I am Gomer

Something for Valentine's Day:

The story of Gomer and Hosea always impacts me because it is the story of all of us. All of us are Gomer, the unfaithful. God made Hosea marry and love an unfaithful and wanton woman as a symbol to show His faithfulness to His people regardless of their sin.

Below is the promise that God made to His people after they were unfaithful to Him. After she (Israel) left Him for other "lovers", after she prostituted herself, after she was used and abused, after they tried to sell her and no one wanted her. IN THAT CONDITION, after the Lord allows her to wallow in her sins, He says this to her:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband’, and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me for ever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People,‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

We are Gomer, we are the unfaithful, but the Lord still loves those that are His. On this Valentines Day, if you are His, know that He loves you even if you are not loveable. Know that He is faithful, even if you are not. It is not about you, but about Him and His glory.

I want a Hallmark Card for that!!

Nordic Tosca Cake

  This is a delicious cake. It is not overly sweet and would go perfect with a good cup of coffee.


I got this recipe from the Nordic Bakery Cookbook. What a superb book! You can purchase it by clicking on the link above!







Ingredients for cake:4 Eggs
3/4 C plus 2 tbsp Sugar
1 C of heavy cream
6 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and then cooled
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C all-purpose flour

Tosca Topping
5 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 C sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar (the brown sugar is not part of the original recipe, I added it and it tasted great!)
3 tbsp heavy cream
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3/4 C slivered almonds

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Mix eggs and sugar with electric mixer until foam like and almost white. This takes about 10 minutes

Add the cream, melted butter, and vanilla and fold in gently

In separate bowl, sift the baking powder and flour together and then fold into egg mixture

Pour mixture into prepared cake pan (I used a 9 in. cake pan, but I believe a springform pan would have been better)

Bake for 30-35 minutes (mine was done in 27 minutes)

While cake is baking, make topping. Put all ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat, stir to mix and bring gently to a boil.

Remove cake from pan and pour topping