Sheep and Goat (Recipe: Chocolate coated strawberries)

I’m sure that I’ve touched upon this subject earlier as well, but recently the Lord lead me to Matthew 25, when I was in a particularly unpleasant mood. After reading the portion where the sheep and goat are separated, I felt more disturbed and even complained saying I needed some cheering up, reading this portion is depressing me more! But the Lord prompted me to read it again and so I did. I will post the gist of it here:

Mat 25: 33-36: He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Of course, we all know what he said to the goats….not very pleasant….When I first read this portion I was wrought with guilt…thinking this makes things worse, not only am I struggling with sin, I am also not doing any of this, I am not feeding the hungry of the world, I did not dress beggars or visit people in hospitals…definitely not prison…And that’s when I was asking the Lord for a more encouraging portion to read, he asked me to read it again and revealed to me a most liberating message in this portion. Although we see in

Matt: 25:40: And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

This clearly implies that the poorest or smallest of people are the most qualified for this help. However, the Lord told me that it does not rule out everyone else. Every deed that you do, every considerate and caring action that you do shows God’s love through you, and it does not necessarily have to be to complete strangers or random people. For example, if you have a friend who is sick, and you cook a meal for them, go visit them and help with their house work, that is still an act of love that God talks about in the portion. If you know that someone returning from work will be hungry, a neighbour or a relative, and you know that they have no one at home to prepare something for them, an act of love would be you making something for them. If someone you just met told you that they were new to the country or place, that they don’t have many friends and they are alone, if you invite them to your house and share a meal with them…that is an act of love. What God asked us to do in Matthew 25 is not just help the poor, who of course are the most deserving of our help, but He asks that we show His love, senseless, selfless love, that makes us go out of our way to make others happy or help them, even the poor, because true children of God cannot be comfortable when they see the need of others…that is not the nature of God. We see this in

Romans 8: 14: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

So if we are the children of God that we claim to be, we would be led by the Spirit of God, which would never allow us to be complacent to the needs and wants of others! If we are….then we are clearly not allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit.

The good news here is that we don’t have to necessarily seek out poor people or complete strangers to show acts of love and share God’s love, we can do it with people we come across in our every day lives…neighbours, friends, new acquaintances, colleagues….so there are plenty of opportunities for us to make sure we act like sheep….and not end up as the goat being banished with the devil!!!

Let us pray to the Lord that He would bless us with this heart of love and the eagerness to share God’s love with everyone we can.

Today’s recipe is terribly simple and is excellent for people who suffer from a sweet tooth (like me), but are trying to get healthy!!

Chocolate Coated Strawberries

Ingredients:

Strawberries – 1 Punnet / box (250gms)
Dark Cooking Chocolate – 200gms
Skewer or stick – 1

Instructions:

1.Place chopped cooking chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave for approximately 1minute and 30 seconds. (Some cooking chocolate comes with specific melting instructions).

2.Pluck out the leaves, was and dry the strawberries.

3.Wrap aluminum foil around a plate or tray.

4.Prick the skewer into the wide end of the strawberry and dip into the melted chocolate to coat well.

5.Carefully remove the coated strawberry onto the foiled tray. Repeat this process till all the strawberries are coated and refrigerate the tray.

6.Can be snacked on when faced with sugar cravings :) !

7.The dark cooking chocolate can be replaced with less healthier options of regular cooking chocolate or white cooking chocolate.

Eating with Jesus (Recipe: Sausage Quiche)

It’s been a very long break for me, with health issues, relocation/dislocation …but am hoping that by God’s grace, I would be able to keep this steady from now on…

Today I would like to talk about the references to food and eating in God’s word. Recently when I heard a very commonly used verse, the Lord revealed to me a significance that I had never seen before.

Revelations 3: 20: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

So when the Lord says, I will come in and eat with you and you with me, what does this mean? I mean we all pretty much focus on the first part of the verse, Jesus is knocking at the door of our lives, and he can only come in if we open the door….but how often have we paused to think about the dining part? To understand the meaning of this dinner invitation, we need to see what Jesus refers to as food.

Matthew 4: 4: Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”.

The word of God is also referred to as food here, not just bread but every word that proceeds from God’s mouth. So when Jesus talks about coming into our lives and eating with us, He appears to promising us the ability to better digest God’s word, that when He comes into our lives, we are able to sit with him and eat with him, or be nourished by the word of God. Here we see the significance of spending time with Jesus, it is not enough to invite him into your life, you also need to make the time to sit and eat with him! How subtly does God say this in Revelation, that he not only wants to come in, but he also wants to eat with us!

Another important factor we need to understand is that Jesus talks about eating here, not drinking. You see, a mature adult, eats his food, but a baby drinks his milk. Let’s take a look at

1 Peter 2:2: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation

Wow! So there is a time when we are newborn babies in the spirit, where we must crave spiritual milk, that is when our understanding of God’s word is limited to the obvious messages. However, we are required to grow in our salvation, even as Jesus mentions, we must be able to eat from the word of God at some point. Most of the time after we come to salvation, we read the Bible and take the obvious messages from it, like the beatitudes, or two main commandments, or the morals from Jesus’ parables….but once we have gained the basic understanding of these portions, we stop, assuming that this was all we had to receive from the word. We need to grow, mature in our spiritual walk, stop drinking milk, but start eating, gain a deeper understanding of the things of God. God’s word has a different message almost every time you read, if we are ready to hunger for that deeper message. When that hunger is manifested, it shows that we are no longer babies, but growing into adults, ready for heavier food, ready for the deeper things, ready to eat with Jesus….

Let us pray to the Lord that he may help us grow from babies into mature adults, who don’t just drink the obvious truths from God’s word, but those that are ready to eat the solid food of God’s word.


Recipe for Sausage Quiche

Ingredients

Medium size Beef sausages – 4
Eggs – 6
Chopped Tomato – 2
Diced Onion – 1 Medium size
Sliced Mushroom – 1 cup
Shredded cheese – 1 cup
Chopped Coriander leaves – ½ cup
Diced Green chilly – 2 (optional)
Diced Garlic – 4 pods
Oil – 2 Tablespoons
Frozen Puff pastry – 1 sheet
Salt & Pepper – as required

Equipment

A quiche tray would be ideal, otherwise a slightly shallow, round baking dish would suffice.

Instructions:

1.Defrost Frozen Pastry Sheet. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2.Spray oil into the baking pan, then place the pastry sheet into the pan, stretching it out from the center to fully cover the base of the pan as well as the edges, tearing off any excess corners. Be careful not to tear holes in the pastry.

3.Shallow fry or grill sausages and slice them up.

4.In a frying pan, heat a little oil, sauté garlic till light brow, add onions and fry till golden brown, to this add mushrooms and sauté well till they begin to brown as well. Add green chilly, followed by the cooked sausages, turn off flame.

5.In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs, add salt and pepper according to taste.

6.Take the baking pan lined with pastry, spread the sausage mix onto the pastry. Then pour in the beaten eggs, followed by the grated cheese. Finally finish off with chopped coriander leaves and bake for 35-40 minutes.

7.Allow it to cool for 10 minutes before slicing up and serving warm.

Do we fear God? (Recipe: Green Apple Pickle)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to update this site. Initially it was my studies and then it became my health. I’ve been ill for a few months now but I am expecting a victory soon, and am certain that God is faithful to glorify Himself through my illness even! Amen!

Today I want to write to you about fearing God. What does the bible mean when it says ‘Fear of the Lord’ or ‘Fear the Lord’? Why should we fear God if we are supposed to love him? And how many of us do really fear him?

The word of God, right from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament keeps emphasizing the need to fear God. There are many many verses that repeatedly remind us that fearing God is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, if you want to live wisely, you need to fear God. We see this in Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10, Psalms 110:10 and many other instances in the Bible.

If we really sit and consider who God is….how holy He is, how great He is, how awesome He is, how mighty and powerful He is, how infinite He is….there is really no measuring or understanding who God is. And yet this great God has chosen us….He chose us to be rulers over His kingdom, fellow rulers with Christ Jesus…He chose us to be His children. The world was created so that we would be eventually born and take our place as God’s children. We see this in

Romans 8: 19: the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

Everything that God ever did was for us. Many people keep asking why does God allow the devil to roam like this freely and attack God’s children…..for our discipline…so that we may learn what is right and what is wrong…so we may learn to choose to live right and fear God, even when we have the option of doing wrong. The devil is not an accident, but part of God’s master plan to weed out the wheat from the chaff…to reveal through the adversity he brings..who the true children of God are. A lot of us fear the devil, afraid of his attacks and afraid of the evil he is….but before the Lord our God..the devil is so puny..so tiny…so insignificant…that if the Lord were to look at the devil wanting him gone…pooof! The devil would be gone!!!!

So in a circumstance like that who do you think needs to be feared more? The Lord our God is might and awesome and truly to be feared. We take for granted His love and always choose to not fear Him, but He must be feared. When we have a bad thought, when we have a mean word, when we have an evil action….we need to be very afraid how the Lord will feel about what we just did….we need to fear God!
Mathew 10: 28: And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

We see here very clear instruction on who to fear. Many a times, we think that because Jesus forgives our sins, because we are saved by the blood of Jesus…we can live the way we want. That is not what Paul says in

Philippians 2: 12: …work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

We need to be so very careful not to offend God, and live in fear of Him. When we were young children, although we loved our parents dearly, we were still very afraid of them…we feared our parents. That is how we must fear God…if we refuse to turn from our evil ways or if we refuse to conform ourselves to the image of His son Jesus, then He will deal with us firmly.

We don’t need to be afraid of the devil, or people, or sickness, or circumstances….we need to fear the one who has power and authority over all these….the Lord our God. Let us pray to the Lord to grant us the wisdom and the grace to fear Him and walk in His ways so that we might please Him.

Recipe (Green Apple Pickle)

Ingredients:

Green Granny Smith Apples – 8 (cut in small cubes with skin on)
Sesame oil – 1 cup
Chilli powder - 3 tbspTurmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – 3 stalksSalt - As reqdFenugreek powder - 1 tspAsafoetida powder - 1/2 tspVinegar – 1 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Instructions:

1) Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds and splutter, followed by curry leaves.

2) Add the chopped apple, chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and vinegar. Stir well and allow to boil. Turn off flame.

3) Add fenugreek powder and asafoetida powder.

4) Set aside to cool and then store in airtight containers.

Called to walk in authority (Recipe: Sweet Corn Chicken Soup)

A recent study of the word took me to a passage in the bible that I realized is most often overlooked. When the verses above it are quoted, there does not seem too much significance given to this one, which appears to be quite sad because there is so much promise in it. Let’s take a look, everyone knows


Mark 16: 15-16: He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

We have read and heard these verses many times, but how many times have we focused on the next verses?

Mark 16: 17-18: And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.

Wow! Now that is a really amazing promise! We need to notice that Jesus says that these signs will accompany “those who believe”…..he is not talking about those who are preaching the good news….he says that these signs….casting out demons, speaking in tongues, healing the sick …all these signs WILL accompany those who believe in the gospel!

We are believers in the gospel….are we accompanied by these signs in our lives? The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12: 28: And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

Speaking in tongues appears to be at the bottom of the ladder, but how many of us have even this sign? We are obviously not believing the way Jesus called us to believe, if we were, then we would be fulfilling his words! Personally, I know that I have not reached there, I am sure there are many who share this concern. We need to press forward in the Lord and immerse ourselves in His word. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God….the more of the word we listen to…the more our faith increases and grows to the level that Jesus called us to be in.

Let us pray to the Lord to grant us to grow in our faith and reach that level of belief where those signs will truly follow our walk with God!

It’s really cold here so I’m putting up the recipe for some nice warm soup.

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

Chicken frame and bones – 1 kg
Chicken breast – 100gms
Water – 2 Liters
Sweet Corn Kernels – 1 Can
Soy Sauce – ¼ cup
Salt – as required
Pepper – as required
Egg white - 1
Corn flour – ½ cup
Cold water to mix corn flour – ½ cup

Instructions:

1.In a cooking pot, add salt, water and boil the water, add the chicken frame, bones and breast to the water.

2.Allow this to simmer for 30 minutes, then check if the breast meat is cooked. Take out the frame, bones and breast from the simmering water, which has now become stock.

3.Shred the breast meat and keep aside. Add the corn kernels to the simmering stock and increase the flame to allow it to boil for 10 minutes.

4.Add soy sauce, bring down the flame to simmer heat. Beat the egg white in a bowl.

5.Now pour in the beaten egg white while dispersing it with a fork in the soup.

6.Check for salt and add more if required, add some pepper as well for seasoning and allow the soup to boil for 10 minutes, then reduce to simmer.

7.Now mix the corn flour in cold water and pour into the soup. Stir well and increase the flame to allow the soup to boil.

8.The soup will thicken as it boils, turn off the flame when it has reached the desired consistency. If the soup does not thicken as much as you like, then mix some more corn flour in cold water and add to the soup. Allow it to boil further and also check if more salt is needed.

9.When the soup is thick enough, turn off the flame and serve hot.

Work is Worship? (Recipe: Date and Walnut cake)

Recently while reading the word, I was struck by a portion that seemed very relevant to most of us, as in the most innocent of ways, it makes us appear guilty.

Habakkuk 1: 16: Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food.

Wow! This was a bang on the head for me! Here the person is accused of worshipping his work, because he depends on it for good subsistence. Does this not sound familiar with respect to our own attitudes to work? Most of us today sacrifice readily to our work, we sacrifice our time, our energy, our families and even our comforts…all this ironically, to ensure that we provide well for our families and maintain our comforts. We worship our work by making it our first priority over everything else. How many of us willingly give up a church service if we are called in to work at the same time? But how many of us will willingly take leave from work to attend a church service or fellowship? And so the obvious worship we give to our work is also quite apparent.

The Word of God easily explains this devotion to our work, it’s clearly because we depend on our work to provide us the luxury and rich food we need. Our dependence therefore, is not on the Lord, but on our jobs! We often forget the verse

1 Corinthians 10: 26: for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."

And Psalm 112: 1-3: Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
Many many other verses indicate that the Lord is our source and everything we have is a blessing from him. And yet we so easily forget this while we give our blood and sweat as slaves to our jobs. A person who does this is categorized as ‘wicked’ according to the Word of God. We are also aware of how the Lord strongly condemns worshiping anyone or anything apart from him as we see in
Exodus 20: 3: You shall have no other gods before me.
With all this instruction from the Lord, how is it that we still manage to forget these important things and let our entire lives revolve around our jobs?
Let us pray and ask the Lord to forgive us for disobeying him so blatantly and prioritizing our jobs as the source of our blessings, when it is actually the Lord!

Another sweet recipe for today!

Recipe for Date and Walnut cake


Ingredients:

Plain Flour – 280gms
Eggs – 2
Dates (pitted and chopped) – 200gms
Chopped walnuts – 75gms
Ground almonds – 75gms
Soft Brown Sugar – 150gms
Ground Cinnamon – 1 teaspoon
Ground Cloves – ½ teaspoon
Ground Nutmeg – ½ teaspoon
Salt – a pinch
Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon
Butter – 25gms
Soda Bicarbonate – 1 teaspoon
Baking Powder – 2 teaspoon
Water – 225ml

Icing (Optional)

Lemon rind – ½ lemon
Lemon Juice – 1 tablespoon
Icing sugar – 110 gms
Melted Butter- 10 gms
Cream – 1 Tablespoon


Instructions:

1.Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Boil water and pour into a bowl. To this add butter, dates and soda bicarbonate. Stir till butter melts and set aside to cool.

2.In another bowl, whip eggs and sugar, then add the cooled date mixture.

3.To this add flour, ground spices, salt, baking powder, followed by vanilla essence and the ground almonds as well as chopped walnuts.

4.Pour the batter into a well greased 8” or 9”springfoam cake pan and place into preheated oven to bake at 180 degrees for 35 minutes, then at 160 degrees for another 25 minutes. Stick a wet knife into the cake, if it comes out clean, the cake is done. Take out and set aside to cool. Remove frame from cake pan.

5.In a bowl, whip together lemon rind, lemon juice, icing sugar, melted butter and cream. Then pour this mixture over cooled cake and smooth over the cake. Let the icing set before serving.

Building your house on the rock (Recipe: Vegetable Manchurian)

We are all aware of the story of the two men who build houses in Mathew 7: 24-27:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Recently on reading this portion, the Lord revealed to me an aspect of this parable that has escaped me every time I have read it earlier. If building a house is likened to our spiritual walk, then we need to understand that both these men were on spiritual paths. They were both building houses. Jesus says here that anyone who hears his words and incorporates them in his spiritual walk is like a man who is building his eternity on solid foundation. His pursuit of eternal life and a firm relationship with God is then based on the unshakable rock that is the word of God! Meaning, he not only hears the word of God, he also acts on it!

Even merely hearing these words of Jesus are meant to produce faith as we see in

Romans 10: 17: Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

We are also aware that faith by itself is not effective, as we see in

James 2: 17: In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

So unless if we live our lives or pursue our spiritual walk as per Jesus’ instructions, then whatever attacks we may face, we will be unmoved, unshakable and indestructible!

However, if we only hear the words of Jesus, but do not act on them in our spiritual walk, we are quite likely to be disappointed in the end!

You see both men were building houses that they believed would stand in a storm and offer them security. Which is similar to two people who believe they are living Christian lives, and are protected because of their faith in Jesus. But unless that walk is in obedience to the word of God and visible by their deeds, that foundation is shaky! They may very well be disappointed in the end when they’re lives are ripped open by storms and waves….when their whole Christian walk seems to have been ineffective and pointless. At that point, if they are wondering how is it that their spiritual lives have been destroyed despite believing in Jesus, they would need to realize it was not built on the foundation of obedience to his words, but just on hearing or knowing those words!
Let us pray to the Lord to give us the strength and guidance to always be obedient to Jesus’ words so that our walk with God is built on a solid rock which will not be shaken no matter how much the enemy attacks!

Vegetable Manchurian

Ingredients:

Thinly Grated Carrot – 2
Thinly Grated Cabbage – 500gms
Finely diced Spring onion – 3 bulbs
Chopped spring onion – 3 bulbs
Salt – as required
Pepper – as required
Corn flour – 6 tablespoons
Plain flour – 4 tablespoons
Diced Green chilly – 2
Spring onion stems – 3
Diced garlic – 6 pods
Soy Sauce – 3 Tablespoons
Chicken Stock – 1 cup
Water – as required
Oil – as required

Instructions:

1.Squeeze out the water from the grated carrot and cabbage and place in a bowl. To this add the diced spring onion, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons of corn flour and 4 tablespoons of plain flour.

2.To this, add very little water gradually as required to form a consistency that allows you to roll this mixture into small balls.

3.Deep or Shallow fry these balls in a frying pan.

4.Heat 3 Tablespoons of oil in a dish, add the diced garlic and sauté till raw smell subsides. Then add diced green chilly, followed by the chopped spring onions and stir for a minute or so. Pour in the soy sauce, followed by chicken stock.

5.To this, add the fried balls. Mix 4 tablespoons of corn flour in ¼ cup of cold water and pour into the gravy when it boils. Let it boil for around 2 minutes or till the gravy gets thicker in consistency.

6.Garnish with chopped spring onion stems and serve hot.

What did you expect? (Recipe : Kerala Coconut Chutney/ Thenga Samandi)

I read an interesting portion today of how Jesus calmed the storm in Matthew chapter 8. We all know the story of how Jesus was sleeping while their boat was being flooded in the storm.

Matthew 8: 25 – 27: The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

I found the last statement truly bewildering! The disciples were amazed that Jesus calmed the storm, that he commanded the winds and the waves…..this is probably understandable…but in verse 25, when they say “Lord, save us!”….what were they expecting?? They were obviously expecting him to save them, to resolve the situation…but when He did, they appear to be amazed that He could! So what did they think he would do to save them? Obviously not stop the storm! They expected something much much smaller, but just enough to procure their safety.

Jesus on the other hand was hoping they would not be so rattled by a storm, when He was in the boat with them! He rebukes their lack of faith in who He is, but their reaction to the display of His power just goes on to highlight that they had no idea who He truly was let alone of His power.

Is this how our faith is as well? We obviously have Jesus in our lives, He is in our boats….but when the storm comes, are we rattled, begging for Him to deliver us based on our small idea of who He is? Do we expect GREAT things from Him? If we truly know who He is, then is that not what we should do? I have a feeling that Jesus allowed that storm just so that He could give them and idea of how to think…..to stop looking for tiny miracles and look for BIG ONES. To not expect Him to just steady the boat, but stop the storm! Many times when we go through problems, we have an idea of the solution and we expect God to implement those ideas, we try to limit what the Lord can do because of our limited understanding of who He is! How disappointed Jesus must have felt, these men slept where He slept, ate with Him, spent every waking moment with Him and yet showed that they had no idea of who He was or what He could do for them, despite all the miraculous things He was doing! What more could He have done to show them His potential?

Are we not like this as well? We see what the Lord has done, not only in His word, but also in the lives of people around us and people we know! But we still we do not really believe in His power to do amazing things in our lives, to calm storms, change the weather, heal our sickness, and speak deliverance into our lives! There are instances in the Old Testament where the Lord kept the sun from setting for a whole day, and where the Lord turned back time! The Word says that God does not change in

Hebrews 13: 8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

So, what He did then, He can also do now! Let us pray to the Lord to remove any mental or spiritual blocks in us that would make us limit His power and potential to manifest those powers in our lives!

I’m going a little traditional with today’s recipe. Good old Kerala coconut chutney (thenga samandhi), it’s a favourite with rice and curd in Kerala.

Recipe for Kerala Coconut chutney ( Thenga Samandhi)

This recipe is made by grinding the ingredients on stone in Kerala. However, we would have to use a grinder.

Ingredients:

Dry Red Chilly – 4 (more if you need it really spicy)
Tamarind pulp – one teaspoon scoop
Red button onions – 4 or Regular Red Onion – ¼
Diced Ginger – 2 Tablespoons
Coconut – ½ cup
Salt – as required

1.In a frying pan, dry roast the red chilly.

2.In a wet grinder put in the red chilly, coconut, tamarind, onions, ginger, coconut, salt and grind till the chutney has an even texture. Avoid adding water as much as possible.

3.The chutney can be stored in the fridge for a few days and is excellent with white rice.

Called or Followed? (Recipe : French Toast)

Praise God! What an Awesome God we have! The Lord blessed me with a wonderful break, which was indeed needed before I was plunged into a week of Assessments in my course. The Lord has been doing amazing things in my life and in the life of those around me. He has been revealing His faithfulness and power, imparting gifts and healing spirits. Truly, Let everything that has breath PRAISE THE LORD!

Called or Followed?


It is interesting to note that all of Jesus’ disciples were not called, you see, some of them sought him, and then followed him when they found him. We are always waiting to be called by the Lord. Have we stopped to think for a minute that maybe He is waiting for you to seek Him? We see in

John 1: 35- 42: The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas."

These men followed Jesus, they called their loved ones, dragged them along too to follow Jesus. It is important to realize here that Jesus actually passed them by. He did not stop or call them or address them. He said absolutely nothing to them as he passed them by. Surely he knew who they were or would be to him, but he waited for them to follow him before allowing them to be his disciples. Now if those two had heard what John said and just acknowledged it but did nothing, if they had not chosen of their own will to follow him, they may never had been one of the twelve.

It is important to understand that God has a path set for you, a plan for you, an outcome that would be victorious, but unless you choose to follow him and seek him, you may very well lose out on your opportunity to do great things for God and with God! Whatever course you take, God is able to guide you through it, but sitting in frustration about not being able to serve God or have a deeper relationship with Him may very well be the result of the fact that we do not seek God or choose to follow him. All of us call on the Lord, we cling to him for our salvation, it’s all about what He can do for us. How much effort do we put into what we can do for Him? How much time do we spend asking Him “Lord where are you staying?”..or in other words, Lord, where can I go to be with you? Take me to the place where I can always experience your presence!

Another amazing thing about the above scripture is how Jesus addresses Simon. It is so exciting and beautiful to see that the Lord recognized Simon for not only who he was at the time, but for who he was going to be! How wonderful it would be to hear from the Lord, you are Sindu, daughter of Thomas, You will be called…
Wow! The important thing to recognize here is that when the Lord meets you, he calls out your destiny in Him, he speaks forth what you will be and do for His kingdom! Those words that proceed from his mouth, will not return to him empty!

We see this clearly in Isaiah 55:11: so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

We all know that Simon did indeed become Cephas! He was known as Cephas (Peter) till the day he died and forever after! That is what the word of God accomplishes! What comes out of His mouth, will be fulfilled. When you meet God, he does not sit in silence, just as you are talking, he also says things to you, fruitful things, things that will establish your future and prosper your life! If Andrew didn’t take Peter to meet Jesus, we don’t know if Peter would have heard these words from Jesus! This shows the responsibility we hold to bring others into God’s presence, so that he can speak into their lives, to speak prophecy over them and bless their lives to be fruitful for him!

Let us pray and ask the Lord to help us to never lose an opportunity to meet with Him, to live and soak up His presence, to be blessed by the words He speaks over us! Let us pray that the Lord uses us to bring others into His presence, so that they may taste His goodness and blessings as well!


After a long break, I think it’s best to start with something sweet again!


Recipe for French Toast:

Ingredients

White bread slices – 4
Milk – 1 ½ cup
Egg – 1
Sugar – 4 Tablespoons
Salt – a pinch
Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon
Nutmeg powder – a pinch
Cardamom powder – ½ teaspoon
Cinnamon powder (optional) – a pinch
Margarine or butter – as required

Instructions:

1.In a bowl, whip milk, egg, sugar, salt, vanilla essence, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon to an even mix.

2.Soak a slice of bread in the mix and drop into a flat pan greased with margarine or butter.

3.The pan must be on low flame so as to not overdo the outside and with the inside of the toast uncooked. In about three minutes, flip the bread over to the other side and cook for another three minutes for the toast to be done.

4.Serve hot with maple syrup, fruit or ice cream.

Short Break!

I won't be posting for two weeks as I will be traveling, will start as soon as I get back! Please do keep me in prayers!God Bless to all!

Doing unto the Lord (Recipe: Chicken Tikka Sandwiches)

We are constantly disappointed by people in our lives. Most of the time when we do something for others, we expect them to reciprocate in some likeness. Even when we love our family, our husbands, children, when we do things for them, take care of them, cook for them, even if this is our responsibility, we expect them to be grateful and appreciate us, to value us for what we do. And when we don’t feel this appreciation, we feel sad and disappointed. Even with friends or any person in general who probably took gladly from you but never really bothered to reciprocate your gestures, it is quite natural that we end up feeling used. These situations sometimes tend to make us cautious and careful in our dealings with people, we become less ready to help or give because of how we were treated by others. But this is not what we are called to do as children of the Lord.

Colossians 3: 23-24: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

If we are able to do whatever we do with the notion that we are doing for Jesus, we are less likely to be disappointed by people. No matter how unappreciated or under-appreciated we are by the people we do things for, when we keep in mind that God will be rewarding us for our works, we can stop expecting to receive from people. Imagine your father asked you to give your brother some money. Your father assures you that if you give your brother the money, your father himself will repay you. And you know that your father is financially capable of repaying you, so there is no doubt in your heart. You can easily give your brother the money. Now your brother when he takes the money can throw a fit and say he will not return the money to you, but this is not going to rattle you because you know your father promised to return it to you, and you are certain your father will do as he says.

This is the same principle by which we do things. We may work hard but our bosses or colleagues don’t appreciate it, we may slog at home, but our family takes us for granted, we may be generous in our giving, but the people who receive from us don’t seem that grateful. In all these things, remember that God promised to reward us and it is from him and only him we should expect to reap the benefits of what we do.

Ephesians 6: 6-8: not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

Let us ask the Lord to heal the hurts that people have caused to our hearts, and to help us believe in the reward he has promised us in doing good and right service to others.


Today I’d like to share with you a special sandwich spread recipe.
Chicken Tikka Sandwiches


Ingredients:

Chicken breast Tikka pieces – 300gms (Recipe for Tikka has been provided in earlier post)
Mayonnaise – 2 Tablespoons
Sugar – ½ Teaspoon
Salt – as required
Pepper – ½ Teaspoon
Chopped Coriander leaves – 4 Tablespoons
Chilly sauce (Optional) – 2 Tablespoons
Bread slices for sandwich

Instructions:

1.Dice the chicken tikka pieces and put into a bowl.

2.Add mayonnaise, sugar, salt, pepper, coriander leaves and chilly sauce. If the spread is too thick in consistency, add more mayonnaise and adjust salt accordingly.

3.Spread evenly on bread slices to make sandwiches. The spread can be refrigerated, and chicken tikka sandwiches are usually served as cold sandwiches.

Working out your Salvation (Recipe : Semiya Payasam / Vermicelli Kheer)

I used to be really confused with the whole business of salvation! I mean in one verse you have

Romans 10: 9: because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Another verse says in

Philippians 2: 12-13: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So how does this really work? One verse says that if you just confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, that he arose from the dead, then you will be saved! Another verse says that we need to fearfully work out our own salvation. So which is it? Why are there two contradicting statements here about our salvation?

The truth really lies in Romans 10: 9, you see, if you truly ‘believe in your heart’ then you would be automatically fearful about how you handle your salvation. Salvation is not a free pass to do anything we like and be forgiven, salvation is our chance to have a personal relationship with God, to be filled and guided by his Holy Spirit, and because of which, we live in love, awe and fear of offending him. So unless you are afraid of offending or hurting God with your actions, words or thoughts, unless you are constantly and consistently mindful of the price Jesus paid because of your earlier sinful ways, you really have not been saved.

Romans 8: 13-15: For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,"Abba! Father!

Wow! So even if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord but continue to live according to the desires of your flesh, you are taking a u-turn from your salvation and heading back. And this means that our salvation does not come without our true transformation or true change of heart. When we listen to the Holy Spirit and walk according to the word of the Lord, then we know that we are truly believing in Jesus as our Lord, but if we continue to lie, gossip, be jealous, selfish, greedy, immoral, assuming that at the end of the day we can confess our sins and God’s just sitting there to forgive, we will be sadly mistaken! Salvation is a state that we are working towards in our daily walk, not an automatic pass for sinning. If we fail on occasion in our walk, we are of course forgiven, but that does not apply to willfully living in sin and claiming to be believers.

Let us pray to the Lord to forgive our shortcomings, our ignorance of the truth and our sinful nature, and ask him to grant us the grace to overcome our flesh by the power of his Holy Spirit.



A sweet recipe for today, Vermicelli Kheer (Semiya Payasam).

Ingredients:

BrokenVermicelli - 1 ½ cups
Thin Coconut milk – 1 litre
Thick Coconut milk – ½ litre
Condensed milk – 1 can
Sago (Chowiri) – ¼ cup
Cashew nuts – ¼ cup
Raisins – 2 Tablespoons
Powdered Cardamom – 1 teaspoon
Sugar – as and if required
Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Ghee – 6 Tablespoons
Water – ½ cup

Instructions:

1.Boil ½ cup water and pour into the cup of Sago, stir well and keep it aside.

2.In a non-stick cooking dish, heat 4 tablespoons of ghee, add the broken vermicelli and stir fry in the ghee till golden brown.

3.Turn down the flame and add the thin coconut milk, turn the flame to medium and stir intermittently for 10 minutes, then pour in condensed milk.

4.Allow the milk to simmer and boil while stirring every few minutes to be sure that the milk does not stick to the bottom of the dish.

5.Now add the soaked sago along with the water and allow it to continue boiling for 10-15 minutes, all the while stirring in between. Add salt.

6.Once the consistency of the milk appears thick, turn down the flame to minimum and add the thick coconut milk, stir well and bring to boil. Then turn off flame.

7.Check for sweetness and add more sugar if you need. Then add the powdered cardamom.

8.In a kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of ghee, fry the cashews and raisins, then pour it into the kheer along with the ghee. Stir well and serve hot.

My Easter Sermon - Ressurection - The Price of True Worship (Recipe : Beef cutlets)

Every year, as we approach Good Friday and Easter, we are reminded of how Jesus died for our sins, how he rose again on the third day and defeated death once and for all. We now no longer need to fear death and we know that he paid the price of our sins, so we are forgiven. All of these things are about us, what we are receiving as a result of Jesus death and resurrection. However, Jesus death also created for us the opportunity to finally give to God, something acceptable to Him. True Worship!

According to the word of God, all things including man, were created for God’s pleasure.

Rev. 4:11: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

And what gives God pleasure? If we look into the book of Haggai, to the chapter that mentions the rebuilding of the temple, we will see that God says in
Chapter 1: 8: Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD
What was the house for? The Temple was for worship. And God clearly says here that he will take pleasure in the Temple, that he will be glorified.

God takes pleasure in the worship offered by his people. And as we were created for God’s pleasure, one of the main purposes of our lives is to worship God.

But before Jesus died and rose again for us, we could not offer God true worship. God had to make do with what was offered to him as worship, because there was no alternative means by which man could give him true worship till Jesus came and did what he did.
You see, Jesus says in

John 4: 23-24: But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

So what God considers true worship, and according to Jesus, the only way to offer this true worship, is in spirit and truth.

But when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, his spirit died…and he was considered dead by God because he could no longer fulfill the purpose for which he was made.

It’s like a car, the purpose of a car is to move from one place to another. If the battery is dead, the car cannot fulfill this purpose and we call the car itself dead. We can sleep in the car, eat in the car, live in the car, we can pour in as much fuel as we like into the car, but without a charged battery, that car is not going to fulfill its purpose of actually moving.

Adam was like this, he could eat, sleep and do everything that was normal by human standards. But for God, this creation was dead because it could not fulfill its purpose.

But when Jesus rose again from the dead, he changed this as we see in

Romans 8: 10-11: But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So when Jesus comes into our lives, the Holy Spirit now dwells in us and brings life to our spirit. We now have spirit.

We can now worship God in spirit and in truth, which according to Jesus is the way God must be worshipped.

We see that Jesus paid a heavy price to obtain this opportunity for us, the opportunity to worship God in spirit and in truth, for once, to give God something he wants. How often can we give anything back to God? But is that how we worship?


No one who has had an encounter with God walks away from it the same as before. Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of his people, that means God dwells where the praises of his people are!

If you worship God sincerely, truthfully in your spirit, then you will bring with your praise the presence of God. You will experience the presence and the touch of God.

And what comes with God’s presence?

Psalm 16: 11: Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy;

And what does the joy of the Lord do? According to Nehemiah 8:10, the joy of the Lord is our strength!

So when we worship God in spirit and in truth, we bring down his presence, experience his joy and derive strength from it.

We all close our eyes automatically when it’s time to pray so that we can shut out all the other distractions around us. We do this willingly because in prayer we are asking God for things we need, worship on the other hand is giving something to him, so we don’t usually give it the same importance. When you offer worship to God, shut out all other distractions, close your eyes if you need to and let the words come from your heart. When you do this you are trying to reach God’s heart, drawing close to him and he will come to you. The Bible says in

James 4:8: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Are you worshiping God in spirit and in truth and experiencing his presence and his touch? If you want to experience the presence of God, and if you want to please God with your worship, then you have to make the conscious decision to change the way you worship! Jesus paid a heavy price to bring to life your spirit and allow you the chance to worship God in spirit and in truth, and in doing so experiencing his presence, joy and strength. Let us not make his sacrifice be in vain.


How about beef cutlet recipe today?


Beef Cutlets

Ingredients:

Mince beef - 500 gms
Diced onion - 1
Diced ginger-garlic - 4 Tablespons
Diced coriander leaves - 2 Tablespoons
Diced mint leaves - 2 Tablespoons
Diced curry leaves - 1 Tablespoon
Diced green chilly - 2 or 3
Garam masala - 1 teaspoon
Salt - as required
Pepper - as required
Boiled and mashed potato - 2 medium sized
Egg - 1
Bread crumbs - as required
Oil for frying - as required

Instructions:

1. In a frying pan, add 2 tablespoons of oil, fry curry leaves, ginger-garlic and green chilly. When the raw smell subsides, add onions and brown.

2. Then add the mince beef and cook till browned, add salt, pepper, garam masala,coriander leaves and mint leaves.

3. Let the mixture cool and add mashed potatoes to this. Check salt and add more if required.

4. Roll the mixture into small lime sized balls, then flatten in the palm of your hands, smooth the edges.

5. In a bowl, beat the egg well, dip each cutlet in the egg and coat well. Then dip in a plate of breadcrumbs till the cutlet is completely coated. Repeat with all the moulded cutlets.

6. Heat oil in a kadai or frying pan,enough to deep fry the cutlets, and drop cutlets in when oil is very hot. Drain them as soon as they brown. Serve hot.

Sorry for not posting!

I'd like to apologize for not posting so far this week, I was preparing to deliver my very first sermon, which I gave for the Easter morning service at our church. This took up a lot of my thoughts and so could not focus on the blog. God willing, I will resume posting tomorrow. God Bless!

Your identity in Christ (Recipe: Cardamom Tea)

When someone asks us who we are, the normal response would be to say our name,

or what we do for a living, or whose wife we are, whose mother we are….this is our identity. With the technology at our finger tips today, we are always displaying our nicknames or onscreen ids, sometimes as a projection of who we believe we are, for example, a few friends on my list go by the names Canadian girl, heart smilz, the heart break kid….all these names show us what their personal view of their identity is.

But the one person that I would love to be like is the disciple John. When you read the gospel of John, it is so clear how in love with Jesus he is. He was so in love with Jesus, so obsessed with Jesus, that he gave up his own identity completely. He identified himself simply as ‘the disciple who Jesus loved’. He was so certain, so confident of who he was in Jesus’ life….he was the one Jesus loved!

When we read the other gospels and compare it with the gospel according to John, we are able to see the difference that this relationship created. While the other three gospels do a good job of accounting for Jesus whereabouts, actions and teachings. John is the one who reveals some of the profound teachings of Jesus. In fact one of the most significant verses in the entire bible, the verse on which much of what we believe is based on, can be found in John’s gospel,

John 14: 6: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

None of the other gospels mention this. You see, John knew Jesus so deeply, he knew what was important to Jesus. John was able to identify the portions of Jesus teachings that were spiritually significant, simply because he had a better understanding of Jesus. And this understanding came from his love for Jesus.

Do we love Jesus like this? Are we able to understand when God speaks to us? Do we recognize in our spirit, the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit and what He tries to tell us? If we do not, then we need to work on our relationship with God. You cannot understand someone or sense their needs, unless you deeply love them! This is an easy concept for mothers to understand! Most of the time, when your child barely says a few words, sometimes even a look is enough to let you know how they feel or what they want. If you love God with all your heart, you will be able to have a relationship with Him that allows you to do the same!

Matthew 22: 37: And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

This is the kind of love that the word of God commands, if we do not have it yet, then let us ask the Lord to enable us to develop the kind of love and devotion that he so richly deserves.

I am putting up a very simple recipe today. But it is one of my very favourite drinks.

Cardamom Tea

Ingredients:

Tea bag – 1

Milk – ½ cup

Water – ¾ cup

Cardamom pods – 5

Sugar – as required

Instructions:

1. Pour in the milk and water into a saucepan and place on the lowest flame till it begins to boil.

2. As the flame is low, the milk will not boil and spill over. To the boiling milk add the teabag and crushed cardamom pods.

3. Allow this to simmer for five to ten minutes, depending on the strength you require for your tea.

4. Add sugar as required and serve hot. This measurement is for one cup of tea, if you are making more, then increase the ingredients proportionally.

The Words of your mouth (Recipe : Onion Fritters/ Baji)

How careful are we about what we say? How easy is it for us to make fun of someone else? How easy is it for us to talk about the fault of others and gossip endlessly? How easily does that lie slip out of our mouth?

Very often, we do not understand the power that lies in our tongue.

We see in Proverbs 18: 21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Wow! How strong these words are….do we really think that our tongues are this powerful before we use them? We quite often say things without really thinking them through, even to our children and those we love. When we are angry, how easy it is for us to say, “You’ll never learn!” or “You will know when learn your lesson” or “You will never prosper” or “I wish you were gone!”? Other times, when we receive a phone call we do not want to take, how easily do we dismiss the simple lie, “Tell them I’m not home or Tell them I’m in the shower!”?

I say this with complete experience. Many of these things I have sadly, done myself! But when we are children of God, with a heart like Jesus, guided by the gentle Holy Spirit, our words must reflect this! Even when it is not easy to say things politely or nicely!

Jesus says in Mathew 12: 33-37: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

This is definitely bad news for many of us! Imagine giving account for every careless word that we said? Every rude name we called someone, every rude word we used when we were upset, every curse we hurled at someone, every gossip we readily spread and every unkind word we said! I don’t think I can even remember most of them anymore!

Our mouths were meant to bless, and to praise God….we cannot use the same mouth for evil! We see in

James 3: 8-12: but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Let us confess to the Lord for the evil that our tongues have spoken, and ask him to forgive and renew us to speak only blessings and praise as we are lead by His Holy Spirit.


Today’s recipe is an easy snack.

Onion Fritters (Onion Baji)

Ingredients:

Diced onion – 1
Diced ginger – 2 teaspoons
Diced Curry leaves – 2 tablespoons
Diced coriander leaves – 2 tablespoons
Diced Green chilly - 1
Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
Asafetida – a pinch
Salt – as required
Gram flour (Besan) – ¾ cup
Water – as required
Oil for frying – as required

Instructions:

1.In a bowl add all the ingredients, except oil for frying, and mix well. Make sure to add only enough water to get a thick pasty consistency. You should be able to spoon out the thick batter into the oil for frying.

2.In a frying pan, heat oil for deep frying and with a tablespoon, take out one spoon full of the batter and drop into the hot oil. Repeat this for the entire batter.

3.Flip over the fritters in between to make sure both sides are evenly cooked. Keep the flame low to ensure that the insides are cooked as well.

4.Drain the fritters from the oil when they are a deep golden brown colour and serve hot.

Seeking heavenly glory (Recipe: Butter Chicken)

Sometimes, we get tired of our Christian calling. Some days it really seems so hard to stay faithful to living the way Jesus has asked us to live. Other days we will be under a barrage of attacks from the devil in his bid to shake us up and discourage us. I know this to be true from personal experience, there are times when I just sit and think, “This is so hard!” Smiling when I don’t really feel like it, praising when I feel discouraged, encouraging others when I am hurt inside, seeking God when we’re tired…..but the word of God promises us in

1 Corinthians 15: 58: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

These are the words we need to focus on when the going gets tough, that our work for the Lord and our labor in the Lord is not in vain, it is not without reward. Even though we don’t feel like it right now, we will see the fruit of our efforts one day. We see in

1 Corinthians 15: 39-42: For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.

The heavenly bodies that we will be raised with, will not all be the same, but we will reflect the fruit of our lives on earth, our faithfulness to the cause of the Lord.

As women, this should have great significance for us! We are ever concerned with what our bodies look like in this temporary world. We adorn it with jewelry and expensive clothes, we try to keep in shape (most of us…I am sadly not part of that group), we take care of our hair, cut it, straighten it, perm it, style it….the list goes on….all this for a body that is ever decaying and on the fast track to the grave.

How much more should we be concerned with our heavenly bodies….the ones we will have to keep around for eternity. Should we not want to make those bodies as glorious and beautiful as we possibly can?

The Bible says in James 1: 12: Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Wow! What a wonderful accessory that would make for our heavenly bodies! Let us pray to the Lord for the grace to keep striving faithfully and steadfastly, even when things are hard so that we can claim that crown of life from him!


Today I’d like to share my sister’s famous butter chicken recipe in her own words! It’s been raved about far and wide so enjoy!

Butter Chicken:

Chicken Breast - 500 gms

For chicken marinating:
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
Lime juice
Salt - to taste

Keep for half hour

Mix the below spice with Yoghurt (1cup) and add to marinade – keep for half hour again
Coarse Spice Mix
Cloves - 8
Peppercorns – 8 to 10
Cinnamon - 1”
bay leaves - 2
Cool and add the cardamom seeds – 3 to 4

Heat a flat pan or griddle on medium heat and gently roast (stirring frequently) the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, bay leaves and almonds till they darken slightly. Cool and add the cardamom seeds. Now grind into a coarse powder in a clean, dry coffee grinder.


For Gravy:
jeera - 1 tsp
Onion (medium size) - 2 nos
(chopped)
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp
Tomato - 3 nos (boiled – peeled and pureed)
Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Kasuri methi - 1 1/2 tsp
Cashew nut - 10 nos & Poppy Seeds (optional) in ¼ Milk for 1 hour and grind to a paste
Butter - 1 tbsp
Tomato ketchup - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Single cream - 200 ml

Preparation Method for Butter Chicken :

1)Cut chicken breast into small cubes, wash and drain.

2)Marinate the chicken pieces with the remaining items mentioned marinade as explained above.

3)Leave the chicken for a minimum of 1 hour.

4)Then fry the chicken pieces and leave aside.

5)Take the oil used for frying(3-4 tbsp) along with the browned masala particles sticking to the pan.

For Gravy:-
1)Add Jeera, and when it splutter, add chopped onion, saute for 2-3 mins.

2)Then add the ginger garlic paste.

3)Add the coriander & chilly powders and the kasuri methi(crushed between your palms) and mix well.

4)Add the pureed tomatoes

5)Add cashew paste.

6)Remove the gravy from the fire and blend well in the blender.

7)Heat butter and add the blended gravy and mix well.

8)Add ketchup, sugar, cream and stir well.

9)Add the chicken pieces to this and reduce the flame and leave it for 3-4 mins.

10)Sprinkle 1-2 pinch of garam masala to Butter Chicken and stir well.

11)Remove Butter Chicken from fire and serve with naan, rotis or chappathis.

Working Faith (Recipe: Naan)

The Bible is ever pressing us to have faith. Faith appears to the very foundation of our salvation. But what is faith?

Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

But faith by itself, we are told, is pointless. So what makes faith effective?

James 2: 14-17: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Wow! This is interesting! So it is clearly not enough for us to just say that we have faith, but we have to show this faith through our actions. How can we do this? What does this mean? It’s quite simple actually, it means that we need to live like we really believe what the word of God tells us.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5: 3-5: But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

This means that if we are impure, if we are jealous or full of envy, if we speak things that are inappropriate as children of God, and if we think that this is ok, if we live like what the above verse says isn’t really true, then it would clearly show that we have no faith in God’s word! But if our actions are in accordance with the word, if we are careful with how we speak or if we protect our mind from envy and jealousy, if we keep away from immorality, even in thought, because we know that God condemns this and says that there is no place in his kingdom for people like that, then these are an example of the works in our lives that show our faith.

In other words, living in obedience to God’s word is how we accompany our faith with works. When we not only acknowledge the word of God as the authority in our lives, but also base all our actions on this word, then we not only confess faith with our mouth, but we show it in our works, the faith that every word in God’s word is truth.

Let us pray to the Lord for the ability to supplement our faith in his word, with works by his word, without which, any faith we claim is without substance.

The recipe for today shows how to make Naan.

Ingredients:

Plain flour – 2 cups
Yeast – 1 teaspoon
Water – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 tablespoon
Ghee – 1 Tablespoon
Egg – 1
Salt – as required

Instructions:

1.Take half a cup of luke warm water and dissolve the yeast and sugar in this. Cover the cup with a saucer, keep aside till yeast ferments and rises.

2.Take the flour in a bowl, to this add ghee, egg, salt and the fermented yeast solution. If you do not require the whole solution, you need not use it. Make sure the dough is moist, but with the consistency of chapatti dough. Knead well, for at least 10 minutes.

3.Cover the dough with a wet cloth and keep the bowl aside for at least 2 – 3 hours.

4.The dough would have doubled in size now. Divide the dough into smaller balls, slightly larger than would be needed to make chapattis.

5.Roll out the dough in long oval shapes, but with ¼ inch thickness.

6.Heat a frying pan or chapatti tava and warm both sides of the naan. Then remove the frying pan, hold the naan with a pair of tongs and place it on the open flame of the stove. Be careful not to hold the naan over the flame too long or it will burn. Flip both sides of the naan over the flame to cook well. You can serve plain naan or smear some butter over the cooked naan and serve as butter naan.

Drawing Near to God (Recipe: Malai Chicken Curry)

The Bible is very clear and specific in its instructions on how to develop our relationship with God. It clearly outlines what we need to do, why and how so that we can abide in God’s word and follow his will. Many times we wonder why we struggle with our relationship with God, why we feel so distant from him when compared to the bond he has with others. The Bible says in

James 4:8: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

So according to his word, if you try to seek out God, to get closer to Him, then He will come closer to you and find you. Most of the time, we don’t know how we can move closer to God, we wonder what we can do to bridge this gap. However, when we look into the different accounts given in God’s word about the people who were trying to get closer to him, we see that they were not following any standard instruction or process, they were simply following their hearts and doing what they thought would help them get closer to God.

One example of this is Cornelius. We see in Acts 10: 3-5: About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, "Cornelius." And he stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.

Here we find an angel is sent by God to Cornelius because of his prayers and his alms. This was how Cornelius tried to get closer to God. Cornelius did not know how else to approach or seek God, he just sincerely did what he thought would help, he prayed and gave to the poor. And so God sent an angel to Cornelius, asking him to find Simon Peter, who would be able to instruct Cornelius in the right way.

Similarly, we find an Ethiopian Eunuch who also was seeking to get closer to God. He traveled all the way from his country to Jerusalem to worship, and he was intently reading what was written by the prophet Isaiah in his attempt to understand or find a way to get closer to God, but he did not understand the book. We see this in

Acts 8: 26-31: Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Again, we see God sends his servant Philip to this eunuch to show him the right way.

It is quite clear from these two accounts that when we sincerely seek to get closer to God, and we do whatever we can to draw near to God, even if it is simply by our own understanding, then God will make a way for us to find him. He may send a Philip or a Peter to show you the truth and so, we must always be open to obeying and receiving children of God who come with his message. They may quite likely be sent in answer to your prayers.

Let us pray and ask the Lord to help us discern the times when he is sending to us his servants with his message, to help us draw nearer to him.



Today’s recipe is a chicken curry that is perfect for special occasions or when you are throwing a dinner party.


Ingredients:

Whole chicken, cleaned and pieced – 1 kg
Sliced Onion – 2
Sliced Tomato – 2
Bay leaves - 2
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 teaspoons
Tomato Paste – 2 Tablespoons
Chilly powder – 1 ¼ teaspoon
Turmeric powder – ¾ teaspoon
Coriander powder – 1 ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt- as required
Chicken stock – 1 cup
Full cream – 70gms
Chopped Coriander leaves – 4 tablespoons
Ghee – 5 tablespoons
Oil for frying – as required

Instructions:

1.Marinate the chicken pieces in ¼ teaspoon chilly powder, ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder and the required amount of salt. Keep for 20 minutes.

2.Fry the marinated chicken pieces in oil and keep aside. Do not fry to crisp.

3.In a cooking pot, heat 4 tablespoons of ghee, to this add the bay leaves, sauté, then add the ginger garlic paste. Stir till the raw smell subsides.

4.Now add the sliced onions and fry well till deep golden brown. Turn off the flame and add the remaining chilly powder and turmeric powder. Along with coriander powder and cumin powder. Stir well and turn the flame back on.

5.Now add the tomatoes and stir occasionally till tomatoes are cooked and mashed. Then add the tomato paste and stir well. To this add the fried chicken pieces and mix well.

6.Pour in the chicken stock into this and allow it to cook for 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

7.Now turn off the flame, add cream and stir well till all the cream has blended into the curry. Check for salt, and add as required.

8.In a Kadai, heat one tablespoon of ghee and turn off the flame, to this add one teaspoon of garam masala powder and sauté. Pour this into the curry and stir well. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with roti or rice.

Speaking in Tongues (Recipe: Spaghetti Bolognaise)

This is somewhat of a topic that many of today’s churches prefer to overlook. Over the recent months, I have had many different people ask me about the gift of tongues and the need for this gift. I would not be able to provide an elaborate explanation of tongues within this short entry, but I would like to give a small introduction to the gift of tongues.

The speaking of tongues is for your individual spiritual growth as mentioned in
1 Corinthians 14: 4: The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

And why is this? How is the one who speaks in tongues build up? We see this in
1 Corinthians 14: 2: For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.

We are being spiritually built up as we speak in tongues, uttering mysteries in the Spirit to God.

The bible clearly tells us in 1 Peter 2: 2: Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.

We are compared to newborn infants spiritually and we need to grow and be built up, speaking in tongues enables us to grow spiritually or to be built up higher in the Spirit.

Even Jesus spoke of tongues as an evidence of the believer in

Mark 16: 17: And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;

We need to understand that the gift of tongues is not just for pastors, preachers or Pentecostals……according to Jesus, it is for every believer. And we have observed this clearly in the Bible, that speaking in tongues is a way for us to communicate with God in our spirit, which is probably the most intimate way to communicate with Him, because we see in
John 4: 24: God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Wow! So Jesus tells us here to worship God in spirit, because God is spirit…..speaking in tongues enables every believer to do this.

If you do not have the gift of tongues, please ask the Lord Holy Spirit to bless you with this very valuable gift so that you can have a more intimate relationship with God and grow spiritually stronger.



How about a pasta recipe today?


Spaghetti Bolognaise


Ingredients:

Spaghetti – 250gms
Minced Beef – 250gms
Garlic paste – 3 Tablespoons
Beef stock – 1 cup
Finely diced onion – 1 large
Sliced tomato - 2
Tomato paste – 50 gms
Tomato ketchup – ½ cup
Salt – as required
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Pepper- 1 Tablespoon
Olive oil – 5 Tablespoons
Mixed Italian Herbs – 2 teaspoons (optional)
Grated Parmesan cheese – 2 Tablespoon (optional)


Instructions:

1.Boil the spaghetti in water with 1 Tablespoon olive oil, salt and drain when cooked, keep aside.

2.In a sauce pot, heat the remaining olive oil, add garlic paste, sauté till raw smell subsides. To this add the onions and fry well till golden brown.

3.Add mince meat and stir occasionally till it is cooked. To this, add herbs, pepper, salt and sugar.

4.Add tomatoes and mix till tomatoes are cooked and mashed. Then add tomato paste and ketchup, stir for a minute, then pour in beef stock and let it boil till the sauce reaches a thick consistency and is not fluid. Turn off flame.

5.Add the cooked pasta to this sauce and mix well. Sprinkle the parmesan over this and serve hot.

Chosen (Recipe: Prawn Date Pickle – borrowed from my best friend Ani!)

How often do we think about the calling of God on our lives? How much time do we spend in contemplating how incredibly fortunate we are to be the chosen of God? Do you realize that before God decided to set creation in motion, HE CHOSE YOU? The Bible says in

Ephesians 1: 4: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Wow! Before the foundation of the world! So before he formed the earth, before the waters covered it, before he moved over the waters…..God was sitting and thinking about YOU! This much love I cannot imagine anyone having for me!

So do we live like we are loved and chosen by God? Billions of people in the world, but God chose YOU. Jesus thought of your name and said to himself, I am going to die for Sindu, so that Sindu can be with me forever and no one can separate her from me! You put your name in that sentence and see the love the Saviour has for you!

John 15: 16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

How interesting is this! Why were we chosen? To bear fruit…..and why should we bear fruit? Without bearing fruit that lasts, we cannot receive from the Father!

In one of my earlier entries I spoke about the fruits of the Spirit, and how we could bear those fruits in our lives….by continuously being connected to and lead by the Holy Spirit. When we are lead by God’s spirit, we will live lives that will bear fruit. We see this in

Romans 8: 5: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

We were chosen before the world came into being, to live by the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that moved over the waters during creation, bearing lasting fruits of the Holy Spirit so that we cud be connected to God in such an incredible way by which He would answer whenever we called upon Him! What an intricate plan for someone as insignificant as me!

Let us pray to the Lord that we can truly abide in his Holy Spirit, bearing the fruits and fulfilling the plan for which we were chosen from the beginning of time!


Today let me give you a recipe that my best friend Ani gave me! It’s her mom’s famous prawn date pickle! Am putting it in her own words as she sent to me…

Prawn Date Pickle:

Ingredients:

Cleaned Prawns – 1 kg
Ripe Dates – 50gms
Ginger - garlic paste – 3 Tablespoons
Finely chopped green chilly – 5
Finely chopped Curry leaves – 3 stalks
Turmeric powder – 1 ½ teaspoon
Red chilly powder – 1 ½ teaspoon (more if you want hotter)
Vinegar – 1 ½ cup
Salt – as required
Mustard seeds – 1 ¼ teaspoon
Sesame or Mustard oil – as required


Instructions:

1.Fry prawns coated in ½ teaspoon turmeric and ½ teaspoon red chilly powder as well as some salt, drain and keep aside.

2.In the remaining oil sputter 1 teaspoon mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add ground ginger and garlic, fry well.

3.Now add green chilly along with. red chilly powder after switching off the flame. If the oil is too hot the chilly powder will get burnt .The chilly powder should not change its colour .It should be bright red.

4.Now add prawns into it and cook on a very low fire for 10 minutes.

5.Meanwhile prepare the ripe dates by taking out the seeds and washing it in ½ cup vinegar. Throw the vinegar out and put the dates in the blender along with another cup of vinegar and grind it.

6.Add this to the prawn masala and mix well. Add salt according to taste. Finally add ¼ teaspoon ground mustard seeds to it .Let it cool and then bottle it up once it’s cold.

Fear of the Lord (Recipe: Chocolate Cake)

If we are not afraid of the Lord, it’s high time we started! We love our parents, at the same time, we can be terrified of disobeying them. The reason for this is because our parents punish and correct us when they believe we are in the wrong. God is no exception to this. It is obvious that God despises sin as He is Holy. But just like our parents, some things clearly push Him over the edge and He metes out a stronger punishment. So what does God hate? We see this in

Zachariah 8: 14-17: For thus says the LORD of hosts: "As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts, so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not. These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD."

Here we see God telling the people of Israel that He was provoked by their fathers to wrath, but He held back in His love. God clearly shows what provoked Him and he tells the people to do or avoid things that can prevent His wrath in verses 16-17.

It appears pretty simple, don’t’ lie, don’t judge falsely and always try to be peacemakers, don’t plan evil in your heart and do not love lies. God does not make a distinction between big lies and little lies, nor does He make any concession for the kind of evil you plan in your hearts. If you see something someone has and you don’t think they deserve it, or you want them to lose it…that is planning evil in your heart. If someone you are not fond of is attempting something and you want them to fail, that is planning evil in your heart. I don’t know about everyone else, but I am sure that I have been guilty of many of these things. But God’s judgment is provoked on those who do this. This is not about following law or living in grace. Grace means that although we have done these things, once we realize that we have disappointed God, we can ask for forgiveness and try to never knowingly commit these sins again. If we were under the law, we would probably have to sacrifice some animal to atone for our sins and even then there would be no guarantee of forgiveness. So even though we are under grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, this does not take away from us the responsibility of living rightly before God and avoiding things that He despises.

Jesus clearly says this in Mathew 10: 28: And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Even Jesus emphasizes to us the need to fear God in our lives. Recently I was studying about the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Diocletian, before the first Christian Roman Emperor Constantine came to power. The account of this was given by a church historian of the time, Eusebius. In his description of what happened, it is quite interesting to see what he has written about the persecution. Although this attack on Christians was initiated by a Roman Caesar, Eusebius first lays the blame on Christians. This is what he says,

“This persecution began with the brethren in the army. But as if without sensibility, we were not eager to make the Deity favorable and propitious; and some, like atheists, thought that our affairs were unheeded and ungoverned; and thus we added one wickedness to another. And those esteemed our shepherds, casting aside the bond of piety, were excited to conflicts with one another, and did nothing else than heap up strifes and threats and jealousy and enmity and hatred toward each other, like tyrants eagerly endeavoring to assert their power. Then, truly, according to the word of Jeremiah, The Lord in his wrath darkened the daughter of Zion, and cast down the glory of Israel from heaven to earth, and remembered not his foot-stool in the day of his anger. The Lord also overwhelmed all the beautiful things of Israel, and threw down all his strongholds. Lamentations 2:1-2”

Eusebius believed that the infighting, the jealousy and hypocrisy of the Christians of the time provoked God into allowing the great persecution they suffered for almost ten years.

We need to see this as a lesson to be learnt and not repeat the mistakes of the past. Churches and denominations are all fighting, disagreeing and saying wicked things about each other. If this does not stop, the wrath of God is imminent. We need to pray for the unity of the body of Christ, for churches to stop fighting and to follow the only true message of the Word of God. We need to also pray that we can live in the fear of the Lord, because only when each member of the church and the body of Christ has this understanding, can the entire body be whole and live in the fear of God.



Today’s recipe if for a perfect chocolate cake!


Chocolate Cake


Ingredients:


Water – 1 cup
Sugar - 1¼ cups
Butter/Oil -125g
Unsweetened Cocoa - ½ cup
Soda bicarbonate - ½ teaspoon
Self raising flour - 1¼ cups
(If you have only plain flour, then add 1 teaspoon baking powder to it)
Eggs - 2


Instructions:


1.Preheat oven to 190ºC.

2.Mix water, sugar, butter or oil, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda and heat in a saucepan stirring continuously, until sugar dissolves, but do not let it boil yet till all the sugar is dissolved.

3.Once the sugar is dissolved, allow it to boil, reduce the flame and let it simmer uncovered for two minutes. Remove from flame and let it cool to room temperature.

4.Add flour and egg to the cooled mixture and beat for two minutes.

5.Pour into a greased 9 inch cake pan and bake for 40 minutes. This may vary with different ovens, so wet the blade of a knife and poke into the cake, if the blade comes out clean then the cake is done. If not, you may want to leave it for some more time. When done, remove from oven, let it cool well before you remove from pan and cut.