If you’ve ever attempted a baking adventure, you might have discovered that something half baked is not edible. I’m not talking about a slightly under-baked brownie, which is actually a good baking tip for the gooey fudgey goodness we all know and love. No, I’m referring to something like a half baked loaf of bread. It’s disaster! Success can only be achieved by the full baking time. In my early days of baking if something appeared to be fully cooked I would take it out of the oven even if the timer still had more time on it. Youth and impatience told the story of how many half baked projects had to be trashed.
This morning I was reminded of a passage in God’s word that speaks exactly the same truth but with a spiritual rebuke. As I sat and pondered I realized that the Holy Spirit wanted to challenge me about this half baked concept.
We have seen sweeping changes over the last fifteen months in politics as well as the (im)-moral landscape of our country. But I can’t help but notice how the claims of Christianity are being rebranded by the progressive agenda and how many in the church are joining along.
Hosea 7:8 tells us, Ephraim mixes himself with the nations Ephraim has become a cake not turned.” God’s people had intermingled with the non-worshippers of Jehovah and picked up their practices, perspective and polluted norms.
Hosea is a master preacher; see how he pictures the spiritual condition of the people: (1) a morning cloud (6:4), here one minute, gone the next; (2) a half baked cake (7:8), for their religion had not gotten deep into their lives, but was a surface thing; (3) gray hairs (7:9), losing their strength but ignorant of the change; (4) a silly dove (7:11), unstable, flitting from one political ally to another; (5) a deceitful bow (7:16) that you cannot depend on. Warren Wiersbe
Jehovah had chosen Israel out of the nations of the earth, and given them a special constitution. 1 Peter 2:9 tells us, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Women, have we lost our way in the midst of all that’s been happening in the last year and a half? Let’s not let guilt defeat us or uncertainty rob us of a fresh work of God’s Spirit. Let’s recapture our spiritual equilibrium, and come before the Lord. Let Him examine us. Let Him search our inner most hearts, beyond our comfortable professions and into those spaces that we are still justifying. God is gracious and willing to cleanse, heal, restore and revive us!
God in Christ has chosen us to be a people set apart unto Him, not half baked!
O Lord, may we be the men and women of God who are all in (still a work in progress) but all in for Your kingdom, Your glory and the knowledge of You. God help us to recognize the hour and see the days growing closer to Your return.
Excellent!!!