We
have a Vitamix blender. It is no wussy, weak, machine. This is a manly machine. It is probably our most-used kitchen
appliance. The one shown in the picture below is 12+ years old. It is used many times a day.
I like to make smoothies. Here's a recipe I want to try:
I
also enjoy making the kids smoothies and use various fruit depending on
what is available. Here are some ideas to try: pineapple,
mango, banana, and orange.
I could change things around and put these fruit in a smoothie: mango, pineapple, orange, and banana.
Or this combination, too, works well: orange, banana, pineapple, and mango.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Galations 5:22-23
Or I might put these fruit in a smoothie: banana, orange, mango, and pineapple.
How
will Smoothie 1 vary in taste from Smoothie 2? How about the taste of
Smoothie 3 and Smoothie 4? What will they taste like? Will they differ?
The
pastor's family had recently purchased a Vitamix and I know from
talking with his wife, they really enjoyed it. We had been using our Vitamix
for years, so they were speaking our language. I remember sharing my
favorite ways of using our Vitamix with her.
At
church, I became aware that many people were tiring of the very
repetitious repetitious repetitious sermons, week after week, week after week, month after month and month. I encouraged
them to tell the pastor, that it wouldn't do any good to tell me about
it (although I personally did have the same issue and was going so crazy that I wanted to scream).
After
hearing that others had brought this subject to their attention time
and again and again, I used this Vitamix illustration in a meeting with the pastor
and elders. It seemed apparent that either the pastor did not get the
message, ignored the message, chose to disregard the message, did not like the message, or did not want to hear the message from others, so I attempted
to speak in a fruity language in hopes that he would finally *get it*.
I
told him that if someone was to take Fruit D, Fruit C, Fruit B, and
Fruit
A, mix it up in the Vitamix and pour it out, it will taste the same if you switched around the order and used Fruit C, Fruit, B, Fruit A , and Fruit D. I explained that people were going crazy with the repetitious sermons that go on and on and on and on with little new material and so on. We were going bored out of our brains. We needed more fruit, not the disgusting fruit mixed up again and again. It was rotten, stinking rotten.
A, mix it up in the Vitamix and pour it out, it will taste the same if you switched around the order and used Fruit C, Fruit, B, Fruit A , and Fruit D. I explained that people were going crazy with the repetitious sermons that go on and on and on and on with little new material and so on. We were going bored out of our brains. We needed more fruit, not the disgusting fruit mixed up again and again. It was rotten, stinking rotten.
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
2 Peter 2:18
. . . . to be continued
This sounds so.......familiar.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I am a little slow. Did you post the same blog twice to make a point? LOL.
ReplyDeleteDavid, you must not have read carefully. They are not the same post. That would be too easy.
DeleteVery clever Julie Anne. Very clever indeed. Point well illustrated. And I know what you mean - because we had much the same experience in our church. I will add that even though one may have a pastor who preaches expositorially, verse by verse - they can still turn that message into the same old same old.
ReplyDeleteAgree! Very clever. I laughed out loud after I realized what you were doing, Julie Anne. I await your next post, yet somehow I think I know where you're headed...
DeleteThe truth of the good news...that we are helpless, hopeless sinners in need of a Rescuer and Redeemer to approach a Holy God is never boring; it should inform every thought we have and everything that we do. It is our very lifeblood, and the raison d'être of the church.
ReplyDeleteYou can put a cross on the roof, a preacher with a coat and tie in the podium, and sing all the hymns you want but if that central message is not the main focus...you can't call it a New Testament church.
And you can't stay in such a place and expect fruit.
...banging head against brick wall...
ReplyDeleteI don't understand where you are going with these posts???? The message of the Bible shoule never bore you no matter how many times you hear it. So do you only go to Chirstmas or Easter service one time in your life? I mean you can only tell those accounts so many ways before you've heard it before. Maybe you can clarify what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteConfused, I politely disagree. While scripture should never bore us no matter how many times we hear it, a particular message from a person--especially one delivered again and again and again--can be draining.
DeleteI think Julie Anne was clear in that the church was pleading for more nourishment. For whatever reason, the pastor was unwilling or unable to venture beyond his comfort zone. The "fruit" of his message had become rotten over time. Rather than being tired of scripture, it seems it was the opposite--that they were starving for more.
and this is exactly why my family left....we told the pastor we were listening to sermons on line and being fed Christ. We were told not to listen to sermons on line, yet this pastor was on line with his own sermons. Not only bad fruit, but hypocrisy as well.
ReplyDelete