I love the book of Hebrews. But it’s a not an easy read. Not what you’d call the milk of the Word; it’s definitely what Paul meant by “solid food” (1 Cor. 3:3). However, in chapter 5, the writer reproves the Hebrew Christians as yet being like babies, still drinking milk, and unable to digest solid food. Further explaining, he says; “by this time you ought to be teachers instead of needing someone to teach you…” (5:12-14).
Beginning with mother’s milk—with all the necessary nutrients for early life—babies must advance to solid food for development of teeth, bones, muscles, and in particular, the digestive system itself.
A relevant comparison for today is that most Americans are so accustomed to eating processed foods (Fast Foods, frozen foods, canned foods), they are nutritionally deprived and digestively challenged. The over-processing of food has made digesting almost irrelevant.
Likewise, too many Christians are passive pew-sitters & radio-listeners, receiving digest-able teaching from someone who has spent hours chewing on the meat of the Word so they might receive it. But all the real work of masticating has been done for them. The result: they are unable to digest and absorb into their spiritual ‘blood stream’ anything but the simplest truths: their spiritual growth is stunted.
Let us be careful we do not get lulled into passivity by our pastors’ sermons, our great TV and radio teachers, and a plethora of good books, and forget how to feed ourselves the Word. “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15)
How’s your appetite? Are ready for a good meal? (Skip the fries!)
Amen! I attend a church with a Pastor who has an obvious gift in teaching the Word; yet, if I do not take the Word, meditate on it, study it for myself, and prayerfully apply the Word, I remain the same person. Thank you for reminding me that I cannot sit by passively!
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing how you take take the Word given by another, and 'chew' on it!
ReplyDeleteGreg,
ReplyDeleteSomeone pointed out to me the amazing adaptability of the human body in that it is able to go for a long time on a highly processed diet without suffering an obvious breakdown in health. I say "obvious" because we are too busy to notice a lot of warning signs that things are not all right until there is a final symptom--like a heart attack or diabetes or stroke--that we can no longer ignore. Because of all of the advertising that we subject ourselves to we find it all too easy to justify continuing our poor eating habits, and just because we don't have an immediate and severe setback gastronomically we are deceived into believing we escaped the penalties for exceeding the feed limit.
How amazingly parallel is this to our spiritual dietary choices and also how parallel is it to the fact that God does not often slap us down for an exclusive and poor diet of "processed" food, prepared by someone else in a "food service" facility (e.g., a pastors' study), even though it is lovingly and expertly prepared. Yet even when we wake up to the fact of the error of our ways there are some additional factors we need to be prepared to overcome as we begin our journey back to health.
1) Just because we start to eat right (read our own Bible for content and God's message to us for His purposes) and mix our food wisely so as not to cause heartburn (response from our heart to God's direction with a "Yes, Lord!"), and just because we start a new regimen of exercise to compliment our consumption of life-giving foods (personal prayer and intercession and worship in our own prayer closet, and immediate follow-through to any and all application of God's speaking to us about any and all issues that come up) that doesn't mean that all damage to our body's systems can or will be overcome with the first home-ccoked meal from our organic garden! It will take time and God's mercy and favor in order for us to be able to detect even a marginal difference in our spiritual health until, after an unspecified length of obedience to God's spiritual dietary laws we cross over from the land of reaping what we have sown into the land of recovery and begin to thrive. With God, however, He is able to support our intentions by giving us occasional indications that we are on the right track. HE is pleased and that has to be the motive that presses us through to the end!
2) We may find it a challenge to find the right source to shop at for healthful ingredients (read: fellowship of Christians) that support our intentions to lead a healthy life in the Spirit. Grocery stores, as well as fast food restaurants, have their shelves filled with processed (aka; "convenience" or "prepared" foods) and they always have the brightest and most appealing labels to entice us to buy. These products are also those that are among the highest profit to retailers as well because of their built-in "flavor enhancers" because, left alone, they would taste as bad as they are bereft of any health benefits! (chew on that!) We need to "read the labels" and be completely aware of what we are ingesting into our system!
There's more but this response to you has gone on way past what I thought it was. I work at a natural food store and you hit upon one of my "hot buttons."
Stan
Well, you and I know there are many books written on this subject; it's really relevant and grabs the attention of us all because eating is what is most important to us.
ReplyDeleteBut we also agree on the spiritual comparison. Has anyone written a book (I'm sure a little research would find it) on this analogy of processed food and process spiritual food?