The other
day, as I spoke with a friend of mine, GOD showed me how much making jams and
jellies is like what we go through when we become HIS KIDS, and as we learn to
live for Christ!!!
Many years ago, my next door neighbor, Granny, taught me how to make jams and jellies. Before we could even begin to make jam or jelly, Granny and I had to go pick fruit. The one thing that you have to know about picking fruit is that different fruits ripen at different times in different seasons, so you have to know what fruit is ripe and when.
When picking fruit, you ONLY pick fruit that is in season, or in other words, fruit that is ripe or ready to be picked. If fruit isn’t ripe, then it isn’t sweet and it won’t make the best jam. It won’t hurt if you accidentally manage to get some unripe fruit when you are picking, but don’t pick buckets full of it!!!
You know, GOD chooses us or picks us, but first HE waits until we are ripe and ready to be picked!!! When the time is right, GOD finds us and saves us!!!
In many cases, we think that we have found GOD, but that is NOT correct. GOD knows exactly where we are, and what we have been doing all along. HE has been watching and waiting for us to get to the place where we can be picked.
After fruit is picked, it must be cleaned by first washing it in cold water. You don’t add soap or anything else!!! You simply put your fruit in a colander in the sink, and allow the water to flow over it.
After you rinse the fruit and wash out your sink, you pour your fruit into the sink and rinse out your colander. You’ll need it again. Next cover your fruit with cold water and you begin to work it.
Working your fruit in cold water helps remove any excess dirt and anything else that might be on your fruit. Then any stems, and leaves have to be removed. Once all this is done, you rinse your fruit again in cold water.
After GOD saves us, HE begins to clean us up by washing us in HIS WORD. GOD doesn’t just bring HIS WORD to us one time. HE washes us over and over again with HIS WORD!!! As we are taught, and as we read and study THE WORD, IT goes into our hearts and it changes us and IT makes us NEW!!! THE WORD continually washes us and cleans away the leftover particles of our lives like the dirt that is washed away from the fruit.
Just as the water washing over the fruit cleans it, GOD’s WORD cleans us and purifies us!!! You can’t make jelly or jam without water and you can’t get saved and stay saved without JESUS, who is THE WORD!!!
John 1:1, 14 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
In the process of cleaning us up, GOD begins to remove the stems and the leaves that were once a part of us. These are the things of this world that are still attached to us; things that will cause us to be weary and drain us of our energy! These are the things that we will trip over, if they are NOT removed!!! If these things are allowed to remain, they will cause us to become discouraged and overwhelmed.
As the fruit is worked, it must be separated!!! The good, unblemished fruit is set to one side and the rest of the fruit is worked so that any spot, blemish, or bad place is found.
When GOD saves us, HE begins to work with us!!! First, HE separates us from those of the world. HE separates us from the influence of those who do NOT want to live for HIM. In most cases, these folks just don’t want to be around us!!!
There are those few who do want to still be our friends, and they are the ones that we love and pray for. However, we cannot let them drag us back into the world or influence us!!!! We have to ask GOD to help us and we have to pray that GOD will bring them in and save them.
Spots and blemishes on fruit can be caused by many things, so they have to be removed in order to find out what has caused them. There can be a rotten place underneath or there can be mold or fungus. Sometimes, you will even find a worm hiding inside the fruit under a blemish or small hole, but many times a spot or blemish is ONLY on the outside of the fruit and you find that the fruit underneath is still good.
A bad place is a place where the fruit has been bruised, torn, cut or maybe even has cracked open. Sometimes, a bird or squirrel has eaten on the fruit creating a bad place. Birds like to stick their beaks in the fruit leaving deep gouges. While both birds and squirrels like to eat the fruit, in most cases, they ONLY eat some of the fruit and they leave the rest to ruin. Any bad place that you find in the fruit has to be removed. If it is NOT removed, it will cause the fruit to ruin.
Spots, blemishes, and bad places have to be removed with a sharp knife. A sharp knife will slice into the fruit with ease and will NOT damage the fruit, but instead it will leave a clean cut.
GOD removes our spots and blemishes. As we learn THE WORD, GOD uses HIS WORD which is compared to a 2 EDGED-SWORD (being able to cut both ways) to remove or cut away the bad places, so that what’s left can be used!!!
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We inspect the fruit to find the spots, the blemishes, and the bad places, but GOD knows us and HE sees our hearts and our souls!!! GOD sees the good and the bad in us. HE sees those things that need to be cut away!!! HE removes the bad stuff, so that we can be used for HIS purpose. HE wants us to be able to grow and prosper in HIM!!!
Unfortunately, there are times when a piece of fruit is truly ruined and is NOT usable. Some pieces of fruit can NOT be saved or used. They have to be thrown away. They are ONLY good for feeding the chickens or the hogs!!!
Unlike the fruit that is too ruined to be of any use and has to be thrown away, NO ONE has ever been so bad that they can’t be used by GOD!!! GOD can SAVE ANYONE!!! GOD never throws anyone away!!! You can’t be too ruined to be redeemed!!! GOD can change and use anyone that HE pleases!!! GOD sees the GOOD IN EACH PERSON!!!
We are beautiful in GOD’s eyes!!! And when HE saves us, we become HIS precious children!!! HE cleans us up!!! HE changes us inside and out!!! There is no one that GOD can’t change!!! Is anything too hard for GOD?
Jeremiah 32:27 (KJV) Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
If you allow GOD to use you, HE WILL!!!!
GOD may have to take a knife and cut way the bad places. HE may have to remove the bruises or cut away the damage, but what’s left is good and can be used. No one is ever too rotten. No one is ever too worn out or too beat down to be used by GOD!!! GOD doesn’t throw us away, but HE can and HE will get rid of the bad stuff in our lives!!!
HE takes away our pain and our suffering. HE mends our broken hearts and our broken lives. HE repairs the torn places and makes us whole again. GOD removes any damage and makes us new again.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Once the fruit has been worked, and all the bad places have been removed, the fruit is placed in a large pot and covered with water. Then it is placed on the stove and the cooking begins. Most fruit is cooked on low heat to prevent burning and sticking. Some folks like their pots to be very large and as wide as possible so that the fruit cooks faster and more evenly.
Sugar and sometimes, lemon juice, are added to the fruit once it starts to get hot. The heat helps the sugar dissolve. The acid from the lemon juice combines with the natural pectin from the fruit and helps your jam or jelly to set-to jell. Sugar is added to jam and jelly to help it jell, but it also adds much needed sweetness!!!
As it cooks, the heat causes the fruit to begin to break down and become more soft and tender. The heat also causes the fruit to release all the sweet goodness and flavor that enriches and makes the jam or jelly delicious.
Once the fruit has cooked and becomes soft, it is mashed or crushed to release pectin which causes the jam to set (or jell) more easily. The heat from the cooking process also cleans and purifies the jam or jelly.
Many times, GOD allows us to be crushed by the things of this old world because what we go through makes us better and we learn through experience!!! He allows us to go through the fire so that we may be purified and become beautiful!!!
Once the fruit has been cooked long enough, you’ll find that the seeds are more easily removed from the fruit. When you begin to see most of the seeds separate from the fruit, it is time to pour your fruit into a colander so that it can be strained and you can remove the seeds.
The colander catches all the fruit and seeds, while allowing the juice to escape back into your bowl or pan. When you make jelly, you strain out all the fruit and set it aside. You only use the fruit juice when you make jelly. Jelly is clear, sweet, and beautiful to look at, but it has none of the fruit in it!!! And because it has no fruit pieces in it, jelly is easily spread on toast or crackers!!!
However, if you are making jam, you ONLY use the colander to remove the seeds or the pits. Then you pour your fruit and juice back into your pot to continue to cook, so that you can make a beautiful, sweet jam. When you pour up your jam, you will see that cooking has caused the fruit in your jam to take on a beautiful translucent appearance.
Both jellies and jams are poured into glass jars that have been washed and boiled to make sure they are clean!!! Then after the jelly or jam has been poured inside the jars, they are sealed and boiled again so that they will last longer and NOT spoil easily!!!
Once the jam or jelly has been processed in a rolling water bath, and allowed to cool, each jar is tested to make sure that it is sealed!!! The sealed jars are then set on a shelf in a cool dry place until someone opened them and partakes of the beautiful, sweet concoction inside!!!
Many years ago, my next door neighbor, Granny, taught me how to make jams and jellies. Before we could even begin to make jam or jelly, Granny and I had to go pick fruit. The one thing that you have to know about picking fruit is that different fruits ripen at different times in different seasons, so you have to know what fruit is ripe and when.
When picking fruit, you ONLY pick fruit that is in season, or in other words, fruit that is ripe or ready to be picked. If fruit isn’t ripe, then it isn’t sweet and it won’t make the best jam. It won’t hurt if you accidentally manage to get some unripe fruit when you are picking, but don’t pick buckets full of it!!!
You know, GOD chooses us or picks us, but first HE waits until we are ripe and ready to be picked!!! When the time is right, GOD finds us and saves us!!!
In many cases, we think that we have found GOD, but that is NOT correct. GOD knows exactly where we are, and what we have been doing all along. HE has been watching and waiting for us to get to the place where we can be picked.
After fruit is picked, it must be cleaned by first washing it in cold water. You don’t add soap or anything else!!! You simply put your fruit in a colander in the sink, and allow the water to flow over it.
After you rinse the fruit and wash out your sink, you pour your fruit into the sink and rinse out your colander. You’ll need it again. Next cover your fruit with cold water and you begin to work it.
Working your fruit in cold water helps remove any excess dirt and anything else that might be on your fruit. Then any stems, and leaves have to be removed. Once all this is done, you rinse your fruit again in cold water.
After GOD saves us, HE begins to clean us up by washing us in HIS WORD. GOD doesn’t just bring HIS WORD to us one time. HE washes us over and over again with HIS WORD!!! As we are taught, and as we read and study THE WORD, IT goes into our hearts and it changes us and IT makes us NEW!!! THE WORD continually washes us and cleans away the leftover particles of our lives like the dirt that is washed away from the fruit.
Just as the water washing over the fruit cleans it, GOD’s WORD cleans us and purifies us!!! You can’t make jelly or jam without water and you can’t get saved and stay saved without JESUS, who is THE WORD!!!
John 1:1, 14 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
In the process of cleaning us up, GOD begins to remove the stems and the leaves that were once a part of us. These are the things of this world that are still attached to us; things that will cause us to be weary and drain us of our energy! These are the things that we will trip over, if they are NOT removed!!! If these things are allowed to remain, they will cause us to become discouraged and overwhelmed.
As the fruit is worked, it must be separated!!! The good, unblemished fruit is set to one side and the rest of the fruit is worked so that any spot, blemish, or bad place is found.
When GOD saves us, HE begins to work with us!!! First, HE separates us from those of the world. HE separates us from the influence of those who do NOT want to live for HIM. In most cases, these folks just don’t want to be around us!!!
There are those few who do want to still be our friends, and they are the ones that we love and pray for. However, we cannot let them drag us back into the world or influence us!!!! We have to ask GOD to help us and we have to pray that GOD will bring them in and save them.
Spots and blemishes on fruit can be caused by many things, so they have to be removed in order to find out what has caused them. There can be a rotten place underneath or there can be mold or fungus. Sometimes, you will even find a worm hiding inside the fruit under a blemish or small hole, but many times a spot or blemish is ONLY on the outside of the fruit and you find that the fruit underneath is still good.
A bad place is a place where the fruit has been bruised, torn, cut or maybe even has cracked open. Sometimes, a bird or squirrel has eaten on the fruit creating a bad place. Birds like to stick their beaks in the fruit leaving deep gouges. While both birds and squirrels like to eat the fruit, in most cases, they ONLY eat some of the fruit and they leave the rest to ruin. Any bad place that you find in the fruit has to be removed. If it is NOT removed, it will cause the fruit to ruin.
Spots, blemishes, and bad places have to be removed with a sharp knife. A sharp knife will slice into the fruit with ease and will NOT damage the fruit, but instead it will leave a clean cut.
GOD removes our spots and blemishes. As we learn THE WORD, GOD uses HIS WORD which is compared to a 2 EDGED-SWORD (being able to cut both ways) to remove or cut away the bad places, so that what’s left can be used!!!
Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We inspect the fruit to find the spots, the blemishes, and the bad places, but GOD knows us and HE sees our hearts and our souls!!! GOD sees the good and the bad in us. HE sees those things that need to be cut away!!! HE removes the bad stuff, so that we can be used for HIS purpose. HE wants us to be able to grow and prosper in HIM!!!
Unfortunately, there are times when a piece of fruit is truly ruined and is NOT usable. Some pieces of fruit can NOT be saved or used. They have to be thrown away. They are ONLY good for feeding the chickens or the hogs!!!
Unlike the fruit that is too ruined to be of any use and has to be thrown away, NO ONE has ever been so bad that they can’t be used by GOD!!! GOD can SAVE ANYONE!!! GOD never throws anyone away!!! You can’t be too ruined to be redeemed!!! GOD can change and use anyone that HE pleases!!! GOD sees the GOOD IN EACH PERSON!!!
We are beautiful in GOD’s eyes!!! And when HE saves us, we become HIS precious children!!! HE cleans us up!!! HE changes us inside and out!!! There is no one that GOD can’t change!!! Is anything too hard for GOD?
Jeremiah 32:27 (KJV) Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
If you allow GOD to use you, HE WILL!!!!
GOD may have to take a knife and cut way the bad places. HE may have to remove the bruises or cut away the damage, but what’s left is good and can be used. No one is ever too rotten. No one is ever too worn out or too beat down to be used by GOD!!! GOD doesn’t throw us away, but HE can and HE will get rid of the bad stuff in our lives!!!
HE takes away our pain and our suffering. HE mends our broken hearts and our broken lives. HE repairs the torn places and makes us whole again. GOD removes any damage and makes us new again.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Once the fruit has been worked, and all the bad places have been removed, the fruit is placed in a large pot and covered with water. Then it is placed on the stove and the cooking begins. Most fruit is cooked on low heat to prevent burning and sticking. Some folks like their pots to be very large and as wide as possible so that the fruit cooks faster and more evenly.
Sugar and sometimes, lemon juice, are added to the fruit once it starts to get hot. The heat helps the sugar dissolve. The acid from the lemon juice combines with the natural pectin from the fruit and helps your jam or jelly to set-to jell. Sugar is added to jam and jelly to help it jell, but it also adds much needed sweetness!!!
As it cooks, the heat causes the fruit to begin to break down and become more soft and tender. The heat also causes the fruit to release all the sweet goodness and flavor that enriches and makes the jam or jelly delicious.
Once the fruit has cooked and becomes soft, it is mashed or crushed to release pectin which causes the jam to set (or jell) more easily. The heat from the cooking process also cleans and purifies the jam or jelly.
Many times, GOD allows us to be crushed by the things of this old world because what we go through makes us better and we learn through experience!!! He allows us to go through the fire so that we may be purified and become beautiful!!!
Once the fruit has been cooked long enough, you’ll find that the seeds are more easily removed from the fruit. When you begin to see most of the seeds separate from the fruit, it is time to pour your fruit into a colander so that it can be strained and you can remove the seeds.
The colander catches all the fruit and seeds, while allowing the juice to escape back into your bowl or pan. When you make jelly, you strain out all the fruit and set it aside. You only use the fruit juice when you make jelly. Jelly is clear, sweet, and beautiful to look at, but it has none of the fruit in it!!! And because it has no fruit pieces in it, jelly is easily spread on toast or crackers!!!
However, if you are making jam, you ONLY use the colander to remove the seeds or the pits. Then you pour your fruit and juice back into your pot to continue to cook, so that you can make a beautiful, sweet jam. When you pour up your jam, you will see that cooking has caused the fruit in your jam to take on a beautiful translucent appearance.
Both jellies and jams are poured into glass jars that have been washed and boiled to make sure they are clean!!! Then after the jelly or jam has been poured inside the jars, they are sealed and boiled again so that they will last longer and NOT spoil easily!!!
Once the jam or jelly has been processed in a rolling water bath, and allowed to cool, each jar is tested to make sure that it is sealed!!! The sealed jars are then set on a shelf in a cool dry place until someone opened them and partakes of the beautiful, sweet concoction inside!!!
To me, jellies and jams are some of the most beautiful concoctions that can be poured into glass jars!!! Jelly looks so clear and bright!! It is truly both beautiful and sweet!!! All the hard work that has gone into the making of jelly and jam reminds me of the fiery trials that we must endure as GOD’s KIDS!!!
1 Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
Although the beauty and the yummy goodness of jelly and jam cannot truly compare with Christ’s glory, this process has definitely caused the fruit to be revealed in its own glory!!! When you look at the glass jars of jelly and jam sitting on the shelf, you realize that each one has a beauty all its own!!!
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