renewal

Which Ingredient Are You?

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We still subscribe to cable at our house, and for all the nerdiest reasons.  I can live without a lot that cable has to offer, but…NOT the History Channel, ESPN in all forms, National Geographic, Animal Planet…and our personal favorite, the FOOD Channel!  We love just about every reality show they come up with, and one of the best is Chopped.

For those of you not in the know, each round of Chopped features a basket with 4 mystery ingredients that each chef has to use in their dish in some form.  They don’t have to use a lot of it, but it has to be represented.  No matter how much of any ingredient they use, they don’t dare leave it as is – they have to “transform” or “repurpose” it.  If they are given a can of green beans, woe to those who just serve them with butter and salt…they had better be pureed, spiced, pickled…something that will make them stand out and not look anything like what they started out as.  If the chef doesn’t, the judges will be sure to point it out and their score will be lowered.

After spending today in church, worshipping and praising the Lord, and being challenged in my walk with Jesus, it occurred to me that Christianity works in a similar fashion.  God is so much more than a master chef on a TV show…but He does transform “ingredients” (us)!  He doesn’t come in and repair the old (add butter and salt) but He totally remakes us so that we no longer resemble the person we used to be- just like those pureed green beans.  We are transformed by His grace and mercy, and His plan (recipe) for winning the world to Himself includes using freshly created new people to do it!

So as we approach a new week, where we go back out into a bland, old and tired world, maybe we need to check our freshness and see what we are contributing to the recipe.  After all – the world is a very harsh judge, and they don’t miss an “unrenewed” ingredient either!  To God be the glory as He uses each one of us!

A Daily Scrub

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I love bath and body products – love, love love them!  And I am always finding one that works, and then going to the store a month or so later, and then finding out that of course it was being discontinued and would never be mine again.  If you are a woman, you KNOW what I mean!

I ran out of my face cleanser last week, that I loved, and of course today when I went to buy it again…..not there.  Not anywhere.  So I looked and pondered and considered this afternoon, mulling over all the possiblities, and chose a scrub this time by the same company.

I evidently did not read the entire label, because when I used it tonight, the first sensation was scrub….and the second was my face being on fire!!  As soon as I could get my face rinsed and my eyes focused, I looked at the label and saw these two words:  energizing (no joke!) and “pore-reducing” (loss of skin cells!)  Oh yeah, I was definitely impressed that I got my money’s worth.  And then I saw another word – peppermint – on the label – there’s the fire!  I don’t know if you have intentionally poured peppermint on any part of your skin lately, but it will ENERGIZE you – to get it off as soon as possibile!

However, now that the fire is out, I can feel a difference in my skin.  It does feel smoother, and it does feel much cleaner.  And I dare any dead skin cells to still be there.

Which leads me to this thought – that’s just the way I feel after reading God’s Word.  The Word of God is designed to “scrub” my heart, soul, mind and emotions.  It is designed to close those “pores” – the inroads that sin may have begun to make.  And it definitely energizes me!  It makes me cleaner – and more usable.  It makes my path smoother, because I have been directed by God for that day’s journey and I am less likely to get “dirty” with sin. And it removes all those dead “skin cells” – those unpleasing thoughts, attitudes, and words that may be lurking in my soul.

So – while I will never recommend peppermint for the skin, I will always recommend the Word to anyone whose life or journey needs energizing – its the best thing around!  To Him be the glory!