1 Peter 2:2 (nkjv) - "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby"....
mike shared how Dr. Paul Brandt said, in his book "God's forever feast", that mother's milk (as we all know) is the PERFECT food.... well, that's what God's Word is to us, the purest, most perfect food for our growth and spiritual health.
so i'm munchin' on this on my way out of the service, makin' like a cow and chewin' my daily cud....
...when i get into the car to LEAVE, i turn the KEY in the ingnition, and the tape deck starts playing in the middle of a song by heather clark ('raise a shout' from her undivided focus album [lyrics as i heard them and jotted them down]):
...i'm LEAVING,
i will run the race!
and i will persevere!
i will press on for the goal that is near!
raise up a shout!
that breaks the heavy yoke
and i'll dance
to make the enemy choke!
i clap my hands
in a wild applause
cuz i know my saviour reigns... whoo!
i'll break the yoke of heaviness
and i will not settle for less!!!
i will loose the bonds
let the oppressed go free
i will go forth in victory!!!
now that's TRUTH, straight from the Word of God! and yeah, i was feeling heaviness, tiredness, fatigue.....really feeling like i needed more of God's "come all who are weary and heavy laden and i will give you rest" goin' on in my life.... well, as my day is, so shall my strength be!!!! i'll be ploddin' along, i will persevere, i'll run the race, i will go forth in victory, whoo!
raise up a shout!
that breaks the heavy yoke
and i'll dance
to make the enemy choke!
i clap my hands
in a wild applause
cuz i know my saviour reigns... whoo!
RAHHH! whoo hoo yah, God is good!
that was encouraging, thanks, God! (i thought that as though thats ever all God has for us, eh? lol)...then i drive out onto the highway access road, but i feel to go right (instead of left, the usual route towards town), then cross the highway... then i feel to get out of the car and go stand near the river bank, no - closer, over to the right, closer to the edge.... until finally i can see all the way down the sheer drop of the bank (30'-50' or so?).... and right there before me (uh, below me...) was a beautiful duck just sitting there quietly on a rock, peaceful and still, just feathers rufflin' a bit in the breeze, head swivelling around... georgeous reddish-brown head, with that pointed little peak on the back of it's head.... beautiful black and white markings on the rest of it's body....
...and i thought, how cool, i'm seeing a duck sitting down and resting, instead of flying or swimming or diving - busy with life..... just resting, at peace, on THE ROCK... kewl, thanks God!.... yet i felt there was more i was there to see....
so, wondering what i was there to see, i thought of how last week a child gave me $120 in play money (which i felt was a promise from God for His provision!!!), i thought, well maybe God would have me find $20 or something on the ground! (lol) ...so i glance around me at the ground, nothing there, just pretty, green, lush moss. hmm. i rest my eyes on the duck again, and no sooner had i focused on him than he peacefully lift his little tailfeathers, and a literal stream of milky whiteness flowed out, all over the rock.
i just kinda hung my mouth open for a few seconds, then giggled... God, You led me here to see THAT?!
[it was one of those too hilarious coincidences to be a coincidence, y'know? no such thing as a coincidence, and one thing i'm learning about my God is how wacky a sense of humor He has! it was totally God.]
so on my way home i was musing... what did the duckies doo-doo have to doo-doo with me....?!
well, mike had spoken this morning about the pure MILK of the Word of God.... and that was definately milky... but coming out a bird's rear end....?!
well, in order for it to come out one end, it had to go in the other.... and then be DIGESTED... i mean, really taken in, digested, broken down, it's nutrients made available to the body.... do we make like cows and chew the cud of Truth over and over again (which is a GOOD thing to do!) ...but never really digest it, never really take it in and absorb it and let it become an integral part of who we are? well, we NEED to take that milk, the pure MILK of God's Word and digest it thoroughly, absorb it, and have it become so much a part of us that we grow and flourish and become green, like that luscious moss....
ok, so what about us who are not so much "newborn babes" in the Lord anymore, and are not on milk so much, but MEAT?
well, same thing. whether we digest the milk OR, increasingly, the solid meat of God's Word, it's going to come out of us and flow out to others. "out of your bellies shall flow rivers of living water".... well, as the Holy Spirit flows through us, we wind up naturally feeding others with the TRUTH, with the Milk of God's Word that resides in us - that we digested and made our own, claiming it and believing it.... and the more a part of us it has become, the more it flows out of us, so that with barely the lift of our spiritual "tail-feathers", we make a mark in other people's lives, leaving a deposit, in their hearts, of the TRUTH that is the eternal commodity of the Kingdom of God.....
everywhere we go, where ever we go, we should be leaving deposits of God's truth behind us... and for sure, it is an infinately more enduring stain than that white splotch that duck left behind him could ever be!!!
(out of his belly flowed waters of living milk?)
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