“All my life I live to follow
You alone as you change my desires
Liberated by the blood of Jesus
I’ve found life in the sweetness of
freedom”
Tonight, as I stood in my kitchen,
slicing strawberries for a yummy fruity dessert, I listened to this Citizen’s
song, Sweetness Of Freedom. It made me think about how sweet our freedom in Christ really is.
I am so far from perfect. I sin every
day. I sin thousands of times a day. It may be in an act, it may be in a
thought or even in the absence of some sort of action. I usually don’t even
realize when I’m doing it. Sometimes, I don’t even realize when I’ve already
done it.
Sin can be tricky. What exactly is sin?
When you Google sin, this is what you get: An immoral act considered to be a
transgression against divine law. What constitutes an immoral act? What exactly
is divine law? Divine Law is defined as a law that is believed to come directly
from God. So I’m thinking 10 commandments. The 10 Commandments are laws that
come directly from God. If we can follow all of the 10 commandments we can be
free from sin? Don’t steal, don’t lie and don’t cheat on your spouse. That
shouldn’t be too hard, at least you wouldn't think so.
So, with an easy set of rules,
how do I find myself sinning all the time? There are too many answers to that question
to put into one blog post. I can start with the first commandment and I’m
already done before breakfast. “You shall have no other God’s before me.” Every
morning, when I step on the scale, and I let it define the start of my day, I
make my body image a god. I make that number a god. If I’m up a pound, I messed
up and it’s
going to be a bad day, if I’m down a pound, I feel proud and good all morning. The
correct way to start my day would be to ditch the scale and start with a
prayer, asking God to define my day; asking God to give me a great day. But
generally, I turn to the scale to give me a good day. How do you know if you
are making something a God? What pulls your focus from God? What do you esteem
higher than God? It could be your job or your spouse; it could even be your
kids. These are all good and important things. If you make God your God, he
will help you to love and serve all of these better than you could without him.
That is one example of one of my common
sins. It’s not something I purposely do; it’s just the direction my heart tends
to follow. My heart is selfish and I will always, without the help of God, work
to glorify myself.
You may be wondering how I can find my
sin sweet. My sin is not sweet. My sin is pretty awful. Where I find the
sweetness is in Jesus. Jesus took my heart and changed it. He took my desires
and gave me his desires. I don’t have to feel defeated because of my sin because
Jesus defeated my sin. He paid for all of the sins I have ever committed. He
paid for all of the sins I have yet to commit. What do I have to give for this
sweet freedom? Nothing!! All I have to do is believe and trust him. He does all
of the work. I don’t try not to sin because I am afraid of going to Hell or
that I fear I will make God mad at me. I try not to sin because Jesus changed
my heart and made me not want to sin. I try to not sin because I love Jesus and
want to do things that make him happy. I’m kind of like my two year old that
way. When he does something we like, he tries to do it over and over because he
likes making us happy with him; because he loves us. That's pretty sweet!! What
is sweeter is that we love him whether he does things to please us or not. Our
love is unconditional, as God’s love for us is unconditional. We are his
adopted children and he loves us, even though we sin thousands of times a day!!
Speaking of sweetness, here is the
recipe for the so very yummy and sweet Banana Berry Trifle I was working on
when listening to this song. It is gluten/grain free, dairy free and refined
sugar free!! And completely Guilt Free!!
Banana Berry Trifle
Here’s what you need:
·
1 or 2 Cans of Full Fat Coconut Milk (refrigerated overnight)
·
2 Lbs. of Strawberries (give or take, it depends on how many layers
and how thick you layer them)
·
5 Bananas (give or take a banana, I had extra and froze them for
future banana/peanut butter ice cream)
·
About ¼ cup of Real Maple Syrup (check the label for any other
ingredients, there shouldn’t be any)
·
About 2 tsp. of Cinnamon (to taste)
·
About 1 tsp. of Nutmeg(to taste)
·
Extra Berries for Topping (I had blueberries and raspberries)
·
Glass bowl or Large Glass Measuring Bowl or a Trifle Bowl (something
glass and deep)
1.
Core and slice the strawberries. I use an egg slicer to do the
slicing. This makes the strawberries a uniform size and takes a tenth of the
time. Set the bowl of strawberries aside.
2.
Peel and slice the bananas, set aside.
3.
Remove thick fatty portion of Coconut milk. I strain mine. Save and refrigerate the
thin portion for something else. I have been using the leftover milk for a DIY
all natural shampoo I’m working on. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
4.
Whip the coconut cream with a mixer until it starts to form peaks,
like whipped cream. I use my stand mixer but I’m sure you can use a hand mixer.
5.
Add Maple Syrup, preferably while still mixing the cream. This could
take a little more or a little less, depending on how sweet you want it. Keep
in mind the strawberries and bananas are already pretty sweet, so a little does
a lot.
6.
Add cinnamon and nutmeg while still mixing. As with the syrup, I do
this to taste, too, measurments aren't exact.
7.
Mix until you get medium peaks. I have never got this cream to make
stiff peaks, but it will make medium peaks. It’s done if it stands up when you
lift the mixer out of the cream.
8.
Put Cream in the freezer and continue to do this between layers.
(You may not need to do this if your house is pretty cool, it was upwards of 90
degrees here)
 |
| I filled in bananas after the picture!! |
10. Layer the bananas then
cover with cream.
11. Repeat the layering
process until you are out of strawberries, bananas or cream, or until you run
out of room in your bowl.
Put in the freezer until ready to serve.
These measurements are what I used to
make this in my trifle bowl, which is a fairly large size. If making for yourself
or your family only, you can make this much smaller with only half of the
ingredients.
Leftovers are wonderful for breakfast!!!
I hope you enjoy the sweetness of this
dessert and the sweetness of Christ!!
Rachel
Sweetness
of Freedom
By
the Citizens
Verse
1
Within my
heart’s a rebellious side
Conflicting
with the Spirit’s desire
To keep my
heart in step with you
So I do not
do what I want to do
Verse
2
Only you
have the power to break
Every chain
I placed around my neck
I heard
your call from the pit of death
To
surrender all and nothing less
Verse 3
Through the
Spirit I have righteousness
Sweet
victory over the flesh
I can walk
with confidence in you
As you
gratify my soul with truth
Chorus
All my life
I live to follow
You alone
as you change my desires
Liberated
by the blood of Jesus
I’ve found
life in the sweetness of freedom
If you enjoyed my post you can follow me on Facebook at Mommy Who Loves God!!
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