Meat

[Tenebrae]

One of the best meals I've ever had was a nice juicy steak, baked potato, and salad.

The steak was put into a hot pan, and cooked for about 5 minutes on each size and was a lovely place between medium and rare.

It was one of those meals where you come away feeling perfectly satisfied, nicely full not over full

my question?

Why on earth does a meat meal have to be so jolly complicated?

Even when Jesus spoke in a parables they were profound because they spoke of such complex ideas and concepts in such a way that anyone, a meat eater or milk drinker could understand

During my university education and nursing training a professor who I greatly admire told me that the best essays were never the longest or had the most big words in each sentences. They were the essays that could communicate the most complex of nursing terms or ideas in such a way that a lay person with no medical or nursing experience could read it, and understand exactly what was being said

I think at times we get so caught up in the complexities we see in our faith that we miss the shear outstanding amazingness of the God we serve in the some oft he most simple things. I'm on holiday, my first leave since starting the new job. This was the view from my hotel room. Imagine waking up to this supreme craftsmanship everyday

 

[K2K]

I love this thread, but perhaps many won't.

Anyway, the Lord often tells me to go to a get someting to eat and He talks to me while I am eating. He also often chooses the food for me. He sometimes has me get chips like tortilla chips, and sometimes pizza, and sometimes He has me get a big piece of meat like a steak.

Now it obviously is not that important what I eat, except that what He uses it to tell me what He is doing in my life. The pizza represents a puffed up piece of leaven bread, and it indicates that He is about to have me bring a teaching and doing ministry that tends to puff me up. The chips mean the opposite, and tend to mean I am just going to be sitting and receiving, or maybe fasting and just walking with Him. The big pieces of meat mean that He is going to give me a big teaching, which is going to have to be eaten (spiritually speaking) in pieces.

He once told me "Karl, why do people think a good pastors makes a good preachers? A good peacher needs to be a bit tart and tangy, like a good piece of sharpe cheese. It is someone that takes the milk of the gospel, processes it, let's it sit a bit, skims off the best part, processes it a little more and serves it."

I always find what He says interesting. Indeed, most every church that I have been to uses the pastor to do the preaching. Yet a pastor should be a kind of gentle leader, looking after the flock. A peacher doesn't need to be a leader, but is someone telling people about God, like a traveling evangelist. From what He said, it seems we should have more guest speakers at the podium, which might be a bit like me putting cheese on my baked potatoe. A pastor preching, lis ike a baked potateo without the toppings, which comes out bland and boring. It doesn't really go all that well with a good piece of meat, if you understand what I am saying.

 

[Lollerskates]

[snip]
my question?

Why on earth does a meat meal have to be so jolly complicated?

Even when Jesus spoke in a parables they were profound because they spoke of such complex ideas and concepts in such a way that anyone, a meat eater or milk drinker could understand

During my university education and nursing training a professor who I greatly admire told me that the best essays were never the longest or had the most big words in each sentences. They were the essays that could communicate the most complex of nursing terms or ideas in such a way that a lay person with no medical or nursing experience could read it, and understand exactly what was being said

I think at times we get so caught up in the complexities we see in our faith that we miss the shear outstanding amazingness of the God we serve in the some oft he most simple things. I'm on holiday, my first leave since starting the new job. This was the view from my hotel room. Imagine waking up to this supreme craftsmanship everyday

What you/your professor describes - that ability to communicate clearly to the most brilliant and most layperson of a mind - used to be called science. The scientific method was a series of detailed activities and record keeping that scientists did so that a layperson could come behind the scientist, read his/her lab report/journal, follow everything the scientist did, and reproduce the same results. That is why we had to write those arduous lab reports in high school and college in the "hypothesis, materials, procedure..." manner. It was what scientists did so that a layperson can pick up their notes and they are so detailed - yet clear enough that a layperson can understand. Today, we are just told to accept whatever.

Yes, it is sad that complexity has become synonymous with intelligence, or sophistication. Language is much more than grandiloquence and complex sentences.

 

[Lollerskates]

I love this thread, but perhaps many won't.

Anyway, the Lord often tells me to go to a get someting to eat and He talks to me while I am eating. He also often chooses the food for me. He sometimes has me get chips like tortilla chips, and sometimes pizza, and sometimes He has me get a big piece of meat like a steak.

Now it obviously is not that important what I eat, except that what He uses it to tell me what He is doing in my life. The pizza represents a puffed up piece of leaven bread, and it indicates that He is about to have me bring a teaching and doing ministry that tends to puff me up. The chips mean the opposite, and tend to mean I am just going to be sitting and receiving, or maybe fasting and just walking with Him. The big pieces of meat mean that He is going to give me a big teaching, which is going to have to be eaten (spiritually speaking) in pieces.

He once told me "Karl, why do people think a good pastors makes a good preachers? A good peacher needs to be a bit tart and tangy, like a good piece of sharpe cheese. It is someone that takes the milk of the gospel, processes it, let's it sit a bit, skims off the best part, processes it a little more and serves it."

I always find what He says interesting. Indeed, most every church that I have been to uses the pastor to do the preaching. Yet a pastor should be a kind of gentle leader, looking after the flock. A peacher doesn't need to be a leader, but is someone telling people about God, like a traveling evangelist. From what He said, it seems we should have more guest speakers at the podium, which might be a bit like me putting cheese on my baked potatoe. A pastor preching, lis ike a baked potateo without the toppings, which comes out bland and boring. It doesn't really go all that well with a good piece of meat, if you understand what I am saying.

God does this with me with a lot of things, but most notably through martial arts. He would tell me how to get in form, how and when to stretch, what my limit is for the day, how to execute my katas, and so much more. He talks to me philosophically while I train, and teaches me how not to "show off," or overextend myself - especially because I have an audience. One time, I did "show off," and because I didn't follow His training (and didn't stretch,) I had a painful strain. Nothing serious, but of course I heard Him say "What did I tell you..." Granted, I have had only 6 months of training in my entire life, but all of my sparring partners are at least black belt (and swear I am at least black belt in multiple forms.) God is amazing; I miss those days of intimacy with Him.

I hear you man, enjoy every nanosecond of Him. It was nice reading your post.

 

[Optimax]

One of the best meals I've ever had was a nice juicy steak, baked potato, and salad.

The steak was put into a hot pan, and cooked for about 5 minutes on each size and was a lovely place between medium and rare.

It was one of those meals where you come away feeling perfectly satisfied, nicely full not over full

my question?

Why on earth does a meat meal have to be so jolly complicated?

Even when Jesus spoke in a parables they were profound because they spoke of such complex ideas and concepts in such a way that anyone, a meat eater or milk drinker could understand

During my university education and nursing training a professor who I greatly admire told me that the best essays were never the longest or had the most big words in each sentences. They were the essays that could communicate the most complex of nursing terms or ideas in such a way that a lay person with no medical or nursing experience could read it, and understand exactly what was being said

I think at times we get so caught up in the complexities we see in our faith that we miss the shear outstanding amazingness of the God we serve in the some oft he most simple things. I'm on holiday, my first leave since starting the new job. This was the view from my hotel room. Imagine waking up to this supreme craftsmanship everyday

Wow!

What a view!

Wow!

What a wonderful and true thought on our amazing and awesome God.

 

[K2K]

God does this with me with a lot of things, but most notably through martial arts. He would tell me how to get in form, how and when to stretch, what my limit is for the day, how to execute my katas, and so much more. He talks to me philosophically while I train, and teaches me how not to "show off," or overextend myself - especially because I have an audience. One time, I did "show off," and because I didn't follow His training (and didn't stretch,) I had a painful strain. Nothing serious, but of course I heard Him say "What did I tell you..." Granted, I have had only 6 months of training in my entire life, but all of my sparring partners are at least black belt (and swear I am at least black belt in multiple forms.) God is amazing; I miss those days of intimacy with Him.

I hear you man, enjoy every nanosecond of Him. It was nice reading your post.

 

[probinson]

Why on earth does a meat meal have to be so jolly complicated?

Even when Jesus spoke in a parables they were profound because they spoke of such complex ideas and concepts in such a way that anyone, a meat eater or milk drinker could understand

During my university education and nursing training a professor who I greatly admire told me that the best essays were never the longest or had the most big words in each sentences. They were the essays that could communicate the most complex of nursing terms or ideas in such a way that a lay person with no medical or nursing experience could read it, and understand exactly what was being said

This is an excellent post, and I agree wholeheartedly with your professor.

A good part of what I do in my job is training people. These are new hires that are coming into our company with no clue how we do things. I don't begin my training by saying, "I know what I'm talking about, and you don't know anything, so sit down, shut up and listen to what I have to say". Instead, I strive to make the material as simple to understand as possible, but I do so in a way that does not make the person I'm training feel inferior or condescended to in any way. No 2 people learn the same way or at the same pace, and so I adapt my training to the individual in a way that helps them and encourages them.

I believe that a good many "meat meals", as you put it, are made unnecessarily complicated solely to demonstrate the superiority of the one preparing the meal. But I don't call these meals "meat". They are nothing more than "fluff". I equate it to when you buy a bag of potato chips and it looks so big and full in the store, but then when you get it home and open it up, you realize that 3/4 of the bag was full ofnothing but air.

At the heart of this issue, I believe, is pride. The person presenting an unnecessarily complex "meat meal" needs to feel superior to those they are feeding, and so they "fluff" the message to make it appear full on the outside, but when opened up and examined closer, it's just hot air.

 

[TasManOfGod]

I think some make understanding the Word so complex because they haven't been able to make the simplicity of it work for them.