Many American home cooks have a copy of Fannie Farmer’s cookbook. Her publishers insisted that she pay for the first printing of 3000 copies because they were so certain they would lose money on it. The joke was on them, however, because the cookbook is still being revised, revamped, and reprinted over a hundred years later.
Fannie was both a student and teacher at the Boston Cooking School, but went on to found her own school on this day in 1902. The New York Times credits her with inventing the modern recipe, and being the first cook to insist on precise measurements. No more of this “pinch,” “heaping spoonful” or “enough salt to float an egg.” A teaspoon was a certain size, the same size every time, and it took three of them to make a tablespoon and 16 of those tablespoons to make a cup—and so on. What would we have done without Fannie? I recall a cooking magazine I used to get where, on the last page in the bottom corner, was printed, “In last month’s recipe for (whatever), 2 teaspoons should have been 2 tablespoons.” That might not sound like much to noncooks, but one is three times more than the other! If it were salt, you had better believe it would make a difference.
God has standards too. What else is that list of commandments we so often have our children memorize but the standard of moral behavior God expects of His people? If there is no standard, why did God say three times in Exodus that Moses needed to follow the pattern he had been shown (Ex 25:40; 26:30; 27:8) for building the tabernacle? And why, oh why, does Paul talk about teaching the same things in every church?
That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.1Cor4:17
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.1Cor7:17
God has a standard, a pattern, whether in the church or in our lives, and He expects us to live by it and teach exactly the same standard everywhere to everyone.
When I was a child, in times when most people cared to know what God did and did not want, a brother held a debate with a famous denominational preacher. The brother talked about living according to the law of Christ. The opposing preacher could hardly wait his turn and was on his feet objecting. “We live under a system of grace. There is no such thing as the law of Christ!” Our brother calmly turned to Gal 6:2 and read aloud, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Just as that gentleman did not want there to be any sort of work we needed to do (especially one in particular), many today do not want to face any accountability to a church and its elders, or any responsibility to their brothers and sisters. Worse than that, they expect God to allow them to worship and serve Him the way they want to rather than the way He wants them to. Yet, again and again, God has shown us that there is a standard; there is a law we must follow, and making changes to suit ourselves instead of Him, will ruin the results for us in a far worse way than mis-measuring the ingredients in a recipe.
Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son 2John1:9
Dene Ward
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