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Listen while you read: "Praise To The Lord The Almighty"1 (Lyrics) |
1 John 5:11-12 – And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (NIV)
A lady I once worked with was complaining that her muffins never turned out. I shared that I had a no-fail recipe and would bring it in to work for her. She was quite pleased.
I did take the recipe in, and she asked me if it was definitely a no-fail one. I assured her that it was. When I left, she was busy getting ready to start the muffins.
The next day, she announced that the muffin recipe had failed, and had turned out terribly, in fact. I was somewhat taken aback, but knowing this person as I did, I also suspected why the goodies had not been a success.
Upon inquiring as to whether she had followed the recipe exactly, I discovered that she had substituted several key ingredients, as she did not have some of them. She also introduced a completely new flavour, thinking that this would work better than the listed one.
Unfortunately, this was a habit with this lady. She believed that she was exercising her creativity, but ultimately, her own wisdom and creativity always led to baking disasters.
Similarly, we live in a time when people worldwide believe that they don't need to follow God's recipe for their lives. They substitute idols, such as materialism, power, and status, for Jesus and the salvation that He offers. They believe that all faiths are equal and lead to eternal life. They take the Scriptures and interpret them to fit their own recipe of beliefs rather than allowing scriptural truth to guide and shape their beliefs. Unfortunately for many, they may discover too late that their version of God's fail-proof recipe has, in fact, turned out quite terribly in regards to eternity.
After all, any no-fail recipe works successfully only when we follow the recipe exactly.
So today, may each of us consider the recipe that we are following for our lives: the fail-proof one that God has laid out for us in the Scriptures, or our own creative version of it. The choice is ours. But let us choose wisely, for our eternity depends upon it.
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that in Your love, mercy, and wisdom, You have given us the no-fail recipe for life and eternity. May we have hearts that seek Your truth alone and the wills to apply it, that we might know the Son in whom we have access to life eternal. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2025 – In Yemen — Pray for our Yemeni national church. We now have more believers than the rest of the Saudi peninsula combined. Pray for us to be bold and discerning as we share our faith. Pray for us to also be continually growing in our relationship with Jesus.
daughter: "Update December 30, 2024: And please touch her heart that she may turn to YOU.* November 12, 2024:..." 
Beautiful Lynne!
What an excellent comparison!
So true. Great thought to start my morning. Thank you.
Amen and Amen, Lynne! God’s “recipe” is failproof! Blessings.
Thanks, Lynn. I’m not much of a cook, but this is a recipe I can follow!
Good one, Lynne. My wife is sometimes guilty of that recipe thing, haha.
Thank you, Lynn. This is a very good lesson to learn. I appreciate your work.
Wow Lynne, you always teach me exactly what I need at the moment. Thank you and God bless you.
Dear Lynne,
Thank you so much for your devotional today! I really appreciated it!
May the Lord bless you.
Good Morning Lynne,
Your recipe sounds delicious. Sometime could you forward it to us. We will follow it exactly. Blessings.
Thanks, Lynn. Really sticks in the mind. Inspired.
You undoubtedly will be ASKED for this recipe more than once for those who read this. I am wondering myself as I am celiac.
Dear Lynne,
Thank you for the no-fail recipe for eternal life (beginning now):
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
Keep writing.
Good Morning Lynne.
You have used a good analogy once again, to remind me that following in the footsteps of our Lord and Master Chef is so important.
Blessings!
(ON)
Lynne
I cannot agree with you more. It always seems we think we know better than God, as we know better than the person who provides us a recipe for muffins. We can only know true peace, love and joy by following the teachings of Jesus and not by substituting other things in their place because we think they will work better in our day and age.
Blessings.
Hi Lynn,
Good devotional, it is a fact, there are so many times when we try to “make do” with something else. That is in baking or cooking, as you pointed out, also in repairs around the house or yard and interpretation and following the words of scripture.
Thank you for writing. When I saw the title, I thought “I bet this is Lynn’s.”
Blessings.
Good Morning Lynne!
What an amazing devotional. So well expressed and clearly stated!
I loved how you used the ‘no-fail recipe’ … sure got the point across!
There are so many that seem to think they’re being broad-minded but they’re missing the most important ingredient in God’s recipe.
Your prayer is one we should share!
Thanks for writing!
Dear Lynne,
Thank you for another special devotional. A perfect analogy of the importance of following the directions of the recipe for baking and following the recipe of life that our loving Lord has laid out for us. It is so easy for us to think “we know what is the thing to do” but God’s way and only God’s way is the right direction to go.
Blessings for your meaningful writings.
(B.C.)
HI Lynne,
Your devotional, as usual, hit the mark. Thank you.
This week a friend of MANY years e-mailed me about a recipe she has gotten from me several years ago. Along the way she said, ‘IT seems like there are too many chocolate chips in this recipe.” And, I said, “That is the reason they are so popular…lots of chocolate chips.” She, however, made them as directed!
(Texas)
Hi Lynne: A great devotional. You do such a wonderful job with practical application. Keep it up.
(Ontario)
I know exactly what you mean. We have friends who love my homemade Christmas cake and asked for the recipe. I had been making it for years, but like you, she made it and I did tell her it must age to taste right. #1 I had on the recipe the fruit MUST sit a week in the brandy mix every day but they were in a hurry so skipped that step. I had said it was in the instructions – without that first step the rest will not be right.
Like building a house if the foundation is week or if we do not study the Bible, we will not have a good foundation. One of our long-time church elders told newly ordained elders that PRAYER is the most important – how can you help others without prayer.
God is Good.
(ON)