"Flinging Cookies" -- April 24, 2010

I love cookies.  To be honest, I particularly enjoy eating them.  However, I also enjoy baking them.  And I really enjoy flinging them.  At Girdwood Chapel we fling cookies several times a year.  It started when we were doing a series based on OUTFLOW by Steve Sjogren.  Pastor Sjogren is a big advocate of “servant evangelism” and believes that “small acts done with great love can change the world.”  He has another website that's entirely devoted to the concept of Servant Evangelism.  In that book he talked of the parable of the sower from Luke 8:

¹After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, ²and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; ³Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

⁴While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
⁹His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

” ‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.’

¹¹“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

The point of this story, says Steve, is that we need be passionate about spreading God’s love wherever we can, knowing that some of it will fall on the rocks and some of it on the thorns, etc.  But some of it will fall on good soil and will bear fruit.   We need to be passionate.  We need to be indiscriminate.  And we need to share God’s love wherever and whenever we can.


So, at Girdwood Chapel, we're "Cookie Flingers"  We go around and hand out cookies to persons, pretty much indiscriminately.  Each little baggie has about 3 cookies in it and a note.  Today's note said the following:

Just a simple way to share some love.

These cookies may contain nuts, though. So, if you’re allergic, please share the love with someone else :)

www.girdwoodchapel.net

Malaria Awareness Weekend -- April 24-25
3rd Annual Chili CookOff --Sun. May 9th

If anyone asked why we were doing it, we just said, "Because God loves you."  Will large volumes of people be knocking on our church door tomorrow because of it? No.  But, for a brief moment did the random people we met feel the love of God and see a church putting God's love into action?  I hope so. 



Love God.  Love others.  Change the World

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