SALSA
- 1 c finely chopped, peeled tomato
- ½ c tomato sauce
- 1-4oz can diced green chili peppers, drained
- ¼ c sliced green onion
- ¼ finely chopped green pepper
- 1 to 2 TBSP snipped cilantro or parsley
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Several dashes bottled hot pepper sauce (optional)
In a mixing bowl combine tomato; tomato sauce; chili peppers; green onion; green pepper; cilantro or parsley, lemon juice; garlic; hot pepper sauce if desired, and 1/8 tsp pepper. Place about half of the tomato mixture in a blender container or food processor bowl. Cover and blend or process till smooth. Stir in remaining tomato mixture. Cover and chill at least 4 hours before serving, stirring occasionally. Store in refrigerator up to 1 week.
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book Pg 368
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Everyone has heard that saying. I’d like to add one along the same theme. When life hands you tomatoes, make salsa. As I’ve written before, my husband once planted 20 tomato plants. They were beginning to rot because we had given them to all of our coworkers, neighbors and people in our small group at church, so my husband decided to make salsa. We had so many jars of the best salsa we decided to give them away as Christmas presents. Homemade goodies are the best gifts in my personal opinion. My mouth is watering for some good chips and salsa right now.
TOMATO 6 – Goodness
If you could can or put goodness in a jar and give it to everyone you come into contact with, wouldn’t you? Goodness is the generous fruit of the Spirit. It comes from an upright way of life and heart. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s God’s goodness IN us and work of faith WITH power not WITHOUT power, so Jesus will be glorified in us. Goodness is what you give away, and you can give it away because the Spirit generously provides it to you. You never run out. There's an ample supply.
But before you can put some fruit in a jar, sometimes you have to process the fruit. In order to make salsa, the tomatoes have to be chopped and peeled and blended and mixed with other ingredients like onions, garlic and cilantro. This next tomato/fruit we are going to study may make you will feel pressed on every side, and you may even feel like things are being added to your life and you don’t understand why. This fruit grows on the experience.
TOMATO 7 – Faith
There is a difference in believing in God and having faith in God. Faith results when your belief has been tested. If you have never been tried and have persevered under the hardest of circumstances in which Jesus Christ alone could have delivered you, then what you have is a belief not faith.
I can have faith in God because when I struggled with fertility during my bout of depression, He never left me. He delivered me. He brought me out of the darkness into the light and put me on the path to finding the baby He had chosen for us. I have endured in a marriage for over a decade to a man who would mock me at times for my faith, but praise God, my marriage hit rock bottom and God performed a heart transplant on my husband, and he was saved. When my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer with lymphatic involvement, He showed me His presence in addressing my fears. I write these things not to brag because I promise you I was broken in each of those instances. I write these things because God proved Himself trustworthy and reliable. I know that whatever comes my way, and we have been bombarded this year with all sorts of enemies and battles…I know whatever comes my way God has gone before me. He hems me in from the front and back. He leads me and is my Rear Guard. He never leads me nor forsakes me.
Faith is a tested conviction or truth in Jesus Christ, God our Father and the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the sense for the unseen world of faith like sight is for the physical world. Faith goes beyond reason. Faith goes beyond what you can physically do for yourself. Faith has SUBSTANCE. That substance results in your testimony. Can you testify to anything God has done recently for you? Then testify!