Recipe for a productive life - 2 Peter 1:5-11

Read: 2 Peter 1:5-11

I love to cook. Searching for a recipe is a wonderful pastime for me. Do you have a favorite recipe? Perhaps it’s a family recipe, and the ingredients are a well-kept secret. The first time you prepared the dish you examined the recipe like a map to a hidden treasure, precisely measuring the amounts of each item. You knew the combination of the ingredients would result in something delicious.

In some ways, our lives are like a recipe. The difference is that there are no secret ingredients. It begins with a faith in Jesus Christ. Peter, a follower of Jesus and one of the leaders of the Church, gave us some ingredients for an even better, more fulfilling life in Christ. Here’s his recipe for an effective and productive life:

Begin with a personal relationship with Jesus.

Add goodness and an equal amount of knowledge.

Stir in self-control and perseverance.

Combine with godliness and a pinch of mutual affection.

Mix thoroughly and bake with an abundance of love.

God does not expect us to become instantly perfect in the qualities listed by Peter, but he tells us that we can “possess these qualities in increasing measure.” Growing in these areas because of our relationship with Jesus is the best recipe for a productive life.

Just for fun:

Growing up, we had biscuits and gravy almost every morning. I still love biscuits, but pass on the gravy. 

We make biscuits no more than once a month. The ingredients include the usual all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, oil, buttermilk and just the right amount of mixing. 

My favorite way currently is to make a large flat pan of dough, cut it into squares with biscuit circles in the middle of each squares. Bake it as one slab. 

We eat a portion while it is hot, and freeze two more servings. One serving is the large squares. (pictured at the right) We make "toad in a holes." We thaw the biscuit squares, lay them on a griddle, break an egg into the hole, cook one side and flip it to cook the other. 

The other serving consist of  the biscuits circles which will be heated and served with butter and sorghum or honey. That gives us 3 meals from one big baking pan of biscuit dough. 

The following is excerpted from "Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President."

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” --Matthew 5:9

During 13 difficult days, Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and I worked at Camp David to negotiate a historic peace agreement. When we returned to Washington, I was invited to address a special session of the U.S. Congress.

I had no time to develop a lengthy speech, but I decided on the way to the Capitol to quote Matthew 5:9. I wanted to say, “Blessed are the peace-makers,” but I couldn’t remember what came next. So I called for a Bible to be waiting for me when I got out of the limousine. Upon my arrival, a staff member slipped me a piece of paper that said, “for they will be called children of God.” I repeated it as I asked Sadat and Begin to stand.

Peacemakers are very special people. They have to understand and sympathize with others who have differing points of view. Begin and Sadat’s countries had been at war four times during the previous 25 years. They hated each other. I kept the two men apart for their last 10 days at Camp David because they couldn’t sit in the same room without all the old animosities coming out.

Peacemakers have to empathize with both sides, even though both sides can’t be completely right. Through common trust, understanding and flexibility, they must find a way to get both sides to come together. They must make sure that every time one side gives up something, they can expect to get something more important at the end. And finally, both sides must win. If one side loses and the other wins, the peace will not last.

Every Christian faces altercations or arguments that can degenerate into animosity or misunderstanding. But if we choose to be peacemakers -- if we choose to act as children of God -- then we can make a positive difference for good, as did the Prince of Peace.

Dear Lord, help me, as a Christian, realize that peacemaking is my heritage as a child of God. Help me remember that as a follower of Christ I must let my voice and my actions be used to strengthen your kingdom on earth, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I ask these things in my Savior’s name. Amen.