Why Do Christians Go To Church?

Last night I dreampt that I had a reputation of being a fifty-year-old “church lady”. Oh wait, that wasn’t a dream… It’s true!

Well, in the dream, I was telling some of my online friends about my past, how I used to be a rebel. I used to believe in all kinds of debauchery: Premarital sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, drinking, etc. And that’s another true part of the dream. I was a wild child of the 70’s!

In my dream, people were surprised to hear that I’d ever been anything but a sweet lady with rather wholesome, conservative leanings.

When I woke up this morning, I felt the urgency of admitting my “guilt”. Yes, I was “guilty” of promoting values that I’ve since reevaluated. And it took awhile to reevaluate. Even after escaping some radical teen-age years, I maintained a different kind of rebellion as I became a mother in the 80’s. Still avoiding God and His “Do it My way” approach, I figured I would do well enough (or maybe even better) if I just did things my way. I sought answers to my problems in the New Age Movement, in Eastern Philosophies, in Nutritional Approaches (to name a few).

When all my efforts at bettering myself proved futile, I finally turned to God. That was some 13 years ago. With a husband, an 8 year-old, and a 12-year-old in tow, we began our life of church-going. And what keeps us going? Well, from my perspective, I’ve seen how my way didn’t work. And as I look at my sons, who never rebelled quite like I did, I see God’s hand of blessing upon them. They’ve grown into the young men God had designed them to be, and have enjoyed the process.

We go to church because we meet “family” at church. We stay connected; we’re a community. We grow as we learn more about Christ, about loving our neighbors, about loving God. If you don’t currently go to church, do consider it. It’s not a members-only club; our doors are open!

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Check out recipes at Jen’s PC Cuisine Home Page.

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Bear With It

“Let both (the wheat and the weeds) grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds and burn them and to put the wheat in the barn.” MATTHEW 13:30 (NLT)

I used the above verse in one of the devotions in my cookbook. In the verse, Jesus tells of a wise farmer who told his helpers to leave the weeds alone that the enemy had planted in with his wheat. If the weeds were taken out during growing season, they’d disturb the wheat, so the farmer wanted the field left as it was until harvest time, when the harvesters could sort the weeds out and burn them. The advice applied to my gardening situation, but it also applies to the “weeds” in life. There are beliefs and behaviors in society that seem like weeds, but I believe I hear God saying, “Don’t you worry about that. I’ll take care of it at harvest time.” I just need to keep growing where I’m at, according to God’s plan. In the end, He will judge the good and the bad, saving what is holy and burning the rest. It’s not my job to try to uproot every weed that comes my way. Thank God for that!

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Check out recipes at Jen’s PC Cuisine Home Page.

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Discipline…

The Olympics are over, but it was fun while it lasted. We got to watch the accomplishments of devoted athletes who disciplined themselves far beyond the norm. My daughter-in-law was inspired to begin a new biking routine; hours spent at the spectator sport of couch potato had her raring to go.

Training for better things is a worthy goal, but it is indeed not without cost. As many of us were inspired by the Olympics, to get a bit more exercise in, I thought of the following excerpt from my cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey.

“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening–it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” HEBREWS 12:11 (NLT)

My family has had an unspoken faith in my providing a good evening meal, and we’ve maintained that tradition over the years. But society’s trend has seemed to become: “Away with traditional dinner! Satisfy now!” Fast-food meals and junk-food snacks keep us from suffering the hunger pains of discipline in waiting for the whole family to join in a meal together. That meal time can vary, depending on schedules. But we’ve hung on to tradition, and it does bless us. Meals have often seemed exceptionally satisfying, even when it’s been something simple. I can only encourage the next generation of young families to hang on to the discipline of waiting to enjoy meals together. The yield is great, the memories joyful, with stomachs fully satisfied in the end.

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books.

Check out some of Jen’s recipes at  pccuisine.com.

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Dry Farming and More

There’s a garden trend for tomatoes, and it works. It’s officially called “dry farmed”, and as the name suggests, water is withheld somewhat as the tomato ripens on the vine. The result: Intensely flavored tomatoes. The plant responds to the stress of having less water but putting all of its energy into fruit production.

I inadvertently dry-farmed last summer (just didn’t have the time to water more), and the garden yielded the best-tasting tomatoes ever. Moral of the story: Under stress, the best can be produced. Along those lines, I wrote a devotional for my Milk and Honey cookbook; the following is an excerpt from my book, From the Land of Milk and Honey :

“. . . Suffering creates endurance, endurance creates character, and character creates confidence. We’re not ashamed to have this confidence, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . .” ROMANS 5:3-5

As a typical child, our young son was squeamish about eating garden strawberries slightly blemished by insects. I personally had no squeamishness, having discovered such strawberries to have an intense and wonderful sweetness beyond that of the average strawberry. In life, also, it’s not necessarily the person with the great-looking exterior that has the sweetest disposition. It’s often the person who has survived trials with a good attitude that is the most wonderful to be around. We can get stressed out trying to avoid trials, and end up being no fun at all. Or we can let the trials come as they may, knowing they can ultimately produce in us the sweetness that is truly a joy to share with others.

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Check out recipes at Jen’s PC Cuisine Home Page.

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Good Formica Gone Bad

Trends just amaze me. After 50 years, I’ve seen plenty of them come and go. Tradition starts to take a lesser seat to “The Next Big Thing”, whatever that might be. For the walls on our houses, the textured look was in for a while. Every wall on every house, for years, had the textured look. People with smooth walls had the plaster stuff sprayed on so they could have texture.

Then the smooth look arrived! People took off the texture, and painted the smooth walls, and a “new look” was born. Or… reborn.

Back in the eighties, we choose a fake granite-type formica for the vanity sink in our bedroom. Oh, let’s call it faux granite; doesn’t that sound classy? But it seemed to go out of style. At one point, I tried to re-style the room, only to find that the new style didn’t go with that old granite at all. But I learned something. The following is an excerpt from my cookbook/devotional, From the Land of Milk and Honey :

“We love because God loved us first.” 1 JOHN 4:19

God loves us despite our faults, and He sees our potential. But we can’t always see past how someone or something appears at the moment. I was sorely surprised when my son told me he’d never liked the “granite” formica we had. Originally, I‘d seen the same formica in a magazine, mixed with all the right styles and colors, looking very cool. But I hadn’t given the formica the proper treatment. I had thrown it into a decorating scheme, expecting it to work. But no one else would know how cool it was until I worked with it. God’s like that with us. We think someone’s unlikable, never seeing that person’s potential, never thinking of “redecorating” and putting that person in a different perspective. But God has loved us from the beginning, no matter what “treatment” we’ve had, where we’ve been, or how we look to others. In the end, I repainted the walls, did a “retro ‘80s” thing, and finally got to hear my son say, “You were right, Mom. I do like the Formica.” Yeah!

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Check out recipes at Jen’s PC Cuisine Home Page.

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Interior Decorating

I wrote a devotional about how excellent God’s plans are; the following is an excerpt from my cookbook/devotional, From the Land of Milk and Honey.

“ ‘I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.’” JEREMIAH 29:11

But I thought my own plans were perfect! My plan: To redo our couch, stained from years of wear. A cousin had successfully spray-painted her couch, so that was the plan. Also, I would recover the giant throw pillows with some kind of leafy green and peach material. I imagined a new room with a soft Oriental feel. I said my prayers, then went off to the fabric store. My options were incredibly limited, but I began to realize something: If I completely gave up my plan, perhaps God had something even better. There it was: Some wonderful rust-colored upholstery remnants and a black-and-white remnant, in the exact sizes I needed, at a price I could afford. It didn’t turn out “Oriental,”
but I ended up with the coolest room, better than I’d imagined. A zebra-striped lamp was on sale, and some black-and-white prints completed the look. I redid the room very economically, and it coordinated in a spontaneous way with the rest of the house. And it’s withstood the test of time– I’m still happy with it years later. It’s amazing how God’s plans always end up better than mine.

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Check out recipes at Jen’s PC Cuisine Home Page.

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When Anger Strikes

Every now and then a situation comes up that seems so unrighteous. I see what seems to be the obvious “better way”, but someone seems to subvert the truth or pervert the solution. At least, in my mind it seems that way. But I do have a limited perspective…

Faced with what seems to be a bad situation, a desire to control it as best I can rises up within me. This morning I had an epiphany of sorts, when I realized I didn’t need to try to control anything. Despite my efforts, it is God who ultimately controls all situations. He will hear me cry out; He will bring justice! It’s not up to me to control the situation in order to bring about that justice.

But I found it helpful to remind myself of an old sermon I heard about anger. Our pastor said, to repress or suppress the anger is not healthy, as it can lead to depression. But to express that anger with cutting sarcasm or painful words only reinforces the anger. Ideally, I should confess my anger, to myself, to God, and to that other person if necessary.

So it’s OK to confess my anger; just avoid the pity party! I read an article about a study done about repression. For those surviving the aftermath of 9-11, the happiest were those who didn’t choose to discuss it, but just moved on with their lives. The ones who felt the need to go over it recovered more slowly.

Do I really want a confrontation? Or do I want peace?  In Matthew 5:9, Jesus tells us,”Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God,” But  perhaps it takes selflessness to be a peacemaker. When I’m angry, or pained by the actions of others, my focus is usually on myself. If I really want to make peace with others, I ought to think more about them, and less about me. Romans 15:5 says, “May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other–each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other.” If I’m not in complete harmony with others, it’s probably because I’m not taking my cues from God.

So perhaps there’s a certain beauty in just moving on, letting go, letting God, as they say. After all, everything’s in His control, ultimately.

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Sign up for Jen’s newsletter at the PC Cuisine Home Page.

Jen also blogs about health and nutrition at Recipe for Health.

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What’s Your “Secret”?

My friend was asking what I thought about The Secret. The book was discussed on Oprah again. Ah, The Secret… When that book first came out, I commented that I wasn’t impressed with the testimonial of a local woman, recounted in our newspaper. She went on and on about the story of her messed-up back, and of how she applied the “Secret” principles, and, even though she couldn’t afford it, this insanely cheap deal came to her for her dream mattress that she’d been visualizing getting.

My problem with that: Hey, why didn’t she just visualize her back getting all better? I suppose it’s a question of our faith. If we deep down believe it can actualize, then sure, we think it, and poof, there it is. But if we discount our capabilities of manifesting/visualizing, we think small, and we manifest just a little “poof”…

I personally get a little spooked by this kind of thing, since I was so close to being “Wiccan” (though I never thought to call it that), and I do believe that man in his own strength is quite capable of manifesting some weird stuff. (Sure, some good stuff too, but watch out for what man’s come up with on his own!) So, the Secret is bound to work. But I like crediting God for this stuff. He’s the real man-behind-the-scenes. And he’s already told us in Philippians 4:8 that we ought to think about “whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report…” So some author takes some truths that are already laid out in the Bible, puts a slightly new spin on it, and has a best-seller. I wouldn’t resent that at all, except that no credit was really given to God.

I think when the “Secret” principles are filtered through using God’s word, we are able to glorify God through it and fulfill a greater mission in life than if we’re just able to say, “Hey, this magic trick really works!” When the greater purpose in life is seen to be the salvation of souls who would otherwise only know that darkness and gnashing of teeth commonly referred to as Hell, then we look at it differently. We can say, “Hey, I got an insanely cheap mattress just by applying the ‘Secret’ principles!” Or we can say, “God has a plan for your life! He wants to bless you and prosper you!” If I’m too caught up in how The Secret is supplying me with every good thing I’d hoped for, I suspect my greed and selfishness might begin to get in the way of caring about those lost souls out there who still don’t know the good news.

But I’m all for positive thinking. I don’t mean to rant on… I’m not being very positive then, am I?! It’s so true: We need to focus on our blessings, on God’s provision, and how He’s got a divine plan for each of us. The beatitudes lay it all out in Matthew 5:1-12. Here’s something that’s No Secret, to those who know Him:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” If we’re hoping to “gain the world”, perhaps we should realize that, in being humble (poor in spirit), we already HAVE the kingdom of heaven…

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” What do I need any other “Secret” for, when I’m already inheriting the earth?!

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” I don’t have to hunger in search of some worldly satisfaction when God’s already filling me to the brim.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” If my heart is pure, I’m already seeing God. So why would I need to see the manifestations of things I think I want? When I’m connected to God, he’s totally providing for me.

I remember going to “The Church of Divine Man” in Berkeley, back in 1982, when I was quite the New-Ager. They told us how we needed to meditate, sitting for some time imaging “a rose” that represented all the good things we wanted to come to us. Then we were to visualize all those good things, put them into the rose, and draw the rose unto us. Then we just had to wait and let it happen. Ha! I spent a heck of a long time imagining how I was going to pull a band together and become a rock star. It didn’t happen. Gee… what went wrong?! I think it was a case of me wanting something that just wasn’t God’s will for me, and God, in his ultimate wisdom, saw to it that it didn’t come to pass. Yeah, God!

It’s no Secret: Jesus rocks.

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Sign up for Jen’s newsletter at the PC Cuisine Home Page.

Jen also blogs about health and nutrition at Recipe for Health.

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Witnessing to Acquaintances

An acquaintance of mine, a new Christian, was asking what scripture she might use to win over an unsaved co-worker who was caught up in a promiscuous lifestyle. Ah, I remember my days as a new Christian, full of intensity in seeking to know God’s will, full of fervor for telling people about my salvation, hoping some might “see the light” through my sharing.

As I thought about my friend, I could imagine her concern over the unsaved co-worker. I could imagine her saying, “Because I love you, I want to see you get saved!” I know that was my inner mantra on many an occasion. But as I thought about that mind-set, contrasted with Jesus’ mind-set, I realized: It’s not the wanting to see anyone get saved, that actually saves them. That’s like me saying, “Because I care about my health, I want to eat healthy.” It’s not the wanting to eat healthy that accomplishes the task of improving my health. It’s through the actual eating of healthy foods that I reach my goal!

Our old pastor had a great saying: “Don’t feel your way into an action, but ACT your way into a feeling.” No matter how long I sit around trying to “feel the love”, trying to get into the right mind-set to minister to some difficult acquaintance who needs to know the love of God, I usually can’t quite muster the energy to impact their life through an act of love. But if I should just forge ahead with an action, even while somewhat lacking a full sense of love and compassion, the very act itself seems to bring me into a feeling of love. Mission accomplished!

I need to simply “love” people, including the unlovely. Perhaps I don’t need to focus on how much I want to see them get saved. Prayer is always good; I can always pray for God to touch their hearts. And if I happen to mention a piece of scripture that might apply to the situation, great. But my biggest job is probably just loving them. God will do the saving!

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Sign up for Jen’s newsletter at the PC Cuisine Home Page.

Jen also blogs about health and nutrition at Recipe for Health.

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Witnessing to a Friend

I previously posted about a letter I emailed to my friend. I had hoped to witness to her. Oops, I forgot one of the cardinal rules of evangelism: Let a person ASK of you. It opens them up to you. It engages them.

Here’s my paraphrase of Mark 17-22: Jesus didn’t go up to the rich guy and say, “Hey, you care too much about your material stuff. You need to give that up and follow Me to have eternal life.” No, He did not say that, but rather, the rich man came up to Jesus and asked Him, “What might I do to inherit eternal life?” Even then, Jesus didn’t law down the law immediately, but further engaged the man by saying, “Well, you know of God’s commandments, right?” The guy said, “Oh yeah, I’ve done all that.” Then Jesus said, “Well then, all you need is to give up all your material stuff and follow me.” To which the man just turned away, sad, because… he didn’t want to have to do that…

Yeah, so here’s a big hint for me remember: Wait for a question! When I started writing my friend about all that I had found to be true, she wasn’t ready to hear it. I really pretty much wasted my time. In the future, I hope to wait until asked, to reveal that much. My friend might even have been trying to egg me on, hoping for an emotional response, so she could sit back and watch the show, already knowing full well that she wouldn’t buy into any of it.

My Christian friend offered much insight. We aren’t asked by God to save anyone ourselves! He does the saving. We only need to love. I will continue to try to love this unsaved friend, although I will also try to be wise in guarding my heart against any of her ploys to distract me from that mission.

I just found a great saying by G.K. Chesterton, as quoted in the Montreal Gazette: “If you do not understand a man, you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.” I see that applying to my relationships. I will strive to get along with all people, as unlovable as any of them may appear. It seems that the most difficult ones, upon deeper searching, are shown to be the ones struggling the most. The ones that need the most love often seem to try the hardest to discourage us from loving them. My first impression of them might be, “Oh boy, do I want to crush them!” But if I try to understand them, I end up changing my mind.

I have my own conspiracy theory about the devil. It seems to me that without the Holy Spirit, much of mankind wafts around with a certain vacancy, open to any drifting spirit, such as the devil and his minions might possess. These “vacant humans”, as you might call them, seem capable of spouting the funniest little comments, seemingly harmless comments, and yet, they’ve been prompted by the devil. The devil knows, on a spirit-level, just what little thing might push our button.

When my button gets pushed, a new alarm goes off. The alarm says, “This person does not even know what they’re doing.” Unbeknownst to them, the devil has probably put them up to this. My job is to get past that, and love the person. We know the devil wants to keep us from loving the unlovable, lest they be saved, right? And I certainly don’t want him to win out.

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Jennifer Cote’s cookbook, From the Land of Milk and Honey, is available online at Winepress Books. (Or at Amazon.com)

Sign up for Jen’s newsletter at the PC Cuisine Home Page.

Jen also blogs about health and nutrition at Recipe for Health.

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