Keys to the Kingdom
By Carolyn Tucker
Wasabi vs Guacamole
From the time I was born until I was five years old, my family lived in California. We had an avocado tree in our back yard and my family enjoyed eating that fruit/veggie. My favorite way to eat an avocado is simply peeled, sliced, and salted. I make homemade guacamole simply by smashing it with a fork and adding salt. In 2008, we took a family vacation to Gulf Shores, Alabama, and on one of our outings we dined at a Japanese buffet. As I made my food choices, I spotted a big batch of guacamole and scooped a big pile onto my plate and joined my hubby and kids at the table. WOW! Did I get a surprise! This was not guacamole; it was wasabi, which is a Japanese word that means green, creamy FIRE! It instantly brought on a sharp mouth-burning and sinus-clearing heat that was unbelievable! My family found my stupidity to be quite humorous. I can’t remember if my tears were from laughing or pain – probably both.
Looks sure can be deceiving! If I’d used my brain, I would have known that this green creamy stuff would not be guacamole since I wasn’t in a Mexican restaurant. Not everything that glitters is gold.
In writing to the church of Galatia, apostle Paul packs a great punch of strong flavor to the Christ followers there.“Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside). [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap” (Galatians 6:7 AMP). Believers are not to be fooled, mistaken, led astray, or tricked. No one mocks the justice/ways of God and gets by with it. Whatever you sow, that’s what you’ll get. You’ll reap exactly what you plant.
God’s Word declares what sin is, but our culture persists in being mislead by redefining the truth. And Christ followers must not be guilty of ignoring the holy scriptures either. I could have sat in that Japanese restaurant and beat my fist on the table and screamed that I was eating guacamole, but it wouldn’t have changed the truthful facts that I had been deceived. My mouth was painfully reaping what I had planted in it. We must be on high alert and remember that God’s love, mercy, grace, and divine forgiveness cannot alter His law of sowing and reaping.
God would not be God if we could sow evil and reap good. Believers can’t afford to be misled by thinking we can change God’s theology in the way He operates. There’s a rich payoff in prayerfully studying His Word. Everything that God declares can be taken to the bank. Since God cannot be outwitted, no one should be deceived in thinking that he/she can dodge the consequences of a dimwitted choice.
It’s been said: “A man is free to choose, but is not free to choose the consequences of his choice.” I was free to choose whatever I wanted from the buffet. I made one foolish mistake and suffered the consequences immediately. Could I have avoided making this wrong choice? Yes, by considering what ethnic restaurant I was in and then using common sense.
The Key: Carefully evaluate everything that seems to be too good to be true.