Eating and Drinking

Posted on by korgrocker

“So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other. If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive.”
1 Corinthians 11:33-34 NLT

Eating and drinking are two activities necessary to sustain human life. Without consuming water, a human being will die after a few days. A lack of food will cause a person’s body to extract the nutrients it needs from its own tissues, but there comes a point when those reserves run out. Both of these thoughts are rather gruesome but well-known by anyone living in certain deprived countries. Here in the privileged West, we open the fridge door or turn on a tap, and we find our basic needs are met. In the Corinthian church, what started as an introduction to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper turned into a one-sided fellowship meal, where each family brought its own food and proceeded to eat it in front of those who had nothing—no sense of unity, no sense of sharing and preferring one another in the true Christian way. So, Paul brought in a chapter of correction, teaching the right way to share the Lord’s Supper and pointing out their errors. Paul finished this chapter with “I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive”, indicating that there must have been other issues connected to the Lord’s Supper, but not important enough to include in his letter. How could the Corinthians have got things so wrong? Thankfully, Paul was on hand to bring in the correction needed. 

But there is also a need for spiritual food and drink, and the same principles apply. Our souls need to be fed, and if deprived of spiritual food, they will wither and die. What is this food? We find it in the Bible, which is a treasure trove of unlimited spiritual resources. We find more through prayer and worship. Through fellowship with other believers. In fact, we feed our souls by spending time in God’s Kingdom. The early Israelites were fed for forty years with a constant supply of manna. This was a superfood containing all the nutrients necessary for human life. But there is a manna that came through Jesus and which is still with us today. It is available in unlimited quantities and is free for all to eat. If we read John 6:35, we find out the Source of this soul-superfood, “Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. Jesus continued, “Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh”. This was teaching that most of the people of His day failed to understand, because Jesus wasn’t talking about cannibalism, but about Him being spiritual food for those who believe in Him. Earlier in John 6, we read about the feeding of the five thousand, about how a young boy’s packed lunch of five barley loaves and two fish was multiplied to not only feed everyone but to ensure that they were full (John 6:12). Such was the magnitude of this miracle that the people wanted to make Jesus King. They understood the physical benefit of a miraculous food supply, but they failed to realise that Jesus was showing them the spiritual meaning, that His supply of bread was unlimited, and by eating it, their souls would become full.

There are many people today who are going about their daily lives depressed and without hope. Their souls are running on empty, and they have no resources that will feed them. They wake up in the morning, perhaps hoping that their circumstances will change in the day ahead, but return to their beds in the evening still unfulfilled. These are the people we pilgrims must introduce to Jesus. We are like the four lepers we can read about in 2 Kings 7. These lepers were starving, as were the Israelites, because of the Aramean siege of Samaria. They decided to visit the enemy camp to see if they could find mercy there and perhaps a crust or two of bread. But when they arrived, they found an empty camp and a plentiful supply of food and wine. After gorging themselves, we read in 2 Kings 7:9, “Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace””. As we pilgrims enter our day, we must remember that we have found “good news”and our souls have been filled by God’s spiritual manna. We must find an opportunity to tell the people around us where they, too, can find the food they need to nourish their souls. 

Dear Father God. We must never keep the Good News about Jesus to ourselves. Please fill us today with a fresh supply of Your Spirit, so that we can be equipped to share the hope that we have with the hopeless. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Spiritual Food

Posted on by korgrocker

“I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptised as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that travelled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”
1 Corinthians 10:1-5 NLT

The Israelite slaves were miraculously fed for forty years with manna, a complete food containing all the nutrients, proteins and carbohydrates necessary to sustain a human being’s life. However, the miracle wasn’t just the food itself; it was the number of meals that God supplied. Think about it – one estimate was that there were two million Israelites, and if they had just one meal per day, that totalled over twenty-nine billion meals supplied for the forty years in which they were travelling in the wilderness. But we blithely read the Scripture passages referring to the supply of manna, verses such as in Exodus 16:4, 14-15, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day, the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. … When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, “It is the food the Lord has given you to eat”, and we never stop to think of this being a miracle. 

In Paul’s writings, he referred to the Israelites as having been baptised “as followers of Moses” through the cloud of smoke and the crossing of the Red Sea, and now he referred to them eating the “same spiritual food”. Surely, we think, the “spiritual food” was the manna that had been supplied from Heaven for their physical sustenance. But it was more than that. Imagine being there and waking up in the morning with the thought – Will there be any manna today? And then the feeling of relief to find that there was indeed a supply of the “flaky substance as fine as frost” (Exodus 16:14). But that wasn’t the only miracle, as we read in Exodus 16:16-18, “These are the Lord’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent.” So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed”. God miraculously supplied the needs of the Israelites. However, there is a spiritual element in the supply of manna, because every day they had to exercise their faith that it would be there waiting to be collected, and every day they ate it with thankful hearts. Or perhaps they became a bit complacent and never gave God’s provision a thought, other than to collect it each morning. 

We pilgrims, too, have access to a spiritual food, food that nurtures our souls and spirits rather than meeting our physical needs. Jesus was asked to show a physical sign about His authenticity, as we read in John 6:30-31, “They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat’””. Jesus’ response is recorded in the following two verses: “Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world””. But the verses that really upset the Jews came a bit later in John 6:49-51. “Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh””. Cannibalism was all they could see, and that was something anathema to their culture.

Jesus gave us the sacrament of communion, as we read in Matthew 26:26-28, “As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many”. That is our “spiritual food” today, and we honour Jesus by remembering all that He did for us at Calvary. Jesus’ statement about being the bread of life, one of His seven “I Am’s” recorded in John’s Gospel, is pivotal to our lives as followers of Jesus. Daily, we must take into our souls His sustenance of spiritual food. Without it, our spirits will shrivel and die. It may not involve the act of sharing a communion service, but it does affect our faith, as we thank God for every morsel of food that passes into our mouths. And we also feast on His Word, contained in the Bible, spiritual food that sustains us every day.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for the rich nourishment contained in Your Word. How can we thank You enough? Amen.

Spiritual Food

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.”
John 4:34 NLT

Just a couple of verses before our Scripture today, we read, “But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about”“. The disciples were puzzled, not knowing how Jesus had gained access to bread, meat or some other item of food, because He was in a desolate place, sitting by a well, and talking to a Samaritan woman. So Jesus had to explain what He meant to His disciples, highlighting two sources of spiritual nourishment – doing God’s will and doing His work. As we considered yesterday, there are two kinds of food. One is for feeding our physical bodies so that they remain healthy and nourished. The other is for doing the same for our spirits. Jesus came to this planet as a human being so He needed both kinds of food, just as we do. And just as there are different kinds of physical foods, there are different kinds of spiritual food. Food in all its forms provides a variety of nutrients, and just restricting ourselves to a diet of, for example, burgers and chips, will soon result in malnutrition and the fruit of it will be obesity. In the same way, our spiritual diets consist of many sources of nutrients, all supplied to us from our Heavenly Father. So we pray and read the Bible of course, but there are some practical requirements as well, as Jesus told His disciples. 

Doing God’s will is well documented in the Bible. For example, we read in Psalm 40:8 that it is a source of joy. “I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.” Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “may Your will be done”. God’s will is also that we do good; “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:15). And there are many other verses that refer to God’s will. The sweet spot in our relationship with God is when we are doing His will. The knowledge of that will sustain us and support us when the going gets tough, when the obstacles before us seem insurmountable, and when everybody tells us we are out of God’s will for our lives, even when we know, through faith, otherwise.

Jesus also said His nourishment came from doing God’s work. We read in Colossians 3:23, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people“.  A common misconception is that doing God’s work is doing good to, or for, other people. So people assume that volunteering in a soup kitchen providing meals for the homeless is doing God’s work. It may well be, but as Paul wrote to the Colossians, whatever we do can be considered doing God’s work, with the caveat that we must be doing it as though God is our employer. Another common misconception is that our salvation can be assured by doing good works. Paul quashed that thought in Ephesians 2:9-10, “Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago”. The previous verse, Ephesians 2:8, reads, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God“. Our salvation depends on the grace of God alone, and not on what we do, even if our activity is what would be considered “God’s work”. So we are saved for good works, and not by good works.

So, fellow pilgrims, the next time we enjoy a physical meal, perhaps we should also consider a spiritual meal. There is nothing like a balanced diet to keep us fit and healthy.

Dear Father God. You fed Your people with manna in the wilderness, but today You feed us through Your Son, Jesus, and the power of Your Spirit. We are so grateful. Amen.

A White Stone

Posted on by korgrocker

“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.”
Revelation‬ ‭2:17‬ ‭NLT

Jesus finishes His message to the Pergamum church with the non-negotiable instruction that we “must listen to the Spirit”. Looking at the converse, that means the Pergamums, at times, failed to listen to what God was saying to them. The same applies to modern churchgoers today, I’m sure. And because we don’t hear Him, we are unable to follow His instructions. I always think of God’s faithful servant in Damascus, Ananias. He heard the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit and listened to what God was saying about a man called Saul, who had been blinded by an encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road. Ananias had an always-on connection with God. He was ready to listen to the Holy Spirit and was able to discern what He was saying, to the extent that he was confident enough to put into practice what to some would have been a very unpopular request. 

To the pilgrim today we should carefully note the sequence. Firstly, we must have “ears to hear”. This means we must have a connection with God, with spiritual ears trained and ready to hear when God speaks. Secondly, we must “listen to the Spirit”. It is not enough to hear Him when He speaks. We must “listen”. This means we must concentrate on what God is saying, making sure we are hearing right. How many times has my wife spoken to me only to find I haven’t been listening? Confession time? Thirdly, having heard, having listened, we must make sure we “understand what He is saying”. This means we must convert what we hear into the thoughts and actions that God intends.

Moving on, we have a reference to “manna”. Manna was the food supplied by God to sustain the Israelite nation during their journey between Egypt and the promised land. We can read all about it in Exodus 16. The name “manna” is a Hebrew word meaning “What is it?”. But, as a food, it was unique and amazing. It was a miracle food containing all the nutrients required by a human being. And the miraculous extended to the way it was supplied. Just enough. Just for the day ahead. Much too can be written about the spiritual meaning of manna, the bread from Heaven. Jesus said that the victorious would have access to manna. The victorious are those who have overcome sin, who have stayed the course, who have reached their Heavenly goal. And, to me, the manna hidden away for the victorious in Heaven will have all that is needed for a life in God’s presence.

Something else awaiting the victorious in Heaven is a white stone. Apparently, in the culture of the time, white stones were used as a sort of ID, or calling card. But more than that, the white stones had a relational significance, of friendship and commitment. And to me, quite simply, Jesus was saying that He was giving us each a token of His love, but in a very special way. You see, He will give each one of us a special name that only we know. And notice that our unique names will be engraved on the stone. Not just written with a pen, with ink that will wash or wear off in time. Engraved means that it will be there for eternity.

Sometimes, married couples or others in close friendships will have an intimate name they use for each other. But how much more amazing to have our own individual relationships with Jesus. Relationships so special that each one of us uniquely and individually has their own new name. Bringing it home to me personally, I try and imagine what it must be like to hear Jesus calling my new name. A name only Him and I know. With a love so deep that it can’t be measured. With His presence so close that He is touching me. What else can I do than fall on my knees before Him in gratitude?

Dear Lord Jesus. With a deeply grateful heart I worship You today. The wonderful God who came to this world to show me the way into Your presence. Into a life of intimacy with You. Thank You. Amen.