We often hear about eating from the food pyramid or "four food groups" for our physical health, but there are also several food groups (ways of studying God's word) that we should be using to be as spiritually full and healthy as we can be. The food groups I'm referring to are, your church, reading books or listening to CD's of Pastors or spirit filled people. A Pastor of any church has many different jobs to do, preaching, studying, counseling, wedding's, funeral's etcetera. By tapping into these other sources of being ministered to, you will not only have almost limitless sources of feeding your spiritual hunger, but you will also take a lot of pressure off of your Pastor by not expecting him or her to fill your every need.
Something I've noticed over the last few years, is that one of the things that lead to a Christian becoming complacent is the fact that they depend on one Church or Pastor to provide all they need. That's alot to ask of one Church or Pastor. This is not to say that we shouldn't have a church we call home, we absolutely should and that's the church we should be supporting financially, but let's look at it like this for a moment. God has put out this big banquet of food (knowledge) on this big buffet table (many churches, authors, teachings on cd) for our consumption. You cannot reach all of the food from one end of that buffet table. You sometimes need to step out of your comfort zone (your home church) and go around to another part of the table to get other kinds of food (teaching's) you want or need. There are people that I've come to know as well rounded believers and they’re doing well in their Christian walks, because they follow this kind of pattern. They have a church that they call home, but occasionally they visit other churches, or they read books by other Pastors or spirit filled people and/or listen to Cd's of other Pastors, to supplement their knowledge.
It makes sense that this would be beneficial, because every Pastor is going to preach differently, and each one will have different strengths. By supplementing our study of God's word by reading or listening to other Pastors, we first lighten the load on our Pastor's and at the same time, we have the opportunity to get different points of view and different interpretations of God's word. We can only become better Christians more prepared to endure by having many different sources of food (knowledge). For if we eat from only one food group (one source of teaching) we are not getting all of the nutrition (education) that we need. That's not fair to anybody, Pastor or congregation.
Another way to look at what I'm saying is this way. I'll use fishing as another illustration of what I mean. Let's say you go fishing (go to church, read or listen to a teaching on cd) each pond you go to has a different variety of fish. If you go to the same pond (source of teaching) all of the time, you will eventually get tired of eating the same type of fish. This can lead to a person getting to the point where they stop eating fish (attending church) altogether and that would be tragic. It would be far better for a person to go fishing in different ponds and enjoy the bounty of the various ponds (sources of teaching) that God has provided us with. Every preacher has something different to offer. Each has a different approach or a different delivery or a different set of communication skills. What feeds one person may not feed someone else. Try all of the varieties that that Lord has put before you. You will never go (spiritually hungry) following this pattern.
We the people (the church body and Pastors) are the church, not the building. In being the Church, we are in a relationship with Christ. Some realize this, while others don't, but the invitation is for everyone and through accepting the invitation everyone gets to know the Son and the Father better. When we accept Christ, it means we accept his teachings, we accept who he was for us, a Savior, and it means we do our very best to live the life he wanted us to live; a kind of life that is best for us, that brings us the most fulfillment, that brings us peace which is like the most beautiful harmony you can think of. God WANTS us to celebrate with him!
In order for us to be effective in serving others which I talked about last week, we need to have a strong a foundation in our faith. We need to be equipped with knowledge of God's word through as many sources as we can, to get a thorough understanding. When your reading the Bible, try using other references like "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance" this will help you can gain a clearer understanding of the Word to enrich your study. With all of the resources that we have to learn from, there is no excuse for us to not get our spiritual thirst's quenched.
Please pray this with me.
Heavenly Father, you are so good to us. You have provided us with so many resources to learn what your will is for us, that you’ve eliminated the excuses that we might have had at one time for not learning and growing in the Spirit. The only excuse that seems to be left is laziness and that's the worst excuse of them all. Lord God I ask that you would instill in us a thirst for more of you that could only be satisfied by studying your word God. I pray Father that you would help us with any motiational issues that we might have. We will always have room to improve in our study time, devotional time and prayer time. Lord God I pray that you would help us to be better servants to you and bring your word to the lost that need to hear it.
In Jesus Name I Pray.
Amen
God Bless You All
“The Sharpshooter”
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