What Gospel Do You Share?

1 Thessalonians 2:1-7 (NLT)

You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure.2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. 3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.

4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! 6 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

Let's focus today on just verse 4 in this passage. Paul begins speaks about being entrusted with the Good News. I believe as Christians we are all entrusted with the Good News, and it's our privilege and responsibility to share it. We must be careful though that we are sharing the true Gospel of salvation through grace and not an insufficient self-made religion. This is why I believe Paul continues on to discuss people pleasing. It's much easier to tell people what they want to hear; to perhaps exclude things from the Gospel, or to add things that will be attractive to unbelievers. This 'gospel' you present is not the true life saving Gospel. Paul talks about this again in Galatians 1:6-12, and in verse 9 discusses those who preach a different Gospel. 

9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse. 

For me, preaching the true gospel is acknowledging my shortcomings, and not pretending to have it together all the time. I need to show unbelievers (and believers) in my life, that being a Christian does not mean that I have it all together and can save myself by doing the right things. Jesus had to come and die because I do screw up, so pretending that's not true is me unintentionally showing a different Gospel.

It is also important to note that there is a balance. I think this acknowledgment of our shortcomings with others is best in small groups or one on one. You don't need to act like a total mess all the time, just be willing to be vulnerable with those closest to you, in order to glorify the work God is doing in your life though the saving power of Jesus.

What about you?

How do you share the Gospel?

Are there ways you intentionally, or unintentionally try and "adjust" the Gospel? 

Do you struggle with people pleasing?

Did other verses in the passage stand out to you?

Weekly Bible Reading Template

Hey Everyone,

I teach Sunday School at my church, and I'm really passionate about my students getting in the Word daily, as I know how positively it has affected my life. Lately we've been making rough templates at the end of class each week, but I've finally thrown something official for them together and figured I'd share it with you guys! :) There's also a prayer requests section at the bottom for when we share prayer requests as a group, so they can be praying for each other throughout the week.

Weekly Bible Reading Template

- Laurel

Delicious and Frugal Creamy Pesto Cheese Ravioli!

This past week I made another delicious meal for under $15! This time it was a Creamy Pesto Cheese Ravioli. This recipe fed 6 college students, with about a serving and a half left over, so it makes A LOT of food. You could definitely halve it if you aren't cooking for many. I used mini cheese ravioli because they were on sale, so whatever you have on hand will work fine. Also any sort of milk/cream combo would probably work. (Heavy, Light, 2%, 1% etc.) I also made the pesto using a McCormick package because it was cheaper than buying the already made stuff. So feel free to adapt anything/everything with what you have on hand or what's on sale! I also served this with some broccoli!

What I Used
- 2  Bags of Frozen Cheese Ravioli (24 oz bags)        - $4.00
- 2 cups of Light Cream                                             - $1.19
- 1 cup of 2% Milk                                                    - (we had on hand)
- 4 cups of shredded parmesan cheese                       - $2.99
- 2 cups of pesto (2 packets of McCormick)              - $3.00
       

How I Made It

1. Heat oven to 400°F
2. Begin preparing ravioli according to directions. 
3. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the pesto mix in a sauce pan, but wait to turn the heat on until after you put the ravioli in as it only needs to heat for a minute or two.
4. You'll also need to find a pretty big mixing bowl. Put the milk and cream into it. 
5. While you're waiting spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray. Once the ravioli goes in the water, heat the pesto (mixing it regularly) for a minute or two.
6. Add the pesto to the milk/cream combo.
7. Once the ravioli floats spoon them in the mixing bowl.
8. Layer ravioli, and parmesan cheese in the casserole dish. (Leave at least 1/2 a cup of cheese) Pour remaining cream over the ravioli. Top with remaining parmesan cheese. 
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes (until top layer is golden brown and/or sauce is bubbling)
10. ENJOY! :)

Clear The Stage - Jimmy Needham

Let this song challenge you! What idols are you worshiping?

Getting Organized!: Weekly Planner!

Happy Monday!

This is my second Getting Organized! post. Last week I introduced you guys to my Apartment Cleaning Schedule. This week I want to show you my Weekly Planner. It really helps me to have everything I need to do in one place. I try to carve some time out Sunday evening or Monday morning to fill out as much of this as possible to help keep me sane throughout the week.

I scoured the internet to find something I could use, but couldn't find anything that fit my needs for free, so I made my own. :) You'll most likely have to edit this a bit, but I hope it's helpful!

If you have the newest Excel click here

If you have 2010 Excel click here 

Enjoy!

-Laurel

Easy Meatball Lasagna for $15!

I made this Meatball Lasagna on Monday night this week for my apartment of 7 hungry college students! We ate most of it that night, and finished up the leftovers yesterday. When looking for recipes I'm always looking for something affordable, and filling; this recipe hit the spot!


What You'll Need
- 1 10oz Bag of Frozen Meatballs                             - $4.99
- 2 jars of sauce (I used Market Basket 3 cheese)     - $2.67
- A box of oven ready lasagna noodles                      - $1.50
- 4 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese                     - $2.99
- 1 cup of parmesan cheese                                       - (we already had this on hand)
- 1 15 oz container of ricotta cheese                          - $2.99
- 2 eggs                                                                    -  $0.32 (1.89 for a dozen)
- any spices you have/want to use                             - (we already had these on hand)

How You'll Do It

1. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. (Or whatever baking dish you have)
2. Warm-up and thaw the bag of meatballs with both jars of sauce (and some spices if you'd like)  
3. In medium bowl, mix ricotta cheese, 3 cups of mozzarella cheese, eggs (and basil).
4. Heat oven to 350°F
5. Place 4 noodles (or however many fit in your dish) on the bottom of baking dish. Top with about a third of the ricotta mixture and then a third of the meatball mixture. Repeat this step until you have no more ingredients or you've run out of room (I ended up making two lasagnas)
6. Sprinkle with remaining cup of mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan cheese. Spray sheet of foil with cooking spray; cover baking dish with foil. 
7. Bake covered lasagna 45 minutes. Uncover; bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until bubbly, edges are golden brown and cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

As you can probably tell my recipes are pretty casual. I'm a real proponent of using what you have, because with meatballs, sauce, cheese, and noodles you can't really go wrong! So feel free to add/subtract and make any changes you'd like! I love that I was able to make this dish the night before and just throw it in the oven the next day when I was ready. 

I shop primarily at Market Basket which tends to run cheaper than most supermarkets here in Massachusetts, but in total this meal cost just over 15 dollars to feed 7 people dinner, and 3 lunches the next day!

Getting Organized!: Apartment Cleaning Schedule!

Hello!

As Summer has come to an end and fall is in full swing it's time to get organized! This past week I've creating a lot of tools to help keep me organized. I'm a list maker so I feel most organized when I can see everything I need to get done in one spot.

The first sheet I've been working on is checklist for our apartment cleaning. My roommates and I dedicate every Tuesday Night from 8:30 - 9:30 to cleaning. We rotate jobs each week, and blast music (typically the Tangled soundtrack) as motivation. I've created this chart so we can make sure we don't miss anything, and by initialing the appropriate cell we can ensure we actually rotate. Click here to download and customize our schedule for your own needs!

Stay Tuned for some more organizational tools!!

- Laurel