Category: The Cure for Ben and Jerry’s Part One

The Cure for Ben and Jerry’s Part One

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The Cure for Ben and Jerry’s Part Two

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”   Gal 5:22-24 (ESV)

After being challenged during our last session by Pastor Tim Shorey, some of the gang from the Families for Christ weekend found themselves in the lobby of Victory Hall on the grounds of America’s Keswick. I was sitting at a table with a good brother in Christ, James Getz, just going over those things happening around us over the weekend. James has earned the nickname “Happy Feet” because of his ability to just get up and dance as if the Holy Spirit has once again filled his soul. When the dancing is done he goes back into this meek, mild-mannered state of comical being that is his trademark. It is a privilege to acknowledge this brother as being a Paul in my life.

James constantly keeps 3×5 notecards in his top shirt pocket and they are covered in notes. James says this helps him remember what is going on but a former Colony administrator, Pastor Mike Woods, has joked in the past that if you what to know what James is thinking you need to read those 3×5 cards. So just out of the blue, James announces that he would like to play a game with us. Now you never can tell with this brother, he just might be pulling a prank on you. But this wasn’t the case on this cool and comfortable Saturday night. He shares his blank 3×5 cards and tells us to write the fruits of the Spirit on them.

My wife rattles them off, I have to open my Bible and look for them and the other couples that were involved did shout out’s while they wrote. The thing to note here is that different translations can result in have too many words for the same fruit. That meant that there were some cards that had ten to eleven fruits of the Spirit instead of nine. Once we got over the translation hump, everyone’s list boiled down to the ESV list of fruit. And they are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control! And we all went and said, “against such things there is no law.” Okay James, what’s next?

Now before I go on I would like you, Brothers (and Sisters…I know of some of you who secretly get F.F’s), to write them down as well. Write them as a list and give yourself some space between them. Now James tells us to circle three fruits that you believe you have down pat. Then he tells us to check off three fruits in which we are struggling with. After this he asks us if we are all done he asks this question…”Why didn’t you circle or check off the other three on your list?” The challenge here is not to do better with what fruit you struggle or not struggle with but why you are not considering the other three. James then says that the next time we all meet let’s discuss how we are doing with those fruits that we didn’t acknowledge.

This was in great contrast to the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that was used to illustrate how idolatry takes up residency in our hearts and causes conflict. Even if we do put down the ice cream and begin to replace it with the fruits of the Spirit, we can still fall short in the maintenance of our heart condition. If “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  (Jer 17:9 ESV) then maybe what Pastor Shorey said on Saturday night has credence…”Get on your face and come to repentance. Draw near to God and expect grace from Him.” If you have an issue with remembering this simple command, maybe you could write it down on a 3×5 card and keep it in your top shirt pocket. I have a funny feeling that this what James does. – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular Freedom Fighter contributor

GPS – God’s Positioning System: Obadiah
Compass Pointers: “So, this is the answer. Every flower and every fruit has a stalk and every stalk has a root, and long before there is any bloom there must be a careful tending of the root and the stalk. This is where the misunderstanding lies—we think that we get the flower and the fragrance and the fruit by some kind of magic, instead of by cultivation.”  Who Put Jesus on the Cross?  A.W.Tozer

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 24:1-2; Level 2: Proverbs 24:1-10
Anchored to the Rock: Prayer is the acid test of devotion. Samuel Chadwick

The Cure for Ben and Jerry’s Part One

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The Cure for Ben and Jerry’s Part One 

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” James 4:1-3 (ESV) 

My wife told me to put my shirt on when she seen my skin glowing red, my sinuses were throbbing and my “Fanny Perpendicular” was sore from some rough boating during the Memorial Day weekend. But it was only Tuesday and I thought this all would clear up by the time our FFC ministry weekend would begin. I was wrong and I started feeling that I would be hindered from receiving any message that God would have for us. Wrong again! He is faithful and I am a “Dupa” (my wife tells me it’s Polish for “Fanny Perpendicular”). So even if I went into the Families for Christ weekend sore and sunburned it didn’t deter me from finding something to glean from it and here it is. 

For those of you who suffer from the desire to eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream there is a cure. If you feel the need to eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream there is a cure. If your demand turns to an expectation of eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, there is a cure. If you feel disappointed or feel the need to punish because your desire, need, demand and expectation of eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream has not been met, there is a cure. This is not to suggest that “Chubby Hubby” or “Chunky Monkey” was the focal point of the following list but they are, in fact, levels of development in conflict. 

Pastor Tim Shorey, of Trinity Fellowship Church in Toms River, NJ, had walked us through how to root out conflict in our relationships during his last session of the weekend and he gave us the slow motion look at it. The use of Ben and Jerry’s is just a silly way of replacing the use of the word idol (just for the record, I am fan of the “Americone Dream” flavor of Ben and Jerry’s). When you at look into James 4:1-10 and put it into slow motion the development for conflict becomes clear. It all starts with a simple phrase that we hear our children/grandchildren use and we have said it ourselves. “I want something” and since it has been bought it up I desire a decent size bowl of Americone Dream ice cream with hot fudge…and whipped cream…and a cherry on top. 

From that simple desire it can escalate from there. Desire turns to need, need turns to demand, demand turns to expectation, expectation leads to disappointment and disappointment results in punishment. This would be why James asks his readers, ”What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” A quote that Pastor Tim gave us that puts this into perspective, “Whatever controls your heart exercises an inescapable influence on your life.” So what to do at this point? Well I said there was a cure and here is what Pastor Tim prescribes. 

First, be born again!! James 1:18
Second, call it what it is. Idolatry!! James 4:4
Thirdly, stop being cocky!! James 4:6
Fourthly, Draw near to God and expect grace from God!! James 4:8

This is a great remedy to clean out the garbage that builds up in our hearts. I am sure that the last three steps are on a daily need-to-do basis but there is something that we can refill our hearts with, I’ll cover that in the next Freedom Fighter. In the meantime Brothers, Ben and Jerry’s is a mighty fine ice cream to enjoy but when the heat is on, it melts. That is the truth for any of those idols that have influence in our lives. – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular contributor to Freedom Fighter 

GPS – God’s Positioning System: 1 Kings 22; Psalm 129; Proverbs 10

Compass Pointers: “Now brethren, this is one of our greatest faults in our Christian lives. We are allowing too many rivals of God. We actually have too many gods. We have too many irons in the fire. We have too much theology that we don’t understand. We have too much churchly institutionalism. We have too much religion. Actually, I guess we just have too much of too much! God is not in our beings by Himself! He cannot do His will in us and through us because we refuse to put away the rivals. When Jesus Christ has cleansed everything from the temple and dwells there alone, He will work!” I Talk Back to the Devil   A.W. Tozer

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 23:7; Level 2: Proverbs 23:12-17

Anchored to the Rock: If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith. Martin Luther