Good Monday Morning (12-20-11),

My son is a cordon bleu trained chef. He never uses recipes. When it comes to food preparation, he just free falls, trusting his innately gifted senses and his highly exercised skills.

But I need a recipe. I’m not so perfectly in sync with food that I don’t need, welcome and depend on the directions.

We are like that with God. Very few of us are so sensitive to the Holy Spirit, so in tune with the Father, so experienced in His ways and His Word, that we don’t need some constructive guidance.

And yet, if we are honest, most of us think we already know the answers. We get saved and we are instant experts. This is how we can sit in church year after year always hearing but never learning. And then we wonder why we aren’t experiencing the promises we read about in the Bible.

Yes, it is true that my spirit is instantly and forever transformed into something that has never before existed. Praise God! But the way I think and the way I feel and the things I do have not been instantly transformed. At this point, like any other very young child, I am in danger of thinking I know a lot more than I do.

The truth is that when I am first saved I am not a master chef. I don’t know anything about anything regarding this new Kingdom of which I am now a part. I have just been translated out of the kingdom of darkness…the kingdom that has, up until now, programmed me full of lies about myself, my God, and life in general.

Now I’m reborn into a new Kingdom. I need to learn these new truths, this new reality — who I am in regard to Him and what He has planned for me. I need a complete programming overhaul. It won’t be for a very long time that I am well trained and well experienced enough to free fall in the Kingdom.

No wonder the Bible is full of recipes for living!

I so often try to make the Bible difficult and mysterious. And it is true the Word contains great mysteries. But a huge part of this love letter/instruction manual is maximum simplicity. It was written for babies, for toddlers, to guide us into our new life.

I don’t study the Bible just for curiosity; not for brownie points; not to win arguments. I am renewing my mind to the truths of a new Kingdom so I can know how to live my life after I have accepted Christ. As I study I find that I must walk in union with Him and in conformity to Him. I’m not on my own any more. I’m part of a much greater whole, for it is Christ in me that is my hope of glory.

I don’t have to guess who I am. I don’t have to wonder what He’s like. I don’t have to make it up as I go along. I must have my being firmly rooted and deeply planted in Him (fixed and founded in Him), allowing myself to be continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, as I am taught, abounding and overflowing in what I am learning with thanksgiving.

Pastor Bob said it so well Sunday morning. He instructed us, (oh yes, this new walk is all about receiving instruction and then practicing it), he taught us that holiness (obedience) isn’t about being sin conscious. It is about clearing the way so we can have intimacy with the Father.

What do I obey? Whatever He says. How do I know what to do next? Follow the recipe. It might be a recipe for a good marriage, or for successful money management, or for raising children, or for seeing miracles. All the recipes are there.

There is only one variable that affects the outcome of the final dish. That variable is me. Will I humble myself to become teachable? Will I choose to be rooted in Him and conformed to Him, or will I insist, like any strong-willed child, to have it my own way?

I’m the only one who can answer that question…the only one who can determine whether the final outcome of my life is a success or failure. He has prepared the way.

Will I walk in it?

“As you have therefore received Christ, walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him. Have the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in Him, fixed and founded in Him, being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7, Amplified

Laurie Gross