The Simple Simplified
What must I do to have a real relationship with God?
A relationship that helps me overcome the weaknesses in my life and allows
me to practically involve God in my daily decision making and in determining
my future. The simplicity surrounding the special relationship God ordained
when He created man, has become complicated and confused. Man allowed himself
to be subtly seduced by corrupt creeds practiced by pagans and people in
rebellion against God's benevolent offers of friendship and love. The Son
of God was sent to dispel all the darkness surrounding the truth of what
a relationship with the Almighty Creator and Controller of the universe
entailed. He used symbols and illustrations that were familiar
to, and easily understood by the common folk, yet challenging and confrontational
to the pious religious bigots throughout time. These symbols come as a
refreshing and renewing revelation to all who will pause to read and reflect
on them.
The Relationship Most People Have With God
If a survey was done in the Western countries, the results
would probably show that most people believe in a God. Looking at customs
that the are followed in these countries, most people are christened or
dedicated in a church as babies, get married in a church and have their
funeral conducted from a church. When there is a national crisis is a country,
like the one in the terrorist attack in the United States on September
11, 2001, the day of prayer is proclaimed throughout that nation. Common
referrals are made to "Acts of God" and America even has "In God We Trust"
printed on each dollar bill. Well, is this what it takes to have a relationship
with God? Knowing He's there and calling on Him when there is a crisis
or a specific need that one might have? Well, the Bible has a very pointed
answer to those questions. Note the following text:
Matthew 7:21-23No, knowing "of God" or knowing "about God" is not what the Bible says will bring us to be saved. We must know God personally, intimately and individually.
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many of will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and in your name drive out
The Type of Relationship God Longs For--Illustrated
by Eating
God longs for an intimate, consistent relationship with
each of his creatures--an individual connection, so to speak. Just
as a shepherd has to constantly watch over his sheep in order to keep
them safe, just as two lovers can't bear to be apart for any given period
of time, so God longs to be constantly in contact with each one of us.
In order to reiterate another illustration of how He wants to be in a relationship
with us, God repeatedly uses 'eating' as an illustration of the type of
intimacy He would like to have with us. Let's think about it for a moment.
Eating is something most of us do two or three times a day, every day of
our lives. If we skip a day, we are usually so starved that we make up
for it the next day. Instinctively and without effort we find food and
eat until we are satisfied. No-one has to tell us to eat--unless we are
children who have a plate of vegetables in front of us--no-one has to force
us to eat, and no-one has to remind us to eat. No, it's an ingrained habit
that we respond to without thinking twice. Hunger is a physiological phenomenon
occurs where a hollow feeling develops in our mid-section and what we term
"stomach growling" occurs. Whatever we are doing is affected by this and
we put just about anything on hold till we have had something to eat.
(Eating is an intergral part of our lives. No-one has to remind us to eat and nothing is more important to us than eating)
The Consistency and Intimacy Symbolized by Eating
The relationship that most people have with God, as we
discussed above, could be illustrated by a person who only eats once every
few months--in many cases once every few years! Could a person survive
the demands and responsibilities they have to face from day to day if they
only eat a meal every two or three months? Well, the answer is simple.
It is common knowledge that two to three meals a day are needed to sustain
the body with energy in order to perform all it's functions and to cope
with the tasks and responsibilities that people face from day to day. Even
a retired person who has no formal job needs two to three meals a day in
order to enjoy good health. Let's take an over simplified look at the process
of eating:
Firstly - there is hunger that triggers a mental and physical alarm for foodOne doesn't really think of the banana or broccoli you eat being fine molecules that feed the trillions of cells in your body. Well, that is how important it is to consider what is going into your body. "You are what you eat," is a truer saying than we realize. Everything we eat determines how healthy or how sick each little cell is going to be.
Secondly - food is found, bitten into a size that can enter the mouth and chewed fine and mixed with the saliva
Thirdly - the food is swallowed and mixed with gastric juices in the stomach
Fourth - the food or 'chime' at this stage passes into the small intestine where absorption of the molecules through the intestine wall takes place
Fifth - the molecules pass into the bloodstream and are transported to approximately three trillion cells throughout the body
Sixth - the molecules pass through the cell wall into the cell where they are used for energy production, repair and cell-division
Eating Has Deep Spiritual and Very Practical Meaning
Now that we have looked at how important eating is to
ensure our physical strength and stamina, we can see why the Bible uses
eating as an illustration to make certain concepts about knowing God clear
to us. The parallel is pretty obvious. In order to be spiritually sustained
and strong, we must eat daily too--ideally like Daniel, also three times
a day. For now, let's start with once a day. Our brains are fed by five
"mouths" or "senses" . . . taste, hearing, sight, touch and smell. These
senses take in one kind of food or another and these will either strengthen
or weaken us spiritually. Makes one think, doesn't it? Why do you think
that Jesus makes the following statement?
(What symbol could be clearer than comparing the life and teachings of Jesus to Bread?---something we need for life)
John 6:51, 53-57This passage may seem radical at first, but if one looks at the big picture surrounding the Jewish culture and the backdrop of John the Baptist's introduction of Jesus, a true seeker of truth would have understood what Jesus was getting at. The Jews were in the habit of sacrificing a lamb every morning and every evening. The meat of this lamb was eaten by the family. Each Jew was very aware of the significance of the sacrifice. It was symbolic of the "Lamb of God" that would be slain for their sin to secure their salvation. (See Isaiah 53:7 ". . . he was led like a lamb to the slaughter . . ."). The words of John the Baptist echoed through the throngs of keen and critical listeners, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world . . . John 1:29, 36). Jesus is saying to the sincere seekers of truth that the way to know God is to "eat the Lamb of God" daily--to be as disciplined to eat the Lamb of God as eating food three times a day. Take the time to read the following extract:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world . . . Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him us at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
Desire of Ages by Ellen White, pages 389, 390The Word of God has all the "spiritual carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals" that a believer needs to have strength and sustenance in his or her relationship with God. The nourishment from the Word of God is to be broken down and assimilated by the Holy Spirit and passed into every part of our minds, (which are our spiritual stomachs). As food is needed constantly to revitalize and renew our cells, so the Words of God are needed to refresh and rebuild our spirituality and our thinking. In the steps outlined above, as food is broken down into molecules that enter our three trillion cells, so the Bread of Life is to be broken down, digested and assimilated to strengthen and renew our spiritual cells.
To eat the flesh and blood of Christ is to receive Him as a personal Saviour, believing that He forgives our sins, and that we are complete in Him. It is by beholding His love, by dwelling upon it, by drinking it in, that we are to become partakers of His nature. What food is to the body, Christ must be to the soul. Food cannot benefit us unless we eat it, unless it becomes a part of our being. So Christ is of no value to us if we do not know Him as a personal Saviour. A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart, so that His life becomes our life. His love His grace must be assimilated . . . As our physical life is sustained by food, so our spiritual life is sustained by the word of God. And every soul is to receive life from God's word for himself. As we must eat for ourselves in order to receive nourishment, so we must receive the word for ourselves. We are not to obtain it merely through the medium of another's mind. We should carefully study the Bible, asking God for the aid of the Holy Spirit, that we may understand His word. We should take one verse, and concentrate the mind on the task of ascertaining the though which God has put in that verse for us. We should dwell upon the thought until it becomes our own, and then we will know this is "what the Lord is saying." (Italics paraphrased).
Old Testament Supports Spiritual Sustenance
Before I make the point clear from the Old Testament,
read this text from the writings of Moses:
Deuteronomy 8:3Do you get it? God used the miracle of the manna to illustrate to the Israelites that His Word--whether spoken or written--is what they were to live by. Now let's look a little deeper into the lesson of the manna. How often did the manna fall from heaven, and how long did it last? This is very important as we apply this lesson to our practical daily lives. Let's read again, this time in the book of Exodus:
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Exodus 16:4,5, 19, 20This lesson shows how crucial it is that the Lamb of God is eaten daily. When the Israelites tried to keep manna over for the next day, it rotted. They had to go out and gather fresh manna everyday! We try and "load up" spiritually when we attend church and think we have enough to last us till prayer meeting on Wednesday night, or most often, until the next week. Our spiritual lives will rot and decay unless we go out and gather fresh spiritual manna every morning.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." . . . Then Moses said to them, "No-one is to keep any of it until morning." However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
(John the Baptist called out to Jesus in a loud voice, "Behold, the Lamb of God . . .")
Total Dependence on God For Sustenance Not Substitutes
One of the most important lessons God tried to teach
the Israelites in the wilderness, and now is trying to teach us, is how
lost we are without His words to daily feed us spiritually. Imagine how
weak and emaciated our bodies would be without food. I have run a marathon
and done a lot of long distance running. By the end of a marathon my body
was so drained of energy that I could hardly walk to the car to drive home.
It took a few days to recover. Usually marathon runners "carbo load" before
an event to cram extra nourishment into their bodies. Yes, the body is
very dependent on constant nourishment to be able to meet the various demands
we place on it. Sadly, many believers try and run their spiritual marathons
without eating. All they take in is the TV dinner they get once a week
from the preacher. No wonder most believers are overwhelmed by life's trails
and temptations and find the Christian life grim and grueling--just the
way a long distance athlete would feel after running a marathon without
having eaten for a week. I personally believe that this is Satan's main
area of attack on believers in the Triune God--keeping them from feeding
on Him daily. Satan dishes up all kinds of substitute delegacies that seem
far more delicious and desirable that dining on God's Divine Diet--His
Word. Satan feeds the five inroads to our "spiritual stomach"--our minds--with
the frivolous, the fantastic and the fictitious. His menus consists of
TV programs, movies, magazines and endless places of entertainment and
self-amusement. Isolated components on his menu might seem totally innocent
and harmless, but collectively, as the mind is fed by with ingredients
that stimulate the senses and self-gratification, the Bread of Life becomes
bland and tasteless in comparison. Satan knows too well that if believers
in God feed on the Bread of Life, he is powerless to achieve his goals--to
deceive and destroy. The words "It is Written . . ." as recited by Jesus
every time Satan tried to deceive Him, are too much for Satan to stand
against.
(Satan dishes up all kinds of substitute delegacies that seem far more delicious and desirable than dining on God's Divine Diet---His Word)
The Example of Jesus' Dependence on His Father
Jesus says in John 5:19, "The Son of Man can do nothing
by himself, he can only do what he sees his Father doing." Or in other
words, "The Son of Man can do nothing by himself, he can only do anything
when he feeds on His Father." Jesus repeats this thought in John 14:10,
"Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is
the Father living in me, who is doing his work." Jesus gave us an example
of how our relationship with God should be--he demonstrated it by His life
of total dependence on His Father in everything He did, and every word
He spoke. "By myself," Jesus says, "I can do
nothing; I judge
only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself
but him so sent me." John 5:30. How much more should we realize that we
can do absolutely nothing without feeding daily on "the Bread of Life,"
found between the covers of every bible. Jesus tells us straight out in
John 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains is me
and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing."
It is so encouraging to realize that the life of Jesus was a living, step
by step example for each one of us to duplicate. If Jesus could do nothing
by Himself without feeding on His Father, I also can do nothing without
constantly feeding on Jesus.
Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, Ellen White, p. 19Remembering Our Time Alone With Jesus Each Time We Eat
As we need food to sustain our physical strength, so do we need Christ, the Bread from heaven, to sustain spiritual life and impart strength to work the works of God. As the body is continually receiving the nourishment that sustains life and vigor, so the soul must be constantly communing with Christ, submitting to Him and depending wholly upon Him.
(The parallel between eating physically and spiritually is incredibly close---we need to remember our spiritual feeding every time we eat a meal)
Breakfast With the King
As we conclude this brief look at how the illustration
of eating helps us to understand the vital role our daily relationship
with God with plays in our lives, we can rearrange the parable of the Wedding
Banquet (recorded in Luke 14:16-23) somewhat. The king not only invites
all his subjects to a wedding banquet, but to a breakfast feast every morning
with Him. He has a array of the tastiest, most exotic foods set out for
each of us to feast on. Food that will satisfy us more than any other food.
See how the prophet Isaiah pens God's invitation for us to come and dine
with Him:
Isaiah 55:1-2Man is so restless and unsatisfied, looking for meaning and fulfillment in things that just don't satisfy him. How often do people think to themselves, "If I can just get that promotion in my job, then . . ." or "if I can just get my degree, then . . ." or "when I am married, then . . ." I'll be satisfied. People that have all the money they ever wanted, or all the education they desired, or have the highest position they've worked for, will tell you that they still aren't completely satisfied. There's an uneasiness deep down inside that still nags at their spirit--something they thought would be silenced by having 'arrived' at their dream. The older a person grows, the greater the desire for the grand and the illustrious--for greater wonder, and the greater aspirations of life.
"Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on whit is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of faire."
(The Words of God are Spirit and life. Receiving them, you receive the life of the vine. You live by every word that proceedth out of the mouth of God . . . Desire of Ages, Ellen White, p. 677)
Only God can satisfy the quest for these. Only intimacy with God can feed the hunger deep within the chambers of human hearts. Jesus voices an open invitation in for anyone to come and eat with Him:
Revelation 3:20King David, one of the men that has been satisfied by feeding on God, tells us what it is like:
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I come in and eat with him, and he with me."
Psalms 17:14, 15
You still the hunger of those you cherish; their sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children. And I--in righteousness I shall see your face; when I awake I shall be satisfied with seeing your likeness.