Sweet Truth & Sweet Dessert

Last week I was talking to my good friend Kelly and asking her what she had been doing for her times in the word AKA quiet times. She told me she had been going through John Piper's book The Passion of the Christ... 50 reasons why Christ suffered and died. This is a book one of my small group leaders had given me over a year ago, and I used to read it every morning for my quiet time, but recently had not been doing so. Well, to make a long story short I decided to begin to read it daily again. This book captures the gospel from so many different angles, and gives a fresh perspective of God's perfect plan in sending His Son. Though, by God's grace, I have been spending time in God's word pretty much on a regular basis, something vital has been missing. And I now realize that I have been neglecting to remind myself of the Gospel, the redeeming truth of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for me, a sinner, to be made right with God. Not placing this truth on the "windshield" of my day, gives me such a tainted view and really sets me up for discouragement.

There are several ways we can remind ourselves of this truth daily, and reading this book is just one of the many. The reason why I have found this book helpful is that it always starts out with the passage(s) in scripture that pertains to that chapter. Piper takes you right to God's word first before he gives his doctrinal explanation. The book has 50 chapters (all 2 pages long) and basically each chapter summarizes one reason why Christ had to suffer and die according to God's word. Some of the chapter titles include:

To Absorb the Wrath of God
To Bring us to Faith and Keep us Faithful
To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us
So That We Might Belong to Him... and many more.

This book includes sound doctrinal truths, but in a clear easy to grasp format. Even after just four days of reading through these truths, I am finding my heart so encouraged by the truth of the Gospel...something so profound....yet so easy to forget!?!

In Piper's introduction of the book he includes the questions he intends to answer in the book:

When all is said and done, the most crucial question is: Why? Why did Christ suffer and die? Not why in the sense of cause, but why in the sense of purpose. What did Christ achieve by his passion? Why did he have to suffer so much? What great thing was happening on Calvary for the world? That's what the rest of this book is about. I have gathered from the New Testament fifty reasons why Christ suffered and died. Not fifty causes, but fifty purposes. Infinitely more important than who killed Jesus is the question: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending his Son to die? To that we now turn.

This is just one option for a "Gospel Reminder", by all means not the only option... but a question we should all be asking ourselves on a regular basis is:

How am I reminding myself of the Gospel daily?



on another note...

Here's a little yummy dessert I tried out today:
Easy Lemon Squares:
Crust:
1/4 C granulated sugar
3 T butter or stick margarine softened
1 C all purpose flour
Topping:
3 large eggs
3/4 C granulated sugar
2 Teas. grated lemon rind
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 T all purpose flour
1/2 teas baking powder
1/8 teas salt
2 Teas. powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven 350
2. To prepare crust beat 1/4 C sugar and butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add 1 Cup flour to sugar mixture beating at low speed until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Gently press mixture into bottom of an 8 inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
3. To prepare topping beat eggs at medium speed until foamy. Add 3/4 cup granulated sugar and next 5 ingredients; beat until well blended. Pour mixture over crust. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Sift powdered sugar evenly over top.

For those of you who are health conscience: (I got this recipe from cooking light)
There are 16 servings and the serving size is 1 square
Calories: 118, fat 3.2g (sat 1.7g) ;) Protein 2.2 g, Carb 20.5 g