Prep:
Hooray for breakfast for dinner! Especially when it is this easy. I recommend pairing this apple ham with pancakes for a big smile! For the ham, you just need a skillet and a cutting board.
Ingredients:
-1 Peeled and Sliced Apple (the sweeter the better)
-1 Slice of Cooked Ham
-Cooking Spray or Butter
-Maple Syrup (the real stuff is best)
-Cinnamon
-Brown Sugar
Cooking Instructions:
1. Spray a skillet lightly with oil or melt a little butter in the skillet over low heat.
2. Cut the ham slice in half and place in skillet, keeping the heat low.
3. Flip the ham when the oil starts to sizzle.
4. When both sides of the ham have warmed, place the ham on a plate off the stove.
5. Pour about 1/8 cup of syrup into the skillet, just enough to make a puddle in the pan the size of a cracked egg.
6. Sprinkle in a little brown sugar and cinnamon, mixing with the syrup.
7. Drop the apple slices in, stirring with the syrup.
8. Flip the apples in the syrup after about two minutes.
9. Wait another two minutes, and scrunch all the apples up on the side of the skillet. Drop the ham back in and cover with the apples and syrup.
10. When the ham and apples are nice and warm and syrupy, you're good!
Mmm.....
Thoughts on the Edge of Christmas
I've noticed in the last couple of
years that a vast number of churches and Christian groups advocate for people
to use the specific phrase "Merry Christmas." There is this big to-do
about making sure that Christians defend and exemplify their faith and the
"reason for the season."
And, I'm not saying that the word
"Christmas" should be put aside...I'm asking more about whether or
not Christians (myself included) actually recognize and proclaim what the
celebration is all about.
Now you might expect the
sentimental list of ways that we tend to misconstrue the meaning of Christmas.
Our culture, even in the Church, has certainly been caught up in a trend of
self-service and materialism.
And, I'm not saying that steering
clear of consumerism or greed is at all wrong...but that issue isn't what
concerns me either.
My point, I think, is that Christ
is so rarely the center of Christmas. Little Baby Jesus might be the figurehead
of the holiday, right up there with Santa, the "spirit of family," or
"stars and bells and remembering what matters most..." but Christ is not so much remembered.
On Christmas Eve, hundreds of
thousands of people who otherwise do not attend church come for one service.
They come for the carols. And they come for Aunt Carol who reminds them it's
tradition. Some come for that reminder that God likes people and gave us his
wee little son as a nice gift. There are, I think, even some that come because
the rest of the year they struggle with the idea of God, but on Christmas, they
want that experience of considering that something besides "us" exists
and is good.
I do not think many people come to
Christmas concerts, plays, events, and services to hear that Christ became man,
remained fully God, lived perfectly, took on all of humanity's sins, died, rose
again, and offered to each and every person salvation and a relationship with
the Almighty God through submission to His great grace.
Yet isn't that what we all need to
hear? Isn't that good (but difficult and convicting) news exactly what we are
told to share?
The Jesus born into a manager was
not simply made in the image of man. He was man. He was THE man. The last Adam. And yet He was
God. THE God. The creator of all things. The King of kings.
And we make a day designated for
commemorating Christ about one brief moment. About a few short sentiments.
Twisted around several popular concepts and stories.
"Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this
ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful
ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the
contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s
conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled
to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of
unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For
God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our
hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the
face of Christ." -2 Corinthians 4:1-6
To make Christmas all about Jesus,
the baby, to the exclusion of the whole truth of Christ, is to render Christmas
meaningless. God sending His son as a baby and calling Him a King does not save
us. Even if it makes us feel good.
Ultimately, that is what Christmas,
minus the Gospel and amplify the Nativity, is. Another fuzzy. Another
feel-good. Another thing for our glory and not for God's.
Because when Christ is just a
little baby God who reminds us that there is something beyond us and that
family is nice and generosity feels good, Christ is just another object. One
more object for us to want to call our own. And one more object and sentiment
for us to sell.
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the
one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are
throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But
even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we
preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now
I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you
accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of
God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people,
I would not be a servant of Christ." -Galatians 1: 6-10
Whether we're trying to please
other people or ourselves, we must remember who Christ is, who He was born to
be, and how God revealed Himself through the process.
Also, see 1 Corinthians 1:26-2:13. A wonderful truth.
