A Recipe For Disaster

PREPARATION...... 

One pinch of revelation

Two teaspoons of revolution

Three handfuls of poverty

Four cups of challenge

Five ounces of choice

Six boxes of consequence

Seven tons of faith

Eight grams of fiber

Nine gallons of fruit                                                                        

Ten decades of forgiveness

Preheat oven to 100 degrees

Mix suggested ingredients in a large bowl

Bake for the next eighty or so years

Take out when cooked

Do not serve lukewarm

[WARNING: This is obviously not something you would necessarily bake for eighty years or more! Please, do not take the use of the stove word for word! This is a mere metaphor that contributes to some truths of life.]

Firstly, this is an example of the needed actions that must be taken to accomplish a complete disaster in the world. Throughout the Vineyard Church there is a statement that is hoped to be within each ministry: "faith is spelled R-I-S-K". This is a phrase from John Wimber, who pastored the first Vineyard. To give a brief note or the type of man he was, know, that he was greatly astonished by the lack of works the people of God were doing....which brings me to another phrase: "we need to be doing the stuff". In the book of James it is described that a faith that lacks deeds is dead.

When there is a dead faith, it is like a spoiled floppy fish; dead faith is like lukewarm clam chowder, or a bland cup of green tea! Though the flavors were once strong, they have just been sitting around and the taste is not quite hot, not quite cold.

In Revelation 3:15-16  it is made known that just as a man who eats lukewarm food desires to spit it out, God desires to spit the lukewarm Christians out of the kingdom. He wants His house to be a fire-y temple. We are His children, come on, why shouldn't we want to be totally stoked for God??!! If you question this concept of lukewarm further, read this other blog post (http://bethelgrace.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/are-you-lukewarm/) this quotes Francis Chan from his book Crazy Love. Ask yourself if you've ever been guilty of living a lukewarm lifestyle.

For further scriptures on God’s glorious majesty, check out Isaiah 6:3; Romans 12:2; Revelation 4:8; Psalm 145:5.

Secondly, the combination of ingredients, shown above, is a part of building up the Kingdom and they are the things that tear down the walls of this world. Change is what gets people all riled up. Saved people are aliens in this world; for if God says that it is so, then so it is. Christians have a true home in heaven! Who do not live by the laws of this world! (yes, we are here now, we are not OF it, but there are certain rules we must abide by because of the way the earth has been governed. Use common sense, but don't allow the little things like "everybody else is doing it" come in-between your walk with God).

Admiring the greatness of God, steals away the wonder-thunder of man! I ask you, has any human being been able to develop a living thing, outside if the creation that is made by God? If the case is somehow unknown to me then may I ask the person with all the answers: can that "human-made living-thing" do anything outside of what that human has made it to do? Can that "thing" do anything outside of the law it was placed in by that human, who therefore did create it?

Or how about a non-living thing? Say the Pyramids, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Parthenon, Empire State Building, Westminster Abbey, Notre Dame Cathedral -- all of some of the greatest accomplishments of mankind!! Would you gaze upon it in the thinking "oh these things just appeared out of the blew sometime in history!" or would you say, "Gee whizz!! I so admire the efforts man had put into that architecture! Wow! This was designed and crafted! Created and birthed from man's own hands!" a simple response is clear. Evidence is even there!

Consider some flaws of mankind. The sinking of the RMS Titanic, a luxurious ship intended for efficiency. However, we all know the ending, in fact, since the beginning of the construction it had failed all together. The "great" ship was built by selfish and cheap men who said "not even God can tear it down!” There are theories out there that suggest that the tragedy was the lack of fear in God. They were so confident with the tail end of the Industrial Revolution; they lacked purity and gained corruption.  

Man is so imperfect! I need not tell you a list of my own opinions of where man has failed, for you to know that man is not perfect (by man, of course, I do mean both male and female genders of the human race). Only God could be called The Great I Am, for He truly is one of a kind, and so much greater than anything...after all, He created all things! UNLIKE us though, God is not established under flesh, or sinful ways (I will explain my opinion on that further, another time).

Alright, so before I get carried away on a spiel of my own little "sermon" on creation, and our inferiority to The Divine Being, allow me to just add a little bit of this n' that to this recipe for disaster...after all, you cannot bake unless you collect the ingredients!!

I recommend the peppermint tea, chocolate-covered-almonds, and a few nibbles of this small cliff-hanger until the next post as I share a treat for your soul's taste buds..............