Do You Have Bible Anorexia?

Do You Have Bible Anorexia?

"Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send famine upon the land: Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the LORD. Then shall they wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east in search of the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it." Amos 8:11-12

The dictionary defines anorexia as loss of appetite. We have many Christians today that are spiritually anorexic. We have so indulged ourselves on the things of the flesh that we have lost our appetite for things of the Spirit, and especially the Bible. We have a tremendous famine in our land for the Word of God, but not because it is not available! Most of us have multiple copies of the bible in our homes. We have a biblical famine because we have just gorged ourselves on the things of the flesh. We have no appetite or time for things of the Spirit. Our bibles lay on our tables gathering dust and we wonder why our lives seem so empty at times and so full of stress.

"I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these two are directly opposed to each other, this is why you do not do what you intend." Galatians 5:16-17

It is understandable why people that haven’t totally surrendered their lives to Jesus, have no appetite for the Bible. They haven’t come face to face with Jesus and experienced His tremendous personal love for them. The power of the Holy Spirit has not been fully released in their lives and so the Word of God remains as just another book to them.

However Christians that don’t hunger and thirst for the Word of God are an oxymoron! To be a biblically, anorexic Christian is to be on the road to Hell! Sure it may take us decades to get there, but that’s where we’re headed and that’s where we are pointing our families. This immoral cesspool we live in today will slowly rot our souls if we don’t turn off the TV and renew our minds with the Word of God (Romans 12:2)

When We Meditate on the Word of God Our Faith Increases!

Romans 10:17 says: "Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard is the word of Christ." There are two different Greek words used in the scriptures for the word of Christ. One is Rhema and the other is Logos. Rhema is the spoken word and Logos is the written word. The Greek word used in Romans 10:17 is Rhema. Our faith is increased when we hear the Holy Spirit "speak" to us as we read the scriptures.

When we prayerfully and humbly read the scriptures seeking Jesus’ lordship over our lives, a verse or passage will "come alive" to us. It will stand out to us. It will arrest our attention. We will sense that it is meant for us personally at this particular time. We will hear Jesus whisper His words of deep love for us. An answer will come to a question that we have been asking the Lord for a while. It will give us a new understanding to a problem in our lives. It will give us a direction that we should proceed in. In all of this, we experience God’s very personal care and love for us and our faith increases! We will remain faithless, spiritual midgets with no roots, if we don’t hear the Holy Spirit "speak" to us through the scriptures.

Jesus told us to live in His word (Jn 8:31). That’s exactly what He did when He walked the face of the earth. Jesus quoted the scriptures to the devil when he was tempted (Lk 4:4,8,12). He said "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act upon it (Lk 8:21) and "Blest are they who hear the word of God and keep it" (Lk 11:28). Jesus was of the opinion that the word of God was more convincing than someone raised from the dead (Lk 16:31). Jesus had the word of God on His lips as He was hanging on the cross (Mt 27:46, Ps 22:2, Lk 23:46, Ps 31:6). After Jesus rose from the dead, one of the first things He did was explain every passage of scripture relating to Him to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:27).

Jesus lived in God’s word! So did His disciples and so should we. The apostle John found himself chained up on the island Patmos for proclaiming the word of God (Rev 1:9). "But there is no chaining the Word of God!" (2 Tim 2:9). We should be ready to go to jail rather than stop preaching the word of God. We are "to preach the word, to stay with this task whether convenient or inconvenient - correcting, reproving, appealing - constantly teaching" (2 Tim 4:2). We are to love the word of God, live in the word of God, devour the word of God and die for the word of God if necessary. That day will come again in our country. Count on it!

Let us be doers of the word (Ja 1:22) and feed the hungry masses the living word - JESUS CHRIST!

***** JESUS IS LORD *****