7/11/19 – John Bubar’s Blog –
Do you love “Good Food?” I’m a foodie. I love trying new things. If it has cheese in it or bacon or cheese AND bacon, I’m especially excited to eat it. Lately, I’ve been on a diet, trying to cut down on carbohydrates and load up on healthy proteins to give me energy without the foods that go straight to my waistline. I’m learning to pay close attention to what I eat and I’m coming to understand that food really has two purposes. The first is to give us energy and strength to accomplish our daily tasks. That is the primary reason we eat. Some foods do a better job at this than others. Protein needs fat to transport it throughout the body, so a balance of natural fat and protein do a great job at giving someone the maximum energy benefit. The second reason we eat is for enjoyment. Some people eat to live, but most of us live to eat. What are your favorite foods? I love raw oysters, sushi, buffalo ANYTHING with blue cheese, a really tender steak or pretty much anything my mother in law cooks in her kitchen.
In 2019, it is estimated that the restaurant industry in America will make $863 billion. That is food that people buy at a restaurant, not food that they have prepared at home. Americans love to eat out. Face it. We love food. We love the way it makes us feel. We love the way it tastes and we love the social aspects that accompany mealtime. That is why it is so interesting to see what Jesus told His disciples in John 4:34. The disciples returned from getting some food for Jesus while He was engaged in a ministry opportunity, sharing the gospel with a bunch of Samaritans. They urged Him to eat, which was good, but Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” These are powerful words. The ministry of making disciples wasn’t a burden to Jesus. It wasn’t a chore. “Well, it’s dinner time, so I guess I’ll make myself eat something.” It was a joy. It was a pleasure. It was fulfilling and satisfying.
What Jesus is telling the disciples here is this: My sustenance and My satisfaction is to do what the Father sent me here to do, which is to seek and save that which was lost. Just as Jesus had a mission from the Father, we too have a mission from Jesus. It is to make disciples. That is our sustenance and our satisfaction. It shouldn’t be our begrudging obligation. It shouldn’t be something we do solely out of duty. In the same way we look forward to bacon cheese fries, we should look forward to the opportunity to encourage others, to speak truth in love to them, to inspire them to walk with Jesus. In the same way we need food to survive, we need to be making disciples in order to survive and thrive spiritually.
Is your walk with Christ lacking? Does it feel stale and stagnant? Maybe it is because you aren’t discipling anyone. Maybe you’re like a pond that takes in water, but you have no outlet for that water to flow through. The journey of the Christian life is absolutely intended by God to be shared, not kept. Are you reading God’s word and is He speaking to you through it? I hope so. If that is happening, are you sharing what God is teaching you with others? Have you found someone who needs encouragement and become a key supporter in their lives? Just like Jesus, our food is to do the will of the Father and to finish His work. The last commandment that Jesus gave to His disciples was to go into all the world and be disciple makers. If that isn’t happening then you are spiritually starving yourself.
“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.'”
John 4:34
