A WORD FOR TODAY, July 10, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, July 10, 2025
“But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, persecutions, and sufferings - those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:10-17, WEB
We visited Hadrian’s Wall when we lived in England during a trip to Scotland. The wall was built by the Romans to keep the ancient people of Scotland out of England. I tend to buy books when we travel so that we can remember the places and people where we have been. In one shop I found a cookbook describing the foods and cooking methods of the ancient Romans. They used mostly earthenware jars, which has seen a resurgence in modern kitchens. The Romans ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, seafood, beef, and pork. They used strong sauces and herbs to hide the taste of the meat, particularly when it became rancid from storing too long. The cookbook had some recipes for typical Roman food, some of which had unusual ingredients. This book included a recipe for snails with instruction on how to fatten the snail with milk before frying it. This was a delicacy for the men and women who ate it. I don’t think many people purchase that book with the expectation of living as the Romans lived. I still have the book but have never once tried any of the recipes.
Quite frankly, I don’t use recipes very often. I like to throw things in a pot and hope for the best. Of course, I do have some I use regularly, and I have a bookshelf full of recipe books. I often download recipes that I see on Facebook, and I have tried quite a few. Most of those recipes have worked out just fine. When you purchase a cookbook in a bookstore or find one on the Internet, you expect them recipes to be accurate so the food will be edible. The integrity of the author is at stake, so the recipes are usually tested and tasted to be sure the food is good.
A few years ago, I created a cookbook with recipes from my husband and my mothers for their grandchildren. It was a daunting task, especially since some of the recipes were very old, hard to read, and included ingredients I could not identify. How much is 15 cents worth of saccharine? It doesn’t help that their generation often kept incomplete recipes! I confess that I didn’t test every recipe before including in my book, but most of them were so well used and beloved, we had already eaten those foods many times.
The author of the cookbook included a disclaimer telling the readers that he did everything he could to ensure the recipes were accurate, but the chefs who helped him edit the book refused to taste a few of them, like the one for the snails, so he could not guarantee the results for those who might try them.
The Bible is our recipe for life. Inside the pages of God’s love story for us are the directions for living a life which is in harmony with Him, so that we might be part of His Kingdom as we were created to be. To understand and follow the directions in this book, we must read and study it on a regular basis and follow the directions. Throughout history, the words in this book have been tried and tested and have been found to be the Truth. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul encourages us to listen to his teaching, to follow the ways that God us through him. He reminds us that there are people who try to twist God’s Word, to manipulate people with it to get their way. But he assures his readers that the scriptures are the foundation of our salvation and our life in God’s Kingdom. We know God’s word from a lifetime of reading the Bible, but it is like an old recipe we return to over and over again, certain and delicious for us to consume.
Do you follow a regular pattern of scripture reading? The pastor at our church has encouraged us to do “the first fifteen,” a time of prayer and scripture reading to start our day. It is good to include a devotional such as A WORD FOR TODAY, but do you do more? Do you read the scripture used in context and ask God what it should mean in your life today? Do you have His Word written on your heart so deeply that you are able to share it with those who are placed in your path? It doesn’t do much good to have a cookbook in which the recipes are never tried. Neither does it do much good to have a Bible whose spine is never cracked. Get out your Bible today. The words within have been tried and tested over the ages and are Truth. Read it, then live it. That’s how you will be equipped to do the work God is calling you to do.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org