Pastor Tim's Benton Blog: Staying Spiritually Nourished

Pastor Tim's Benton Blog: Staying Spiritually Nourished: Galatians 5:7   ESV You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? There is a story about a foolish farmer th...

Pastor Tim's Benton Blog: Staying Spiritually Nourished

Pastor Tim's Benton Blog: Staying Spiritually Nourished: Galatians 5:7   ESV You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? There is a story about a foolish farmer th...

Staying Spiritually Nourished

Galatians 5:7 ESV

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

There is a story about a foolish farmer that concluded one day that the oats he had been feeding his mule for years were simply costing him too much.  So the farmer began to mix a little saw dust in with the oats, and then a little the next day, and a little more the next day. The mule didn't notice the gradual change in the feed, but after time the oats were gone, replaced completely with saw dust. After eating nothing but saw the mule finally fell over and died.

This is a silly story but serves as a parable for those that have become back-sliders in their faith. As a Christian moves further and further away from God through un-repented sin and neglect, we know that our spiritual souls cannot survive on eating only spiritual sawdust.

We may well convince ourselves that a little sin and neglect won’t hurt too much, and a little less spiritual food won’t be missed. Then, over time the proportion of sawdust increases while our spiritual oats begin to disappear. Before long the change is complete, and our starved sawdust-stuffed spiritual life has collapsed.

Beloved, my prayer for you this day is that you continue to feed your spirit the food that it needs to stay healthy and that you stay well nourished in God’s Word and the Good News of Jesus Christ this day and every day.

This is the day that the Lord has made.