Developing An Appetite For God's Word

Many of us in the church have had the opportunity to go to Haiti and be a part of the work that God is doing there through Pastor Leon. There are many pictures that have been lodged in my mind as a result of those visits. One in particular is of the little children who have such frail bodies and bloated stomachs due to malnutrition. The per capita income for Haiti is between $400 and $1300 depending on which web site you are looking at. In the best case, that is about $4 per day - about what I pay for a good hamburger.

As I talk with believers I find that many (if not most) of those who are faithfully in church are actually malnourished as far as their spiritual nutrition goes. Many people go from Sunday to Sunday without having a good spiritual meal - and yet they either think they are healthy or don't care that they have no appetite for the Word of God.

What do we do about this? Whenever I find that my appetite for the Word of God is not as it should be, I head to Psalm 119. Listen to the Psalmist as he pours out his heart to God to develop within him a hunger for God's Word:

v18 - "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law."

v36 - "Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain"

v37 - "Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your Word."

v59 - "I have considered my ways and have turned my steps tp your statutes."

v133 - "Direct my footsteps according to your Word; let no sin rule over me."

These are just a few of the choice verses in this great chapter of the Bible. If you are not hungering for God as you would like to then perhaps this chapter would be great place to start to re-develop an insatiable appetite for God and His Word.

Grace and Peace,

Shay

I Will Get This Thing Started

Written to the Church of Smyrna
Revelation 2:11b
"the one who overcomes will in no way be hurt by the second death."

A couple of things to take from this verse.
1) "the one who overcomes"- Obviously to be an "overcomer" you must be facing some sort of trial, tribulation, persecution, or struggle. Written to Christians,we see that we are in no way protected from bad things happening to us. We can't be considered an overcomer if we never overcome anything. The struggles that Smyrna Christians faced- persecution to the point of death. Persecutions we face- hurting someone's feelings or getting our feelings hurt. (My take on this- we are a bunch of panzies, though other words would be better used to describe us).

2) The reward for being an overcomer-"in no way will we be hurt by the second death." This death is hell. This is not some sort of annihilation but one of conscious, unending punishment. The greek language used here displays the strongest negative assertion that could possibly be used to portray future events. This means that in no way possible, never, and I mean never could one who overcomes face this second death. Instead, we will recieve the Crown of Life (verse 10). WOW!! What a promise!

Conclusion- Remember the hope of the promise that we have. Let's face our struggles, persecution, and tribulations, strenghten our faith daily and be overcomers. Let's do this recognizing the promise of life when hell is so real.

Youth Pastor in Action!
Jason Palmer