 |
| Making Cookies Step 19, by Rex Roof |
*Thanks to "Freedom Ministry #3 Kingdom of God" for this analogy*
The Kingdom of God is like an oven (A Parable).
Imagine you are a round lump of cookie dough. You are standing there, on the counter, minding your own business. All you've ever wanted to be was a cookie. You are made of the same stuff the cookies are. But sadly, you are not a cookie. In fact, you've been standing around waiting to become a cookie so long, you've gotten a little dry around the edges.
You try so hard to be a cookie. You want it badly. You think cookie thoughts, you go to the cookie conventions, you read all the best cookie books... You just don't understand why you aren't a cookie yet!
What could the missing ingredient be?
One day, you stand near the edge, just a bit too far over the edge, and you fall. You plummet down, and you find your landing on a large tray. The tray is in motion, and you are swept away with that motion.
Then the motion carries you into "The Oven". You find The Oven to be a large scary place, and the atmosphere is so foreign to you. There is something terrifying and exciting about it, all at once. As the atmosphere of that oven gets on you and around you, it begins to make you uncomfortable. It starts making changes in you, that you are not certain that you are ready for. These are chemical changes that cannot be undone.
Eventually you get used to the atmosphere of the oven, and you like it here. You find something exciting is happening in you and around you. Others are in the atmosphere with you, and they too are going through this same atmosphere, and experiencing these same changes, and you are feeling community for the first time.
Finally, you exit the oven and go back to your old home on the counter, but you have changed. You are no longer a lump of cookie dough, you are a cookie. Others notice the change and remark about it. Some think you are arrogant for becoming a cookie, after all, everyone in your family is just a cookie dough, what makes you so special.
Others though, precious other cookie dough lumps come to you, and they ask you about the changes you've experienced, and they beg you for the secret... How did you become a cookie? What is hard? Was it a lot of work... and you think back to your experience. You realize that all the WORK you did before entering the oven was pointless, worthless, effort. The only thing a cookie dough needs, in order to become a cookie, is to allow themselves to be placed on the tray, carried with the motion, and expose themselves long enough to the atmosphere of The Oven.
Become A Cookie Too
The only thing a cookie dough needs, in order to become a cookie:
- Allow yourself to be placed on the tray
- YOU don't jump on the tray, you must be placed there.
- Ask the baker to be placed on the tray.
- (Die to self, Ask Jesus to take your life in exchange for His)
- Yield to be carried with the motion
- Ask the Holy Spirit into your heart and life.
- Be Spirit Led, yield to His Voice and His Leading.
- Expose themselves long enough to the atmosphere of The Oven.
- Expose yourself to the presence of God often enough, and long enough, that you are changed into his image. The only thing the atmosphere of God's presence can do, is make you more like Him.
When you enter the atmosphere of the King, the power of His presence is applied to you by your merely being there and you are changed. You don't become more like Jesus by knowing more... the pharisees tried that. Saul was killing Christians when he knew the Hebrew Bible better than most of Christians. It wasn't until he was subjected to The Presence that he was changed into something new.
The purpose of prayer and worship isn't so that we can check off that we did it, like a religious exercise. The purpose of prayer and worship is so that we can enter His Presence, and be exposed to His Atmosphere, and be changed.
CookieDough can't try to become a cookie; except by yielding to prolonged exposure to the atmosphere of the oven. Tweet That!
The big difference between you and the cookie is that in the case of the cookie, too much exposure can ruin the cookie, and no amount of time or atmosphere outside of the oven will change this one back into a cookie dough.
We humans are always in flux. Ever changing to be more full of self, or more like Him. We must continually apply the atmosphere, over and over, in order to effect and preserve the change we look for. Until the day we are sealed forever in His Presence, we must seek it regularly. Only then will we become and continue to be the cookie we desire to be. More time in The Oven, just enhances our cookie-ness. The less time we spend in The Oven, the more dough like we re-become.
Spend some time in the oven this week.
In other words... will I #BeStillBeLed?
---
And now I leave you with a question:
What do you think about Grace?
To Respond Leave A Comment on This Post
By Darrell Wolfe
This Weeks Resource:
Affiliate Disclosure:
I earn commissions off of some of my suggestions. Full Disclaimers (Click Here)
See my Store for more suggestions (Click Here)
-
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Be Nice, Be Kind, Be Thoughtful, Be Honest, Be Creative...GO!