Author Archives: Stephen Rodgers

Common Pitfalls for Young Men: Sexual Sin

by Pastor Patrick Cho

Sadly, I don’t think it comes as any surprise that one of the most serious and widespread issues I get asked to meet up with young guys for is sexual sin. This might be as a result of compromises made in a dating relationship and an inability to keep commitments to purity. It might be because of personal struggles with online pornography. We are given many examples in Scripture of men who have failed in this area of life, and most guys understand the commonality of the problem. Whatever the context, though, most of the young men I meet with don’t seem to grasp fully the severity of their sin or its devastating consequences. Perhaps part of the reason is the commonality of the problem. Some men seem to reason, “Every guy struggles with this,” and so believe it dilutes the seriousness of the issue.

The Scriptures clearly denote the severity of sexual sin and walk through its consequences (cf. Prov. 5:1-23; 1 Thess. 4:1-8; et al.). An inability to pursue purity by the grace and power of God may lead to natural physical consequences, like sexually transmitted diseases or disappointment with one’s own wife (present or future), or it may have devastating spiritual consequences even perhaps evincing an unregenerate soul.

When I counsel young men on this issue, there are several harmful ideas that seem to recur in our conversations. These are lies that men tend to believe in regard to their struggles with lust. Here are perhaps the most common and what Scripture says in response:

  1. “I struggle most when I am alone.” This is perhaps the most common statement I hear from men about their sexual sin, and it is particular with men who fall into the temptation of online pornography. When they are tempted, some have even told themselves, “It’s ok because no one will find out.” Scripture reminds us of the truth that YOU ARE NEVER ALONE. God is ever present and always watching (Prov. 5:21; Heb. 4:12-13; 2 Pet. 3:10; Ps. 139:5-10).
  2. “I can get away with it. I’ll be able to hide it.” This reasoning is similar to the first, but it deals more specifically with the consequences of the sin. Of course, there are ways to try and cover up your tracks so as to avoid being caught by others. People try desperately to keep sin in the dark. The Bible tells us that our sin has a way of finding us out (Num. 32:23; cf. Ps. 139:11-12).
  3. “It’s not that big a deal.” As I mentioned before, since there are so many men that struggle with lust, it can be easy to treat the sin as if it wasn’t a serious problem. From my experience, I tend to watch out for men who make a habit of joking around about sexual sin. These tend to be the ones who struggle with it. Satan will always try and get you to lighten your attitude towards disobedience to God. You may even try and get others to sin as well to ease your conscience, or you may not confront sin in others because of your guilt. God’s Word says that sexual sin is extremely serious as a clear violation of God’s Law even as adultery in the heart (Matt. 5:27-30; cf. Rev. 21:8)
  4. “No one else will understand. I can’t tell anyone else.” Many of the men I have counseled have felt alone in their struggle and so have been reluctant to confess their sin to others. Confession obviously involves a sense of shame and perhaps even difficult consequences, but it is still worth it in the end. There are many who have tried to fight off lust on their own only to fail. If you don’t find help from someone, chances are you will most likely continue to practice your sin. Some people reply, “All I need is God to help me win this battle.” Of course this is true in an ultimate sense, but God has given us the church and has chosen to use others to help us fight off temptation (1 Cor. 10:13; Eccl. 4:9-10; James 5:16).
  5. “This will be the last time.” Many men fall into the lie that this last time will satisfy. The truth is that this is how we seek to justify ourselves. We aren’t concerned about how we might struggle for the next month or year. We focus on “just one more time.” Our sin will bring a certain measure of satisfaction. If it didn’t bring any satisfaction or pleasure, it wouldn’t be very tempting. You need to remind yourself that it might satisfy at first, but the satisfaction will not last. If you suck on emptiness, it only leaves you hungrier. Instead of listening to your own heart and reasoning, you need to remember the truth of God’s Word. Our hearts are deceiving at times and can lead us astray (Jer. 17:9), so Scripture reminds us that the only thing that could possibly fully satisfy is God Himself (Heb. 12:1; Jer. 2:13)
  6. “It’s not my fault.” The trend in society is to call sin anything but sin (i.e., habits, sickness, disease, genetics, traumatic childhood experiences, victimization). The Bible exhorts us to confess our sin and to be honest about it. The biblical word for “confess” literally means to say the same thing or agree. We need to agree with God’s assessment of our hearts because He knows us better than we know ourselves. Our outward sin emanates from lustful hearts, but if we confess our sin, God is faithful to forgive (Matt. 15:16-20; 1 John 1:8-10). There may be other circumstantial factors involved in why you struggle, but God will not allow these to be excuses for your sin.
  7. “It is too much to deal with. I cannot beat it.” Sadly, many men grow increasingly frustrated because they seemingly can’t win. But when it all boils down, oftentimes even their defeatist mentality is rooted in their desire to continue in sin. They think, “Well, if I can’t beat it, I might as well give in.” Some might even be tempted to go so far as even to blame God. The Bible reminds us of God’s faithfulness to help us in our temptations and trials and encourages us to keep running the race of faith with faithfulness (1 Cor. 10:13; Heb. 12:1-2). We are called not to give up, but to continue to put off sin and put on Christ because Jesus saved us and freed us from our enslavement to sin (Rom. 13:13-14; 1 Cor. 6:9-11).

Do you ever hear yourself buying into these common lies regarding sexual sin? It is vitally important that you go back to God’s Word and consider carefully what it has to say not only about your sin and its consequences, but also about the hope you have in Christ. Sexual sin can be very entangling and many men have felt completely trapped or enslaved in their sin. But in Christ we can truly have freedom and forgiveness. In light of our struggles, this is the hope we must cling to constantly.

Thy Gentleness Hath Made Me Great

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Psalm 18:35

The words are capable of being translated, ‘Thy goodness hath made me great.’ David gratefully ascribed all his greatness not to his own goodness, but the goodness of God.

‘Thy providence,’ is another reading; and providence is nothing more than goodness in action. Goodness is the bud of which providence is the flower, or goodness is the seed of which providence is the harvest.

Some render it, ‘Thy help,’ which is but another word for providence; providence being the firm ally of the saints, aiding them in the service of their Lord.

Or again, ‘Thy humility hath made me great.’ ‘Thy condescension‘ may, perhaps, serve as a comprehensive reading, combining the ideas mentioned, including that of humility. It is God’s making Himself little which is the cause of our being made great. We are so little, that if God should manifest His greatness without condescension, we should be trampled under His feet; but God, who must stoop to view the skies, and bow to see what angels do, turns His eye yet lower, and looks to the lowly and contrite, and makes them great.

There are yet other readings, as for instance, the Septuagint, which reads, ‘Thy discipline‘-Thy fatherly correction-‘hath made me great;’ while the Chaldee paraphrase reads, ‘Thy word hath increased me.’ Still the idea is the same.

David ascribes all his own greatness to the condescending goodness of his Father in heaven. May this sentiment be echoed in our hearts this evening while we cast our crowns at Jesus’ feet, and cry, ‘Thy gentleness hath made me great.’ How marvellous has been our experience of God’s gentleness! How gentle have been His corrections! How gentle His forbearance! How gentle His teachings! How gentle His drawings! Meditate upon this theme, O believer. Let gratitude be awakened; let humility be deepened; let love be quickened ere thou fallest asleep to-night.

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Success

by Kristen Lim

‘Tis the season of graduations galore! Recently our youth group had a Grad Night to celebrate with two 8th graders as they finished middle school. It is an exciting time of completing a stage of life and moving on to new terrain, but also extremely daunting knowing that growing older means making decisions that can greatly affect one’s future. There is also the pressure of pursing success and greatness in this life, and already the youth face this challenge at school as they work hard in getting good grades and involving themselves in extra-curricular activities.

My small group just finished a study on the topic of success and what it truly means to be successful in God’s eyes. We studied multiple passages from the Bible to understand what God has to say about this pertinent topic. Since God is the author of life, He defines what is true success and how to live a fruitful life that is not wasted. The verse that we used as the starting point in this study was 2 Corinthians 5:9 which says, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.” If it ought to be our desire to please God, then the next hurdle is to figure out what pleases Him. Here is a sampling of what we discovered:

1. The Picture of Success: Faithfulness

In Jesus’ Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), He describes how God rewards those who are faithful in their given task. The servants all start with different amounts of money and are expected to be industrious with their share. The master repeats the same commendation to the hard-working servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant…” because they all put in effort to gain a profit with the provided money, while the lazy servant chose not to honor his master. Thus, success (hearing “well done” from God) is measured by the degree of effort.

2. The Pressure of Success: Pride

When we experience the fruit of our labor, there is a tendency to take pride in ourselves rather than attribute the glory to the provider of that success. In the book of Proverbs, God uses very strong language to communicate His utter disdain for the proud. For example, Proverbs 8:13 reads, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate,” also Proverbs 16:5 says, “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; assuredly, he will not be unpunished,” and finally Proverbs 16:18 plainly states, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.” There are many ways for pride to be manifested in one’s life, but especially in the midst of good circumstances such as growth in our spiritual walks or even material prosperity, our heart’s focus needs to be directed to the giver of those blessings, knowing that in and of ourselves we can do nothing apart from God’s grace.

3. The Passion of Success: Love

The passion of success is the same as the passion statement of Lighthouse: to love God and people. Love ought to permeate every aspect of our lives as we serve in various ministries, meet up with people, and try to live according to God’s word. In 1 Corinthians 13 it is eye-opening to know that it is possible to appear holy, do lots of good deeds, and even be esteemed by others as being a faithful, successful servant of the Lord, but if you don’t have love then you are nothing. God sees our heart’s intentions and wants His church to be characterized by love for Him and for people in everything that we do.

Throughout Scripture God reveals what truly pleases Him and what He hates. It is clear that we need to fight hard to not let worldly ideas of success infiltrate our minds, and instead allow God’s truth to be the authority in how we define and pursue success. God doesn’t want us to live aimlessly with no ambition or goals; rather Christians have the greatest and noblest purpose in life: to bring glory to our glorious God and please Him in all that we do. So whether it is being a student, working a 9-5 job, or taking care of the kids at home, it should be our “aim to please Him” and hear from God, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And that is a truly successful person.

And There Followed Him A Great Company Of People, And Of Women, Which Also Bewailed And Lamented Him

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Luke 23:27

Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to His doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations-fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing His cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief-cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried ‘Crucify Him! crucify Him!’ and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been His murderer, is more, infinitely more, grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.

Why those women loved and wept it were not hard to guess: but they could not have had greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has. Nain’s widow saw her son restored-but I myself have been raised to newness of life. Peter’s wife’s mother was cured of the fever-but I of the greater plague of sin. Out of Magdalene seven devils were cast-but a whole legion out of me. Mary and Martha were favoured with visits-but He dwells with me. His mother bare His body-but He is formed in me the hope of glory. In nothing behind the holy women in debt, let me not be behind them in gratitude or sorrow.

‘Love and grief my heart dividing,
With my tears His feet I’ll lave-
Constant still in heart abiding,
Weep for Him who died to save.’

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In The Lord’s Army

by Elder Johnny Kim

On Monday May 26, Americans around the country celebrated the Memorial Day holiday with picnics at the park, barbecues on the beach, and fun with family and friends. But while Memorial Day might provide many different reasons for joy, including a welcome day off from work and the unofficial start of the summer vacation season, the true reason for the holiday ought to be what Americans always celebrate first and foremost, even if it’s more somber in nature. The history of Memorial Day dates back to the end of the US Civil War when it was originally known as Decoration Day, so named because the graves of soldiers who died during the Civil War would be decorated with flowers on that day. Since then, the holiday has been renamed Memorial Day and has been reestablished as a day in which we as a country remember all the men and women who have died while serving in the US military. Traditional activities on Memorial Day include watching military themed parades, visiting national cemeteries and memorials, and observing a moment of silence to honor those who died while serving our country.

As we spend the day considering those service members who sacrificed their lives while serving in the Armed Forces, it’s always a sobering thought to consider that men and women would knowingly place themselves in harm’s way for any given reason. While today’s military is now an all-volunteer force, even during past periods of conscription, many men volunteered to fight for our country ahead of being drafted and ended up dying in the fight. People willingly volunteered to join the military even when it was all but assured that they would be sent into combat to risk losing their lives on the battlefield. They submitted to the will of the leaders of the country, were obedient in following the orders of their commanders, and carried out dangerous missions all for a cause they believed to be greater than themselves and even their own lives. In the end, they did all this believing that the defense of America’s freedoms and liberties and the morals for which this country stands were ideals worthy enough to make the ultimate sacrifice for. It’s the reason that we who are now the recipients of these freedoms and liberties spend the time to honor such individuals on Memorial Day.

Now while most of us might not have any experience being in the US military, Christians ought to be at least somewhat familiar with the idea of the military. Aside from the chronicles of various military campaigns and conquests found in the Old Testament of the Bible, we can find that even the New Testament is replete with military terminologies and ideas serving as metaphors for various aspects of the Christian life. In Philippians 4:1, Paul urges people to “stand firm” in the Lord with language used to describe a soldier who stands guard. In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Paul goes on to relate characteristics of the Christian life to the physical pieces of armor worn by a soldier. And in 1 Peter 2:13, Peter urges people to “submit” to the government with a military term used to describe ranks of soldiers below and in submission to a military commander. These and many other examples found in the Bible, to great effect, use elements of military life in order to describe characteristics of the Christian life.

However, for the genuine Christian life, similarities to the military don’t just stop there. The truth is, like soldiers in the Armed Forces who are ultimately willing to die for their country’s cause, Christians who truly know the cost of following Christ will understand themselves to be in the same boat. As followers of Christ and slaves who are subject to His lordship, we are given the same charge, that we too should be willing to die for the sake of Christ and His Gospel cause. In Matthew 10:24-29, in a list of requirements for His disciples to consider in following Him, Christ concludes the list with the ultimate requirement in verses 38 and 39: that those who would follow Him should be wiling to give up their life, up to and including dying a physical death. Christ repeats this requirement later on in Matthew 16:24. In both instances, Christ uses the picture of the cross and in doing so, He makes it unmistakably clear that the cost of following Him is not merely one’s life in a figurative sense, but in a sense that is as real as being persecuted, tortured, and executed by crucifixion on a cross. By setting the cost of following Him to possibly include our physical lives, Christ established once and for all that He and His cause are worthy enough to make the ultimate sacrifice for.

Do you believe that Christ and His cause are worth fighting for? Do you believe Christ and His Gospel are worth dying for? Like a prospective soldier signing his enlistment papers, do you understand exactly what you are signing up for in calling yourself a follower of Christ? Christians need to understand that while we might not be a part of any physical army, we are a part of the Lord’s army. While we might not ever fight in physical wars, we are participants in a spiritual war, whether willing or unwilling. Christ our Commander in Chief commands and orders us to be obedient to His Word and to His cause, even to the point of death. And should we have to sacrifice our lives while in faithful service to Him, we too may just find ourselves being honored as well (Revelation 2:10).

I Will Fear No Evil: For Thou Art With Me

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Psalm 23:4

Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed! Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian’s heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss!

Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit’s power to comfort us.

  • Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not; the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance. You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content.
  • Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross-a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul.
  • Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus’ name will be your soul’s best music, and His person your dear delight.

Socrates used to say, ‘Philosophers can be happy without music;’ and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn. In Thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below.

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Weekly Links (6/6/2014)

“In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions and religious institutions, in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies, and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper–namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers.

I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” (Thomas Nagel, The Last Word)

by Stephen Rodgers

Sorry for the delay everyone; I had missions on the brain.

Pro Rege

An Encounter With The Natural Mind

by Pastor Patrick Cho

In our home, we have a typical bedtime routine with our kids before putting them down for the night. Especially with our older one, generally, we’ll read through a Bible account together, sing a worship song, and pray. We conclude with bedtime kisses (I usually get ten while Christine gets a hundred… I still don’t see how that’s fair). A couple years ago, I remember that instead of going to one of our usual books, I ended up talking to my daughter about Heaven and Hell. I know this is a weighty subject right before bedtime, but for some reason that I can’t recall, the topic came up.

I remember asking her, “Why do you think people go to Hell?” Her reply was, “Because they do bad things.” I was curious so I continued to question her, “And what kinds of people do you think get to go to Heaven?” Her response was expected. “People who do good things.” And she started going on and on listing examples of good behavior like listening to parents, telling the truth, picking up your toys, etc. She was convinced that if people were good enough and did enough good things, they would be allowed to go to Heaven.

Isn’t it interesting that this is the way we are naturally inclined to answer? Even to a three or four year old, it made perfect sense that bad behavior should be punished and good behavior should be rewarded. Why shouldn’t good people be allowed into Heaven if bad people are sent to Hell? I think I’ll always remember the confused look on her face when I told her this isn’t exactly the way things work.

The Lord provided a wonderful opportunity to explain to her that our sin is not just limited to the things that we do. It is a condition of the heart. We do the bad things we do because of the “badness” of our hearts. I suppose good people would be allowed into Heaven, but the problem is that there aren’t any good people. Because of our sin condition, ultimately no one is good before God. Even if we could bank on our goodness to get us into Heaven, every person would utterly fail. Our sin taints everything that we do so that we have nothing worthy to bring before the Lord. If not in our direct actions, our motives and goals are not God-glorifying. We seek to be better people by our behavior. We may even be noble enough to seek the good of others. But it is only by faith that we can be pleasing to God (Heb. 11:6). I explained to my daughter that it isn’t about trying to be good enough because she can’t be good enough. Her sin will always get in the way.

This is the reason we need to rely upon God to save us from our sins. Our hope must come from outside ourselves. He sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay the punishment for our sins. He died so that we could have life. If we have any hope of going to heaven, it will only be because we trusted in what Jesus did for us, and not in the things we tried to do on our own. We place our faith in Him – in who He is and in His death and resurrection – so that we can have the hope of eternal life (cf. Eph. 2:8-9).

This encounter was just one of many reminders that even in the sincerity of our hearts, we can be completely wrong. Things can make total sense to us about the way we are living and what we are striving for. We might have noble intentions and the best motives. But in the end, without Christ, we have no hope of being in good standing with God.

I praise God that He has revealed His will to us in His written Word and doesn’t communicate it to us in some subjective way through impressions and feelings. He doesn’t just tell us to go and do what we think is right. Instead, He tells us clearly what is right and what is wrong, what is truth and what is error, to guide us down the unmistakable road we ought to walk.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the natural mind cannot understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14). It is only by the grace of God that we can even think the way we ought according to the truth. We are blinded by our sins in our own understanding. We need God to illumine our darkened hearts to the truth. Instead of having us trust in our own intuition, He calls us to trust in His truth. Left to herself, my daughter cannot know the severity of her sin and the desperate condition of her soul. This is why I strive to point her continually back to the Word of God so that she can think rightly not only about the problem in her heart, but also the solution God provided in Jesus Christ. And as she grows I pray that the Lord will help her to see the amazing grace He offers to sinners who deserve judgment and that by grace her heart will respond in faith and thanksgiving.

If They Do These Things In A Green Tree, What Shall Be Done In The Dry?

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

From Luke 23:31

Among other interpretations of this suggestive question, the following is full of teaching: ‘If the innocent substitute for sinners, suffer thus, what will be done when the sinner himself-the dry tree-shall fall into the hands of an angry God?’ When God saw Jesus in the sinner’s place, He did not spare Him; and when He finds the unregenerate without Christ, He will not spare them.

O sinner, Jesus was led away by His enemies: so shall you be dragged away by fiends to the place appointed for you. Jesus was deserted of God; and if He, who was only imputedly a sinner, was deserted, how much more shall you be? ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ what an awful shriek! But what shall be your cry when you shall say, ‘O God! O God! why hast Thou forsaken me?’ and the answer shall come back, ‘Because ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.’ If God spared not His own Son, how much less will He spare you! What whips of burning wire will be yours when conscience shall smite you with all its terrors.

Ye richest, ye merriest, ye most self-righteous sinners-who would stand in your place when God shall say, ‘Awake, O sword, against the man that rejected Me; smite him, and let him feel the smart for ever’? Jesus was spit upon: sinner, what shame will be yours! We cannot sum up in one word all the mass of sorrows which met upon the head of Jesus who died for us, therefore it is impossible for us to tell you what streams, what oceans of grief must roll over your spirit if you die as you now are. You may die so, you may die now. By the agonies of Christ, by His wounds and by His blood, do not bring upon yourselves the wrath to come!

Trust in the Son of God, and you shall never die.

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Desiring the Milk of the Word

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2)

by Joseph Ho

The word “long for” (evpipoqe,w, epipothēo) basically means to “desire earnestly.” This word is used in the New Testament in the context of desiring or yearning to see someone (Romans 1:11; Philippians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 3:6). It is also used in the Septuagint (The Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) in Psalm 42:1 to express one’s desire for God, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”

Here in the context of 1 Peter 2:2, Peter is exhorting us to long for the Word like newborns longing for the mother’s milk. We see in this metaphor that just like newborns, we have received our spiritual birth in Christ through the living Word (1 Peter 1:3, 1:23). Just like newborns, we are dependent on the Word for our spiritual nourishment and growth.
One of the characteristics of the newborn is the baby’s undistracted desire to eat. Newborns are never interested in the stimulations of the environment, but rather, they focus solely on feeding and growth! Similarly, we ought to cultivate the same intensity and focus to desire the Word of God.

We see this desire in the life of Apostle Paul. He says in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We also see this desire in Mary. We read in Luke 10:38-42, “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Even though Martha did a lot more for Christ, Jesus was more pleased with Mary because her sole desire was to sit at His feet and listen to His teaching. This year’s theme is “One Thing I Do.” In our relationship with the Word of God, the one thing we must do is to earnestly feed on it.

Interestingly, we learned through modern science that the mother’s milk has antibodies. It gives the baby defense against infection. The mother’s milk has the perfect balance of nutrients. It causes the newborn to grow very quickly. During breastfeeding, the hormone, oxytocin, is released which causes the baby and the mother to bond with each other. The feeding time nurtures the intimacy between the mother and the child.

Apostle Peter probably didn’t have this scientific knowledge when he wrote 1 Peter, but I believe he chose to use this metaphor because he saw the amazing growth of the newborns upon feeding on the mother’s milk. In the same way, when we feed on the pure milk of the Word, we grow in our intimacy with God; we have a deeper delight in spiritual things; we increase in spiritual understanding; we gain wisdom to deal with the issues of life; we have greater love and stronger faith in God; we desire less for the things of this world; and we are able to obey His Word more consistently, and as a result, we receive blessings from God.

Psalm 1:1-3, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”

This is God’s true prosperity gospel. No, God is not going to necessarily give you wealth, fame, or comfort. But when you desire his Word, he will prosper you by drawing you closer to Him, drawing you closer to the blessings not of this earth but of heaven.

Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.”

(Editor’s Note: we encourage you to listen to Joseph’s sermon on this topic here.)