Since I am retired and Sis Marg is still working, one of my duties is cooking meals I’ve learned through experience that it pays to follow a recipe and not improvise Last week I was browsing through the index of “The Christadelphian” and my eye caught a title Half Baked by Philip Hinde He drew his title from Hosea 7 8, “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people, Ephraim is a cake not turned” or as another version reads, “My people mingle with the heathen, picking up their evil ways, thus they become as good-for-nothing as a half baked cake”
In learning to cook, often my meals suffer from insufficient cooking and wind up thrown out Nothing is more unpalatable than a cake which is burned on top and half-cooked inside.
Israel, a half-baked cake
In Hosea’s time God viewed Israel as a half-baked cake What was Israel’s problem? “Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people” Throughout its history the nation had failed to maintain its separation As the Psalmist lamented, “They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them, but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works” This mistake is not unique to Israel, disciples of all ages must be on guard against conformity with the world, all the more so as the world sinks into darkness It is very easy to adopt a double standard to be one thing to our brethren and show a different face to our friends One side of us can appear wholesome and pure and the other raw and unpalatable This was the fault of the Laodiceans, ” thou art neither cold nor hot so because thou art lukewarm I will spew thee out of my mouth”
A lesson from the breadmaker
Continuing my analogy from the kitchen I have another experience to share and I would like to draw a spiritual message from this little story Sis Marg bought me a breadmaker and my earlier attempts were marked with noticeable failure because I insisted on substituting ingredients, I could not stick to a recipe After a number of failures, it occurred to me to bake by the book so I followed the instructions exactly After three and a half hours, the buzzer sounded and I opened the machine to behold a shrunken hardened mess at the bottom of the bread pan A quick check with the instruction booklet reminded me that I had forgotten to insert the kneading blade, a tiny part which fits into the bread pan and mixes all the ingredients First I had neglected to follow the recipe and now I had forgotten the device which turns the recipe into a loaf of bread.
The divine recipe
Each Sunday we gather together not only to remember our Lord, which is of primary importance, but also to encourage each other to become more like the Lord in our everyday lives We have an instruction book, the Bible, that has the recipe for developing the mind of Christ “Let this mind be m you, which was also in Christ Jesus ” (Phil 2:5-11) Though burdened with man’s nature, Christ loved God and humbled himself and became obedient unto death The recipe for righteousness is found in Phil 4 8,” whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” We must not attempt to mix pride, envy or hate with the ingredients of righteousness
Trouble shooting
The second thing I learned from my kitchen experience is that the Bible is our trouble-shooting guide When we’re m trouble, we must go straight to God’s word for help and direction “Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever I will trust m the covert of thy wings” With God’s word, the power of prayer and the sure knowledge of our rock, the Lord Jesus, we can face trouble and conquer it If we have not been preparing ourselves for the day of adversity, we may well be devoid of the necessary ingredients to survive and overwhelmed by adversity
The kneading blade
As I was trying to make an analogy to the kneading blade several thoughts came to mind The blade is a moving part and rotates during much of the bread-making process except when the loaf is rising prior to baking I thought it might represent life, the passages and development we must all go through, including times when the sea and the waves roar on every side I also thought of “faith m action” The profession of spirituality devoid of action would be like a bread-making machine without a kneading blade, a car without fuel or a lamp without a light bulb
Faith in action
The parable of the ten virgins emphasizes faith m action ma vivid way Each virgin had a lamp and was expected to keep her lamp trimmed Following the example of the Lord, we look to scripture for the meaning “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” suggesting that the presence of light assures a successful and safe journey, not stumbling along or falling out of the way as one may well do in the darkness Paul’s list of the fruit of the spirit depicts action words, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there is no law”
Jesus the supreme example
These godly attributes were shown forth to perfection in the life of Jesus and we must follow his lead He set a pattern of giving rather than receiving “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28) Thus life in our faith is not a passive, disinterested, halfhearted performance, barely understanding the foundation teachings and putting forth the minimum amount of effort in the ecclesia If we would follow the Master, we will seek every opportunity to deepen our understanding of the word and will serve in whatever capacity we can, small or great, seen or unseen, “in season or out of season”, or as the Amplified N T reads, “whether it is convenient or inconvenient.”
The greatest of these is love
Love is faith m action at the highest level Peter says, “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity (love) For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Peter 1 5-8) The proper ingredients are listed for us, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and, last but not least, love If we blend these ingredients together, we can develop a character pleasing to our Father Leaving out some of the key components can cause the product to fail Love is a critical part of the mixture, as Paul says to the Colossians “And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness” (Col 3:14 NKJV)
Let love show
Our good deeds should be the outward expression of our inward love for God This was the case with Jesus “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15 13) Can we rightly proclaim we are his brethren and act with rancor and bitterness toward one another? “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13 34,35)
Ecclesial love
The wonderful love chapter, I Corinthians 13, comes to mind Here we find the qualities which must pervade not only our personal but also ecclesial lives Love will go far in solving our personal and ecclesial problems Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our ecclesia was known for its constructive ways, where no envy is found, nothing boastful or pugnacious, an ecclesia not having airs, courteous, not insisting on its own way? Could it be said that m our ecclesia we find nothing to be glad about when others go astray, but rejoice in the Truth, always eager to believe the best, always hoping, always persevering? If we deliberately strive to develop these attributes of love, we will be better able to cope with the typical problems which plague many of our ecclesias such as cliques, harshness, excessive control by a dominant personality and insensitivity to problems of others.
The fragrance of love
The aroma of bread baking in a house is delightful and can surely be likened to the sweet-smelling savor of an ecclesia motivated by love Our Lord gave himself for us as an offering to God He loved us and asked us to walk in love and the ecclesia offers endless opportunities for the exercise of love We shall each fail often, but our failures offer our brothers and sisters the opportunity to be patient and kind as we work through our difficulties They will not be rude or condemning nor will they attribute evil motives to our actions Moreover our brethren will have a poor memory for our weaknesses and will be slow to expose them to others These are the ingredients of love we ought to blend together in ecclesial life Though meeting these standards will tax us to the limit of our powers, they are the badge of true discipleship
The love feast
We now meet to remember our Lord Let us contemplate, not only the supreme manifestation of loving sacrifice in Gethsemane and Calvary, but the love he showed forth m his everyday life We pray we may find strength to follow in his footsteps and increase in love in our daily lives for “He who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked”
I would like to close with some of my favorite words of Paul, part of my trouble-shooting guide to which I often go when I feel depressed or sad “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us For! am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One