Teaching 5th & 6th Grade Sunday School allows me to learn new and exciting things in my life. Take this past Sunday for instance. My class was making cookies for the rest of the Sunday School as a project to encourage people to support our International Missions offering. When I think it is time for the cookies to be done, I take a pan out of the oven and use a spatula to test if it "looks" done. Not very scientific, but you go with what works for you. Two of my students, Kailah and Margarita asked me what I was doing, so I told them I was checking to see if the cookies were ready. They lovingly informed me that the way I was doing it was incorrect. The way to check whether cookies were baked, they assured me, was to take a toothpick and stick it into the middle of the cookie. If the toothpick came out clean and dry, the cookies were ready. So we found some toothpicks and ran their test. Sure enough, the cookies were ready and quite delicious! We passed the cookies out to the Sunday School classes, but the thought of how we check the inside of the cookie would not leave me.
I began to realize that this is a wonderful parable for our life in Christ. So often, we try to look like we have it all under control and we are strong in our faith. We say the right words and always have a smile on our face at church. We try to fool people by putting on a good front. But inside, we have anxiety, stress, sin, loneliness and a host of other issues. We keep that part closed off from everyone, sometime even from God.
But the Bible will go straight to the inside of our lives. It's like a toothpick in the middle of a baking cookie: The Bible reveals whether we are "done" or not. Jesus knew that mankind is prone to put on a happy face when the inside really needs a little more cooking by God. In the sermon on the mount, he makes us go beyond our actions and look to our attitudes. Just because we have never committed adultery doesn't mean we aren't having trouble withe the heart. So Jesus reminds us that if we look on someone in lust, we have sin equal to adultery. Ouch! We look around us and take solace in the fact that we can't be as messed up as so many others because we have never murdered anyone. So Jesus reminds us that if we have been angry at anyone (Even if that anger, in our eyes, is "justified"), we have sin equal to murder. In the 5th and 6th chapter of Matthew, Jesus just slowly and methodically breaks down our self-righteousness as we hide the evil in our hearts by trying to act good.
It boils down to this: God cares more for the inside of the cookie than the outside. He wants to make sure we are being transformed daily. He doesn't just want us to be people who mindlessly do and say the right things while having an attitude of anger, resentment or lust. He wants to transform the heart. That is why being in the Bible each day is imperative for us. The Bible is like that two-edged sword: It cuts deep, but it also brings healing.
So did you spend time in the Word today? Did you carve out time at the beginning of the day to be still and listen to God? What transformation is God bringing about in your life today? Open up the inside of your cookie to the toothpick of God which will transform your life.
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