[The resurrection of the body] is the Christian’s brightest hope. Many believers make a mistake when they long to die and long for Heaven. Those things may be desirable, but they are not the ultimate for the saints. The saints in Heaven are perfectly free from sin and, so far as they are capable of it, are perfectly happy. But a disembodied spirit never can be perfect until it is reunited to its body. God made man not pure spirit but body and spirit, and the spirit alone will never be content until it sees its physical frame raised to its own condition of holiness and glory. Think not that our longings here below are not shared in by the saints in Heaven. They do not groan so far as any pain can be, but they long with greater intensity than you and I for the 'adoption...the redemption of our bodies.' People have said there is no faith in Heaven, and no hope. They know not what they say - in Heaven faith and hope have their fullest swing and their brightest sphere, for glorified saints believe in God’s promise and hope for the resurrection of the body.

C.H. Spurgeon

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Meats, Grains		Taste4	4	servings

INGREDIENTS

6	tb	Olive oil
2	lb	Stewing lamb; from neck or shoulder, cut 1" to 2" cubes,
		With bones
2		Onions; finely chopped
2		Garlic cloves; finely minced
1	ts	Oregano
1	ts	Cinnamon
1	c	Peeled; seeded and chopped tomatoes
3	tb	Tomato paste
1	c	Stock -; (or more)
2	tb	Chopped fresh mint
		Salt; to taste
		Freshly-ground black pepper; to taste
1 1/2	lb	Okra; trimmed
1 1/2	c	Red wine vinegar; plus
2	tb	Red wine vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large skillet heat 4 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat,
add lamb and fry, turning to brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon transfer meat to a baking dish. Add onions to
skillet and saute until tender and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add
oregano, cinnamon, tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and mint, stirring
well to combine, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour sauce
over lamb. Cover baking dish and bake until liquid is absorbed, about
1 1/2 hours.
Meanwhile, in a nonreactive bowl soak okra in 1 1/2 cups vinegar for
30 minutes. Drain, rinse and pat dry. In a skillet heat remaining 2
tablespoons oil over medium heat, add okra and saute for 3 minutes,
stirring gently.
Remove stew from oven and arrange okra on top in a spoke pattern.
Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar. Re-cover dish, return
to oven and bake 35 minutes more, adding a little more stock or water
if mixture seems too dry. Serve stew with rice.
This recipe yields 4 servings.
Source: "TASTE with David Rosengarten - (Show # TS-4677) - from the
TV FOOD NETWORK" S(Formatted for MC5): "07-02-1999 by Joe Comiskey -
joecomiskey@netzero.net"
Recipe by: David Rosengarten
Converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

A Message from our Provider:

“God weeps for you”

God's holiness and righteous glory have been desecrated, defamed, and blasphemed by our sin. It is with a holy God that we have to do in our guilt! And there can be no justification, no reconciliation, no cleansing of our conscience, unless the holiness of God is honored and the defamation of His righteousness is repaired. The urgency of our problem with guilt is not that we feel miserable, but that God's name has been blasphemed. We live in a day with such a horrendously inflated view of human potential and such a miserably tiny view of God's holiness that we can scarcely understand what the real problem of guilt is. The real problem is not, 'How can God be loving and yet condemn people with such little sins?' The real problem is, 'How can God be righteous if He acquits such miserable sinners as we?' There can be no lasting remedy for guilt which does not deal with God's righteous indignation against sin. That's why there had to be a sacrifice. And not just any sacrifice, but the sacrifice of the Son of God! No one else, and no other act, could repair the defamation done to the glory of God by our sins. But when Jesus died for the glory of the Father, satisfaction was made. The glory was restored. Righteousness was demonstrated. Henceforth it is clear that when God, by grace, freely justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5), He is not indifferent to the demands of justice. It is all based on the grand transaction between the Father and the Son on the morning of Good Friday at Calvary. No other gospel can take away our guilt because no other gospel corresponds to the cosmic proportions of our sin in relation to God.

John Piper