The Recipe

1 Corinthians 9:19-22– Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: Religious, non-religious, meticulous moralists, loose living moralists, the defeated, the demoralized, whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ-but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. (MSG)

I begged my Granny for her homemade bread recipe. When she agreed, I grabbed a pencil and paper and waited with baited breath.

“Start with about 9 cups of flour,” she began. “Add about this much sugar.” She picked up her apple-shaped sugar bowl with the green stem lid and pointed to its half-way mark.

I stopped writing. I cried out, “Granny, I can’t make this bread unless you send me home with your sugar bowl!”

Instead of giving up on me or acting superior because she knew the recipe and I didn’t, we started again. This time we used measurements common to both of us and I understood.

How can we reach people today, using words and actions that folks can understand?

Prayer: Lord, please teach us how to speak Jesus into the lives of our unsaved friends without using ‘churchy’ words that are meaningless to them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.