Michael-Grams: M-G: 7.20.22 // What’s Cooking in Your Kitchen, John 14:15, Part 1 of 2

Some time ago, we had invited a couple over to our house for food and fellowship. The wife was expounding upon her husband’s abilities in the kitchen. Without a doubt, my male counterpart loved to cook whereas that was not my forte. My friend’s wife continued to extol how well her husband knew his way around the kitchen.

Finally, Beverly chimed in on my culinary resume! “Well, let me tell you about Michael! I always worry about him when I am away because he cuts back on eating and loses all kinds of weight because he doesn’t know how to cook!” She continued.

“Even when I buy him some microwaveable frozen meals that he likes, he won’t even go and pull them out of the freezer, and it is not because he is too lazy to fend for himself. No, it is something far more pitiful than that.” Now, I knew where this was heading because this was not my first rodeo. She said,

“If I told Michael to boil some water in the microwave, he would give me this deer in the headlights look!”

Naturally, both ladies laughed out loud! I had to let out a laugh as well because the microwave angle was so ridiculous! Finally, my male friend who definitely knows his way around the kitchen broke his silence,

“What is a microwave?”

As everything went into a brief pause, I broke the stillness by stepping forward and offering him a high five! Now, this settled nothing on my behalf. I get it; if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen, but I keep getting dragged back into kitchen conversations unwillingly. I’m a good sport; so, I just take the ribbing.

Naturally, my wife was exaggerating about the microwave, but she accurately summed up my cooking skills – zilch. I am so thankful to Yahweh that my wife knows how to cook, but she also takes good care of me and assists me in those things where I show no telling abilities, such as in the culinary arts. Truly, I am thankful to Yahweh that she is such a help to me (Gn 2:18) as heirs together of the grace of life (1 Pet 3:7; Prov 18:22; 31:10).

Have you ever thought of the kitchen as a metaphor for the Bible? Not everybody can rise to the level of a chef, physically speaking, and not everyone can be a scholar or spiritual chef in Scripture, yes? Yahweh does not expect all of us to become scholars of the Word, but He does require us to know our way around the kitchen!

Chuck Swindoll asked this question to the reader in his book, Searching the Scriptures (p.43), “Do you know your way around the kitchen enough to make spiritual meals for yourself?”1 This has always been a germane question throughout Christianity and will continue to be so.

Why is that? Because the spiritual condition of man’s heart today can be traced back to the fall of Adam. You know the story. It came about with Adam’s and Eve’s failure to obey the one and only prohibition from Yahweh. Why is Scripture so relevant in any period of history? Because man’s heart (cf. Jer 17:9) is the same today as it was since that sad day in the Garden (Gn 2:16-17), and who knows better than Yahweh about the heart of man (Jer 17:10), yes?

The ripple effect of that Rubicon moment in the Garden of Eden will continue to ripple as long as man possesses a sinful nature – and he died (cf. Gn 5:5). Glorification is the only process that I know of that stops the ripple effect by extracting and eradicating in a twinkling of a moment the sin nature within the heart, and we have to either die or be raptured for that to happen! Are you tracking?

Why is it so vitally important that we know our way around the kitchen and have the ability to feed ourselves? Because we cannot live the Christian life, which is Word-driven, Word compliant unless we understand and obey the Scriptures. How many times have we heard a preacher telling us to turn to a specific book in the Bible, chapter, and verse for today, and then he informs us on how to find the location of that book in the Bible? If the reason for it wasn’t so tragic, it would be humorous.

So, why does a preacher go to condescending lengths to tell us the GPS location of Amos 3:3, for instance? Because there are those parishioners and visitors who are too embarrassed for people to think that they do not know where the book of Amos can be found! Going to the index suggests, or certainly looks as if, they don’t read their Bible enough to even know the lay of the land. Thank God for those big screens in church nowadays, yes? That takes an uncomfortable burden off of the worriers.

Some think it is a shame people do not tote their Bibles in hand. I used to tote mine until things went digital. A digital Bible is very handy, no pun intended. If I am preaching or teaching, I have a preference for the physical Book, but I am not condemning those speakers using electronic gadgets. I pray for God’s people to be in the Word by book or gadget rather than toting a Bible to church and being only a person of the Word but not in the Word. That’s a form of hypocrisy, yes?

Now, knowing where all the books are laid out in our English translations is handy, but there is no spiritual attachment to knowing the schematics. It just means you know where this or that book is located, which is better than most today! Here is what troubles me about the body of Christ on this side of eternity. We are on the slope of willful spiritual ignorance in our culture (I’m not addressing the multiple reasons) that serves as a precursor to heretical thinking and apostasy. Doesn’t matter what spot of the globe you are located.

When believers open their bibles, many do not know their way around the kitchen to make a meal for themselves, and if that is not bad enough, they don’t seem to care because they rationalize there are more pressing things, yes? Time is the biggie. It sends chills down my spine because, again, you cannot live the Christian life if you don’t understand the Scriptures, period. And that, my friend, is indicative of a far greater problem with the first (Mk 12:30) and second command (Mk 12:31).

(Mk 12:30) AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. This is the first commandment.

(Mk 12:31) And the second, like it, is this: YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. There is no other commandment greater than these.

God interprets our love for Him through our obedience to His will; this can be seen in places like Jn 14:15-16, 21-24; 15:10; 1 Jn 2:3-5; 4:19-20; 5:2-3 (cf. Psa 119:11, 16, 34; Prov 3:1). We cannot disobey Him and make the claim we are in love with God. Most believers fail to see the importance and gravity of a proper lifestyle that does not violate the prime directive of Scripture (Mk 12:30-31; cf. Deut 6:5; 10:12; 30:6; Lev 19:18; Rom 13:10). <><