I remember that back in Mrs. Sprague's fifth grade class (many years ago) we were each given an assignment to create a poster reflecting the virtues of eating a healthy diet. The particular subject at hand was related to the benefits of drinking milk and each of us were given the task of creating an artwork reflecting the positive slogan "Milk, It Does A Body Good". With that, I began to become conscious of the physical benefits of eating a healthy diet. It wasn't too many years later that I began to realize that another popular and similar health related slogan - "You are what you eat"... might have dual implications
The ability of our diet to affect our physical bodies has of course been known for a very long time. In fact, the Bible even makes some reference to this truth. For example, take our brother Daniel and his three companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their all vegetable diet. The results of their experiment, taken in spite of their caretaker's misgivings, were clearly stated in scripture - they were much healthier and better looking as a reward for their disciplined effort. But I've held for decades that there's a spiritual truth that runs parallel to the others revealed in this part of their story and some others as well. The Bible speaks of this truth a lot. I've lived it - we all have, and we are continually...
We're indeed affected by what we eat in the physical. But what we might not give as much thought to is that the same is also true spiritually. Our souls are affected by what we receive through what we import through our senses. What we see, watch, read, hear, listen to, touch, think, feel, and even say, all affect us - not as much in the flesh, but far more spiritually, impacting the health of our eternal being. If we were honest, I wonder if we could truthfully say that our continual focus on what we feed our spirits was even close to being equal to that of what we feed our flesh.
If our focus was continually and fully on what Father God's established to be true, I think many of us might be more mindful of what we take in as spiritual food for our eternal souls - and I'm not excluding myself. There's a smorgasbord out there for the choosing and a lot of it's unhealthy and some, just outright poison. There's sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties (taken from Galatians 5:19-21)... and all of it poison. Would any of us in our right mind consciously feed our body deadly poison? Have we really given consideration what we feed our spirit? All of these things mentioned above are out there in the temporary world of men and are also available on DVD, live stream, in stereo and in print etc. But let's be more specific. What if we narrowed our thinking about our spiritual consumption down to just one source...
What if words were food and our only means of spiritual sustenance? What words would you choose? Whose words would you crave? Would they be your own or someone else's? Would they be the bone decaying sweet words of vanity and flattery? Or perhaps the acidic and corroding words of put-downs and the demeaning exposure of other's flaws. There's a lot to choose from...
Proverbs 18:20-21 (NLT) 20 "Wise words satisfy like a good meal; the right words bring satisfaction. 21 The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences."
In view of the fact that our souls are eternal and will far outlive our bodies of flesh, it's obviously much more important that we care for the eternal rather than the temporary comfort of our flesh. But in reality, do we really place even as much importance on what we feed our souls as we do to what we feed our greedy, needy flesh? What IF words were food?... They are.
Acts 7:38 (NLT) "Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai. And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us."
Words... Many words spoken among men are useless and some even dangerous, but in a chaotic, sinful world, there are some words predestined to carry us safely through it if we choose to follow them. Those are the words belonging to the God who created us and provided them for times just like these. Those words try our hearts, they refine us and they feed our eternal souls. They banish deception and destroy falsehoods that would lead us off of the path that leads to the fullness of life that Father God intended for each of us. They cut through growing darkness allowing light to reign, making clear our path toward the Eternal God who waits for us eagerly to draw near to Him. They open our eyes to answer the true meaning of life and make the truth known. They dispel the myths that mankind in his own fallible intellect might conjure up to replace the truth that God sovereignly established and indeed, even God Himself. They're the powerful words of The Living God - the ones that lead to the life that we were intended for. They're words that He's made available. But in a failing world, surrounded by deception and spiritually corrosive dialogue, what value do we place on the words of the Sovereign God who does not lie?
Hebrews 4:12-13 (NLT)
12 "For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable."
There's a time coming and not far off, when the Word of God that we've enjoyed free access to, will likely become more restricted or even banned where it once flourished among the people God created. When it does, how much of the Word of God will we have in us to continue lead us? - Only what we've read, studied and taken in. We won't be able to fall back on what we don't have, so what word will be in us?
Right now in some places in the world, followers of Christ are being executed - slaughtered for their belief in Christ. Right now, the very Word of God is becoming hated and being vilainized as a part of the problem in societies where it was once the source of guidance and basis of law - even here in the United States. Right now it's being perverted, taken out of context, misused and mocked as myth. And right now in the unseen, darkness is doing everything it can to slowly take it away from us... and more rapidly recently.
John 6: 67-69 (NLT)
67 "Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” 68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”"
"The words that give eternal life"... Here in the United States, they're available to us - for now. The Holy Spirit within us is well able to teach us many things through the revelation of God's Word to our hearts and minds. He gives life to the Word within us, bringing clear relevance and understanding to bear where confusion and ignorance might have once reigned. But if the words of our God, the fatherly instruction and guidance that He lovingly prepared to guide us, aren't there to be used by the Holy Spirit for our benefit as Father God intended, how will we suffer in the darkening horizon of a world gone astray?
God's words... do they have a value to us? Are they not good food for our eternal soul? We need to take them in, store them up, write them on our hearts and feed our spirits while we still have the luxury - Because the day is coming if we don't, when our thirst may cry out from the desert in the darkness for the light of living water...
What is the Word Of God worth? What will it be worth in the coming days? My words and the words of any other are unimportant and even worthless by comparison. So what words are in you? Spiritually speaking, and to a degree, you are what you eat...
The ability of our diet to affect our physical bodies has of course been known for a very long time. In fact, the Bible even makes some reference to this truth. For example, take our brother Daniel and his three companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their all vegetable diet. The results of their experiment, taken in spite of their caretaker's misgivings, were clearly stated in scripture - they were much healthier and better looking as a reward for their disciplined effort. But I've held for decades that there's a spiritual truth that runs parallel to the others revealed in this part of their story and some others as well. The Bible speaks of this truth a lot. I've lived it - we all have, and we are continually...
We're indeed affected by what we eat in the physical. But what we might not give as much thought to is that the same is also true spiritually. Our souls are affected by what we receive through what we import through our senses. What we see, watch, read, hear, listen to, touch, think, feel, and even say, all affect us - not as much in the flesh, but far more spiritually, impacting the health of our eternal being. If we were honest, I wonder if we could truthfully say that our continual focus on what we feed our spirits was even close to being equal to that of what we feed our flesh.
If our focus was continually and fully on what Father God's established to be true, I think many of us might be more mindful of what we take in as spiritual food for our eternal souls - and I'm not excluding myself. There's a smorgasbord out there for the choosing and a lot of it's unhealthy and some, just outright poison. There's sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties (taken from Galatians 5:19-21)... and all of it poison. Would any of us in our right mind consciously feed our body deadly poison? Have we really given consideration what we feed our spirit? All of these things mentioned above are out there in the temporary world of men and are also available on DVD, live stream, in stereo and in print etc. But let's be more specific. What if we narrowed our thinking about our spiritual consumption down to just one source...
What if words were food and our only means of spiritual sustenance? What words would you choose? Whose words would you crave? Would they be your own or someone else's? Would they be the bone decaying sweet words of vanity and flattery? Or perhaps the acidic and corroding words of put-downs and the demeaning exposure of other's flaws. There's a lot to choose from...
Proverbs 18:20-21 (NLT) 20 "Wise words satisfy like a good meal; the right words bring satisfaction. 21 The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences."
In view of the fact that our souls are eternal and will far outlive our bodies of flesh, it's obviously much more important that we care for the eternal rather than the temporary comfort of our flesh. But in reality, do we really place even as much importance on what we feed our souls as we do to what we feed our greedy, needy flesh? What IF words were food?... They are.
Acts 7:38 (NLT) "Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai. And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us."
Words... Many words spoken among men are useless and some even dangerous, but in a chaotic, sinful world, there are some words predestined to carry us safely through it if we choose to follow them. Those are the words belonging to the God who created us and provided them for times just like these. Those words try our hearts, they refine us and they feed our eternal souls. They banish deception and destroy falsehoods that would lead us off of the path that leads to the fullness of life that Father God intended for each of us. They cut through growing darkness allowing light to reign, making clear our path toward the Eternal God who waits for us eagerly to draw near to Him. They open our eyes to answer the true meaning of life and make the truth known. They dispel the myths that mankind in his own fallible intellect might conjure up to replace the truth that God sovereignly established and indeed, even God Himself. They're the powerful words of The Living God - the ones that lead to the life that we were intended for. They're words that He's made available. But in a failing world, surrounded by deception and spiritually corrosive dialogue, what value do we place on the words of the Sovereign God who does not lie?
Hebrews 4:12-13 (NLT)
12 "For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable."
There's a time coming and not far off, when the Word of God that we've enjoyed free access to, will likely become more restricted or even banned where it once flourished among the people God created. When it does, how much of the Word of God will we have in us to continue lead us? - Only what we've read, studied and taken in. We won't be able to fall back on what we don't have, so what word will be in us?
Right now in some places in the world, followers of Christ are being executed - slaughtered for their belief in Christ. Right now, the very Word of God is becoming hated and being vilainized as a part of the problem in societies where it was once the source of guidance and basis of law - even here in the United States. Right now it's being perverted, taken out of context, misused and mocked as myth. And right now in the unseen, darkness is doing everything it can to slowly take it away from us... and more rapidly recently.
John 6: 67-69 (NLT)
67 "Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” 68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”"
"The words that give eternal life"... Here in the United States, they're available to us - for now. The Holy Spirit within us is well able to teach us many things through the revelation of God's Word to our hearts and minds. He gives life to the Word within us, bringing clear relevance and understanding to bear where confusion and ignorance might have once reigned. But if the words of our God, the fatherly instruction and guidance that He lovingly prepared to guide us, aren't there to be used by the Holy Spirit for our benefit as Father God intended, how will we suffer in the darkening horizon of a world gone astray?
God's words... do they have a value to us? Are they not good food for our eternal soul? We need to take them in, store them up, write them on our hearts and feed our spirits while we still have the luxury - Because the day is coming if we don't, when our thirst may cry out from the desert in the darkness for the light of living water...
What is the Word Of God worth? What will it be worth in the coming days? My words and the words of any other are unimportant and even worthless by comparison. So what words are in you? Spiritually speaking, and to a degree, you are what you eat...
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