A Pot of Soup – and a Pinch of Salt
Too often in church conversations, we quote Bible verses and Spirit of Prophecy quotations, but we share little about the practical application of those passages in everyday Christian life. By contrast last year’s excellent article by Lars Justinen, “Hot Lunch and Syrian Refugees,” is worth reading as a practical application of what this set of lessons is all about.
Not all of us can do something big. There are times when we need the power of church organization to achieve our goals, but we should not just rely on what the church does. At a personal level we are responsible for sharing and caring for our neighbours, friends, and those that come within our circle of influence. Sometimes it may only be a small thing.
As an illustration, here is what happened to us the other day. I cooked a roast
pumpkin and sweet potato soup on Friday for our opening Sabbath meal. (I will post the recipe if enough people ask for it. It is really special, even if I say so myself). I made enough for ourselves and for my daughter and her family. On Friday night we had our soup with crusty bread and really enjoyed it. There was enough left over for us to have a couple more meals from it, and I was looking forward to that. Then on Sabbath morning, Carmel, my wife, went over to the neighbour’s place for something and discovered that the mother was in bed sick and that she was not going to be able to cook her family any food that day. Quick as a wink and without asking me, the big pot of soup was whisked over to our neighbour’s place. It was only a small thing, but it filled a gap in our neighbour’s life. And I get the chance next week to make another pot of special soup.
That is what Christians do. We look after one another, and our neighbours, and our unchurched friends. We do it without expectation of rewards, because it is the right thing to do.
There are so many things that you can do to help. A person in this area had their car blow up on the freeway and they needed to get a new car. One of our church folk lent them a spare car and, knowing that they were a bit short of cash, gave them some money to help towards the purchase of a new one. A teacher, knowing that a family was struggling with medical bills, paid the school fees for the school-aged children in the family for a term, and so on.
We can quote all the texts we like about being Christ-like, following the urging of the Holy Spirit and praying that God will lead us to those in need, but if we don’t move out from the safety of our church, we will not make a difference to the world around us. If there is one thing that we should take away from this set of lessons is that it is our responsibility to share and care with unselfish love.
Our church will be at its most effect witness when we as individuals care for our community.
(24)
I must try the roast pumpkin and sweet potato soup. Appreciate if you can send me the recipe.
Eating together forms relationship. Lars Justinen, “Hot Lunch and Syrian Refugees,” reminds us that God loves us and He will work out the details in teaching us how to help.
In church conversation, it's about giving and receiving "food" for thought. However, you must Walk your Talk. Practical application is about sharing your Christian Walk with Christ. You won't be able to share your Christian life if you have done Nothing practically, except knowing the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.
Do Small thing leads to Big thing. See how God transforms an individual. My neighbour's 8 year old grand son is asking to receive a bible on August 8 for his birthday. He wants to taste and see the Goodness of the Lord. His grand mom is telling him about hungry ghosts festival in Malaysia (http://traveltips.usatoday.com/hungry-ghost-festival-malaysia-108366.html). We're Chinese, so he asks me about ghost. I shared with him from bible about angels. There are angels around to help and we can be angels, a great helper from God. For Chinese, we call 贵人. It's not merely a helper. We're valuable because we're in partnership with God in His divine plan to help (http://chrsfran.blogspot.my/2009/03/valuable-person-benefactor.html).
Amen and may God Bless us in our ministry.
It's true we don't live according to what we preach. Our Christian life is active theoretically but not practical. I don't have to be rich in order to help my poor neighbor. How many times have I went down on my knees to pray for my neighbor who doesn't know the truth? How often do I have a word with my neighbor about God? We are not practical.
About the soup, am an African living in Africa. I've never heard of "roasted pumpkin" and "sweet potato soup". I just can't get the picture, leave alone the soup. All I know is that both are boiled.
I agree that we need to be as practical in our Christian faith.
About the soup, I come from Africa too, Kenya. And I have never heard about pumpkin and sweet potato soup.
Interested to know, I wish I could have a neighbour just bring this home, without having to do a trial, but going on ahead to taste the soup.
Thanks Maurice
It's a pity that I cannot deliver soup to my electronic neighbours Winnie. We will have to work on that one. I hope you find a way to try it out. Maurice
There is no any other way of showing our experience with God than through such small unnoticed deeds to those we meet and live around us,I love being an Adventist and i have always longed to show it as the best way a christian can live.Lets pray for the church to continue touching lives with such relief agencies like ADRA. Thank you.
Maurice, I couldn't agree more with the comments and examples you shared. I have neighbors that are caring similarly as you described, that bring homemade vegetable soup and baked goodies at Christmas time and check on me occasionally and I water their plants and let them know when I leave for a few days. Great neighbors. My prayers are, that God willing I will be able to shed what ever light I can to help them form a relationship with Jesus that He desires. They know when I leave for church on Sabbath morning and I keep hoping the interest will develop .
Beautifully put. Our world is so full of selfishness that me, me, me seems to becoming the norm. We have to stay focus on God's word and be different.
PS: Please share that recipe with us.
We are the hands of Christ in this world. We are the image of Christ to the world. I don't know about you, but I know His love does not always come naturally to me. Time with Him and a heavy dose of the infilling of His Holy Spirit and His love in my heart. That is how He changes me. The world clearly knows the difference. Everyone wanted to be near Him. Doctrine doesn't draw most people to Christ. It is seeing changed lives of real people who are in love with Him. It is His love that draws. It is because of His love that we change. It is His love that makes us want to sit with Him and learn. I believe only with His love in us,can we create a church and ministry that is effective long term in touching others' hearts for Him.
Here is my recipe for those who would like to try it. Sorry if it is not exact - you can be pretty flexible about how you do it.
1) Roast a tray full of pumpkin and sweet potato (Kumara) in a hot oven. I slice the vegetables about 1cm (1/2 inch) thick, spray with a bit of high-smoke point oil(rice bran oil) and sprinkle with a mixture of fresh and dried herbs. My oven takes about 50 minutes to cook them at 200C but you will need to experiment with your oven settings. The important thing is that they are well roasted and have some brown bits on the edges. Your kitchen should smell nice from the roasting!
2) Place all the roasted vegetables in a pot together with a chopped onion and some smashed garlic. I add a cube of vegetable stock at this stage. Depending on the saltiness of your vegetable stock you may need to add some salt, but I deliberately keep the salt level down for health reasons. You may add other spices and flavourings at this stage. My favourite is a bit of Korma Curry.
3) Add sufficient water to cover the vegetables and bring to the boil. Once it is boiling turn the heat down so that it just simmers. Keep an eye on the water level. The secret of good soup making is to let it simmer for quite a while. I usually let it go for an hour.
3) Drain the liquid off into a container. I blend the vegetables with a stick blender, but of you do not have one, use a potato masher, or if you have patience push it through a seive. Add the liquid back until you have the soup consistency that you like. (Once you start blending it is easier to add liquid than remove it.)
4) If you like a creamed soup, add a tin of coconut milk during the mashing or blending process.
5) serve hot, with crusty bread. I use home-made humus on the bread.
There are plenty of variations that you make on this recipe. Use your imagination. And don't forget to share it with your neighbours.
Thank you Maurice for sharing the soup recipe!
Sounds yummy! I'm always looking for a great recipe to add to my favorites
May God bless you as you love Him more and more.
Kind regards,
Mary Ellen
Thank you. Hope you enjoy it.