Sunday, May 15, 2016

SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT


         How many of us truly know what it is like to be hungry and thirsty?  There are few worse feelings than abject hunger or thirst.  Today, I skipped breakfast, and even as my stomach rumbled in church, loud enough for my daughter to hear, I was not experiencing true hunger.  True hunger leads to desperation, which gives way to resignation, which ends, eventually, in death.  When we talk about hunger and thirst, we immediately think of physical needs.  Spiritually speaking, we also require nourishment.  

 Jesus told us: Matthew 5:6  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. And also He said: John 6:35  Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  

     We have a natural spiritual needs, just as we have natural physical needs.  When we deny spiritual needs, the consequences can be just as disastrous as when we deprive ourselves of physical nourishment.  The only source of true spiritual nourishment is Jesus Christ.  Jesus, in His deity, provides us with the Bread of Life and Living Water.  We remember the woman at the well, as she spoke to Jesus about drawing water, Jesus revealed to her that He could provide Living Water form which she could drink and never again thirst.  Likewise, when Jesus was addressing the crowd of 5000 thousand, the day after the miraculous feeding, He told them that He was the Bread of Life and unless they ate of Him, they would perish.  Partaking of the Bread of Life and drinking of the Living Water requires us to learn God's truth and to put it into practice.  
  
      Studying God's word, digging deep into who God is and what He desires of us, fellowship with the Holy Spirit through deep, self searching prayer, allowing God's transforming power to have sway over your life, these are the things that bring us spiritual nourishment.  Fellowship with other believers, worship  and adoration of the Creator, self analysis in light of God's word, these are the things that feed and water our spirits.  Basically, getting close to God and remaining in fellowship with Him is critical to our spiritual health and well being.  

     When Jesus hung on the cross, He said, "I thirst."  I am sure that the ordeal He had suffered up to that point led to physical thirst.  I am also sure that the pain and anguish He was suffering at the time overshadowed mere thirst.  What if what Jesus was suffering was not physical thirst, but spiritual thirst.  The opening verse of Psalm 22 and Christ's own words stated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"  Is it possible that Jesus the man was, for the first time in all of eternity, separated from the Father and His thirst was spiritual.  Was Jesus craving fellowship with the Father?  Was Jesus parched in His spirit because He was unable to refresh Himself in the Living Water of communion with God.  Jesus purposely placed Himself outside of fellowship with God in order to take on the sin of the whole world.  Jesus, in that one moment in time, for the first, and only time ever, separated Himself from fellowship with the Father, that we who were already separated from the Father by sin, might be redeemed.  Jesus was, by mutual consent, temporarily separated from the Father, the Father who announced, "this is my Son, in Him I am well pleased."  
           Jesus separated from the Father for our benefit, a selfless act that brought salvation to a lost world and provides us with Living Water.  We also separate ourselves from God for our own benefit, a selfish act that brings consequences and cuts us off from the refreshing Living Water that God freely offers.  Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and when we abide in Him, He abides in us and provides nourishment to our spirit. When we do not abide in Him, we cut off the flow of spiritual sustenance making us vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy.  Just as our bodies become susceptible to attack from germs and viruses when we are physically malnourished, our spiritual lives become vulnerable to attack from Satan and his minions when we do not sustain our spiritual health through proper nutrition.  

      Just as there are plenty of poor choices in the realm of physical food, things that taste good or are fun to eat that are actually detrimental to our health, there is a great deal of counterfeit spiritual food that seems healthy or good but in reality brings great harm to those who partake.  New Age religion, Eastern philosophy, the Occult, and other things that deny the power of Christ and His deity all seem spiritual and may appear good for learning and growth but in reality are poison to the soul.  The way to avoid poison is to know truth so well that we recognize evil just by the very fact that it is contrary to the truth that we already know.

    As Christ called out,"I thirst," so too should we cry out to God for streams of Living Water and seek from Jesus the Bread of Life that we may maintain spiritual health.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but if I am not strengthened by Christ because I am not taking the time to replenish myself spiritually, I will fail and I will fall.  Victory is ours in Christ but we must go to the source of our strength and abide in Him that we may receive sustenance for our soul.

2 comments:

  1. While I agree with your conclusion whole heartedly - that we should be hungering and thirsting for true fellowship with God - I would offer that there is no reason to believe that Jesus ever lost fellowship with God the Father. Scripture does not indicate such. Jesus was never guilty of the sins for which he bore the punishment (Hebrews 4:15). Guilt of sin is what causes separation from God (Is. 59:2). Reading the full context of Psalm 22, which Jesus is quoting from when He says, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" shows that David realized that he truly was NOT left alone. Quite the opposite - it is a Psalm of calling out to the God who is with him when no one else is. This fits into the narrative of Christ on the cross as He has finished His work and is looking forward to rejoining His Father. Thank you for an article that points people to focusing upon their spiritual health and the true source of it.

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    1. Thank you for reading and for the encouraging words. In the case of God abandoning Christ on the cross or not, this is not a light subject. Martin Luther went into seclusion to pray and ponder over this very concept and still found no solution. On the one hand, yes, Christ is God and man. We know that in Kenosis, Christ emptied Himself of the prerogative of deity and deferred all supernatural to the Father. The healing of the woman with an issue of blood is a good example of this. We also know that, not only did Christ take on our sin, but He became sin, according to 1 Corinthians 15:3, thus the belief that for that briefest moment in time, Jesus the man was separate from God the Father. I believe you do bring up a good point that will cause me to dig deeper into the idea. I am very critical of those who rely on tradition to make a point, even when the tradition is a fallacy. As of now, I trust I have sufficient scriptural basis to back up my assertion. this may be a similar dichotomy like free will vs sovereignty. The Bible teaches both and somehow they both work together outside our intellectual ability to understand. The Trinity is beyond our intellect, as is eternity past. thank you for challenging my assertion and causing me to dig deeper, that is always a good thing. I will probably have a whole blog subject from out of this. I pray regularly that my doctrine is sound and if I am wrong on any point, I ask God to reveal it to me. It is more important for me to be accurate than right. For now, I stick by my regular premise, but I promise, I will dig deeper and will probably write about what I find.

      Thank you again for taking the time to comment. Blessings

      Paul

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