Hebrews question...

Today's devo/question comes from the book of Hebrews. I'm trying to finish up a New Testament class right now and tonight I was studying a little bit from the book of Hebrews. "Hebrews" was written to Greek-influenced Jewish Christians who were believed to have been living in Rome. These Jewish Christians were experiencing extreme persecution for their faith and were debating whether or not it would be a good idea to continue on with their Christianity when it could potentially lead to their decease. 

In the midst of their struggle, the author of Hebrews wrote to them:

³⁵ do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised... ³⁹ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.  

Hebrews 10:35-36 & 39

After struggling through my review questions I finally got to the reflection questions. The first question seemed easy enough to answer but the second stirred something inside of me. It read "Would you continue to observe your faith if you knew that you would be executed for it tomorrow?" What a difficult question. I couldn't even begin to comprehend what being in that situation would feel like. Still, large amounts of believers are living under these situations even to this day. Some live in countries where they could be cast out, persecuted, or even killed for their faith. 

Therefore, because our global brothers and sister in Christ are having to ask themselves this question, possibly on a daily basis, I encourage you to ponder this very same question in your own life... Would you continue to observe your faith if you knew that you would be executed for it tomorrow?

If you need some encouragement to start I've put my answer below... 

I think it would be much harder to continue to hold my faith under those circumstances. I also think that while holding my faith I would continue to have an internal struggle with myself where half of me would be focused on self-preservation while the other half would be focused on eternal-self-preservation. I wish it could come down to my love of God (instead of love of my life) but the life/death situations I have found myself in have caused me to realize that, oddly, our flesh sometimes runs deeper than our hearts. In those same life/death situations, however, I’ve come to the realization that if you’re not continuing with God then there’s really no point to continue at all. 

Vegetarian Mexi-Lasagna Recipe

Saturday night is my night to cook at home (it's not the only day I cook it's just the day that I must cook). This Saturday I decided to make a Vegetarian Mexi-Lasagna which was inspired by my friend, Grim, who made me an amazing Mexican Lasagna a few months ago. She's quite the amazing chef so this recipe is almost as good as hers. But I promise it's still good and it goes deliciously on either a summer, fall, or winter night. It's also very easy to make and takes almost no time at all!

There are 6 main steps to this recipe which I've outlined below!

1. Set your oven to 375˚F and get all of your ingredients together:

• 3 big kale leaves 
• a handful of spinach
• 1 1/2 peppers (I chose red)
• 1 small onion (I did half a red onion & half a yellow onion)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of corn
• handful of cilantro
• pepper & salt
• 1 small can of tomato paste & same amount of water
• olive oil
• tortillas
• grated cheese! As much or as little as you want! You can never have too much cheese!
• cayenne spice (optional)

2. Dice the onions & garlic and sauté them in some olive oil at the bottom of a pot on medium heat. Chop up the kale & spinach to small pieces as well about the size of half of your palm. Throw the kale & spinach on top of the sautéing onions & garlic and let the leaves shrink with the heat (5-10min). Throw in the tomato paste, water, salt, pepper, and any other spices you may want to add (i.e. cayenne) and let it stew for another 5-7min.

3. While the pot is stewing, thoroughly rinse the black beans and corn and then mix in a bowl with the chopped up peppers and cilantro. Once the items in the pot have let the flavours mix for the 5-7minutes, mix them in with the items in the bowl until they look like a delightful mexi-mix.

4. In any sized pan that you would like, line your pan with parchment paper (unless you don't have any in which case it will be fine) and then do a tortilla layer (1 tortilla thick), a mexi-mix  layer (enough so that you can't see the tortilla underneath), and a cheese layer (amount depends on what you prefer). Continue doing layers until you've used up all your mexi-mix in the bowl. Finish off your creation by covering it with cheese and then place it in the oven for 25 minutes (the longer you keep it in the oven, the crunchier the tortillas will be).

Sombrio roadies

This is the summer of roadtrips for me. I have vowed with a number of different people to travel the island throughout the summer in a number of different roadtrips and also even make a roadtrip down to Disneyland!

Last Saturday was the first of these exciting roadtrips; and the secret destination was to... Sombrio! I went with my beautiful friends Betsy, Morgan, and Emily. The three of us went to celebrate Betsy's birthday because BETSY IS THE BEST AND WE LOVE HER!!!! We started our journey by driving up the #14 highway until we finally hit Sombrio. Googlemaps told me it would be about 1h21min drive but it was almost a 2 hour drive, we didn't mind though because it was a lovely drive with lovely company. (Although be warned if you get motion sickness be sure to sit in the front!)

Upon arriving at Sombrio we walked through the wood-chip trail that looked like a scene out of Twilight and found ourselves on the rocky beach that is Sombrio. When scoping the different beaches online I had heard that there was a waterfall at Sombrio but every time I go to find one of these outdoor "tourist attractions" it seems as though you have to cross a mountain, river, and valley to get there. However, this is magically not the case with Sombrio! Also, Sombrio has not one but two waterfalls. The first waterfall easy enough to get to because it is a small walk up the beach and a small walk up a river. The other waterfall, however, is a slightly bigger walk up the beach, which really is not a big deal at all, and a half-mountain that you have to scale in order to see it. Still, it was worth it. If you don't believe me you can either check out my pictures or pump your car full of gas, call up some friends, and make the trip yourself -- I promise it's worth it!

Happy Mother's Day to my mother

It's Mother's Day today and this morning I found myself to the point of tears thinking about the mother figures I have in my life. I have been blessed with so many wonderful women that have cared for me, encouraged me, prayed for me, strengthened me, and help me get to where I am today.

The one person I want to celebrate and thank today, though, is my mother Cecilia. Words can't express how much my mother has sacrificed to help me become the person I am today. She did everything she could to make my sister, Selina, and my life experiences the best possible and even sacrificed things in her own life to ensure we would never have to sacrifice things in ours. She spent countless hours driving us to swimming lessons, skating, gymnastics, ballet, piano classes, volleyball practice, walking us to school, picking us up from friend's houses, and making us vegetable salads for dinner and fruit salads for breakfast. Honestly, she has made an immeasurable amount of salads in her life. 

My mother is also the person whose opinion seemed to matter most when I didn't believe I was able to accomplish something. If she told me I could do something -- I believed it.  However, she didn't stop with encouragement, she helped me to the point of financially and emotionally aiding me in going to Thailand with Adore, Mexico with Kendra, and in getting a university degree from UVic. All of these accomplishments I have in my life I should give credit to her for, because without her assistance I would have failed to pursue any of them. Then, this past year, she planned to take some time off so that she could look after me for a few weeks after my knee surgery; and ended up taking care of me for six months instead. 

She's been there for me in the best times of my life and has stuck by my side in the worst times in my life. For every person that has a difficulty understanding God's unconditional and sacrificial love I feel sorry for them because although she may not be perfect, my mother's love comes pretty darn close. So for the child I once was, for the girl I use to be, and for the young lady I am today: thank you.