Now You’re Cooking with Gas

Reaching Higher: A Series on My Journey of Discipleship

Matthew 25:14-30

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A14-30&version=NIV;NLT

[Preface: This series is autobiographical to the extent that it is loosely based on my spiritual journey. In some ways, you could compare it to the stock market with a gradual overall increase, but many ups and downs; even a crash or two. Through it all though, the Lord has loved me and been with me the whole time. I hope you find my journey encouraging, but also, that the Lord might speak to you through it.]

  

“Now you’re cooking with gas”.

That’s what my Dad used to say to me when he helped me with a homework problem. Normally it was math or science. But instead of just giving me the answer, like I wanted, he would make me work through it and figure it out for myself. And when I did, he would say, “Now you’re cooking with gas”.

 

I had no idea where that saying originated; but for me, when my Dad said it, I knew he was praising me for the work I had done. “Now you’re cooking with gas”.

 

Those five, otherwise meaningless words, carried the emotional impact of making me feel worthwhile; capable of doing anything; of overcoming great odds. Those five words answered the question that every child has: “Do you think I can do it Dad?” And his answer to me was a resounding, “YES!”

 

Jesus was known for telling stories to teach a lesson. They’re called parables. In Matthew 25, there’s a story that focuses on a master who gives three of his servants bags of gold to invest while he’s away on a journey.

 

The amount of gold they were given was based on their ability. One was given five bags; another two; and the third one. The first two invested their master’s gold and doubled his money; but the third buried it. The first two were praised. “Well done, my good and faithful servant”, he told them.

 

²¹ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’    NIV

 

The master told his servants, “Well done”. My Dad told me, “Now you’re cooking with gas”. Both were saying, “YES, you can do it. I believe in you”.

 

There can be no greater feeling than hearing your Heavenly Father say to you at the end of your life, “Well done, my son; my daughter. Well done”.

 

 

 

Joy to the World

A Series on Advent

Luke 15:1-32

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015%3A1-32&version=NIV;NLT

 

Something has really been bugging me this week! First, I should explain that I’ve been collecting coins recently; not a serious collector, just when I get change.

 

This week I found two older dimes and brought them home. But when I went to put them in my “collector’s box”, they were nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere… twice; on my desk, on the dresser, in the car, at the office. Everywhere.

 

Then today after work, I put on my jeans and low and behold, the dimes were in my pocket. I went running out to tell my wife. My coins had been lost, but now were found. I felt great joy to have found my coins.

 

Sometimes joy is hard to find. Maybe because we look for it in the wrong places. Or, maybe because we define it incorrectly. If joy is defined by our circumstances, those can change in an instant. True joy, the joy that we sing about at Christmas, is something much deeper.

 

Jesus loved to tell stories to teach a lesson; to teach people spiritual truths. On one occasion, Luke wrote how because “tax collectors and other notorious sinners” were listening to Jesus teach, and even eating with him, the religious leaders complained. So Jesus told them three stories.

 

The first was how one lost sheep out of one hundred, was so important to the shepherd that he left the rest of them in the wilderness, and went looking for it. When he eventually found it, he carried it back on his shoulders and told all of his friends how happy he was to have found his lost sheep.

 

No doubt, the listeners in the pastoral society of Jesus’ day, could easily relate to this story. However, you may need to think in terms of lost dimes or a wedding ring or relationship or job. In this story, Jesus is explaining why he came to earth as a baby, and what Christmas is all about. It’s about the joy of finding lost sheep.

 

Sir Isaac Watts wrote the famous carol, Joy to the World which echoes this same spiritual truth.

 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come
…Let earth receive her King
    …Let every heart prepare Him room
        …And Heaven and nature sing.

 

There is true joy when your heart; my heart; any heart; prepares to receive your King. So don’t let your joy be lost this Christmas; don’t tell him there’s no room in the inn; don’t settle for the joy of finding a lost dime. Instead, prepare Him room in your heart, and receive your King.

 

 

 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

1 John 1:8-9; Psalm 103:8-12

 

A picture is worth a thousand words. Jesus often used stories to paint a picture to teach an important lesson. One of the most important lessons for us to learn is that if we repent, that is admit that we have sinned and turn from our sin, then He will forgive us. It’s as if we had never sinned.

 

This is a hard lesson to learn. Guilt and shame can attach themselves to your soul, like a cancer, and destroy you from the inside out. Here, coupled with several scriptures, are some of my own personal stories that have helped me to paint a picture to learn this invaluable lesson.

 

For years, after we moved to Columbus from Michigan, people would make some kind of

derogatory comment about Michigan until they found out I was a Michigan State fan. Apparently, that made me tolerable. However, the point had been driven home that nothing could be further apart from a Buckeye than a Wolverine.

 

Psalm 103

¹² …as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  NIV

 

My Dad had an ink blotter on his desk when I was growing up. I can still remember him

blotting out the extra ink that was left after writing with his fountain pen. The blotter cleaned up many of his letters. The messiness would never be visible.

 

Isaiah 43

²⁵ “I, even I, am he who blots out
    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more.     NIV

 

When I was a young boy, we took a vacation out west. One day on a mountainous road we pulled off to look at the scenery. There was a very deep ravine that you couldn’t see

the bottom, although you could hear a river below. Being a young boy, I threw a stone over the guardrail and waited to hear it hit the water. Imagine my surprise when a couple of angry men yelled to quit throwing those stones. Oops.

 

Micah 7

¹⁹ Once again you will have compassion on us. You will tread our sins beneath your feet; you will throw them into the depths of the ocean!       TLB

 

Recently, by brother and sister-in-law were visiting us. On Saturday night, as we were

getting ready to go out for dinner, my brother caught his pant leg on the toenail of his big toe and tore it off. There was a huge blood stain on the carpet. After using several different brands of carpet cleaner with much elbow grease, the stain was finally gone.

 

Isaiah 1

¹⁸ Come, let’s talk this over, says the Lord; no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool! TLB

 

Sometimes I like to tease my granddaughter when I have a small gift for her by hiding it behind my back and ask her to choose which hand it’s in. Of course, which ever one

she chooses I quickly switch the gift to my other hand. Eventually though, she gets the gift; but in the meantime it’s great fun… at least for me.

 

Isaiah 38

¹⁷ Surely it was for my benefit
    that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
    from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind your back.     NIV

 

A picture is worth a thousand words. No doubt, you have your own stories that could paint a picture of how God has removed your sins; blotted them out; thrown them away; cleaned them; hidden them or… you fill in the blank.

 

The bottom line is that our guilt and shame have been nailed to the cross with Jesus, so that we might live free from sin. Can you picture that?