You have to grow. 1 Cor 13.1-9 23rd Jan 05 at 10.30 am (PDL 24)
To stay physically alive, and grow, we need food, water and oxygen, and a suitable environment.
To stay spiritually alive we need the food of God’s word, to be soaked in prayer, and the breath of His Holy Spirit. The word, prayer and Holy Spirit are all essential for our growth, and the environment we are in is essentially for our very life.
We can’t live indefinitely on food without water or water without food.
Paul was speaking to people in today’s reading who were arguing about what was most important. “Is it more important to plant a seed or water it”, he asks. Is water more important than food?
To grow as Christians someone might argue it is most important to pray, another to worship, another to have relationship with other Christians, to tell the good news to others, and so on.
We need them all. But for today, we will concentrate on growing through feeding on the Bible. As it says in
(Deuteronomy 8:3b NLT)
People need more than bread for their life; real life comes by feeding on every word of the LORD.
Paul told the Corinthian church, that as they were like babies, immature, he had to feed them milk and not solid food.
As baby Christians learning God’s word, a lot of what we listen too and read will be thoughts and comments by more mature Christians on Bible passages.
When baby Christians try to read huge portions of scripture, especially some passages, they might get spiritual indigestion. They may not understand, they may decide it is too boring, too confusing, or find they don’t agree.
Rather like feeding a baby with an adult sized plate of food, who is then sick. Or giving a young baby a curry. You don’t do that twice! I won’t describe what that does.
There are always exceptions. A few tiny babies find an all fluid diet isn’t for them. Our baby daughter, could keep cauliflower cheese down, but not just milk!
Similarly, some young Christians have no problem spending an hour or more each day reading their Bible and commentaries from day one of accepting Christ.
After a year or so, just as you wouldn’t expect a baby to eat nothing but cauliflower cheese for the rest of her life, we should mature in our Bible reading, Christian knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.
Would you like a diet of just cauliflower cheese for the rest of your life?
Do you eat just to stay alive? No!!
Why do you eat?
Enjoyment, fun, it removes a nasty feeling in your stomach, gives you energy, companionship when you eat with others, and certain unpleasant foods, because they are good for you.
The Bible is the same, amongst other passages, it contains some really interesting stories, some really humorous parts, words that bless us, passages that make us feel really close to God, and some parts that are unpleasant, but good for us.
Just as having eaten you have a warm, comfortable feeling is your stomach, having read the Bible you feel contented and at peace in your soul.
Why should I read the Bible!?
Nick Warren says on Page 186 of PDL
“God’s Word generates life, creates faith, produces change, frightens the Devil, causes miracles, heals hurts, build character, transforms circumstances, imparts joy, overcomes adversity, defeats temptation, infuses hope, releases power, cleanses our minds, brings things into being, and guarantees our future forever!
He says
I won’t ague with that.
Do you watch the news on TV most nights or read news paper headlines? Why?
To keep update date with the news?
How much time do you spend each night watching the TV or relaxing in other ways? Shouldn’t you be spending at least an equal amount of time reading the Bible, other Christian spiritual books and praying?
Have you noticed from the media, how we as a country, are drifting farther away from Christianity and towards pagan practices?
For example in “Jerry Springer, The Opera”, a song is sung with the words, “Nothing is wrong and nothing is right”.
One person can do something they think is right and no one raises an eyebrow. The following week someone else can do the same thing and it is the worst crime ever committed.
Society can’t trust, because it doesn’t know the rules. Well actually, they believe, everyone has their own rules, which are constantly changing. The result is confusion, stress, and tears for those caught up in the mess.
Avoid this spiritual poison. Know your Bible. Even if you aren’t a committed Christian yet. If we all believe in the same right and wrong, we will have more in common than most of British society.
But how do you go about reading the Bible? And once you have started what if you find yourself giving up? That was my experience.
Before eating a meal, we always have said grace. I think it is a sign of my age that left to my own devices I might say it more than once because I’ve forgotten it has already been said. Anybody here do that?
It is equally a good idea to pray before reading the Bible that God will inspire and teach you through the words.
But it isn’t always that easy is it?
Testimony
For eighteen months before I had my daughter I had a job as a lecturer. I found the job totally exhausting. The 16 year old boys didn’t want to learn, and every night I was up late preparing lessons. So much so, I don’t think I noticed at first that I had stopped reading the Bible.
When she was born I was very ill for a while, and it wasn’t until she was two that I was diagnosed as having an under active thyroid gland. The few abortive attempts I made at reading anything in this period before diagnosis, usually ended in my drifting off to sleep. A symptom of my illness.
The trouble with stopping doing anything is that it is much harder to start again. If you stop reading the Bible, or have never really read it since becoming a Christian, you will suffer from spiritual malnutrition.
Just as those who have suffered from anorexia or starvation find it difficult to eat, and have to build up the amount they eat each day. It can be difficult to start again. I found it took me years.
Even if you find you are going through a time when can only spend 5 or 10 minutes, on average, a day, don’t stop.
If you don’t read it often, yes, I understand and so does God, but it doesn’t mean he agrees it is right.
Perhaps you have picked it up, read something for a while, may be even weeks, got bored and put it down. May be you have tried reading it with Bible notes and after a while got bored with the notes. Try some other notes, or read a book someone else has written, about a book in the Bible.
I’ve been there, got the tea-shirt as they say. I realised I was spiritually malnourished. I was literally craving a closer relationship with God.
I made a number of abortive attempts to re-start my Bible reading. Eventually, one day I cried out to God, “God I can’t do this on my own. I find the Bible boring. I fall asleep reading it. Please, make me find it interesting.” I then collapsed into tears for a while.
Shortly after, I picked up the Bible, opened it in the New Testament, prayed I would find what I was about to read interesting and helpful, and read. I did enjoy a small chapter. The following day, and the next, and the next, I read consecutive chapters.
I can’t remember now what I read. I just remember being amazed at the effectiveness of my prayer.
But please note I did have to do something. Pick the Bible up, open it, and read. That was an act of will.
Do you like roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, lasagne, sweet and sour chicken, Indian food? Do you go through phase of having a lot of some type of food, and then move onto another? Thinking, I just couldn’t eat another ciche or whatever?
Just imagine eating nothing but eggs for a month or nothing but sprouts. Ugh!
Nothing but chocolate? Even that would eventually be bad.
Bible reading can be the same. For instance having read 1 and 2 Kings, reading 1 and 2 Chronicles which covers the same history could be too much. It is much more palatable to have a mixed diet between old and new testament, and different books.
So just as we change our food, we can read another book of the Bible or season it with bible reading notes, a commentary or other spiritual book.
When God managed to get me reading the Bible regularly again, he must have made me realise that I needed to change HOW I read the Bible on occasions.
I started using Bible notes again; then swapped to easy commentaries. In other words I varied the supplementary diet I had with my Bible reading.
But that is years ago now, and I prefer to just read the Bible and pick up a commentary when necessary.
We need a balanced food diet, but the balance required varies from person to person, and also depends on your age and occupation.
To build physical muscles, to grow and have children we need protein, vitamins and minerals.
In our Spiritual lives, God’s word can build up spiritual, and emotional areas of our life and produce fruit in us.
Older, more mature people don’t need to get taller or fatter – Well, maybe I could do with a bit extra height.
But too much food now would just make me fat and damage my health. But I still need to grow new cells to replace the damaged worn out ones. Especially skin cells that directly rub up against life.
Duncan wishes he hadn’t lost the hair cells on the top of his head because he gets no warning that he is about to hurt his head of an open cupboard door.
His body seems to be saying “I made hair for your head once. I’m not doing it again”.
As we come up against life there are words of God that we have to re-learn, to re-grow. Just because we read a passage in the Bible once, and could more or less remember if we thought about it, doesn’t mean the passage is doing us any good now.
You wouldn’t say, “I remember eating some protein last year, so I don’t need any more”. Would you?
“A balance” means something of everything.
Many people who claim to believe the Bible from cover to cover have never read it from cover to cover, says Rick Warren in his book. Quick readers say it takes 15 minutes a day for a year to read the whole Bible.
That leaves no time for reflection, finding answers, or noting questions to ask of others. I’d say it takes at least 75 hours. That is about 45 minutes a day for a year.
Even if you prefer to read the Bible with daily notes, do take the time, if it is only once a decade to read the whole Bible. Try “The Pocket Bible in one Year” or something similar.
Or read a chapter from the OT and one from the NT each day for a couple of years. If you only ever read the Bible with Bible notes there are likely to be huge portions you have never read. Remember Timothy says -
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.
I must admit though some passages are more obviously useful in our learning than others. For instance in
Numbers 7.11 The LORD said to Moses, "Let each leader bring his gift on a different day for the dedication of the altar."
Each of the 12 leaders of the 12 tribes gave exactly the same, and it details what 12 times. The last time I read that chapter I found myself humming “On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me” . . .
Later on in he day.
But even with that passage, I have pondered WHY they thought it so important to copy it out by HAND twelve times. They couldn’t use a computer’s copy and paste buttons to make it easier.
The probable initial answer Moses would give, to my question, “why”, is, “So the people will remember their exact giving to God on this occasion”. Written copies weren’t freely available. Despite having many copies of the Bible freely available today, it is still very important to remember what is written.
I asked myself the question “Why?” when I read that repetitive passage. Other useful questions to think about having read a passage also begin with the letter “W”. Who, when, where, what. How, is also a useful question to ask .
Spiritually Fat
If you don’t grow, you die. You may be only growing new skin cells, and other types of cell, to replace worn out ones, but if you don’t eat the food, to replace them, you will slowly die.
Similarly, if you don’t feed regularly on God’s word you will die, spiritually, slowly.
As a nation we are told we are getting too fat. We eat, but then don’t burn off the calories with enough exercise. We jump into the car, to go everywhere, and use labour saving devices. We enjoy the calories in the food but we don’t use it for what God designed it for – physical work.
But here is a warning. Don’t forget what food is for. It is not for making you fat.
Occasionally, I meet people who say they spend a considerable amount of time each day reading the Bible, but appear to put no effort into putting into practice, what it says. Just like someone who eats, and eats, and eats and does no exercise. They get fat.
Some people are thinking, “I could! Well, may be even, I DO eat too much chocolate and enjoy a good meal. Yes, I should eat less and exercise more. But, surely you can’t read too much of the Bible!”
The Word of God, is for works of God within body of Christ. The work of using and developing gifts within the body.
There is a danger! Knowing the Bible isn’t enough! The devil knows the Bible, and uses his knowledge as a selective weapon, against people. He speaks, gets others to do his work, and sits there, getting fat. The devil encourages some people to use the Bible as he does, to accuse. He also suggests that Bible reading without action is more spiritual than action.
Consider what James says
So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn't show itself by good deeds is no faith at all--it is dead and useless. (James 2:17 NLT)
As we read, and re-read our Bibles our understanding grows, our confidence and trust in Jesus also grows.
One of the value statements we have here at St John’s is :-
The Bible - We will be obedient to all that we can understand of the truth that God reveals.
As we are more obedient to truths, that we allow God to reveal to us, we become more like Him, and as a result enjoy life more. We become more pleasing for others to be with, and everyone finds this a blessing.
Jesus says in his words from Matthew 5.3
"God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them. (Matthew 5:3 NLT)
Be blessed, obey, and put into practice what you have learned from the Bible; learn to use the gifts he given you; and continue to grow through your devotion to Him through the Bible.
Pray – that adverts etc about food will make people consider the spiritual food they are having.