A few words to those among us who have homosexual desires: 1. Acknowledge the presence and pain of a disordered sexuality, with all the ambiguity of where it came from – much like other disorders and disabilities – and do not define your God-given personhood by your disordered sexuality. 2. Put your faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of all your sins and for the gift of God’s righteousness and for the fulfillment of all his promises to you (Romans 1:16-17). The only sinner who can successfully battle his sins is a justified sinner. In other words, you fight against sexual sins from relationship, not for a relationship. 3. Begin to reorder your entire life around the centrality of the glory of God as your highest treasure. Homosexual sinning, like all other sinning, is an echo of exchanging the glory of God for other things. So restore the sun of God’s glory to its place at the center of your soul and all the planets of your desires will begin to return to their God-given orbit. 4. Resolve to live a chaste and, if necessary, celibate life by the power of God's Spirit, with the confidence that if God does not heal now, he will in the age to come; and all the patience of purity of will be worth it (Romans 8:18). May God grant all the single people (and married!) at Bethlehem a passion for purity. 5. Seek wholesome friendships with both sexes, especially in groups… The more we do things in groups rather than pairs, the more opportunities we create for wholesome non-sexual relationships. 6. …There are ministries like Outposts here in our cities that have insights and experience and encouragement and Biblical counsel from a depth of awareness that goes beyond what most of us can bring. This may be something God would use in your life. 7. Take a bold and compassionate stand for truth…and hold up God’s purposes for human sexuality, namely, as an expression of Christ’s love for the Church dramatized in the covenant love of marriage between one man and one woman.

John Piper

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Vegetables, Eggs		Breads	1	Loaf

INGREDIENTS

2	c	Unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2	ts	Salt
1	ts	Baking soda
1/2	ts	Baking powder
2	ts	Ground cinnamon
2	ts	Ground ginger
1/2	ts	Grated nutmeg
1/2	c	Vegetable shortening
3/4	c	Firmly packed brown sugar
2	lg	Eggs, beaten slightly
1	cn	(16-ounce) solid pack pumpkin
1		Bottle (9-ounce) Major Grey's Mango Chutney
1/2	c	Coarsely chopped pecans
1/2	c	Slivered dried apricots

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour a 9-by-5-inch
loaf pan.
Combine the flour, salt, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, ginger and
nutmeg in a bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, cream the shortening and
sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the eggs and
pumpkin puree until well combined. With a wooden spoon, stir in the chutney
and then the flour mixture to make a moderately thick batter. Mix in the
pecans and apricots just until distributed evenly. Spoon the batter into
the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of
the bread comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Let the bread cool in the pan
for 15 minutes and then invert it onto a rack, turn right side up and let
cool completely. Slice into 1/2 inch thick slices and accompany with
butter, if desired.
Nutritional information per serving: Calories 220, protein 3 g,
carbohydrate 33 g, fat 9 g, cholesterol 24 mg, sodium 284 mg.
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest  by Julie Bertholf <jewel1@ix.netcom.com> on
Mar 23, 1998

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