Our dear sister, Nancy Parks, fixed some vegetable soup for our get together recently and left me some in the church refrierator to eat for my lunch. That soup was the best I have ever eaten. What made it so good to me was its purity and plainness. It was pure vegetable soup with no frills or spices. It was made up of plain ole' vegetables that I like best. Each vegetable was clearly seen and tasted. You could see and taste the pinto beans, corn, green beans and taters (that's 'po'...taters for you city folks). And no one vegetable overpowered the other. It was pure and plain vegetable soup. I thank you, Nancy.
While eating that soup it reminded me of the gospel I love to feed on. I like my gospel to be the pure and plain gospel of the grace of God in Christ. I don't like a mixture of man's works or a spiced up and exotic concoction by some philosopher. NO, NO. Give me the gospel plain and simple (unmixed). Let me see and taste each doctrine as it is., I want to know it's ELECTION when I hear it; I want to know GRACE, MERCY, SOVEREIGNTY, REDEMPTION, LOVE, when I hear it. I like grace to be grace, and mercy to really mean mercy, and redemption to be redemption in my gospel. Don't mask the flavor or spice it up until it has lost its power and savor. And you know something else; I ate that soup out of a styrofoam bowl. I didn't need a fancy bowl, because it was soup I was interested in. And neither am I interested in the vessel that the gospel comes in, but the gospel. I don't need a fancy preacher, just a plain gospel preaching one.
So in my opinion, the plainer and simpler the soup the better; and the plainer and simpler the gospel the better. That's the soup I love and the gospel I love.
Oh, and by the way, Nancy ... I'm out of soup!