Bumbleberry Jam

Last week youngest daughter decided that she wanted to learn how to make jam, so we spent Friday afternoon making a couple of batches of Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, which is the favorite jam of almost everyone in this family.

 

Next up, I’m going to start a batch of Bumbleberry Jam, another yummy jam that uses rhubarb. It’s good for using up bits of overripe summer fruit and for giving you a reason to rummage through the marked down section of your supermarket produce department.

 

Here’s how you make it.

1. Wash fresh rhubarb and cut enough of it into 1-inch pieces to make 2 cups of cut-up rhubarb.
2. Put the rhubarb pieces into a saucepan with 2 cups sugar. Heat slowly, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil for 10 whole minutes of fruit-stirring misery. (This is where having a couple of stand-by stirrers will come in handy.)
3. Put the mixture into a covered 2 quart container the fridge.
4. Keep cooking and adding fresh fruit as you get it. You can use strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, plums, grapes, cherries, peaches, oranges, apricots, or apples—whatever fruit you like. Prepare each batch of additional fruit in the same way as the rhubarb—cut it up (berries and cherries can be used whole), measure two cups, add two cups sugar, bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.
5. Then add the previously cooked fruit to the newly prepared fruit in the saucepan and heat the whole mixture to boiling. Pour the whole shebang back in the covered container and store the fridge again.
6. Repeat this process until you’ve added 3 kinds (or six cups) of fruit to make a total of eight cups of jam.
   
7. Seal the hot jam in hot sterile jars. (I’m a little food-safe compulsive, so I process this one in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes because something about having it sitting in the fridge for a couple of weeks makes me nervous. I’m pretty the boiling water bath isn’t necessary, however.)

No matter what fruit I use, this jam turns out very tasty and deliciously fruity.

Answers to Quiz on Scripture

Here are the answers with explanations to the quiz on the historic Protestant doctrine of scripture posted last week. Everything you needed to know to answer those questions correctly could be found somewhere in the Theological Term of the Week posts, so I’ll also link to the posts that contains the answers.

Question 1

1. The books I find in my Bible are authoritative because

• a. God is their ultimate source.
• b. they are included in the canon of scripture.
• c. Christians down through the ages have considered them authoritative.
• d. a and b above.
• e. all of the above.

The correct answer is a. The reason scripture is authoritative is that it comes from God. Answer b is wrong since the canon of scripture is simply a list of books that are authoritative because they come from God. The canon does not confer authority, but rather recognizes it. Answer c is wrong for a similar reason: Scripture has been received as authoritative by Christians down through the ages because it comes from God. Christians who receive the scripture as authoritative are not giving the scripture authority; they are acknowledging it’s authority.

Question 2

2. That scripture is sufficient means that

• a. scripture reveals everything I need to know in order to be obedient to God.
• b. scripture reveals everything I need to know in order to be saved.
• c. scripture reveals everything I need to know.
• d. a and b above. 
• e. all of the above.

The correct answer is d. The sufficiency of scripture “is the principle that the words of scripture contain everything we need to know from God in order for us to be saved (b) and to be perfectly obedient to him (a).” Scripture doesn’t tell me absolutely everything I’ve needed to know (c). For instance, in my particular circumstance, I needed to know how to feed my family and that meant I had to know how to cook at least a couple of dishes. For that knowledge, I needed to look outside of scripture.

Question 3

3. The ordinary reader of scripture who seeks God’s help will

• a. find every bit of it is very easy to understand.
• b. need to have what is read interpreted by the church in order to understand it correctly.
• c. be able to understand what God requires of him.
• d. a and b above.
• e. all of the above.

 

The correct answer is c.  The doctrine of the clarity of scripture teaches us

that the ordinary reader can understand from scripture what God requires as long as they are willing to seek God’s help to understand and obey it.

This affirms answer c and denies b.

It does not mean that the scripture contains no passages that may be difficult to understand or that all passages are equally clear.

This denies a.

Question 4

4. Because God is the ultimate source of all scripture,

• a. scripture is a unified whole.
• b. clear passages can be used to help interpret more obscure passages.
• c. one passage of scripture should not be interpreted in a way that contradicts the rest of scripture.
• d. a and b above.
• e. all of the above.

The correct answer is e.  Since God

is the ultimate source of all scripture, so we can view scripture as a unified whole.[answer a] No passage of scripture, then, can rightly be interpreted in a way that contradicts the rest of scripture [answer c], and clearer passages can be used in interpreting more obscure ones [answer b].

Question 5

5. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 can be used to support the following doctrine(s):

• a. the inspiration of scripture.
• b. the authority of scripture.
• c. the sufficiency of scripture.
• d. a and b above.
• e. all of the above.

The correct answer is e. I didn’t use that text as a proof text for each of those doctrines, but if you read it carefully and understand the doctrines, you’ll see that it does indeed support each of them.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Supports the sufficiency of scripture: “the words of scripture contain everything we need to know from God in order for us to be saved….”

All Scripture is breathed out by God

Supports the inspiration of scripture (scripture is “breathed out by God”) and the authority of scripture (“the individual believer and the church are subject to the rule of scripture because the words of Scripture come from God”).

and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Supports the authority of scripture. We are to use scripture to teach, reprove, correct, and train us.

that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Supports the sufficiency of scripture: “the words of scripture contain everything we need to know from God in order for us … to be perfectly obedient to him.”

Why is the charge of keeping the sabbath more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors

The charge of keeping the sabbath is more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are under their charge; and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments of their own.[1]

Click to read more ...