the PABLUM thread

[intojoy]

And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. (1 Corinthians 4:6 KJV)

 

[intojoy]

Sorry bro, better translation




you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. (1 Corinthians 4:6 NASB)

The word is the final authority for all things pertaining to men

 

[murjahel]

Newly converted Christians have a battle against the sins and habits of the old creation. Their environment is likely the same, and the television shows still are filled with sinful encouragements, and the flesh of mankind still leans toward sin.

It was like living with neighbors on one side who have sexual orgies, who streak naked through the neighborhood, and then have bars or saloons on the other side of your home. Then if you have pagan temples on the opposite side of the street, and next to that a so called church which condones sin and says it is all right, then you would have a faint idea of how it is for the new Christian, to now be a new creation, a new desire to live for Jesus, a life of salvation in mercy, but not condoning blatant and sinful living.

Paul's visited such people as the neighbors described above, still in sin, still in shameful carnal lusts... and Paul addressed those who were saved, and now wanting to serve the Lord in purity and in holiness, despite the surroundings of this world.

I Corinthians 2:3
"And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling."

Paul spoke to Aquila and Priscilla, two tentmakers in the city, who became his friends, and truly loved the Lord. Paul lived there one and a half years. Silas and Timothy joined him there and helped him establish the church.

Some in that city opposed Paul so much, that he finally turned to the Gentiles. The unconverted, not yet ever committed to Jesus, were easier to witness to, easier to lead to Jesus, than the 'churched, but not converted' in the town.

After Paul left the city, some in the church proved they were not truly changed in nature, were not really committed to serving Jesus, and let the lusts, carnal desires, sinful passions again rule them. Paul wrote the letter of I Corinthians because of an oral report on the church from Stephanas, Fortunatas, and Achaicus - who were servants of Cloe. It was only three years after he had left this city, in about 59 A.D., that many had become 'babes' (at best) again, and were no longer able to digest 'meat', but were on 'milk', pablum, baby food, of spiritual teaching.

Paul leaned that there was strife that centered about the different personalities of preachers, and he learned that one church member who was living in incestuous sin with his stepmother,
and some of the members were taking each other to court, and there was abuse of the spiritual gifts of the Spirit, and a lack of love for each other, a lack of an orderly, decent worship service.

The church at Corinth needed correction with all these areas.
Yet, they were proud, and thought they were a spiritual congregation. They felt angry and insulted to be told they were perhaps not even saved, or at best totally 'carnal' i.e. meatheaded, in ignorance letting the flesh rule what Jesus had redeemed from sin. The city was full of sin and debauchery, and the church felt that, in comparison, they were holy and righteous, but Paul tells them that they were shamefully sinful, ignorantly living a spiritual baby existence.

We must compare ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, not with the shamefully carnal and evil of the world. Jesus would not curse, and blaspheme, He would not rape, murder, pillage, rob, and streak in the neighborhoods of the world. Jesus lived a holy life of purity, and offers us a change of nature, so we want to be 'CHRISTIAN', which means 'Christ-like'.

Ephesians 4:13
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

The world and even those of other denominations look at Pentecostals, and charismatics, as supposedly those anointed by the Holy Spirit, after being first redeemed and made a new creation in Jesus. If we shame Pentecostal and charismatic reputation by sin and shameful words, we invite others by such to condemn and point out the hypocrisy of our profession.

This week, there is a conference called 'strange fire conference' in which some cessationists, who oppose the gifts of the Spirit as we believe and practice, are going to examine some of the preachers and some of the congregations of charismatics that have become similar to Corinth, filled with misuse, carnal and sinful in behavior... It is a shame that it is 'outsiders' who have to point out sin... Paul was ashamed that others were seeing the sin in the congregation of Corinth... and he was very stern in objecting to their sinful, carnal behavior...

Do we need to be shamed by others for sin, or can we not get down on our knees and repent of our shameful example of what Jesus was... for that is what we do when we call ourselves Christian and behave like a devil. It is shameful.

Thank the Lord that there are many in Pentecostal circles that still love Jesus, and are on the meat, not spitting up pablum. It is a wonder though that many want to ignore the shameful, and let them then present themselves as the 'normal', when they are not even 'acceptable' to the Lord.

Paul wrote to the shameful situation at Corinth but he wrote to those in it who were "sanctified", and "called to be saints."

I Corinthians 1:2
"Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints..."

Maybe, only the few there were truly saved, maybe many were amidst the pablum attenders... Yet, the ones who were shamefully living, and proving their evil nature was not truly gone, but was actually in control of their minds, were the ones Paul rebuked.


Paul also said that these saved and sanctified ones in this church had been blessed by God with the spiritual gifts of utterance (tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy), and the gifts of knowledge (word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and discernment of spirits). Yet, despite those gifts, the lack of fruit of the Spirit, the fleshly, carnal, thinking had ruined their services. They had tolerated and ignored the shameful behavior, and had grown cold and needed again pablum, for they were no longer able to swallow spiritual meats.

The pagan background, the old habits, the wicked acquaintances influenced this church, but Paul saw in the Spirit, what good things that God could do with them.

We might have walked out the door of this church, and written "ICHABOD" on the door.

Yet, Paul loved and desired to help this church. He begins with the praise of the good points of the saved and sanctified, and then quickly begins to deal with the many problems in the church.

Paul was concerned with the "black spots", but he did not
ignore the good he saw. He rebuked, and reprimanded them sternly... Paul had greatly toiled and labored over this church, and greatly loved this congregation.


Paul tells some of them, that they are "carnal."
I Corinthians 3:3
"For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?"

The word "carnal" is from the Greek word - "sarkinos". This word is often translated with our religious connotations.

We have engendered the word "carnal" with these religious connotations, and thereby have lost the real idea behind what is being said. The word "carnal" meant in that day what the word "meathead" means in our day. Paul bluntly told these "saints" in Corinth... that they were "MEATHEADS."

Paul was not always as "statesman"-ly as we like to think. He could be blunt, and to the point. The church at Corinth had become foolish and stupid, and were acting as "meatheads".

Today, we find similar types of problems in the church. Human nature does not change. We have all seen the bitterness of sectarianism, the immoral behavior amidst saints, excesses of liberty, and a lack of love between members.

As in Corinth, there are "envying... strife... and divisions..." in many congregations of ones who claim to be 'Spirit filled' but are proving to be at best only spirit sprinkled, and I am not sure it was the Holy Spirit that sprinkled them.

There are two kinds of people in the church congregations of that day, and of our own day.

There are those ruled by the NATURAL MAN, and are therefore "carnal."

There are also those who are ruled by the SPIRITUAL MAN.

I Corinthians 2:14-15
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."

The "natural" person lives under the control of the fleshly passions and human desires. This person has no sense of spiritual values. He or she does not see what, if anything, is wrong with rape, murder, stealing, streaking, and etc...

Spiritual things are foolishness to this type of person in the church.

They may be concerned about the lawn being mowed, the welcome mat being cleaned, and the bills being paid for the church, but they are not anxiously seeking revival, not calling out for God to bring sinners to repentance, so they can minister to a hurting world more effectively.

Those who are ruled by the "natural" person, give themselves credit for their good works, and spiritual accomplishments.

Pride builds within them, and many sins result from this pride.

The "spiritual" person lives under the control of the Holy Spirit, minds the things of the Spirit, and is a new creation in Christ Jesus. This person seeks to daily be more and more like Jesus Christ. The spiritual condition of the church, the salvation of souls in the community, and their relationship with the Lord are their vital concerns.

The "spiritual" person remembers that they themselves were saved only by grace. All glory to God, and a humble life of worship emanates from their being.

Many of the ones in the congregation at Corinth were "natural" persons, and their thoughts and actions betrayed their "carnal", or "meathead" tendencies.

Even the Lord Jesus had frequent crisis with His congregation. Corinth had its faults, but Paul had no spirit of alarm or despondency. He counseled, warned, admonished, exhorted, and scolded... but he did not give up on those in Corinth.

True revival groups do not usually separate themselves from the "meatheads" of our day. They are often forced out of such congregations, but they do not want to leave...

Paul was no moral coward. He sternly rebuked, criticized and counseled. He loved these people as a father loves his children.

He would not give up on them, and leave the Lord to worry about these wayward, foolish, and proud saints who were thinking and acting as "meatheads." No... rather, Paul attacked their initial problem first... the sin of pride.

The Corinthians had begun to feel holy, deserving of their blessings. They divided themselves into cliques, and each debated that their clique was the most holy. Paul frankly tells them: "You're acting like meatheads!"

Unfortunately, that message needs to be preached to many congregations today.

 

[mourningdove~]

True revival groups do not usually separate themselves from the "meatheads" of our day. They are often forced out of such congregations, but they do not want to leave...

Sadly, I would agree.

Afterall, what kind of true fellowship can light have with darkness?

 

[murjahel]

Milk, pablum, meat... ??? What kind of diet are we on? Have any of us progressed to eating more than pablum? Well, I think some are not eating any of the above...

If a baby eats pablum, or drinks milk, they grow and mature and soon are chewing on a spiritual steak... but some are still not growing... some are still on life support intravenous supplements, or a feeding tube... unable even to swallow pablum...

What are they eating when we are not looking that keeps them even from 'pablum' of spiritual food?

We sometimes hear of food recalls, where some meat becomes tainted with salmonella, or botulism, or some impurity. The call goes out, food is to not be eaten, and if it has been, the eater is certainly going to go to the doctor to avoid serious illness or death.

I think some are eating foods labeled 'recalled', or 'unsafe for human consumption'.

For instance, the thread 'is it right to celebrate Halloween?'
Was this not discussed last year, the year before, the year before that...? Did no one search the Scriptures, go into prayer about it...? Is it a 'ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth' problem? Are Christians so ill inside that a holiday meant to celebrate devils, witches, and ghosts (demons) is a question on whether we are to celebrate it??? Should we even have to ask God the answer to that question?

The spiritual poison of false teachings, of carnal lusts, of earthly obsession has been the food of many in the church.

The church often is given spiritual poison in the food it is being fed. Heretics, false prophets, apostates, put poison in their sermons, and the poison can do great harm to the congregations. There are books written that contain false doctrine, and some people love those books so much they lay them on top their Bibles. They are not validated by the Bible, but the Bible is unused for they prefer the teachings of those books over the teachings of the Bible.

Some churches now are having their congregations read the Koran, look for admirable phrases in it, and worship with the Muslims, calling their new ‘faith’ to be "Chrislam". They accept the poison idea that the Muslim god is the same God of the Bible.

Some accept the poison that ‘good works’ save. They look admirable, for their list and pile up work after work. They attend where the pastors will continually list publicly, call attention to their list of good works.

Some think financial prosperity is proof of their faith. They avoid services that call for repentance, humility, and weeping for souls, and attend where they are told they get 100 fold blessing for their gift, in financial gain this month, and they applaud those strange fire prophets that never ask for penitence or care for the poor.

​

Jude 17-18​

"But, beloved, remember ye the words (rhema) which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts."

Jude was likely referring to II Peter 3:3, which was Peter’s rhema word concerning apostates.
"Knowing this first, that their shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts."

Notice Paul’s rhema word:
I Timothy 4:1-3:
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils."

These 'ungodly lusts', these 'scoffing messages', these sermons of devils' doctrines, have poisoned some who are not not even eating pablum.

We should not be surprised by apostates serving poison food in their messages in these last days, for it has been often spoken in warning, even from Old Testament passages. We find them today in church congregations, on message boards, in chat rooms, amidst our own families, on television programs, amidst co-workers, etc.

It is exactly as God predicted in Scripture. It tells us (in one more way) that we are in the ‘last days." We already realize that since Israel became a nation, we are in the last generation before His coming. Not only are the sides for the first war of the tribulation, already aligning as predicted, and there are, of course, the wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc., but also the current event of heretical, poison, damnable teachings are being fed to the church. Only a fool could deny that we are in the last days.

We are currently experiencing in many congregations, the ‘way of Cain’, the ‘error of Balaam’, the ‘gainsaying of Korah’, predicted to all be present in the last days. The false servers of this poison are ‘feasting’ and serving this poison amongst us, like ‘clouds without water’, ‘murmurers’, ‘having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage’, ‘mockers’, ‘separating themselves’, ‘sensual’, and ‘not having the Spirit’.

These evil chefs of spiritual poison are sharing their deadly cuisine. It would be an improvement if we could get people off the diet of 'strange fire', and onto a diet of pablum... They are so far from a pablum diet that the meat is an unthinkable diet to suggest.

I used to preach trying to get some from the milk and pablum diet to the meat diet... now I feel it is a challenge to just get some to a pablum diet....

The resultant sins of sexual revolution in the churches, sexual perversion plaguing the churches, ‘speaking lies in hypocrisy’, with ‘consciences seared’, with the encouraging of lasciviousness,’ "filthy dreamers’, ‘despising’ those that are of God, greedy prosperity minded thieves of the widow’s money, are far too common.
　
That is all 'poison' intravenous diet of many congregations.
　

 

[murjahel]

The reason so many are not even able to eat pablum, is that they have been fed poisonous food, making them so sick that pablum is impossible to digest....

Forget getting from milk to meat... they are dying on spiritual poison from chefs of evil...

The chefs of evil, poisonous doctrine, try to ‘steal’ God’s glory, try to claim glory that God deserves to be theirs instead. These servers of spiritual dinners that have their pernicious doctrines as the main course. These false chefs try to make decisions for God, saying ‘thus saith the Lord’, when it was their words, not God’s. They want the respect that belongs only to God, they want others to see them as ‘lord’ rather than Jesus; are under the curse for such thefts.


They are ones who ‘swear falsely’ and have claimed to be God’s messenger, God’s spokesman, but are not under mandate from the Lord, but speaking their own minds, or the words of evil spirits.

GOD’S ANGER IS KINDLED
AGAINST SERVERS OF POISONOUS DOCTRINES​

Apostate chefs are far too common in churches.

What are we to do? ​

First, we need to open our eyes, quit hiding, get our head out of the sand. There is poison being fed to the church. The Christian networks of television are full of false doctrines, greedy apostates fleecing the flock by feeding them messages supposedly spoken by God, but are lying, poisonous blasphemies. These chefs justify their sins, have disdain for those who do recognize their sins. They try to sideline and distract those who would preach with the anointing.


Hypocrisy abounds, and is learned by the younger saints, due to the chefs of an evil cuisine.


Often, these chefs of poison doctrine try to take over the Christian faith. They attempt to make their form of Christianity to be the dominant form. Just as Balaam’s advice on how to get Israel to stumble into sin, they offer advice and counsel that attempts to stumble others.


Balaam wanted to curse Israel, with his goal being payment from Balak. God had a ‘dumb’ donkey rebuke Balaam, and an angel stood ready if Balaam had not listened to the advice of the donkey. Yet, Balaam, was not satisfied. The welfare of Israel was not his concern, money was. Balaam told Balak to have the women of the Midianites to seduce the men, and many of Israel sinned.


Numbers 25:3
"...anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel."


The devil will use these servers of poison doctrine to get sin within the congregations of the church. The ‘doctrines of devils and seducing spirits’ that were forewarned for the last days in I Timothy 4:1, are using some chefs of evil food to insert their messages into the church.


The church of Laodicea, which is typical of many last day churches, shows that many in the church do not realize the doctrine has been poisoned.


Revelation 3:17
"Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."


Jude describes these false chefs very well.



Jude 10-11
"But these speak evil of those things which they know not; but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.’

　

THREE OF THE THINGS ON THE MENU OF EVIL CHEFS​

1. "The way of Cain" souffle

Cain neglected God’s instruction. Cain got jealous of Abel’s righteous blessing. Cain was angry at the righteous. Today too, we see there is jealousy and anger against those blessed and used by God. This souffle offers a salvation by works, and not honoring the salvation by the blood and sacrifice paid by Jesus. One is to earn their salvation, and pride in self and in one’s works is the poison that ruins this meal.


2. ‘The error of Balaam’ omelet


Greed was the error of Balaam. He wanted prosperity, and sacrificed a relationship with God in his pursuit of it. There are many today in congregations, that seek wealth, money, carnal mammon. This is typical of many false chefs and their menu offerings.


3. ‘The gainsaying of Core’ pizza


‘Core’ refers to Korah of the Old Testament. He wanted priestly ministry, wanted the notoriety of being in the ministry. Yet, the consecration, dedication to God was not there. There are many in churches, who want positions and ministry, but lack dedication to God. They are selfish, self seeking. They seek personal honor, prestige, position, and power. They want to have lordship over others. Like pepperoni, peppers, and mushrooms, they spread prestige, power, self centeredness over their lives, on their every doctrine. They glorify themselves in every teaching.


Jesus cursed the fig tree for not having fruit. The tree withered in a day. (Matthew 11:21) The saints of the church need to be aware of the these poison offerings found in the church.

A diet of those foods mentioned above, make one unable to digest even pablum... the truth of the Word is undigestible, inedible, and so the growing of a saint never has a chance... Poison to the soul is the diet mentioned above.

 

[murjahel]

What are we eating spiritually? Are we on pablum, on milk, or on meat???

Isaiah 55:8
"MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS, AND MY WAYS ARE NOT YOUR WAYS."
and we might paraphrase that today to:
MY MENU IS NOT YOUR MENU.

​

Some eat baby food pablum, but unfortunately, it is proving that some are on 'poison food'... eating the diet of false prophets, eating the diet of poison spiritual food.
​

SO WHAT IS THE ANSWER?
HOW DO WE AVOID THE POISONED MENU
SERVED BY MANY PREACHERS TODAY?​

In Old Testament times, many could not see the verses which spoke of Jesus' first coming. They expected the Messiah to come with power as He will in the second coming. Why did they then, and many Jewish people still today, not recognize those prophecies? ? We can so easily find them, yet they could not. Jesus took aside a few disciples, and began to discuss the prophetic messages of the Old Testament. They began to mature in God’s Word. The Word of God is truth, wisdom, and direction. If we fail to maturely understand it, we wander about in misconceptions.


There is much we can understand. That is why we are told to "study to show yourself approved unto God."

Even if we studied 24 hours a day, seven days a week--we could only comprehend a portion of God's Word.

Usually the ones who study the Word of God the most, are the ones who know there is so much more to learn. Some who have had little in-depth training in the Bible, think they have it down pat. When we finally get to heaven, we will marvel at all we had not yet discovered in the Word of God.


God's Word is understandable, but it is so filled with truth that no one has yet searched out all the truth. Consider what

Paul said in Romans 11:33-34:
"O, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out."


Don't think that you cannot learn much of the Word of God !

You can! But do not think that you have learned it all--already. You will never have searched out all that God's Word has for you. You can learn more and more each day.

The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, and wants to teach us all things.


Many saints still have many misconceptions about what the Word of God teaches. We wonder how others can miss what we see so clearly. Yet, we too hold misconceptions about many parts of God's Word. The more in-depth study we do, the more we learn--that there's more to learn.

Don't become smug in your knowledge.

Many in Jesus' day did.

DO NOT JUST STUDY THE WORD,
BUT TEST ALL SPIRITUAL FOOD BEING OFFERED
BY THE WORD OF GOD.​

　
Acts 17:10-11 (KJV)
10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.


If they were diligent to search the Word of God to be sure what Paul was preaching was truly correct, so should we test all preachers, evangelists, and television celebrities by the Word of God.

In this way, we can avoid the poison food of some preachers, and get onto true food... whether it be milk, pablum, or meat, we need to first get off the poison food offered by some.

 

[murjahel]

WASHING OF THE WATER BY THE WORD OF GOD
WILL CLEANSE OUT THE POISON


Ephesians 5:26-27 (KJV)
26 That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word
27 That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.


We need to get busy letting the Word of God cleanse us from all the poison food being served in the church of these last days.

We need to read the Word, study the Word, talk with the Holy Spirit.

We need to discern what is poisoned food being offered from pulpits, and reject the food, and flee from the chef who serves it.

We need to let the Word of God cleanse us from poisoned doctrines.


There are many who use the words ‘I think’, ‘my opinion is’, and ‘I feel’.

Wash those words from your vocabulary.

Get into the Word until you have Scriptures to say ‘I know’, ‘God’s opinion is’, and ‘The Lord reveals in His Word’ this truth.

I do not want to know what some ‘Christian’ ‘thinks’ or ‘feels’, I want to know what can be proven in the Word of God.

That which is prove-able in the Word of God makes a great menu for preachers to serve, for us to eat.

Let us not eat of anything else.

 

[murjahel]

The words of God are our spiritual food. We read them in the Bible, we hear them when we pray. Yet, some cannot grow for they do not hear the words, they are deaf to God's spoken messages to us.

How can they ever get to 'meat' when they cannot even hear the 'milk, pablum' message?


God has spoken to us, God has shown us much in the Word. He seeks to communicate to us directly, and all we do hear is going to be harmonious with the Written Word of God. Some though have grown deaf from hearing the Spirit speak to them.

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." ​

This statement is found 8 times in the Synoptic gospels. (Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9:23, 7:16; Luke 8:8, 14:35).

It shows that the Lord realized that some do not listen to the truth when it is spoken. Prophets find this to be the case many times. To find hearts hungry to hear, is getting rarer and rarer. Some hear the truth, but do not truly hear what is being said. They listen, or seem to be, and yet, they do not truly hear. Some are deaf to the real voice of the Spirit to them.

God has much that He has desired to tell His saints. He has revealed much in the Word of God that we need to study and learn. There are some things we will not learn until we reach heaven. Yet, even minus that much, there is so much that we will learn if we open our spiritual ears to the Spirit of the Lord.

In Revelation 2 and 3, we find that Jesus reveals that the Spirit is trying during this church age to speak to the churches. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. It is found 7 times, once for each of the seven churches, one for each of the church ages.


The Spirit is trying to speak but many do not hear Him, even when He has revealed clearly what He is saying. If we do not hear the Words of God, we cannot grow, and we soon will not even survive... Spiritually, the Word of God is our food that keeps our spirit alive....

 

[murjahel]

It is a shame that some so called 'saints' ... ain't... This thread is like 'pablum' for the babes in Christ... however, some are not even 'babes', and cannot swallow milk or pablum.

When pablum is too chewy to be edible for some, what are they to be fed? They cannot be fed...

The disciples were fed meat and found that hard to digest. The disciples were warned often that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to be betrayed, crucified, and would then rise again the third day. Yet, they could not understand what the Lord was telling them. They heard the message, but did not perceive what was being told to them. Their minds were too full of the false expectations of a Messiah. They wanted Christ to overthrow the Romans and begin a new kingdom with Him as King. The meat of the crucifixion was meat... and they were only up to pablum... so the meat was un-chewable...


When Jesus preached that they would "destroy this temple, and He would raise it up in three days", they heard His message, but thought He meant the earthly Temple structure in Jerusalem. They did not understand that He meant His body. The 'meat' offered to them was too tough to chew, they needed 'pablum'.

When Jesus told them that He was the "manna" sent from heaven, and if they wanted eternal life, they must eat of Him. They took Him literally, and many of His disciples left, and never followed Him again. They did not truly "hear" Him. The false doctrines, the wrong expectations, and the misconceptions, had made the 'meat' too hard to eat, and they were kept on the feeding of pablum.

Jesus, Moses, and Elijah spoke on the mount of transfiguration about what was about to happen in Jerusalem. Peter, James, and John were there, hearing part of the discussion, but Peter did not truly hear, for he wanted to stay there, build three temples, and let everyone come up there to worship Jesus. Why could he not comprehend the message being spoken? He needed a sermon of pablum, for the meat in the sermon there on the mountain was too tough to chew...

Well, we are on the other side of those events, they have happened, and we have chewed their truths, and learned from them... hopefully!

What of the ones who cannot even now understand the truths of the way of salvation, the desire of God for us to be sanctified, the plan of God to redeem a church that is without spot nor wrinkle??? What do we do, when even pablum lessons now cannot be comprehended, are rejected upon first bit, and spit up as though it were vomit? What do we do about those?

We intercede for mercy!

 

[murjahel]

Paul says that ‘in the Lord, I insist and protest...’

As we see some who are not on meat, and who even choke on pablum, we too want to 'insist and protest'. It is not popular when we do.

How often do ministers today, in the Lord, insist and protest?

There are some who do insist ‘in greed’ and insist that some send them a large offering, and they claim to be doing it ‘in the Lord’. Their jet planes, three mansions or more, multiple luxury cars are testimony too often to their ‘laying up treasures on earth’, which does not sound like the Lord’s direction given in the Word of God.

In our day, many 'insist and protest' the ungodly living is all right, claiming it does not matter any more if we are righteous, holy, pure, and Christ-like.

Paul was 'insisting and protesting' that opposite.

There are many who suggest, encourage, and offer advice, but Paul, guided by the Spirit of God here, is INSISTING, and PROTESTING.

Ephesians 4:17-19 (MOFF)
17 Now in the Lord I insist and protest that you must give up living like pagans; for their purposes are futile,
18 their intelligence is darkened, they are estranged from the life of God by the ignorance which their dullness of heart has produced in them
19 men who have recklessly abandoned themselves to sensuality, with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape and form.

Some Christian circles are living like "pagans", their "intelligence is darkened", and they are 'estranged from God.'

The ‘pagan’ influence in that time was very great. The society had instilled in many now Christian, a culture of futility, of depravity, and of evil.


Today, we live in society of perverseness and evil also.

Story lines on the cinemas are proclaiming that homosexuality is moral, that abortion is wise, that sexual license is holiness, that perverseness and iniquity are normal.

Simon magus preached the same immorality, sexual license, and called it holiness.

What is the result? Their ‘intelligence is darkened’, they are ‘estranged from the life of God’ and they are ‘ignorant’ due to the ‘dullness of heart’ that the devil’s crowd has produced in them.

Note the King James translation of that passage:
Ephesians 4:17-32 (KJV)
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.


The ‘vanity’ or ‘worthlessness’ of the mind in many today is evident. The thoughts and concerns of people today is too much on things not Godly. They worry over the stock market, they fret their sports team record, they are concerned the lawn service may miss getting the June bugs. The souls of their loved ones may hang in precarious jeopardy, the church may be not seeing any revival or move of the Holy Spirit, the political decisions are based on economics and not on morals and ethics. Their minds may be filled with inappropriate contentography, their mouths may be condoning abortion and perversions, instead of the Word of God.

This ‘vanity of their mind’ has brought about a ‘darkened’ view of life, and they are blind to what God wants them to know and to do. They cannot even feed on pablum, their are unfeedable, headed to judgment from God, and are totally unaware of their decadent state.


The ‘blindness of their heart’ is a major problem in our day, as it was in Paul’s. They are blind to the fact that they are not 'Christ-like' in any way. They are blind to their spiritual starvation, for they cannot swallow milk, pablum, or meat.

Like Paul, I will INSIST AND PROTEST...

 

[murjahel]

Someday, soon, I pray, the saints are all going to gather at the marriage supper of the Lamb. I think this will occur after the rapture of the church, after the rapture of the 144,000, after the rapture of the two witnesses to heaven.. and when we are all there, we all will feast and share that great dinner of the Lord.

By that time, all the saints will finally have a meal that is not just 'milk, pablum, and meat... varying with the person as to who gets what. Finally, we will all eat of the same food physically, and be all on the same food spiritually. The pablum saints will share a good piece of meat with the meat saints. That will be the day... can't wait to witness it.

 

[murjahel]

The pablum should not be our forever diet and menu, we need to mature to a 'meat' level.

How do we do this???

Acts 2:42-43 (KJV)
42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.


When the early church began to minister to this world, they preached, and signs and wonders followed. The result was ‘fear’ came upon all. Why would a rousing sermon, a miracle or ten, make people fear? We do not see that reaction now very often, and perhaps the church has been giving spiritual tranquilizers, or sedatives to the world to remove the ‘fear’ that the gospel message is supposed to arouse.

We need to see if we are spreading the gospel correctly, for the people need the miracles, the salvations, the finding of Jesus at least as much now as then.

As we do preach the gospel, continue in what the Word of God instructs of us, we do grow in holy reverent fear of an awesome God we learn to know personally.

Note here what brought about the ‘fear’ in all of the people.

1. It says that they ‘continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine’. Apostolic teaching, the simple salvation through Jesus is necessary to our mission.


Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV)
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Certainly, we see many who are strayed from that message. There are many trite, mundane, superficial, politically correct, back patting, messages being preached, that do not cause or engender a ‘fear’.


2. They had a fellowship amidst the church. Often, today, churches are arranged so that one can come and go, and never be very noticed. A handshake at the door has replaced other fellowships. Only the desirable patrons are encouraged to enter in to the other areas of the church. Therefore the needy, the down and out, the hardened and crusty, and the worldly looking ones are ignored, looked down upon, and seldom feel welcome at any times of church fellowship.

1 John 1:2-3 (KJV)
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.


The message of Jesus that we are to preach is to end with their ‘fellowship’ with Jesus, and with ‘us’. Yet, many churches have lost this true idea of Christian fellowship.


3. The ‘breaking of bread’ spoken of in that passage, refers to what we often call communion.


Acts 20:7 (KJV)
7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

They ‘broke bread’, took from the cup of communion, remembering Jesus’ death on the cross for us. The whole ‘body of Christ’ (the church) was to examine themselves, and make sure they were right with Christ, and the other members of the body. Then, as we see in Acts 20:7, there was a sermon. In that case it was a long sermon. That kind of worship and gatherings happened on Sunday, and most of us still worship on Sunday. Unfortunately, the communion times have become shallow traditions, lacking any real meaning, sometimes subjugated to a chosen few, and seldom bringing any real heart-searching examinations. With the watered down services of today, many churches are not inspiring any ‘fear’ amidst themselves or the community.

One part of our growing to be able to handle the deeper aspects of Christian living, is the proper use of 'breaking bread', i.e. communion.

 

[murjahel]

Why do we feed pablum, meat, or even just milk to the Lord's flock? Well, we all have a command, like did Peter, when Jesus told him... "FEED MY SHEEP".
　
　
John 21:15-17
15. "So when they had dined, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (agapao) thou Me more that these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love (phileo) thee. He saith unto him, Feed (Gk = bosko = to feed, tend a flock, take care of, lead, defend) My lambs (Gk = arnion = young Christ-like ones, for this word is used elsewhere in the Bible only of Jesus).
16. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (agapao) thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I lovest (phileo) thee. He saith unto him, Feed My sheep (Gk. = probaton, older Christ-like ones, saved men in general).
17. He saith unto him, the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (phileo) thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest (phileo) thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love (phileo) thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed My sheep (Gk.= probaton = saved men in general)."
　
Twice Jesus asks Peter... "Do you love (agapao) Me?"
Peter says "Yes, Lord... I go beyond just recognizing your spiritual value, I admit to (phileo) a loving relationship and a valued close adoration for You."

Peter was not going to tell the Lord that he had learned to love Him as he had been instructed to love his enemies.

No, Peter wanted the Lord to know of his relationship-based admiration, esteem, respect, and adoration for Him.

When Jesus asked Peter the third time, He used the word "phileo" and this broke Peter. He had twice told the Lord that he "phileo" loved Him, and now the Lord questioned that!

We need to recognize that the Lord wants a special kind of love from us. A perfect love, a relationship kind of love with Him. We should not simply love Him because of Who He is, or because of What He did for us, or because He is One of the Godhead. We need to have a relationship with Him. Speak to Him on a personal basis, have Him dwelling in us, speaking, talking through us. Peter claimed that type of relationship.
　
The Lord asked Peter, to FEED His sheep. It is time we do that, feed the baby lambs, and feed the adult sheep. If the baby lambs are fed, they will mature to adult sheep.

So much of what is being fed to others out there, is poison food, false doctrines, errant ideas, false religions, humanism, political correctness, and works of the flesh. That poison diet will kill. We have to 'feed the lambs' and 'feed the sheep' and seek to identify sources of poison food for them to avoid.


"Sheep" are referred to 500 times in the Bible in referring to believers. There are many similarities between sheep and believers. Both often go astray. When astray by themselves, they are helpless. The shepherd can lead sheep, and they do not need to be "driven" as cattle. Sheep know the voice of their shepherd, and will not follow another shepherd.

John 10:5
"And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers."

We have this good Shepherd Who so loves His flock, that He tells us that if we truly love Him with a perfect love, we will be feeding, and tending to His flock. He is in us with rhema power, with words of resurrection life, and will manifest Himself to us, but we must be about His work. We are to be the body of Christ, because we have partaken of the Bread of Life, and become part of His body. As His body, we do His work. We are to tend to, care for, feed, help, etc. His flock.


John 13:35
"By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if ye have love one for another."

That love is shown in 'feeding' the flock of the Lord.

 

[murjahel]

What we feed upon, as we come to Jesus, is the Word of God. The written word, His spoken word are food for our souls. We have to judge the 'spoken' words to our hearts to be sure they are the Lord, and not our own mind, not some demon spirit. Therefore, the written Word of God are vital in that testing, to be sure the spiritual food we eat, is good food, not poison.

Hebrews 1:1-2
"God, Who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son..."


The Bible is the revelation of God’s will. The Bible is not man’s attempt to find God, but God’s attempt to speak to mankind. There is ample proof that the Bible is God’s Word.


There is unity of the 66 books over a span of 2000 years in the writing. There are miracles that came in confirmation of the preached Word. There is irrefutable fulfillment of Bible prophecies. The grand scope of the Book sets it apart from all other books. The influence of the Bible during the centuries is awesome. The scientific and historical accuracy is flawless. There is an excellent moral tone, that exceeds any manmade moral goals.


II Peter 1:21
"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit..."

I Corinthians 14:37
"If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord."


Yet, for all of us today, the ancient Greek, and ancient Hebrew, in which the Bible is written is a foreign language. We depend on study, translation, Bible dictionaries, and need to study and find the harmony of the correct understanding of the Word.

The bulk of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the bulk of the New Testament was written in Greek. There are no errors in copyists, or omission that affect any doctrine. The most ancient copies found (amidst the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance) are shown to be the same as those copies of later origin, so that the translations we have, can be trusted to have been done from valid copies.



The Bible is infallible. Some translations have errors of translation, or misconceptions due to changing connotations of words. Yet, when going to the original language to verify the message of translations, we find the original to be the infallible Word of God. So, the Bible is intelligible. We can understand it. The Bible is a ‘revelation’, meant to reveal, not conceal.



Romans 15:4
"...whatsoever things were written afore time, were written for our learning..."



The mysteries of God are no longer to be mysteries. There are things and concepts that our finite minds may not yet be able to comprehend, but that is not what the Bible is speaking. The Bible is God’s attempt to tell mankind what mankind is able to receive. God’s Word does not surpass mankind’s reason. God did not have the Bible written to tease mankind with ‘non-understandable’ truths.



Ephesians 3:4
"Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ."


II Timothy 2:7, 15
"Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things... study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of God..."



The Bible (rightly understood) is authoritative. We need to beware error, for some things do require a bit of study. But when we correctly have studied and harmonized the message of one part with the totality of the Bible’s truths, then we can trust this authoritative passage.

　

II Peter 3:16
"...some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction."



Some people due to their false doctrines chosen to uplift their pride, or salve their guilty soul, wrestle with passages of the Word. They could have grown in understanding and learned what God has wanted to say, but sin, pride, anger, bias, etc blind them to truth.



They then misunderstand some words, and ignore some passages. The taking of verses out of context, the changing the meaning of some words, the misapplication of God’s message leads to arguments, splitting of churches, variance in the congregations.

Spiritual milk for the babes, spiritual pablum for those starting to mature, spiritual meat for the more mature saints, and all of it is found or verified by the Word of God. Our refrigerator and cupboard of food spiritually is the Word of God. Surely, God may speak to your heart, confirm His love, give you direction for your day... but even that is to be tested by the Word of God. The Word of God confirms He loves us, but it also reveals to the heart, any sin and failure of which we are to confess in humility to keep our relationship strong. The Lord wants to direct us daily, but the Word of God shows us He will never direct us to fleshly, sinful things, but He will direct us into places where we demonstrate the love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, etc of His nature now in us.

The food we eat spiritually, the milk of the Word, the meat of the Word, the pablum of the Word, all comes from the Written Word... and any other food is tested by that written Word of God, to keep us from the poison words of the devil.

 

[murjahel]

Pablum and milk is needed to help a young saint to grow. Soon with proper nutrition, the babe in Christ grows to eat the meat of the Word.

Sometimes we find ones who have been saints (supposedly) for decades, and are not even able to swallow pablum or milk.

What has happened? Well, in some cases, it is due to them eating 'poison' instead of even the milk of the Word.

Poison food (spiritually) is called 'heresy'. The word "heresy" is from the Greek word "hairesis". It came from the root word "haireo" which means "to choose." Technically, a heresy is "a chosen doctrine rather than a God-received doctrine."

Some have a choice of the pablum, milk, and meat of the Word of God, and instead they choose some poisoned word to believe.

There is one goal, one truth for the Christian life. Any personal choice varying from that ONE TRUTH, and is inconsistent with that ONE GOAL given to us by God, is HERESY.

Heresy is a sin we need to beware, for heresies can damn the soul, they poison the saint. Any heresy that removes us from what the Lord said is necessary for salvation, can damn a soul.
Heresies are not the minor doctrinal differences that can be found between most saints, but they are variances from what the Lord has shown is vital to salvation..

Like the koolaid of the Jim Jones cult that killed the 900, so many doctrines of our day are killing the souls of those in religious groups.

Jannes and Jambres came into the camp of Moses, and perverted the truth whenever they could. They enticed the people to worship a golden calf, and not to await the "law and plan for the tabernacle" being received by Moses on Mt. Sinai. They encouraged the sexual license with the Midianitish women later. Both these sins, i.e. heresies, resulted in the death of many.


There are heresies today that are the poison koolaids of the day. Too many people in churches are drinking them, unaware of the death they possess. The poison kool aid is poisoning many in our day... oh, if we could just get them to the milk of the Word, so they could grow ... but they are dying with the poison they have chosen.

 

[murjahel]

II Timothy 4:3
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears..."

Our diet for our body enters through the mouth, and is digested in the stomach, and the parts not good, not beneficial, are expelled from a third part of the body....

Our spiritual food given to the soul and spirit enter through the eyes, ears, and heart, and are digested in the brain, and part is accepted and become a part of us, part is rejected, and expelled.

In the last days, we are told that the time will come when the pablum, milk, meat of sound doctrine will not be retained by some, and they will heap teachers, having ears desiring other messages that are not sound doctrine.

It is a shame that this day shows so much of the 'expelling of sound doctrine.' Truth is often rejected, false doctrines, errant teachings are sought and desired by many. The food that feeds the soul, is often poison, not nourishing.

Zechariah 7:11-13
"But they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former prophets: therefore, come a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts. Therefore, it is come to pass, that as he cried they would not hear, saith the Lord of Hosts."


People, even in Christianity today, have made their minds as a hard stone, shutting out the Word of the Lord. The message in the Bible has been ignored, not heard, or rejected by those to whom it is given. They could have eaten of the pablum, drank of the milk, and chewed on the meat, but they spat it out, rejected it before it could nourish their souls.

The minds of many are "waxed gross", i.e. "made fat" with these teachings, ideas, and lies of the devil. The messages from God are expelled, and vomited up by many. When the truth is spoken by the Lord, through the Word, or through the ministers of God, or through the Spirit... the Voice is not heard.
　
Isaiah 6:9-10
"And He said, God and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and be healed."

There are spiritually 'fat', grossly fat, in the congregations, that are fat on the lies and false teachings of the devil.

Jesus validated this.

Matthew 13:13-17
"Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because they - seeing, see not, and hearing - hear not. Neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, who saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing, ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed gross (Greek = pachuno = make fat, stupid, insensible), and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time, they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear. For verily, I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."



The disciples were warned often that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to be betrayed, crucified, and would then rise again the third day... Yet, they could not understand what the Lord was telling them. They heard the message, but did not perceive what was being told to them. Their minds were too full of the false expectations of a Messiah. They wanted Christ to overthrow the Romans and begin a new kingdom with Him as King.

When Jesus preached that they would "destroy this temple, and He would raise it up in three days...", some heard His message, but thought He meant the earthly Temple structure in Jerusalem. They did not understand that He meant His body.

When Jesus told them that He was the "manna" sent from heaven, and if they wanted eternal life, they must eat of Him... they took Him literally, and many of His disciples left, and never followed Him again. They did not truly "hear" Him.

Jesus, Moses, and Elijah spoke on the mount of transfiguration about what was about to happen in Jerusalem. Peter, James, and John were there, hearing part, but Peter did not truly hear.. for he wanted to stay there, build three temples, and let everyone come up there to worship Jesus.

Isaiah prophesied of that spiritual vomiting of truths, Jesus confirmed it, and the early church continued to preach it.

Acts 28:27
"For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and they will hear it."


Why do some not realize this today? It is probably more true today than in Isaiah's time, in the first coming of our Lord, and in the early church. Truth is finding that people are already too fat on false doctrine to let truth find anywhere to remain to nourish the soul.

If people would hear from the Lord today, if they would listen to the real message of the Spirit today, what would it mean???

It would mean that they would be weeping for sins of the world, and not laughing their heads off in services that bring no souls to the Lord...

They would be seeking heavenly blessings, and not trying to intimidate God into giving them financial blessings on this earth...

They would be exposing the lies of false prophets instead of believing their lies and heresy.

They would be searching their hearts for sins, repenting of such... instead of judgmentally and falsely attacking other saints for differences they have...

They would not believe the lies hypocrites against the children of God...

They would not be taken in by the false doctrines of the apostate church of today... but be hearing the real message from the Spirit to the churches...

They would not believe the lies of abusive saints, and of their enablers... against the victims of spiritual abuse, and against those who have had the spiritual nerve to say the abuse in churches against young saints needs to stop...

They would hear the Spirit confirm with spiritual discernment who are the true ministers, and who are the false ministers of our day...

Some have sat through many prophetic messages and not heard them...
They have read the Bible, but not understood what the Spirit is saying...
They have ignored the truth, and the Spirit of truth, so long, that He has left, grieved, and vexed... They have heard false and lying accusations against some of God's children, and not understood or accepted what the Lord was speaking....

God tires of His good food for the soul being rejected, and finally decides to let the rejecters of real truth to go to bed and sleep.

Romans 11:8
"According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; unto this day."

 

[murjahel]

Did you ever eat at a buffet restaurant, and see many foods that you were unsure of even what they were... it can take a bit of intestinal fortitude to eat some of them. One time, I tried what looked like pieces of chicken, and it turned out to be 'frog legs'. Another strange looking piece of meat turned out to be raw fish... The latter was not appreciated, the first (frog legs) turned out to be all right.

God feeds us His Word, written and spoken, giving us meals (pablum, milk, or meat) of a wide variety of truths. Some are afraid to eat, not sure what is the food, and will it be digestible.

To the babes in Christ, there is the milk, and easily digestible food to be assimilated and make us mature to pablum, and from there to meat. The meat meals are choked on by many. They perhaps have not gotten enough of the milk and pablum to mature to the level of understanding needed for some truths.

Yet, God has spoken, and wants us to learn, grow, mature, and share the same meat that we have been given.

We need not fear the truth, if the truth is coming from God. Some who claim to have prepared a meal for us, from God, may have spoiled the recipe, may have poisoned the food, intentionally, or unintentionally. The buffet given us in churches, or on the internet, or on television and radio, or in books, claiming to be well cooked meals, may be tainted, poisoned, or spoiled by the humans involved in its preparation.

A God Who can create us, can also talk to us. We should desire to know what He has to say. He understands our languages, He sees our heart and knows what we mean in every word we speak. Yet, we seem to not understand His language sometimes.

Hebrews 1:1-2
"God, Who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son..."


The Bible is the revelation of God’s will. The Bible is not man’s attempt to find God, but God’s attempt to speak to mankind. There is ample proof that the Bible is God’s Word. There is unity of the 66 books over a span of 2000 years in the writing. There are miracles that came in confirmation of the preached Word. There is irrefutable fulfillment of Bible prophecies. The grand scope of the Book sets it apart from all other books. The influence of the Bible during the centuries is awesome. The scientific and historical accuracy is flawless. There is an excellent moral tone, that exceeds any manmade moral goals.

II Peter 1:21
"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit..."

I Corinthians 14:37
"If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord."

Yet, for all of us today, the ancient Greek, and ancient Hebrew, in which the Bible is written is a foreign language. We depend on study, translation, Bible dictionaries, and need to study and find the harmony of the correct understanding of the Word. The bulk of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the bulk of the New Testament was written in Greek. There are no errors in copyists, or omission that affect any doctrine. The most ancient copies found (amidst the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance) are shown to be the same as those copies of later origin, so that the translations we have, can be trusted to have been done from valid copies.

We need to verify translations, test the messages shared with us by the Word of God. We need to pray over the spiritual meals we are offered in the Spiritual buffets of this world.


The Bible is infallible. Some translations have errors of translation, or misconceptions due to changing connotations of words. Yet, when going to the original language to verify the message of translations, we find the original to be the infallible Word of God. So, the Bible is intelligible. We can understand it. The Bible is a ‘revelation’, meant to reveal, not conceal.


Romans 15:4
"...whatsoever things were written afore time, were written for our learning..."


The mysteries of God are no longer to be mysteries. There are things and concepts that our finite minds may not yet be able to comprehend, but that is not what the Bible is speaking. The Bible is God’s attempt to tell mankind what mankind is able to receive. God’s Word does not surpass mankind’s reason. God did not have the Bible written to tease mankind with ‘non-understandable’ truths.

The milk, pablum, or meat upon we are to dine spiritually, can be verified in study and in prayer, as to its validity, its purity, its harmony with the truth from God. Then we can 'come and dine' with our Lord, assured that the messages and doctrines we are assimilating into our person, are truly from the Lord's table.

Do not just blindly trust the human chefs of this world, who will claim to be infallible and trustworthy. Verify, pray, study, and be sure it is in harmony with God's Word. The best of intentions in some, does not guarantee lack of error. Any of us, all of us, can err, and need to be tested and tried by the Truth of the Word of God.

 

[murjahel]

Did you ever try to feed a child in a high chair, and they fought the food from entering their mouth? It can be quite an experience... food being batted away, some spit out, and an unholy mess all over the room.

Some fight the truth of God's Word that way. The pablum may be unwanted, and certainly they could never chew on meat in that infantile time of rebellion...

What do we do... well we can exercise the fruit of the Spirit, and with children, we do... In the church, we sometimes can see, lovingly, the cause of food rebellion... Maybe a bad taste in the previous feeding has made the babe in Christ reject all food today... Perhaps the memory of eating something totally abhorrent to them, and being forced to, makes them now totally reject even the bite of chocolate cake.

Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law .

Those were in me, in you, in all of the saved. Yet, what has happened? Why do some Christians have no ‘joy’, little ‘love’, fleeting ‘peace’? We find that happens in most Christians, and few have those fruit of the Spirit continuing on and on. We are supposed to have them.

Sometimes the babe in Christ rejects every word, misunderstands every motive, and rejects even what food they would like, if they gave it a chance.

The devil assaults Christians. His attacks are merciless. Other times, he is sly and cunningly slips in attacks. Yet, all these attacks are assaults on our spirits, on our bodies, on our persons. The devil finds some 'babes' who they will use to sling our food back into our faces, by making the hurts of the babes be blamed on us, instead of on the devils.

They are angry at us, who did not harm them, have no ulterior motive than to just feed the babes the pablum they need to grow. They sling the pablum around the room, with much landing on us. They are angry at someone, someone in the past who perhaps deserves the anger, but we, trying just to feed them a bit of good pablum, are suffering the anger in the baby from the past experience.

We who are called to 'feed the sheep' of the Lord, are often confronted by the angry, by the ones upset in life, and our meekness and longsuffering are assaulted. The curse upon this world assures that weather chaos, job insecurity, personality conflicts, physical weaknesses, etc cause us to feel assaulted, and battered.

The assaults of babies in high chairs, against our bodies, our souls, and our spirits is very common in Christian circles.

We want to fulfill the mission of our Lord, to feed His lambs, to tend to the flock with love, not aggression.

Others may feed the flock non-nutrient food, spoiled food long past the expiration date, and too bitter, too salty, too hot, too cold, too chewy food, but when we are trying to feed the good food, nourishing and healthy food, unspoiled food, we suffer the attacks due to the former kind of food having been stuffed into the mouths of the baby Christian.

The assaults of angry babies in the high charis come daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, to all of us. We may be tempted to lose control, yell and scream at the baby, but that does not help, and may actually hurt.

As last resort, if the baby refuses to ever eat, and begins to grow weak and dying, a rush to the Great Physician is necessary. Since some babes in Christ weigh 250 lbs and are unliftable for the forced journey to the doctor, it is wise to summon help through intercession, a direct phone call to heaven, for our Great Physician does make house calls.

Do not panic, the rebel babe is a child of God (we hope), and if not, when the Great Physician arrives, He will identify the family of the child and turn the rebel over to the true father. Till then, we try to spoon feed the rebellious non eater, and hope that hunger will soon overtake their anger, and they will allow a few bites to enter their mouths.

Wow, pablum feeding can be a memory we will never forget.

 

[murjahel]

Did you ever have food poisoning, or eat something that really irritated yours system? Partaking from some spiritual menus in some churches, where the spiritual food is poisoned, spoiled, or moldy, has botulism, etc. can be sickening.

Some have found after a time that the food they have been eating was spoiled... Some who once supported a large ministry, and then the leader is found to be unethical, unholy, defiled, and you have been heeding their interpretation of the Bible, and you feel sick to have partaken of food that was spoiled by the poison of sin...

Getting back to a healthy diet is sometimes scary... is the next pastor going to be for real, or another fake? Will the next television evangelist be pretending health, and giving out another poison menu for you to find out late that it is garbage you are being fed?

Unfortunately, soon many will learn that the food of the ministry they have been following is a sham, a corrupt meal of unspiritual offerings. When that happens what can we do?

Jesus told the disciples to 'beware the leaven of the pharisees'... The leaven made the bread rise, and the disciples traveled with Jesus, on long trips, and needed 'unleavened bread' both literally and spiritually. We need spiritual food that is not spoiled, that will stay edible and consumable without becoming spoiled and tainted.

Jesus offers in the Bible a pablum for saints to grow on... but some of His under-shepherds have added teachings not harmonious with the Bible. The poison is capable of making us vomit the whole meal. Many have turned from Christianity due to vomit-able food served in the churches.

Test all the food you eat at the tables of ministries, test even what I preach... test.. for there is a lot of moldy bread, sour milk, and poison meat in the servings of some ministries. Test... stay healthy ... there is good pablum ... there is tasty meat... eat what you can, mature in the Lord, avoid what will make you vomit in sickness...