God's recipe

One time when my daughter was very small she wanted to surprise us by baking a cake all by herself. So I gave her a recipe and told her to follow it exactly. 

"I can do it, Mommy. Go away." 

I stayed a little longer trying to explain about the oven and being sure to use oven mitts. "Mommy, I can do it."

So I left her to the task.

Hours later for dessert we washed down (with much milk) the flattest, hardest, driest cake ever baked. But we ate it with love knowing that it was baked with love. 

So the next day I asked my daughter to help me bake a cake. We set the oven temp. We lined up all the ingredients. And measured and mixed and baked. It was a beautiful cake.

She admitted that she dumped all ingredients into the bowl and mixed it all up at once then put the pan into the oven without preheating. 

She used all the right ingredients on the recipe, she baked the exact number of minutes, but did not follow the directions. 

Many people do the same with God's word. They want to do it their own way without following exactly. God expects righteousness and obedience. We can only be righteous and obedient by following His "recipe" precisely the way He intended it. 

The Bible is not a buffet, where we can pick and choose the verses that we like and leave the rest.