The Master Chef
Fine dining, in the hands of a true Michelin Star Chef, is a culinary treat which leaves your pallet in awe of the creator, with each course.
The precise blending of ingredients and seasonings, expertly prepared, brings out the absolute best final result.
During our last trip to Sydney, we dined at one of Australia’s best restaurants and experienced a master at work. With our beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House across the harbor, each course revealed, was better than the last, culminating in the most delicious desert ever.
The Master Chef, with his wisdom, skill, and experience, created a unique masterpiece we thoroughly enjoyed.
Now, let’s say that after our meal, we bought the Chef’s cookbook, and set out at home to recreate his dishes, using his recipe.
We start by studying the recipe and gathering the ingredients we will need. During the process though, we see that the recipe calls for an ingredient that we do not care for, so we exclude that from the mix and carry on.
The recipe then calls for one more ingredient which we do not have (and never even heard of), so we cut that out as well.
We then come to a section in the directions tells us to let it rise, then punch it down and let it rise again — this will add another hour or two to the process. We decide that letting it rise once should be good enough. It seemed silly to wait any longer when we’re hungry now.
Finally, it goes into the oven. As it cooks, we open the oven no less than 10 times, just to “to check on it”.
When the bell goes off, we pull the dish out of the oven to test the results. How well do you think it will compare to the Master Chef’s version? Not very good at all.
What is the problem? Why didn’t it taste the same as what we remember? Did we get a defective cookbook? Is there a misprint in the recipe? We should probably just put this cookbook on the shelf next to the rest of the cookbooks that just didn’t work for us (even though we tried).
This is the same way many Christians approach the Word of God. We try to create our own version of the Master’s recipe for our lives, using the limits of our own human experience and the ingredients we have “on hand”.
When we come to a difficult passage in the scripture, we either try to ignore it, skip it or worse yet, we invent ways to exclude or remove it completely.
Over time though, hopefully, we begin to realize that the only way to achieve all that we were created to achieve, is to follow the master’s recipe for our lives, precisely.
God has a plan for our lives.
“For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the LORD, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP)
His plan (or recipe, as it were), brings us peace, well-being, a future and a hope. His perfect masterpiece for you and all the world to enjoy.
Like fine dining, YOU are God’s fine masterpiece. Your life is a unique, one-of-a-kind recipe, blended with the Master’s carefully selected ingredients and fine seasonings, to make you all you were created to be.
The end result? A life of peace, well-being and hope. If you’re not experiencing that in your life today, it’s time to follow His recipe instead of yours.
According To Your Promise
“I pray thee that thy mercy may comfort me, according to thy promise unto thy servant.” – Psalm 119:76 (GNV)
The Psalmist prays here, seeking comfort and reminds God subtly, yet effectively, of the promise He made to him “according to thy promise unto thy servant”.
This is similar to Peter whom, almost reluctantly, set out into the deep waters to cast his net. After initially reasoning why he shouldn’t do it, he eventually said ”But because you say so”, and success came his way. (See Luke 5:1-11)
This reminder, which is really more for us than for God, is useful throughout our journey. It helps retrain our earthly minds from it’s real “Can’t-Do” attitude into a Kingdom mindset, where “All things are possible” (Matthew 19:23-30).
As fellow believers in Christ, the phrases ”according to your promise” and ”because you said so” need to be uttered, in every difficult situation or decision we face. At first, it will seem forced or even silly, as it was for like Peter (see Luke 5:5). But in time, as we see God’s faithfulness to us in every situation, His thoughts become our thoughts, naturally (see Romans 12:2). Change our patterns, change our lives.
When we let His Word be our guide, and those declarations the deciding factor, our lives will go from victory to victory as we journey from faith to faith.
Mr. Müller And The Fog
“When I first came to America, thirty-one years ago, I crossed the Atlantic with the captain of a steamer who was one of the most devoted men I have ever knew, and when we were off the banks of Newfoundland he said to me: “Mr Inglis, the last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened, that has completely revolutionised the whole of my Christian life. Up to that time I was one of your ordinary Christians. We had a man of God on board, George Muller, of Bristol. I had been on the bridge for twenty-two hours, and never left it. I was startled by someone tapping me on the shoulder. It was George Muller. ‘Captain’ he said, I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon. This was Wednesday. ‘It is impossible, I said. ‘Very well, if your ship can’t take me, God will find other means to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years.’ ‘I would willingly help you. How can I? I am helpless.’ ‘Let us go down to the chart room and pray.’
“I looked at that man of God, and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could the man have come from? I never heard of such a thing. ‘Mr Muller,’ I said ‘do you know how dense the fog is?’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.’ He got down on his knees and prayed one of the most simple prayers. I muttered to myself: ‘That would not suit a children’s class where the children are not more than eight or nine years old.’ The burden of his prayer was something like this: ‘O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes. Thou knowest the engagement Thou didst make for me in Quebec on Saturday. I believe it is Thy will.’
“When he finished I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. ‘First, you do not believe He will; and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.’ I looked at him, and George Müller said this: ‘Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.’ I got up, and the fog was gone!
“You tell that to some people of a scientific turnoff mind, and they will say: ‘That is not according to natural laws.’ No, it is according to spiritual laws. The God with whom we have to do is omnipotent. Hold on to God’s omnipotence. Ask believingly. On Saturday afternoon, I may add, George Müller was there on time.”
by Charles Inglis
Settle It Sooner
Throughout the Bible, we see examples of those who reach the end of their ability, cry out to God, and He delivers them. It is a pattern in ancient times that is repeated to this very day.
When the Israelites found themselves out in the wilderness with no place to stay and no more natural means to save them, they cried out to God.
Psalm 107:4-7 (NKJV) “They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way, That they might go to a city for a dwelling place.”
When the nation of Israel repeatedly found themselves under the rule of a king who did evil in the sight of the Lord, by worshiping idols, they suffered. Ultimately, it would dawn on them that they weren’t doing so well, and they would cry out to God, and He delivered them.
Countless times in the Bible, when people reached the end of all they knew to do, and found themselves helpless and hopeless, they cried out to God. And in his loving kindness, He heard their cries, and was moved to compassion on their behalf.
This pattern of deliverance paints a picture of the character and compassion of God’s love for us, but just how good of a picture is it of our love for Him?
When you think about it, deliverance from a crisis is the result of a life of independent living. Independent of God that is. We are trained that true independence is self sufficiency, and not needing to rely on anybody else to get by. This sounds good on paper, and is even applauded by society as a whole, but what is the end result of this delusion of self sufficiency? Emptiness. Loneliness. Depression. Depletion.
God never intended for us to be alone. Naked and afraid. God created us for a loving two-way relationship. We were made in the image and likeness of God, and He wants to know us and for us to know him on an intimate, honest, trusting level. We were made to need love and to need to give love to those we hold dear. We are home when we are loved and in love and we are truly home when that love is bi-directional with our Heavenly Father.
God is certainly a God that can deliver you out of your troubles. But how much more does He desire a relationship with you, where you are not independent of Him most of the time. A real relationship with Him, rather than only crying out to God when you’re at your wits end?
“They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.” Psalm 107:27-28
God loved David, because David loved Him AND David loved God because God loved Him. That is a picture of what a real, loving relationship is like.
“He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.'” Acts 13:22b
All of the examples in the Bible, and in our personal lives, when we found ourselves without answers, and nowhere to turn… and then we prayed, have one thing in common. We and the Israelites of biblical times, saw God as a last ditch effort. Almost a “well, we’ve tried everything we can do, we might as well pray about it” thinking.
What does it look like to walk with God as a friend, rather than just a heavenly 9-1-1 line? Let’s look at David, when he spoke to King Saul about the ‘Giant Problem’ Israel was facing:
“But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” (1 Samuel 17:34-36)
David sounded, up to this point, like an arrogant young man, who had singlehandedly taken on wild animals and come out victorious. This is where independence from God stops. But there is more. It goes on to say:
“Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:37a)
David, showing that he knew who delivered him from the lion and bear and everything else he faced in the wilderness, gave all the credit and glory to God. He turned out not to be just another arrogant youth, but one who had a relationship with God in his every day walk. Once King Saul saw that David’s source was not merely youthful exuberance, but strength from the one true God,
“And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” – 1 Samuel 17:37b
David was ready for the challenge in the desert, because he had seen the true character of God everyday in the wilderness. David didn’t see a bear attacking or a lion ready to devour him and his flock and stop figure out what he should do. He knew who’s he was and the strength that comes in the unity of a real relationship with God.
We were built for relationship, not independence. God is ALWAYS our Source. He is ALWAYS our strength. He is ALWAYS our best answer to every situation in life.
We need to settle it sooner. Read for yourself the limitless ways that God loves you by reading His Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to minister to you as you read, and be open to hearing from Him, as you study His love letter to you, the Bible.