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A Pastor’s
Perspective
“Word
of Mouth” by
Mike Hill, pastor of Calvary Chapel Aberdeen (mjhill@ida.net)
I
love to eat. After all, I
regularly dine three times a day. Everyday.
This methodical pattern is offset occasionally due to sickness or
a time of fasting. For the
most part, however, I feast considerably more days than I fast.
Why? I need to eat,
sure. But, you know, I
really do look forward to each meal.
I love food…especially good food.
As
I grow older, my palate has become a bit more discerning and refined
than when I was younger. My
life on planet earth is getting shorter so I just don’t want to waste
time on mediocrity. In
addition, since my metabolism has incrementally slowed down over the
years, I want to be sure my taste-buds are in full agreement with the
calories my body will be working hard to use and lose.
I
enjoy good food so much that telling someone else about a particular
dining experience is as natural as talking about the weather.
In fact, that’s usually the best type of advertising for a
restaurant. Word of mouth.
People telling their friends about the good food they ate.
The
Bible encourages us to “…Taste
and see that the Lord is
good” (Psalm 34:8a). Obviously,
the writer of this psalm was not speaking in a literal way.
God is not made of the same material stuff as food, i.e., He
doesn’t have physical body parts.
God is Spirit and a spirit does not have flesh and bones (cf.
John 4:24; Luke 24:39). Besides, literally eating Him would be weird and wrong.
To “taste” God’s goodness means to experience Him in a
personal and intimate way by faith.
Consider
the man who was once possessed by so many demons that they simply called
themselves “Legion.” In the Roman military, a legion was consisted of about 5000
soldiers. These demons
provided this man with supernatural strength.
The townsfolk attempted to bind him with shackles and chains, but
he violently broke them in pieces.
He spent his life alone in the mountains and tombs in utter
torment, cutting himself with stones….until.
Until, he “tasted” the goodness of the Lord.
Jesus
released this man from the spiritual shackles that bound him.
When the people of the town saw him after his encounter with
Jesus, they saw a different man. He
was sitting, clothed, and in his right mind.
Not even a hint of the wild-eyed crazy, self-destructive man they
once knew. How?
He tasted the goodness of the Lord.
His life was so impacted by Jesus, he expressed the desire to
follow Him. But Jesus
responded, “Go
home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done
for you, and how He has had compassion on you” (Mark 5:19).
Word of mouth. Tell others about the “good food” you tasted and enjoyed
of Christ’s compassion. I’m
sure he had no problem telling others.
He experienced Him!
Perhaps
the reason Jesus isn’t the principal subject of our conversations with
others is because we haven’t recently “tasted” His compassion.
We are not mindful of the great things He has done for us.
Oh, taste and see right now!
Ask Him to reveal to your heart the compassion He has for you.
Ask Him to teach you from His Word, the Bible, of all the great
things He has done for you. Just
as a good restaurant becomes popular through word of mouth, Jesus will
become more widely known as you tell others of the great things He has
done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.
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