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Pecan Pie Brownies are going to quickly become your new favorite hybrid dessert. Soft, chocolatey, perfectly baked brownies are topped with a crunchy, sugary pecan pie topping that checks all the right boxes. Bake a batch of these brownies today to enjoy the best of both worlds!

The ultimate hybrid dessert recipe

It’s potluck season! Well, if your friends are anything like mine, it’s always potluck season (we love food!). With that being said, I do feel like Fall is particularly more potluck-friendly. So, next time you find yourself in the truly existential crisis of picking the perfect Fall-inspired dessert that will actually stand out amongst the others, bake a quick and easy batch of pecan pie brownies!

These can also double as a Thanksgiving dessert because who wants to choose between pecan pie or chocolate? You can get two desserts in one with these pecan pie brownies!

Let’s face it – a plain pecan pie or basic batch of brownies is a little too obvious, right?

Sure, they’re classic desserts that everyone will enjoy having a taste of, but it’s not like they’re going to write home about it. That’s where these pecan pie brownies are different! They’re just unique enough to not be replicated anywhere else at the potluck, and they’re classic enough to be loved by all. Again, best of both worlds!

The fun part about serving these brownies is how no one can agree on what the best part is.

Is it the crunchy, sweet, caramelized pecan pie topping? Or is it the soft, fluffy, decadently chocolatey brownies beneath the pecan pie topping? Either way, everyone I’ve served these treats to can agree on one thing – these easy to make pecan pie brownies are definitely a Fall favorite!

Ingredients

For the brownie layer:

• Flour – all-purpose flour will do!
• Cocoa powder – you’ll want to use unsweetened cocoa powder. If you love a richer, darker brownie, you can use dark cocoa powder.
• Baking powder – this will help the brownies rise
• Salt – always add salt to baked goods to help enhance and balance flavors!
• Eggs – this will help bind your batter! Room temperature eggs are always best.
• Butter – I always use unsalted butter in baked goods.
• Granulated sugar – regular granulated will do.
• Light brown sugar – I like using light brown sugar in brownies since they’re already so rich but you can use dark brown sugar if that’s all you have.
• Vanilla extract – just a splash!
• Chocolate chips – who doesn’t love extra chocolate?!

For the pecan pie layer:

• Butter – again, unsalted butter.
• Eggs – this will help bind the pecans together with everything else.
• Dark brown sugar – I love the deep flavor of pecan pie so the dark brown sugar will help with that.
• Granulated sugar – regular white granulated sugar works.
• Corn syrup – this contributes to the sweetness that you’re used to with pecan pie!
• Vanilla extract – just a splash gives it a robust flavor.
• Heavy cream – you can use milk too but I like the fattiness from heavy cream.
• Chopped pecans – of course you need pecans for the pecan pie layer!

Tips for making pecan pie brownies

Making the brownies more fudgy. To make the brownies a bit more fudgy, reduce the cooking time by about 5 minutes. That should result in brownies that are still cooked, but are slightly more moist and fudgy.

Making ahead of time. Unfortunately you won’t be able to make this ahead of time in separate parts and then combine them together. They need to bake together so if you’re going to commit to making them, you’ll have to make them together. However, in terms of making the whole recipe ahead of time, you can definitely do that! They’re best fresh but you can make them up to five days ahead of time and keep them in an airtight container.

Keep the pecan pie tops from browning too much or burning. Sometimes with how much sugar content there is in pecan pie, the tops of pecan pie can burn or brown too much. If you notice this happening, put foil on top and continue baking.

Storing and reheating instructions

How long will pecan pie brownies stay fresh? In an airtight container at room temperature, these sweet treats will stay fresh for about 5 days.

To reaheat: Enjoy them as they are at room temp, or zap them in the microwave for just a few seconds and serve with ice cream for a warmer treat!

Sink your teeth into more of my favorite brownie recipes

Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Caramel Filled Brownies

Fudgy Dirty Chai Dark Chocolate Brownies

Fudgy Biscoff Swirl Brownies

In 1722, a pet squirrel named Mungo passed away. It was a tragedy: Mungo escaped its confines and met its fate at the teeth of a dog. Benjamin Franklin, friend of the owner, immortalized the squirrel with a tribute.

“Few squirrels were better accomplished, for he had a good education, had traveled far, and seen much of the world.” Franklin wrote, adding, “Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel Ranger!”

Mourning a squirrel’s death wasn’t as uncommon as you might think when Franklin wrote Mungo’s eulogy; in the 18th- and 19th centuries, squirrels were fixtures in American homes, especially for children. While colonial Americans kept many types of wild animals as pets, squirrels “were the most popular,” according to Katherine Grier’s Pets in America, being relatively easy to keep.

By the 1700s, a golden era of squirrel ownership was in full swing. Squirrels were sold in markets and found in the homes of wealthy urban families, and portraits of well-to-do children holding a reserved, polite upper-class squirrel attached to a gold chain leash were proudly displayed (some of which are currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Most pet squirrels were American Grey Squirrels, though Red Squirrels and Flying Squirrels also were around, enchanting the country with their devil-may-care attitudes and fluffy bodies.

By the 19th century, a canon of squirrel-care literature emerged for the enthusiast. In the 1851 book Domestic pets: their habits and management, Jane Loudon writes more about squirrels as pets than rabbits, and devotes an entire chapter to the “beautiful little creature, very agile and graceful in its movements.” Squirrels “may be taught to jump from one hand to the other to search for a hidden nut, and it soon knows its name, and the persons who feed it.” Loudin also waxes on their habits, like jumping around a room and peeping out from wooden eaves, writing that “an instance is recorded of no less than seventeen lumps of sugar being found in the cornice of a drawing-room in which a squirrel had been kept, besides innumerable nuts, pieces of biscuit.” Loudon’s advice: when your squirrel is not running around the room, provide it with a tin-lined cage that has a running wheel.

Leisure Hour Monthly, meanwhile, in 1859, advised to feed it “a fig or a date now and then,” and that you should start your squirrel-raising adventure with those procured “directly from the nest, when possible.” The unnamed author’s own pet squirrels, Dick and Peter, had the freedom of his bedroom and plenty of nuts to store away. “Let your pet squirrels crack their own nuts, my young squirrel fanciers,” the author wrote.

While many people captured their pet squirrels from the wild in the 1800s, squirrels were also sold in pet shops, a then-burgeoning industry that today constitutes a $70 billion business. One home manual from 1883, for example, explained that any squirrel could be bought from your local bird breeder. But not unlike some shops today, these pet stores could have dark side; Grier writes that shop owners "faced the possibility that they sold animals to customers who would neglect or abuse them, or that their trade in a particular species could endanger its future in the wild."

Keeping pet squirrels has a downside for humans too, which eventually became clear: despite their owners’ best attempts at taming them, they’re still wild animals. As time wore on, squirrels were increasingly viewed as pests; by the 1910s squirrels became so despised in California that the state issued a widespread public attack on the once-adored creatures. From the 1920s through the 1970s many states slowly adopted wildlife conservation and exotic pet laws, which prohibited keeping squirrels at home. Today, experts and enthusiasts alike warn that squirrels don’t always make ideal pets, mainly because of their finicky diet, space requirements, and scratchy claws.

None of this, of course, will deter the most determined squirrel owner. Fans of Bob Ross might remember his pet squirrel named Peapod, and some squirrels owners are rekindling the obsession by making their pets Instagram-famous. Still, wild squirrels surely agree—it’s probably best we’re now mostly leaving them to the forest.

Recently I received an email from a single woman in her twenties asking for some advice. Her heart’s desire is to be married, but she doesn’t see any possibilities on the horizon. She spoke of her love for Jesus and her desire to pursue purity. That desire has kept her from indulging in the frivolous romantic relationships many young adults around her are enjoying.

This precious woman’s email brought tears to my eyes as she also laid bare the loneliness she feels, the intense desire to be pursued by a godly man, and the painful feelings of unwantedness that result from the lack of having someone to love.

The Pain of Love Lost

I can relate to many of her emotions. In my own season of singleness, I remember those same feelings. I longed to be loved unconditionally, for someone to treasure me just as I was, with every spot, blemish, and sin. My heart ached for the young man who had broken up with me after a two-year relationship, and I wrestled with feelings of rejection.

But God in his mercy did not leave me there. Through my heartache, he drew me closer to himself to find comfort in his word, where I learned to trust that he will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11).

During that season of waiting, I read a book that was formative in how I viewed relationships. It’s called Quest for Love by Elisabeth Elliot. I was inspired to live a counter-cultural life by not joining the ranks of those aggressively pursuing a man, but instead waiting for the right man to pursue me. One chapter in particular was life-altering. It was titled, “Marriage: A Right or a Gift?”

Help from Elisabeth Elliot

In this short chapter, I was confronted with the reality that I had grown up expecting to be married. This is what I wanted, so of course God would give it to me, I thought. But in Elisabeth Elliot’s no-nonsense way, she corrected my faulty thinking and completely realigned my perspective.

If you are single today, the portion assigned to you for today is singleness. It is God’s gift. Singleness ought not to be viewed as a problem, nor marriage as a right. God in his wisdom and love grants either as a gift.

Singleness as a gift! Are you kidding me?! I was shocked and offended the first time my eyes rolled over those words. But it was Elisabeth Elliot’s voice, along with the apostle Paul’s (1 Corinthians 7:7), that propelled me to not pine over a missing relationship, but to wholeheartedly pursue Jesus and the life he had given me to live.

If you want to make the most of singleness while you long to be married, here are a few practical points I learned in my own season of waiting.

1. Embrace the unique opportunities you have as a single person.

As the apostle Paul reminds us, the married person has dual responsibilities of pleasing both the Lord and his spouse. But the unmarried person needs only to be concerned about pleasing Jesus.

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. (1 Corinthians 7:32–34).

As an unmarried person, you have a unique freedom that will allow you to serve in ways that may not be possible with a family. Enjoy the freedom your schedule allows. Go on mission trips, build depth of relationship with friends, linger a while longer in God’s word, and read inspiring books that fuel your faith. Use your gift of singleness as a way to edify and bless the church.

2. Take risks.

Trust that no matter where you are, if God plans for you to marry, he will lead you to just the right person, and at the right time. Some sweet friends of ours have been a great example. As singles who didn’t know each other, they both moved to a remote part of Africa to serve with the same mission agency. Little did they know God would align their paths together in those hot desert sands, and that they would come home just a year later engaged to be married.

My friend tells me, “My husband saw me mostly unshowered, with no make-up for a year. And he still wanted to marry me! Now that’s love!” Don’t let fear paralyze you and keep you from moving to hard places for fear of not meeting a spouse. God is greater than our best laid plans.

3. Remember that sex is not ultimate.

Society loves to tell us the lie that we can’t live without romance and sex. Sadly, we see younger and younger people buying into it. But God promises to meet all our needs in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Our joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction in life come through seeking him, not seeking the momentary pleasures in a relationship, even a marriage.

Living a life of purity and devotion to God will bring far more joy than any physical or relational pleasure ever could.

4. Find full and unconditional love in Jesus first.

The longing to be fully known and fully loved is only fulfilled through a real relationship with Christ. No person can love us better than him. He knows every secret sin, every glaring fault, and if we are hidden in him by faith, we are covered by his precious blood. We are forgiven, free, and loved. Treasure this truth and trust that he can and will be enough for you.

In whatever season of waiting God might have you in, choose to bloom where you’re planted. Embrace the life God has called you to, whether single or married. Trust that both callings are precious gifts of grace, both with painful and overwhelming hardships.

Happiness is not found through finding a soul mate, but through finding satisfaction in a loving Savior who has called you his own and made you a beloved son or daughter of the King.

The more we wonder over the Bible, the more wonder-full we discover it is. That’s why we must think of the Bible more as a mine than a museum.

Museums Are Interesting

A museum is a very interesting place — assuming you’re interested in what’s on exhibit. All sorts of fascinating things are on display. You move from one artifact to another and read the plaques. It can be a beneficial, knowledge-broadening experience.

But for most people, a museum visit provides mainly a superficial understanding of history, science, technology, art, athletics, or whatever else. Even if they enlist a tour guide, the increased understanding is still relatively modest, as understanding goes. The amount of time spent at each exhibit is limited. Most visitors view a display for a short time and for the most part are content taking what they see and read at face value.

Repeat visits help. Regular museum visitors can become quite familiar with exhibits and even be able to converse fairly intelligently about the displays. To those less familiar with the subjects, veteran museumgoers might seem to be lay experts in the field. They may even consider themselves to be such. And yet, really, the knowledge base remains for the most part superficial.

Mines Are Enriching

Miners observe and gather with a different mindset than a museumgoer. To miners, the knowledge they acquire is not merely interesting; it’s vital. They aren’t merely enhancing their education; they are hunting for treasure. When they seek out expert knowledge, it is for a focused reason: Such knowledge leads to fortune.

Miners are trying to unearth wealth. They dig. They probe. They poke around. They pick up rocks and turn them over, looking intently. Mining isn’t a leisurely afternoon’s recreation. Mining is a diligent, persistent, and even tedious examination. Hours are spent carefully combing through a small area, because if looking is not done carefully, a gem might be missed.

Treasures for Those Who Dig

The Bible is as fascinating as the best museum. There is a lot to glean from it at face value. But it is enriching as a mine. Begin to dig, poke around, and examine, and it yields wonderful things that you didn’t notice at first.

Take the narrative portions, for instance. Why does the Bible contain so many stories? And why do they contain, and leave out, the details they do?

In the story of Joseph and his brothers and their father, Jacob, in Genesis, why is there so much family conflict in the story? What does God want us to see in their sinful dysfunction?

Why was Moses’s leadership experience so consistently hard and painful for almost his entire tenure?

When Nehemiah and his crew were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, why did God allow that process to be so inefficient and fraught with opposition?

In Luke 8, why did Jesus command the parents of the little girl he raised from the dead not to say anything, and yet made the hemorrhaging woman, who desperately didn’t want to say anything, announce her condition to the whole crowd?

Why in the world did the writer of Hebrews 11 list Samson, in all of his unfaithfulness, among the models of faith?

What is the crucial link between the healing of Naaman, the great Syrian general, by Elisha, the great Hebrew prophet, and a little Hebrew servant girl who had suffered the trauma of being ripped from her family by the Syrian military?

Why, in Judges 4–5, did God remove honor from Barak when all he seemingly wanted was just to have God’s prophetess close by during a crucial battle?

Why, in God’s name, did Jesus allow Judas to carry the ministry moneybag when he knew Judas was a devil?

If we read Bible stories like museum exhibits, always viewing them fairly quickly and then moving to the next display, our grasp tends to remain rather superficial. We might think that we’ve seen pretty much all that there is to see.

But when we really start sifting through them — when we mine them — we find that these stories are laced with treasures. We see that there is more than initially meets the eye. God buries riches in the Bible that a miner will find and a museumgoer will not.

Things Not Seen

Too often I’ve been a museumgoer in my Bible reading. But the gift of God-granted desperation can make a miner out of a museumgoer. And the new book Things Not Seen: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Trusting God’s Promises is one result of my desperate mining for the treasures of God in the Bible that I need in order to live — in order to live by faith.

Like Not By Sight from two years ago, Things Not Seen is 35 brief narrative meditations — narrative diggings — seeking to unearth the gems of faith from familiar Bible stories that may have become like familiar museum exhibits — things we think we know that still may hide things we’ve not yet seen. And like Not By Sight, and most of the books at the Desiring God site, Things Not Seen is available as a free PDF, as well as for purchase.

But you don’t need this book to be a miner. You need the Bible and a desperate desire to find all the treasure that God has buried in the field of his Word (Matthew 13:44). But maybe the book will be an encouragement to get the pick and shovel out again.

I’m not knocking museums for being what they are. But when it comes to the Bible, let’s approach it more like miners than museumgoers. There is life-transforming, sin-eradicating, hope-birthing, despair-destroying, eternal life-giving, love-fueling gold there for those who dig.

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Bloom’s new book Things Not Seen is now available in paperback and as a free PDF.

Pride will kill you. Forever. Pride is the sin most likely to keep you from crying out for a Savior. Those who think they are well will not look for a doctor.

As seriously dangerous as pride is, it’s equally hard to spot. When it comes to diagnosing our hearts, those of us who have the disease of pride have a challenging time identifying our sickness. Pride infects our eyesight, causing us to view ourselves through a lens that colors and distorts reality. Pride will paint even our ugliness in sin as beautiful and commendable.

We can’t conclude that we don’t struggle with pride because we don’t see pride in our hearts. The comfortable moments when I pat myself on the back for how well I am doing are the moments that should alarm me the most. I need to reach for the glasses of Christ-like humility, remembering that nothing good dwells in my flesh, and search my heart for secret pride and its symptoms.

In his essay on undetected pride, Jonathan Edwards points out seven sneaky symptoms of the infection of pride.

1. Fault-Finding

While pride causes us to filter out the evil we see in ourselves, it also causes us to filter out God’s goodness in others. We sift them, letting only their faults fall into our perception of them.

When I’m sitting in a sermon or studying a passage, it’s pride that prompts the terrible temptation to skip the Spirit’s surgery on my own heart and instead draft a mental blog post or plan a potential conversation for the people who “really need to hear this.”

Edwards writes,

The spiritually proud person shows it in his finding fault with other saints. . . . The eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts.

2. A Harsh Spirit

Those who have the sickness of pride in their hearts speak of others’ sins with contempt, irritation, frustration, or judgment. Pride is crouching inside our belittling of the struggles of others. It’s cowering in our jokes about the ‘craziness’ of our spouse. It may even be lurking in the prayers we throw upward for our friends that are — subtly or not — tainted with exasperated irritation.

Again Edwards writes, “Christians who are but fellow-worms ought at least to treat one another with as much humility and gentleness as Christ treats them.”

3. Superficiality

When pride lives in our hearts, we’re far more concerned with others’ perceptions of us than the reality of our hearts. We fight the sins that have an impact on how others view us, and make peace with the ones that no one sees. We have great success in the areas of holiness that have highly visible accountability, but little concern for the disciplines that happen in secret.

4. Defensiveness

Those who stand in the strength of Christ’s righteousness alone find a confident hiding place from the attacks of men and Satan alike. True humility is not knocked off balance and thrown into a defensive posture by challenge or rebuke, but instead continues in doing good, entrusting the soul to our faithful Creator.

Edwards says, “For the humble Christian, the more the world is against him, the more silent and still he will be, unless it is in his prayer closet, and there he will not be still.”

5. Presumption Before God

Humility approaches God with humble assurance in Christ Jesus. If either the “humble” or the “assurance” are missing in that equation, our hearts very well might be infected with pride. Some of us have no shortage of boldness before God, but if we’re not careful, we can forget that he is God.

Edwards writes, “Some, in their great rejoicing before God, have not paid sufficient regard to that rule in Psalm 2:11 — ‘Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling.’”

Others of us feel no confidence before God. Which sounds like humility, but in reality it’s another symptom of pride. In those moments, we’re testifying that we believe our sins are greater than his grace. We doubt the power of Christ’s blood and we’re stuck staring at ourselves instead of Christ.

6. Desperation for Attention

Pride is hungry for attention, respect, and worship in all its forms.

Maybe it sounds like shameless boasting about ourselves. Maybe it’s being unable to say “no” to anyone because we need to be needed. Maybe it looks like obsessively thirsting for marriage — or fantasizing about a better marriage — because you’re hungry to be adored. Maybe it looks like being haunted by your desire for the right car or the right house or the right title at work: all because you seek the glory that comes from men, not God.

7. Neglecting Others

Pride prefers some people over others. It honors those who the world deems worthy of honor, giving more weight to their words, their wants, and their needs. There’s a thrill that goes through me when people with “power” acknowledge me. We consciously or unconsciously pass over the weak, the inconvenient, and the unattractive, because they don’t seem to offer us much.

Maybe more of us struggle with pride than we thought.

There’s good news for the prideful. Confession of pride signals the beginning of the end for pride. It indicates the war is already being waged. For only when the Spirit of God is moving, already humbling us, can we remove the lenses of pride from our eyes and see ourselves clearly, identifying the sickness and seeking the cure.

By God’s grace, we can turn once again to the glorious gospel in which we stand and make much of him even through identifying our pride in all its hiding places inside of us. Just as my concealed pride once moved me toward death, so the acknowledgement of my own pride moves me toward life by causing me to cling more fiercely to the righteousness of Christ.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23–24)

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Related Articles

• Think of Yourself Less: Fighting Pride’s Preoccupation with Me

• Don’t Let Pride Steal Your Joy

• Pride, Despair, and Sovereign Grace

A few years ago, Holy Spirit shared, in a vision with me, the following: I walked up to great, big double doors of a traditional church building, the doors were shut and I had to open them. As I entered the church, I saw the pews filled with people and they cheered and celebrated with great joy at my arrival, I walked down the red carpet towards the front, as I went, I heard, we are so glad you're here, Nikita, we've been waiting for you. 

With murdered doubled post-riot, you'd think more people would care. I don't mean people in high-crime neighborhoods in Baltimore, they do care. It's all those other people who so righteously saw police as the biggest problem in the hood. Where are they, now that the murder rate has doubled?

Oh, and how did that "gang truce" work out? Well that hasn't worked out so well. Legitimizing and empowering gangs is not the answer. It's the Cloud Cuckoo Land idea, embraced by too many, that crime prevention can be purely collaborative and never confrontational. It's also a strangely insulting concept, especially when it comes from outside white liberals, that criminals somehow represent the community more than the police.

Yes, police can and should be more polite in their job. There's no reason to be an asshole on the job (which is not to say that some people sometimes don't need to get told off sometimes). But being a dick is not only wrong, it's bad policing. It makes the job tougher for all police. Still, more polite and empathetic and understanding police -- which can make non-criminals less anti-police (a more important than many cops want to admit) -- will not stop criminals from killing each other.

I think a lot of this comes down to the old sociology fallacies that A) police don't deserve credit for preventing crime, B) culture doesn't matter, and C) the only real causes of crime and what is perceived as bad culture are inequality, racism, and lack of opportunity. But the "root causes" did not magically change on April 27, when Baltimore burned.

After the riots and horrible leadership from Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner, proactive police patrol all but stopped. Why? Because all police work has the risk of going south. There's long been the maxim in policing, "if you don't work you can't get in trouble." I'm not a big fan of the thin-blue-line trope, and yet here you have a pretty clear cut case where police have done less and criminals have done more.

Racism in America and violence in America are two separate problems. To walk up to an enemy and pull a trigger is something some people choose to do and others do not. Somehow, lots of poor people -- even in Baltimore -- manage to live decent and even joyous lives without killing somebody. Calling out racism and racists -- a noble calling -- isn't going to save one black life in Baltimore. To see police as some kind of nexus between racism and violence is a tragic mistake. Baltimoreans aren't being killed by racists. They're being killed by each other (Freddie Gray being a notable exception).

In parts of Baltimore we pay police to deal with those people who think murder is an acceptable problem-solving methods. Police deal with these criminals daily because these criminals are hanging out on the corner all day dealing drugs. Some neighbors have the gumption to not like this. So they call the police. And in come the police to clear the corner. And that's what real police do.

At the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (Mark 15:34)

Up to this point, the narrative of the crucifixion has focused on the physical sufferings of Jesus: the flogging, the crown of thorns, and his immolation on the cross. Six hours have now passed since the nails were driven home. The crowds have jeered, darkness has covered the land, and now, suddenly, after a long silence, comes this anguished cry from the depths of the Savior’s soul.

The words are an Aramaic-tinged quotation from Psalm 22, and although Matthew and Mark both offer a translation for the benefit of Gentile readers, they clearly want us to hear the exact words that Jesus spoke. At his lowest ebb, his mind instinctively breathes the Psalter, and from it he borrows the words that express the anguish, not now of his body, but of his soul.

He bore in his soul, wrote Calvin, “the terrible torments of a condemned and lost man” (Institutes, II:XVI, 10). But dare we, on such hallowed ground, seek more clarity?

Against All Hope

There are certainly some very clear negatives. The forsakenness cannot mean, for example, that the eternal communion between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit was broken. God could not cease to be triune.

Neither could it mean that the Father ceased to love the Son: especially not here, and not now, when the Son was offering the greatest tribute of filial piety that the Father had ever received.

Nor again could it mean that the Holy Spirit had ceased to minister to the Son. He had come down upon him at his baptism not merely for one fleeting moment, but to remain on him (John 1:32), and he would be there to the last as the eternal Spirit through whom the Son offered himself to God (Hebrews 9:14).

And finally, the words are not a cry of despair. Despair would have been sin. Even in the darkness God was, “My God,” and though there was no sign of him, and though the pain obscured the promises, somewhere in the depths of his soul there remained the assurance that God was holding him. What was true of Abraham was truer still of Jesus: Against all hope, he in hope believed (Romans 4:18).

Truly Forsaken

Yet, with all these qualifiers, this was a real forsaking. Jesus did not merely feel forsaken. He was forsaken; and not only by his disciples, but by God himself. It was the Father who had delivered him up to Judas, to the Jews, to Pilate, and finally to the cross itself.

And now, when he had cried, God had closed his ears. The crowd had not stopped jeering, the demons had not stopped taunting, the pain had not abated. Instead, every circumstance bespoke the anger of God; and there was no countering voice. This time, no word came from heaven to remind him that he was God’s Son, and greatly loved. No dove came down to assure him of the Spirit’s presence and ministry. No angel came to strengthen him. No redeemed sinner bowed to thank him.

Bearing the Curse

Who was he? He cries out in Aramaic, but he doesn’t use the greatest of all the Aramaic words, Abba. Even in the anguish of Gethsemane, distraught and overborne though he was, he had been able to use it (Mark 14:36). But not here.

Like Abraham and Isaac going up to Mount Moriah, he and the Father had gone up to Calvary together. But now Abba is not there. Only El is there: God All-mighty, God All-holy. And he is before El, not now as his Beloved Son, but as the Sin of the World. That is his identity: the character in which he stands before Absolute Integrity.

It is not that he bears some vague relation to sinners. He is one of them, numbered with transgressors. Indeed, he is all of them. He is sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), condemned to bear its curse; and he has no cover. None can serve as his advocate. Nothing can be offered as his expiation. He must bear all, and El will not, cannot, spare him till the ransom is paid in full. Will that point ever be reached? What if his mission fails?

The sufferings of his soul, as the old divines used to say, were the soul of his suffering, and into that soul we can see but dimly. Public though the cry was, it expressed the intensely private anguish of a tension between the sin-bearing Son and his heavenly Father: the whirlwind of sin at its most dreadful, God forsaken by God.

His Anguish of Soul

But no less challenging than the torment in Jesus’s soul is his question, “Why?”

Is it the why of protest: the cry of the innocent against unjust suffering? The premise is certainly correct. He is innocent. But he has lived his whole life conscious that he is the sin-bearer and has to die as the redemption-price for the many. Has he forgotten that now?

Or is it the why of incomprehension, as if he doesn’t understand why he’s here? Has he forgotten the eternal covenant? Perhaps. His mind, as a human mind, could not be focused on all the facts at the same time, and for the moment the pain, the divine anger and the fear of eternal perdition (the cross being God’s last word) occupy all his thoughts.

Or is it the why of amazement, as he confronts a dreadfulness he could never have anticipated? He had known from the beginning that he would die a violent death (Mark 2:20), and in Gethsemane he had looked it in the eye, and shuddered. But now he is tasting it in all its bitterness, and the reality is infinitely worse than the prospect.

Never before had anything come between him and his Father, but now the sin of the whole world has come between them, and he is caught in this dreadful vortex of the curse. It is not that Abba is not there, but that he is there, as the Judge of all the earth who could condone nothing and could not spare even his own Son (Romans 8:32).

The Cup Is Drained

Now, Jesus’s mind is near the limits of its endurance. We, sitting in the gallery of history, are sure of the outcome. He, suffering in human nature the fury of Hell, is not. He is standing where none has stood before or since, enduring at one tiny point in space and in one tiny moment of time, all that sin deserved: the curse in unmitigated concentration.

But then, suddenly, it is over. The sacrifice is complete, the curtain torn, and the way into the Holiest opened once and for all; and now Jesus’s joy finds expression in the words of another psalm, Psalm 31:5. In the original, it had not contained the word Abba, but Jesus inserts it: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

We have no means of knowing what intervened between the two cries. We know only that the Cup is drained and the curse exhausted, and that the Father now proudly holds out his hands to the spirit of his Beloved Son.

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2015 Holy Week Series

• Palm Sunday: The Savior’s Tears of Sovereign Mercy

• Monday: Jesus Turns the Tables

• Tuesday: The King We Needed, But Never Wanted

• Spy Wednesday: Mutiny Against the Messiah

• Maundy Thursday: Not My Will Be Done

Louis Zamperini (1917–2014) was a miracle of a man. He truly lived — better, survived — one of the greatest stories ever written. Nonfiction stories are written, too, you know. “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16). Some stories wake us up and remind us of this mouth-stopping truth. Louie’s life could only have been born in the mind and heart of God.

A film opens today bringing Louie’s epic story to the big screen. It’s based on Laura Hillenbrand’s remarkable telling of Louie’s extraordinary story, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Louie’s life is a Lord of the Rings trilogy born in the flesh of one strong, but feeble man. The Coen brothers (writers), Angelina Jolie (producer and director), and everyone else involved should be applauded for taking on a life as excruciating and inspiring as Louie’s. It is a monumental task — one too large for life, much less for a full-length feature film.

I won’t offer any spoiler alerts, because I don’t believe this article will spoil anything for you — at least anything that’s not already suggested in the title (Unbroken: Survival. Resilience. Redemption). In fact, having read Hillenbrand’s book, I consider this an anti-spoiler — like reading up on the history and landmarks of Washington D.C. before you spend a week there. I believe you’ll enjoy the film (and Louie) more knowing the full story, especially the pages not covered in Jolie’s 137 minutes.

Worse Than World War II

Unbroken, the film, begins with the trouble-making son of Italian immigrants, chronicles his unlikely and meteoric rise to fame as an Olympian, displays some of the unspeakable horrors of war, and highlights the resilience and strength even weak men can have in the face of agonizing pain and unrelenting terror. What the film does will be intense and emotional enough to sober and inspire most of us. Violence, starvation, and torture will even be too much for many. After a plane crash into the ocean, Louie and two fellow soldiers were trapped on a raft for 47 days before they were captured by the Japanese. The Bird — the military officer who held and mercilessly tortured Louie — is rightly, if not inadequately, portrayed as an awful, sadistic villain and criminal. But there are worse horrors hidden in this edition of the story.

The movie simply doesn’t go low enough, and therefore cannot end high enough. If the worst things in life were war, torture, and death, then the movie might have done Zamperini justice. Louie himself, though, would testify they are not. There are worse evils and worse fates facing all of us — the darkness within each of us and the darkness we therefore deserve.

Fairy Tale or Horror Film?

Those who don’t read the story will miss the reality that Louie was actually a very broken man — horribly broken by sin and then sweetly broken by God.

Shortly after his feet landed back on American soil, Louie went back with his family to his childhood home in California. They enjoyed food and conversation, unwrapping several years of unwrapped Christmas gifts — everything seemed peaceful, almost normal. Then his sister Sylvia played a recording of Louie’s voice that had been broadcast over public radio during the war. “Take it off! Take it off!” Louie fell into a violent, screaming convulsion — a scene that would sadly mark most of his next several years.

Like the immature, insecure boy before the Olympics, post-war Louie picked fights over nothing, then drowned his emotional scars and nightmares with endless alcohol and suffered the pervasive curse of POWs: post-traumatic stress disorder. These men were anxious and depressed — thirty percent more likely to commit suicide. Hillenbrand says, “They carried unspeakable memories of torture and humiliation, and an acute sense of vulnerability that attended the knowledge of how readily they could be disarmed and dehumanized” (349).

Louie did meet a pretty girl on the beach and two weeks later convinced the poor, naïve Cynthia to marry him. They eloped a short time later to the absolute outrage of her parents. It wasn’t long before Cynthia realized the tortured, drunken, unsafe monster she had married. Not being able to convince him off of the bottle, she stopped appearing with him in public, embarrassed by and even afraid of what he might do.

The Bottom of Brokenness

Spiraling dangerously and hopelessly out of control — visited every night by his Japanese torturer — Louie came to the conclusion that the only path to freedom was to kill the Bird. He began plotting a mission to murder the man who had ruined his life and now patrolled his nightmares. He wildly and foolishly invested the family’s money in dead ends, trying to scrape together enough to finance his murderous dream. Bloody vengeance against Mutsuhiro Watanbe had become this broken hero’s only hope.

Hillenbrand writes:

No one could reach Louie, because he had never really come home. In prison camp, he’d been beaten into dehumanized obedience to a world order in which the Bird was absolute sovereign, and it was under this world order that he still lived. The Bird had taken his dignity and left him feeling humiliated, ashamed, and powerless, and Louie believed that only the Bird could restore him, by suffering and dying in the grip of his hands. A once singularly hopeful man now believed that his only hope lay in murder. (365–366)

In another crazed nightmare, this ugly insanity forced Louie on top of his poor wife in the middle of the night, beating and strangling her. Weeks later, Cynthia found him shaking their screaming baby girl. She finally filed for divorce.

Better to Be Broken

Everything changed in the fall of 1949. Billy Graham emerged in the nation’s eye by holding a campaign in Los Angeles that drew tens of thousands of people — including one hurting and despairing wife and mother. Cynthia heard Graham’s gospel, surrendered her heart to Jesus, and informed Louie that she no longer wanted a divorce. Louie was relieved she had decided to stay, but skeptical and even offended by her conversion.

She pled and pled with him to attend one of the meetings, but over and over he angrily refused. Eventually, she had to lie to get him to come along, and he did. Graham preached:

“Darkness doesn’t hide the eyes of God. God takes down your life from the time you were born to the time you die. . . . [He will] pull down the screen and shoot the moving picture of your life from the cradle to the grave, and you are going to hear every thought that was going through your mind every minute of the day, every second of the minute, and you’re going to hear the words you said. And your own words, and your own thoughts, and your own deeds, are going to condemn you as you stand before God on that day. And God is going to say, ‘Depart from me.’” (373)

Louie was enraged, horrified that this man would dare to accuse him like this, after all he had been through for this country, after all he had endured. I am a good man, he thought, I am a good man (373). Graham continued:

Here tonight, there’s a drowning man, a drowning woman, a drowning man, a drowning boy, a drowning girl that is out lost in the sea of life. (373)

This sent Louie spinning, and he eventually stormed out before Graham was finished. But it would be the beginning of the end of Louie’s resilience. He had survived opposition before, but nothing like this. The next day, under the powerful preaching of the cross, Louie Zamperini was born again — rescued again.

In the end, Louie was broken after all, but not by the Bird. God has done what the Bird, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his Son, Jesus Christ — and then a tall, blond-haired messenger named Billy Graham. God had painted yet another picture of his perfect patience, saving the foremost of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15–16) — the selfish, angry, violent, abusive, murderous, and unforgiving alcoholic.

Hillenbrand describes Louie’s conversion:

When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him. He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was a new creation. (376)

Savor the Unseen Sequel

The true climax of Louie Zamperini’s story is his second visit to Sugamo Prison. Standing inside the walls that had watched him suffer so badly, he now looked into the eyes of many of the very men who had inflicted the blows. For the first time since the war, he was seeing the faces of his pain and humiliation. How did he respond? Did he devolve into a seizure of violent screaming? Did he silently burn with fear and rage? No. “Louie was seized by childlike, giddy exuberance. In bewilderment, the men who had abused him watched him come to them, his hands extended, a radiant smile on his face” (373).

He later wrote a letter to the Bird:

As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my post-war life became a nightmare. . . . But thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. (396–397)

Forgiveness, not survival, was the victory laurel of Louie’s life.

So when you see the movie, and enjoy Louie stepping back into freedom, savor the steps he would take years later into true freedom — freedom from anger, depression, alcohol, fear, violence, and revenge. Freedom that would last through eternity.

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Prayer is quite possibly the most important thing you will do today. And yet most people feel lost alone with the Lord. They don’t know what to do or how to persevere when prayer feels difficult, boring, or unfamiliar.

What should I be praying for anyway?
How many times should I pray for the same thing?
What should I even call God?

Look at the Book was created to help you see glorious, practical things for yourself in God’s word. Whether you are asking a specific question (for instance, about prayer) or just needing spiritual food for the day, this tool will help you take the next step as you seek to know, enjoy, and share Jesus.

In this three-part series through the Lord’s Prayer, Piper puts in place some major principles for a lifetime of prayer. As a banner over it all, he calls us all to plead daily with our Redeemer and Sustainer, “God, grant me what I need to make your name great in the world.”

Part 1: Your Kingdom Come

Who is this God to whom we pray? Jesus calls him a Father, and teaches us to do the same. Then he introduces three massive, global pleas we should ask for daily. There are prayer-life-changing glories to be seen in these most familiar words if we slow down enough to see them.

Part 2: Deliver Us from Evil

Jesus’s prayer for you is clear: Today, you need God to provide for you, forgive you, and deliver you. Every single day, you need God to move in these three ways. In this lab, John Piper unfolds these simple, but critical prayers.

Part 3: Hallowed Be Your Name

There is no more familiar prayer in the Bible than the Lord’s Prayer. In the last lab of his three-part series, John Piper highlights two major new insights he’s seen over the years in the structure and relationships within this paradigm-creating prayer of Jesus. Maybe you too will see something you never saw before.

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Shane & Shane have released a new album, A Worship Initiative Christmas. Because of Desiring God’s partnership with the Worship Initiative, you can download Joy to the World for free.

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The Gospel of Luke gives the most detailed story of the birth of Christ and also the most detailed prescription for joy. Luke wants us to see that the story of the world meeting Jesus in the flesh is a story of the world finally finding full joy in God.

It begins with the birth of John the Baptist. The angel said to Zechariah:

“Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. . . and he will go before him to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.” (Luke 1:13–17)

Even before the baby was born, the message was a message of joy. Through his angel, the Lord promised that people would rejoice at the birth of John because he would pave the way for the Christ. The joy God’s people would have in Jesus was so real and so intense that they would feel it looking into the face of the messenger — a man set apart to declare the coming of the King.

Rejoice! The King is coming into the world to save sinners and spread his joy.

Good News of Great Joy

Then, the baby was born, the Messiah himself came forth from heaven through his mother’s womb. That night, an angel appeared to some shepherds and declared, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). Those poor, unsuspecting shepherds were hearing the chorus of the praise that we’ve sung ever since.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare him room.

Rejoice! The King has come, and with this baby, fullness of joy was born for all who would believe.

Your Reward Is Great

Jesus’s birth was not Luke’s final word about our joy. Even in the midst of the very worst circumstances — the awful persecution of Jesus and his disciples — Jesus’s message remained the same, “Rejoice.” “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven” (Luke 6:22–23).

Those who rejoice at Jesus’s coming will suffer in this life, but their weakness, pain, and misery here are as nothing compared with the glories they already have in heaven. When we suffer for the sake of Christ, we are blessed, because suffering with him is a way of confirming we are his. And those who are his have nothing to fear and nothing to lose, and everything to gain, everything already waiting for them in heaven with God.

So no more let sins and sorrows grow. Though the battle rages for a few short decades here, and we experience many losses along the way, fix your eyes on the joy ahead. Rejoice that your names are and always have been written in heaven (Luke 10:20).

Rejoice! Nothing in this world can undo or even diminish your joy in Jesus. No sin and no sorrow can separate you from him and the everlasting happiness he brings.

Joy to the World

The baby born in Bethlehem was born to die in our place. He went to the cross and received the wrath we deserved for our sin (Luke 23:46). He died to purchase the joy the angels announced at his birth. And three days later, he rose from the dead, the firstborn of all who would follow him. He appeared to his disciples and showed them how all of the Bible was pointing to him — the baby born in a manger, the preacher of good news, the Son of God crucified on the cross, the King who conquered the grave, the Joy of the world.

And after he left them, ascending into heaven and promising to return, “they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52). The King that died, never surrendered to death. He rose and reigns in glory, sending his disciples among the nations to offer everyone everywhere never-ending joy in him and with him in his presence (Luke 24:46–49).

He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of his righteousness, And wonders of his love.

Rejoice! Jesus was born and died to have a world of worship — sons and daughters from every people on earth — and we’ll live and sing and enjoy God with them forever.

Desiring God has partnered with Shane & Shane’s The Worship Initiative to write short meditations for more than one hundred popular worship songs and hymns. The Worship Initiative is an online platform devoted to training musicians for worship leading and songwriting. The free download of Joy to the World is a track off of their new album, A Worship Initiative Christmas, which is now available through iTunes.

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Kids are thinkers. They ask good and sometimes hard questions. My kids have asked me some of the hardest theological questions between ages 5 and 8. They’ve queried me on comparative religion, death, eternity, heaven, hell, Jesus and the cross, and what about all those people who have never had a chance to hear the gospel? Interestingly, these questions tend to come at bedtime. But frankly, I don’t care if they are at times bedtime-stalling techniques; such questions are always worth staying awake to talk about.

One of my children repeatedly pressed me with questions like, “How do you know that Christianity is the right belief?” That naturally led us to talking about the Bible. Who wrote it? How is it God’s word if men wrote it? What makes it different from other religions’ holy books? How do we know it doesn’t have mistakes in it? What does it not tell us?

Christianity stands or falls on the reliability, inspiration, and authority of the Bible. Children pick up on that early. We tell them that they should trust the Bible. At some point they will (and should) ask why (if they feel it’s okay to ask). So here are a few answers (in language I would speak to my 9 year old twins) that might be helpful for some mealtime (or bedtime!) discussions.

How Do We Know the Bible is Reliable?

We know that our Bible says the same things as the Bibles people read thousands of years ago because so many ancient Bible manuscripts have survived. There are over 5,000 full or partial Bible manuscripts and they allow us to compare them with each other and our current versions for accuracy. No other book from the ancient world even comes close to as many surviving manuscripts. Most other ancient classical works have 20 or less.

But far more important than having lots of old manuscripts is the fact that when we read the Bible ourselves, it begins to win our trust. It is no ordinary book! It has an authority all on its own. It contains 66 books that were written by 40 different authors in three different languages (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic) over a period of about 1,500 years and yet it is consistent — it all fits together — and doesn’t contradict itself! You don’t have to be a scholar to see this. The Bible shows itself to be the word of God to those who read it! Here’s how a children’s catechism (or teaching lesson) from over 360 years ago says it:

Question: How doth it appear that the Scriptures are the word of God?

Answer: The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God. (Westminster Larger Catechism, question 4)

Who Decided What Should Be in the Bible (Authority)?

Actually, God did. No individual or group of people or institution decided which writings would be in the Bible. Each book of the Bible has its own story about how it came to be included in the Scriptures, but in each case God caused his people over time to recognize these writings as manifesting the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16) and why the Apostle Peter wrote, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). God has used men, councils, and the church to weed out the writings that were not inspired by God (a lot of wrong and even strange teachings have been written!), but God himself determined the Scriptures. And this means that every individual, group of people, church, and denomination are under the authority of Holy Scripture as God’s revealed written word and must submit to Scripture as their final authority.

How Do We Know the Bible Has No Errors in It (Inerrancy)?

Since the Scriptures are “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16) and not produced by the will of man but the Holy Spirit, the original copies written by the biblical authors were without error — we call this “inerrancy.” This means that when the Scriptures were originally written, they were without mistakes, whether speaking about how God created the world or history or God’s plan to save lost people. Believers have always understood the Scriptures to be inerrant, from the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:2) to the writers of the Psalms (Psalm 19:7) to (most importantly!) Jesus, God the Son (John 10:35). This fact doesn’t mean that the men who wrote the Scriptures were inerrant. They were sinners like us. When they wrote inerrant books it was a miracle of God, like Jesus’s miracles.

Do we have any of the original copies written by the biblical authors? No. So how do we know that our versions don’t have errors? That’s where having thousands of ancient manuscripts is important. We can see by comparing these manuscripts to each other and to our current Bibles that we have a very accurate record of what the originals said. God is so wise in preventing us from having the originals, because we humans have a great tendency to make idols out of such things. We likely would have believed that the original copies had mysterious, magical powers in the paper and ink rather than in the words God actually said.

Who Can Understand the Bible (Clarity)?

Anyone can understand the Bible! That’s a wonderful thing about this book! The Scriptures speak plainly and clearly communicate what we need to know for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Adults and children can read or listen to it and understand the most important things — how to be saved. This doesn’t mean that pastors and teachers aren’t needed or that everything in the Bible is equally clear. Some portions of Scripture are harder to understand than others (2 Peter 3:16), and God gives us pastors and teachers as gifts to help deepen our understanding of the Bible and how to apply it (Ephesians 4:11). But anyone who can read it can understand it.

Why Do We Need the Bible to Know God (Necessity)?

We can learn a lot about God by observing the natural world (Romans 1:20), but the Bible is necessary for us to read or hear because God has chosen to reveal the most important things about himself and his glorious gospel to human beings through his Word (1 Samuel 3:21). God has not chosen to give each person direct verbal inerrant revelation. Instead, he has provided us a written record. This again shows us God’s wonderful wisdom. Can you imagine how confusing things would get if each person claimed to personally hear the word of God perfectly! How could we test what was God’s word and what wasn’t? But the written Bible provides a consistent and durable (long-lasting) record of God’s revelation so that all saints throughout all ages of the church can understand, believe, and contend for the faith “once delivered” to them (Jude 1:3).

Does the Bible Tell Us Everything We Need to Know (Sufficiency)?

The Scriptures tell us everything we need to know in order to live godly lives in Christ Jesus (2 Peter 1:3). They provide us sufficient (enough) information about what God is like, how God created the world, what human beings are like and how we fell into sin, God’s plan of salvation, what the future holds, and what the age to come will be like so we can trust God and live by faith (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:7). There is a lot that the Bible doesn’t tell us. These are things God wants us to discover through the process of exploration, observation, study, and experience. But when it comes to understanding things like how to be saved from God’s wrath against sin through trusting in Jesus’s death and resurrection and how to have eternal life, the Bible tells us everything we need to know (Romans 5:9; John 5:24). And God is not adding more revelation to the Bible (Revelation 22:18–19), like some false religions want us to believe (e.g. Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses).

A Lot More Where That Came From!

I hope this is helpful to you, particularly with younger kids. But there’s so much more to say, and so much more kids may ask. So let me point you to a gold mine of the doctrine of Scripture on our website (and a couple beyond) where you can strengthen your understanding of and stoke your awe over the miracle that is the Bible.

• “Why We Believe the Bible” is a five-part seminar John Piper did a few years ago. It’s wonderful and time well spent. If you have older kids, this would be an excellent resource to watch or listen to with them.

• “Why I Trust the Scriptures” is a single 90-minute message on the reliability of the Bible. John addresses some recent challenges to the Bible’s trustworthiness.

• Believing the Bible Book List is a list of excellent books that will provide a very good education on the doctrine of Scripture.

• “Is the Bible Without Error?” is a three-minute audio clip of Pastor John answering this question. A great refresher if you’re child asks.

• “What Is Inerrancy?” is a nine-minute audio clip of Pastor John answering this question.

• “How Are the Synoptics ‘Without Error’?” is an article John wrote back in his pre-Bethlehem professor days addressing apparent inconsistencies in the Synoptic Gospels.

• The ESV Study Bible contains many wonderful, brief summary articles on just about everything you want to know about the Bible.

• Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, as always, provides an excellent overview of the Doctrine of Scripture.

I’m a huge fan of quick and delicious meals with very few dishes to clean! This 1 Pot Chicken Enchilada Pasta is cheesy and fabulous! Feel free to use any type of meat you have in your kitchen, of you can leave it out all together! Now you may be thinking, “I thought this was a dessert blog.” It still is! But sometimes I make something special for dinner and I like to share  Remember my amazing Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup? Or my 15-Minute Taco Soup?  Well I have a handful of savory recipes up on the blog and I’ll be adding a few this fall!

The Story:

Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself and my job.

I stand at the counter trying to find the most perfect leaf of cilantro, picking out the sliced olives that look the prettiest, and trying desperately to cut tomatoes as perfectly as my mother does.  And then I gently place each item in the bowl being careful not to put two of the same kind next to each other.  Because two olives touching would be the end of the world…

Trying to be meticulous but still having it look natural and elegant.  It’s a tough balance sometimes.

Oh, the life of a food blogger…

But don’t worry! Most of the big-timers use steamers and pour oil over things to make them look hot and delicious, I never do that! I usually take the photos and then just sit there and eat what I took photos of  It would kill me to pour oil over something I had made just to get a good photo!

Adapted from Chelsea’s Messy Apron and No. 2 Pencil

Don’t you just want to take a bite?

Here’s a little step by step collage of what it all looks like! Don’t mind the ugly pot, I still live with roommates who abuse the kitchen stuff

Stir after each addition! I didn’t for photo purposes, but I promise I stirred right after I snapped the photo. And wow, it’s a little tricky to shoot around steam!

As always, Tillamook cheese.  It’s the best.  No competition.

But really, it totally is! I grew up an hour from Tillamook, Oregon so our fridge was always stuffed with their products.  But when I went away for college, I tried to eat other cheese but it just wasn’t the same.  I’ll always be a Tillamook girl.

I love “dressing up” a pasta or soup with fun toppings! It just brings more color and a whole other layer of flavor into it! I was sort of craving a squeeze of lime juice on top too

The Best Snickerdoodles – Soft, pillowy puffs that are so irresistible! The closest recipe to Mrs. Fields snickerdoodles that you’ll find!

A good snickerdoodle is hard to come by and these are my favorites.

Soft, slightly chewy, pillowy little puffs of goodness that I can’t stay away from.

I’ve always loved snickerdoodles and in high school and college used to work at a mall three stores down from Mrs. Field’s. That was dangerous because it fueled my snickerdoodle habit with extreme ease.

The snickerdoodles are as close to the Mrs. Field’s recipe (my personal gold standard) that I’ve been able to replicate at home.

How Do The Best Snickerdoodles Taste

They’re slightly chewy around the edges with soft, pillowy centers.

I underbake by a minute or two to ensure the centers are extra soft. Underbaking also helps the cookies stay softer and fresher over time, but you can bake longer if you prefer more well-done or firmer cookies.

They’re buttery with a light cinnamon-sugar coating. Not too heavy, just classic snickerdoodle. If you’re a cinnamon fiend, I recommend the Soft and Chewy Cinnamon Chip Snickerdoodle Cookies. 

Cream Of Tartar Is Necessary

Cream of tartar (sold in the spice aisle) is the leavener that gives the cookies lift, lightness, provides the classic snickerdoodle flavor, and it’s key for this recipe. Don’t skip it or you won’t end up with The Best Snickerdoodles.

If you don’t have it on hand but must make snickerdoodles immediately, try White Chocolate Snickerdoodles or Soft and Chewy Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies.

Chill The Dough

Chill the dough before baking so your cookies back up thick and full.

Unchilled dough will result in cookies that are prone to spreading, thinner, and flatter.

A Family Favorite Cookie

They’re everything I want in a classic snickerdoodle cookie and my family agreed by eating the whole batch on the afternoon I made them. I sent a dozen cookies with them to the beach for the afternoon somewhat expecting they’d come back with a few left over. That was clearly foolish thinking.

They’re my new favorite and best snickerdoodle recipe I’ve tried. Just like Mrs. Field’s.

Related Recipes

Soft and Chewy Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies – Part soft sugar cookie, part chewy snickerdoodle, with tons of rich vanilla flavor!

White Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies – White chocolate adds a fun twist to a classic cookie

Soft and Chewy Cinnamon Chip Snickerdoodle Cookies – Buttery soft snickerdoodles loaded with cinnamon chips! They’re for those who usually need to double the cinnamon in recipes just to get enough pop!

Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Pink Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting – Snickerdoodle cookies in an easy bar form

Brown Sugar Maple Cookies – Two types of brown sugar and maple syrup give these soft, buttery cookies an incredible caramel flavor!

Softbatch-Style Dark Brown Sugar Molasses – NO butter, NO white sugar. Made with coconut oil. So soft that they’re bendable!

Soft Molasses Coconut Oil Crinkle Cookies – No butter, no problem. My favorite molasses cookies ever!

The post The Best Snickerdoodles appeared first on Averie Cooks.

This is hands down one of the easiest hair tutorials we’ve ever done, but also one of the chicest! This is an ideal pony for a girl on the go and/or the lazy girl. It’s perfection for anyone who wants to keep it low maintenance but also look like they put a little time and effort in, especially for those early morning call times or meetings. We paired this with a leather jacket and we’re FEEEEELING it. Let’s just jump right in to how it’s done…

1. Any texture is great for this pony. If you have straight hair or slight wave, brush it out. If you have curly hair or want to maintain your natural wave for this ponytail, then skip the brushing.
2. Put the hair behind your ears in a low ponytail and secure using a clear elastic. You’ll leave both sections from the front/sides out. If you have really thick hair and you want to do this, you might consider taking more hair into the ponytail and leaving less out front. If your sections in front are too thick, it could be hard to conceal them later.
3. Take both side sections, give them a light mist of strong hold hairspray, then pull them back over the top of the ponytail. Twist them into a half knot.
4. Now take those two pieces and wrap them around the ponytail and under.
5. Use small/strong bobby pins to secure the remaining pieces under the ponytail. We kind of “stuffed” the longer bits up underneath the base of the ponytail before bobby pinning.
6. FInish off by smoothing out any flyaway hairs with a light veil of hairspray!

That’s literally it. Are you guys into these simple styles? When you try it on yourself, take a picture and post it on instagram and tag it with #TBDgirlonthego so we can see it and possibly repost!

Oh yes. You read that title right. We’re going retro today and talking about one of the staples of my childhood — condensed soups.

Of course, the main reason that most families had (and still have) condensed soups sitting in their pantry is to use them for the other staple of my childhood — casseroles. (So. Many. Casseroles.)

But our family actually bought condensed cream of chicken soup to turn it into its original namesake — a nice hot bowl of cream of chicken soup! And oh boy, did I love that soup. My sister and I would be stoked when we arrived home from school and saw that familiar can sitting out on the stove for dinner that night. And then once I learned how easy it was to whisk together the can of mysterious molded glop with a can of milk and — poof! — magically make soup? Oh yeah. You’d better believe that this soup was on regular rotation in my dorm room when I first learned how to cook.

But sadly, you know where this is going…

Tons of preservatives. Ingredients you can’t pronounce. Processed everything. I know, modernity is a bummer.

Because of such, I sadly haven’t bought a can of condensed soup in years. But when my neighbor Christine brought over a box of canned goods from her pantry the day before she moved, the ol’ craving returned as soon as I saw those familiar red and white cans. And then I desperately wanted soup. And then I wanted casserole. And then I began wondering if I could just make the darn stuff homemade. And as it turns out…you can!

Seriously friends, we should have been doing this from the start. Homemade condensed soups are ridiculously easy. Let me show you.

Read more(Condensed) Homemade Cream Of Chicken Soup

I have relatives in various areas of the country. I enjoy visiting them, but, food-wise, often find the occasions discouraging. For many of my relations live in various suburbs. These days, "suburb" might as well be a synonym for "food desert." Eating options include the usual chains. As for at-home dining, let's just say a large portion of our country's population relies of frozen and processed food for their daily sustenance.

Being from New York, I am, of course, spoiled where comestibles are concerned. So spoiled that I've developed a glass stomach. Truly, eating at fast food joints or chowing down on the salty caloric entrees at Chili's or Applebee's can make me physically ill. I simply can't eat that stuff anymore.

Recently, I paid a call on a cousin in Arlington, VA. I didn't have any great hopes where meals were concerned. But then The Italian Store was casually pointed out to me as a place worth checking out.




I didn't have high hopes. Again, coming from New York, I have been exposed to the best in Italian groceries and delicatessens. I didn't expect that a place that gave itself the crushingly obvious name of The Italian Store—a place situated in a strip mall next to a Starbucks—would impress.

But it did. The Italian Store is one of the finest shops of its kind I've encountered. It has all the imported Italian products you expect to find, and a great deal more. I spotted many brands of Italian olive oil, water, soda, pasta, tomato sauce and other things I had never seen before. The house made pizzas were quite good (they sell them by the slice, a rarity in D.C.) and the sandwiches are excellent. There's also a good wine section.

The locals know how good it is. When I stopped by on a Friday afternoon the place was packed with people ordering sandwiches and pies for their dinners. I asked the cashier if it was always like this, and he said the business was actually pretty light that day!


There's a good reason The Italian Store is so good. Hate to brag, but it's because the founding family came from New York. The shop was opened in 1980 by Vincent Tramonte, who was born in New York to parents from Calabria and Civitavecchia. Vincent moved to northern Virginia in the 1940s. He liked it but found it hard to get good Italian food. Eventually, he solved his own problem by opening the store.

Can an African city that is intent on forging ahead economically hold onto its architectural heritage while encouraging new development? This question is particularly urgent in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest and wealthiest city—and gateway to important tourist destinations such as Zanzibar, the Serengeti, and Ngorogoro Crater. The Tanzanian government is convinced that Dar’s economic future lies with concentrated, high-rise commercial development downtown, which means wiping out the low-rise, mixed-retail-and-residential buildings that have given Dar its charm and character since the early 20th century. It’s in some ways a universal battle, as Dar-based architect Annika Seifert has pointed out about Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and as Untapped has noted about Istanbul. Yet Tanzania’s destructive strategy is unusually easy for the government as landowner to apply. Most of the vulnerable colonial buildings, which are operated by long-term lease-holders, can simply be demolished with almost no notice and without American-style public hearings. The government… Read More

He didn’t have time to chat. Probably had to get back to the time machine before sundown.

So many of your kids are already out of school for the summer and if you are like me, making dinner is not the high point of the day.  In fact I’m lucky if I make dinner in the summer.  Oops.

I developed a quick and simple chicken pasta full of colors and flavor that the whole family will love.  I call it my Creamy Chicken Fajita Pasta.

30 minutes is what it takes to get this meal to the table.  Not too bad right?  Save yourself some time by picking up a pre-chopped bag of fajita vegetables at your grocery store and use a rotisserie chicken.

Enjoy friends.

First things first, pick out your favorite small pasta.  Any shape will work great.

Add it to a big pot of boiling water and cook until al dente.

Heat your milk in a nice big dutch oven or pot.

Add your Ranch seasoning to the milk along with 8 ounces of softened cream cheese that you beat until whipped.  Stir into the milk until smooth.

Like so.

Add your lovely cooked pasta back to the pot.

Add your cooked shredded chicken.

Saute about 2 cups of chopped fajita vegetables.  You can usually find a pack right in the produce area of your grocery store.

Once those veggies are softened, add them right back to the pot and give a good stir.  Dinner is done!

Yes please!

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The post Creamy Chicken Fajita Pasta appeared first on Picky Palate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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