Food, Spiritual

Martin Collins reflects that those who depict religion as a life of gloom and deprivation, full of do's and don'ts, are too short-sighted to realize that the empty husks of the world's entertainment do not satisfy the deepest need. In contrast, spiritual f. . .

One of the most widely occurring metaphors in the Bible involves eating. We must develop the ability to feed ourselves properly, discerning the good and bad.

Christ emphasizes that the internal, weightier matters, which change the heart, take precedence over external ceremonial concerns that don't change the heart.

A number of recent articles have brought to light a disturbing new facet of schoolwork at both the high school and college levels. ...

Imagine a man studying the Bible for two hours a day. But if he then spends his other waking hours watching cartoons, he will derive little benefit from study.

Our physical bodies have a defense system to keep out invaders. Spiritually, how well do we maintain our defenses against error and contamination?

We are what we eat. The same can apply spiritually to what we put into our minds. John Ritenbaugh shows that God wants us to desire His Word with the eagerness of a baby craving milk.

Eternal life is to live a quality life as God lives, having developed a close relationship with God, living by faith and accepting His sovereignty over all.

Good health, whether physical or spiritual, is not a "given" in life. Without constant work or effort, the second law of thermodynamics will cause any process to regress into a state of randomness or chaos. A poor spiritual diet will bring about . . .

Jeremiah compares studying and meditating upon God's Word to physical eating, enabling a person to receive spiritual energy, vitality, and health.

John 6 has always been a difficult chapter to explain. However, within his series on the physical/spiritual parallels in the Bible on eating, John Ritenbaugh shows how clear Jesus' teaching is and what it means to us.

If a foundation is flawed, the building cannot stand. God built His spiritual temple on the prophets and the apostles, and Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone.

Amos 8:11 speaks of "a famine . . . of hearing the words of the LORD." Such a spiritual famine is occurring today: The words of God are readily available, but few are hearing them. David Grabbe explains this prophecy and its connection to the Feast of Unle. . .

God gave Israel manna to eat every day for forty years. Today, we have God's Word as our daily bread. Are we taking advantage of it, or are we allowing it to spoil?

John Ritenbaugh teaches that biblical liberty consists of choosing to whom we will submit and by whom we will be constrained. Making wrong choices, largely in ignorance, has placed us in bondage to sin and destruction. God's truth indeed limits our choices. . .

Christ says His words are Spirit and Life; they have a quality above human words because their source is divine. If ingested, these words lead to eternal life.

God has often used micro metaphors to illustrate macro events. For example, in Isaiah 1:4-6, God compares the whole nation of Israel to a sick patient with an incurable disease, signalling impending captivity. The church has been alternately compared to a . . .

In Boaz' instructions to Ruth, we see the concern of Christ for His people. These instructions will keep us nourished, satisfied, and safe from harm.

Martin Collins, continuing the series on effective prayer, examines some of the reasons God apparently does not answer certain prayers in the affirmative. Sometimes people "pray" as a substitute for thinking. We are to become skilled at using bib. . .

Sheep are the most dependent on their owner for their well-being. From the viewpoint of the sheep, the quality of care of the shepherd is of utmost importance.

We become what we think about all day long, so ruminating on carnal thoughts brings death. Conversely, meditating on the right things leads to eternal life.

We all know about the church grapevine. It's very good in spreading news, but it can be equally as evil when it spreads gossip and rumor. David Maas reveals how gossip harms the gossip himself.

Christian freedom has nothing to do with location or circumstance but how we think. By imbibing on God's Word, we will incrementally displace our carnality.

Part One showed that Jesus Christ's iron-clad rule for recognizing false prophets and teachers was to evaluate their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20)—what is produced not only in their lives but especially by their messages. ...

John Ritenbaugh, maintaining that our responsibility is to yield to God's sovereignty, nevertheless suggests that God has, by giving us free will, enabled us to freely sin, but holds us responsible for governing ourselves. The word govern, derived from the. . .

Grace places limits on our freedom, training us for the Kingdom of God. Our behavior must be clearly distinguishable from the non-believers in society.

Richard Ritenbaugh, citing Charles Hughes Smith's pronouncement that the entire status quo is a fraud, emphasizes that the entire western society seems to be invested in corruption and fraud, even as society as a whole is plunging off a precipitous cliff. . . .