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

Gossip leaves a wide trail of devastation wherever and however it goes – word of mouth, email, blogging, YouTube. It erodes trust and destroys morale. It creates a social environment of suspicion where everyone must wonder what is being said behind their backs and whether appearances of friendship are sincere. It ruins hard-won reputations with cowardly but effective weapons of misrepresentation. It manipulates people into taking sides when no such action is necessary or beneficial. It unleashes the dark powers of psychological transference, doing violence to the gossiper, to the one receiving the gossip and to the person being spoken against. It makes the Body of Christ look like the Body of Antichrist – destroyers rather than healers. It exhausts the energies we would otherwise devote to positive witness. It robs our Lord of the Church he deserves. It exposes the hostility in our hearts and discredits the gospel in the eyes of the world. Then we wonder why we don’t see more conversions, why “the ground is so hard.”
Ray Ortlund

Some Reasons Baptists Do Not Baptize Infants: 1. In every New Testament command and instance of baptism the requirement of faith precedes baptism. So infants incapable of faith are not to be baptized. 2. There are no explicit instances of infant baptism in all the Bible. In the three “household baptisms” mentioned (household of Lydia, Acts 16:15; household of the Philippian jailer, Acts 16:30–33; household of Stephanus, 1 Corinthians 1:16) no mention is made of infants, and in the case of the Philippian jailer, Luke says explicitly, “They spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house” (Acts 16:32), implying that the household who were baptized could understand the Word. 3. Paul (in Colossians 2:12) explicitly defined baptism as an act done through faith: “…having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God.” In baptism you were raised up with Christ through faith – your own faith, not your parents’ faith. If it is not “through faith” – if it is not an outward expression of inward faith – it is not baptism. 4. The apostle Peter, in his first letter, defined baptism this way, “…not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). Baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience.” It is an outward act and expression of inner confession and prayer to God for cleansing, that the one being baptized does, not his parents. 5. When the New Testament church debated in Acts 15 whether circumcision should still be required of believers as part of becoming a Christian, it is astonishing that not once in that entire debate did anyone say anything about baptism standing in the place of circumcision. If baptism is the simple replacement of circumcision as a sign of the new covenant, and thus valid for children as well as for adults, as circumcision was, surely this would have been the time to develop the argument and so show that circumcision was no longer necessary. But it is not even mentioned.
John Piper

    • Creamy Celery Soup

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    CATEGORY CUISINE TAG YIELD
    Vegetables, Meats, Dairy, Grains Dujour05, New 1 servings

    INGREDIENTS

    1 ts Butter
    2 ts Vegetable oil
    2 c Celery; roughly chopped
    1/4 c Onions; roughly chopped
    3 tb Flour
    1 1/2 c Chicken stock
    1 1/2 c Heavy cream
    Salt and pepper to taste
    1 Pinches dried thyme
    1 Pinches dried oregano
    1 Pinches dried tarragon
    2 ts Celery seeds; toasted and ground
    Celery leaves for garnish

    INSTRUCTIONS

    In a medium sauce pot, melt the butter with the oil and saute the
celery and onion for approximately 1 1/2 minutes or until
translucent. Add the flour and blend together to make a roux. Add
chicken stock and bring to a boil and whisk until it becomes lightly
thickened and vegetables are tender Add the heavy cream and blend
well together with a mixer.
Add the remaining ingredients and puree soup in a blender in batches.
Serve garnished with celery leaves.
S: 4 servings
Converted by MC_Buster.
Recipe by: CHEF DU JOUR SHOW #DJ9356
Converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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