The Eternal Cookie

I love to bake. My favorite dessert to bake is chocolate chip cookies.There are many reasons why this is so appealing to me: the exact science of the process, the focus required - which allows my mind to “relax” from all other thoughts - the magnificent aroma, the motivation of love for whomever I am baking for, and the final result - the beautiful, golden brown, delicious chocolate chip cookies.  It took me years to “perfect” the recipe. Now that I have it down, I use the same brand and type of chocolate chips, the same butter, and I follow the same recipe every time, without deviation, to yield the same wonderful results. The few times they did not come out perfect, there was a simple reason - I strayed from the recipe.So it goes with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. See, there is a “recipe” for salvation as described by Jesus Christ, Himself.I teach for the prep school ministry in our church. We teachers describe this process of salvation to the children as simply “admitting and accepting”. Channeling my pastor here, I add, please do not make the points below into some doctrine in your soul - salvation, after all, is a supernatural “process”. This is just an example of how the Gospel is explained to the prep school children. With that said…You must admit that you are a sinner and that you need a savior, aka REPENT!

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”You must accept that Jesus Christ, the God-man, is the Savior, and that He died, being judged for the sins of all mankind, and is alive in Heaven.Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”You must accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”So, is that it, then - we have the ingredients in a bowl and the knowledge in our soul, so we have cookies and salvation? Not by a long shot. See, we don’t complete the work. In order to transform raw ingredients in a bowl into the perfection that is the chocolate chip cookie, we need the heat or “power”, if you will, of the oven, just as we need God’s power in salvation.In order to transform a wretched person into a perfectly righteous one, we need the power of God working in us. His power alone is able to combine the “raw ingredients” of the Gospel with a humble heart seeking Jesus Christ, in order to impart saving faith. This seems impossible to us! They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”One last thought. When baking, if you neglect to add an ingredient or neglect a step, or add an extra ingredient or extra step, the results are disastrous. You will either produce a hideous looking cookie or a disgusting tasting cookie.Follow the recipe or fail to bake perfect cookies. That’s the key.This is also true with the Gospel. If you either add or subtract from it, the result is a false gospel, a “bad cookie”! Failure in understanding the “recipe” reaps eternal consequences, for you as well as others. Those who bake would never dream of serving imperfect cookies to others. Shouldn’t we, as stewards of the Gospel, be all the more adamant about not serving an imperfect/incomplete gospel?“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”It’s simple, really. We are 100% imperfect; God is 100% perfect. We need a Savior; He gave us His Son. He is God; we are not. God saves. We must admit, accept, and trust in His power to transform us, and then we may partake of the “eternal cookie”.“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”In His Perfect Love,Monica Ledford