There is a popular saying, “The proof is in the pudding.” I wanted to know where that saying came from and after Googling it, I learned that the earliest records of that expression were from the beginning of the 1600s. In the U.K. a common dish of a savory dish involved a sausage-like concoction which consisted of seasoned meat along with other ingredients. The phrase:
“The proof is in the pudding”
This saying referenced the fact that it was difficult to properly judge if the pudding was properly cooked until it was actually eaten. In other words, the test of if it was actually done was in the taking a bite. So I ask you:
What is in the “pudding of you?”
What are the ingredients of you?
If you were an orange and someone was to squeeze you – what would come out?
Why do I ask this? Because the proof of where you stand in Christ (if you are one that confesses to be a Christian, which by its very name means to be Christ-like) is what actually comes out of you when you are hard-pressed. Questions to ask one’s self:
Where do I stand in Christ?
Am I even standing IN Christ?
Is Christ IN me? Or do I have Him somewhere off to the side??? In other words, have I agreed that Jesus IS the Savior but not allowed Him to be Lord OVER my life?
Can I truly say as in Galatians 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Am I functioning as Christ’s Ambassador?
There are some who “profess” to be Christians (but mean it only in title, as in a “religious” description or class traditional family representation), not as a way of life. When the rubber hits the road and they are facing a situation where they can stand for Christ, choose instead to add their own two cents to it – and to express their own views (which very much differ then what the Word of God indicates). In other words, what comes out of them are the areas that they have not allowed Holy Spirit to stir up and line up with God’s written ingredients but that of their own. So the recipe of them is not that as indicated by God’s recipe and come out with a total different flavor than what God intended.
There is a big difference between being “religious” and being one of God’s Remnant (i.e. a Christian – definition, “to be CHRIST-like, a “follower of Christ”), who (recognizing it is nothing but God’s love, grace, forgiveness and mercy) determines to try and live according to the Word of God. Religion is adhering to “man made traditions” and Jesus defined it well. There IS a BIG difference in living IN Christ and being religious. See Mark 7:6-8:
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.””
We are living in times where the proof of where you stand in Christ and your belief of God’s Word (the Bible) will come out in how you respond and what stance you take for Him in the testimony of your views and how you live.
I don’t know about you, but I know that with me – Holy Spirit is always showing me what ingredients need to be added (as well as what needs to be removed) to make “my pudding” pleasing to God (of which I have professed to be my Savior and Lord over my life) and it isn’t always painless or easy, in fact more often than not – it’s painful. Another word for this is called:
REFINING
(And sometimes refining hurts.)
Are you open to the Holy Spirit refining you? Or do you continuously fight Him on what He shows you? Making a profession of faith is one where we should realize that growing IN Christ is STILL a daily choice. One that we have to continuously allow Holy Spirit to show US the ingredients IN the pudding of us and allowing Him to DO the refining process that Jesus indicated Holy Spirit would do as the Third member of the Trinity – He is our Teacher, our Comforter, our Guide – BUT ONLY IF WE ALLOW HIM TO BE. Dying to self IS painful and there will be many times in our walk where we have to stand up for Christ. Confrontation is not my strongpoint, but when I realize that I am going to stand accountable to how I stood up for the Word of God at the end of my life – I have no choice but to take a stance IN Christ. Jesus says in Luke 9:26:
“Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
We who are part of God’s Called Remnant have a choice to stand for the world or to stand for Christ. It is one that we will be held accountable for when we stand before the Father. We are living in the last days, Mark 25:31 says:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”
Romans 8:5-8 tells us:
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
I write these Words because sometimes the ingredients that Holy Spirit (in love) removes from us can be painful – because it has been so ingrained in our thinking, in our being that removing it can sometimes become a tug of war with Him. It is only in the letting go of whatever it is He is showing us that needs changing, that we can feel peace. (Okay – I have to use a visual here because I am a visual person, for me it has been kind of like when you go for that 6 month or yearly cleaning with the dentist. I always dread going, knowing that they are going to scrape and pick and remove ALL the gunk that has accumulated on my teeth since the last time I came, but oh how GOOD my teeth and my gums feel once they have been cleaned).
REFINING IS A PROCESS. ARE YOU ALLOWING HOLY SPIRIT TO REFINE YOU OR ARE YOU ARGUING WITH HIM AS HE TRIES TO MOLD YOU INTO THE PERSON GOD CREATED YOU TO BE????
I am 34 years into my relationship with Christ. What I mean by that, is 34 years ago I wholeheartedly accepted Jesus as my Savior and made a profession of faith by making Him Lord OVER my life. Allowing Holy Spirit to do a work within me as long as I have breath in my body – IS A PROCESS. Let me be totally transparent – it is coming to a point where you become sensitive in your spirit to hearing Holy Spirit and even though it smarts – be willing to allow Him to point out the ingredients in your pudding that HE absolutely NEEDS to remove to further your walk in Christ and to allow you to experience a closer relationship with the Father. It is hard when someone you love points out the “ugly” in you. You can either choose to take a closer look at what they are pointing out or you can get mad, cross your arms over your chest and refuse to consider that they might be right.
Here is something that I have learned in my walk – sometimes, if we don’t listen to what it is Holy Spirit is trying to reveal to us, He will try to use a brother or sister in Christ to help you see it. (Hey – God still uses people!). There are times when we get mad at the person, when really we don’t want to admit that this is a “sore spot” in the ingredients of us that needs God’s attention, changing and possibly His healing.
It is not our role to judge anyone OR their walk in Christ (that is between that person and God), but in examining our OWN selves, take a firm stand in Christ with His Word as the measurement of our answer. BUT we have to do it as Jesus did, IN LOVE. For me, in a world where wrong is right and right is wrong it is easy for our love meters for people to go down, but then I think of Jesus, who left the glories of Heaven, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sin-less life and died on the cross for forgiveness of my sins (and yours) and while He hung up on that cross, bearing a punishment He didn’t deserve, He said in Luke 23:34:
“Father, forgive them Father for they not what they do.”
If you can read that and not have tears come to your eyes, or wince or cringe it may definitely be time for you to do a heart-check.
JESUS LOVES.
We NEED to love.
“Father, I thank You so much for loving me, even when I am at my MOST unlovable. I thank You so much for putting up with me, even when I exacerbate You. I thank You so much for sending Holy Spirit with ALL His patience to refine the ingredients “inside the pudding of me” to make me be filled MORE with Christ and LESS with myself that people will see CHRIST IN ME. Forgive me for the times where my flesh takes precedence over Your Word, Your Will, Your Way. Help me to remember that I have turned my life over to You and as in Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Help me Holy Spirit to remember the profession I have made DAILY that my life is no longer my own. My opinions should be YOUR opinions. My decisions should be based on YOUR preference not my own. Oh Lord, if the love within me has waxed cold – refill me, renew me, heal what needs healing and help me to remember who it is I am in You. When I am faced with having to stand firm in Your Word, help me to represent You and to do it IN LOVE. Help me to remember ALL that You have forgiven ME for, help me to remember YOUR mercy, YOUR grace, YOUR love and to walk in that love with others. Help my words to be metered out with love, taking a firm stand IN You because You say in Revelations 3:16:
“So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Dearest Father, please help me remember that at the end of the day, at the end of my life I am accountable for my words and my actions with my life to You. Please give me the strength, the wisdom and the guidance I need to make the “pudding of me” a sweet aroma and taste to You, through You, for You and by You to others. Thank You Father for loving me in spite of the times when my flesh has risen up and my love has fallen short, forgive me and strengthen me in You. I love You, You ARE my Savior. You ARE the Lord of my life. You ARE my God. In Jesus name, mix my pudding well so that the proof of it will ALL be YOU. In Jesus’ name I pray AMEN
The main ingredient of the “pudding of us” MUST be that which was Jesus – LOVE. It is an ingredient I can personally attest runs low on the shelf of me… And I have to ask Holy Spirit to forgive me and renew me and refresh me so that I can walk standing firm in God’s truth, but doing so in His love. Our pudding goal should be that people will be around us and be able to do as in Psalm 34:8
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
To the BEST of our Holy Spirit guided ability. Because in the end, as stated in 1 John 2:17:
“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
May the pudding of you be a sweet aroma to God that rises ALL the way up to Heaven and may you be open to the mixing and adding and subtraction of Holy Spirit, for then, it is sure to come out SUPER yum!! May the proof of Who God is and who YOU are in Christ be ever present in the pudding of you (and in me), In Jesus’ name – AMEN!!!!
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