Come and Dine – More Thoughts on Spiritual Food

Come and Dine – More Thoughts on Spiritual Food.

There is so much to think about as we consider eating our spiritual food. We think of the three main food groups: Digesting the Scripture; Feeding on Christ; Feasting on the Eucharist. One cannot in good conscience ever accuse the Lord of providing a bland diet! In all three foodstuffs, we swallow the Truth, thereby inviting that Truth to become a part of our very self… body, soul and spirit.

 

“He was the Word who spake it;

He took the bread and brake it;

And what the Word did make it;

I do believe and take it.” (John Donne).

 

Emmaus Way. We are shown on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 the only way to understand the Word, the only way to take Scripture in and digest it for soul food… Jesus has to be the One who opens up the Bible. We learn to depend on the Spirit of Christ to open it up, anoint the words, and feed us with it. Teachers of Scripture who are not anointed by God will give us stale bread and lifeless food. Whenever we are reading the Bible for ourselves, we are to ask Jesus to anoint the words and open the Word for us, just like He did on the road to Emmaus. Luke couldn’t have put it any better. “He opened their minds to understand the Scripture.” (Luke 24:45). (Steve Larson).

Chewing the Word. “To meditate is to read a text and to learn it ‘by heart’ in the fullest sense of this expression, that is with one’s whole being: with the body since the mouth pronounced it; with the memory which fixes it; with the intelligence which understands its meaning; and with the will which desires to put it into practice.” (Jean Leclerq).

Holy Scripture. “The Bible is holiness in words. The words of the Bible are like dwellings made with rock. The Bible is the light of God given in the form of language. How is it conceivable that the Divine should be contained in such brittle vessels as consonants and vowels? It is as if God took these Hebrew words and breathed into them of His power, and the words became a live wire charged with His spirit. Just as it is impossible to conceive of God without the world, so is it impossible to conceive of His concern without the Bible. If God is alive, then the Bible is His voice. There is no other mirror in the world where His will and spiritual guidance is as unmistakably reflected.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God In Search Of Man, 1955).

The Bible is not an object of worship. It would be easy to make an idol out of Scripture. The Bible is so compelling and powerful and credible, it would be easy to fall into worshipping it. But, as George MacDonald once said, that would be like the pet dog staring at the master’s pointing finger instead of where the finger is pointing. The Scripture is full of light, MacDonald said, to help us walk in the darkness. But that would be moonlight. The moon is only a reflection of the sun’s light. And Jesus is the sun, the Source of light in our darkness. Honor Scripture, revere it, live by it, but don’t worship it. As Jesus Himself declared to the Bible scholars of His day, “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” (John 5:39-40). (Steve Larson).

Ready to Listen. “Whatever method we choose we must come to sacred Scripture ready to be placed at God’s disposal and therefore keen to hear His Word. This keenness to hear may be compared with that of a mother for her baby. Before giving birth to her child she may have slept soundly through the loudest noise; but after the birth, the child has only to rustle in the crib and the mother will awake. Her keenness grows and matures in loving care and attention; and her care affects her senses so that she hears with new ears. In love of God and keenness to hear from Him we too will develop new, inner ears to pick up His quiet voice, speaking to us words of grace both in our reading of the sacred text and in our times of prayer.” (Peter Toon).

The Gospels are the North Star. The life of Jesus is the reference point for everything. His words and deeds trump theology. In fact, if there is a point in some theology that seems to conflict with what we see in the Gospels, stick with the Gospels. Maybe the theological assertion will make more sense down the line. But I recommend studying theology in light of the Gospels, not the other way around. I dare to say that even if a verse or two in the epistles seems inconsistent with what you read in the Gospels, stick with the Gospels until the epistle seems to make more sense in accordance with the life of Jesus. There may even be an apparent contradiction between the Gospel accounts, such as the timing of events. Just hold those inconsistencies loosely. It’s doubtful that they are game-changers. Grow in your love of the Gospels, in simply loving the story of Jesus. You can’t go wrong with that. After the three disciples witness the Transfiguration, they saw “Jesus only.” Let that be your guiding light as you study theology and scripture. (Steve Larson).

Soul Food. “Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, while meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, searching as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching what I have meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.” (George Muller).