I found a new soup recipe. The first time I made it, it was absolutely swoon-worthy. I played with it a bit and it's even better now—leeks, sausage, collard greens, chicken broth, cream and Parmagiana Reggianno cheese. So I made it again for company with a Stromboli on the side.
Since it mattered more, I very carefully measured everything according to the recipe. I even pulled down my forty year old food scale to measure out the sausage since the first time I had just eyeballed it.
"My eyeballs must be way off," I thought as I piled what seemed like twice as much carefully measured sausage in the soup as I had the first time.
If my eyeballs were off, then I guess I really didn't like the recipe that much after all. It was no longer Collard Green and Sausage Stew, it was Sausage Soup. Period. That's all you could taste, and I was a bit embarrassed at my meal.
I must have mulled that over more than I thought because out of the clear blue one day I figured it out. Just to make sure I pulled down my scale and looked. Yep. I was right.
At Thanksgiving we had an emergency run to the hospital with my mother so I was suddenly doing everything on one day that I usually take three days to do. That meant Keith was my sous chef—peeling, chopping, and washing dishes. For the Duchesse potatoes I needed two pounds of potatoes, peeled. I had forgotten that he put a bowl on my scale and then reset it to zero so he could count pounds as he peeled. The bowl must have weighed half a pound because my scale was still set half a pound behind zero and with these eyes I had never noticed. As I measured out half a pound of sausage that day, I really measured out a whole pound. I had doubled the sausage but kept everything else the same. No wonder it was ruined. Sausage is not exactly bland.
No matter how old you get, you still learn things, some of them the hard way. From now on you had better believe I will check my scale and make sure it is set on zero! It's still a wonderful recipe, but only if you get the measurements right.
It matters how our spiritual scales are set too. Every day we need to reset them.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8:5-8)
We live in a physical (carnal) world. We deal with issues that affect us physically and emotionally. If we don't have our spiritual scales set on the things of the spirit, we will measure things just as wrongly as I measured that sausage. If doing right hurts us or someone we love, we might not do it. That's what happens when someone has set their minds on the wrong things. Peter did it too.
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matt 16:21-23)
Peter loved the Lord, but that very love made him refuse to accept his words and his mission. It may even look good, after all, it was out of love. But Jesus called him "Satan" when his priorities were not set correctly. Why would he not rebuke us the same way?
Paul says that when we are too caught up in political affairs, our minds are set on the carnal rather than the physical. We have actually become enemies of Christ.
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Phil 3:18-21)
He tells us we are still living as the old man of sin if we still obsess about earthly things.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-3)
He tells us we are being selfish and arrogant when we do not have the mind of Christ, when it is not set the way his is.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:5-8)
All those underlined words in the passages above (and below) are the same Greek word. Having my kitchen scales set wrong only messed up a meal. Having our spiritual scales set wrong will cost us a whole lot more.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before. I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded… (Phil 3:13-15)
Dene Ward
Since it mattered more, I very carefully measured everything according to the recipe. I even pulled down my forty year old food scale to measure out the sausage since the first time I had just eyeballed it.
"My eyeballs must be way off," I thought as I piled what seemed like twice as much carefully measured sausage in the soup as I had the first time.
If my eyeballs were off, then I guess I really didn't like the recipe that much after all. It was no longer Collard Green and Sausage Stew, it was Sausage Soup. Period. That's all you could taste, and I was a bit embarrassed at my meal.
I must have mulled that over more than I thought because out of the clear blue one day I figured it out. Just to make sure I pulled down my scale and looked. Yep. I was right.
At Thanksgiving we had an emergency run to the hospital with my mother so I was suddenly doing everything on one day that I usually take three days to do. That meant Keith was my sous chef—peeling, chopping, and washing dishes. For the Duchesse potatoes I needed two pounds of potatoes, peeled. I had forgotten that he put a bowl on my scale and then reset it to zero so he could count pounds as he peeled. The bowl must have weighed half a pound because my scale was still set half a pound behind zero and with these eyes I had never noticed. As I measured out half a pound of sausage that day, I really measured out a whole pound. I had doubled the sausage but kept everything else the same. No wonder it was ruined. Sausage is not exactly bland.
No matter how old you get, you still learn things, some of them the hard way. From now on you had better believe I will check my scale and make sure it is set on zero! It's still a wonderful recipe, but only if you get the measurements right.
It matters how our spiritual scales are set too. Every day we need to reset them.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8:5-8)
We live in a physical (carnal) world. We deal with issues that affect us physically and emotionally. If we don't have our spiritual scales set on the things of the spirit, we will measure things just as wrongly as I measured that sausage. If doing right hurts us or someone we love, we might not do it. That's what happens when someone has set their minds on the wrong things. Peter did it too.
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matt 16:21-23)
Peter loved the Lord, but that very love made him refuse to accept his words and his mission. It may even look good, after all, it was out of love. But Jesus called him "Satan" when his priorities were not set correctly. Why would he not rebuke us the same way?
Paul says that when we are too caught up in political affairs, our minds are set on the carnal rather than the physical. We have actually become enemies of Christ.
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Phil 3:18-21)
He tells us we are still living as the old man of sin if we still obsess about earthly things.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-3)
He tells us we are being selfish and arrogant when we do not have the mind of Christ, when it is not set the way his is.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:5-8)
All those underlined words in the passages above (and below) are the same Greek word. Having my kitchen scales set wrong only messed up a meal. Having our spiritual scales set wrong will cost us a whole lot more.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before. I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded… (Phil 3:13-15)
Dene Ward
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