Motorcycle and bicycle riders know that one cannot remain still and stay upright–one either moves forward of falls. In the spiritual sense, if one stops growing one “falls away” from the Lord. As the Apostle Paul told church people then and tells them now, they must leave momma (the Institutional Church), reject breast milk and graduate to the meat of God’s Word in order to qualify for eternal life. After ingesting meat for a while, one must search out, “find” and consume the “strong meat” that the Lord feeds the minutely “few” who truly seek it (Mat. 7:13,14). God has commissioned me to provide strong meat for those who spiritually hunger and thirst for it. These precious seekers will dine to the full while others will return to church where they will be fed “smooth things, lies and deceits” (Isa. 30:10) by false prophets who repeatedly scratch their itching ears (2 Tim. 4:3).

In Hebrews 5:11-14, Paul warned the Hebrew Christians that he had much to tell them about the ways of the Lord but was unable to do so because they were too immature to receive it. They were, as he so indelicately put it, “dull of hearing.” Being satisfied with what they had been hearing, they were unaware that they were in need of milk. In other words, what they were being taught was little more than spiritual water. He would have to pull them away from the water and feed them milk until they were strong enough to consume God’s spiritual meat. Those who chose to mature according to His plan would eventually graduate to “strong meat.” Paul goes on to say that those who are still on milk are not capable of ingesting God’s “Word of righteousness” because they are still spiritual babies. He tells them (and us) that strong meat is for spiritual adults who have an appetite for God’s Word by which they are able to “discern good and evil.” Paul then goes on to describe what spiritual milk is like in Hebrews 6:1,2. While reading this passage one will notice that milk is exactly what over two billion parishioners are fed every Sunday (Sun god day–the day the heathen worshiped their god–the sun). In most cases they are fed additional milky snacks on Sunday and Wednesday night.

“Strong meat” is an acquired taste that is developed by only a few people. Because it is totally different from the milk they have consumed throughout their church lives, most church people reject it. As Paul points out, some of the Hebrew Christians had “fallen away” from God by refusing His strong meat. A perfect example of this attitude was voiced by a woman who said to me, “Obeying God is too much trouble.” She, along with the whole of professing Christendom, believes that she is right with God because He has “saved” her. In her mind she is in good standing with Him. But like the Laodiceans of Revelation 3:14-20 fame, she is “… wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.” Like her fellow parishioners, she is “in need of nothing.” We all need continuous growth in the Lord. Growth comes only from ingesting God’s Word, believing and obeying it. No one is “in need of nothing.” I am continually humbled by the Lord as He shows me Truths in His Word that I previously did not know, or gives me understanding and insight that I did not previously have. In so doing He reminds me of two facts: 1) I am totally dependent on Him for all things, and 2) maturity is an on-going process. L.J.