Baking a Cake

Baking a Cake

Sitting with morning coffee in hand, staring at a blank computer screen, I sigh and decide not to post this week. The mass shooting in Florida, followed by the on slot of freedom of speech has put a heavy burden down deep. Before the first mother lay her  unsleeping head on a pillow and while the first daddy still paced the floor wishing it was him, the internet was full of hate, angry, and bickering. I thought back to 9/11 and how I brought food into the store I managed, brought the TV out of the breakroom into the lobby and sat chairs around it. The few customers that ventured out that day, all shared a heaviness of disbelief. No one talked about politics, no one argued amendments, and we all mourned. When did we stop mourning? We must mourn together so we can come together. Bickering, opinions, anger, memes, are not going to bring us together. The issue will not be fixed, until we mourn together, love each other, and hear each other.

I had an old journal sitting on the end table, that I noticed, as I sat my lukewarm mug down, and I flipped it open. A smile formed as I found sermon notes I made as a single momma, when I attended Life Church.  The sermon is dated July the 10^th, it had to of been 14/15 years ago, and it was preached by Pastor Sammy. The sermon is titled, Where to find the Hope you need, and I would like to borrow some of the Pastors points, I hope he doesn’t mind.  The first line reads:

When going through hard times, we ask – is there any hope?

·         9/11

·         Lost child

Without hope you cannot cope.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him so that you may

overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Further through my notes I wrote, all things do not work out good here. (Meaning on this earth) A few sentences down, I wrote, God can put bad things together to make good, and the example is a cake. Stay with me……

Eggs

Flour

Sugar

Oil

Cinnamon (I added this because cake is better with Cinnamon)

Vanilla Extract (Okay, I added this one too, because as a Southern, we add Vanilla Extract to all sweet recipes)

Now this is the part that is interesting. By themselves, each ingredient is hard to swallow, however when mixed together, and placed in the fire, you get cake. A sweet, yummy, mouth-watering cake.

Fellow believers, we cannot allow ourselves to get mixed up in the bickering of this world. We must understand the root of this evil. We, as believers, need to band together and fight against the enemy. Remember what the Word tells us.

Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil.

For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness,

against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

Ephesians 6:10-12

One of the greatest tactics of the enemy is to separate us by arguing. If we are blinded with our own opinion, and too hardheaded to listen to others, we will NEVER come together. We will always….let me repeat that, ALWAYS stand alone, hard to swallow, and never blend into unison.

Stand firm in your beliefs and rise up for what you believe needs to change. However, show love and support of your fellow man. Mourn together. Agree to disagree…. That’s right, it’s okay to agree to disagree and still love your fellow man. Don’t get caught up in the ugliness of this world. Social media is a tool that was meant to bring us together and instead it is tearing us apart. Be the difference. Show love. Be love. Embrace those that are different. Separated we all a little hard to swallow, but blended together in unity and praise, we are a sweet aroma to the Lord. A cake, if you will, of perfect flavor, diversity, and opinion. God created us all, even the ones with different opinions than yours….that’s right…He created, Left, Right, and middle…… The enemy prefers us to be separated, remember that….. he fears the blend.

                                                                         

Father God, we as a nation once again are broken by the killing of sweet children, taken too soon. Mothers are broken, fathers are broken, and people are broken and lost and need Hope to cope with all this world has thrown at us. We argue over how to fix this all while things just get worse. Show us Lord, how to blend together in Love, and be the difference. Amen