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I always wanted a little café.’ The only problem is that I can’t cook very well at all. I can code my own website, but hand me a recipe with more than two ingredients and my mind goes blank. So in order to fulfill my culinary desires, I produced my website, “CafeLogos.org.” I can feed my visitors in another way, nourishing them with Bible insights; recipes inspired by God’s Word.
I think my inability to cook food stems from my nationality: I am of English descent. And for the most part, with the exception of a few throwbacks in the gene pool, English people are better gardeners than cooks. Ask yourself, how many famous English cookbooks are there? Take your time.
A pastor I know and his wife were visiting England. They asked the clerk at the front desk where they could go to get an authentic English meal. The clerk replied, “Why do you want our food for? It’s just roast beef. There’s a Thai restaurant down the street, the Italian restaurant is over there.”
Whenever I meet a person from England I always ask, “Can you cook?” I always get the same answer. “No.” There is great comfort in knowing I am not alone.
On one occasion I did ask an English woman who was sitting with her American friend my survey question, “Can you cook?” To my surprise, this one answered enthusiastically, “Oh, yes!” Then I noticed her American friend shaking her head, “No.” I guess the American concept of food is quite different from the English version.
I know a pastor’s wife who was unburdening herself to me about her inability to be “the hostess with the mostess,” as she put it. She was bemoaning the fact that she was not like all the other church ladies around her who could whip out a variety of sumptuous dishes with apparently no exertion at all. I immediately asked her, “What’s your nationality?”
“I’m English.”
Ah, the mystery was solved! I quickly explained to her that it wasn’t her fault. English women don’t do food for the most part. It’s not in our genetic makeup. She was so relieved she hugged me with tears in her eyes. I’m not exaggerating.
Actually, I can, in my opinion, produce some fairly decent one pot dishes like soups and casseroles with minimum ingredients. Stay tuned for my new cookbook - “Easy meals that nobody will want to eat.”
My motto in the kitchen is “keep it simple.” The simpler it is, the less likely it will be to make a mistake. I apply the same principle to my Christian faith - keep it simple. Follow the basic recipe that was established by Jesus and His founding Apostles. Don’t deviate from their menu. Maintaining this rule assures you that you will always have a safe, spiritually satisfying and nutritious meal that won’t give you food poisoning.
It is a fact that when the original leadership dies out as in the case of Joshua (Judges 2:7-11), apostasy soon follows in its wake. This same principle applies to Christianity. The Apostle John died at one hundred years of age, signaling the end of the apostolic era. Approximately fifty years later, the slow drift into apostasy began. Additional ingredients began to be combined with the original recipe, others were eliminated. Those who were not that well educated in the Master Chef’s original menu were quickly led to believe that these additional ingredients and alterations were an improvement. Nothing could be further from the truth. People were gradually being led astray from a sound, healthy diet to a menu of junk food riddled with unhealthy additives.
When I shop I read labels. I’ve learned to identify those unhealthy additives like hydrogenated oils and food dyes. Those items are quickly returned to the shelf. I want to eat healthy food, drink clean water and breathe fresh unpolluted air. All that is getting harder to do these days. Likewise, the doctrines spewing out of the mouths of some television evangelists and preachers are feeding people with the equivalent of spiritual junk food by deviating from the original organic, unpolluted recipe we were handed down from the original chefs of God’s word. So I practice a very simple First Century Christianity. All the items on my menu originate and are inspired by the recipe handed down from Jesus and His apostles. This recipe isn’t a secret. It’s been made public for centuries. I’m willing to share with you all freely. That’s what my virtual café’ is here for, exclusively for the dining pleasure of my visitors. Enjoy. - H. D.
Copyright 2010 by H. D. Shively
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