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Authentic, biblical Christianity has always been an exclusive religion. This became apparent during the Roman Empire. When the Emperor Alexander Severus heard about Christianity, he placed an image of Christ beside the other gods in his private chapel, just to be safe. The Romans were happy to welcome Jesus into their pantheon. What the Romans couldn’t understand was why Christians refused to reciprocate. If the emperor was willing to worship Christ, why weren’t Christians willing to worship the emperor? Yet the early Christians insisted that in order to worship Christ at all, they had to worship Christ alone. They were even willing to stand up for this conviction by playing “Christians and lions” at the Colosseum.
Philip Graham Ryken

Thinking of birthdays raises an important question. Some of our most significant events – birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, funerals – honor particular people. At those times, how do we demonstrate that God is at the heart of every celebration? Can we honor God appropriately while focusing so much attention on people? How do we keep God at the center? We can answer those questions in various ways. Paul said, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Ac. 17:18); “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). Through Him we have birth and life and every thing and every person in our lives. So God is the reason we have anything to celebrate. He is the ultimate source of our celebrations. As we read in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” When we realize that the child, spouse, the life, the friends, the family are all gifts from our Father, it makes every celebration a “thanksgiving” day, a time to express our heart of thanks to God. Saint Augustine said something that might help us when we worry that making much of a person might somehow be competition for our love of God. “For he loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.” In other words, as my husband explains, “If created things are seen and handled as gifts of God and as mirrors of His glory, they need not be occasions of idolatry – if our delight in them is always also a delight in their Maker.” Thinking about a few special days might help us see how much this truth can play out.
Noel Piper

Chicken Maderia with Portobello

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CATEGORY CUISINE TAG YIELD
Meats Italian 1 Servings

INGREDIENTS

4 lg Boneless chicken breast halves
8 oz Portobellos; thickly sliced* and **
1 c All-purpose flour
2 tb Butter
2 tb Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste; or Chef.s salt to taste***
1 tb Fresh Italian parsley or basil; minced
Springs of either fresh Italian parsley or basil
1/2 c Dry Madeira wine
1/2 c Chicken broth

INSTRUCTIONS

(Roberta Brisson's Copycat???)
Place chicken breasts one at a time between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Lay
the chicken pieces, with the side from which the skin was removed down, on
the waxed paper and gently flatten with a mallet. Flatten them to about
1/4-inch thickness. Pounding the chicken has two purposes; 1) to make the
breast larger, and most importantly 2) is to make the thickness even so the
cooking time will be uniform.
Combine flour, salt and pepper on a clean piece of waxed paper. Coat each
chicken breast with seasoned flour; lift by one end and gently shake off
excess flour. Place each dusted piece of chicken on another piece of waxed
paper, and do not allow them to overlap each other.****
Melt 2 teaspoons butter and 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large, deep,
nonstick skillet. When the butter and oil are hot (bubbling), add
mushrooms. Sauté on high heat until mushrooms are lightly browned and
softened, and all the liquid has evaporated. Remove mushrooms from skillet
and set aside. Season mushrooms with salt, pepper (or Chef.s Salt), and
parsley or basil. Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add remaining butter
and olive oil. Add chicken to skillet cooking the deskinned side first.
Sauté chicken breasts 2-3 minutes on each side. Do not overcook. Transfer
chicken to a large platter and cover with foil. OR You can also keep the
cooked chicken breasts in a warm oven (150-200 degrees) on a large platter.
When all chicken breasts are sautéed, pour off the excess fat from the
skillet, leaving only a few drops in the pan. Pour in the wine and chicken
broth, and over medium heat, scrape the bottom of the pan, loosening all
particles adhering to the bottom and dissolving them in the liquid. OR You
can deglaze the pan in the more traditional way. Add wine to skillet and
sauté on high heat until reduced in volume by half, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add chicken broth and sauté on high heat until reduced in volume by half,
about 1 minute.
Return the portobellos to the skillet. Taste, and adjust the seasonings, if
needed. Spoon sauce over chicken. Serve.
Serve the chicken on a platter decorated with fresh sprigs of Italian
parsley or basil, whichever herb you chose to use in the dish.
Makes 4 servings.
NOTE: *You can use any kind of fresh mushrooms. I would not mix different
mushrooms. If you use shiitake mushrooms, discard the stems.
**There are many schools of thought on cleaning mushrooms, and these are
mine: I find them dirty and feel they need to be cleaned. I gently wipe
each individual mushroom with flour sack towel or I guess you could use a
paper towel (I know, I bruising them.). If keeping the stem, I slice off
the dry looking portion on bottom end it. I never wash mushrooms. Washing
mushrooms gets them water-soaked and ruins the dish. One cookbook I have
instructs you to sprinkle flour on the surface of the water before plunging
in the mushrooms. It seems to help carry off the dirt, and perhaps also
coats the mushrooms so that they don.t get water-soaked. I have never had
any success with this method. Nor do I peel mushrooms.
*** I also make my own seasoned salt and use it instead of salt and pepper
99% of the time (recipe follows).
****Dusting the chicken with flour before sautéing can be omitted. If you
choose to omit this step, you.ll probably need to add 1 to 2 teaspoons of
flour to the fat before adding any liquid. Follow instructions for Pan
Deglazing (recipe and secrets to deglazing, recipe follows). You will also
need to season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper (or chef's
salt). Source: Roberta Brisson
Posted to recipelu-digest by QueenBerta@aol.com on Feb 2, 1998

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