The Revelation of Jesus with Rick Sterling

I just put my famous banana nut bread into the oven to bake. And yes, it is famous, at least to some people. When I admitted to my lovely and gracious wife what I had just done her eyes lit up and she smiled and made yummy noises (as opposed to my admitting other things, such as forgetting to get something for her at the store, and getting a decidedly different response). And no, I am not going to use this as a metaphor for repentance; that would be too obvious. I am going to use the idea of the recipe.

My family and friends (who will be enjoying my banana bread with me a little later) consider me to be a good baker and chef. As such, I have a recipe file in which I keep several hundreds of personally tested recipes that I use as the basis for my food preparations. I KNOW these recipies work, and work perfectly every time I need them; just like my banana bread recipe. Every once in a while I change the recipe just a little to supply a little bit of difference to see if that difference could become the norm. Sometimes if works, and sometimes it is a disaster. But I NEVER go away from what I KNOW works, that will make the result a joyful experience for my family and friends.

God has a recipe for salvation (and there is the spiritual metaphor), and that recipe works PERFECTLY everytime in bringing people that love the truth TO the TRUTH. Other chefs have tried to change that recipe by changing the words that Jesus spoke to fit their idea of what the recipe should be; and this ALWAYS ends in disaster for the person that changes the recipe and for those that eat it.

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 2John 9.