Come And Dine

That’s what I’ve been working on for about a month. 120 pages of recipes from the ladies of our church, and I typed every one of them. Why? Because it’s difficult to do separately, and I type a lot better than the ladies who sew so beautifully. Their work, and this cookbook, will be available this Saturday at a craft bazaar we’re holding to raise money for some specific mission projects.

Our group’s theme is “Together We Can Change Lives,” and that’s something we really believe. Working together, we can make an impact. That was also the worship service message Sunday – the marriage between church and missionaries. Together, lives are changed.

Services Sunday were all about Missions – we had three missionary families making presentations in three different Sunday School classes as well as during morning and evening services. The morning sermon was given by a missionary to Guatemala that our church provides support to monthly. We have for several years. Missionaries do not do well without the support of churches – Paul’s letters tell us how far back that relationship goes. Churches cannot fulfill the Great Commission without missionaries. Our ministries are different in scope, but just as a marriage, we are better for the relationship.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20 KJV)

“Teach.” Not coerce, bribe, coax, cajole – we are to teach. “All nations.” Not the ones we think “need it” the most, are friendly to us or are closest. All. “Baptizing.” In specifics, too. It takes a reading of all four gospels to see “all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” but He did give the two important ones – and I shared them yesterday in Matthew 22:36-40.

The same word is used in commandments in those verses: ἀγαπάω – agapao. Love – not to be just fond of or affectionate toward, but to love as one loves to breath; to know the love that provides life; the relationship between God and man. A Greek word that is never summed up in a single English word, especially one we use to express feelings for foods, colors or clothing. “I just love that purple hat!”

But – as usual – I digress from my original thought – a cookbook that includes a partial verse from John, chapter 21. It was Jesus’ third appearance following His resurrection. He is on the shore, the disciples have returned to their regular job – fishing. He tells them to cast their nets, which were then filled. Then,

Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. (John 21:12 KJV)

They recognized Him. That’s what He expects from us, recognition of our Lord.

John closes that 21st chapter with a verse I believe whole-heartedly, but also believe that in every reading of Bible verses, there is a message and application in our daily lives. Take time to see Him, and the application:

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (John 21:25 KJV)