Monday, November 14, 2022
Jesus's teaching, if digested thoroughly, feeds the soul and builds a character of integrity. It's a fact of life many of us have character traits we would change about ourselves and others, habits that harm people with words and deeds. These habits or ways lead us to the Wonderfully Weird Command: "Take, Eat, and Drink." We read this command in Matthew 26:26-27: While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat: this is my body. Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you (NIV)."
Every day people take and eat food and wash it down with a drink. If it's pleasant to the eye and smells good, the mouth accepts it and allows it to travel to the inner parts of the body. Once in the stomach, it either receives or rejects it. When retracted, the body violently vomits to protect itself from hurt, pain, and death. On the other hand, if accepted, it begins processing the food to distribute its elements throughout the body to benefit it and give life to it.
Just as people take, eat, and drink real food, humans do likewise with their experiences. Humans receive spiritual food daily through encounters and drink it with man's problems or God's Promises. One leads to a violent taste in life; the other, a pleasant and pleasing zest for life. Like real food, it travels to the inner parts of the soul for better or worse.
People who choose Jesus as a Way of Life desire a better life and are known as Christians. They are choosing a new reality or experience to live practically and spiritually. Practically, this means, often, changing their diet of fun, friends, and fortunes. Spiritually, it means taking God's interpretation of life, eating it to comprehend healthy relationships, and drinking it down together to grow in the promises of God. We do this to redeem a safe and thriving character that meets the demands of reality, good or bad. To do so, this happens when God's people choose to be thankful and dine daily with Jesus and eat the bread of life and drink the responsibilities of God and a good life.
Why settle for the world's diet when you can have God's provisions? It's a fact that we all have character traits we can change for a better life. Today, decide to take, eat, and drink in ways that benefit people in your life. A character that feeds other people's souls and yours to develop integrity. Developing Christlike traits or habits guaranteed not to make people vomit but to be complete and healthy in God's refreshing and fulfilling manner. Manners that reflect a person is taking, eating, and drinking from God's table of genuine goodness.
With thoroughness,