Tag Archives: Christian living

Off the cuff: a scriptural lesson from the kitchen

Posted on July 30, 2012 by | Comments Off on Off the cuff: a scriptural lesson from the kitchen

After being inspired by several television shows that my wife and I watch on the Food Network, I have really begun to sharpen my kitchen skills.  Having watched shows such as Chopped!, Restaurant Impossible, and Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, I have begun to pull cookbooks off the shelf and give new recipes a try.  It has been enjoyable but what amazes me is the small scriptural lessons that I’ve learned from this latest endeavor.

We all know the story in Jeremiah about the visit to the potter’s house.  Jeremiah watched as the potter worked the clay.  If the potter was happy with the results, the pot was baked in a kiln.  If the potter noticed a flaw or some potential problem with the pot, he would start over.  Well, there have been a few of these lessons that I’ve learned while trying new recipes and cooking techniques.  One lesson in particular that comes to mind is one that can be tied to Proverbs 20:23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord; and a false balance is not good.

Michelle and I have two sets of dry measuring cups.  We have one set that is made of green plastic and a set that’s made of a heavier, more rubbery, black plastic.  While both sets look identical when it comes to measuring dry ingredients, they actually aren’t.  Last week, I did an experiment where I took a glass bowl and a postage meter and weighed half a cup of white corn meal using the two different sets of dry measuring cups.  The weights should have been the same with, at most, a quarter-ounce difference.  What I found truly amazed me – the green measuring cup did not hold as much of the white corn meal by narly a third of an ounce!

While I am not a professional chef by any stretch of the imagination, I have quickly come to appreciate the importance of having accurate measuring cups.  Anyone who enjoys cooking knows the importance of having accurate wet and dry measuring cups and spoons.  You must be able to know that you are putting in the exact amount needed – nothing more or nothing less – than what the recipe calls for.  There are some recipes where “close enough” does not quite reach the mark and where just the slightest variance in measurement can make the difference in a meal that really is wonderful or that ends in near-disaster.   The same can be said about how we view ourselves and how we view others.

Although I have already posted a few entries about the importance of not judging others, it is a topic that I honestly feel that needs to be continually evaluated in our daily life.  I have been on the receiving end of what I had explained to me by a church member of “wholesome and meaningful judgment” as well as judging others using my own set of standards.  In a sense, at some time in our lives, we all will experience both roles as the judge and as the judged.

Pages: 1 2

Comments Off on Off the cuff: a scriptural lesson from the kitchen

Posted in Christian Responsibility, Off the cuff

Tagged , , , , ,

Don’t put your faith in a box

Posted on July 24, 2012 by | Comments Off on Don’t put your faith in a box

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:6).

Its amazing what we learn about ourselves when we finally begin to gain true perspective in our lives.  I didn’t grow up in a Christian home.  While I was saved while I was 19 years old and while at college, the church I attended did not offer much in discipleship.  Instead of seeking a church that did, I was content to approach my new-found faith based on what I thought it meant to be a Christian.

Believing what the world taught about faith and Christianity, I strove to keep my “church life” separate from my “school life” and “work life.”  Without knowing it I had done the very thing that Jesus warns against: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).

I know that one of the reasons that my walk with God has not always been where it should be is because I did believe that as a member of modern society, I had to keep my beliefs separate from work, school, and secular pursuits.  Even as recent as a couple of years ago, I struggled with my Christian identity and faith while attending graduate school to work on a Ph.D. in U.S. History.  At one point, I even had one of my instructors tell me that it would be extremely difficult for me to ever teach at a liberal arts college if I insisted on displaying my Christianity.

When the apostle Paul was on his various missionary journeys across the Mediterranean world, he would often follow up with churches that he had help start.  These early churches did not have the benefit of having both Old and New Testaments to gain reassurance and instruction.  They faced tremendous pressure to conform to the world around them  – to worship pagan statues, to participate in state sanctioned appropriate activities and festivals to honor pagan gods.  Paul’s advice to them was to be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2).

The reason that so many Christians, myself included, have such a hard time in our walk with Christ is that we have been conformed to this world.  We have been taught to regard our faith as something we do on Sunday and at the home.  What Jesus calls us to do is far more radical – our faith should become the center of our life, not just some small and isolated component.  We adopted the world’s view of Christianity under the misrepresentation that we should not judge but instead be compassionate and respectful of those who are different that we are.

What Jesus calls us to do is to allow our faith to shape who we are without any reservation.  When we claim to be a follower of Christ but do not allow our faith to shape our daily lives, we become what Paul warns about: those who call themselves Christians and they profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate (Titus 1:16).  In other words, to live a Christ-centered life means that we must also acknowledge him in all that we do.  It should be evident from how we go from day to day, doing the things we normally do, that there has been a fundamental change in our lives.

Pages: 1 2

Comments Off on Don’t put your faith in a box

Posted in Christian Living

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Off the cuff: The misleadings of our own understanding

Posted on July 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Off the cuff: The misleadings of our own understanding

Why should I go to church when it’s full of hypocrites?

In the last six days I have had this statement/question asked of me by two different people.  The first is my eighteen year old daughter; the other is a late twenty-something former student of mine who has kept in contact.  Both are Christians and both young ladies have had difficult lives to say the least.  Both want to do what is right and are looking for the sweet fellowship, support and love from brothers and sisters in Christ that we all need and desire.  Both are members of a church that for various reasons no longer offers that love, support, and fellowship to meet their needs.

Hannah, my eighteen year old daughter, recently told me that she no longer goes to church because the one she was going to is “full of hypocrites.”  She then told me that her pastor had an affair on his wife; for that reason, she was not going back to church but was going to read her Bible at home. She even added that no where in the Bible did it teach that one had to go to church.  She was totally unfamiliar with what the apostle Paul wrote: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).

Monday morning, I ran into my former student at the post office in the town where I live.  As we exchanged pleasantries, she asked me if she could ask me a personal question – she asked what I thought she should do about going to church.  She told me that she did file for divorce in May 2012 from her husband of eleven months.  When she moved back home with her infant daughter, she began attending the church where she grew up.  She had sweet memories of what it was like when she was a child and wanted her daughter to be surrounded by that kind of warmth, support, and love.

Instead, she became an object lesson for her church, was asked not to participate in (or offer support to) certain church ministries.  She was further disheartened when another young woman, divorced since January, was asked to teach a vacation Bible School class; when she asked why the pastor or youth minister why she could not help, she was not told any reason except it was not her place to question the decisions of the church leadership.  She was not angry about it, just deeply hurt.  She told me that she was done with churches since there was obviously a perceived double standard.

As we talked for another ten minutes I was asked how I would have handled the situation – the rejection of service by the leadership of the church.  I shared with her an experience I had in 1996 – I had been married for three years and had been medically discharged from the U.S. Army in March of that year.  My wife left me to move in with her old high school boyfriend, taking my children with her.  At the time, I was the song leader of a small, independent Baptist church and because of what I was going through, I was asked to immediately resign all my positions within the church.  The pastor of the church did tell me why I could no longer serve; I was told that Jesus cannot use divorced people in the ministries of the church!  For the next handful of years I struggled with church attendance, “hypocrisy” of the church, and not trust[ing] in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

Pages: 1 2 3

Comments Off on Off the cuff: The misleadings of our own understanding

Posted in Discipleship, Off the cuff

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,