A Reading
The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. (Matthew 22: 2)
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3: 20)
A Thought
My cooking prowess has increased artificially with occasional deliveries from Hello Fresh. A large box arrives weekly with the recipes and ingredients for four separate dishes.
The chilled ingredients for all four meals are held in a single cold section with ice bags, which makes obvious sense. Other smaller ingredients (such as herbs, sauces and stocks) are contained in a separate bag for each recipe, which I presume is to make it easier to find them. Other larger ingredients are mixed together in the box. Some of the ingredients are familiar to me, but others I might not have come across before.
All well and good, but I had a fright last week when I could not find the menus in the box. Having the right ingredients is all well and good if you know which meal they are for, and what to do with them and when. Without the menu cards, chaos ensues for a novice chef like myself.
The crisis abated when someone else looked properly through the box and found them, but my reputation has been damaged.
It made me think about the components of the bible.
The bible is the box which contains lots of different ingredients – prophecies, psalms, proverbs, gospels, and letters to name but a few. They may have been inspired from the one source, but it is not always clear how they might be intended to fit together.
However, there is a simple and essential recipe that binds them all together. The only recipe we need to follow is that of Jesus Christ. Following his teachings helps us to make sense of these ingredients and understand the simple steps to the eternal feast awaiting us in heaven.
There is a simple truth that Jesus Christ, through grace, paid the penalty of death for our sins, and that the Holy Spirit accompanies all believers into eternal life.
Finding this simple recipe should remove all anxiety about the future.
A Grace
For what we are about to receive,
May the Lord make us truly thankful.
Amen