Food Avalanche

I was going to attend to some lingering responsibilities today, but instead, I decided to try to unwind a little. I spent a leisurely morning with the Bible, and then I decided to slap together some desserts for the church. I’ll be working at the cafe tomorrow, unless they move me, so I figured it was time to show them what I can do for them.

I was going to make cheesecake, but the berries are pathetic right now. I can get good blueberries, but they’re about ten bucks a pint, and strawberries are only half ripe. There goes that idea. So I’m making brownies and flan and banana nut bread.

The banana nut bread is mostly for my own satisfaction. I was not happy with my last (second) loaf. I changed the recipe again. I’m disturbed to see that I left sugar out of the recipe the last time I posted it. Here is what I’m using right now.

INGREDIENTS

3 ripe bananas, mashed (I used two Orinocos)
2 1/4 cups non-rising biscuit flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
pinch nutmeg
pinch cloves
pinch cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

I cut the cinnamon back, jacked up the butter, and took out the coconut oil. I also cleaned the teflon pan carefully and greased it with butter. I hope the loaf doesn’t stick this time.

I’m confident this one will be very good. They’ve all been good, but this one won’t have the obvious flaws the first two had.

I guess they’ll think I’m doing too much, but this is recreation for me.

I got a letter from Perry Stone Ministries. The man does not ask for money. He says he refuses to beg, because he doesn’t like doing TV. He believes God told him to do it. I can understand that. I’d do TV if an angel ordered me to, but it must be a hassle and a complete abdication of your expectation of privacy.

The letter was a thank-you to his supporters. He says other ministries are laying off, but he’s doing fine. Is there a lesson in that? Probably. If all you do is beg and holler “SEED GIFT! SEED GIFT!” all day, you shouldn’t be surprised when people start watching and supporting shows that give them something more. Perry Stone is incredibly prolific. I don’t know how he does it. He seems to write a book every ten minutes, and if you bought every sermon series (and they’re not expensive), you’d probably blow almost a thousand dollars a year.

I think God may be sifting out a number of the less-profitable servants. Some people take issue when I indicate that I believe that the things you do here on earth can have timely and identifiable consequences, but I was thinking about it today, and they’re wrong. Look at the Bible. Achan took stuff from Jericho, and the very next time the Jews fought, they lost. Delilah shaved Samson, and the next morning, his enemies held him down and gouged his eyes out. Ananias and Sapphira lied to God, and the Holy Spirit killed them immediately. Judas died miserably shortly after his sin. Sometimes God gives you a lot of space to repent, and sometimes you get slapped down in a hurry, and you know the reason.

I suspect that the more God plans to do with you (and therefore FOR you), the shorter your leash will be. Look at Moses and David. If you’re a jerk all your life, and everything goes well for you, maybe it means there was never any hope for you. Things went great for Hitler for decades. The Bible says, “Fret not because of the man who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.” It says, “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.”

This morning, I went back over Psalm 5, which I was no longer able to recite, and I saw this: “Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make thy way straight before my face.” I used to think it meant, “Lead me around the traps,” but now I think it means, “Prevent me from sinning, so I don’t lose your protection.” God promises to guard his servants. “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.” “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.” But sin–especially iniquity, or habitual sin–is an open door through which the enemy is permitted to enter.

I feel like my behavior is being sculpted by chastisement. First in broad and painful strokes, and then in progressively finer adjustments. I’ve made changes, and I’ve gotten victories, but there has been room for improvement, and I think that’s why I haven’t seen every triumph I hoped for.

The farther I get into it, the more Christianity makes sense. People always talk like we know very little about God’s mind and his plans, but that’s not true. A lot of information is out there, if you’re willing to look. Seeing through a glass, darkly, is not the same as wandering in total ignorance. It surprises me, how much is known about God.

I can’t believe how much I’ve learned from memorizing the Psalms. I should not be surprised. Jesus quoted them to Satan when he was tempted. They’re not just silly poems. God reveals his secrets in them. The Apostles quoted them. All this stuff about actions and consequences, I put together from my knowledge of the Psalms. I just finished 91, and I’m working on 27. Take a look at it, if you want to see how appropriate it is. And I haven’t even memorized twenty percent of them. I have to wonder what it’s like to have a real Biblical library in your head. Supposedly, in Jesus’s time, Jewish boys memorized the Pentateuch by the time they were bar mitzvah’d.

I have to drive to the store to get more eggs. I can’t believe I took a list and still screwed up.

If you want to see progress in your life, try this. Get the baptism of the Spirit, pray in the Spirit every day, and start memorizing. Stuff will come together inside you. Seriously.