Easy Designs

Some cake decorators say learning to smooth the icing is the hardest part of cake decorating. Practice will make you a professional in not time. Upon getting it down, show it off, even a cake with out many decorations that’s clean and smooth will make an perfectly elegant offering.

As an alternative of icing, cake tops might be dusted with powdered sugar. You’ll be able to select to use a stencil for a more embellished look, or simply the powdered sugar for a clean look.

Edible decorations are an attractive yet easy cake decorating technique. The use of sprinkles, sweet, nuts, and coconut pressed into the icing before it sets, will make your cake stand out.

To apply a textured look for your cake decorating, use a small cardboard comb, available in baking supply stores.

Piping is achieved by utilizing a pastry bag fitted with a metallic tip that is held on by a coupler. That is your most necessary tool for cake decorating. You may make traces, words, shells, flowers, and many different designs on the top or sides of the cake. Fill the bag with no more than 1 cup of icing at a time, twist the top of the bag and preserve steady pressure when piping the design. Use your other hand to guide the tip. It’s wise to find out all the things you can about piping before you begin.

Fondant a smooth white paste, is utilized in complicated cake decorating. Fondant is kneaded and rolled to cover cakes with a sleek smooth layer of icing. It is usually used to make designs which might be 3-D. It’s much less tasty than buttercream, but the cake will look sleek and elegant.

 

The Ark of the Covenant is Lost to the Philistines

Then the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. They camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek. The Philistines arranged their forces to fight Israel. As the battle spread out, Israel was defeated by¹¹ the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

When the army came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us from the hand of our enemies.

So the army sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. When the ark of the covenant of the Lord arrived at the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the ground shook.

When the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, they said, “What is this loud shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” Then they realized that the ark of the Lord had arrived at the camp.  The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. They said, “Too bad for us! We’ve never seen anything like this!  Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert!  Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”

So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle. The ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were killed.

 

God Is Love, So We Must Love One Another

For this is the gospel message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another, not like Cain who was of the evil one and brutally murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.

Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.  We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. But whoever has the world’s possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth. And by this we will know that we are of the truth and will convince our conscience in his presence, that if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience and knows all things.  Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God,and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him.  Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment.  And the person who keeps his commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us

 

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however,²² you do not obey me and keep²³ all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep²⁴ all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part²⁵ will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life.²⁶ You will sow your seed in vain because²⁷ your enemies will eat it.²⁸ 26:17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things,²⁹ you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.³⁰ 26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land³¹ will not produce their fruit.

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me³² and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction³³ seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals³⁴ against you and they will bereave you of your children,³⁵ annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population³⁶ so that your roads will become deserted.

26:23 “‘If in spite of these things³⁷ you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me,³⁸ 26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you³⁹ seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance.⁴⁰ Although⁴¹ you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.⁴² 26:26 When I break off your supply of bread,⁴³ ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight,⁴⁴ and you will eat and not be satisfied.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this⁴⁵ you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me,⁴⁶ 26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you⁴⁷ and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.⁴⁸ 26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars,⁴⁹ and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols.⁵⁰ I will abhor you.⁵¹ 26:31 I will lay your cities waste⁵² and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword⁵³ after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for⁵⁴ its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 26:35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have⁵⁵ on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

26:36 “‘As for⁵⁶ the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though⁵⁷ there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand⁵⁸ for you before your enemies. 26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Leviticus 26

 

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

“What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ….” It’s been twenty years since my Sunday school teachers required me to memorize Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer #1, but it still rolls off my tongue easily. The Reformed church in which I grew up incorporated the Heidelberg Catechism into both worship services and youth education.

As a teenager, I certainly did not enjoy committing huge swaths of a stuffy-sounding theological primer to memory. I envied friends at other churches whose much “cooler” Sunday school curricula involved skits and music. But those pieces of memorized catechism—particularly the wonderfully comforting Q&A #1 above—have been an encouragement to me ever since.

All this came to mind while reading this interview with Kevin DeYoung about the value of the Heidelberg Catechism at the Evangel blog. If you’re not familiar with the concept of a catechism, or if you are skeptical that a long theological treatise penned by 16th-century Protestants could possibly be relevant to your Christian life, give the short interview a read. Among other things, DeYoung describes the ways that the catechism is woven into the life of his church:

How do you use it at your church? And what are some other suggestions regarding how to use a catechism?

Kevin DeYoung: We use the Heidelberg Catechism in our worship. Sometimes we read it responsively. Other times I’ll work it into my communion liturgy. I’ll quote it in my sermons from time to time. I’ve seen the Catechism used effectively as Sunday school material. It’s best to have littler kids memorize parts of it and have older kids explore the nuances of the theology. We also have a section on the Catechism in our membership class and leadership training. And of course, my book on Heidelberg started out a weekly devotionals for my congregation.

DeYoung is talking specifically about the Heidelberg Catechism, but it is not the only catechism written to methodically introduce Christians (and particularly children) to the fundamental elements of Christianity. Depending on your denomination and theological leanings, there may be one or more catechisms written specifically to convey the Christian truths you hold dear.

What about you and your church? Does your church use a catechism as a teaching tool in sermons, Sunday school, or another part of church life?

 

The Way of Love.

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 13:2 And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 13:3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast,¹ but do not have love, I receive no benefit.

13:4 love is patient, love  is kind, it is not envious. love does not brag, it is not puffed up. 13:5 It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. 13:6 It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. 13:7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13:8 love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside. 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 13:10 but when what is perfect² comes, the partial will be set aside. 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult,³ I set aside childish ways. 13:12 For now we see in a mirror indirectly,⁴ but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love . But the greatest of these is love.1 Corinthians 13

 

The Message of Reconciliation

5:11 Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord,¹⁸ we try to persuade¹⁹ people,²⁰ but we are well known²¹ to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too. 5:12 We are not trying to commend²² ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us,²³ so that you may be able to answer those who take pride²⁴ in outward appearance²⁵ and not in what is in the heart. 5:13 For if we are out of our minds, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 5:14 For the love of Christ²⁶ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ²⁷ died for all; therefore all have died. 5:15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised.²⁸ 5:16 So then from now on we acknowledge²⁹ no one from an outward human point of view.³⁰ Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view,³¹ now we do not know him in that way any longer. 5:17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away³² – look, what is new³³ has come!³⁴ 5:18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 5:19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us³⁵ the message of reconciliation. 5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea³⁶ through us. We plead with you³⁷ on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” 5:21 God³⁸ made the one who did not know sin³⁹ to be sin for us, so that in him⁴⁰ we would become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5

 

The Lord Gives Solomon a Promise and a Warning

7:11 After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple and the royal palace, and accomplished all his plans for the Lord’s temple and his royal palace,¹² 7:12 the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have answered¹³ your prayer and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made.¹⁴ 7:13 When¹⁵ I close up the sky¹⁶ so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation,¹⁷ or send a plague among my people, 7:14 if my people, who belong to me,¹⁸ humble themselves, pray, seek to please me,¹⁹ and repudiate their sinful practices,²⁰ then I will respond²¹ from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.²² 7:15 Now I will be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place.²³ 7:16 Now I have chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home;²⁴ I will be constantly present there.²⁵ 7:17 You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations.²⁶ 7:18 Then I will establish your dynasty,²⁷ just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor ruling over Israel.’²⁸

7:19 “But if you people²⁹ ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep,³⁰ and decide to serve and worship other gods,³¹ 7:20 then I will remove you³² from my land I have given you,³³ I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence,³⁴ and I will make you³⁵ an object of mockery and ridicule³⁶ among all the nations. 7:21 As for this temple, which was once majestic,³⁷ everyone who passes by it will be shocked and say, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’ 7:22 Others will then answer,³⁸ ‘Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors,³⁹ who led them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served.⁴⁰ That is why he brought all this disaster down on them.’”

 

The Call of Wisdom Proverbs 8.

Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights along the way, where paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances she cries aloud.

Wisdom is calling out to all mankind, please note where she is standing. But before this, note that she has given herself a personality meaning she is not a feeling or a power, rather she is a person. But now, where is she? She stands where the paths meet. At the crossroads is where she stands.

It is a significant place to stand. She has positioned herself very well indeed. Why is this so, you might ask. At the crossroads, you have 4 choices; you can either go right or left, forward or backward. The choice is yours. Oh, how difficult that choice sometimes is, yet that is where she stands. On the path of life she stands at each crossroads you will encounter. Why does she stand there? Does she want to have a good laugh at you as you fail to make the choice, as you debate and seem lost? No, she is there to give you guidance, she is there to direct you which way you should go.

The path of life will bring you many times and circumstances where you need to decide which way you should go. Isaiah says there will be a voice behind telling you which way you should go and proverbs informs us that this voice is the voice of wisdom. Traveler, will you listen to her, will you heed her advice? But will you ask for it in the first place?

Wisdom stands at the entrance to the city gates. Are you about to enter into something? Wisdom calls out to give you direction and guidance. As you are about to enter into a relationship, a business partnership, an academic discipline or a career; whatever you are about to do, wisdom is calling out to you. She is ready to guide you, to help you as you enter, to show you the ways and by-ways of the city. She wants to show you where the most important people of the city reside. She is not a like a travel agent who will just get the paperwork done and leave you to yourself; no, she is more like a tour guide who will go along with you all the way. She will share your experiences because she will be your companion. The question is, will you take her along with you?

God has given us a resource, a resource He used at the very beginning of creation. Will you utilize this day and in the coming year? James 1:5 tells us that we should ask for wisdom and He will bountifully supply it to us. Will you use this opportunity?

Listen to wisdom as she gives us her unique selling point. “By me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just; by me princes govern, and all nobles who rule on earth. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full.” (Proverbs 8:15,20,21) She has a proven track record, a flawless history, will you not trust her?

Wisdom makes a final call, “Now, then my sons (or daughters), listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.” (Proverbs 8:32,33). We all want to be blessed, and here is a sure way of receiving blessings. It is simple, all you have to do is respond to her call. Answer her call and ask her to lead you and be with you always. As you ask the Father for wisdom, do not doubt in your heart, but believe His word for He surely keeps His word. Always take God at His word for He is looking to the performance of it (Jeremiah 1:12).

 

THE NINTH PLAGUE, DARKNESS.

What is this plague doing here? It seems out of sequence. Thus far there have been eight plagues, and they have become steadily, inexorably, more serious. The first two, the Nile turning blood red and the infestation of frogs, seemed more like omens than anything else. The third (lice) and fourth (wild animals) caused discomfort, not crisis. The fifth, the plague that killed livestock, affected animals, not human beings.

The sixth, boils, was again a discomfort, but a serious one – no longer an external nuisance but a bodily affliction. (Remember that Job lost everything he had, but did not start cursing his fate until his body was covered with sores: Job 2.) The seventh and eighth, hail and locusts, destroyed the Egyptian grain. Now there was no food. Still to come was the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, in retribution for Pharaoh’s murder of Israelite children. It would be this that eventually broke Pharaoh’s resolve.

Darkness is a nuisance, but no more. The phrase “darkness that can be felt” suggests what happened: It was a khamsin, a sandstorm of a kind not unfamiliar in Egypt that can last for several days producing sand- and dust-filled air that obliterates the light of the sun. A khamsin is usually produced by a southern wind that blows into Egypt from the Sahara desert. The worst sandstorm is usually the first of the season, in March. This fits the dating of the plague that happened shortly before the death of the firstborn, onPesach.

The ninth plague was a miracle, but not an event wholly unknown to the Egyptians – then or now. Why then does it figure in the narrative, immediately prior to its climax?

The answer lies in a line from Dayeinu, the song we sing as part of the Haggadah: “If G-d had executed judgment against them [the Egyptians] but had not done so against their gods, it would have been sufficient.” Twice the Torah itself refers to this dimension of the plagues:

“I will pass through Egypt on that night, and I will kill every firstborn in Egypt, man and animal. I will perform acts of judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I [alone] am G-d” (Exodus 12:12).

The Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, struck down by the Lord; and against their gods, the Lord had executed judgment (Numbers 33:4).

Not all the plagues were directed, in the first instance, against the Egyptians. Some were directed against things they worshipped as gods. That is the case in the first two plagues. The Nile was personified in ancient Egypt as the god Hapi. Offerings were made to it at times of inundation. The inundations themselves were attributed to one of the major Egyptian deities, Osiris. The plague of frogs would have been associated by the Egyptians with Heket, the goddess who was believed to attend births as a midwife, and who was depicted as a woman with the head of a frog.

These symbolisms, often lost on us, would have been immediately apparent to the Egyptians. Two things now become clear. The first is why the Egyptian magicians declared, “This is the finger of G-d” (Exodus 8:15), only after the third plague, lice. The first two plagues would not have surprised them at all. They would have understood them as the work of Egyptian deities who, they believed, were sometimes angry with the people and took their revenge.

The second is the quite different symbolism the first two plagues were meant to have for the Israelites – and for us. As with the tenth plague, these were no mere miracles intended – as it were – to demonstrate the power of the G-d of Israel, as if religion were a gladiatorial arena in which the strongest god wins.

Their meaning was moral. They represented the most fundamental of all ethical principles, stated in the Noahide covenant in the words “He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” This is the rule of retributive justice, measure for measure: As you do, so shall you be done to.