Is This What You Were Looking For?

Several years ago, my wife and I had the privilege of being invited to the baptism of a young man who had been mildly involved in our youth group. He had since moved on to be a part of a different church in the area. It was a blessed day, with a blessed service, a blessed guest speaker and a blessed message. We gave him a personalized New Living Translation Bible, letting him know what a privilege it was to know him.

In that blessed hour, there was one thing I found to be rather odd. During his testimony, he shared how thankful he was for his new church, how there he had found the answers he was looking for to life’s big questions. It seemed like a wonderful thing to say on such a grand day. I don’t believe it was jealousy which thought his statement to be odd. I was overjoyed to see him follow Christ’s example in baptism, and if someone else was better able to get the job done, I wanted to commend my superior.

What I found strange was that in my time with him, he never asked any questions. If real answers were what he was really looking for, why did he never ask? As best I knew, the things I had given him were the very things found in scripture. I really was happy though. So I shook his hand, gave him a hug, told him how pleased I was with his decision to follow Christ, and that I loved him.

There is a problem with looking for answers. We generally discover what we set out to find. Obviously, the answers he had found didn’t quite do the trick. Within a couple of years, he had become a hardcore, conspiracy chasing atheist. So much for the new church with the better answers.

Looking for answers isn’t such a horror. Searching for answers is a good thing. I get this uncomfortable chill when I hear the phrase, ‘the answers I was looking for’.

Just because an answer satisfies you, does NOT make it true. In my career, (and maybe quite unfortunately in my calling) I have grown to be rather proficient at giving people ‘the answers they are looking for’. You may well know that I am the assistant manager at an automotive repair shop. I do everything I can to be forthcoming about what we are really doing to the vehicles our customers bring to us. The greatest challenge to maintaining that trust, comes with our provinces drive clean program.

If you live in southern Ontario, and follow the program in the media, you’ll know it has proven to be a terribly unpopular program. As a front counter person, I receive the brunt of the general public’s dissatisfaction. I have learned (unfortunately) to be very adept at giving people the kind of ‘answers they are looking for’.

Call me a coward. I deserve it. I’ve just given up. I tried giving the straight truth, but when I do, they complain to my boss that I’m short with them or insensitive. When my customer has an answer they are looking for, I have NEVER been able win the conversation. If I’m going to fight, lose absolutely every battle , and then be called short and insensitive, I just can’t see the hope of giving perfectly true answers. If there was a glimmer of hope, either of conveying truth, or living without fear of being labeled insensitive, I might be able to reclaim some of my personal integrity.

I’ll give you a plain example. Customer B’s car failed its emission test because its transmission isn’t shifting properly. Mr. B gets angry with me saying, “It’s a transmission code. That has nothing to do with my vehicle’s emissions.” If one in my position were to be upfront with Mr. B, he would say, “Actually sir. If the transmission isn’t shifting right, it will burn more fuel, thereby increasing CO2 emissions, and all other pollutants your vehicle produces.” There have been several occasions where I have explained it as such. Never has such a response been the kind of answer they were looking for. They walk away angry, thinking that I’m mean, and just want to take their money.

I have given up the fight. Please pray someday I will take up the fight again. The question I now normally ask myself is, “What kind of answer is Mr. B ‘looking for?’” I then tell him, “I don’t know why the government counts that as a problem in their emission testing program.” Then the strangest of things happens: It’s almost a miracle. Having found the answer he was looking for, he lets me fix his car, pays me, shakes my hand and walks out of the garage thinking I am such a swell guy. He walks away thinking I’m his friend, and the government is the devil.

What I’m sharing with you isn’t isolated to auto repair. Looking for answers that satisfy us is, in all likelihood, just as prevalent, and even more dangerous for our spiritual well being. We are a species who tend to accept what sounds agreeable to us, and reject what does not. The research we perform generally reflects the answers we were hoping to find from the onset. I was reading an interview of a well known Christian author who had just written his latest work. His claim for the book, was that it used scripture to develop a strong case for his thesis. Is that respectable? Should scripture be used as a thing to develop a case? I’m not about to expose the man. He is in fact among the more sound theologians of our day, and neither am I above using scripture for such a purpose.

God warned us in His word, through Paul speaking to Timothy, “a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.” 2Timothy 4:3 I don’t know exactly what time Paul was referring to, but it certainly does describe our era.

Paul described a day when people would do what they want to do, and in order to feel okay about their lives, would gather teachers to themselves who would tell them what they want to hear. The internet has provided for us unprecedented wealth to accomplish just that. Before the printing press, we were limited to whoever was within earshot. We are now able, not only to buy our favorite books, but from the privacy of our own homes, download messages or sermons from whoever best suits our preference.

Are you an atheist? There is a plethora of information available that will help you to find encouragement in your course. Do you like muscle cars? Lots of stuff there too. Yet, car enthusiasts and atheists do not make up a significant segment of my readership. How about Christians type people?

I have confessed to you, that I have become proficient at giving the answers people ‘are looking for’ in my workplace. I’m wondering if I have subconsciously learned to do the same in my calling. This is a confession, not justification.

Whenever I hear 2Timothy 4:3 being quoted, it is normally in reference to individuals who want to indulge in good old fashioned wine women and song. The very thing that does the ear tickling varies completely from ear to ear, on person to person. If I want to tickle your ears, I will tell you very different things than if I am speaking with your neighbor. If I want to tickle the ears of a charismatic Christian, I will say other things to a cessationist Christian. (And yes. I believe Christ-ians might be found in both camps. May it also be said that neither have embraced me.)

As with my career, there are fears to be faced if we are to be forthcoming about where we truly stand. If I tell the charismatic that I have not been blessed with the gift of tongues, depending on the kind of charismatic I’m speaking with, they might make me feel I am either immature in my faith, or even that I have not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit. If I tell the cessationist that I see no biblical account where the works of the Holy Spirit died with the 12 apostles, I fear being called a heretic. Which do you think I fear more? I am secure enough in my walk and have witnessed the work of the Holy Spirit changing me. Being labeled a heretic by those who think like me is tougher.

Beyond our fears, there are very real consequences to be faced if we fail to give others the ‘answers they are looking for’. If you accuse someone of immorality, very different things will happen than if you challenge the Pharisee.

If you challenge the immoral, they could fall into depression, or even suicide. Or they could take it out on you. You could be charged with violating their human rights. They might rally their likeminded counterparts in an attempt to bring your business to financial ruin. I’m not sure why this happens. I have yet to intentionally rally behind such a cause. My hunch is that they just want to ruin you, but maybe they are thinking it could change your mind. I’m not sure.

If you challenge the Pharisee, you run the risk of being blackballed. You will carry the mark of Cain for the remainder of your days. You will be called ungodly, irreverent, a heretic, hellbound, and unless you repent (and by repent, I do not mean a turning from sin. I mean, you submit to them) your name will be smeared across the internet. And even though our Lord never seemed to sanction widespread public defamation, you will publicly carry the title of a wolf, and imposter.

Which is worse for you? At least if I were to be sued by the immoral person, I’d have the comfort of doing what I thought to be right. Contrasting to the backdrop of the Pharisees, there is something about their ways which have the outward appearance of being the higher ground. A Godly conscience has a more difficult time bearing up under the name of a heretic, than poverty.

I haven’t written you an essay. I am selling you nothing. As usual, I am challenging us to ask a question. Are you looking for truth, or when you open the book or the browser, is there an answer you are looking for?

Relating Together

I have said that we are like God, in so much as we are three person people. Actually, it was not I who said it, but scripture itself tells us that we were made to be like Them (God). All I have said, is that since we are three person people, it isn’t too far beyond our understanding to conceive that God is also a three person God. It would be dangerous to take it farther than that.

We were made to be like God, not Him made to be like us. It therefore becomes dangerous to look at us, or anything on earth for that matter, and speak at length, claiming He is precisely like what we have observed here in the created world. Neither can we say with complete confidence, by observing what we are, how we are like Him, because who we are, is not who we were meant to me.

I share this now, because after writing my last entry, I received a much anticipated response, and the reason I expected it, was because I had thought the very same things myself.

“So are your saying Jesus is like our Body, the Holy Spirit is like our Spirit, and God is like our mind?”

I really don’t know how far to go with it. Yes. Jesus had a body, just as you and I have bodies, just as our bodies are us. The Bible tells us just as much saying, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.” Colossians 1:15 I guess I have to say God does have a body, and Jesus is the visible embodiment of His person, yet it’s much more complicated than that.

One doesn’t have to dig very far into the Bible to notice that even Jesus, the bodily, visible person, has a makeup which goes well beyond our own. The rest of Colossians 1:15 tells us, “He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation”. Figure that one out. Christ existed before creation. Depending on how many people this reaches, there are numerous people who figure they have all the answers, who might feel they are able to explain it clearly to me. If it’s a sin to be cynical of such individuals, the day may come when I will have to repent of my cynicism.

The person of Jesus we are told existed before creation. This raises all manner of questions. Where was He before AD 1? What form did He take? Whatever form he held, what happened to it when he became a baby? As if those questions aren’t big enough to handle, looking at the post resurrected Christ presents even more peculiar challenges. We are forced to consider a Jesus who appears out of nowhere, passes through walls and flies up into the sky. It would seem that when we meet Him at the judgment, we will also view him in some kind of bodily form.

Our bodies may have been meant to resemble His visible image, but they are most certainly not like His in the fullest sense. We were made to have eternal bodies (I’m not convinced we were ever intended to walk through walls and fly up in the sky) and the promise for believers is that someday, we will. Receiving imperishable bodies is one of the very things Christians look forward to, and the hope is that these new bodies will be far beyond what we currently possess, in a similar fashion as that of Christ himself.

If The Father were to be likened to ‘the mind’ part of God, I don’t think I can even begin to draw a parallel in any literal sense, although, if we look at how The Father and The Son interact, it might shed light on both how wretched we are, as well as what we were meant to be.

“So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” John 5:19

There is a unity between the Father and the Son which should typify the unity between our own mind and our own body. The Son, we are told, can do nothing by himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing. Jesus tells us he does what the Father does, yet His actions go well beyond simply doing as His Father does. The type of unity Christ has with the Father, is the kind of oneness where He simply cannot do anything by Himself.

My body and mind don’t suffer from the same relationship with one another, especially between my mouth and my mind. I know I’m not alone. In James, we’re reminded of how people are able to tame all manner of wild animals, but no one has been able to tame the tongue. My biggest failures come when I’m caught off my guard. When I’m sitting down to write a letter or a blog post, my mind and my body are in decent sync. I have time to think, to process and to act.

Catch me in a tight situation and my mouth will say things on its own. In the moment, it is more prone to speak a lie, thinking in some hideous fashion, the lie will protect my integrity. How hypocritical is that? And after the lie has been spoken, my mind speaks to myself, “That was really dumb. What were you thinking?”

That kind of thing doesn’t happen between the Father and the Son. The Son does what the Father does, and says the words the Father would have Him say. That relationship, the workings between our mind and our body, should ideally be the same. Should they not? We shouldn’t have to speak to ourselves, “That was a very horrible thing to say. That was a really stupid thing you just did. You can be such a jerk.” Our mind and our body should be one, just as the Son and the Father are one.

Did you catch that? I just brought in the spirit without even thinking. As my pastor says, (and I am certain that he is right) there is an internal dialogue that goes on between our mind and our spirit. It may be that the spirit part of ourselves is the person of us which is most like its own respective person of God. God is Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is God.

Thanks to medical science, we know a reasonable amount about the human body. We also know a little bit about the mind. When it comes to the mechanics of how our spirits interact with our minds and bodies, it is admittedly a matter of having faith in what we see in scripture.

It would seem that a spirit is not meant to exist on its own, that it is intended to live in union with a body. Some people need proof before they believe anything. If you are that type, you’ll be rather disappointed in me. I’m not your author. I don’t have proof, and I don’t much care if you believe me, or if I’m even right on this point. Yet, it’s not too crazy is it? How about reversing the statement? Can a body live once its spirit has left?

There are two passages that comes to mind in this case. One is where is where Jesus drives out the Legion, and the other when Christ was speaking to the Pharisees. If you care to check these out for yourself, these stories can be found in Mark 5:1-20 and Matthew 12:43-45 respectively. For a spirit, (an evil Spirit anyway) living apart from a body is likened to spending time in the desert. So when Jesus drives the Legion out of the man, they ask, no, they beg Him to send him into a herd of pigs. Judging by what happens to the pigs, I’d assume it’s better to be living in a body that also has a sound mind.

It’s just a thought, but what if the experience of being a Spirit without a body, is exactly what scripture describes as being hell. Why else would Legion beg? As I said. It’s just a thought. Don’t take it too far. Believers are promised a resurrected body after they finish this life. There is no similar promise for nonbelievers that I have found. What will it be like to spend eternity without a
body, or a sound mind? I think a lot of people will find out in time.

God’s Spirit is different from ours in His capacity in at least a couple of ways. For one, it’s the only Spirit capable of living inside another person, without messing up the individual. Whenever we find someone with a demon living in them, it’s really not a good thing. If you’ve ever met a demon possessed person, it’s really quite frightening. I’ve known people who have such encounters, but as for me, I’ll do just fine if I go through life without the experience. When the Holy Spirit comes to live in a person, we call it regeneration, the subject being indwelt by His Spirit becoming more loving, kind, gentle, peaceful, patient, good and faithful.

The Holy Spirit is also able to exist in multiple persons. My spirit cannot. Neither do I know of any examples where an evil spirit is able to indwell multiple persons at any given time. The Holy Spirit however, lives in me. He also lives in my wife, and from what I can tell, my children. (My children say they believe, and from what I see in them, I tend to believe it.) He literally lives in all who have authentically received Christ.

There is however one apparent limitation to the Holy Spirit I do not understand. For some strange reason, the Holy Spirit wasn’t able to indwell people while Jesus walked among them, and Jesus told us as much. Shortly before being arrested, Jesus said to His disciples, “it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.” John 16:7 All right. Maybe it’s not a limitation. Jesus didn’t say the Holy Spirit ‘can’t’ come unless He goes to the Father. He only said that He won’t come. I’m not sure why this was so. I only know that it was. Ask your personal favorite theologian if you want to answer that kind of question.

I’ve spoken on some rather weird things haven’t I? I’ve done all of this, not to impress you. I haven’t even pretended to have all of the answers. My hope, was to bring to life how even though we were made to be ‘like’ God, He is not like us. What do you think of a God who is greater than what we have seen here in this life? Does it make you want to share in the things He has promised to His children? An imperishable body sounds just fine to me.

Three In One (Not So Hard To Believe)

           There are many aspects of the Christian faith that seem beyond reason or explanation and it’s because of this, many might be persuaded to either reject the truths or the faith altogether.  A great many of us are so arrogant, that if we cannot personally be convinced of a matter, then the conclusion we reach is that the matter itself must not be true.

What such a person is saying, is that they are the ultimate decipherer of truth in the universe, and if they cannot be convinced, then it is simply not so. I once had a coworkers say just as much.  “If something can be proven to me, then I’ll believe it.  If it can’t be proven, then I don’t believe it.”  If you knew the man, you would know he believed a lot of things that have not been proven.  If he were to be more accurate in his phrasing he would have said, “If I can be convinced of something, then I will believe it.”

                One of the greatest unreasonable things that Christians believe, is the very person of God Himself.  They (or we, depending on whether you count yourself among them) describe Him as being a God of three persons.  Different terms are used to describe it, such as three in one, triune or the trinity.

                I have heard different explanations and each of them prove to be deficient in some way.  I have believed in the three in one God, even though I don’t completely understand it all.  Some might think me stupid or a moron for accepting something I do not understand.  When I read atheist writings, they often describe Christians as a people of little intellect.  If you believe me to be such a person, I am fine with that.  I am also fine if you are the type who thinks that anything beyond your understanding must not exist.

 When we speak of the trinity, we speak of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.    We say that The Father is God.  We say that Jesus, the Son, is God.  We go on to say that the Holy Spirit is God. We go farther to say that they can be collectively described as God.  As for this trinity, I’m certain that we ourselves are the very best illustration of His three in one identity, and I believe this for two reasons.  The first reason is scripture itself, and the second reason is the very practicality of what we represent as that illustration.

                “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us...”” Genesis 1:26

                I am known to be neither a scholar, nor a theologian, so if you have heard a better explanation from your favourite Bible teacher, then go with the illustration they have given you.  In a very literal sense, we human beings were made to be like “them”, and the “them” being the three person God.

                So the story we read of our creation isn’t that of a singular person creating something entirely different than that of Himself.  I have just said two fairly significant things.  I have said, as I see here in scripture that God is not alone, in that He speaks to and with Himself as, “us”.  I have also said that we are “like” Him, and that Him, being both Him, and “them”.  There is one other element of this short passage that I don’t wish to overlook.  It is also very apparent that He is uniquely aware of His three personages.

                If we humans are like Him, then we are the best examples in this world of what His person is and is not.  He is not a dog who made a race of kittens.  Neither is He a space lizard who made a world of tin soldiers.  I have heard much more learned Christians say this is what He did, that He made an entirely different kind of creature than that of Himself.  I just don’t see it.  We were made to be like Him, and if you are following closely to what I am saying, you might be ready for what I am about to say next.

                You, are a three in one person.

                What I’m sharing here isn’t anything all that new or radical among Christians, even though I have yet to hear it explained in this way.  As I walk through how it works, I believe all people will follow me on some level, and even many people who are not Christians might see how practical it is to view ourselves as three in one.  We are not the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as God is, but we are body, mind and spirit.  We are not God, or little God’s but we are the part of creation which best resembles Him.

The Body

I think all people of all beliefs would agree with me that we have a body.  I have a body.  If you are reading this, you have a body.  In fact, everyone I have ever met has a body.  Even though I “have” a body, I don’t speak of it in the same way that I do when I say that I “have” a car.

I do have a car.  I own the car.  I pay for it.  I fix it.  I licence it, drive it and put fuel in the tank.  I also have a wife, yet having her is much different than having a car.  I do not own her, renew her license or fill her with gasoline, but we do belong to each other and do many wonderful things.  Forgive me if I do not elaborate too much on the wonderful things we do together.

When it comes to my body, there is a much more personal way that I “have” it, to where I don’t even describe it as something I have at all.  When I look in the mirror, I never look at it thinking, “There is the body that belongs to me.”  No.  I look in the mirror thinking it’s me.  You no doubt think the same.  When you look at me, you probably don’t say to yourself, “Hey!  There is Kevin’s body!!”  You are much more likely to say, “Hey!  There is Kevin!!”

At least, that’s how I see you.  If I say that I saw you today, it is because I saw your body, and I make no distinction between that, your spirit or your mind.  Your body is you, even though it isn’t all that you are. There is much more to you than your body, which is why pornography is so revolting, in that it reduces people to being bodies alone.

The Mind

                I’m certain that all people will also agree with me on this point, that we have minds.  There may be some people we think to be brainless, but that’s more a thing of insult than actual fact.  So even a person who believes absolutely nothing about spiritual things would have to see we are at least two in one beings.

                Just as we have bodies, we also have minds.  And just as our bodies are not objects to be owned, neither are our minds.  I am not a physician, but our minds are very much intertwined with our bodies.  Our thinking generally takes place in our brain.  When we allow our body parts to do the thinking and directing for us, horrible things can come of it.

                My mind may work different than your mind.  If that is the case, I think you are the abnormal one.  When my mind thinks of itself, it does not think of itself as being my mind.  My mind thinks of and refers to itself as “me”.  The thoughts I have are not my body’s thoughts.  My mind says its thoughts are my thoughts.  After all, it is me.  It has a very different function than my body, but it’s me.  My body and my fingers are tying out this letter, but as you read it, you aren’t thinking, “Gee.  What a great letter Kevin’s body has typed out.” 

                My body did not come up with this letter, and neither should it get the credit for it.  I came up with these ideas in my mind, which is both me, yet is completely at work with and intertwined with my body.

The Spirit

                This is where I will lose a lot of people in this world, and to be honest, describing how we can recognize and acknowledge our spirit is a challenge.  Many see nothing about us beyond our mind and body, but Christians, along with a great many others acknowledge a spiritual dimension to who we are.  As Christians, it appears that we were created to live.  To explain it another way, there is a person of us that will exist forever.  That person, is our spirit.

                Recognizing and connecting with the eternal me is tougher than recognizing our bodies or the work of our minds, and it can be a painful exercise for anyone who wants to live life for themselves, without regard for what eternity might hold for them.

                God is aware of His three in one person in a way that we are not, and I guess that is why we have such a challenge understanding Him as triune. Our spirit connects quite intimately with our minds, to where it is difficult even to notice their interaction.   Our spirit is eternal, so it thinks, acts and reasons with an eternal perspective.  I will do my best to give a few examples of how we can recognize its person.

                When I was young, I clearly remember wanting to reach the upper kitchen cupboard.  My mom would keep the cookies in that cupboard, because I assume she knew I couldn’t reach them there.  Even at 4 years of age, I felt that there was an injustice about the situation.  Just because I was 4, I shouldn’t be limited to this small frame I was living in.  It wasn’t fair that a grown woman was able to reach the cookies, and I could not.  My spirit never reasoned with my mind thinking, “I’m only 4 years old.  So it’s only right that I can’t reach the cookies.”  Instead, my spirit objected saying, “Why must I be limited to this mortal frame?  I am an eternal being!  I need cookies now!!!”

                The same thing happens at the other end of life.  When I talk to seniors, they speak of a similar injustice.  Their bodies ache.  They can’t run or even walk like they once did, but they don’t think old thoughts.   Being eternal, our Spirit remains constant, despite how young or old our bodies may be.   Being rooted in eternity himself, it is our spirit who cries out when we lose a loved one.

                My body is me.  My mind is me.  My Spirit is me.  And in spite of the fact that my spirit might be the most difficult to recognize, it is likely the me who has the most right to claim to be me.  Since we are three in one creatures, it shouldn’t be unreasonable to accept that God is three in one, particularly because we were in fact made to be like Them (us).

I'm Not Being Fed

               This past week, I ended up deleting a Facebook post of mine which seemed to be devolving into a nonsensical argument.  I had asked the question, “Is there a “church”, whose people never say that they are, “not being fed?”   The conversation went well beyond the scope of the original question.

                I guess it’s my fault.  I intentionally ask questions that probe directly into the matters we wrestle through, both as believers, and simply as human creatures.  If I ask questions of that nature, I shouldn’t expect anything but what comes of them, and if I pursue this further, then I should expect more of the same.

                Many of you who read my writings are the kind of people who have been heard saying, “I’m not being fed.”  So please don’t think I’m taking personal aim at you.  You are not alone.  Please also know that I am not God, so I may very well be wrong about how I see things. 

                When we talk about being fed, what we are supposed to be referring to as Christians, is being taught The Word of God.  There are other ways to describe it, but that’s basically what it comes down to.  Teaching through God’s word is supposed to be a big part of what pastors and teachers do in the church.  I don’t believe there are many of us who would disagree with that.  There is more that a pastor is called to, but it certainly is a big part of the role.

                I told you I wasn’t God.  What I say next might be one place where I am completely off.

                I often find that the people who are the most vocal about what should be taught, are rarely the same individuals who have been called to be pastors themselves.  Granted, there are pastors who come across as if they know exactly what other pastors ought to teach.  That’s why I chose the word, “often”.  It is not always the case.

                Yet don’t worry.  This isn’t the only area of human life where we see the same kinds of complaints.  If you live in a family, you might have made similar observations.  So I will ask you this question;

                In a family, who is more apt to express dissatisfaction with the meal, the one who made it or the ones who are served?

                Those who are called to teaching the Word of God or feeding, normally know well enough the weight of the task, to where they have either the decency, humility or compassion to hold their tongue when they don’t particularly like the taste of what is served to them.  As for food, I don’t know what it’s like to come up with meal ideas night after night, nor prepare them evening after evening, but I have found it best to be thankful for my meal, even when I’m not all that crazy about it.  My children however don’t always share such discretion.

                If our pastor does not teach the word of God, if he twists it, endorses sin or teaches some way to be made right with God other than Christ, then we are indeed being fed a poison.  If that’s the case, you have the devil in your midst, and it might be best to have a lynching.   If we aren’t crazy about the delivery, if we’ve already heard it all from him or if it isn’t always presented in our personal context, we are being fed.  We might not like the meal, but it isn’t a matter of starving to death.  We just don’t particularly enjoy eating manna week after week.  Who does?  Take comfort.  The Israelites didn’t much like it either.

                This brings me to the second observation that I may be wrong about.  When I hear, “I’m not being fed”, it tends to come from someone who already knows what they want.  Sure.  That may sound mean, but if you think on it, is there any other possibility?  How else can the statement be made unless the person has some idea of what he wishes the meal to be?

                I have yet to hear a new believer claim to be malnourished.  Perhaps I am wrong though.  Perhaps the people who make such claims really don’t know what they need.  Maybe they are very immature in their faith and have no clue of what is best for them, and fail to recognize a roast beef dinner when it sits before them.  You decide.  Which could it be?  Are they mature enough to know what they need, or do they need such matters decided for them?  How often is it the third?  How often are they authentically not being taught the things of God? 

                The answer to these questions will vary completely from person to person and church to church.  I imagine that sometimes, I am wrong about people.  Sometimes they are not as mature as I believe them to be.  Sometimes I may be right about them, and they really are mature, to the point where they should be teaching others.  In other times, they really may be starved, where rather than walking through The Word, their teachers harp on personal favorite doctrines week after week, year after year.

                You can take or leave everything I’ve shared with you so far.  Whether anyone is sound in their faith or whether they are not, is not my call to make.  I do have one thing to ask of you, and before I ask it, I beg for your understanding.

                You might be the kind of person who knows everything.  If you are a mom, maybe you never have to ask your husband or kids what they would like for supper.  If you are a man, please know that you are allowed to make food too.  I’m not saying who should make food.  I am speaking from my personal context.  Whether a man or a woman, you have it all together and you always know what to make.  So here is the bit of compassion that I hope you will have for the less fortunate.

                Not everyone shares your certainty in their respective roles.  There are many people who ask the question, “What should I make for supper?” who really don’t know what should be made.  They know that something needs to be made, and that thing is food.  What they lack the conviction of, is what kind of food should be made?

Likewise, there are many pastors who know what is to be taught, and the very thing is the Bible itself.  So that is what they set out to do.   What they wrestle through, is which topic or passage to share from it.  Sure.  If you were that pastor or teacher, I know you would know.  I’m speaking on behalf of those of us who do not have that same assurance. 

If you could see in their hearts, you might see a people who desperately want to share precisely what you need to hear, even as God Himself would have them speak it.  And although they know that you prefer your favorite Bible teachers and authors, they still long to have that special word to speak on what you are going through today. 

I’m not a real pastor, but since they rarely defend their own cause, I’ll end by speaking on their behalf.  We know for certain you need to be fed the Scriptures.  We do not however know exactly what passage or topic suits your palate the best, nor should we.  If we did, the temptation to try and tickle your personal ear would be far too great to resist.