Name: Fudge Loaf
Ingredients: 1 c Butter or margarine; 2 c Sugar; 5 Eggs; 2 Squares unsweetened chocolate, melted; 2 1/2 c Flour; 1 ts Baking soda; 1 c Buttermilk; 1/2 c Chopped pecans

Joy is not just the spin-off of obedience to God, but part of obedience. It seems as though people are willing to let joy be a byproduct of our relationship to God, but not an essential part of it. People are uncomfortable saying that we are duty-bound to pursue joy. They say things like, 'Don't pursue joy, pursue obedience.' But Christian Hedonism responds, 'That's like saying, ';Don't eat apples; eat fruit.'' Because joy is an act of obedience. We are commanded to rejoice in God. If obedience is doing what God commands, then joy is not merely the spin-off of obedience, it is obedience. The Bible tells us over and over to pursue our joy (Psm. 32:11; 37:4; 67:4; Lk. 10:20; Phil. 4:4).

John Piper

CATEGORY	CUISINE	TAG	YIELD
Eggs, Dairy		All newly t, Breads	1	Servings

INGREDIENTS

1	c	Butter or margarine
2	c	Sugar
5		Eggs
2		Squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 1/2	c	Flour
1	ts	Baking soda
1	c	Buttermilk
1/2	c	Chopped pecans

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; beat well.
Add melted chocolate. Sift flour and baking soda together. Add to chocolate
mixture alternately with buttermilk. Sprinkle with pecans. Pour batter into
a greased 0x5 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Makes 1 loaf.
Recipe by: Home Cooking July 1996 Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #731 by
L979@aol.com on Aug 9, 1997

A Message from our Provider:

“Man is surrounded by the wonders of God.”

If Stephen saw our Lord before he died (Acts 7:56), and if Paul died and was caught up into paradise (2 Cor. 12:4), it is just possible that other believers might also have such a vision. Reports of seeing Christ or relatives long dead might have some validity. We should not expect such experiences, but they could happen. The problem, of course, is that we cannot accept without scrutiny what people claim to have seen behind the curtain. Near-death experiences may or may not reflect the true conditions of life beyond death. They must be carefully evaluated to see whether they conform to the biblical picture of the hereafter. Also, the prior beliefs of those who report what they have seen and heard are essential in evaluating what was experienced.

Erwin Lutzer

The fact is that a sound and lively truth-basis has been ejected from the premises of modern evangelicalism. Evangelicalism has been dispossessed of truth to such an extent that it is becoming frightening. In its place experience and mysticism are house-sitting the church or, if not these, then church growth pragmatism or an unhealthy preoccupation with the psychological. But the necessary doctrines of the holiness of God and His just wrath, justification by faith alone, the transforming nature of regeneration, the sovereignty of God over all of creation and in salvation itself, the nature and extent of grace in justification and in sanctification – doctrines upon which the earlier revivals thrived – have been considered unimportant and useful only for wizened old theologs holed up in ivory towers who do not relate to the church’s future.

Jim Elliff