Christmas Stollen (quick-bread Variety)

Salvation is by grace, by grace alone. Nevertheless, divine grace is not exercised at the expense of holiness. It never compromises with sin. It is also true that salvation is a free gift, but an empty hand must receive it and not a hand which still tightly grasps the world. Something more than believing is necessary to salvation. A heart that is steeled in rebellion against God cannot savingly believe. It must first be broken. Only those who are spiritually blind would declare that Christ will save any who despise His authority and refuse His yoke. Those preachers who tell sinners that they may be saved without forsaking their idols, without repenting, without surrendering to the lordship of Christ are as erroneous and dangerous as others who insist that salvation is by works and that heaven must be earned by our own efforts.

A.W. Pink

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Grains, Dairy, Eggs		Breads, Cakes, Holiday	1	Servings

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2	c	Flour, all-purpose
2	t	Baking powder
3/4	c	Sugar
1/2	t	Salt
1/2	t	Mace
8		Cardomon seed pods, seeds
		Removed and crushed
3/4	c	Almonds, blanched ground
1/2	c	Butter, soft
1	c	Cream cheese, softened
1		Egg
1/2	t	Vanilla extract
1/2	t	Almond extract
2	T	Brandy
1/2	c	Currants
1/2	c	Golden raisins
1/3	c	Candied lemon peel, chopped
1/4	c	Butter, melted
1/4	c	Sugar, powdered

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking powder,
sugar, salt, mace, and crushed cardamon seeds. Stir in the ground
almonds. Cut in the soft butter until the mixture looks something  like
coarse sand. In a blender, cream the egg with the cream cheese,
vanilla, almond extract, and brandy. Pour it into a bowl and stir in
the dried fruit. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until everything
is is well blended. Work the dough into a ball and turn it out on a
lightly floured board. Knead it for a few minutes until it is smooth,
then place it in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.  (You can
store the dough in the refrigerator for several days, then take it  out
to bake when ever you like.) Shape the dough into a flat, oval  loaf,
about 10 inches long and eight inches wide. With the blunt edge  of a
knife, crease the loaf about 1/2 inch off center, down the  length of
it.  Fold the smaller side of the creased loaf over the  wider side.
Brush the top of the folded loaf with the melted butter.  Place the
stollen loaf on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for  about 45
minutes, until it starts to turn brown on the outside.  Remove and
allow to cool a little bit. Dust lightly with powdered  (i.e.,
confectioner's) sugar.  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at
www.synapse.com/~gemini

A Message from our Provider:

“You’re never too old for God”

Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients) ---------------------------------------------- Calories: 5054 Calories From Fat: 2441 Total Fat: 280g Cholesterol: 807.2mg Sodium: 2999.1mg Potassium: 2697.5mg Carbohydrates: 584.5g Fiber: 27.7g Sugar: 304.9g Protein: 81g

But what about love and loyalty when no one else seems to be hurt, such as premarital sexual relationships? Such an argument does not apprehend biblical love. Love is not simply the absence of obvious injury to anyone. For example, critical thoughts don’t victimize, but they are unloving and wrong. Defining love in terms of whether people get hurt misses the heart of biblical teaching. We may not automatically decide what form love takes. God tells us how to love. When we love on our terms rather than His, we are in sin. Even if our sin does not seem to hurt another human being, it is still sin. If sin were reduced to hurting others, then we could become morally perfect by isolating ourselves from all people. Sin, however, is not primarily a human-against-human action. It is human-against-God. God defines love as obedience to Him.

Edward Welch