It's Still A Can of Beans.

Take a can of beans, rip the label off, and place it on a shelf of canned tomatoes and suddenly you've got an extra can of tomatoes, right? Nope. Clearly that's just not possible. Just because you remove the label and place it on another shelf doesn't automatically change what's on the inside. Its still a can of beans.

This happens to be a common crisis with Christians, even yet Apostolics in this current generation. Being created in the likeness of God (Gen 1:26) with a God-given purpose (Jer 1:5) and working power to overcome anything that comes our way (Luke 10:19), we often are faced with the dilemma of thinking that we're a "can of tomatoes" just because we are on the same shelf as they are. We forget that on the inside we are still a can of beans despite the label we've got or the situation we are in.

Now I know beans is probably not the best analogy for a born again believing follower of Christ but beans we are and beans we are called to be!

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: 

because thou hast rejected knowledge, 

...seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God..." Hosea 4:6 

I have cone to realize three things:

1. We can lose our identity simply by not knowing enough or not knowing anything at all.
2. Forgetting the boundaries and commandments God has so graciously set for our safety can easily lead us to the shelf of "canned tomatoes."
3. Knowledge is the key to the preservation of our God-given life.

I believe that God is calling a generation to rise up and study the Word for themselves. A Pastor or Student Pastor only has but a few hours each week to speak God's word into our lives. Yet, we continue to fill the rest of our week with "stuff" that causes us to forget WHO we are in the times of our identity crisis.

We are a child of God. We are Apostolic. We are and will remain a can of beans.