Meat At The Table -- July 8, 2009

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:14

Have you ever heard someone say that a speaker has given them the “meat of the word”? Have you ever heard someone say the opposite? Only mature Christians who are practicing the word they have been taught can make the distinction. We can only digest what we have eaten. We can only know if the message we are receiving is “meaty” if we have constantly used the word we know and trained ourselves to tell the difference between good and evil.

The preacher may or may not be bringing the meat to the table but the only way to grow into maturity and discernment is to practice using the word in our daily life. What do I mean by that? Well it means that I don’t fornicate. I stay away from sexual sin as much as possible. It means that I tell the truth. I don’t pander to people, flatter them or say what I think they want to hear. It means I tithe. I give my share to God’s body and more when possible. I have found that by placing these three areas of my life especially under scrutiny I can grow healthily in my walk with the Lord. My sexuality is at the core of who I am as a person so it bears guarding. My mouth and how I speak is also central to who I am. The Bible says that the abundance of the heart is what comes out of the mouth. When I hear myself say something untoward then I know I need to deal with my heart, because that is in there somewhere or it wouldn’t have come out. Of course money is such a big deal because it represents all of my efforts to live life and procure benefits for myself and those I love. That makes it important enough to commit to evaluation so I can measure my heart.

Some who have the knowledge to teach (and should be teaching) aren’t because they are hearers and not doers. They have more information than most Christians in the world and they have often experienced inspiration where they occasionally get excited and jump in but they have less personal incarnation of that information than those around the world who don't even have to the entirety of scripture. It isn’t by one big exciting event we become mature; it is by constant use of the word to train ourselves to distinguish between good and evil.

Chewing on God’s Word,

Pastor Jason