“This King, who is full of goodness and mercy, doesn’t punish me. Rather, He embraces me lovingly and invites me to eat at His table. He serves me Himself and gives me the keys to His treasury, treating me as His favorite.”
The Practice of the Presence of God, Fifth Letter
Brother Lawrence (1614*-1691)
*not all sources agree on the date of Brother Lawrence’s birth
I can choose to eat at my computer desk, or off a TV tray, or even at a table in the food court. Or I can let God feed me from the riches of his table.
I’m sorry, Lord — I spent too much time yesterday sitting at the wrong table and not nearly enough time at your table.
The diner served up more than I could eat. I carried the rest home in a box.
That’s how it is with Sunday’s sermon. I bring some of it home in a doggie bag. Question is, do I eat it later? Or does it languish in the back of the fridge, fuzzy and forgotten?
Refrigerator, rocky ground — it’s all the same:
Matthew 13:20-21 (CEV)
The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it right away. But they don’t have deep roots, and they don’t last very long.
Last Saturday, we ate at a diner. Just inside the door was the dessert case: berry-topped cheesecake, lemon pie piled high with meringue, gooey chocolate cake, plate-sized cookies. “Maybe I should skip the meal and go straight to dessert,” I told my husband.
Isaiah 55:2 (NIV)
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
The Bible, “the richest of fare” — cheesecake and chocolate for your soul!
The Bible – when do you study it?
When I was a child, I ate at my mother’s table. The food was prepared by her hands. Likewise, my early Bible lessons came second-hand — from my parents, in Sunday School, at church.
God offers first-hand food for your soul.
Isaiah 55:2-3 (MSG)
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 (VOICE)
Jesus the Lord will appear from heaven dealing out perfect justice to anyone who doesn’t know God and anyone who disobeys the good news of our Lord Jesus . . . They’ll be banished from the Lord’s presence and glorious power.
“Perfect justice” — when all is said and done, no one will say that their trial was unfair.
“Don’t say that a loving God is going to send you to hell – He’s not. The thing that’s going to send you to hell is that you’re a sinner and you don’t want to admit it.”
J. Vernon McGee (1904-1988)
Pastor, teacher, theologian, radio minister
(Dr. McGee’s vision: The whole Word to the whole world)
How can a loving God send anyone to Hell?
Surely you’ve heard the question. Your answer?
In his book on Heaven, Randy Alcorn offers a memorable response:
“He so much wants us not to go to Hell that he paid a horrible price on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to.”
John 3:16 (NIV)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
