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Recently, because of the quarantine, we had our first online Easter worship service served by three powerful messengers. Although I was very blessed by this service, I cannot help but notice that it feels different than our regular Easter worship service. Usually, after the service, we have special programs. There is a drama, which is usually very touching and funny. Then, there are also special songs and dances. And last but not least, we also have rap songs by Leo, Rob, Eric, Sam, Herman, Pedro, Saleh and sometimes, the sisters. To end our service, we usually have our most famous potluck meal. And this reminds me of our last potluck in our 2019 Thanksgiving Testimony sharing.
Usually, in each potluck, we have all kinds of food from different parts of the world. Sometimes, there is some dish that I’m hesitant to taste because of how strange it looks, but it ends up tasting really good. But, in our last potluck, we had one brother who brought an unusual looking cake. The cake looked so nice and cute that I felt really sad when I ate it.
It really looks like our logo.
Oh, and it tasted so delicious too. I don’t like chocolate, but I enjoyed eating it. But, that’s not it. The cake came with a heartwarming note that made it so much better.
The note says,
“Making this was stressful. It really was a handful. Parts of it got burnt. I almost did too. At one point I had to stick it back into the oven. Then I got rid of the excess… and the burnt parts. It got to the point where I considered running to the store. But there is only one way to deal with sheep. Even ones made of cake. He fell apart here & there. Thank God for icing! I admit I was ashamed of it but then I realized I have much in common with this mess of a “cake.” God stitched me together wonderfully in my mother’s womb and his intentions for my life are great. Enjoy!“
Seeing how this brother dealt with this “sheep” to the end encourages me to also be patient with my sheep and to have the same determination to finish God’s work in their lives. Taking care of them can be stressful at times, but when God’s work in their lives is completed, I can have my joy, like this brother. Sometimes, in shepherding them, I still make mistakes, which perhaps causes my sheep to suffer, but God covers up my mistakes. Indeed, thank God for “icing.” I, myself, am the product of God’s hard work! I am no longer an utter mess but a delicious cake bringing joy and fulfillment to many people with the Word of God. May God transform our sheep, who currently have many burnt parts, into beautiful and flawless sheep of God that bring blessings to many people.
We ended up not eating this cake at the Friday dinner, but we repurposed this cake into a birthday cake. 😁 And many of us enjoyed this cake. Look at the pictures below.
Thank you, brother Ricardo for your hard work to mold this mess into a beautiful and delicious cake. In the other post, The Diaries of Quarantined Shepherds, we also see some shepherds are practicing their baking skills during this quarantine. Perhaps, later when we come back, we can have our most famous potluck meal again, and we will see more of this cake. 😬
Praise God who made us to be sweet sources of blessings. I remember this night and celebrating the birthday during drama practice intermission. This reminds me of all sweet joyful fellowship we had before this virus matter. When we reunite it will certainly be a feast! Notice the lion king mask in-the-making on the table 🐱
I noticed that and was trying to remember when we had this cake exactly. I know it was recent since we just did the lion king drama. Was it your birthday we were celebrating?
No. We were celebrating Michael and Sam’s birthday.
Thank you for this post! It was funny, touching, and encouraging! The cake looks amazing! Who would’ve thought that such deep spiritual insight would come from baking! Praise God our Good Shepherd for His marvelous work in our lives! May His work be done in our sheep’s lives as well!
Yeah in God, everything has meaning, even the most mundane parts of the day! It seems every day we learn something new while walking in the light. I hope more people will post the amazing things God has shown them in their day to day lives 😀
🤔 I think people are keeping secrets and not sharing all the wonderful things God is showing them! Lol jk
GASP hopefully not haha xD I want to hear from the shepherds’ treasurehouse of stories – I bet we all have TONS to share 😃
May that be more than just your hope 🤣
Who knew! God gives us spiritual eyes so we can see God’s message in everything!
True. Maybe, we can see something from this pandemic, and later, someone can write a post about it. Haha
I remember reading the cake testimony. It was really touching to think about my life as that cake as well.
‘I admit I was ashamed of it but then I realized I have much in common with this mess of a “cake.” God stitched me together wonderfully in my mother’s womb and his intentions for my life are great. ‘
amen! It tasted great by the way thank you shepherd ricardo
God gave me the instruments and helped me when I was failing so thank you Lord! He provides and guides us just like he has this entire time and now we are here beautified and refined like cake in the oven! On our own we would be crushed and defeated 100 times over but God really makes all things work together for his will and purpose.
By the way it looks like Mary Angeline ate her cake with siracha! heheh jk
People love spicy chocolate bark, so maybe, that sriracha can be used as the icing 😝
Too funny!!!
Oh my……..what is that siriacha bottle doing there! LOLOL I’m imagining that with cake and dying a little inside
This was really touching and encouraging, thank you for posting. Truly God had done wonderful work in our lives 🙂
Amen! 🙏🏾🙌🏾😇
Thank you for sharing! 🙂 so cute and touching!!! I recently baked dark chocolate banana bread can’t wait to share it with my church family when we come back.
Ooh I don’t usually like banana bread too much but dark chocolate sounds interesting! Was it good??
You got it! 😊
Leo ate most of it lol!
Then it must have been amazing!! Sharing is caring–unveil this beguiling recipe in a post pleeeease 😀
I literally lol’ed from reading this comment 🤣
Post post post post!! 😁
I agree. I made a banana bread at the common life, but Ivan did not like it. Can you post the recipe please, so I can bake a better banana bread? 😬
can’t wait! *drooling*
Even though there’s no cake (at my house) and no drama, God’s messages and testimonies awoke my heart and made me think about my Christian life.
You are right. The word of God is a much greater blessing than cakes or dramas (I don’t want any drama in the common life 😖). I did not realize how great of a blessing the word of God is until we have this quarantine. I feel so privileged and blessed for having access to the word of God every day.
Praise God! One thing that is also making me think about my Christian life is the upcoming passage for this Sunday, when Jacob talks about his life as a pilgrimage. It reminds me of Pilgrim’s Progress. For some reason I keep thinking of Christian walking along with Faithful or Hopeful, talking about the Celestial City as they walk along the road. That imagery of those pilgrims talking about heavenly things is just staying in my head right now and causing me to think ahead to the Celestial City as well. It’s good to think about that rather than enjoying mindless entertainment, which I am sadly prone to veer towards :/ Onward, up to higher ground!!!
Oh my gosh! I’m so glad you posted about this! That cake was so yummy and I remember thinking about the spiritual message with every bite.
It was actually really humbling as I thought about my own burnt and messed up condition, but so happy to think about God’s patient and steadfast love and his diligent work in my life.
Also, what you said about the icing encouraged me to rely on God and not myself. Without God’s icing everything would fall apart, and I don’t want to see that!
It actually looks like you’re about to start preaching in the picture haha! Everyone looks so deep in thought there like they’re meditating on the spiritual message of the cake they’re eating xD
I might just be talking about the mask…lol
Amen. Thank you for sharing this wonderful blog and for reminding me how God works with the burnt parts and makes them so beautiful. Indeed Gods Grace is filled with icing both for me and the sheep. And on the sad side I actually never tasted the cake because it was alllllllll gonnnneeeee. That’s meeeesed up. Lol. But from the note and pic I can see Gods work in Ricardo life. its is really a blessing to see all the icing God has poured on his life. I can’t wait to the next potluck. God bless.
Oh no!! We need another cake here ASAP for Leo! On the day of our long awaited return from quarantine, people will probably be bringing so many wild desserts and dishes to the table. Maybe this cake will be there, resurrected with a new and better body. Don’t worry Leo, you will see it again!! In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye! 😀
Amen. Thank you and just make sure it’s low calories. 😇
Leo, you had Nini’s dark chocolate banana bread, and you did not share any with us. It was alllllllll gonnnneeeee now. That’s meeeesed up. 🤣
[Nini], she made banana bread, when, that’s meeeesed up. lol. It was good… I will bring some in our out of quarantine celebration. 👌
Thanks for your deep spiritual insight about how I should help my sheep and how God has dealt with my burnt parts. God’s care and grace upon our lives is sooooooo gooooooooood!
it is really good how God can use all things for his grace, even burnt parts. Amen.
My first impression about this post was: What??!!! You ate the sheep!!!! The sheep was half eaten, and it looked terrible. Then, I read the note, and was very touched. God mended our broken parts and has made us whole. Thank God! Thank you for this post.
Your comments are funny and have spiritual meaning! Hopefully, God has helped heal your sorrows from the blog. It is also amazing that God is always mending us by his grace.
Thank God for doing such great work and mending our broken parts and making us new. I agree eating the sheep was baaaaaaaaad but it must have been soooooo goooooooood.
I can wait to find new sheep and bring them to the sheep pen so that they can eat some of our world famous potlucks.
It’s sooooo hard to reeeeaaad your comment. I feel out of oxygen. Hahaha. I am waiting for our church reunion so we can enjoy happy fellowship together, maybe, enjoying spicy porkrib BBQ, well marinated and baked in the oven, or maybe, playing soccer at ECC!
Yes, we ate the sheep. 😣 We felt terrible for eating the sheep. Hopefully, just as much as we enjoyed eating this sheep, we may all enjoy taking care of God’s sheep, so there will be so many more sheep who are saved than those who are eaten.
That’s genius response – more sheep who are saved than those who are eaten. Then, we will not feel guilty when we eat sweet sheep chocolate cake.
Lol
The cake with the marshmallows looks appetizing 😋
That’s fluffy… lol
Ahhh, yes. Such delicious memories of that cake!! But in all seriousness, thank you for posting this. It was a much needed reminder. I feel like I’m failing 99.9% of the time. But this encouraged me. No burnt mistakes or weaknesses are beyond God’s icing repair work. After all, what you said is true: “I, myself, am the product of God’s hard work!” Amen. We are all products of God’s hard work. He is the one working–the master baker/cake decorator!
I do look forward to all the eating fellowship in the future…with many more spiritual cakes!
God’s icing repair work! Ha! I’ve actually never heard of icing being used for repairs before this post. That’s fascinating. As for sleeping and eating cake at the same time…once I dreamed I urgently had to print something out for school, and actually walked right into the next room to do it. Then I woke up and was like “What am I doing here” lol
Sleepwalking is your hidden talent? Lol.
P.S. It looks like I’m sleeping and eating cake at the same time. New talent?
Hurrah for the wonderful cake (it looked wonderfully sheepy) and for the deep spiritual meaning behind the whole process behind making it! I think I tasted a little bit of it and it was great!! I also love the title of this post. Can’t wait until we have many more celebrations and potlucks!! Wow, the anticipation…I’m drooling!
Certainly, God molded us in our mother’s wombs and has great intentions for each and every one of us. No matter how much we fall apart or come undone at the edges…God never gives up on us and even provides lots of icing to bring us back together. We are certainly blessed in God. 🙂
I think this is a very creative looking cake. I did not expect that it had spiritual meaning behind it. I hope we have more cake with creative and meaningful messages.
Thank God that he is not indifferent to our failings, but used even those for his good purpose. Just like both of you said I oftentimes am at a loss with helping sheep and it seems they take some steps forward and then take them back. I can see here that I am not the only one with this struggle. Also, I am encouraged to see that God is my co-worker and just like he helped to stitch back Ricardo’s cake together he also helps to stitch me and my students together to be formed into his beautiful sheep. Thanks for sharing this and contributing. May God use you as a spiritual cake to many nations and through you, many sheep can experience God’s restoration!
Now I want sheep cake. So beautiful that the LORD works and shapes us even in the making of a cake. Ricardo was so happy when he finally finished the cake and made it available and it was so beautiful hearing him speak joyfully of it even though it didn’t turn out quite as like the sheep cake pictured for this blog post. God makes diamonds out of dust! We are becoming like diamonds.