True Spirituality Series
Food for Your Soul
2 Timothy 3:14-17
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
You are what you eat, so the saying goes. That must be right. I look out here today and I am sure I see several dozen glazed donuts, several chocolate bars, and couple of bags of potatoes! I think I even see a lot of baloney in the back pew.
No wonder eating healthier and losing weight are at the top of most people’s New Year’s resolutions. Because of that, I want to share with you the latest research on eating healthy. You won’t find this in the New England Journal of Medicine. Even the Weight Watchers and South Beach Diet folk have yet to discover these secrets.
The Top Five Little Known Diet Secrets: #5--If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories. #4--If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are canceled out by the diet soda. #3--When you eat with someone else, calories don’t count if you don’t eat more than they do. #2--Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories. Examples are: spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and white chocolate. NOTE: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color. And the number one diet secret--#1--If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner.
Seriously . . . We are in the midst of a series of messages on True Spirituality—Finding the Life You’ve Always Wanted. What we are really talking about is the Care and Feeding of the Healthy Soul. If there is one verse of scripture that sums up all that we are talking about over these several weeks, it is 1 Timothy 4:8, “train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Both physical and spiritual training require the right diet.
Jesus knew this, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Jesus taught his disciples that the Word of God produces life and health in our lives (Mt 13: 23). You need to feed on God’s Word. It’s a matter of your soul’s health.
My message has two parts—one for each hand. Each part, just like your hands, has five fingers. Together they explain how we can get a grip on God’s Word—the food for a healthy soul.
First the right hand—God’s part, what the Bible can do in our lives. This explains why the Bible is so important for a healthy soul. According to the text I read a moment ago, the Word of God benefits in five ways.
First, God’s Word Converts. It makes us “wise unto salvation.” God’s Word contains the truth about life and death, sin and salvation, heaven and hell. The Bible says we are born again “through the living and enduring word of God. … And this is the word that was preached to you” (1 Pt 1:23-25). It says we are included in Christ when we hear the word of truth and believe it (Eph 1:13-14).
Like Timothy in that passage, I first learned of God’s love as a young boy. I eventually accepted Christ because Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and preachers feed me God’s Word. I can still remember the preacher sitting in our living room, opening his Bible, and explaining what it meant to be a Christian. That’s how people become Christians and set their course for heaven.
The Word of God converts. It also convinces. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of,” our text encourages. That passage refers back to a previous warning. The chapter begins, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, — having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” How does a person remain strong in faith in a spiritually crazy world? Not by believing everything he hears! That’s for sure! By sinking his roots deep into the Word of God!
Dwight L. Moody once said, “I used to want a stronger faith. I prayed and I prayed for more faith. Then one day I read in the Bible that “faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.” So I picked up my Bible and began to read. My faith has been growing ever since!” So will yours.
God’s Word converts. It convinces. It also convicts. That’s what that the word rebuke means in our text. The Word is like mirror. When we look into it, we see our dirty faces. It reveals us for what we are.
Conviction is another word for guilt. We confront the teachings of the Bible. They reveal our sin. We feel guilty. Our problem is that we often hear that guilt is bad. False guilt, yes. Real guilt, no. Feelings of guilt to the soul are like pain to our bodies. Guilt is the warning signal that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. Without it, we would be in real trouble. It is a good thing to be convicted by the Word of God.
Radio commentator Paul Harvey offered some wise words on this aspect of the Bible’s power. He said, "You know, in every Ramada Inn in the U.S. there is an AIDS prevention kit in the drawer of the night-stand." Then he repeated it. He said, "In every Ramada Inn in the U.S., in the drawer of the night-stand, there is an AIDS prevention kit. It is called the Gideon Bible." The Word of God warns of sin, righteousness and judgment. It convicts. Its warnings have turned many a man and women from the path of sin and destruction.
Fourth, the Word Corrects. The term in our text was used by the ancients to describe the setting of a broken bone. It is never enough to know you’re headed the wrong way. We need to know the right way. That’s what God’s Word does. It points the way to forgiveness and new life. “Thy word is a lamp unto feet and a lamp unto path,” Psalm 119 says.
The Word converts. It convinces. It convicts. It corrects. It offers one more benefit. It completes. Our text says, “All Scripture is useful for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” God’s Word equips us for service. It arms us for battle against sin and temptation. It prepares us to be used as instruments in the hands of God. Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will bear much fruit.” Psalm 19 says it well. It says that God’s Word revives the soul, makes wise the simple, gives joy to the heart and light to the eyes.” Get a firm grip on this book and you will discover the life you’ve always wanted!
If that’s what God’s Word can do in our lives, how do we get those benefits? That’s explained with our left hand. To get the maximum results from God’s Word, the healthy soul connects with God’s Word in five ways.
First, we need to receive God’s Word. Jesus said we receive the Word by listening with open hearts and minds like good soil receives seed. Hearing and receiving God’s Word is a big part of the reason we gather in church each week. Paul told Timothy that communicating the Word of God was the preacher’s main job. “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching, he insisted (1 Tim 4:13). Later, he repeated the same challenge. “I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim 4: 1-2).
Let me say this as clearly as I can. God’s Word is the only message this or any church should offer. If that ever ceases to be the main thing from this pulpit, you ought to change preachers or change churches. If you are visiting today and go to a church where any thing other than the Bible is the main course, you ought to leave and find a church that preaches the Word of God. The health of your soul is at stake.
You need to receive God’s Word through faithful preaching and teaching on a regular basis. You also need to read God’s Word. We live in a time of unparalleled access to the Bible. Almost anyone who wants one can have one. We also live in a time of great neglect of the Bible. Polls indicate that only eighteen percent of professed Christians read the Bible every day. Twenty three percent, almost one in four, say they never read the Word of God. That’s a prescription for an unhealthy soul.
“An unread Bible is like food uneaten, a love letter never read, a buried sword, a road map unstudied, gold never mined" (Jerry Vines, A Practical Guide to Sermon Preparation, p.69).
I challenge every one of you to resolve to pursue a regular habit of daily Bible reading. It doesn’t take nearly as much time as you might think. You can read the entire Bible, cover to cover, in about seventy-five hours. Divide that by 365 days and it works out to about fifteen minutes a day. That’s three or four chapters a day. If that is too much, you could spend five minutes a day and read just one chapter a day. Your soul would be nourished beyond your wildest dreams.
We need to receive God’s Word. We need to read God’s Word. We also need to reflect on God’s Word. By reflect, I mean get it into our heart as well as our head. We all know we can go through the motions without being affected by what we read. That ought never to be the case with the Bible. What I am calling “reflect”, the Bible calls meditate. The Bible word for meditate was the same word used to describe a cow chewing her cud. To meditate on the Word means to mull it over, think about, let it simmer and stew in our minds over time.
Let me suggest three ways to do that. First, if you read your Bible in the morning (which is the best time), look for a verse or key idea to underline. Work on thinking about that idea through the day. Second, you could memorize the verse. You can write the verse on a card and read it over and over during the day until you know it by heart. Thirdly, you might try journaling. That’s the discipline of writing down your thoughts about what you read. It doesn’t need to be much. Jotting down a few sentences about what you read and how you hope to apply it will cement that truth into your spirit like few other activities can do.
We need to receive, read, and reflect on God Word. We also need to relate with God’s Word. Spiritual growth is not for “lone rangers.” It happens best in fellowship with others who are also pursuing God’s will. The Old Testament says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Prov 27:17). The New Testament calls believers to gather together to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” and to encourage one another (Heb 10:24-25).
We can all benefit by being part of a regular group that studies God’s Word together. That’s what our Sunday School classes do. Our ladies have monthly home Bible study groups that do the same thing. If we don’t have one that you can plug into, we will start one. It will bless your soul.
We need to receive, read, reflect, and relate with God’s Word. Finally, we need to respond to it. Learning the Bible is not an academic exercise. Bible reading and study should always lead to obedience. Knowing should lead to doing. Our question should never just be “what does the Bible say?” but also “what should I do about what the Bible says?” The New Testament says to read and not obey the Bible is like looking at your dirty face in the mirror and not washing (James 1: 22-25). Responding in obedience is the key to spiritual growth and a healthy soul.
There they are! Five benefits you receive from the Word of God! Five practices that will bless your soul! When we have a solid grip on God’s Word, we will have a healthy, thriving soul.
A story I recently read reminds of one other thing we can do with God’s Word. A missionary in Africa gave a Bible to a local tribesman. The man hugged it. He expressed great appreciation for the precious gift.
A few days later, the missionary saw the same man again. To his dismay, the Bible looked like it had been used as a soccer ball. It was falling apart. Pages were missing. The book was in shreds. The missionary asked, "What happened? I thought you considered your Bible a treasured possession."
The man replied. "It is! It is the finest gift I have ever received. It is so precious that I tore a page out and gave it to my mother. Then I gave one to my father. And I tore out another page and gave it to my wife. Finally, I gave a page to everybody who lives in my village."
Hmm! There’s a lesson there some where!
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
