Letters From Grandpa #160

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 160

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will deal with Bible study. Since you are all busy with many things that have that have to be done, you may mentally put this on the back burner. I hope you will not! Time spent with God is not wasted. In fact, understanding more clearly the mind of God may actually help you in accomplishing your goals for the day. Someone said: “The hurrier I go the behinder in get”. God can help you save time and operate more efficiently if you will let him.

When Jesus as tempted, as you know, He quoted from the Bible. We have mentioned this before. One verse He quoted was from Deut. 8:3. “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”

We have also written about this verse before. Today, however, I would like to focus on the importance of “hunger”. God caused them to hunger!

Some time ago we had a calf born that wouldn’t eat. I shut up the mother and her baby in the barn and tried to get the calf to nurse. He wouldn’t. Then I bought some powdered milk especially for newborn calves, put it in a bottle and tried to force the calf to eat. He wouldn’t! A few days later the calf died. No one can survive without nourishment. This is not only true physically, but also spiritually.

A healthy baby will be eager to eat. So will the healthy Christian. Peter said it like this: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pet. 2:1 - 3).

Remember! The passage in Deuteronomy said that God caused them to hunger! God can also cause you to hunger for spiritual things if you will let Him!

There is obviously a difference between physical hunger and spiritual hunger. When we don’t eat physically we get hungrier with the passing of time. When we don’t eat spiritually, sometimes our spiritual hunger goes away.

When we eat physically we are satisfied when we are full. When we partake of spiritual food, however, we never get enough. Every new truth opens our minds to other truths. Our satisfaction with God knows no boundaries.

As you know, famine and pestilence go hand in hand. Starving people are vulnerable to all sorts of infection and disease. Amos 8:11 makes reference to a famine of the Word of God. When you do not take in spiritual nourishment you also become vulnerable to spiritual maladies.

But let us return to the subject of “hunger”. When I got out of the hospital after surgery I had no hunger and had to force myself to eat. As I was on some powerful medications, what I did eat did not taste good. I forced myself to eat, however, because I wanted to get well. Fortunately my appetite returned and I quickly put on the 15 lbs. I had lost.

Even if you do not hunger for the Word of God, please force yourself to read it every day and perhaps your hunger for spiritual things will return. Someone said that sin will keep you from the Bible and the Bible will keep you from sin. Please read the Bible!

“Though it’s cover is worn and it’s pages are torn, and though places bear traces of tears. Yet, more precious than gold is this book worn and old that can shatter and scatter my fears. This old book is my guide, ‘tis a friend by my side. It will lighten and brighten each day. And each promise I find soothes and gladdens my mind, as I read it and heed it each day; To this book I will cling, of it’s worth I will sing, though great losses and crosses be mind; And I cannot despair, though surrounded by care, while possessing it’s blessings divine.”

(Author unknown)

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce