Psalm 37:30
Words of wisdom come when good people speak for justice.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
If you watch any cooking shows or dabble in the kitchen for any length of time, you have either said to yourself – or heard someone say – “The recipe calls for XYZ, but I like to do this or that.” The recipe is not wrong… it just doesn’t work for your taste – or the palate of those whom you plan to serve. Your substitutions and omissions may improve the dish… or have little to no effect at all on the overall quality of the food (like leaving raw onions out of potato salad).
Some cooks are purists. They would never consider deviating from the recipe. Others use it as a loose guide to create something new and wonderful. And unless something goes horribly wrong, the end result is almost never ghastly!
A lot of people are using the Bible like a cookbook or recipe starter. And to some degree, this is not necessarily the wrong approach. I believe God wants us to take His word and truly dig into it… to find out what He is saying to us and how He wants us to apply the scriptures to our daily living. But some people have decided to substitute one word or phrase for another – or to pick and choose what to include and what to omit. Some have taken a particular passage literally without considering its overall context. And God’s word doesn’t work that way!
Am I saying we are should view every single word of the Bible literally? Are we to stop touching pig skin, kill a newborn lamb and never cut our hair? Absolutely not! But neither are we to twist and turn selected scriptures to suit our own agendas… or to suit our personal comfort level.
There are many excellent guides on the Internet for reading through the Bible in 365 days. A lot of them suggest that you read a passage each day from the Old Testament and New Testament – and a Psalm and/or verse from Proverbs. If you do this, you will find many verses in the Old Testament about sacrifices, burnt offerings, and ceremonial worship. You will see how God’s people showed their humility and repentance to Him by killing their best animals and sacrificed the bodies on an altar. This is outlined in great detail in the Old Testament… what, when, where and how to atone to God.
In the New Testament, the coming of Jesus changes everything. No longer do we have to kill our best calf to show repentance to God for our sin. We don’t have to perform complex rituals for atonement and purification. The focus is no longer on ceremonies and eating the right food at the right time in order to please God. In Colossians 2:20-23, we read… “You died with Christ. Now the forces of the universe don’t have any power over you. Why do you live as if you had to obey such rules as, ‘Don’t handle this. Don’t taste that. Don’t touch this.’? After these things are used, they are no longer good for anything. So why be bothered with the rules that humans have made up? Obeying these rules may seem to be the smart thing to do. They appear to make you love God more and to be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don’t really have any power over our desires.”
Here’s the problem… many Christians pick and choose which parts of the Bible to believe or use for justification on any given day – much like a cook puts in or takes out the raw onions or another ingredient in a recipe. The difference between the cook and the Christian is that “selectiveness” in our faith DOES make a huge difference. Do not misunderstand me… the Old Testament is extremely important, and we must not toss it to the curb as outdated and no longer relevant. But if we go back and pick out ANY scripture passage to justify our opinion on something and do not consider its context or how it functions alongside the rest of God’s word, we may very well be operating in untruth and injustice.
How do you know what is true? How can you figure out who to trust? After all, people who claim to be faith-filled Christians are continually telling us exactly what the Bible says and how we should believe. Shouldn’t we listen? For me, the answer is yes, no… and maybe. I believe that there are plenty of fair, honest and genuine Christians who operate from a place of justice and responsibility… believers who study the scripture, communicate with God and sincerely ask Him, “LORD, what do you mean by this? What are you telling me?” I believe these people make their decisions and serve God honorably from a place of heartfelt worship and obedience. And at the end of the day, I believe these people operate fully in the love and kindness of Jesus Christ - a deep and abiding desire to love others as God loves us… to live in a way that His grace, mercy, love and forgiveness shine through… and they leave the judgment and justice to God.
Look around. These people exist. You will have to sort and sift through a lot of friends and acquaintances who claim to be Christians but often behave in a way that is anything but Christ-like. Finding honest, sincere, wise and genuine Christian friends and mentors will be worth the effort. You’re not seeking someone who thinks like you do… you’re seeking the truth. The “Christian recipe” calls for heavy measures of love, kindness, compassion, wisdom in the LORD, integrity, loyalty, sincerity, and honesty, among other things. This is one recipe we don’t want to alter!
I want God’s truth for my life as much as the next person. I am continually seeking His direction. My prayer is that I would always offer others the truth… and an example of living faithfully in the wisdom and commandments of Jesus… with a heavy dose of justice and fairness. I’ve had a few epic fails in the kitchen… but when it comes to “cooking for Jesus,” I want to offer a solid dish… don’t you?
©2012 Debbie Robus
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