Daily Devotional – Sept 17, 2020

A good Thursday afternoon to you or morning depending on when you're watching this devotional I hope you're having a good week got a good night of rest and you're taking on your day. Well, you may be watching this late in the day and winding your day down.

Whatever the case I trust you're knowing God's blessing on this Thursday. Well the summer before my senior year of high school I got a job working for the rest working in the restaurant at the Holiday Inn in Oakbrook, Illinois.

I worked the 3 to 11 shift six days a week and my job was basically I was an assistant to the cook the main cook and We were the only two guys That worked the dinner shift. Well by that time I had plenty of experience grilling steaks and it didn't matter how thick they were didn't matter the cut ribeye New York strip sirloin, whatever I could grill those things I could or I could broil them anywhere from Rare to well done.

I've been doing that for a couple of years and because I worked a couple years in a Restaurant environment. I was a pretty quick learner in this new restaurant new kitchen new menu and different things to put together, but You know, I I was a it was kind of a quick learner in at all Variety of recipes to learn sandwiches to make how they were made and so on and so forth the biggest challenge, of course was different things on the you know doing on the grill of the stove that You know, I'd never done before so I had to be I had to be I had to be alert pay attention and Learning all I could well just how well and how much I had learned was very quickly put to put to the test.

Very abruptly I should say put to the test came to work one afternoon got there a little before three o 'clock punched in walk out there on the floor in the kitchen and The Regular cook I'm looking around.

I'm like, well, you know, where is this guy? What's going on? He's he's not there and 315 Still not there 330 still not there. Orders some late afternoon early dinner orders start coming in and the regular cook isn't there.

Well, then I find out that the real cook the real cook Wasn't coming in at all. In fact, he quit. He quit and he didn't let anybody know. Well, of course, you know Murphy's Law the day before was very slow, but not this day.

Business picked up a lot of people came to the restaurant for for dinner. So the dinner the dinner orders for dinner on the dinner menu were coming in. Well, one of the real waitresses must have realized that I was in over my head.

So she must have gone and gotten a hold of. Mr. Gunderson the Hotels assistant manager who was also the restaurant manager and he was a pretty well-trained chef himself. Well when he came back to the kitchen, I'm scrambling around juggling several orders and one of the orders that I was working on Was a pan-fried trout almond Dean now I'd watched that Process of pan frying a trout almond Dean a few times.

I mean weren't too many calls for it, but I'd seen it done before. And it was a pretty simple process I thought you get up you get a little frying pan and you scoop a Scoop of oil in the frying pan you turn the flame on get that that pan cook.

You know the oil heating up get it good hot in the meantime. Yeah, you take the trout and it was one with a head on it. You know, there's a gutted trout. Butterfly it open dip it in some some milk and then in the flour you know, so you get it breaded on both sides and And when the when the oil is nice and hot take a handful of sliced thin sliced almonds pop them in the in the oil so they start browning up and then you put the you put the trout in and Let it cook for a couple of minutes.

Then you flip the trout another couple minutes until it's golden brown and voila delish. Except Mr. Gunderson came in and he could smell that something wasn't quite right. He went to the stove and he saw this fish frying in the pan.

He lifted it up to smell it and exclaimed. Ah bacon grease where did you get that. And I pointed to one of the two containers next to the stovetop and He just threw the fish in the trash. Got a fresh frying pan.

Calmly calmly took a scoop of oil from the other Container put it in the pan and simply said You need to use this oil for pan frying not the bacon grease. Well, all I'd seen the cook do is take a pan or take a scoop of oil and put it in a pan.

I didn't realize there were two different kinds of oil in those containers. Well for the next 20 or 30 minutes or so Mr. Gunderson helped me out helped me get out all the orders and everything calmed down and Before he left the kitchen that evening.

He said Brian you're doing a good job. Thanks for sticking with it. Wow tell you truth when he Threw out that that trout in the trash. I I thought maybe I'd be looking for another job. But I thought of that night's experience of my bosses coming alongside of me and actually siding with me in the fiasco.

Instead of kicking me out because of it. I Thought of that because of a line in Dane Ortlund's book gentle and lowly. He writes this. He says Christ sides with you against your sin. Not against you because of your sin.

Let me read that for you again. Christ sides with you against your sin. Not against you because of your sin. Do you get that distinction? Does that? Does that fly in the face of? What you might? Naturally think.

That Christ is siding against me because of my sin. He says Christ sides with you against your sin not against you because of your sin. He goes on to explain. He said quote if you are part of Christ's own body.

Your sin evokes his deepest heart his compassion and pity. He takes part with you. That is he's on your side. He hates sin to be sure even more be even more vehemently than mr Gunderson hated trout fried in bacon grease.

He hates sin to be sure. But he loves you. Now to illustrate what he means Mr. Ortlund uses two illustrations one of them. He encourages us to think of a father's attitude. Toward a disease that is threatening the life of his child.

Now he loves the child. He's for the child. He's not going to Turn his back on the child. He's not going to despise the child. He's not going to work against the child because the child is diseased. He's going to hate the disease to be sure.

But he loves the child and he is for the child. But then secondly Ortlund refers to Hosea 11 and what the Lord says to his people to his children in verses 7 to 9. Listen to what the Lord said. He said my people are bent on turning away from me and though they call out to the Most High He shall not raise them up at all.

But then he says this. How can I give you up? Oh Ephraim? How can I hand you over Oh Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like the boy aim? My heart recoils within me my compassion grows warm and tender.

I Will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not a man the Holy One in your midst and I will not come in wrath. The essence of this passage is simply this. It is in consideration of his people's sins.

That God's heart goes out to them in compassion. Certainly, this is an inferior comparison, but think of it like this Mr. Gunderson when he walked back into that kitchen and saw my struggles and my weaknesses and my failings and Even my ruining of a very expensive dish.

When he walked back there and he saw all of this his heart went out in compassion toward me because I'd ruined an expensive dish. Ortlund concludes like this. He says. The sins of those who belong to God open the floodgates of his heart of compassion for us the dam breaks.

It is not our loveliness that wins his love. It is our unloveliness. Speaking of those who are Christ's. Those who belong to God those who are his children. Those who are his children he is for them and Against their sin.

He is not against you because of your sin. Let's keep that in mind. Maybe today your heart is burdened down and wearied because of sin. Maybe it's something you've said something you've thought something you've done and.

And You're you're wondering is now God utterly against me. No. He is for you against your sin. Our Father in our God, we thank you that you are for us. We thank you that you're for your children. For those who know Christ as their Savior.

Those sin weighs us down and burdens us and often leaves us wondering and feeling like maybe You're just utterly against us. May we be reminded that no the heart of a father goes out in love for his child and Lows the disease.

I Pray that we would remember that and be encouraged by it. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. All right, we'll have a good rest of your day however much of it is left and may God bless you on this Thursday.