“We have a great deal to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature — for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.” -Hebrews 5:11-14 CSB
Before reading the Bible for myself, I had always been bottle-fed the Word of God. I always allowed the preachers, priests, family, and friends to tell me what God's Word said. Unfortunately, this allowed God's Word to be used against me as a weapon instead of what our loving Father intended. Don't get me wrong, our God is "JUST," yes, but He is also a genuinely loving Father who I feel gets a bad rap of being the "big mean ol guy in the sky." However, I realized that way of thinking just makes the words in the Book of Hebrews that much more accurate.
You see, many of us complain that the Bible is "hypocritical" or "terrible," or a "good book, but not to be taken these days literally." However, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we will know those words are only spoken out of immaturity and ignorance because of our lack of knowledge of the Word of God.
God's Word is incredible and incredibly accurate for this time. It truly is one big love letter from our Father, and we can't expect to be eating "solid food" when we don't actually pick up the fork and knife to dive into our "meat." We are only hopelessly left consuming the "milk" from others and their way of cutting and processing the "solid food." So we only get what God tells them, and then we rob ourselves of the beautiful gift of God speaking to US today!
It's so incredibly sad to think about the days I used to only be spoon-fed my Bible. Especially in some cases, scripture was taken out of context or manipulated to use against me as a weapon. It actually made me HATE the Bible. I hated it with everything in my being. Which also allowed me to turn God into those people, which then misconstrued my whole concept of God and His Word. Turning God into those people and their words and actions instead of keeping God right where He belongs and realizing those people are flawed human beings just as much as I am. You see, I judged God by people when I had no place judging anyone!
But then I ate me some solid food and GOD!!!!! Oh my goodness, did God get me! His Words mmmm SO GOOD! Prime rib steak doesn't even do His Word any justice (lol) because nothing compares to the unique Word of God. The authentic and true food of our lives. I swear it leaves me speechless some days.
You see, when you read His Word for yourself, you get fed from the actual source Himself! God, our Heavenly Father, speaks to you, and only you through those pages, and can do the work on you! Even someone like me, who went in with a complete devil's advocate point of view stating, "I'm going to prove this stupid book wrong! And show how terrible it is! Time to highlight all those contradictions!" BUT, GOD! Only God can take my heart of stone for His Word and completely wreck me by the time I got to 1 Samuel 8:7.
“But the Lord told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king.” 1 Samuel 8:7 CSB
That scripture wrecked me! Because when you read the Bible as a whole cover-to-cover, I don't know how anyone could get to that verse by that point and not feel completely wrecked! I mean, I was "the people" God was speaking of, but because of His beautiful Word, I no longer am those people on purpose anymore. I'm not trying to survive on "milk" from others anymore. I go to His Word every day and fill up on my living water, solid food, and bread of life: His Word!
Being grounded in His Word is so important. Currently, I am reading through the Bible with a group of women; and we are in 1 Kings, and we recently passed 1 Kings 13 (link for whole chapter). The story is about a "man of God" and a "deceitful prophet." We do not know why the prophet deceived the "man of God," but he does deceive him, and if the man of God had just listened to God's Word and not strayed, he would have never turned into the literal "meat" for a lion's belly.
“The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’ ” The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house. While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’ ” When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.” 1 Kings 13:16-24 NIV
The "man of God "needed to be more grounded in his Word from God himself. Trusting the Words of God will ALWAYS trump the words of man. God knows the heart; however, we are easily deceived when the devil is in the details. But if we are solid on God's Word, a true firm foundation, we have nothing to fear (2 Timothy 2:19)! Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and if our actions match up with the true Word of God, the overall message, then we can rest assured He is guiding us. And that "solid food" is much more filling than "milk."
Don’t Forget Meat Needs Washed Down with Some Wholesome Milk Sometimes
However, let me clarify, even if you are reading the Bible cover-to-cover, not cherry-picking books or scriptures to read randomly, YOU STILL NEED COMMUNITY - YOU STILL NEED SOME "WHOLESOME MILK" from time to time.
We all need a community of believers to share and talk things out. God made it very clear in Genesis that He never intended for us to be alone, ever! So we partner with others in this walk to help us along the way. The Bible can be "confusing" or "hard" in some spots, but it's essential you discuss it with people who are ALSO reading His Word cover-to-cover, dwelling and meditating on His Word, who have good fruit which is an authentic branch from His Vine. So it is so important we also remember to humble ourselves as we read.
One thing is for certain when you first start reading your Bible the devil will attack with distraction first. That's the easy one to distract you from even being able to pick up your Bible. However, if that doesn't work, the devil will confuse you next - questioning everything on each verse - making it "too hard" to read where you just give it up and eventually allow those distractions to distract you. However, if you push through all that and start making real progress and finish the Bible, the devil will hit you with PRIDE and arrogance. He makes you think that just because you read the Bible all the way through one time, now you some kind of righteous person! So here's your NEWS FLASH; you don't know a thing; pick up your Bible and re-read it again because you need to get hit with some humility and realize that's why God made community. WE NEED EACH OTHER. Not one single person will ever know it all until Jesus is back on this earth again. But we must be talking with like-minded followers of God. We must understand their good "fruit" to know they will help us lead each other to the only way, truth, and life, JESUS (John 14:6)!
If your "friends" aren't leading you to Jesus, they ain't your friends! I like to say,
"Friends, don't let friends forget their Jesus in their life!" Lol
So the moral of this blog is to say always always always first, READ YOUR BIBLE COVER-TO-COVER YOURSELF! Always go to God first in His Word and prayer and give a "Holy pause" and listen for Him to speak (because He does, and that's a blog for another day), but then find your "fruitful" friends, leaders, and mentors and discuss with them your thoughts, questions, concerns, and joys! Honestly, I AM HERE if you need a friend who LOOOOOVES talking about the Bible and just all things GOD, JESUS & the HOLY SPIRIT! YES, PLEASE, MESSAGE ME NOW! Lol. I am not even kidding a little bit! Please shoot me a message at contact@devotion2jesus.com. I can't wait to chat because that means you're eager to KNOW HIM, and I can't wait to show you the source to find Him every day in your life and slowly start hearing His beautifully sweet Whispers into your life.
Friend, will you join me in falling in love with God?
contact@devotion2jesus.com — Message there!
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