Gluten Free & God Seeking

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Grandma's Country Style Harvard Beets

Besides being pretty, beets are good for detoxing your liver. Do the extra work and make them from scratch. It is well worth it! Sometimes if I'm short on time, I'll just scrub up some whole beets and let them slowly simmer until they're done and then cut them up.

This is one of my grandmother's favorite ways of serving beets. It's one of the recipes I wrote up from her recipe box years ago. They also make a delicious side dish during the holidays.

Harvard Beets

1. Prepare beets: Scrub and cook 2 medium beets enough to make 2 cups sliced. Save 1/4 cup of liquid.

2. In a saucepan:
(1) Mix together 1/6 of apple cider vinegar, 1/8 cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp. tapioca starch, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 cup of reserved beet juice. Stir until smooth.

(2) Then add 1 T butter and cook until thickened.

(3) Add the beets and cook 2-3 minutes more.

Other Vegetable Recipes on This Blog:

Savory Roasted Root Vegetables (This recipe also has beets!)

Grandma's Scalloped Potatoes

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Looking at the Spiritual Meanings in Ezekiel's Visions - The Vision of the Return of God's Glory to His House in Ezekiel 43 - Part 2 of 2

During the time of Samuel, even the priesthood had become degraded. God couldn't even speak to Eli the high priest, He only spoke to Samuel who was just a child at the time. Things were so upside down, the Israelites even took the ark of God with them into a battle with the Philistines. What were they thinking?!

     And we know from 1 Samuel 4 that God let it be captured because of how far the Israelites had fallen away from God. When Eli heard that the ark was captured, he fell off a rock wall and died (1 Sam 4:18). Also, when his daughter-in-law heard the news of her husband's death and the ark's capture, she went into labor.

   And as she was dying, she named her child Ichabod which means no glory (1 Sam 4:19-22). From that time until the ark's return, God's glory left Israel. This means that God had no expression on earth.  And that was a big deal.

     Listening to the dialog between King David and Nathan in 2 Samuel 7 is quite touching. David's heart mirrored God's own heart's desire to have a dwelling place on earth for His glory to dwell. We know from the Bible that after Solomon built and dedicated the temple, God's glory filled it:

And the priests were not able to stand and minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of God. 2 Chronicles 5:14

Not long after this dedication God speaks a sobering word to Solomon that's recorded in 1 Kings 9:6-7. He warns them that if they worship others gods, he would cut them off from the land of Canaan. As the Bible sadly recounts, the idolatry of the surrounding nations gradually ensnared many of the Israelites. Again, what were they thinking?!

Finally things got so bad, God gave up on His people. God allowed the northern kingdom to be taken captive by the Assyrians, and later the Babylonians took the southern kingdom. After Nebuchadnezzar laid a siege on Jerusalem, he destroyed the temple and burnt the city's walls. I learned from the Life-Study of Jeremiah that the prophet Jeremiah wept when he saw this happen, and surely he was saddened when he realized that God had again lost the place for His glory. What a tragedy!

This now bring us up to where I'm reading in chapter 24 of the Life-Study of Ezekiel. In the opening of this chapter, Witness Lee goes over verses recorded earlier in Ezekiel that show the gradual departure of God's glory from His people. The first step is recorded in

Ezekiel 9:3 "And the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been to the threshold of the house...." Then in 11:23 Ezekiel sees God's glory gradually leave Jerusalem before returning to heaven--"And the glory of Jehovah went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is east of the city."

Then later in Ezekiel's life when he was 50 years old and seeing the vision of the man measuring the temple, he saw the glory returning through the east gate!! This is recorded in Ezekiel 43:2, 4 "And the glory of the God of Israel was there, coming from the way of the east, ....And the glory of the Jehovah came into the house through the gate which faced toward the east," I enjoyed reading this chapter a lot, and here's some excerpts from pages 275-276 in chapter 24 of the Life-Study of Ezekiel that explain why the glory returned:

"We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that the glory of God returned only after the building of the temple was completed....God wants to have the church built up on earth because He desires to have a dwelling place on earth. He, the God of the heavens, wants to live on the earth. The place where He lives, His dwelling place is the church....Our main burden in this study of Ezekiel is to see the dwelling place which God desires to have on earth. If we have the grace to be built up in the church, the God of glory will live among us" (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Ezekiel. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry. 1998, Print).

By doing this word study on glory relating to the tabernacle and temple, I saw in a whole new way that God needs a place for His glory to dwell so He can reign on the earth not only in the heavens!!! And this verse in this chapter means a lot more to me now:

And He said to me, Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever....Ezekiel 43:7a

Other posts on the Major Prophets

Life-Study of Isaiah:

You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of Isaiah on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. You can also read the online Life-Studies of Isaiah and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

How Can the Son in Isaiah 7:14 & 9:6 Be the Mighty God?
Seeing Christ as the Great Light in Isaiah 9:2
Why is Christ Called the Cornerstone in Isaiah 28:26?
Taking a Closer Look at Isaiah 53 - Christ's Crucifixion Foretold - Part 1

Taking a Closer Look at Isaiah 53 - Christ's Resurrection &Ascension Foretold - Part 2 of 2

Life-Study of Jeremiah & Lamentations:

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Distefano's Pasta e Fagioli

Last week our daughter who's married to a guy who's half Italian invited us for dinner. I always anticipate going there for dinner because most of the time it's something Italian. This time when we walked in, our daughter was at the stove stirring a pot of her own recipe for pasta e fagioli. Just imagine that aroma.

   When it was time to eat, my spoon was poised, and you well know that feeling when you take your first bite of a new recipe; it's like your taste buds are quivering if there is such a thing! Then as you swallow, your brain is registering that wow factor, this is delicious, and then the immediate I must find out how to make this!

   So, of course, as I savored every bite, I asked her all the questions. And all of her answers are in the recipe below. I did check a few other pasta e fagioli recipes to see if they seasoned with anything else but salt and pepper, and I found out a few used a bit of basil and oregano, and so I sprinkled a bit in at the end to pizzazz it up.

1. Prepare vegetables:
(1) Dice 3 carrots.
(2) Chop 2 stalks of celery.
(3) Dice 1 onion.
(4) Mince 3-4 cloves of garlic.

2. Cook beef & onion and celery - In a large skilled put:
(1) 1 pound of Italian sausage or pasture raised ground beef
(2) When partially cooked, add the diced onion and celery and cook until everything is done.

3. In a soup pot or crock pot put:
(1)  1 carton of chicken stock, one 15 oz. can of tomato sauce or whole tomatoes, plus 2 cups of water.

(2) Add the beef with cooked vegetables.
(3) Then add the carrots and garlic.
(4) Stir in 1 can of kidney beans and 1 can of cannellini beans.
(5) Seasoning: Stir in 1 tsp. of salt and 1/2 tsp. of black pepper. I added 1 T of Better Than Chicken Bouillon to make the broth more flavorful and some basil and oregano.
(6) Taste and make adjustments.

4. Meanwhile: Cook 1 1/2 to 2 cups of small pasta and set aside until ready to serve the soup.

Serve up the soup into large bowls, then top with noodles and let everyone add their own freshly grated Parmesan.

Other Bean Soups on this Blog:

Vi's Best Chili (A Bible study friend's great recipe)
Bethany's Crowd Pleasing Tortilla Soup (One of my daughter's friends special soup)
Country Style Lentil Soup (From my Heritage School cookbook)
Kathy's Texas Chili & Chips (From my Come & Dine cookbook)
Spicy Cuban Black Bean Soup (From a store recipe card)
Marilyn's Make It From Scratch Chili (From my mother-in-law)
Lisa's Red Lentil Soup - From my friend Lisa
Texas Pinto Beans & Rice
Curried Lentil Medley (From my Come & Dine Cookbook)

Monday, November 11, 2019

Looking at the Spiritual Meanings in Ezekiel's Visions - The Vision of the Return of God's Glory to His House in Ezekiel 43 - Part 1 of 2

What is God's glory? That might sound a bit nebulous like air that you can't see, so hard to define. But when you read a verse on God's glory like this one in Matthew 6 you get that it's pretty important: The last half of verse 13 says, "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." But still what is God's glory all about?

     In my reading through the Life-Study of Ezekiel, I came upon chapter 24 which is entitled The Return of God's Glory to the House, and it opened up by sharing different verses about how Ezekiel had seen God's glory gradually leave. But then years later when he was about 50, he saw God's glory return.

    In order to write about this, I decided it would help to give some background on God's glory, and so this is going to be a more scholarly post. I enjoy research as it reminds me of my English literature classes, and so I enjoyed looking up verses and footnotes in my Recovery Version of the Bible as well as reading out of the Life-Study.

     We're going to start way back in Genesis which showcases the lives of eight great men of God--Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. I learned in chapter 24 of the 1932-1949 volume of The Collected Works of Witness Lee that each of them was an outlet for God's glory to reach the earth. That was eye-opening to me!!

     Then he says that by the time you come to the opening pages of Exodus, Jacob's children are now about two million people (based on the records in Numbers and adding for women and children) and in captivity in Egypt. At that time no other people on earth except the Israelites worshipped the One true God who created the heavens and the earth. They were His collective outlet on earth so that God could establish His kingdom. Isn't that an amazing view of Israel's history?!

Once all these delivered Israelites were at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19, God was able to share His heart's desire for them to be His people and later give instructions for building a dwelling place so God could have a place to reign on the earth and express His glory!! That's a lot more impressive than just having Abraham as His testimony on earth in Genesis 18.

And about a year later (Exo. 40:17) when the tabernacle was finished, the Israelites watched in awe as the glory of God settled down upon it and filled it. On page 330 of the CWWL 1932-1949 he says that this is the first mention of glory in the Bible.

Exodus 40:34 Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.

My footnote on this verse says:

"Glory is God's expression, God Himself expressed. The cloud covering the Tent of Meeting was the outer part, the outer covering of God's glory. Those who gathered around the Tent of Meeting could see the cloud, whereas the high priest who eventually entered into the Holy of Holies (Lev. 16:15; Heb. 9:7) in the tabernacle could see the inward glory of the tabernacle..." (Holy Bible, Recovery Version. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 2003, Print).

Surely having God's glory in their camp was a huge blessing to the children of Israel. The footnote on verse 36 says that during all their 40-year journey in the wilderness, God's presence was like a wall of protection to them and guided them safely to the land of Canaan. I realized from reading all of this that God's glory with His people made them unlike any of the other nations. In the next post you'll see some of the glitches along the way in Israel's roller coaster history.

Other posts on the Major Prophets

Life-Study of Isaiah:

Taking a Closer Look at Isaiah 53 - Christ's Resurrection &Ascension Foretold - Part 2 of 2

Life-Study of Jeremiah & Lamentations:

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Time to Try a Country Favorite - GF Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes

I bought some buckwheat flour awhile ago because I knew that my father grew up loving them on the farm where he grew up in Pennsylvania. So with my husband taking an unexpected day off last week, I thought I'd make it special by whipping up this recipe for buckwheat blueberry pancakes. Oh yeah!

I modified a recipe in my daughter-in-law's family cookbook to make them. Because I was a bit leery of how dark the buckwheat grains looked, I wondered if they would make the pancakes too heavy.

I noticed as I was making them that they didn't cook with perfect looking tops, but don't let that fool you. I found out when I ate a tester, that they were actually quite light and delicious. Try them with some maple syrup for a real country treat.

1. Prepare the dry ingredients - In a large bowl put:
(1) 1 cup buckwheat flour
(2) 1/2 cup of brown rice flour and 1/2 cup of tapioca flour
(3) Stir in 8 tsp. baking powder, 2 T of brown sugar, and 1 tsp. salt.

2. Combine liquid ingredients - In a medium sized bowl put:
(1) Whisk two eggs.
(2) Add 2 cups of milk.
(3) Then add 1/3 cup of olive oil.

3. Mix the egg mixture with the dry ingredients. Then add 1 cup of blueberries.

4. Put a tablespoon of coconut oil in a skillet and put 1/4 cup of batter into the warmed pan for each pancake and cook until ready to flip

Pancakes:

Fantastic Gluten Free Blueberry Pancakes (From my daughter-in-law's family cookbook)
Gluten Free Banana Split Pancakes (Another recipe from my daughter-in-law's family!)
Outstanding Gluten Free Oatmeal Pancakes (From my Heritage School Cookbook, where I worked 3 1/2 years)
Family Favorite Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes (From my daughter's home ec teacher)
Crunchy & Delicious Potato Latkes (From a flier in my sweet potato bag)
Tasty Gluten Free Swedish Pancakes (From my Syre School Cookbook)
Protein Packed Gluten Free Ricotta Cheese Pancakes (From my daughter-in-law's family)

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Looking at the Spiritual Meanings in Ezekiel's Visions - What Do All the Measurements of God's House in Ezekiel 40 Symbolize?

Walking my daughter's dog

On the earth God's heart's desire is to have a dwelling place. In Ezekiel's vision in chapter 40 God takes him back to Jerusalem to see the temple. Outside the gate he sees a man of bronze measuring with a reed, which was one cubit (about 18 inches). As I was reading through chapters 19 to 23 that talk about this building, I learned that all the numbers and even the materials in the temple have profound spiritual meaning. This is what God said to Ezekiel:

And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you; for to the intent that I might show them unto you are your brought here: declare all that you see to the house of Israel. Ezekiel 40:4

In chapter 19 of the Life-Study of Ezekiel, I really liked Witness Lee's comment on page 213 where he talks about how God's building helps us to locate God:

"The holy temple is the place where God is, God's dwelling place. If we want to seek God, contact God, fellowship with God, and serve God, we need to realize that God has His dwelling place. On the one hand, God is omnipresent; on the other hand, God has His particular place. If we want to meet Him, we must know His exact location, His definite habitation. Thus, we need to consider the vision of God's building in Ezekiel, for this vision describes the place where God dwells--His holy temple" (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Ezekiel. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1998, Print).

       Ezekiel sees that along the east, north, and south sides of the wall there were 3 gates, each with seven steps. I always thought that these gates were like my yard gate, but I found out from my reading that they actually were very complex structures full of spiritual meaning. The entire gate is quite large at 50 x 25 cubits (about 75 x 57 feet) which makes the length about the size of twelve 6 foot men.

    Once you’re on the top step, the gate’s entrance is 10 cubits wide, the same number as the 10 commandments. I read on this page that this showed that Christ is the only One who could fulfill them, and this gate shows us that He is our entrance into God's dwelling place!!  Isn't the Bible an amazing book that even in these measurements God is telling us something?"

   And the passageway was composed of six guardrooms split into two groups of three and this portrays the death of Christ. I learned that the guardroom measuring 6 x 6 cubit shows how Christ as the perfect man 6 was split on the cross for us. These guardrooms also signify that Christ is the One who guard’s God’s holiness and glory—not you or me. What a picture all these numbers show us!!!

     It’s amazing that each of these rather small chambers contained 3 windows each and there were also windows between each room, so the gate contained 30 total windows! These windows show us that Christ as a perfect and upright man is full of the Spirit’s light and air. I learned from my reading that what God wants us to see here is that in His building all the light and air comes from Christ-- not us.

     Inside the gate are also 30 posts, with 15 on each side. And I read that the spiritual meaning here is the Triune God--3 bears the responsibility--5 to support God’s building—not us! Each of us needs to be upheld by Christ in order to enjoy what He is in His building.

    On each side of all the posts is a palm tree. I really liked that the spiritual meaning of a palm tree is that Christ is the everlasting, victorious One who is standing, bearing, sustaining, and prevailing over everything in His house--not us!!   So I'm sure you get it by now that what caught my attention as I was reading this chapter was all the details in God's building point out that Christ is the only One who can meet the demands and requirements of God's building--not us!!

      Then when Ezekiel came out of the gate, he was on a porch that was 8 cubits wide, and this means that by then you're in a position of resurrection and are now ready to go up 8 more steps into a second gate which is very similar to the first one.

      I wouldn't have gotten this on my own, but I read that these two gates show us that God’s building is progressive.  I read that as we go on, we repeat many of the same spiritual experiences, but we experience more of the Lord. Ezekiel's journey through these two gates brought him to the inner court where in the center stood the burnt offering altar. This shows us that the only way to enter into the Holy Place let alone the Holy of Holies is through the cross. And that was going to be covered in the next chapter. So in order to find out what the rest of the temple means, you'll have to click on this link for the online chapters of the Life-Study of Ezekiel and read some of these chapters yourself!!

Other posts on the Major Prophets

Life-Study of Isaiah:

Taking a Closer Look at Isaiah 53 - Christ's Resurrection &Ascension Foretold - Part 2 of 2

Life-Study of Jeremiah & Lamentations:

Monday, October 28, 2019

A Fall Family Favorite - GF Fresh Apple Cake

The smell of apples baking in the oven makes me sigh with contentment. Ever since my children were little, I've pushed back against the weather change by putting out brightly colored fall decorations. Orange is such a happy color and makes me feel perky. During the fall, I often find that I baked more with my kids to make the house smell good, so my kids didn't mind being stuck there for months when it was raining.

I do a lot of baking with apples in the fall because I usually end up with a few buckets from my neighbor's trees. So far I've already made a few pots of applesauce and some apple crisps.

A few weeks ago I tried out this fresh apple cake recipe from my church cookbook. Because the apples were organic, I didn't peel them like the recipe suggested, and it didn't seem to make that much difference in how it turned out. And not having to peel is a big time saver.

1. Prepare apples: Chop up 4 cups of apples. Put aside until needed.

2. Prepare dry ingredients -In a large mixing bowl put:
(1) 2 1/2 cups of gf flour
(2) 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon and nutmeg.

3. Prepare liquid ingredients - in a medium-sized bowl put:
(1) 1 cup of olive oil
(2) 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar (recipe calls for 2 cups)
(3) Beat in 2 eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla.

4. Combine ingredients - Add the oil mixture to the dry ingredients. Then add the apples.

5. Put into a greased 9 x 13 baking pan and cook at 325 for 50-55 minutes and test with a toothpick for doneness.

Cake Recipes From This Blog: (What a treasure trove of recipes!)

Gluten Free Apple Cake (From my grandmother)
You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free Carrot Cake (From my daughter's husband's grandma--whew)
Judi's Super Moist Gluten Free Chocolate Cake   (From a church friend)
Judi's Gluten Free Orange Chiffon Cake   (From a church friend)
Marilyn's Spectacular Gluten Free Oatmeal Cake (My mother-in-law's specialty!)
The Best Gluten Free Black Bottom Cupcakes (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Delicious Gluten Free Rhubarb Cake (From my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook)
Grandma's Gluten Free Applesauce Cake (Modified from an Internet search--tastes like my grandma's!)
Old Fashioned Gluten Free Banana Cake (From my grandmother)
Rosie's Gluten Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake (From my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook)
Overwhelmed By Your Bumper Crop of Zucchini? Try Claudia's Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake! (From my former neighbor Claudia of 12 years)
Scrumptious Gluten Free Blackberry Cake
Decadent & Gluten Free German Chocolate Cake  (From my Come & Dine church cookbook)
Debbie's Delicious Hot Water GF Chocolate Cake (From my Come & Dine cookbook)
Debbie's Less Oil Carrot Cake (Made Gluten Free!)   (From my Come & Dine cookbook)
Jud's Crazy Cake (You Can Easily Make It Gluten Free!) (From a church friend)

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