The raw ingredients of life

Guy P. Duffield, my father-in-law, never passed up an opportunity to visually illustrate a text. More than 50 years after he gave a certain message, some oldsters recalled the morning he began his message by uncovering a small table containing the ingredients that go into making a cake.

First he poured several cups of flour into a mixing bowl and asked, “Is there anyone here who will volunteer to come forward and eat a cup or two of the flour?” People looked on in amusement and slight revulsion.

Then he poured in a cup of cooking oil and asked for someone to come forward and drink it. Of course, there were no takers. After his trying to give someone a bit of baking soda and one or two other ingredients, Mrs. Duffield came forward with a chocolate cake topped with delicious frosting.

“Now would anyone care to volunteer to have some of this?” he asked amidst the smiles and chuckles of the congregation. Then he said, “What I have done illustrates the truth of Romans 8:28,” adding, “God uses all kinds of experiences in our lives that are distasteful when viewed separately, to produce something wonderful such as a chocolate cake. Taken as separate incidents, they are hard to understand but when we look back, we can see the hand of God using all of these events to accomplish His purpose.”

That’s one message people never forgot! God controls the ingredients – the events and circumstances of your life – as well as the temperature of the oven. When you are convinced that He – not chance or fate – is in control, what seems distasteful can better be taken by faith.