A New Taste

by lead pastor John Tanner

We come to the end of another holiday season. I’ve really enjoyed the festivities, but “all good things must come to an end”, as they say, including this season of overindulgence. It seems like all I’ve done over the past few weeks is eat. Consequently, I stepped on the scales at the doctor’s office the other day and let’s just say I’ve set a personal record. Hey, I’m making up for lost time. I was painfully thin as a child.

I mentioned during one of my recent messages that I didn’t care for the sausage balls my dad cooked every Christmas morning. That was just one example of overall pattern. I was a very picky eater. I had a long list of foods I didn’t care for and a strong psychological aversion to trying anything new. I remember one time when my sister tried to trick me into trying macaroni and cheese (what kid doesn’t like that?). She asked me to close my eyes and open my mouth because she had a “surprise” for me. When I refused, she told me it was ice cream and I reluctantly acquiesced. Within a couple of seconds she had a face full of macaroni and cheese. I don’t think she ever tried that trick again.

Let’s just say I’m over that now. I realize in hindsight how much I missed out on (not just food, by the way) because of my combination of fear and stubbornness. As we move into a new year, it’s a great time to try some new things. During this season when many of us will be restricting our food intake, I encourage you to expand your spiritual diet. A balanced spiritual diet includes basics such as daily prayer, scripture reading and meditation, public and private worship, smaller group fellowship, consistent giving and service. For those who have already established the basics, consider trying some new disciplines such as journaling or fasting.

Unlike our holiday feasting, I doubt any of us will have a feeling of regret after indulging in some new spiritual foods.

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. – Psalm 34:8

Bon appétit!

The Good Stuff (or not!)

Today’s video is just for fun. We hope you enjoy watching these kids’ reactions to gourmet dishes.



We only have one more day for this blog and for the 5 Senses series. Thank you for taking this journey with us and with your Cove Church family in Huntsville and around the world. We pray that God’s presence will be very real for you in 2015. Whatever this year holds for you and your family, remember this:

Great is [God’s] love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. - Psalm 117:2

Many Blessings,
Cove Church Worship Ministry

Does It Taste Like Christmas?

by Louie Cannaday

A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul.  Proverbs 13:19a

The other day I heard a chef talking about a recipe that “tastes like Christmas.”  That was enough for me.  I gathered the ingredients, put on some Nat King Cole and slow roasted a pineapple in various yummy liquids and spices.  The smell was unbelievable…but that’s another blog post.  When I pulled it out of the oven and served it, it didn’t disappoint. It was tart, rich, bright and velvety – spicy, sweet, heady and decadent.  It tasted like…Christmas.

A quick web search convinced me that Christmas doesn’t taste the same to everyone, though. One international food blogger offered this answer to the question of what Christmas tastes like: “It seems to be quite a simple question, at least for Estonians.  Almost everyone would reply at once: sauerkraut, roast pork, and blood sausage.” Hmmm – I hope no one will take offense if I avoid Estonia during the Christmas season.  Twitter user, Natalie McDonald, has a different answer:

Tastes like Christmas. Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino #starbucks http://t.co/dYscsGor6Q

Chestnut Praline Lattes as the definitive Christmas flavor have a big following in the Twitterverse too, as do various kinds of cookies and, of course, eggnog.

I’m not surprised at the differences of opinion, because what tastes like Christmas to each of us has a lot to do with the foods of our holidays past. In one of my favorite books, a character visits the kitchen of his childhood and wants to stop and eat, “Not for hunger’s sake but just to taste again the flavors of home.” That yearning is not so much for the familiar spices and textures, but for the connection, joy and love that we remember or longed for, even then.  C.S. Lewis reminds us that that longing itself is a gift from God, only to find its complete fulfillment in Him. I’m going to try to savor the things that taste like Christmas this season and let them remind me that they are just a shadowy foretaste of my real home with my Father in heaven.

Oh, and here’s the pineapple recipe – you didn’t think I’d forget to share, did you?


Louie and her family have attended Cove Church for three years.  Wife to John and mother to four fabulous children, she volunteers as a storyteller in Kids Cove.

A Taste of Christmas

 by Dick Stanley

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.           -Psalm 119: 103

Christmas was less than three weeks away and I was on a temporary deployment in Iran. The Shah was still on his throne, so there were certainly no signs of the Christmas season anywhere I traveled throughout the country. I mentioned this to my assigned driver, who had escaped as an infant from Turkey during the Armenian genocide following World War I. This Armenian refugee was the only Christian I had encountered during my entire time in Iran, and it was comforting to know I could freely discuss religious issues with him without being turned in to the Shiite ayatollahs for proselytizing.

We returned to Tehran in time for the Iranian Thursday/Friday weekend. I was waiting for orders to depart Iran, hoping to return to Huntsville before Christmas so I could celebrate with my wife and children. No such orders awaited me and I prepared for another blasé weekend in Tehran. My driver noticed my despondency and invited me to his Armenian church for a Friday evening Christmas concert. Having no excuse to decline, I accepted his offer as a diversion from sitting in my hotel. Imagine my delight when the concert turned out to be Handel’s Messiah, in English, no less. 

Afterwards, I was invited to participate in what we in the South would call “supper on the grounds.” Each congregant approached the priest to receive a blessing and then a plate containing a mound of rice covered with steaming lamb topped with a raw egg. This was chelo kebab, an entree I had encountered frequently throughout Iran, and I looked forward to enjoying it again. But then the priest placed a small cross on the lamb and motioned me to sit at one of the tables in the church hall. As I sat down, I noticed some red and green glitter that was sprinkled on the meal; I subsequently learned that this was a special seasoning used only at Christmas to differentiate the taste from all other such meals served during the year. The taste was so unique, unlike anything I had ever tasted before in my forays on four continents. Being an inquisitive engineer, I asked my driver to explain the meaning of the cross and seasoning. He explained that the mound of rice represented the world, that God sent His son here to be the sacrificial Lamb for the salvation of the world, and the raw egg meant that the barriers between God and man had been broken forever. The special seasoning, used only at Christmas, was to insure that the eater would not mistake the special taste and meaning of the meal.

Every Christmas since the Iranian revolution, I have wondered what happened to my driver. Did he escape with his Christian brothers and sisters, maybe even reaching the then Soviet republic of Armenia in the Caucasus Mountains named for his ancestors and now a free country? If he did, I pray that he enjoyed many plates of that special meal I remember so well with its unique meaning as a truly real taste of Christmas.              

Dick Stanley and his wife Martha have been a part of the Cove Church family since 2002. He currently is a member of the First Impressions team and serves as leader of the Ends of the Earth missions team. He also is involved in Cove's creation of a water source for the Pokot tribe, Mt. Paka, Kenya.