“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
– 2 Timothy 2:15
If there’s one thing always present at a meal here in the
south, its sweet tea - the “wine” of the south.
You can order it in any restaurant, and it’s always in a pitcher in the
fridge (or “ice box” if you’ve over 60).
While I’ve never seen a recipe for it, we all seem to make it the same
way.
But if you leave the south and ask for sweet tea, just cross
your fingers and pray because there’s just no telling what you’re going to get! It could be anything from a cup of hot tea
and a bottle of honey to a watered down weak looking glass of what my
grandfather called “dish water tea”.
There’s nothing quite as disappointing to a southerner as
dish water tea. It’s so weak that that
you can see through it. And if you add
more sugar (which you’ll almost always have to do) or lemon, it tastes like
what you add – not what it is meant to be.
You might as well just order a Pop if they’re serving dishwater tea.
If I had one vision, one wish for the body of Christ, it
would be that we would not be like dishwater tea - so weak that we have no flavor, and always
becoming the thing added to our lives, never strong enough to stand alone. Yet, without God’s word written on our
hearts, we are weak! We will fall into
all the traps placed before us, and we will fail ever test given to us.
Timothy says “Study to show thyself approved unto God”. Knowing God’s word does come with tests, but
not in the written multiple choice kind we would like. It comes through life experiences and trials,
and how we react to them. It comes through
being tested with lies, to determine if we can “rightly divide the word of
truth”.
Now that I’ve had sweet tea, I know what it’s supposed to
taste like, look like, and yes, even what it should sound like when poured into
my glass. We as the Body of Christ
should know His Word in the same way. We
should know when His Word is watered down or when it is twisted and mingled
with some other crazy concoction (mango tea is not sweet tea!).
I learned sweet tea a little each day over the course of my
life. “Faithie Jo, make the tea, and
Bubba, get the glasses and ice” was said at my dinner table every night. And
every night, I made the tea. Through the
repetition of doing it, I learned how. There
was constant correction of “Gracious! This is too sweet”, “This is weak as
dishwater!” or “Did you put any sugar in it at all?” We learn God’s word the
same way, a little at a time through a repetitive process of study and
refinement.
Friends, do not neglect the sweet word of God. There will be a test!
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