Jesus in the Cheese Sauce

The following is a funny story to help you start your week. Those who teach youth group or Sunday School will find this especially humorous.

Last week I was listening to Kyle Idleman on a podcast from Southeast Christian Church. He gave a great message on the upcoming election and some suggestions for Christians on how we should be engaged in it. (You can view the message on the Sermons page of Southeast’s website.)

He told this particular story with the idea that, at times, Christians can force Jesus into everything we say and do. He even commented that when we are in Sunday School, if we don’t know the answer to a question, we should just say “Jesus.”  The answer “Jesus” will at least get you a sticker or gold star.

Here’s the story: He shared about a youth minister he served with in a previous ministry that wanted to talk to his students about ingredients to a good friendship. He decided to use macaroni and cheese as the object lesson and brought the ingredients on stage.

The first ingredient was butter, because butter makes everything better. Butter is kind and encouraging words.  Every relationships needs kind and encouraging words so we should have butter in our friendships.

The second ingredient was milk. Milk makes the macaroni and cheese healthy and milk makes us strong.  We need to have healthy friendships that make us stronger.

The final ingredient he talked about was the cheese sauce. So he had all the students together say “cheese sauce.” Then he had them repeat it louder and faster, “cheese sauce, cheese sauce.” Think about it for a second . . .  You got it, it’s Jesus!  Jesus is the ingredient every friendship needs.

While I certainly don’t argue we need Jesus in our relationships, sometimes we work too hard to find Jesus in the cheese sauce.  Hope that story made you smile.

What Everyone Needs

Over the weekend I was listening to a podcast from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. They recently hosted a guest speaker from Kenya and the podcast included both an interview with him along with his sermon from that Sunday.

In his message he shared three things that everyone needs.  One of the focuses he has in his church in Kenya is calling the men of his church and country to be better fathers.  Many of the problems they face are due to the lack of involvement of fathers in the lives of their children (sound familiar?).

The three things he focused on were these:

Acceptance – Affection – Affirmation

He made the point that each person needs to be accepted for who he/she is, each person needs affection expressed through words and actions that communicate love and each person needs affirmation through being celebrated.  God has placed that in each person’s heart.

What happens so many times is that people don’t have those needs met.  Either through absent parents or disconnected fathers, children don’t receive the acceptance, affection and affirmation they need.  There is a void in a person’s life when those things are given.  And those unmet needs can impact how a person looks at God.

The good news is that we have a heavenly Father who is able to meet those needs in our lives.  Whether he had awesome parents or absent parents, God wants to love us as a Father.

The speaker also shared these keen insights about our Father’s love.  When we look at our Father, we see that . . .

• Love has feet – God pursues His children, He runs after us
• Mercy has arms – Even though we sin, He still loves us
• Grace has a face – We see the joy in our Father when we return to Him

His message was a great reminder that we all have the same basic needs. Whether from the United States, Kenya or anywhere else, God has wired us to need and search for those three things.  And all of those things can be found in Him – a Father who gives acceptance, affection and affirmation to His children.