Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Following the Recipe


Dick and I are hosting a Christmas Open House for our congregation. We are looking forward to chatting with people in an informal setting and offering them the opportunity to get to know each other better. It is our gift to those who have loved and supported us throughout the year.

For refreshments, Dick wants to serve cookies, so we he has been baking a batch every day. He enjoys baking; I do not. But I felt guilty letting him do all the work, so, I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies while he was making a run to Walmart for more ingredients. However, my cookies did not turn out quite the way I hoped, as you can see in the photo.

I got to looking online at why cookies run together. Improperly measuring ingredients (as in using liquid versus dry measuring cups—who knew???), melting rather than softening the butter, using eggs before they have reached room temperature, out-of-date baking powder or baking soda, or skipping the “chill-dough” step can all affect how our cookies will turn out. Success requires following the proven methods for baking each kind of cookie.

Did you know there is a recipe for Becoming More Christlike in 2 Peter 1?
INGREDIENTS: “5 For this very reason do your best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge; 6 to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add endurance; to your endurance add godliness; 7 to your godliness add Christian affection; and to your Christian affection add love.”
DIRECTIONS: “8 These are the qualities you need, and if you have them in abundance, they will make you active and effective in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if you do not have them, you are so shortsighted that you cannot see and have forgotten that you have been purified from your past sins.”
 Are we following the recipe God has given us as we build on our faith in Jesus as our Savior? Are we continuing to strive to know God better, to exercise greater self-control, to keep on working to be godly followers of Jesus, to be more genuinely loving, etc.? If we want to be more Christ-like we need each of these qualities—in proper balance. Like adding too much sugar or not enough flour negatively affects our cookies, knowledge without self-control will make us pompous, and godliness without love is hypocritical. Each attribute builds on to and balances another, and when appropriately mixed, enables us to be active and effective Christians.

My cookie-baking skills could use some practice but, more importantly, my adherence to God’s recipe for Christ-likeness needs perfecting—something much harder to do. However, God doesn’t expect this of us in our own strength. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “God’s divine power has given us all we need to live a truly religious life . . . so that we may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature.” (v. 4)

Be encouraged!
Pam

©2018 Pamela D. Williams