If you are a gardener, you have probably made your fair share of zucchini bread. We quit growing zucchini a long time ago. We prefer yellow summer squash instead. At least it has a little flavor. But it also works for zucchini bread, and I have found a way to make that little loaf that is actually worth baking.
Most zucchini (or squash) bread is compact and dense, and just about flavorless. Try this instead. Cut the amount of oil almost in half. Use brown sugar instead of white granulated, and at least double the cinnamon. If you use nuts, toast them first. Then here is the big trick—put all that grated zucchini in a dish towel and squeeze as hard as you can. You will get anywhere from ½ to 1 cup of water out of that squash. No wonder the loaf was flavorless. It was literally washed out.
Now you will have a lighter loaf that is still plenty moist and actually has some flavor instead of that compact brick that hardly rises above the top of the pan. In fact, you won’t mind serving this one to guests, and they won’t run away and hide when you mention it either.
Modern organized religion has suffered the same fate as that old zucchini bread recipe. It is literally washed out from all the additions men have made. Just as schools are now expected to teach the things that parents should teach at home, churches are expected to right the social injustices in this world and support every worthy cause in manpower and money. You can read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation and never find half the things found in a modern denomination. But then these are the same people who, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, expect a physical kingdom on this earth. They’ve stopped hoping for Heaven and settled for a poor imitation on this earth.
My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus said, John 18:36. Jeremiah prophesied that no one from the lineage of Jeconiah (the kingly line of Judah through David) would ever sit on the throne reigning in Jerusalem, despite the beliefs of thousands of dispensationalists, Jer 22:31. The work of the church is not about feeding the hungry—it’s about feeding the soul. It’s not about making sure everyone has a fair shake in this life—it’s about enduring that injustice and preparing ourselves to be fit for the next life. Check this out yourself: churches that are sold on the social gospel no longer preach much about heaven. To them this life is what matters and that’s why they are so hung up on it. That’s why their religion is so waterlogged with extraneous rituals and activities. That’s why so many of the “un-churched” are turned off by the dense brick of bread they are handed instead of the bread of life.
Get out your Bibles and examine your church against the one in the New Testament. Look through Acts and see how they converted sinners. Here’s a hint: it wasn’t with soup kitchens and Wednesday night potlucks. Now look through the epistles and see the work they did. It had nothing to do with gymnasiums and playgrounds. See what they did when they met together for a formal group worship. It wasn’t about entertainment. Now maybe you can see the difference between an oily sodden brick of bread and a light flavorful loaf that actually appeals to the appetite.
But then maybe it’s your appetite that is the problem in the first place.
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed, John 6:26-27.
Dene Ward
Most zucchini (or squash) bread is compact and dense, and just about flavorless. Try this instead. Cut the amount of oil almost in half. Use brown sugar instead of white granulated, and at least double the cinnamon. If you use nuts, toast them first. Then here is the big trick—put all that grated zucchini in a dish towel and squeeze as hard as you can. You will get anywhere from ½ to 1 cup of water out of that squash. No wonder the loaf was flavorless. It was literally washed out.
Now you will have a lighter loaf that is still plenty moist and actually has some flavor instead of that compact brick that hardly rises above the top of the pan. In fact, you won’t mind serving this one to guests, and they won’t run away and hide when you mention it either.
Modern organized religion has suffered the same fate as that old zucchini bread recipe. It is literally washed out from all the additions men have made. Just as schools are now expected to teach the things that parents should teach at home, churches are expected to right the social injustices in this world and support every worthy cause in manpower and money. You can read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation and never find half the things found in a modern denomination. But then these are the same people who, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, expect a physical kingdom on this earth. They’ve stopped hoping for Heaven and settled for a poor imitation on this earth.
My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus said, John 18:36. Jeremiah prophesied that no one from the lineage of Jeconiah (the kingly line of Judah through David) would ever sit on the throne reigning in Jerusalem, despite the beliefs of thousands of dispensationalists, Jer 22:31. The work of the church is not about feeding the hungry—it’s about feeding the soul. It’s not about making sure everyone has a fair shake in this life—it’s about enduring that injustice and preparing ourselves to be fit for the next life. Check this out yourself: churches that are sold on the social gospel no longer preach much about heaven. To them this life is what matters and that’s why they are so hung up on it. That’s why their religion is so waterlogged with extraneous rituals and activities. That’s why so many of the “un-churched” are turned off by the dense brick of bread they are handed instead of the bread of life.
Get out your Bibles and examine your church against the one in the New Testament. Look through Acts and see how they converted sinners. Here’s a hint: it wasn’t with soup kitchens and Wednesday night potlucks. Now look through the epistles and see the work they did. It had nothing to do with gymnasiums and playgrounds. See what they did when they met together for a formal group worship. It wasn’t about entertainment. Now maybe you can see the difference between an oily sodden brick of bread and a light flavorful loaf that actually appeals to the appetite.
But then maybe it’s your appetite that is the problem in the first place.
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed, John 6:26-27.
Dene Ward
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