Folks. You must eat!

I know it’s a lot of trouble.

You have to work for the money to pay for food.

Then you have to go to the grocery store and buy it.

You have to open the cans, peel the potatoes, and wash the vegetables.

Then you have to cook the food, set the table, and fork the food into your mouth.

Then, you have to digest it!

What a lot of work for a little nutrition. But if you don’t do it, something terrible will happen - you will get weak, you will get sick, and then you will die.

Consider this:

• 14 million children under five die every year from malnutrition and easily preventable diseases,
• millions of other children because of poor sanitation and lack of basic education.
• There is a whole new generation of hungry and homeless people in the United States
• Requests for emergency food assistance swelled by 26% in 1991. By mid 1992, 25.7 million Americans were enrolled in the food stamp program(up 7 million over 1989). Between 1990 and 1991 an additional 2 million people slipped below the poverty line, bringing the total to 35.7 million.
• Food banks and city programs are stretched beyond their limits. In 1991 they were unable to meet all the requests for emergency food and shelter.

• Malnutrition results primarily from a diet that does not have enough of the nutrients that are essential to health or development.
• Another cause is that an individual may not be able to utilize properly the nutrients consumed in the diet.
• Malnutrition may result from an imbalance of the nutrients ingested.

Symptoms of malnutrition include severe weight loss, intestinal and liver damage; weakened immune system; dry and pale skin; dry, thin hair, and hair loss; reduced respiratory rate and heart output; endocrine disturbances; a wide variety of illnesses; diarrhea frequently occurs and can result in death.

A failure to consume adequate quantities of food energy may lead to weight loss or growth failure in children, wasting of tissues, and eventually starvation. This leads to poor development, increased susceptibility to infections, and eventually to permanent physical stunting. Mineral deficiencies cause anemia; iodine deficiency leads to goiter; and fluoride deficiency contributes to tooth decay.

Starvation results from inadequate food intake or from a failure to properly metabolize, or use, food. First, of the fat deposits of the body waste away. Then the muscles and body organs began to shrink and deteriorate. The physiological response is to conserve energy by reducing activity.

Vitamin deficiencies can result in ulceration of the cornea of the eye, increased susceptibility to infection and sometimes blindness. BERIBERI results from vitamin B-1 deficiency. Rickets and softening of the bones are due to vitamin D deficiency, and scurvy is due to vitamin C deficiency.

The treatment of starvation is generally the intake of food supplying the nutrients in question.

And, get this, hunger is more than a stomach sensation. Removing the stomach or the sensory nerves supplying it will not abolish other signs of hunger which include increased agitation, weakness, fatigue, headache, and irritability. An animal soon learns that these symptoms are relieved by the ingestion of food.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I care about you. If you don’t eat, you will suffer and die!

But then, you already knew that, didn’t you.

But do you not also realize that there is a spiritual need just as real as physical hunger? Did you know that your spirit craves spiritual food, and if it is denied that spiritual nourishment, then you will weaken and die spiritually.

You must eat!

Job said:

Get it? Your Bible is more important than your Wheaties!

Jesus said:

He was quoting Deut. 8:3

The Psalms and the Prophets extol the virtues of God’s Word as spiritual nutrition:

Jesus said:

1Co 10 refers to spiritual meat and spiritual drink:

And Revelation declares:

It is vital that we feed ourselves spiritually.

Now, here is an interesting thing. Some people refuse to eat!

About 280,000 young women in the United States are literally starving themselves to death. They suffer from a disorder called anorexia nervosa. They just refuse to eat. They have a psychological aversion to food.

There is a similar disease in the spiritual realm, self-induced starvation for spiritual food. Amos predicted this centuries ago when he spoke of a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

Lots of believers suffer from spiritual anorexia. They just simply neglect the study of God’s Word. Maybe they feel it is not important. Maybe they’re too busy, or too occupied with other things. Jesus talked about this problem.

Christian workers can be afflicted as well. They get so busy doing the work of the Lord that they have no time to fellowship with the Lord of the work. The sad thing is they unintentionally pass on this condition to those they teach and lead.

What’s the solution to this problem?

• Daily Bible reading and devotions. Taking time each day for personal, systematic Bible reading and study is the main preventive measure every believer ought to take. Occasional megadoses of Scripture won't do the trick; we need a steady diet of it. As Spurgeon said, "He who rushes from his bed to his business, and waiteth not to worship, is as foolish as though he had not put on his clothes...and as unwise as though he dashed into battle without arms or armor."
• Regular fellowship. We gain strength through being with like-minded believers in a local congregation. We need the encouragement and admonishment that comes through the preaching of the whole counsel of God and the singing.
• Obedience. Just reading the Bible is not enough. God will reveal more truth to us only as we obey what He has already shown us. The more obedient we are to the Holy Spirit and the Word, the less likely we are to fall into spiritual anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia doesn't happen overnight. It develops so gradually that the sufferer does not even realize she is starving. An undernourished Christian didn't get that way in a short time either. The goal of recovery is not to maintain a well- balanced spiritual diet but to equip ourselves to serve Christ.

A recent survey indicates that only a handful of born-again Americans (18%) read the Scriptures between three and six days a week; 39% of the born-again Christians did not know that the book of Jonah was in the Bible; 21% thought that the book of Thomas could be found in Scripture; Another 13% weren't sure if it was or not. 42% of Christians in the survey thought that the saying "God helps those who help themselves" was from the Bible.

Another study found that 36% of the adults and 64% of the youth did not have "maturity of faith" and attributed this problem to a lack of involvement in Christian education. A knowledge of the Bible is essential to the development of a Biblical faith.

McGuffey's Eclectic Reader, originally published in 1836, and used as the first educational reading materials in American schools said this:

"If you can induce a community to doubt the genuineness and authenticity of the Scriptures; to question the reality and obligations of religion; to hesitate, undeciding, whether there be any such thing as virtue or vice; whether there be an eternal state of retribution beyond the grave; or whether there exists any such being as God, you have broken down the barriers of moral virtue and hoisted the flood gates of immorality and crime... Every bond that holds society together would be ruptured."

Every aspect of the Christian life is founded on the biblical message, and without a clear understanding of truth, we can be sidetracked or derailed in our faith. Without an understanding of sound doctrine, we're unable to discern the real from the counterfeit. Truth offers the only lasting solution to our problems.

Illus. "The story is told of a small village that had a clock in the town square. At some time in the past, the glass had been broken out of the face of the clock, and now the villagers took it upon themselves to set the clock according to their own watches. Consequently, the hands of the great clock were constantly being changed, and no one really knew what the correct time was.

"An even greater error is made when men bend the Scriptures to agree with their own opinions. Scripture must be compared with Scripture and accepted as the final Word of God; otherwise confusion will prevail and men will be led astray."

What approach should the student of Scripture take in reading and studying the Word of God? A personal commitment to the Word and to its Author is an absolute necessity. The student is dependent on divine illumination for clarity in understanding the Word. The goal of the study of Scripture is not mere intellectual understanding, but communion with God Himself.

It is God alone who gives insight to the student, and it is to the one of contrite spirit, the one who leans not on his own understanding but trusts the Lord, and the one who is sincerely seeking God's wisdom, to whom God opens the understanding of Scripture.

There are several mistakes we must avoid in our study of the Bible.

• Proof-texting, or taking a verse out of context
• Relying on faulty translations. With so many version available, we have to be careful that we get an accurate Bible. (The King James, of course, is reliable. If you want a modern translation, the New American Version reads almost word-for-word from the original, and the New International Version is very reliable in putting the actual meaning into modern, understandable terms.)
• Reading into Scripture. There is always the temptation to read your own ideas into Scripture. Let the Bible say only what the author--and ultimately the Lord Himself--wants to communicate.
• Failing to apply what is learned. James said to "be doers and not just hearers of the word." We must submit to the teaching of Scripture, even when that teaching is hard.

Illus. "Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, once told a story about a flock of geese in Denmark. Every Sunday the geese would gather in the barnyard near the feeding trough. One of their number, a 'preaching goose,' would struggle up on the top rail of the fence and exhort the geese about the glories of goosedom. He would tell them how wonderful it was to be a goose, rather than a chicken or a turkey. He would remind them of their great heritage and tell them of the marvelous possibilities in the future.

"Occasionally, while he was preaching, a flock of wild geese, winging south from Sweden, across the Baltic Sea on their way to sunny France, would fly overhead in a marvelous V-formation--thousands of feet in the air. When that happened, all the geese would excitedly look and say to one another, 'That's who we really are. We are not destined to spend our lives in this stinking barnyard. Our destiny is to fly!'

"But then the wild geese would disappear from sight, their honkings echoing across the horizon. The barnyard geese would look around at their comfortable surroundings, sigh, and return to the mud and filth of the barn. They never did fly.

"Sadly, there are a number of people in the Kingdom of God who remain in the barnyard, rather than spreading their wings and learning to fly."