Corner pieces are the best

"wondrous things from Your law"

Psalm 119:18

I make the best cornbread I know.  I hope that doesn't sound arrogant.  I've had a lot of different kinds of cornbread.  Some sweeter than others, some with actual corn in it, as opposed to just cornmeal.  I've even had some that has jalapeno peppers in it.  I personally think that it's better when it's a little sweeter, and free of corn kernels and peppers.  So that's how I make it.  So naturally I think it's the best.

Makes sense, right?

But I came upon this perfect recipe by accident.  See, I do a lot of substituting in the kitchen.  You know, the recipe calls for cream, but I use milk.  Or my family doesn't like a certain ingredient, so I leave it out, or substitute something we like.  Early in my marriage, I had a recipe that called for wine, and we don't drink it, so I didn't have any.  So I used vinegar.   I'm pretty sure we ordered a pizza that night...

But the cornbread recipe was a happy accident.  A wonderfully successful substitution.  The recipe called for sour cream, and we were out.  Which is odd, cuz I love sour cream, so I'm rarely out. 

Anyhow, I was out of sour cream, so I used vanilla yogurt instead, and it was delicious.  And now we make the recipe that way all the time. 

I'm a lot better at substituting now.  And I'm glad I did with that cornbread, but substituting is a risk.  And whether or not the result is palatable, it's no longer the recipe that was given to me.  If we don't follow the directions, we're not going to get the result the originator intended. 

God's word is full of directions for us.  All of them are designed to work together to achieve His desired result.

You've probably heard of the Ten Commandments.  But there's a whole lot of others...

Proverbs 3:5-6 instructs, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

Micah 6:8 tells us to "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God"

Deuteronomy 13:4 says "You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him."  That one sentence is a six-pack of directions for us.  

It says in Hebrews that it's impossible for us to follow His instructions without faith.  Makes sense.  Why would we bother, if we didn't have faith?  It goes on to say, in Hebrews 11:6, that "he who comes to Him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."  Think about that phrase, "earnestly seek Him".  My dictionary describes earnest as sincere, grave or serious, and it's from the Hebrew word for "pledge".  We have to think about the weight of those words, and then pledge to seek and follow Him.

God wants the best for us.  We don't give our children rules and guidelines because we enjoy inhibiting them {note to my kids:  Honest!}  We do it because we want them to live their best life and bring glory to God.  Jesus commanded us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind AND to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And Solomon summed it up this way:  "This is the conclusion of the whole matter:  Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all." (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

Couldn't have said it better myself. 

~ "Make me walk

in the path of your commandments, 

    for I delight in it" ~

Psalm 119:35