The Real Thing

I am a connoisseur of good corn. Last night we had peaches-and-cream variety, sweet as sugar. I usually use real butter, but hubby sprayed his with butter-flavored spray.

I say, if you are going to spend your calories on real corn-on-the-cob one season a year, you might as well have real butter. After I have eaten all the kernels off the cob, I always go back and eat the little seeds left on the cob. Then I suck out the juice of the cob and make sure I didn’t miss any kernels.

When I was a kid, Mom used to say that I ate more ears of corn than the old mules on the farm. If I had corn, I didn’t care if I had anything else to eat. And back then I didn’t care if anyone else got corn or not, but now I share my corn with my hubby and daughter. They laugh when I ask if anyone wants the last ear. “No, go ahead and eat it. You know you want it.”

I like canned corn and frozen corn but not frozen corn on the cob. I just don’t buy it. If I can’t have fresh corn on the cob, I’ll do without.

Okay, so I am spoiled. A half-century of eating the real thing will spoil you, keep you from settling for a poor substitute.

If you have ever sat under the teaching of the real Word of God from the pulpit, it ruins you for anything else. A social gospel just doesn’t hold up against the teaching of the Bible. Sharing a joke, a devotion, or an opinion won’t change our lives like what God has to say.

II Timothy 3:16, 4:1 The Living Bible, “The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right. And so I solemnly urge you before God and before Christ Jesus…….to preach the Word of God urgently at all times……in season and out.”

Don’t settle for a substitute when you can have the real fresh in-season Word of God, smeared with real butter.

Menu for Supper

 

 

When I was small, I thought the 4th of July fireworks celebration was just for my birthday.

Our cousins from Wichita frequently came in, as well as the California cousins, Grandma and Poppie Swift, and our aunts and uncles from northeast Oklahoma. The reunion was usually at our house.

The meals were usually the same—fried chicken, corn on the cob, fried potatoes, cornbread and brown beans, green beans, watermelon and cantaloupe. For dessert, Mom always made blackberry cobbler for my birthday.

I always ate as much corn on the cob, watermelon, cantaloupe, and blackberry cobbler as I could hold and ate the leftovers for supper. Mom cooked the other things during the rest of the year.

What does “birthday” mean to you? A decorated 3-layer white cake with candles? A pumpkin pie? Cinnamon rolls?

I have often wondered just what will be served at the marriage supper of the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, spoken of in Revelation 19:9NKJV, “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

The night before He was crucified, Jesus served His disciples bread and wine, so at the very least the marriage supper will include those.

Will we have manna like the Israelites ate in the wilderness? Quail, which God sent the Israelites when they complained about the manna? And milk-and-honey custard? Giant clusters of grapes like the spies brought back from the Promised Land? Olives and olive oil from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem?

Oh, and Jesus always served fish. He fed 5000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, as well as cooking fish for Peter on the shore of Galilee after His resurrection. Maybe we will have some filet of crappie, the finest freshwater fish there is.

What a menu! What a party! The Swifts and Hightowers will all be together again, and so will your family. Jesus is planning the menu now and it will include all our favorites, the tables are being prepared, and we will all sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The best part will be seeing our own dear Jesus Christ face to face in all His glory.