A Feast for Our Souls

During the long season in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt, God taught His people that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  At His command living water flowed from the rock, bread from heaven appeared on the ground, and quail flew in on the breeze.  Though God gave His people His Law, revealed Himself in power and sent prophets to speak to His people, at times they forsook Him for false gods.  When God's people in the northern kingdom of Israel refused to hear and obey His word, He sent a famine of hearing the word of the LORD.

Amos 8:11-12 reads, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. ¹² They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it."  It was not that Hebrews did not have His word written down in a language they spoke fluently, for it was carefully transcribed for generations to this day.  The prophets God sent did not speak in a foreign tongue, for their clear voices were understood perfectly by their hearers.  Yet because the listeners disregarded the word of God and did not obey it, God sent a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.  They prayed and received no answer; they inquired of the LORD and were met with silence.  The heavens were like impenetrable brass to their cries that echoed back to them.

If God's chosen people Israel could be stricken with a spiritual famine of hearing the words of the LORD, so can those who are born again by faith in Jesus Christ.  We can have an assortment of Bibles translated into our own language, read them every day, and not hear God speak because we have not put into practice what we know God has already spoken.  Because we have not walked according to the truth God has revealed, He can send a famine of hearing His word so we might humble ourselves and seek Him.  Imagine, reading the Bible and not hearing from God!  We can sit through a Bible study or sermon where God is quoted often yet not hear from Him ourselves.  We do not likely need to imagine what this is like, for we have also experienced seasons of famine of hearing the word of the LORD.

Should we find ourselves in a midst of a famine of hearing the word of the LORD, God provided a solution for His people in Amos 5:4-7 we ought to take to heart:  "For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: "Seek Me and live; ⁵ but do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. ⁶ Seek the LORD and live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel--⁷ you who turn justice to wormwood, and lay righteousness to rest in the earth!"  God urged His people to seek Him, not to imagine the cure for their ills lay in a geographic location or performing religious rituals when the issue was one of their hearts and will.  God commanded His people seek Him, and having done so the implication was they were to do what was just and righteous, to walk in His ways.  It was not in the house of God but in the God of the house they would find salvation, redemption and abundant life.

Prayer is more than talking to God but waiting on Him to guide and direct us.  Reading the Bible ought to be more than reading chapters or verses but considering and ruminating on what God is saying and how it is personally applicable to our lives, a call to action by our LORD.  More than gleaning information, God's word works transformation in those who yield to Him in humble faith and obedience.  It is a good question to ask ourselves:  have I heard a word from the LORD today?  When God speaks He goes beyond thoughts in our heads but touches our hearts, and this impacts how we live our lives.  God who created us with ears can also hear, and He who created our mouths and all languages still speaks.  May we be those who are not content until we have heard and walked according to the word of the LORD.  The souls who hear and do what God says enjoy a spiritual feast that is vital for the abundant life God has given us by faith in Jesus.

Freely Given Of God

Just as it is important to eat good food regularly to promote our physical health, feeding on the word of God spiritually is indispensable for spiritual health.  So much of what happens inside our bodies after our food is chosen, chewed and swallowed is done automatically without a thought.  Digestion of food, the absorption and allocation of nutrients, and repair of our bodies is really out of our control.  When it comes to reading and considering God's word, however, this is a conscious mental, spiritual and physical exercise.  We must discipline ourselves to study, apply and put into personal practice what we learn.  We must learn to humble ourselves before our LORD who speaks to our hearts and meditate on what He has spoken to us.

One verse, sentence and single word of God is very powerful to deliver truth we need to hear and understand.  You have eaten many meals before today, but it is what you choose to eat today that will provide a positive benefit for the health of your body moving forward.  This is true also concerning God's word.  We can be familiar with a lot of Bible content and verses, yet we need to be reminded of context and process those words again to be impacted afresh.  I experienced this today as I read 1 Corinthians 2:12 in the KJV, for a single word opened up a new avenue of consideration I had not explored for awhile: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."  I typically teach out of the NKJV, and the rendering of that verse says we have received the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things "freely given to us by God."

These are both good translations of the Bible, and there are many others in English besides them.  I do not believe one must be right and the other wrong because of the variation of the highlighted word:  they both are in total agreement with one another and give us a different perspective of the same truth.  As believers all we have been freely given to us is by God, and there are things we have received that are of God.  He is both the source and the substance of His gracious provision.  When I quote this verse I tend to think in terms of understanding what has been freely been given to us by God when God also gives us spiritual discernment to know what has been freely given us of God.  Paul makes the point in this chapter those who are born again have the mind of Christ because we have received the Holy Spirit.  The mind of Christ is not something off in the distance we can work towards, but the mind of God He has already provided and thus we can receive.

So what are some things we have freely received of God?  Paul referenced many of these things in this chapter:  the ability to declare the testimony of God (ver. 1), in weakness and fear of God to speak in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power (ver. 2-3), to speak wisdom of God ordained from before the foundation of the world (ver. 7), to have spiritual revelation of what God has prepared for those who love Him (ver. 9-10), the indwelling Holy Spirit (ver. 12), the ability to compare and discern spiritual things (ver. 13-14), the mind of Christ (ver. 16).  All these things have been freely given us by God and they are of God.  How amazing it is to know we ourselves are "of God," born again into the family of God by the Gospel.  1 John 4:4 says, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."  Knowing we are of God and what we have freely received of God, let us walk in the Spirit according to the mind of Christ.

Love and Hate

Coming to faith in Jesus Christ is the first step of many as we progress in sanctification.  After being born again by the Holy Spirit and we are exposed to the truth of God's word, we begin to see our need to change--not just in avoiding obvious sins, but in how we process and express ourselves through our thoughts, feelings and actions.  As the light of scripture illuminates our sins and need for repentance, we are also provided directives in how we ought to live.  Over time an embrace of a life by faith in God changes our perspective and we are given the capacity to see everything in a new light.

Knowing God makes all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose, our outlook dramatically changes.  Something we only saw as bad before now carries with it good redemptive purposes in the hands of our loving, gracious Saviour.  We observe the transformation in the disciples of Jesus so profound they rejoiced to suffer shame and be beaten for the sake of Christ crucified for them.  They did not enjoy the physical pain of being flogged or struck with rods, yet they prized their Saviour and the fellowship with Him afforded through suffering.

When we misquote an important line from a poem or film, important meaning is lost.  The same is true concerning the word of God--and this is far more potentially dangerous, for the scripture is a guide of holy, righteous living that pleases God.  Hackneyed, loose cliches can be adopted by Christians as a pattern of life that fail to rise to the glorious heights of biblical truth.  One I heard recently was, "If you aren't hated, you're not doing something right."  Variations of this include how attacks from Satan or opposition from people are solid evidence you are on the right track.  Such views may be common but do not stand up to scriptural scrutiny:  am I called by Jesus to look to the opinion of others as confirmation of my good standing before God, genuine spirituality or the best gauge of my effectiveness as a Christian?  Wouldn't it be better to look to Jesus for guidance and obey Him, the One who will say "Well done!" or "I never knew you?"  

Jesus said something quite different in John 15:17-18:  "These things I command you, that you love one another. ¹⁸ If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you."  We are not commanded to be hated but to love one another.  Rather than rejoicing in being hated or being the target of spiritual attack, we ought to rejoice in our Saviour who suffered for our sakes and gave us the example of being a servant of all we ought to follow.  Who cares if the world hates us as long as Jesus loves us?  Blessed is the man who seeks Jesus to hear His word to obey it.  Looking to others for confirmation we are "doing something right" is looking in the wrong place when we are in Christ by faith and have His word.  If loving one another leads to us being hated, so be it.  It's far more likely we will be hated when we adopt the hateful practices of the world in hypocrisy.

Escape by Grace

We live in a world where we experience toxic or poisonous fumes, chemicals and plants.  In recent times referring to people, a workplace or a relationship as "toxic" has become widespread.  Our mental and spiritual well-being are easily thrown off kilter by our own toxic pride and love of self only Jesus Christ can deliver us from by His grace.

If the air is polluted with toxins, the risk and danger to our health does not eliminate our need to breathe.  So how can we navigate the toxic behaviour and attitudes that can spring up all around us--even within us?  A situation Paul experienced on the island of Malta provides a good example.  Paul, fellow prisoners, Roman soldiers and sailors were shipwrecked and came ashore the island of Malta.  As Paul and others gathered sticks for a fire Acts 28:3-6 tells us:  "But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. ⁴ So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live." ⁵ But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. ⁶ However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god."

We know Paul by faith in Jesus Christ was a righteous man in the eyes of God Who is the Judge of all the earth.  He had wrongly been imprisoned and found himself shipwrecked on an island.  It is one thing for toxins to be around us in the air or water, but Paul had venomous toxins injected into his bloodstream.  The natives who were familiar with the bite of that particular viper expected him to swell up or suddenly keel over dead.  After Paul shook off the viper into the fire, the islanders were shocked Paul suffered no harm whatsoever.  By the miraculous power of God, Paul was spared the deadly effects of the toxin and continued living, helping, healing and blessing those around him.  As God protected Paul from a toxin in his body, so God is faithful to protect us from toxic behaviour around us.

It may seem God is far from us when we are immersed in a situation where hateful and unkind speech is the norm, where complaining and scorn is constant.  We might feel like we have no choice but to be paralysed by it--or at least it seeping into us and corrupt us from within.  God has a solution for this seemingly inescapable, hopeless problem in Psalm 34:17-19:  "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. ¹⁸ The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. ¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all."  When toxic behaviour either within or outside of us works to destroy us, we can cry out to God in broken contrition.  God is more near to us in that moment than venom in our bloodstream or curses in our hearts, and He is able to deliver us from our many afflictions.

We can complain about problems we can do nothing by ourselves to fix, or we can seek God Who hears our cries and has promised to deliver us.  The question is not if God can help or save us, but will we seek God in humility, believing He will be gracious to deliver us?