It’s all about eating
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)
When we sit at a table and dine together, we talk and laugh and commune with one another the way that humans were meant to share with each other. Seems these days that we spend more time eating in the car, eating in front of the television, eating alone, eating in the “closet” or just not eating at all. The nourishment of food has been lost since its original intention of communion. A true “dining experience” comes at a high price where we pay large sums of money for people to bring us plates of food for our fleeting pleasure. We rarely experience the taste and texture of food any more, it is simply to fill the empty space in our stomachs and stave off the hunger of our bellies. The foods we eat now have very little nutritional value and simply leave us fat and dissatisfied until we can find something else to ease our cravings.
The world has lost its communion with itself and with God. In the Bible, God used food to remind people of His presence and His promise to take care of us. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years being provided every meal by God. And when they complained about the fare for the day, he sent them something different! Very few fathers would relent to the childish antics of one of their own by providing a different meal when the child insolently proclaims “I don’t like that” or “I am tired of that!” Of course these days, with the ease of microwaves and pre-packaged delights, so many parents simply give in and cook those chicken fingers and French fries for the finicky child who refuses to eat the green beans on his plate.
God gave us the hunger pangs in our bellies to remind us to fill them with good things to nourish our bodies and keep us alive. I believe we have spiritual hunger pangs similar to physical ones that God also gave us as a gift to remind us to fill our hearts and minds with Him. We are supposed to commune with God, to dine with Him daily, to fill our spiritual stomachs with His Word. We have lost the knowledge that the hunger we feel is for a righteous God and now look for earthly things to fill our spiritual insides. Material possessions, sex, empty religions, other humans, and even food are the things we believe that we crave to stave off the spiritual hunger that we feel. Of course, we never get full. We just keep stuffing it in at an ever-increasing pace only to become more and more empty inside. We are literally obese and starving to death at the same time!
Food was obviously important in the Bible. God carefully crafted man as a machine that had to be fueled to remain running at its peak. This daily eating was a way to remind ourselves of our humanity and God’s infinity. We are His creation and we can only survive on His terms. The intricacies of our bodily systems and the pleasure we derive from fueling our bodies with food are no accident. God intended to parallel our physical desires with our spiritual desires. It is perhaps the only way He had to allow us to understand the greater knowledge that awaits us upon our rebirth into the Kingdom.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Law and the Prophets
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17
All things from the beginning of creation point to Jesus. The record of creation says “let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The plural was used because God has always been triune. Jesus was always there, along with the Holy Spirit, from the beginning until now and forevermore.
As soon as Adam and Eve fell from grace and into sin, the intention was always to send the Savior. The Law was created for men and handed down from God to Moses so that men might understand the difficulty they would encounter meeting God’s expectations. You see, God’s expectation is perfection. Nothing more, nothing less. And man was completely incapable of meeting God’s expectations. So many religions today teach good works, good will, enlightenment and so many different paths to Heaven. But none of these good works will ever be good enough, because only perfection will do. God created the Law to reveal man’s inability to keep it! Men who believe that they can get to Heaven on good works are deluded. Our realization that we are not and cannot be good enough is the catalyst for Christ in our lives. We cannot earn favor with God-He is holy and perfect-only Christ is good enough. Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The moment that we embrace this truth and turn to Christ for our salvation, we encounter an entirely new feeling of peace and grace. Our willingness to admit that we will never earn God’s favor without Christ is the beginning of our communion with God. The end of our “selves” is the beginning of our relationship with Him.
All things from the beginning of creation point to Jesus. The record of creation says “let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The plural was used because God has always been triune. Jesus was always there, along with the Holy Spirit, from the beginning until now and forevermore.
As soon as Adam and Eve fell from grace and into sin, the intention was always to send the Savior. The Law was created for men and handed down from God to Moses so that men might understand the difficulty they would encounter meeting God’s expectations. You see, God’s expectation is perfection. Nothing more, nothing less. And man was completely incapable of meeting God’s expectations. So many religions today teach good works, good will, enlightenment and so many different paths to Heaven. But none of these good works will ever be good enough, because only perfection will do. God created the Law to reveal man’s inability to keep it! Men who believe that they can get to Heaven on good works are deluded. Our realization that we are not and cannot be good enough is the catalyst for Christ in our lives. We cannot earn favor with God-He is holy and perfect-only Christ is good enough. Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The moment that we embrace this truth and turn to Christ for our salvation, we encounter an entirely new feeling of peace and grace. Our willingness to admit that we will never earn God’s favor without Christ is the beginning of our communion with God. The end of our “selves” is the beginning of our relationship with Him.
Monday, March 22, 2010
An Underdog Story
“We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:42 (NIV)
People just love a good underdog story. As much as we like to see the popular people fall from grace, we want the most unlikely people to succeed and catch the limelight for a moment or two. It is very heartwarming. The Bible is filled with stories of the unlikely people succeeding. Moses, Abraham, David, Esther… and too many more to count. Of course, they could never have done it without the grace of God on their side.
Jesus met up with the Samaritan woman at the well in the heat of the day. It was noon, when most people stayed inside to gain some relief from the heat, and she was out drawing water to avoid the scoffing murmurs of the other women in town. She had been through five husbands and was currently living with a man who was not her husband (John 4:18). It was certainly not socially acceptable for a man to talk to a woman in public, but it was even less acceptable for a Jew to talk to a Samaritan. The two groups had a significant disdain for each other and did not associate at all. But Jesus selected her, much to her confusion, to ask for a drink of water and offer up his own “living water” (John 4:10).
After their initial conversation, the woman begins to realize that Jesus could possibly be the Christ, the one they have been waiting for. She urgently runs back to town, leaving her water jar behind. When she arrives she exclaims with excitement “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:29). As they all rush out to meet Jesus, I try to imagine what that Samaritan woman is thinking. This is her moment of redemption, both literally and figuratively. Jesus has saved her soul and helped her regain her dignity and reputation. I would be inclined to believe that if God’s grace had not intervened in her life at that moment, the people in town would have just looked at her and laughed. How interesting that Jesus chose not only a woman, but a woman of ill repute to deliver the news of his arrival to the town in Samaria. Of course we learn that Jesus stayed for several days teaching the Samaritans and many believed in him, but it was because of the Samaritan woman at the well that his grace and glory were received by this town. I believe this story is telling us that we should never underestimate what God can do through us, and that we are never so far gone that he will not accept us into his loving arms of mercy and grace.
People just love a good underdog story. As much as we like to see the popular people fall from grace, we want the most unlikely people to succeed and catch the limelight for a moment or two. It is very heartwarming. The Bible is filled with stories of the unlikely people succeeding. Moses, Abraham, David, Esther… and too many more to count. Of course, they could never have done it without the grace of God on their side.
Jesus met up with the Samaritan woman at the well in the heat of the day. It was noon, when most people stayed inside to gain some relief from the heat, and she was out drawing water to avoid the scoffing murmurs of the other women in town. She had been through five husbands and was currently living with a man who was not her husband (John 4:18). It was certainly not socially acceptable for a man to talk to a woman in public, but it was even less acceptable for a Jew to talk to a Samaritan. The two groups had a significant disdain for each other and did not associate at all. But Jesus selected her, much to her confusion, to ask for a drink of water and offer up his own “living water” (John 4:10).
After their initial conversation, the woman begins to realize that Jesus could possibly be the Christ, the one they have been waiting for. She urgently runs back to town, leaving her water jar behind. When she arrives she exclaims with excitement “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:29). As they all rush out to meet Jesus, I try to imagine what that Samaritan woman is thinking. This is her moment of redemption, both literally and figuratively. Jesus has saved her soul and helped her regain her dignity and reputation. I would be inclined to believe that if God’s grace had not intervened in her life at that moment, the people in town would have just looked at her and laughed. How interesting that Jesus chose not only a woman, but a woman of ill repute to deliver the news of his arrival to the town in Samaria. Of course we learn that Jesus stayed for several days teaching the Samaritans and many believed in him, but it was because of the Samaritan woman at the well that his grace and glory were received by this town. I believe this story is telling us that we should never underestimate what God can do through us, and that we are never so far gone that he will not accept us into his loving arms of mercy and grace.
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