Don’t Be Finicky With God’s Word – Devour All Of It For Your Benefit
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<God said,> “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”‘ (Isaiah 55:2-3)
We as Americans are used to our creature comforts. ‘Have it your way’ is not just a fast-food slogan but a way of life in modern America. Most Americans live in cool air-conditioned housing on the hottest of days, and the air warm and heated on the coldest of nights. We take for granted having hot water to wash clothes and take showers in, and at least here in Florida many of us have pools that we can jump into and float around, when we want to cool off outside. When a hurricane knocks out power for several days, we realize how much of a blessing these things are to us.
Do we need AC, hot water on demand, or a swimming pool to live by? Certainly not the pool (there are good portion of Floridians who don’t have pools). For AC, many to the north of the ‘Mason-Dixon line’ don’t have central AC or even a window unit. Almost every home in the US has hot water, though. However, in several parts of the world, having running water is not necessarily a given. There are places where water continues to be carried from a community well to the home for cooking and cleaning, and bathing is a weekly, not daily, event.
We Americans necessarily don’t like to sweat, and we don’t want cold water to bathe or shower in, but we can live with both. Today, many would consider it a crisis if they lost internet connectivity, though in my lifetime, once upon a time long, long ago (30 years, in the 1990s), there was no internet, no cell phone service, or the ability to be plugged in and ‘be in touch’ everywhere one goes to (those were the good old days, my friend). We have become finicky in what we choose to live with (or live without). We have choices that over time have become staples of everyday living. Americans have become spoiled and finicky.
There are many things we can afford to be finicky on; I have eaten many things over my years of traveling to Europe, the Middle East and the Far East many things that most Americans would find disgusting. Vinegar-soaked eggs, ‘napalm-ed (deep-fried) sparrows’, sea slugs, dog (unknowingly until the next day), and other delectable-to-the-beholder items that normally we would not consider edible but other people do – and for the sake of diplomacy and to demonstrate American fortitude, I ate them. (It’s a ‘Mind-over-Matter’ issue, along with having Tums available, and some denial and ignorance mixed in.)
This does not mean I would order these items in a restaurant, or go out of my way to find them, and I am not going to ask anyone to prepare such entrees for a dinner. You would think I am not finicky, but that would be incorrect. I do not like nor will I eat broccoli or Brussel sprouts, and I don’t care for raw tomatoes whole or sliced, though I will eat diced tomato, stewed-to-a-liquid tomato, tomato sauce, and ketchup. There are several other items I will not eat of my own choosing. There are things I will devour (based on my waistline, many things fall into this category) but there are a few items I will not want to touch with a 10-foot fork or spoon.
One thing we cannot afford to be finicky on is the Word of God. There are many Christians who are finicky to it, “I believe everything God says, BUT…”. There are many Christians who are like this; there are Christians who are pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ even in church leadership, accepting the ‘all religions lead to God and salvation’ philosophy. “I believe everything God says, BUT…” in truth implies that the Christians that say this do NOT believe everything God says. We need to accept all of the Bible and all of the Gospel as truth and in obedience follow all of it, whether we like what God says, or not.
This does not mean we should turn our backs or fall away from those who have a “BUT” in their statements. The old adage of “What Would Jesus Do?” applies. He did not condemn or judge anyone He met during His ministry. We must reach out and love those who favor abortion, and as many of us have relatives or friends or co-workers who happen to be ‘gay’ we must not condemn them but try to demonstrate God’s love for them. We must walk that fine line between supporting the sinner (in order for them to repent), and condemn the sin they have fallen to.
Would Jesus support Planned Parenthood and show favor to abortion clinics, or march in a LGBTQ event? The answer is a resounding NO. Would Jesus ignore the pleas of a woman is considering an abortion or who had just left an abortion clinic, or snub a LGBTQ person seeking Him in counsel? That answer is also a resounding NO. He would show His love by engaging in that person, not condemning them, and try to help them but also making it clear why their actions or lifestyle goes against God’s will, and how it will hurt their relationship with God.
You can afford to be finicky in what you eat or what you do in a secular setting – don’t eat broccoli if you don’t want to, don’t go to the gym if you hate to sweat. But do not be finicky with the God’s Word and Jesus’ Gospel; it is all good and satisfying and even if there is a portion of the Word that you may find uneasy at first, you’ll find you’ll quickly acquire a taste for it and find it is delicious – enjoy all of what God offers us in His Word.
