We Love God!

God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

Jesus Christ demands self-denial, that is, self-negation (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), as a necessary condition of discipleship. Self-denial is a summons to submit to the authority of God as Father and of Jesus as Lord and to declare lifelong war on one's instinctive egoism. What is to be negated is not personal self or one's existence as a rational and responsible human being. Jesus does not plan to turn us into zombies, nor does he ask us to volunteer for a robot role. The required denial is of carnal self, the egocentric, self-deifying urge with which we were born and which dominates us so ruinously in our natural state. Jesus links self-denial with cross-bearing. Cross-bearing is far more than enduring this or that hardship. Carrying one's cross in Jesus' day, as we learn from the story of Jesus' own crucifixion, was required of those whom society had condemned, whose rights were forfeit, and who were now being led out to their execution. The cross they carried was the instrument of death. Jesus represents discipleship as a matter of following him, and following him as based on taking up one's cross in self-negation. Carnal self would never consent to cast us in such a role. "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die," wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was right: Accepting death to everything that carnal self wants to possess is what Christ's summons to self-denial was all about.

J.I. Packer

We Love God!

God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

Microwave Pickles

January 23, 2023

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Grains		Pickles	1	Servings

INGREDIENTS

1	lg	Cucumber; cut thin (2 cups)
1	md	Onion; sliced thin (3/4 cups)
1	c	Granulated sugar
1/2	c	White vinegar
1	ts	Salt
1/4	ts	Celery seeds
1/4	ts	Tumeric

INSTRUCTIONS

From:    laura davis <ldavis@LINKNET.KITSAP.LIB.WA.US>
Date:    Tue, 6 Aug 1996 08:14:48 -0700
Here's a good recipe for microwave pickles that is real easy. They taste
almost like a sweet pickles and my husband likes the recipe with only
peppers and onions omitting the cucumbers.
Mix all ingredients in a 2 qt. microwave safe bowl. Microwave uncovered for
7-8 minutes stirring twice until cucumber is crisp and onion is
translucent. Ladle into hot jar, cover and cool. Store in refridgerator.
I also use the same ingredients omitting the cucumbers and using 1 large
onion, 1-2 red and yellow peppers, and a couple cloves of garlic. My
husband loves them on everything from eggs to steaks. They taste almost
sweet and sour.
EAT-L Digest  5 August 96
From the EAT-L recipe list.  Downloaded from Glen's MM Recipe Archive,
http://www.erols.com/hosey.

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