Variety is the spice of life, they say. I especially enjoy variety in my diet but very often I seem to get stuck in a rut where I rotate the same few meals. My husband and I quickly tire of once favorites and I’m scratching my head wondering what’s for dinner again. My husband is quick to offer to take me out to dinner or to pick up one of my favorites, but my rearranged digestive tract post cancer surgery means I must be cautious, but caution can quickly turn to monotony. This summer, I will celebrate four years of cancer freedom so I have become adept at finding recipes which can be easily adapted to suit my needs.
It’s great having daughters who cook for their own families because they share recipes they’ve found online that they think I’d like, though I still prefer an ingredient list followed by directions to a video recipe. Don’t get me wrong. I am a visual learner and the video is helpful but I do not gather and prepare at that rate. I’m not sure anyone does. A thirty second teaser may tempt me to try a dish, but I’m off to find the recipe, complete with measurements and steps to follow.
Faith is much like this in our digital age. With free access to social media, anyone can draw an audience with pithy quotes or memes accompanying partial scriptures devoid of context given the right tools and a finger to the pulse of culture. Social platforms even suggest trending topics, hashtags, and songs to get me started. I get trying to be relevant but here’s the thing- God’s eternal word is relevant in every age and in every nation on earth. Why else would Jesus have commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel and to make disciples of the nations? He is the one and only Way to reconciliation with God for every person who believes. This is not my message. It is God’s. I am merely a messenger, as is anyone who calls Jesus Lord. Our message is simple. It is not God’s desire that any should perish but that all come to repentance. In every generation, even among nations He permitted to go their own way, He has not left Himself without a witness. (Acts 15:14-17)
God makes Himself known in every generation by every means possible. He sent His Son, the Living Word, and He inspired scripture by His Holy Spirit, the same Spirit by which we come to Him and begin to comprehend His ways and walk obediently in them. We see Him in His creation but we know Him through His Word and by His Spirit. We need both to be certain we are not misled. We need our daily bread, the true word of God, to sustain us even more than we need food. You may crave variety in your diet, as I do, but it must never be at the expense of Truth.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!”
Psalms 34:8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.34.8.NLT
“Like newborn babies, you should long for the pure milk of God’s word.
It will help you grow up as believers.
You can do this now that you have tasted how good the Lord is.”
1 Peter 2:2-3 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/1pe.2.3.NIRV
“The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.1.8.NLT
Scripture is incredibly practical. Peter wrote that God’s word leads us to life and godliness through His power at work within us. We appropriate this power by faith. His Spirit’s indwelling presence empowers our belief and obedience.
“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.
The best invitation we ever received!
We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.
So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others.
With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.
Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.
So, friends, confirm God’s invitation to you, his choice of you.
Don’t put it off; do it now.
Do this, and you’ll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:3-11 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/2pe.1.3-11.MSG
Peter’s list of godly characteristics is not a checklist to attain as if salvation comes by works. This is what the Jews believed and what Jesus constantly warned against in no uncertain terms. Peter is describing life in the Spirit, or as Paul put it, walking by faith and not my sight. These fruit are the obvious indicators of a mature or maturing faith in Jesus. By abiding in Christ and submitting ourselves constantly to the Father’s pruning, as John wrote, we find in ourselves the very nature of God, in whose image we are formed, emerging. The following notes from the Passion Translation add depth to Peter’s intended meaning.
Picture Broadway. Imagine a spectacular theatrical production that steals your breath and captivates your imagination with its story and music and masterful choreography. When each player steps according to the practiced routine, no one person stands out. All attention is focused on the storyline and every movement builds to a climax followed by thunderous applause. But one misstep, one missed cue, can interrupt the rhythm of the entire production and the trance is broken. Therefore the actors immerse themselves wholly in their roles and through intense effort, each role supports the others in a beautiful harmony of talents.
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.
There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.
God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts.
He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.12.4-11.NLT
“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.
Use them well to serve one another.
Do you have the gift of speaking?
Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.
Do you have the gift of helping others?
Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.
Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.
All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”
1 Peter 4:10-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1pe.4.10-11.NLT
Ever practical, both Peter and Paul recite lists of gifts given by God’s Spirit to believers. Neither list is exhaustive but both are meant for introspection. Maybe you recognize God’s gifts to others more easily than in yourself. This is where fellowship plays a key role. Our gifts were given to each of us, not for our own benefit, but for the building up of the church. The first and greatest is the gift of salvation which all true believers share. When we lose sight of this most precious gift, we have perhaps slipped out from under the weight of glory intended to ground and propel us.
Easter is less than six weeks away. We are in the Lenten season. Look and behold as if for the first time the mystery of the gospel. See the love of Christ that drove Him to take the nails, to submit to the meanest form of humiliation ever conceived. He is our only hope. In Him we live and move and have our being.
Revelation speaks of the wedding feast of the Lamb, no doubt the feast Jesus envisioned when he told his many parables of kings and royal banquets, bridegrooms and virgins. When He turned water to wine, when He healed the sick and raised the dead, Jesus was pointing us toward the kingdom of His Father. When the Spirit came at Pentecost and since on those who believe, God implants a hope for the glorious future He has for us.
Where will Jesus find me when He returns? How am I growing in my knowledge of Him daily? How am I using the gifts entrusted to me for His kingdom and His glory? I dare not be found squandering His precious gift on wayward living. I cannot use what does not belong to me for my own gain. I cannot say I didn’t know and neither can you because we have more access to His word than at any other place and time in history. We are without excuse. Maybe we’ve become content with tired routine. Let’s not be satisfied snacking on prepackaged morsels when a feast awaits.
“Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:
“Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.
She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”
And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”
Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and sisters who testify about their faith in Jesus.
Worship only God.
For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.””
Revelation 19:6-10 NLT
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