Yesterday wasn’t the best of days. I’m sure you know the feeling of everything in your favour being against you. It is an attack by the enemy satan, who knows our weak spots, and those who might be his willing partners. There is an antidote: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5) Trust in the Lord and do good … Delight yourself in the Lord … Commit your way to the Lord … Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him … (Psalm 37:3-7)
Today I have been blessed, and after a baking session yesterday, and putting together what I had made, the Lord spoke into my heart.
Through the years, with a little tweaking here and there, I have developed a recipe for South African favourite, - rusks. Now in many countries, rusks are used for babies when teething and are handy to carry in the nappy bag for emergency solids to add to baby’s bottle. In South Africa they are very much an adult treat to be dunked in coffee, being particularly enjoyed in the winter months. Mine are healthy, bran rich, and flavoured with aniseed. As I am not a cordon-bleu cook, they are not standard shape and size, but popular with friends and family, and people started to ask for them, adding that they would pay. Eventually I had to make a price to cover costs, and was soon spending regular time in the kitchen baking mounds of my speciality. Then a strange thing happened!
Someone would say, “I love your rusks, but could you please make me some with sunflower seed instead of aniseed?”
Another would ask, “Do you make them white as well?” (I have yet to see white bran!)
Other requests followed. “Could you do me some with less sugar, or would you use sweetener instead?”
“My sister doesn’t like aniseed, could you please leave it out?”
As I bake 4kg batches and put them into 500g packs, you can imagine the odd 3 ½ kg excess packs I would sit with.
Psalm 37:5 (NLT) tells me: Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.
So I did – and He did!
But I was thinking this morning, isn’t it so like church attendance?
“I would go to church, but they always want money.”
“I enjoyed the service, but I wish they would sing more hymns/ sing less hymns/ sing the choruses we know/keep the children quiet/put cushions on the chairs, etc”
And of course, the favourite, “I would go to church, but they are such hypocrites there. I can’t handle it.”
Then there is, “I do go to church, but not if Joe Bloggs is preaching. I like John Doe better; - he doesn’t go on so long.”
I don’t know about you. I go to church to worship my Lord. I go to church to have fellowship with other believers. I go to church expectantly, knowing that God will have a special word for me, that will penetrate my heart, - that will encourage me or rebuke me. I go to church because I want to. And if my church did not give me food for thought that would help me grow in grace, faith, hope, trust, I would have to find one that did! Church is not a building that is a symbol for Sundays, but a body of believers who have a roof of authority over them, and who gather together to serve and honour God the Father, acknowledging the supreme price that was paid by Jesus Christ for their salvation, and to go out in the power and equipping of the Holy Spirit.
I desire to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as You know, O Lord.
I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart; I speak of Your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal Your love and Your truth from the great assembly. (Psalm 41:8-10)
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