Thoughts from The Bible – 02/05/20

Thoughts from the Bible

Wednesday, 05 February 2020 12:10

Starving in the Midst of Plenty by Terry Broome Years ago I read the story of a young boy who was making a boat trip across the ocean. He determined to live off of cheese and crackers since he had so little money left after buying his ticket. After a few days his supply became stale, and he tired of the meager meals. He wandered to the ship’s luxurious dining room where most of the passengers were dining sumptuously and stood looking with longing eyes at all the bounty of food. As he was counting what little money he had left in his pocket, the steward came by. The young boy asked him how much it would cost to go in and get a good meal, to which the steward replied, “Young man, your ticket entitles you to eat three meals a day. Go right in there and order what you want.” Like this young boy, many go through life starving themselves and seem very unaware that we can have the best life has to offer. We could be sitting down with the family of God as one of His children and faring sumptuously on spiritual things that have been provided with our passage into His Kingdom. When we were bought with a price and became members of the family of God, we inherited many blessings that too many seem unaware of. Notice that the Apostle Peter describes the exceeding great and precious promises and the right to be a partaker of the divine nature. “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:1-4). We should be concerned that too many Christians appear to be living beneath their birthright. Yes, being children of God certainly carries a lot of responsibility, but we must not forget that it provides us with benefits beyond our ability to describe as well. Furthermore, we should be concerned that so many young people are raised up in homes with Christian parents, yet they’ve not been motivated to have an appetite for these “precious benefits” in the Lord that would cause them to want to become Christians. Could it be that we are settling for the stale “cheese and crackers” instead of feasting at the fellowship table to the extent that our children fail to see the benefit of being Christians? This is not a blanket indictment, but rather a sobering and thought provoking question. Jesus bought us with the price of His shed blood. Once that “ticket” was purchased, and once we have taken advantage of it through obeying the Gospel, we are privileged with all benefits of being children of God. If you are not a child of God today, friend, you’re not even on the boat. If you’re on the boat by virtue of the fare Jesus provides, but living on stale “cheese and crackers” come enjoy the full fellowship and banquet feast with all the redeemed. The author can be reached for comments at 256-574-2489