Ingredients:
2 Family Size Tea Bags
1 Gallon Water
2 Cups White Sugar
Place the tea bags in a small simmering pan containing about two cups of water. Bring to a boil.
Steep for ten minutes then pour tea concentrate into gallon pitcher.
While liquid is still very hot, add two cups of sugar. Stir.
Fill gallon pitcher with water and stir.
Serve over ice.
On behalf of everybody who grew up in the southern United States, I proudly present to you the recipe for Sweet Tea. I have found as I travel that in many parts of the United States and especially abroad, people have been culturally deprived of this delight all of their lives. Try asking a waitress in Pittsburgh for sweet tea. She points at the sugar on the table and then looks at you like you must be blind or something. It’s sad, she just doesn’t get it. As I write these words, I am in Canada. In the spirit of good international relations, we won’t even talk about the tea in restaurants here. Have you ever watched a person drink Earl Grey tea over a few pieces of ice with no sugar? It’s not a pretty sight. And Mexico? The tea there brings to mind the age old question, “How can a loving God allow such suffering?” Since this is the beverage that will probably be served at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, we would all be well advised to learn to enjoy it now! In Georgia, we think of it as the nectar of heaven.
Seriously, why have I shared the recipe for sweet tea with you? Well, putting aside the obvious culinary mission of mercy, it actually illustrates very clearly some truths about what happens in a person’s life when grace rules. God’s recipe for transforming us by His grace given in Christ has some striking similarities to the recipe at the top of this page.
The first step in making sweet tea is to turn up the heat so that the water will boil. The sugar and tea won’t permeate the water unless it is very hot. This is the same way that God works in a person when He is preparing to make something wonderful of his life. Have you ever noticed how much more receptive you are to God when the heat is turned up high in your life? When we are in hot water, we usually get in the receiving mode fast! If you have ever asked God to use your life, don’t be surprised when trouble comes. God may turn up the heat in our circumstances to prepare us to experience His life. The glory of having Jesus expressing His life through us requires that we pass through the fire. It’s not pleasant while it is happening, but when the process is complete the finished product is quite a treat!
The Apostle Peter said:
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Peter 4:12-13).
The fire may be hot, but don’t despair in your troubles. God often orchestrates the events of our lives to bring us to the end of confidence in our own ability so that He may readily complete His recipe for godliness within us. “The revelation of His glory” that Peter mentions is not a reference to heaven, but to the discovery of the sweet truth of our union with Christ. However, it is impossible to make sweet tea without hot water.
Unlike cold tea, hot tea and sugar are totally compatible with each other. In fact, the sugar quickly dissolves when stirred into the hot tea. Once the sugar has dissolved into the water, the very nature of the liquid is changed. The tea and sugar can never be separated again. Their distinct elements have merged together in such a way that they are now one new entity. This isn’t the case with iced tea. It is impossible to get sugar to dissolve into tea once it has been served over ice. No matter how much you stir it, the two just won’t mix.
When God prepares to manifest the sweet presence of His Life within us, He uses heat to cause us to be compatible with Him permeating our being. He will often stir things in our lives when He turns up the heat. Then we don’t resist like we would when we are spiritually cold. Once he places His Life into us, our very nature is changed. Just as the sugar and tea have become one, we have been united with Him and can never again be separated from Him. 1Corinthians 6:17 says, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” There is no longer m life and Christ’s life. Jesus has come into us and changed our very nature so that one may say quite literally that Christ is my life.
I was teaching this truth in a Grace Walk Conference once and a man whose field of study was chemistry said, “It is a fact that tea has its own distinct chemical composition and sugar has its own unique chemical composition, but when you put the two together in the way you have described, a totally new chemical composition is created which is neither tea or sugar.” Do you know what it is called? Sweet tea!
The Bible says, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). When we received Christ, we gained a brand new identity. When have you ever heard someone refer to tea as “water with tea and sugar in it”? It’s nature has been changed, therefore it is identified by its new identity — sweet tea.
Once the sugar has been placed into the tea, the pitcher must be filled with water, then the tea is ready to be shared with others. Water is a type of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. The Bible says that the treasure of the life of Jesus is contained in the earthen vessels of our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:7) Yet we must be filled with the Holy Spirit if people are going to be attracted to Christ within us. (Ephesians 5:18) To be filled with the Holy Spirit means nothing less than Jesus Christ consuming our total being and expressing His life through us.
It is the Holy Spirit who dwells within our spirit. That same Spirit is the very spirit of Jesus. Since He has come to us, our nature is changed. We now possess the nature of God. By the death and resurrection of Jesus, God works in this world to create a new race of people who possess His nature. 2 Peter 1:4 says that through the Spirit of Christ we have “become partakers of the divine nature.” Our new nature is a
I enjoy sweet tea, but I don’t like tea with sugar in it. Some may ask, “Isn’t it the same thing?” Not at all. When I’m traveling, I sometimes order iced tea and put sugar in it, but the tea never gets sweet enough for my taste. I sometimes have a glass of iced tea on the table with a half inch of sugar settled at the bottom of the glass. That is tea with sugar, but it’s not sweet tea. It is only when the sugar has dissolved in the tea that it receives a sweet nature.
Some Christians think in terms of Christ being in their life. However, when we were saved, Jesus didn’t simply come into our life. He has so filled our being that the Bible teaches that Christ is our life. The very essence of our being has been changed through this supernatural union with Him
If I held up a glass and declared it to be full of sweet tea, someone might argue that it isn’t the tea which is sweet, but it’s the sugar in the tea that is sweet. I would disagree. The sugar has so diffused its life into the tea that the nature of the tea has changed. Yes, the tea is sweet. And you are righteous!
(This article was an excerpt from my book, Grace Rules. Click the link for more information about the book.)
love it, love it, love it !
ReplyDelete"When He turns up the heat" Steve I have a question.
ReplyDeleteI know that the thought of God testing us is accepted among many Christians as a way to explain everything in our lives but that really puts God in a bad light.
If I told you I locked my wife outside in subzero degrees one day to see if she really loves me, a few of my friends asked me what I was doing to her? I said we are building a relationship.
Or I put my children in a place where they could be in harms way near the stove for example. See my son likes to put his hand on the burner so I let him near it because I want to teach him to obey me.
If these scenarios I told you were true what kind of a person would you think me to be? Would you like to get to know me better? I think not. You would probably call child protective services or the psyche ward.
Let no man say when he is tested that it finds its source in God. James 1:13
Here is my take on it. When someone desires to follow God it is his flesh that rebels. It stirs up the pot so to speak it is this which is the source of the trial as James says. We are tested/tempted when we are drawn of our desires.
The evil around us does not find its source in God but the first Adam and the fall and the Devil. Even the earth groans - earthquakes volcanoes etc. Did God judge Haiti recently? No! Luke 13:2-5
Steve, if we say these things come from God then it takes away my confidence to approach Him. I know many people use Job as a support He was a righteous man there is none righteous - it is also in the poetic book class as a story? A Picture of Christ.
My question finally? How does one come confidently to a God who deals with us in this manner if indeed He does as you say "turn up the heat"??
John, that's an excellent question and one that I'm often asked.
ReplyDeleteThe first point that needs to be made is that your examples are fundamentally flawed. You picture a husband who is being mean to his wife or children. That's not God's heart toward us, obviously. Allow me to pose another example.
What would you think of a Dad who allows His children to get an injection of medicine at the doctor's office when, all the while, his child is begging the Dad to make the doctor stop it. The Dad understands the value of what's happening but the child doesn't. In this example, it is not an absence of love and it's not an abusive thing the Dad is allowing. To the contrary, it is precisely because of his love that he does not intervene but instead allows his child to experience temporary pain for his greater good.
Or, what about a Dad who has taught his teen-age son the importance of checking the oil in his car's engine. He warns him that, if he doesn't check it, damage will be done to the car and it will cost the son a lot of money to have it repaired. "You will be in a world of hurt if you ignore those oil changes," his Dad tells him. He sees the son continue to ignore the car's maintenance until, as he warned him, the car tears up. The Dad could pay for the repairs but instead he allows the son to suffer the consequence on not having a car until he has worked, saved the money and paid for the car repairs himself. The teen will most likely think his Dad is being mean, but the Dad knows that a benefit that exceeds the son's temporary pain will come from this experience. So he refuses to intervene and rescue the son from the problem.
Our Father sometimes uses painful events in our lives in similar ways as I've described. Your examples picture a God who is mean to somebody He loves. Mine portrays a Father whose wisdom causes Him to allow painful things that we may not understand but that He knows are for our good.
con't in comment below...
As to your reference in James 1:13, you've misunderstood the meaning of the word "tested." Better translations use the word "tempted," which is exactly what it means - the temptation to do evil. Here's the documentation for the meaning of that word:
ReplyDeleteStrong's Number: 3985
Original Word Word Origin
peirazo from (3984)
Transliterated Word TDNT Entry
Peirazo 6:23,822
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
pi-rad'-zo Verb
Definition
1. to try whether a thing can be done
1. to attempt, endeavour
2. to try, make trial of, test: for the purpose of ascertaining his quantity, or what he thinks, or how he will behave himself
1. in a good sense
2. in a bad sense, to test one maliciously, craftily to put to the proof his feelings or judgments
3. to try or test one's faith, virtue, character, by enticement to sin
1. to solicit to sin, to tempt 1c
4. of the temptations of the devil
5. after the OT usage
1. of God: to inflict evils upon one in order to prove his character and the steadfastness of his faith
2. men are said to tempt God by exhibitions of distrust, as though they wished to try whether he is not justly distrusted
3. by impious or wicked conduct to test God's justice and patience, and to challenge him, as it were to give proof of his perfections.
God does not entice me to do evil. That's what the verse you've referenced is teaching. It is not talking about trials but temptation to do wrong.
You are confusing evil things with painful things. Not every painful thing is evil.
Finally, to go back to your first comment about my view putting God "in a bad light" -- it seems to me that God, Himself, has never worried much about that. Repeatedly, He did things in biblical history that "made Him look bad," not the least of which is what happened on the cross with Jesus. It's not our job to adjust our theology to protect how He may look. Our role is simply to trust Him. We don't have to defend Him nor explain Him. We just trust Him and know that He is our loving Father and we can trust Him even when we don't understand what's going on around us. We cannot force God into our human system of fairness, not would we want to, because if we did we would all be doomed.
Will the real God please stand up!! If we compare Elijha who killed 102 men by caling down the "fire of God" and the rebuke James & John recieved when they suggested the same thing to the Samaritans when they wouldn't allow Jesus to rest, on His way to Jerusalem, one could be excused to be confused.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if we take Colo 1:15 as true "He (Jesus)is the image of the invisible God" the discussion can be rightly directed.
Did Jesus "ever" say to anyone I can't heal you yet because you haven't learned the lessen yet? Did He ever say this is going to hurt you more than it does me but it is for your own good? No, so if He was the image of the invisible God, then we can safely say that, that isn't the heart of God, either.
God can and does use circumstances to let us learn, but that isn't God's best for us. 2Tim 3:16 says that scripture was given for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction. and that is God's preferred way. But because we are dull of hearing and hard of heart, we get ourselves into tight places that hurt, and that is when we call/cry out to God. If we are attuned to God, He says He will guide us on our path to turn right or left.
Don't say when we are tested/tempted to say we are tested/tempted of God but say "while I'm here what can I learn to avoid me being here again.
God no more wants us to have a little bit of pain then He wants us to have a little bit of sin, so we can learn, but He will use the fixes we get ourselves into to show us His true nature, if we will attend to His voice.
The School of hard knocks does exist, for those of us that won't lear any other way, but it isn't God's best for us.
Hey Steve...
ReplyDeleteI have learned, mostly by running my head into the wall of "trying" to live the Christian life," on my own that God sometimes allows his kids to experience "more than they can bear" in order to break us of the nasty habit of self-reliance. As you often say..."The Christian life is not hard to live...its impossible to live in our own strength, but,(but)it is not, "Him-possible."
Thereby we find the answer.
My personal experience has been that I learn nothing unless I am flat on my back in a ditch somewhere...hardly an abundant life.
More later...Love you man...j
I like this Steve. We learn how to trust by reaching and hurting when we do. God gives guidance but never contradicts the Word. The way of the cross leads home. I feel we can't find what specificly God's will is for our life except as we ask. People can only prepare us for what's ahead or confirm the Word. Abiding in the Vine we are branches that will be tested by life's trials and so that we may come forth as gold. We are at times in a trial also tempted but not by God. Amen. When we refuse the escapes we find ourselves learning from the way of the Spirit how faith living is pleasant and brings pleasing. We by grace live in faith working through love to stand firm. I loved the two illustrations of trials by God for us. The doctor in healing way of the child patient had a greatr good daddy who could tell how the outcome will be good and never intervened in the pain until the healing came. How true to the nature of God's goodness this is! The teenager and the neglect to put in oil is equally great illustration pointing us the negative when we fail to read the plain signs God gives us. God is leading me too. Great job. Dave
ReplyDeleteThats good Corwin. Heb1:3 also said that Jesus is the exact imprint of Gods nature. In other words, Jesus PERFECTLY revealed the will and nature of God.
ReplyDeleteWe should never expect anything or any response from God that is contrary to what we see in the life of Jesus who was bringing to an end, the Old Covenant by fulfilling it and bringing in the New Covenant which is based on the Blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Able.... "Mercy" instead of "Justice" (judgement), because in it, Mercy Triumphs over Judgement!!
God will surely USE our bad decisions and mistakes, but does not CAUSE them. The promise of persecution for embracing the Gospel is not persecution from God, but rather from the Devil because the Gospel sets his prisoners free.
The Disciplining of/from God is the process of us enduring in our Faith in the Grace of God through the trial and NOT the trial itself.
One of the biggest faith killers taught in the church today is a "hyper-sovereign" view of God... Because, "who do we think we are to resist and pray for victory from the very God who is causing the issue in the first place??"
this thinking leans to exactly what Jesus said.... "a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand".
.... Why pray for the sick if God actually wants them sick??....
...Why pray for breakthrough in finances if God actually wants the person in poverty??...
Why pray for life and life abundantly over any area of our lives if God may want to rather see... robbing, killing, destroying in that area??.
We are called to rest in His grace and as a fruit of this, in our everyday lives, undo the works of darkness.
God Blessed you!!
Steve thanks for taking the time to attend to my question. You’re absolutely right that it is not our responsibility to protect God’s character. That is not my intention either He is plenty big enough Daddy to do that Himself. I agree my examples are extreme and I should probably “tone” it down or better yet rephrase them.
ReplyDeleteLet me ask it in a personal way. Steve when you had your dizzy spells a few months ago (by the way I hope you are over that!) what was your thought processes, did you see it as attack from the enemy that God allowed or just something that happens like an old car breaking down. (No reflection on your age or resemblance to a car :-). Or something like a process of nature? Did you pray for healing? Basically how did you see it, deal with it and overcome it? How was God viewed in the process?
Corwin I appreciate your input. As I read your comment the word excellent way came to mind. Under the law I see everything in process under grace, God has implanted His life in me, as He is so are we in this world. That paradigm did not surface until breaking free from the law. I maybe reading this revelation into your comments. The law brings us to Christ while we operated under it we thought outside of our identity (we are His image reflected in Christ) we suffer the wrath of the law. Definitely God’s more perfect way is to hear the word (Who is Christ our true identity). Or as Paul puts it the more excellent way.
PS Andrew, just saw your comments as I posted this one Thx good word.
John, no offense taken. This old car has had a lot of miles put on it :) Thanks for asking about the health issue I was having. Thankfully, it has passed and I'm back to normal.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I need to note is that this post about the sweet tea wasn't my attempt to voice an opinion on sickness and healing specifically. The point of the blog wasn't even about pain and suffering as much as it was about the union we have with Christ.
Having said that, I will respond to your question about how I felt when I was facing a health challenge. Foremost, I think we live in a world where there is pain and being a Christian doesn't make us exempt from that. As to health, it's a simple fact of life in these physical bodies that there will be a decline. It doesn't matter how much faith a person has or how true the teaching of divine healing is, there will always be a great difference between our bodies at 30 years old and 70 years old (or even 55:) The normal aging process brings some things with it and there's nothing that will stop that, not even God.
So I didn't "feel" anything in particular about my situation when I faced it. I prayed about it, went to the doctor and trusted the Lord during the process. Thankfully, it did pass but even if it hadn't or even if things had become worse, He still would have been who He is in me and would have acted toward me in total agape.
I hope this answers your question..
Thanks Steve - Yeah - Did get off the subject - I think I'm going to get me a cup of tea.
ReplyDelete