Chicken Manure, Ice Cream and God

Let's say you grew up eating chicken manure with milk and sugar (CMWMAS) poured over it and everyone called it 'ice cream.' Even though it tasted nasty, it was the only thing you had to eat so you ate it. It was all you ever knew. Although putting chocolate or vanilla helped a little, you could barely choke it down.

But let's say when you turned twenty-five and you were in a far away land (say Texas), you were given a bowl of BLUE BELL ice cream. (For those of you who have never tasted BLUE BELL, it is 'roll-your-eyes-into-the-back-of-your-head' good. It is almost a spiritual experience to eat BLUE BELL Homemade Vanilla...but I digress.) your first bite of BLUE BELL ice cream is great and you realize that what you had been eating (CMWMAS) is NOT ice cream.

So what do you do once you have tasted BLUE BELL? Go back to to CMWMAS? Doubtful. Defend CMWMAS, saying it wasn't all that bad? BLUE BELL would open your eyes to a whole new meaning of what ice cream is. What if you never got to eat a bowl of BLUE BELL? You would never know that you were being cheated would you?

Would you go to other CMWMAS eating people and try to convince them there was something better out there? It would be like trying to convince people in the 1400's the world was not flat. They would dismiss you as a lunatic. Their lack of context would keep them from even trying BLUE BELL, out of fear of letting go of CMWMAS.

It is the same way with religion. You get used to doing it one way and are very uncomfortable doing it any other way. Even though there are problems with the theology or it may lack certain things (like the presence of the Holy Spirit) it is still better than nothing. You could redefine 'spiritual gifts' and pretend like you have what you are supposed to have but how long will God let you do that? Predictable religion is much more comfortable than believing in an unpredictable God.

If you never experienced the presence of God, would you miss it? If you thought the apostolic age was over and manifestations of the Holy Spirit were done, how would you treat the ones experiencing it? Would you dismiss them like a bunch of misguided children (at best) or attack them like heretics (at worse)?

I am saying there is such a thing as BLUE BELL. It is good...very good. And all we have to do is have the courage to ask for it. God says He will not give you a stone if you ask for bread. If you are persistent when you knock, He will answer. I Corinthians says you have to 'eagerly seek' spiritual gifts...and God will gladly give you what your heart desires.

Are you ready for some BLUE BELL?