My fiancé and I were dining in the, oh so amazing, Aramark cafeteria on campus. We sat down with our food and a couple of other friends and began to eat. Not far into conversation, I realized that my fiancé had a very surprising look on her face. It was not a face that the current conversation would have provoked, so, of course, I asked her why she was making such a face. She looked at me, glanced back at her grilled cheese, and then looked back at me once again. She peeled the bread of her grilled cheese back so that the inside would be revealed. I investigated very shortly simply by glancing just to notice that this grilled cheese had no cheese. I might be mistaken, but is the cheese not essential to even the idea of having a grilled cheese?
It is sad, but do we not experience this type of issue everywhere we go. Perhaps we do not all constantly miss debatably the most essential portion of a grilled cheese, but we miss the most essential part of being a Christian. That is Christ
Jesus himself told a parable regarding this very issue. Though He did not compare the kingdom of God to a grilled cheese, His parable was very similar. Check it out in Matthew 13:24-30! Please read the entire story, but allow me to elaborate on verses 29 and 30.
“ ’No,’ he (the landowner in the parable) answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”
There is no doubt that there are people who claim to be members of the body of Christ that are not, even on the holy Bison Hill. Hard to believe I know! Weeds, though they might look like wheat, cannot be used for anything because they do not have within them the meat of the wheat. A grilled cheese without the cheese does not satisfy because it does not have the cheese. A Christian without Christ can not be used for anything in Christ.
Some of us have Christ. Some of us do not. Still, we grow together (in knowledge and in years). If you are one of those who simply practice a religion, or “serve God” because it is what is expected of you: Please allow me to encourage you to begin a serious relationship with your God through Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9-10). For those of you who already have that relationship: Can we begin to seriously share Christ as to supernaturally place the meat of the wheat within the weed? Can we begin to seriously offer to share our cheese? Now is the time to begin living as a serious witness to the God that we have a satisfying relationship with.
After my fiancé discovered her cheese-less grilled bread, our table spent the remainder of our time in the ARA joking around about how we could compare that very scenario to the Christian life.
Do not live for a religion. Live life in a relationship with our Father in such a way that others who live for a religion are encouraged to live in that same real relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you see me around campus now, I may be encouraging people to live cheesy. So, that is the challenge that I would like to extend to you all. Live cheesy, as if Christ really does reside within the depths of your person (because He does… I hope).
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