Monday, November 25, 2013

November 25 – “Commitment takes risk”

Yesterday’s Kids’ Sermon was a taste test.  I had portions of five different foods scooped into small containers and numbered.  The five children present each picked a number and then had to agree to taste whatever was in their numbered dish.  They all assured me they were “good tasters,” and their Moms assured me they weren’t allergic to anything, so we continued on.  The chocolate pudding was a definite winner.  Kiara had that one and returned her container with a distinctive ring around her mouth.  The vanilla pudding guy, Adrien, I think, made short work of his as well.  But neither of them put it away quite like William.  He had a portion of apple pie filling that disappeared in a heartbeat.  The pumpkin pie filling went fairly quickly as well, but Matt thought it might be carrots.  The only one who didn’t finish his “snack” was the one with the sweet potatoes.  Andrew said he did like sweet potatoes, but I guess the fact that the consistency was something like, well, baby food had something to do with his restraint.  Fortunately, some folks brought in donuts while we were talking so I encouraged his Dad to let him have one of those big chocolate-filled ones as a reward.

They were all great sports, though, and the point of the lesson was Jesus’ explanation to his detractors that the reason they didn’t understand his teachings was because they refused to “taste it.”  But he didn’t just mean give it a try and if it works you’ll know it’s true.  It was a lot more than that.  He said they had to buy into the doctrine enough that they risked placing their whole trust in God.  Commitment does take risk. 

I was pretty beat by the time I got home from church, so I dozed through much of the Texans football game.  This has not been a good weekend for Texas teams all the way around.  Aggies.  Baylor.  Texans.  At least the Cowboys managed to pull one out. 

John 7:17 says, “If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”

Father, thank you for making a relationship with you worth “tasting.”  Amen.

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