Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

This is my entry in tomorrow’s dessert recipe round up at Simply a Musing Blog. This recipe was posted previously at my old blogger blog. It’s cheap strawberry season here and the rhubarb is up in the garden, so I’ve been thinking of making this.

One unbaked pie shell

Filling

• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups sliced fresh rhubarb (1/2 inch slices)
• 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

Topping

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oats (quick cooking or rolled)
• 1/2 cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Place pie shell in a 9 inch pie pan, fold under excess and flute edge
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg. Beat in the sugar, flour and vanilla. Fold in the sliced rhubarb and strawberries. Pour this filling into pie shell.
4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, brown sugar and oats. Cut the butter in until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of the pie filling.
5. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350F and bake for 35 minutes longer. Top should be brown and bubbly.
6. Cool a bit before serving with whipped cream or ice cream.
7. Store cooled pie in the refrigerator.

Graduation Dinner Photos

Here’s a photo of youngest son and me after his grad dinner, but before the sometimes boring and sometimes inappropriate speeches. The lack of decorum, by the way, was not on the part of the students or the parents, but by the principal and one of the teachers in their speeches. And in case you think it was just old fogey me who found some remarks shocking, my older children’s jaws dropped during some of the program.

 

The principal asked questions, intended to be humorous, about the future of some of the graduating students, and several of them crossed the line from funny to rude or humiliating, and at least one had sexual innuendo which was just disturbingly creepy when made by a fifty-year-old principal about an 18-year-old girl student.

 

In youngest son’s case, the supposedly funny question was about whether he would become a male stripper. I think the remark was meant to be a funny compliment about his athlete’s physique, but it embarrassed youngest son. Made by one of his friends or by his brother in a teasing way, he might have thought if funny; but hearing it from his principal in front of several hundred people, his family included, was a whole different matter.

 

I’m not sure most 17 and 18-year-olds are ready to endure public roasting type remarks anyway, even if they were all tastefully done. Sure they laugh it off—they have to, or they look like a poor sport—but do you think they enjoy it?

 

But it was fun to see youngest son all spiffied up and in a tux, and to see all the other students in their formal wear, too. Two of youngest son’s close friends gave a speech together that was short, funny, and superbly done, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that, either. So all was not lost.

 

 
Here’s a photo I took of all four kids together.

Seven Statements about the Son: Upholder of the Universe

Hebrews 1:2b-3 give us seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. So far, I’ve posted something on the first four statements, and this post is on to the fifth: he upholds the universe by the word of his power. As in the other posts, I’ve divided the statement into phrases, which I’ll look at individually.

• Upholds the Universe
  It is because of Christ that the universe continues to exist. Paul makes a similar statement in Colossians 1:17 when he says that it is by Christ that “all things hold together.”
   
  The word upholds means “sustains” or “maintains”, and the verb tense tells us that Christ is continually upholding “all things.” Right now, as I write, and right now, as you read, everything in the universe continues to exist because Christ is sustaining or maintaining it. That the laws of the universe continue to be laws we can count on is through Christ’s upholding work. The gravity that coheres everything is here because Christ continues throughout history to sustain it’s existence.
   
  Do you think of God’s relationship to the creation as something like a watchmaker’s relationship to a watch? The watchmaker puts the pieces together and then winds the watch and lets it run. This statement tells us that Christ’s relationship to his creation is much different (and more involved) than that of a watchmaker. There is no “letting it run” with Christ; He continually keeping things in the universe running by his own power.
  
   
  But there’s even more to it than that. Leon Morris says that the thought is that Christ

  is carrying [the universe] along, bearing it toward an important goal. Creation is not aimless: it is part of God’s plan and the Son is continually bearing creation along toward the fulfillment of the plan.¹

  Previously in this text, we learned that Christ is the creator of the world: what’s here is here because he made it. Now we learn that Christ is the upholder of the world: what’s here continues to work because he continues to run it.
    
• The Word of His Power
  Christ’s word—his powerful word—is the means by which he upholds all things. Later on, in Hebrews 11, our writer tells us that the universe was created by God’s word, and it’s the same word for word used in both places. In Hebrews 11, it is God’s word that creates everything, and here it is Christ’s word that carries everything along toward God’s goal for it.  This is a perfect time to use the word fiat, which is a command that accomplishes something on the basis of that command alone.  Christ’s powerful word is an effective command, and that’s exactly the idea in this phrase. Christ created it all by fiat and he sustains it all by fiat. Christ commands and the universe responds. 

If you were around me in real life, you’d find that this statement is a piece of scripture that I quote fairly often. I like it a lot. There is something about those words that intrigues me, even though I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s very comforting to think that the universe is nothing like a watch winding down; but rather, there is a rational and personal will keeping it together, and a rational and eternal energy source carrying it along. It’s also exciting to think that God’s command, which is able to bring thing into existence out of nothing, is not simply something that was used once in the past at the creation. It is something that is used for every nanosecond of time itself, and for every nanosecond of my life and every small detail in it. God’s command called up the sprouting seeds in my garden.

 

This statement is quite closely related to the second statement in this text, the one telling us that Christ is the creator of the world. That one was an affirmation of Christ’s diety, and this one is too. (Do I sound a little like a broken record?) Having the sort of authority that comes with an assuredly effective  command, like the creative command of the second statement and the sustaining command of this one, is authority that belongs to God alone. 

 

What does the statement that Christ  upholds the universe by the word of his power mean for us?

• It should cause us to worship him.
• No matter what our circumstances, we can view our lives and everything in them as being sustained by God’s powerful word, and know that he is carrying everything along toward his own perfect goal.

¹ Leon Morris, Hebrews: Bible Study Commentary, page 20.

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? Is there anything else you’d like to add or discuss?

Recipe Round Up Information Page

I’ve added a Recipe Round Up Information Page and linked it from the Recipe Round Up graphic in the side bar.

Update on Monday, June 11, 2007 at 8:43AM by rebecca

Speaking of the Recipe Round Up, don’t forget that the next one is this coming Thursday, June 14 at Simply a Musing Blog. Category: Desserts.

Sunday's Hymn: Reader's Choice

This week’s hymn is chosen by Carla of Reflections of the Times. Abide with Me is written by the Scottish minister Henry Lyte. The most commonly told story of this hymn is that Henry Lyte wrote it when he was dying of tuberculosis, but at the Center for Church Music, the suggestion is that it is more likely that

he wrote this hymn in 1820, after visiting a dying friend, who, on his death bed, kept murmuring the passage from Luke 24:29, where the disciples who were traveling to Emmaus asked Jesus to “abide with us, for it is evening and day is almost spent.”

If so, he would have been in his twenties when he wrote it.

Abide with Me

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Listen: Voice, piano, or organ. 

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Arise, My Soul, Arise at The Happy Wonderer
• Art Thou Weary at Above the Clouds
• The Awakened Sinner, from The Valley of Vision  at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• From Greenland’s Icy Mountains at John Dekker’s Journal
• Master, Speak! Thy Servant Heareth at Seasonings of the Heart
• A Mighty Fortress is Our God at joythruChrist
• The Collect for The First Sunday after Trinity at Magic Statistics
• It is Well with My Soul at Thoughts from the Teahouse
• There is A Higher Throne at Hiraeth
• In Christ Alone at Jam and Books
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list. If you’d like to see your favorite hymn featured as a Reader’s Choice hymn, go here and leave a comment. Just tell me your favorite hymn and a little bit about why you like it and I’ll feature your hymn when your turn comes.

Are the elect only effectually called?

All the elect, and they only, are effectually called;[1] although others may be, and often are, outwardly called by the ministry of the word,[2] and have some common operations of the Spirit;[3] who, for their wilful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them, being justly left in their unbelief, do never truly come to Jesus Christ.[4]

Click to read more ...

Seven Statements about the Son: Exact Imprint of God’s Nature

Hebrews 1:2b-3 contains seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. This post examines the fourth of those seven statements: [The Son] is … the exact imprint of his nature. As I did in the first post in this series, I’ll start with the ending phrase and then move forward to the first phrase.

• His Nature
  The his, of course, refers to God the Father. It’s God’s nature our text is referring to.
  
  The word nature means substance, essence or being. It’s the essential nature of something. God’s nature, then,  is what God really is, and this statement tells us that  Christ is the “exact imprint ” of what God really is.

• The Exact Imprint
  The word translated exact imprint is the word used for an impression made on metal by a die or by a stamp on hot wax. The word was also used more generally for anything that was a copy of an original, or for something that is just like the thing it comes from.
  
  The point of saying that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature is to tell us that the Son shows us exactly what God is. Christ is exactly like God, not just like him in a few ways, but of exactly the same essence or being. Christ is essentially identical to God. Paul says something very similar in Colossians 1:15 when he says that Christ is “is the image of the invisible God.”
   
  It’d be possible, I suppose, for the word “imprint” to lead us in the wrong direction were it not for the rest of the phrase. An imprint is often something less than the original, like the imprint of a stamp is less than the whole stamp; but in this case, we know that Christ is the imprint of what God really is—the whole of God’s essence or being— so he can’t be anything less than what God is.
  
   
  However, while an exact imprint is just like the original, it is also distinct from it, and this may well be another of the truths that our author is expressing by the word “exact imprint.” Christ is exactly like the Father; he shows us the Father perfectly; he is of the same nature or being as the Father; yet he is distinct from the Father..

Can you see how closely related this statement is to the previous one, which said that Christ is the radiance of God’s glory? That Christ is the radiance of God’s glory means that he show us all of what God is. So, also, with this statement. Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature, which means that he shows us exactly what God is. These are, I think, parallel statements. I bet you’re not surprised that the church fathers used this statement latest in their arguments against the Arians, too.

 

What does the statement that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature mean for us?

• It is another affirmation of Christ’s deity: that he is equal with God, and of the same nature as God. It is also an affirmation of Christ’s distinction from the Father.
• It teaches us that we can know the invisible God only through Christ, since Christ is God’s perfect representation, and he came to earth to show us God
• It should cause us to worship Christ as God..

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us?  Is there anything else you’d like to add or discuss?

Spring in the Ibex Valley

Copyright © 2007, Andrew Stark. All rights reserved.

 (Click on photo for larger view.) 

 

What makes the water in some lakes green? There’s a white layer of sediment on the bottom, which makes the water appear to be a brilliant greenish blue when the sun shines on it.  Technically, this sediment is called marl, which is made up of clay and fine-grained fragments of decomposed shells.

Seven Statements about the Son: Radiance of the Glory of God

In this post, we’re moving on the the third of the seven statements about the Son made by the writer in Hebrews 1:2b-3. Christ, the writer tells us, is the radiance of the glory of God. Athanasius used this statement in his fight against the Arian heresy because he said that it showed that Christ was co-eternal with God the Father. Just what exactly does it mean that Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God,” and how did this help Athanasius prove that Christ was without beginning in the same way that the Father is without beginning?

• The Radiance
  
  The word translated radiance can be understood in two ways. It can refer to the shining forth of brightness like the rays of the sun shine forth from the sun; or it can refer to the reflecting of brightness like a mirror reflects light.
   
  The Message takes the word in this second way, saying that the “Son perfectly mirrors God.” A few commentaries interpret it this way, too, explaining that the Son reflects God’s glory. Most translations and commentaries, however, seem to understand radiance in the first way—that Christ shines forth with God’s glory. Commonly, the word effulgence, which means “the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light,” is used to describe this sort of radiance. God’s glory is in Christ, we might say, and he beams it outward. One way to express this idea might be to say that Christ expresses the glory of God to us in the same way that the brightness of the sun shows forth the sun itself.
   
  As you can probably tell from how much space I’ve given to explaining the second way of understanding radiance, this is the meaning that I think is the most likely. But either way, the statements tell us that we see the glory of God in the Son.
   
• The Glory of God
  The phrase “the glory of God” is almost synonymous with God himself in all his majesty. All of what God is, taken together, is the glory of God.  Wherever God is present, his glory is present, too; and God’s glory is inseparable from God.
  
  We are told in Colossians 2:9 that “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” in Christ, and I’d think that the phrase “the whole fullness of deity” used in this verse is very close to the idea of the glory of God. In Colossians 2:9, then, we have the fullness of deity dwelling in Christ; in this statement from Hebrews 1, it’s God’s glory (or his majesty) radiating or reflecting from Christ.  If the the first statement from Colossians is a claim of deity for Christ, so is our statement from Hebrews.

To summarize, we can understand the statement that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God to mean that God’s majesty (or his deity) shines forth in Christ. It is another way of saying that he is God.

 

This is the way Athanasius understood it, too, and he argued for Christ’s full and eternal deity from this statement in ATHANASIUS, Against Arius:

But these men dare to separate them, and to say that He is alien from the substance and eternity of the Father; and impiously to represent Him as changeable, not perceiving, that by speaking thus, they make Him to be, not one with the Father, but one with created things. Who does not see, that the brightness cannot be separated from the light, but that it is by nature proper to it, and co-existent with it, and is not produced after it?

According to Athanasius, this statement in Hebrews showed that Christ is of the same nature as God; that he is eternal in the same way God is; that he is both inseparable from God, and yet distinct from him.

 

So what does the statement that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God mean for us?

• Just like the previous statement in this series, this one is also a strong affirmation of Christ’s deity and co-eternality with the Father, and should be useful as biblical evidence for the full eternal deity of Christ
• That Christ is the radiance of the glory of God compels us to worship him.
• Because of this statement, you can sing Shine, Jesus, Shine guilt-free, since it is not without at least one morsel of theological meat: Jesus does indeed shine with the Father’s glory, and that tell us some important things about him. 

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us?  How do you understand the word “radiance” in this statement? Anything else you’d like to add or discuss is welcome, too. 

Sunday's Hymn: Reader's Choice

This week’s hymn is the favorite of Juanita of Jam and Books and Ruthie Cuiabana, and it also receives special mention from Lisa Johnson of Thoughts from the Tea House. It’s a hymn from Francis Ridley Havergal, who is, in my opinion, one of the 19th century’s best hymn writers.

Like a River Glorius

 

Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way.

Refrain

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.

Here’s a quote from on peace with God from one of Frances Havergal’s personal letters.

We have peace with God … It is yours already, purchased for you, made for you, sealed for you, pledged to you – by the word of the Father and the precious blood of Jesus.

Listen to this hymn: Piano or male voice.

 

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Blessed Quietness at The Happy Wonderer
• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing at IMD 2.0
  
• Beyond the Sunset at Above the Clouds
• The Benefits Divine at The Thirsty Theologian.
  
• Thou, Whose Almighty Word at John Dekker’s Journal
• Breathe on Me, Breath of God at Seasonings of the Heart
• Author of Life Divine at joythruChrist
• The Collect for Trinity Sunday at Magic Statistics
• A few quotes from Fanny Crosby at Thoughts from the Teahouse.
• John of Blogotional prays for his father, who is not doing well after last week’s car accident. Update: John’s father passed away yesterday.
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list. If you’d like to see your favorite hymn featured as a Reader’s Choice hymn, go here and leave a comment. Just tell me your favorite hymn and a little bit about why you like it and I’ll feature your hymn when your turn comes.