We Love God!

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

Make him a minister of the Word! Fling him into his office, tear the office sign from the door and nail on the sign: Study. Take him off the mailing list, lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts, broken hearts, the flippant lives of a superficial flock, and the Holy God. Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Let him come out only when he is bruised and beaten into being a blessing. Set a time clock on him that will imprison him with thought and writing about God for 40 hours a week. Shut his garrulous mouth forever spouting "remarks" and stop his tongue always tripping lightly over everything nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dare break silence. Bend his knees in the lonesome valley, fire him from the PTA and cancel his country club membership; burn his eyes with weary study, wreck his emotional poise with worry for God, and make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk before God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God. Rip out his telephone, burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets, refuse his glad hand, and put water in the gas tank of his community buggy. Give him a Bible and tie him in his pulpit and make him preach the Word of the living God. Test him, quiz him and examine him; humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine, and shame him for his glib comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political in-fighting. Laugh at his frustrated effort to play psychiatrist, scorn his insipid morality, refuse his supine intelligence, and compel him to be a minister of the Word. If he dotes on being pleasing, demand that he please God and not man. Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." When at long last, he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a Word from God; if he does not, then dismiss him and tell him you can read the morning paper, digest the television commentaries, think through the day's superficial problems, manage the community's myriad drives, and bless assorted baked potatoes and green beans ad infinitum better than he can. Command him not to come back until he has read and re-read, written and re-written, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, "Thus saith the Lord." And when he is burned out by the flaming Word that coursed through him, when he is consumed at last by the fiery Grace blazing through him, and when he who was privileged to translate the truth of God to man is finally translated from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently, blow a muted trumpet and lay him down softly, place a two-edged sword on his coffin and raise a tune triumphant, for he was a brave soldier of the Word and e'er he died he had become a spokesman for his God.

Floyd Shafer

We Love God!

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

Couscous And Cherry Tomato Salad With Basil

January 27, 2023

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
	Sami	Cklive18, Pdate	1	Servings

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2	c	Water
1	t	Salt
1	c	Couscous
1		Vine-ripened tomato
1	t	Dijon mustard
2	t	Balsamic vinegar
2	T	Extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2	pt	Vine-ripened red and yellow
		cherry about 2/3 pound
		tomatoes
1/4	c	Packed fresh basil leaves
1		Fat, 0 Other Carbohydrates

INSTRUCTIONS

In a 2-quart saucepan bring water and salt to a boil and stir in
couscous. Immediately remove pan from heat and let couscous stand,
covered, 5 minutes.  Cut medium tomato into quarters and in a blender
puree with mustard  and vinegar until smooth. With motor running add
oil in a slow  stream. Season dressing with salt and pepper. Halve
cherry tomatoes  and tear basil leaves into bite-size pieces. In a
large bowl toss  together couscous, dressing, cherry tomatoes, and
basil and season  with salt and pepper.  Yield: 4 servings  Converted
by MC_Buster.  Per serving: 894 Calories (kcal); 28g Total Fat; (28%
calories from  fat); 22g Protein; 135g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol;
2222mg Sodium  Food Exchanges: 9 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0
Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 5  Recipe by: COOKING LIVE SHOW #CL9382  Converted
by MM_Buster v2.0n.

A Message from our Provider:

“Your pain touches God’s heart”

Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients) ---------------------------------------------- Calories: 939 Calories From Fat: 16 Total Fat: 1.9g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 2536.6mg Potassium: 1532mg Carbohydrates: 219g Fiber: 14.3g Sugar: 5.6g Protein: 13.8g