Baking the Christianity Cake

On my 2^nd spiritual birthday last August 23, I decided to bake a chocolate cake to treat myself and my boys at home. I challenged myself to bake a full-sized cake this time. Cakes are trickier to bake than cupcakes because of the batter’s larger volume. A slight drop or increase in the oven temperature, or a little lapse in the measurement of ingredients can easily cause big disasters in baking, especially for full-sized cakes.

Baking always makes me realize a lot of things about being a Christian. When it dawned on me that it has actually only been 2 years since I received Jesus Christ in my life and obeyed Him thru water baptism, it was another proof that like baking a cake, being a REAL Christian is not like using a no-bake fudge brownie mix. There are no easy 1-2-3 steps to becoming a full-fledged faithful follower of Christ. Being a real Christian knows no shortcuts. Like baking, it needs precise measurement and type of ingredients, exact oven temperature, plenty of patience, and earning some burns in the process.

Realizing that I am only a 2 year old Christian made me feel so small. I suddenly felt like a toddler crawling amidst the walking and running legs of Christian grown-ups in the church … I have a long way to go but I know I’m growing... “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” – 1 PETER 2:2-3

DO SIFT AND MEASURE

“Lord, how soon can I fully serve you?” I lamented in my heart. When you bake, it is imperative that one must have ALL the CORRECT ingredients and utensils needed for baking such as standard measuring spoons, measuring cups, right size of baking pans, etc… and of course a good working oven!

This is why Baking is different from Cooking. When you’re a professional chef or a creative homemaker, whipping up gourmet or classic dishes in the kitchen sometimes don’t require strict measurements anymore. It’s all about “tantya”. A pinch of salt and a dash of pepper can vary from one cook to another.

In baking, you can’t merely trust your gut and taste buds. Ingenuity will not often be praised. When the recipe calls for Cake flour instead of All-Purpose Flour, then use cake flour to be safe. Baking powder cannot be an alternative for baking soda. Each one has a different effect. And always remember to SIFT dry ingredients together. I have learned how sifting and measuring have worked well in baking my Christian Life.

“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man (or woman) therefore purge himself (or herself) from these , he (or she) shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work”-- 2 TIMOTHY 2:20-21

Sifting after all is all about making the dry ingredients finer… removing the lumps, filtering the coarse elements, and thereby making the flour mixture clean and pure. Sifting can be tedious. In fact some recipes even call for sifting the dry ingredients 3 TIMES! When I became a Christian I also went through major sifting. God saw I had a lot of impurities that needed to be sieved and thrown out – my chain-smoking habits, partying, hate, envy, vengeance, a handful of wrong people… and the list goes on. I had to be sifted more than 3 times. It is just amazing how God still wants to bake a beautiful cake out of a lumpy flour mixture like me. Our God just never gives up on us.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” – JOHN 15:1-2

From living a life of excess, God has now carefully measured my new life according to the right proportions. Years ago, even though I was earning a lot, my finances always fell short. Now, I practically don’t have a regular income but all our bills are paid on time, my family enjoys good meals, we are even blessed to be able to afford weekend movies and dinner dates, and everything is just ENOUGH. His Word continues to be the spatula that levels off the ingredients of my Christian Life. Indeed, God only gives us what we need.

DO NOT OVERMIX & OVERBAKE

As a young Christian, most of the time I get so excited about my new lease on life. I want to lead right away… I want to be equipped to minister… I want to disciple my own circle of care… of course I learned that none of these things can happen on my OWN volition. GOD HAS TO CALL ME FOR IT and if it’s really God’s will, these things will happen IN HIS TIME.

A beginning baker always has a difficulty deciding whether the batter is already over-mixed or under-mixed. In baking, there is NO EXACT time measurement or number of whips or whisking motions to determine the right consistency of the mixture. Experienced bakers just know, while beginning bakers can only get this kind of wisdom thru baking classes and constantly learning from practicing at home.

In the Christian Life, this is basically similar to DISCERNMENT. Just like experienced bakers, mature Christians have fuller skills in discerning as compared to younger ones like me because they are filled with the Spirit as they live in fervent Prayer.

When I just started out in my baking hobby, I really had some struggle with over-mixing my batter so I did what I had to do. I formally enrolled in one of Heny Sison’s baking class to find out. With constant practice at home, I don’t over mix my batter anymore.

In the same way, I learned that whipping up the right consistency of my Christian Life is not based on my own “standards”. Just because I think I’m ready to disciple, or just because I think I have lots of talents to share with the church doesn’t mean that I AM REALLY READY TO SERVE. Only God knows and I can only know if I have the Spirit in me. And the way to be filled with the Spirit is to learn and live thru The Word.

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” – 2 CORINTHIANS 2:13-14

At home, I work with a very challenging oven. The oven is kind of old and the heat is very inconsistent. I learned in baking class that you should never rely on the existing heat gauge of ovens that are just designed for homes. Unless you’re using the industrial type or the really expensive and imported brands, you should always use a separate oven thermometer. And since my oven is not high-tech I have to constantly check my cake and practically kneel in front of it and watch out for any slight drop or increase in the temperature.

While I was watching my cake rise and enduring the heat wafting from my rickety-old oven, it came to me that becoming a Christian in this world is like being baked in a very non-reliable oven like this. That no matter how sifted and measured our new lives have become, and no matter how we have mixed up the right consistency in our learning and living of the Scripture, we are never going to be spared from the dreadful heat of this rickety-old oven A.K.A the sinful material world.

The world we live in right now feels and works very well like my non-reliable old oven – it’s rusty… it’s inconsistent… it can over bake your cake if you don’t watch it! But God is determined to make a beautiful cake out of all of us despite this junk of an oven! That’s why He is also kneeling down and patiently waiting for us to rise. He’s there constantly pricking us up with the toothpick of His Word to see if we are already cooked. God is the best baker, don’t you agree?

My chocolate cake that Saturday afternoon was not THAT perfect but it was saved by the grace of my perfect chocolate fudge frosting. Just like me, and I guess just like everyone else, I didn’t come out of the oven 100% perfect because the oven (this world) is problematic… BUT… with God’s GRACE we have been covered and sweetened with perfect fudge frosting.