions, homes, cars, toys, sex, power?

'Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus". Everything else will dim and pale by comparison. In these Last Days, these End Times, nothing else should matter to the Christian.

So today, I pledge to run toward Jesus, my future. And tomorrow, I will renew my pledge. And every day thereafter, I will start all over again.

Who's with me?

I'm Coming Back to the Heart of Worship

There is so much on my heart and mind right now. So many different emotions simmering just below the surface. Sometimes the feelings just bubble up in my eyes without me even being aware, such as when my husband reached down and gently wiped a tear from the corner of my eye in church this morning.

It's a mix of so many different things... the chronic pain and exhaustion that keep me pushing myself beyond the scope of my endurance every single day; the pressure to be a more involved mother for my children, when all I really want to do is pop painkillers and sleep; the heartbreak of watching my precious daughter struggling with the same pain and fatigue I've had since my teens, and knowing that no mainstream doctor will know how to treat her, just as they don't know how to treat me; the spiritual battlefield at work that requires constant vigilance; the pain of past abuse, and the struggle with guilt for not taking the kids and leaving sooner; the ever-present thought that this disease will end my life and there will be nothing left to show for it but damaged children and a heartbroken husband.

Worship is the last thing on my mind lately, and yet... worship is what my wounded heart so desperately needs.

I don't mean worship in the popular, contemporary sense, where good feelings and positive emotions are evoked by upbeat, repetitive music and a skilled entertainer/"worship leader" who knows all the psychological tricks for building the pre-service from a light introduction to an energetic body that culminates in a crescendo of emotional release and dies down into warm and calm before a twenty minute pep talk to prepare you for the week ahead.

I'm talking about coming to the alter and laying your burdens down before the Master with your heart broken and laid bare, begging Him to pick up the pieces and put them back together in whatever way would please Him most. I'm talking about meeting with God personally, with a spirit willing to change, gladly surrendering every pain, every struggle, every shattered dream... and they are countless.

You cannot come into the presence of the Living God and leave unchanged. If you walk away from a time of worship the same as when you arrived, you have not worshiped. Do not mistake emotion for worship, for while worship invokes emotion, it does not always flow from emotion.

And so today, in the midst of pain and tears that just won't stop, I pushed myself to get out of bed and drive to church, and in the presence of the One who loved me so much He willingly submitted to His own murder to bridge the gap my sin had created between me and Him, I opened my heart and asked not for healing, but for the strength and grace to shine in the darkness. I asked for wisdom in knowing how to love my children back to wholeness. I asked for forgiveness for my impatience and my many, many shortcomings. I praised Him for the knowledge that in spite of all these chains weighing me down, I AM ALREADY A CONQUEROR!!! I am a child of the only true God and living King! I am only here temporarily, training for the time when I will trade this defective body for a new one that is perfect and imperishable, and I will cast all my crowns and trophies at His feet and give credit where credit is due.

And in the middle of crippling pain, fear for my children's future, and sorrow for the lasting effects of a painful past, I found myself standing bathed in the light of the presence of my God, and I worshiped.