Surely Paul could have made the gospel more palatable – and less dangerous – by saying it was about something else. Something cleaner and less ridiculous than the cross. Something more glorious. Less disgusting. He didn’t do that, though. “I decided,” Paul said, “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). In the face of the worst cultural prejudice imaginable, he fixed the entire gospel squarely and immovably on the fact that Jesus was tacked to a stauros and left to die. If he had been trying to find a surefire way to turn first-century people off from his “good news,” he couldn’t have done better than that! So why did he do it? It’s simple. He did it because he knew that leaving the cross out, or running past it with a glance, or making it peripheral to the gospel, or allowing anything else to displace it at the center of the gospel would make it, finally, no gospel at all.

Greg Gilbert

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Eggs		Food networ, Food6	1	servings

INGREDIENTS

12		Dried pear halves
2	tb	Calvados
150	ml	Water
175	g	Plain flour
75	g	Unsalted butter
45	ml	Cold water
60	ml	Apricot jam
110	g	Unsalted butter
110	g	Caster sugar
75	g	Ground almonds
25	g	Plain flour
2		Eggs
2	tb	Icing sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

FRANGIPANE FILLING
Place the pear halves in a pan with the Calvados and water. Bring to the
boil then remove from the heat, cover and allow to cool for at least 2
hours.
For the pastry case, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture
resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the water and mix to a firm dough. Roll out
the pastry and line 6x10cm loose-based flan tins.
For the frangipane, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and
fluffy. Lightly beat the eggs and add a little at a time, beating well
after each addition. Add the almonds and flour and gently fold in.
Spread 2 heaped teaspoonfuls of the jam over the base of each tartlet then
spoon the frangipane into the cases so that they are two thirds full.
Smooth the surface and place two pear halves side by side on the top of
each tartlet.
Bake at 180C/350F/gas 4 for 25-30 minutes until the frangipane is set and
golden brown.
Remove from the tins, brush with the remaining warmed apricot jam and dust
with icing sugar before serving.
Converted by MC_Buster.
NOTES : Makes 6 tartlets
Converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

A Message from our Provider:

“God Answers Knee Mail”

There are a lot of temptations for pastors, one of which, because of our public role, is to think of ourselves more highly than we should. And in so doing, we can develop a tendency to depreciate those who are under our leadership. This can be manifested in a number of ways. Our messages can be occasions where we talk down to people. We can berate people about particular sins, though our own sins are just as heinous. We can assume a know-it-all attitude. We can conduct meetings in such a way that we take advantage of people or make light of their thoughts or suggestions. We can make public, veiled references to people. And we can use humor about our members from the pulpit at their emotional expense.

Curtis Thomas