God’s Love Story — PDF online

19 May, 2013Marissa

The final version of what I’m going to call an “e-booklet” is now online. You can download “God’s Love Story” and read a chapter outline at this link.

Here are a couple excerpts. This first is from the introduction.

One reason we gravitate towards tales of heroism, rescue, and love is that there is a basic need in our souls for a relationship with God and His Son. Stories where the handsome prince rides up and rescues the fair princess speak to our longing to know the Prince of Peace, Who laid His life down to rescue His bride from captivity to sin. Jesus Christ is the most powerful, most loving, and most perfect hero-lover to ever exist, far surpassing even the most ambitious human attempts to fashion a story’s hero. The Bible is a living, dynamic book that includes instruction, history, prophecy, and a revelation of the plan of God which reads like a story. My personal theory as to why the Bible reads like a story is because our idea of what makes a good story comes from the sequential narrative God uses to reveal His plan.

This paragraph is from a discussion in Chapter 5 about the Greek words translated “love.”

While agape is a higher kind of love, I think there is something amazing in recognizing that it is not the only love God has towards us. Before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples that after His resurrection, “ye shall ask in My name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.” (Joh. 16:26-27). The Father has phileo for those who have phileo for His son. This means the Father Himself has common interests and friendship with those who love and believe in His Son. In this context, it is certainly not a lesser love than agape. Philos is an incredible kind of love to share with the creator of the universe.

I hope those of you who choose to download and read the full e-booklet find it edifying and encouraging. I would love to hear your feedback.

This is one of the recipes that has earned me the title “Red-Headed Chinese Chef” here at home. The original recipe came from a forwarded e-mail, and I don’t know the exact source. It’s one of the more involved Chinese recipes I make and takes at least an hour to prepare (count on longer for the first time making it), but it’s well worth the effort. We mainly cook this for special occasions — it is the dish my mom requested for Mother’s Day.

The most important step for this dish is frying the chicken. You want to make sure the breading is sticky, almost to the point where you can’t stir the chicken/breading mixture. That will make for a nice crispy coating that won’t get soggy once you add the sauce.

General Tso’s Chicken

Chicken/Breading

3 lbs. chicken meat (this recipe tastes best with thigh meat, but chicken breast works as well)

¼ cup soy sauce

1 tsp pepper

1 egg

1 cup tapioca starch (corn starch will work as well)

Cut chicken into medium-size chunks. In medium bowl, mix chicken, ¼ cup soy sauce and pepper. Stir in egg. Add 1 cup tapioca starch and mix until chicken pieces are coated evenly. Chicken should be sticky with coating. If breading seems too thin, add more starch.

Add a little vegetable oil to help separate chicken pieces. Divide chicken into small quantities and deep−fry until crispy.

Sauce

½ cup tapioca starch

¼ cup water

1 ½ tsp. minced garlic

1 ½ tsp. minced ginger root

¾ cup sugar

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup rice wine

1½ cup hot chicken broth

For sauce, mix cup tapioca starch with water. Add garlic, ginger, sugar, ½ cup soy sauce, vinegar, wine, and chicken broth. Stir until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate until needed.

Place a small amount of oil in wok and heat until wok is hot. Add 4-10 hot peppers and stir−fry briefly. (The number of peppers depends on how hot you want the dish and the type of peppers you are using. Lately, I’ve been using frozen cyan peppers, and I need 4-6.)

Add desired vegetables and stir-fry. (I use broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. Some General Tso’s Chicken is served without vegetables, others with only broccoli and water chestnuts. It’s an individual choice.) Stir sauce and add to wok. Place chicken in sauce and cook until sauce thickens. Serve with hot rice.

A Love Story

11 May, 201311 May, 2013Marissa

Once upon a time there was a family of two mighty Beings. Their relationship of love was so close that They were often known by a single name. One day, They decided that They wanted to share Their love with others. But instead of creating little robots, They made people who, like themselves, had freedom of choice. They made a beautiful home for these people and created marriage to give Their creation a taste of the relationship they were intended to have with their Creators. The new people were also given one simple rule to follow.

But these people would not follow their Creators’ rule. This made the mighty Beings sad, because They knew that the penalty for not obeying this rule was an eternal, final death which would exclude Their creation from being part of Their family. In Their infinite love, one of these Beings promised to come to the world one day and die in their place.

As the years passed and the people increased in multitude, He chose a special people to whom He spoke and whom He loved more fully and purely than the best of husbands loves his wife. He rescued them from flood, fought against their enemies, and freed them from slavery, but they turned away from Him like an unfaithful wife. He was jealous and angry, but He never stopped loving them. And true to His promise, He did come to their world and took on himself the penalty justice demanded for His people’s wrongs. In doing so, He gained the name of Son and the Being who sent Him became known as the Father.

The first marriage the Son had made with His people, the marriage to which they had been unfaithful, ended with His death. But the love that these Beings had for their creation did not end. His Father brought Him back to life and gave back the power He had before coming to the world They had created. They offered Their creation a new marriage agreement which was faultless and eternal. They offered redemption and an opportunity to live forever with Them as the Son’s beloved bride.

Some people did not believe anyone would dare to die for them. Some did not believe that anyone needed to die for them. But there were others who realized what the Son had done and were so in awe of Him that they devoted their lives to making themselves ready for this marriage. They knew that the One who loved them enough to die for them would return to bring them into His Father’s house as His bride.

It felt as if they waited a long time. But just as He had delivered His people from perils in the past, so did He powerfully aid His bride for the time that she had to be away from Him. And finally, in a triumphal victory over evil and death, He returned to claim the bride who had made herself ready for him.

The wedding feast was grander than anything ever imagined. The family, finally grown according to the plan these Beings envisioned when They first made creation, overflowed with love.

And They lived happily ever after.

This is the short creative piece that I use to introduce my longer study paper/short e-book “God’s Love Story.” I’ll be posting the full text of this paper next weekend.

Super Easy Crepes

8 May, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

I woke up this morning with the intention of writing freelance articles, cleaning the closet, and working on a paper quilling wedding present – with no time for a blog post. But when I opened a Mother’s Day Tracfone flyer that came in the mail yesterday, I was greeted by a recipe for “Yummy Crepes.” I wasn’t sure how good a recipe that came from Tracfone could be, but they looked so good that I tried it and it tasted so good I have to share it.

The crepes only took about 20 minutes from start to finish. We filled them with strawberry and raspberry jam and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. I think they would taste really good with fresh fruit, but we didn’t have any.

Yummy Crepes

1 cup all-purpose flour (I replaced ¼ cup of this with white whole wheat flour)

2 eggs

½ cup milk

½ cup water

¼ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons melted butter

Whisk together flour and eggs. Gradually add in milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter then beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan or griddle over medium high heat. Use approximately ¼ cup for each crape and pour on griddle (this made 9 crepes for me).

Cook crepe until the bottom is light brown. Turn and cook the other side.

Roll up or fold the crepe with fresh fruit, drizzle on some chocolate, or sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve hot.

Our Vocation

6 May, 2013Marissa

I was reading through Ephesians (in my KJV Bible) when a word caught my eye. Earlier, I’d been reading something about the word history of “vocation,” and learned that it wasn’t until fairly recently that it referred to anything other than an ecclesiastical calling. With that in mind, I thought the word choice in Ephesians 4:1 was intriguing:

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called

Prior to the mid 1500s, the definition of vocation was always linked to a calling from God (vocation, n. Oxford English Dictionary Online). Of the 11 definitions given in the OED, 5 have to do with a religious calling. Even after the word expanded, the primary meaning continued to involve a Christian calling – there simply weren’t other employments that you could choose instead of being born into. Here are two of the definitions (1a was first recorded in 1426, and 2a was in use by 1487):

1 a. The action on the part of God of calling a person to exercise some special function, especially of a spiritual nature, or to fill a certain position; divine influence or guidance towards a definite (esp. religious) career; the fact of being so called or directed towards a special work in life; natural tendency to, or fitness for, such work.

2 a. The particular function or station to which a person is called by God; a mode of life or sphere of action regarded as so determined.

Back when the King James Bible was being readied for its publication in 1611, these are the definitions they would have had in mind when they chose to translate the Greek word klesis (G2821 κλῆσις) as “vocation” here and as “calling” in ten other places. For them, a life’s work which you were called to had to involve Christianity.

Though one of the main reasons we can use “vocation” more generally now is that we have the freedom to choose a profession other than that of our parents, I think it goes deeper than that. It is telling of our society that when we think of a vocation, we rarely (if ever) think of anything religious or spiritual.

When we talk about finding your life’s work or discovering your calling, we mean finding employment that is lucrative and enjoyable for us. Even as Christians, when people ask “what do you do?” we are more likely to respond by telling them about our job than about our faith. I’m as guilty of that as anyone. But (except in a setting where we should clearly be talking about the kind of work we do) maybe we should re-think this. Our true vocation – our calling from God – should be the one that’s more interesting to talk about and more important to share.

Applesauce Cake With Cinnamon Frosting

4 May, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

I’ve been writing two blog posts, but I decided on this one for today, since it’s been a while since I posted anything about food (and I know about half my subscribers are more interested in cooking than commentary). We opened a can of our homemade applesauce yesterday that tasted a bit scorched, so I decided to bake with it. Hence, the Spiced Applesauce Cake will be coming to church with us today and shared at the snack table. I confess, I ate some for breakfast this morning. It tastes good warm, but it’s even better after cooling overnight.

Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Frosting (makes enough for 2-3 cakes)

5 oz cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8- or 9-inch square or round cake pan (alternately, a double-batch can be baked in a 13”x9” baking dish).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.

Beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in applesauce. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just combined, then stir in walnuts (if using).

a piece of applesauce cake cinnamon cream cheese frosting — a piece of Applesauce Cake

Spread batter evenly in pan and bake until golden-brown and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then invert onto a plate (larger cakes can be left in pan). Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely.

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy. Sift confectioners sugar and cinnamon over cream cheese mixture, then beat at medium speed until incorporated. Spread frosting over top of cooled cake.