O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E, pt. 2

Still can't think of any gracious words, so I'll stick with posting the full (original) lyrics. These are from the song's writers, so they're accurate, LOL.

Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.
Doing exactly what the Lord commands, doing it happily.
Action is the key, do it immediately. Joy you will receive.
Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.
We want to live pure, we want to live clean, we want to do our best.
Sweetly submitting to authority, leaving to God the rest.
Walking in the light, keeping our attitude right, on the narrow way.
For if we believe the Word we receive, we always will obey.     – Mike and Ruth Greene

O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E

Wow. The kids' Sunday School song... "Obedience." I've heard my Reformed-leaning friends rail against the song before, but this comment from StuffFundiesLike just sums the argument so well. Basically, we're teaching our kids works-based sanctification. "Do this and this and this and *then* God will be happy with you." What bondage!!

Unfortunately, when a seven year old sings this song, he or she gets the impression that obedience is the best way to show that you believe. Thousands of Muslims show obedience and do not believe at all, because they are under the law. Most unsaved children interpret Sunday School lessons and songs as rules to keep. This has no saving effect whatsoever. Whoever is under the law and is obedient to law is cursed, because the scriptures say, Cursed is every one who continues not to do every thing written in the law. For the unsaved seven year old, obedience does not show that he believes. It only shows that something motivates him to obey, whether it be the Holy Spirit or the law of Moses. When a child gets stars for attending Sunday School every week, the impression that God is pleased with performance based Christianity begins to enter into every concept the child has about God. This is essentially keeping the law. The child is then being groomed to believe that carrying a Bible to church, wearing a suit, and perfect church attendance equals God's satisfaction. Scary! There is nothing saving about keeping manmade expectations of showing obedience. So the best way to show that you believe is just simply believe God and believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him! (Alan's comment on SFL's post on O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E).

ETA: And when I say bondage, I do mean bondage. Think about the words of the song.

Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe,
Doing exactly what the Lord commands, doing it happily,
Action is the key, do it immediately, joy you will receive,
Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe

We want to live pure, we want to live clean. We want to do our best.
Sweetly submitting to authority. Leaving to God the rest.
Walking in the Light, keeping our attitude right, on the narrow way...

eh, I forget the rest and probably didn't get that last line right either. But do you see it? Can you see what's lacking? It's all about doing... ME doing something. It's not about Him at all. I've nothing against kids doing the things sung about here, but why are they doing them?? Why do we as believers do what we do?? What's our motivation?? God doesn't need me to *do* for Him, or for Him to be happy with me. I am accepted in the Beloved. Period.

There's more that should be said here, but I'm searching for gracious words, LOL.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Nothing says Happy Birthday like getting to make your own birthday cake. Seriously--it's been tradition in our house since I was a little girl that I got to make my own birthday cake (or at least decorate it). I used to pick those gaudy hard sugar decorations in a pack that you had to soak off the paper... then mom let me make my own cakes. Now I get to do the whole shebang from start to finish. This year?? Cheesecake!! Yum!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Crust:
22 chocolate creme filled cookies, crushed
8 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup peanuts, chopped fine

Mix together cookie crumbs and nuts, toss with melted butter. Lightly press into bottom of spring-form pan. Refrigerate until time to bake.

Filling:
24 oz. cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch
1 cup sour cream
5 eggs
2 tsp Godiva chocolate liquor (or vanilla ;) )
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup peanuts, finely chopped

Directions:
Cream together cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, and corn starch until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in flavoring and whipping cream. Divide batter into two bowls. Melt chocolate chips and stir into one half, set aside. Stir peanut butter and chopped peanuts into remaining cream cheese batter.

Spread half of the peanut butter mixture over the crust. Pour half of chocolate mixture over peanut butter mix. Spoon in remaining peanut butter batter and top with last of chocolate mixture. Swirl with a knife blade to marble, being careful not to disturb the crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 215 degrees and bake for an additional 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until center of cheesecake no longer looks wet (not necessarily until firm though). Turn off oven and remove cheesecake, run knife around inside of pan, return cheesecake to oven for 30 minutes. Chill, uncovered, overnight.


Adapted from Cheesecake Extraordinaire's Chocolate Peanut Butter cheesecake (pg. 42), and Peanut Butter Chocolate cheesecake (pg. 87).

The Ravens, part 2

1 Kings 17:6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

6 pack chicken Ramen noodles

Tub old-fashioned oatmeal

2 lbs carrots

3 lbs apples

5 lb. pack of ground beef

1 whole chicken

family pack spare ribs

2 lb. margarine

2 blocks cheese

2 dzn eggs

jar mayo

jar peanut butter

shake cheese

bottle mustard

boxed brownie mix

bottle canola oil

2- 5lb. bags all purpose flour

5 lb bag sugar

bottle pancake syrup

2- 4pks toilet paper

box vanilla wafers

2 lb. elbow macaroni

2 gal milk

bunch of bananas

cantaloupe

tomatoes

qt bag each of okra, limas, blueberries

gallon bag green beans

and

a 4 pk Danactive yogurt drink

This showed up on a day DH was home sick from work with food poisoning-like symptoms.   Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits!! Ps. 103:2

On Men and Marriage for Father's Day weekend

From Father's Day, a great post on gentlemen and being gentlemanly here.

As a resident of SC, I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't mention the current debacle in state government. Of course the governor's trip to the "Appalachian Trail" has been done to death in the media, late night talk shows, etc., etc. But just in case you aren't completely burned out on all things Mark Sanford, give this comment a read, from this article in the NYT.

Comment 104.

James

CA

June 24th, 2009

3:28 pm

Convervatives, and religious conservatives in particular, have built up extramarital sex to mean everything. It affects their positions on abortion, on constitutional amendments against gay marriage, on birth control, on foreign aid for birth control, on sex education in public schools, on abstinence, on AIDS, on ordaining ministers, on funding Public Health departments, and even on the Supreme Court for goodness sakes. This is why an affair, while a deeply sad but relatively common event results in resignations and press frenzies like the one we just witnessed. As a liberal, I take no joy in watching someone's marriage, and now career, fail. I only hope that the focus is on the bigger picture the Republicans paint as a party, and why their base obsession with sex makes every one of those policy positions fasle, hollow, and hypocritical. Today's conference was a real man living in the real world honestly unburdening himself from an unsustainable weight of lies, both private and public.

Unity: Priceless

Movable chairs in the sanctuary are NOT one step away from drums on the stage, really!!


So our church's annual meeting is this coming Sunday. The building program will be on the table again. My take on the issue is simple. Why spend $500,000 more to accommodate bad theology??


We're pursuing building a bigger building primarily because we need more space for fellowships times/shared meals, etc. Times when the entire church body needs to be sitting around tables (and eating, LOL). But why can't we make better use of the space we already have? We do have fellowship hall space already (classrooms with folding walls that we rearrange for dinner each Sunday afternoon over ht summer), it's just not quite big enough for our current attendance levels.


Last summer someone asked if we could run a couple extra tables up the center aisle of the sanctuary to relieve the space crunch inside (in air-conditioning--we do also set up some tables outside, but when it's in the 90's and the humidity is 70% and higher, it's just nasty out there). "But why would we want to ruin the carpet in the sanctuary too?" was the immediate question raised (by a teenager, no less). In a sense I understand the concern, (especially since their family is a major part of our church's janitorial service, (although the tone wasn't a self-serving one), we ought to take the best care we can of the facilities we have. But really, that's just bad theology.


People are the body of Christ. The building is just a tool. If the purpose of the church is to edify and equip the saints, how does having a dedicated "holy" sanctuary help accomplish that end?? We're looking at spending half a million dollars to prop up your bad theology? Really??


We *could* solve our space issues for a lot less money by ripping out the pews and getting those wicked cool chairs instead. Make our current sanctuary space more multi-purpose. But I doubt it'll happen anytime soon. Too many of the "old-guard" (though not necessarily old in years) still view the sanctuary as that "special place" where voices may not be raised, little feet may not run, and food shall absolutely never be consumed (other than the elements of the Lord's table, of course, LOL).


Several years ago we were looking at a similar building project. I happened across a great little book titled "When NOT to Build" written by an architect. He included his testimony in the beginning of the book--since it seems kinda odd for an architect to be advising against building, LOL. His opening point was that too often we jump to building bigger buildings (and spend the Lord's money) before we need to, before we've made effective use of the space we already have (good stewardship anyone?). He goes on to outline how churches in that uncomfortable "almost too full but not quite" stage of growth could make more efficient use of their existing space until the need for building is real, not just perceived. :-) Great little book, highly recommended reading.



So... what to do?? Spend WAY more $$ than we need to to prop up bad theology? Maybe we should. What price can you put on unity??





***UPDATE***

So we had our annual business meeting before I could get this posted, LOL. After a fair amount of discussion, we voted to table the "chairs instead of pews" discussion for exactly a month. Give folks who heard the proposal for the first time today to get their theology up to speed, LOL. Most cogent dissent? "Might there be a change in spirit with a (slightly) less formal setting?" and "Could we have a bit of time to think and pray about this?" ('Not necessarily' and 'yes' being the answers.)