I'm Hungry

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”  Is. 55:2

With pregnancy comes many symptoms that go beyond your control and one of those is hunger.  For those of you who have been pregnant or married to a pregnant woman you can sympathize with me when I say there are moments were I am so hungry I’d pay $20 for a piece of fruit or quietly but secretively take a bite of yours.  J 

The truth is, we get hungry spiritually too.  Sometimes we get so hungry we start grabbing for the wrong things, things that won’t satisfy.  You know, in those moments when you’re longing for love, purpose, and a sense of control?  Your ‘food’ of choice could be busyness, self-pity, or some type of hobby, etc.  If you don’t know ask God to show you, He will.  God tells us in His Word to come to Him.  Here’s the awesome reality; coming to Him for our true satisfaction is free and offered to us because He so full of grace and love for His children.  There’s something so marvelous and satisfying about the Word of God.  In those moments when my heart is hungry and I open the Word it’s like getting that pear when I’m hit with a wave of pregnancy hunger.  It’s relief, it’s nourishment, and it gives peace like nothing else and trust me it’s way better than a pear!  Yep, it’s that powerful.  It’s God’s Word after all. 

So the question remains, are you feasting on the Word of God?  Are you delighting in the richest of fare?  It’s time to stop trying to fill those longings with anything else, God’s Word tells us it won’t satisfy and that my friends is the truth. His Word has pulled me out of so many pits in my life and I know it can yours!  

FBC Women's Retreat 2014 Part 2 "The Battle of Gettysitright"

Our second message from our women's retreat, Walking with Jesus: Step by Step, Season by Season. Andrea Mercier shares from 2 Chronicles 20:2-22 in her message, "The Battle of Gettysitright." Did you know we are in a battle? Andrea encourages us to take up our positions in Christ to stand firm against sin, Satan, and this world so that we can walk in deeper victory with Jesus. *We apologize for the glare on the powerpoint which makes it unable for viewing.

Are you Eating the Cereal?

Remember the days when you could find a prize in your cereal box?  I do; in fact, one prize I remember in particular was a pair of 3D glasses.  Flimsy?  Yes.  Sugar coated?  Perhaps.  Awesomely cool?  To my 8 year old frame, absolutely!  What was the idea of behind the prizes?  Well, the idea was that you’d buy and eat the box of cereal in order to get the prize.  Really it was a clever marketing tool, actually started by Kellogg’s Corn Flakes in 1909 (the year after the Cubbies won the world series!).   Sorry folks just had to put that in there.  J Now, it wasn’t right to just pour out all the cereal to get the prize was it?  No!  You’d miss out on all the yummy deliciousness on the way to the prize!

Jesus, He’s kind of like the prize in the cereal box, isn’t He?  He’s the prize of God, the culmination of God’s redemptive plan revealed to us all in Scripture.   Yet, I think we’re missing out on something in our relationship with Him.  I’m afraid we’ve dumped out all of the yummy deliciousness on the way to the prize.  His Word, Beloved, holds treasures yet discovered by us personally. 

What, don’t believe me?  Watch what Jesus says in Luke 24:27 “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”  Read that slowly.  Take it in.  Jesus is saying to these men on the road to Emmaus that The Old Testament is all about Him!   I can only begin to fathom all the glorious treasures there are about the Lord Jesus Christ that we have yet to discover!  And not only in the Old Testament, but also in the new, remember, the Holy Spirit’s role is to reveal Christ to us, and God does that through the Word penned to us by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13-15, 2 Pet. 1:20-21).   I’m asking God to open our eyes to the treasure and mystery of His Word, so we might know His Son in depth and insight like never before.  Beloved, feast on the Word, don’t discard it because you’ve got the prize, but dig in and discover all the glorious riches God has for you in His Son—the love, the Truth, the freedom!