What Would It Look Like to Feast on Jesus?

by Angie Thomas

As Laurie was having us consider our favorite meal the other night I started considering, “What would it look like to feast on Jesus?” The thing I thought was so interesting as a few people shared about the people and circumstances surrounding their favorite meal is that every person’s “favorite” was so unique.  It seems that how we come to feast on Jesus might be just as unique.

My hope and prayer for each of you is that you will search, pray, and find the unique ways in which you can grow and deepen in your relationship with Jesus.  He is not an idea or a religion, He is a Person and desires to have a personal, intimate relationship with you.  Your relationship with Him will not look exactly like anyone else’s because as we read in Psalm 139 this past week you are fearfully and wonderfully made, with your own special talents, weaknesses, and struggles.

So, what would it look like for you to really enjoy and find delight in time alone with Jesus? Do you sense His presence deeply when you are in nature? Perhaps you love to learn and study.  A Study Bible or commentary may help you deepen your appreciation for Him and His Word. Are there certain songs or type of worship music that help to draw you into worship? What is your favorite passage of Scripture or book of the Bible where you are encouraged and your mind is transformed? Perhaps you learn better when you are exercising or being physically active? Take your phone with you and listen to the audio version of the Bible. Do you enjoy drawing or writing? Get a fun journal and write out your prayers to the Lord and include pictures, etc. These are just a few suggestions to get you started!

If you have never considered these questions, don’t be afraid to just ask Jesus to help you discover ways in which you can deepen in your walk with Him.  When we are challenging you to spend time every day doing your study, our intention is not so you will complete paperwork and memorize empty words.  Our heart cry is that you will meet Jesus himself every morning as you work through your homework and study His Word. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” As you read the Bible, you are taking in Christ. As you memorize Scripture, it’s like what happens when you memorize the face of someone you love. You are memorizing Christ and his character so you can recall it when it might not be right in front of you.

I thought I might list some different resources that you might find helpful as you seek to feast more and more on Jesus. May they greatly bless you as you continue to pursue Him.

Apps

  • YouVersion Bible–you can not only read and listen to the Bible in audio form if you prefer, there are also tons of reading, devotional plans available for free on this app.  Thistlebend has several! If you go to “Plans’ and type in “Thistlebend Ministries” it will give you several devotional reading plans that are available online.
  • Blue Letter Bible–great for commentaries that can be accessed directly from a passage. I highly recommend Matthew Henry’s commentary.  There will be several to pick from but I really enjoy his.  This app is also great because you can copy and paste Scriptures from there directly into emails, texts, or notes on your phone.
  • Prayer Prompter (I believe this may be only available for iphones or ipads)– I love this app for organizing my prayer time.  You can enter in your own prayers for people in your life and include Scriptures, etc. It also provides Scriptures for you to do the ACTS style of prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication).
  • Podcasts–you can listen to sermons from your church or other respectable, Bible teaching pastors. Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church), David Platt (The Church at Brook Hills), Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian Church), and Allistar Begg (Truth for Life) are just a few of my personal favorites.

Devotionals

  • Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotional (this can actually be accessed online for free everyday at www.truthforlife.org under the tab “Daily Devotionals.”
  • Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
  • Daily Light

May you delight richly in Jesus and His love for you!

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Grasp His Love

by Angie Thomas

I am wondering if you struggle like me to believe and grasp God’s love?  It often seems intangible and surreal.  Does the God of the universe really love us that tenderly, passionately, and personally?  God is relentless in His pursuit of His children. When I reflect back on God’s amazing love for me, I am left speechless.  I certainly do not deserve the way He has pursued and directed me.  He has redeemed so much of the pain and confusion in my life and has healed so many wounds.  I certainly can attest to David’s profession of God’s faithfulness in Psalm 40:1-3, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”

Girls, I don’t know where you are in your walk with Jesus right now.  Maybe you would relate to nothing in my story, but have dealt with your own personal doubts, questions, and trials.  Perhaps you are currently still wrestling with God’s love for you in the midst of difficult circumstances.  I want to encourage you that there is no place too dark that He cannot illuminate, no pain so great that He cannot heal, and no doubts so great He cannot answer.  I love this promise from Psalm 130:7, “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.“  He can and will redeem!  May you continue to grasp a bit more each day of how wide, high, long and deep His love is for you!

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Desiring More of Him

by Susan Sampson

I hated vegetables growing up.  Don’t most kids?  But now I actually like them and even crave some of them.  I wouldn’t be caught dead eating green peppers as a kid, but now I love green peppers and onions on my pizza!  So what changed?  My pediatrician tells me to keep offering new foods to my children and once they taste them enough times, their taste buds will change and they will desire them.

Psalm 34:8a says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!”  Our Falling in Love Again with Your Lord lecture notes say that, “In Psalm 63 David is feasting on the royal delicacies of a divine banquet.”  But this didn’t happen overnight.  He developed an appetite for the Lord.  He learned to do this.  He sought the Lord earnestly — over and over again.  When he fell, he repented of his sin and returned to the Lord.  He tasted over and over again and discovered that the Lord was good — that His lovingkindness was better than life itself!

I wrote that my favorite meal is Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings.  But I know if I ate 2 or 3 candy bars beforehand I absolutely would not want any of the Thanksgiving meal — in fact, it would be repulsive to me and I would feel sick at the sight and smell of it.  When I fill up on the counterfeit which looks so incredibly appealing, I lose all desire for the real thing — the only thing that can truly satisfy — Christ.

I love when Laurie told the story of the homeless man who used to look for food in dumpsters.1  What a helpful and vivid picture of our flesh!  Rotten, foul, repulsive, disgusting and yet we continue to plunge right in.  “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).  I don’t want to go dumpster diving any more. I want what David has in Psalm 63.  I want my soul to be truly satisfied in Christ alone.  Lord, lift us out of the miry pit, out of the dumpster!  Turn our eyes away from worthless things!  May we no longer be deceived by the taste of Turkish Delight!  Turn our eyes away from the temporal.  Give us grace to stop bowing to the world around us, the enemy, and our flesh!

We are so weak, Lord.  We are unable.  Please by your grace carry us to your banquet table.  Cause us to thirst for Christ alone.  Give us grace to kill off the filthy flesh.

Help us STOP

  • believing the lies
  • indulging the flesh
  • thinking according to our old girl
  • being carried along by the ways of the world

Help us START

  • Trusting in Christ
  • Delighting in Christ and His Word
  • Fasting from wrong thinking
  • Resting in His love and sovereignty
  • Being content in His purpose
  • Following Him in His Word to be filled2

“…man does not live by bread alone, but man LIVES by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3b).

This week in our small group we talked about really asking the Lord to show us what is preventing us from living out the truth He is speaking to our hearts each week.  This week take time not just to write out your 2 sentences on how you did with your Taking the Truth to Heart, but if it didn’t go well, let us ask the Lord to show us why.  Laurie encouraged us to take time to write down all the junk we’ve been turning to and digesting to be able to see it for what it truly is.  Please, Lord, show each of us what is keeping us from having a soul that is so satisfied as with fat and rich food that our mouths would be praising you with joyful lips!

The Word of the Lord tells us that He delights in us at all times.  Will we delight ourselves in Him?  Or will we choose the dumpster?  Lord, give us grace to choose you as you first chose us!

Footnotes:
1Laurie owed this illustration to Bob George in his book Classic Christianity.
2These START/STOP points modified from the Falling in Love Again with Your Lord lecture (or notes).

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