Tag Bread of Life

The Junk Food Spiritual Diet

Allen Frederick Leave a comment 
Why What You Feed Your Mind Warps Your Discernment

If you eat a steady diet of fast food, soda, candy, and processed snacks, you do not have to wonder what eventually happens to your body. Energy falls, strength declines, and health begins paying the price. We understand that almost instinctively in the physical world, yet we often behave as though the same principle does not apply to the mind and spirit.

We consume hours of commentary, outrage, gossip, political rhetoric, social-media arguments, sensational headlines, mockery, fear, controversy, and endless opinion, then wonder why our spiritual vision becomes cloudy. Scripture repeatedly describes spiritual life in the language of hunger, thirst, bread, milk, fruit, taste, roots, and nourishment because what enters us eventually begins shaping us. There is a spiritual diet, and over time we begin to resemble what we consume.

The Trap of Itching Ears

Why do people gorge themselves on spiritual and cultural junk food? Because truth can be demanding while validation usually tastes good. Truth may confront an assumption, expose a motive, or require repentance. Validation tells us that our instincts were right, our anger was justified, and the problem is always somewhere outside ourselves.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3–4

Paul’s warning is disturbing because these people do not merely encounter deceptive teachers; they gather teachers according to their own desires. The appetite precedes the menu. They reach a point where they will not endure sound doctrine, so they search for voices that already sound like them, affirm them, and tell them what they want to hear. They trade nourishment for the sugar rush of validation.

That means discernment must ask more than whether a particular teacher, commentator, or movement is serving something false. We must also ask what kind of hunger inside us made that particular meal attractive. If the appetite is never examined, we can change the menu repeatedly while continuing to crave the same poison.

When Appetite Becomes the Master

Appetite can be trained. Consume enough anger and peace can begin sounding weak. Consume enough fear and faith can begin sounding naïve. Consume enough mockery and kindness can begin sounding foolish. Consume enough partisan rhetoric and biblical truth can begin sounding political whenever Scripture challenges our preferred side. Consume enough sensationalism and prayer, obedience, faithfulness, and quiet communion with Christ can begin feeling boring. The tragedy is not merely that unhealthy things have entered the diet. The palate itself has been retrained.

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” Psalm 34:8

God invites us to develop an appetite for Him. Peter tells believers to desire the sincere milk of the Word so they may grow, and Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life.” Christianity therefore is not simply about replacing secular information with religious information. A person can memorize menus and still starve. We are called to know Christ, abide in Him, hear His voice, receive His Word, and allow His life to shape ours.

Sitting at the Table of Scoffers

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly… nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Psalm 1:1

Scoffing is more than disagreement; it is a posture of contempt. When contempt becomes the regular seasoning on everything we consume, it eventually flavors our own speech. Jesus warned that the fully trained disciple becomes like his teacher. We therefore need to ask not only whether a voice occasionally says something true, but what kind of person continual exposure to that voice is training us to become.

Psalm 1 does not leave the blessed person empty. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and he becomes like a tree planted by rivers of water. That is the progression beneath this teaching: influence shapes appetite, appetite determines nourishment, nourishment develops roots, and roots eventually produce fruit. When the fruit begins changing, we should examine what has been feeding the roots.

When the World Learns Your Appetite

Modern technology can continually place before us material that captures attention, but the vulnerability it exploits is ancient. James writes that a person is tempted when drawn away by his own desire and enticed. Deception therefore does not always succeed because somebody forced a lie upon us. Sometimes it succeeds because the lie appeals to something already inside us.

“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” James 1:14

One of the most important discernment questions is therefore not merely, “Is this true?” but “Why do I want this to be true?” When a claim confirms everything we already believe about someone we distrust, do we become less careful? When another claim challenges someone we admire, do we suddenly demand more evidence? Biblical discernment is not paranoia baptized with Scripture. It tests what we receive while remaining humble enough to let God test the receiver as well.

Consumption Is Not Nourishment

A person can consume enormous quantities of religious material while remaining spiritually malnourished. Sermons, prophecy videos, debates, podcasts, Christian influencers, and theological arguments can fill every spare hour without producing maturity. Consumption is not necessarily nourishment.

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine…” Ephesians 4:14

Paul’s image contrasts sharply with the rooted tree of Psalm 1. One is planted; the other is carried. The question is not how much information enters us, but what it produces. Are we becoming more loving, holy, humble, peaceful, patient, merciful, self-controlled, and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, or more angry, suspicious, fearful, arrogant, contemptuous, and addicted to controversy? Jesus said we know a tree by its fruit. If the fruit is rotten, we should examine what has been feeding the tree.

When Poison Begins Tasting Sweet

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah describes corrupted discernment through the language of taste. Bitter becomes sweet and sweet becomes bitter. Half-truth begins tasting like truth. Slander begins tasting like discernment. Anger masquerades as righteous indignation, suspicion calls itself wisdom, pride disguises itself as conviction, and fear presents itself as vigilance. When distortion becomes familiar, genuine spiritual food can begin tasting strange.

At that point we need more than another argument or another approved source. The appetite itself needs healing so that truth tastes like truth again, darkness is recognized as darkness again, and the soul once more hungers for what gives life.

Discernment Must Examine the Heart

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 139:23–24

David does not begin by asking God to expose everyone around him. He opens himself to examination. That posture protects discernment from becoming pride. It is easy to identify another person’s bias while remaining blind to our own. It is harder to ask whether resentment, fear, tribal loyalty, or the desire to be proven right has influenced what we are willing to believe.

The purpose of that examination is not endless self-doubt. David ends with direction: “lead me.” God searches in order to lead. He exposes what is crooked so that He can correct it.

Retraining the Spiritual Appetite

A distorted appetite can be retrained, but we cannot gorge on noise for hours and expect a few hurried minutes of Scripture to recalibrate the soul. Sometimes the diet itself must change.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true… honest… just… pure… lovely… of good report… think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

Paul is not telling believers to ignore reality. He is addressing what receives sustained residence in the mind. There is a difference between recognizing darkness and continually feeding upon it. Some voices may need less access to us, not because everything they say is false, but because we have recognized what continual exposure is producing. We may need to rediscover Scripture, prayer, worship, silence, and unhurried communion with Christ.

Rooted and Grounded in Christ

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love…” Ephesians 3:17

A rooted believer can hear a new idea without immediately being swept away by it, encounter disagreement without losing peace, test teaching without becoming cynical, and receive correction without treating correction as an attack. Stability does not come from knowing everything. It comes from knowing where we are planted.

The Word of God remains our plumb line, but Scripture is not merely ammunition for correcting other people. Hebrews says the Word discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The same Word that helps us discern the world also discerns us. It cuts through our rationalizations, exposes our motives, challenges our appetites, and reveals where we have confused preference with the voice of God.

Come Back to the Table

The answer to spiritual junk food is not starvation. God calls us back to the table. Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and promises that they will be filled. Above every other hunger stands Christ Himself. He did not merely tell us where to find bread. He said He is the Bread of Life.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

That is discernment at its deepest level. The sheep are not secure because they have studied every possible voice in the wilderness. They are secure because they know the Shepherd. Familiarity with His voice gives them a reference point that the surrounding noise cannot provide.

So take a spiritual pantry inventory. What gets the first attention of the morning and the last attention of the night? What repeatedly stirs your emotions and shapes your conversations? What fruit is that diet producing? If what you consume continually leaves you angry, fearful, cynical, unstable, proud, or unable to receive correction, do not keep defending the menu merely because you enjoy the taste.

The world will continue setting tables, teachers will continue speaking, and controversies will continue demanding another helping. But we do not have to eat everything placed before us. We can return to the Word, listen again for the Shepherd, and let the Holy Spirit retrain an appetite shaped by too much noise. Before taking another bite from the endless cultural buffet, ask one simple question: Is this feeding my spirit, or merely satisfying my appetite?

The Dead Letter Society

Allen Frederick Leave a comment
When Knowing the Scriptures Is Not the Same as Knowing Christ

There is a society whose members may never realize they have joined. They carry Bibles, attend Bible studies, underline passages, memorize verses, consult commentaries, listen to sermons, and debate doctrine. Some can discuss theology with remarkable precision. They know Moses and the Prophets. They know Paul. They know Revelation. They can explain what Scripture says about salvation, sanctification, prophecy, the church, and the return of Christ. Yet there remains an uncomfortable possibility that Jesus Himself exposed two thousand years ago: it is possible to know the Scriptures and still not know the One the Scriptures were given to reveal.

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
John 5:39–40

That indictment should stop every serious student of Scripture in his tracks. Jesus did not accuse these men of neglecting the Scriptures. Quite the opposite. They searched them diligently. Their failure was not a lack of biblical knowledge but a failure to recognize where that knowledge was supposed to lead them. They had mistaken knowledge of the testimony for knowledge of the One to whom the testimony pointed. They possessed the Scriptures that testified of Life while remaining disconnected from Life Himself.

Welcome to The Dead Letter Society.

When the Signpost Becomes the Destination

There is an important distinction that must be made at the outset. The problem is not Scripture, nor is it serious Bible study. God’s Word reveals His character, His purposes, His dealings with humanity, His standards of righteousness, and His unfolding work of redemption. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture ultimately directs our attention toward God’s redemptive purposes fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The danger arises when the signpost becomes the destination. Jesus did not rebuke the Pharisees because they searched the Scriptures. He confronted them because the Scriptures they searched testified of Him, yet when He stood before them, they would not come to Him. The Book was pointing somewhere, but they stopped at the Book. The Scriptures were introducing Someone, but they settled for information about Him.

That danger did not disappear with the Pharisees. We can spend decades accumulating biblical information and mistake that accumulation for spiritual life. We can learn doctrines about Jesus without walking with Jesus. We can study everything God has said while becoming increasingly insensitive to the God who speaks. We can memorize promises, master theological systems, defend denominational positions, and become extraordinarily skilled at telling other people what the Bible means while remaining strangers to the living Christ at the center of it.

“For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:6

Whitewashed Tombs Filled With Dead Men’s Bones

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”
Matthew 23:27

The picture is remarkable when placed beside the warning of John 5. These were men surrounded by sacred knowledge. Their lives were steeped in the Law and the Prophets. They possessed the religious vocabulary, maintained the outward appearances, and presented themselves as guardians of God’s truth. Yet Jesus looked beneath the polished exterior and saw death.

That should make every one of us uncomfortable because biblical knowledge alone is not proof of spiritual life. A person can know Moses and remain dead inside. A person can quote the prophets while remaining dead inside. A person can memorize the words of Jesus while remaining dead inside. A person can understand Greek and Hebrew, build an impressive theological library, teach Bible studies, preach sermons, defend orthodoxy, and win theological arguments while remaining untouched by the transforming life of the Christ about whom all those words testify.

Spiritual death is perfectly capable of wearing religious clothing. This is where the danger of the Dead Letter Society becomes apparent. Religion can decorate the tomb so beautifully that we forget to ask whether anything inside is alive. The question cannot simply be, “How much Scripture do I know?” The deeper and far more consequential question is, “Has the Christ revealed in Scripture made me alive?”

When the Word Walked Into the Room

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.”
John 1:14

For generations, God’s people had preserved the written testimony. The Law had spoken of things to come. The prophets had announced God’s purposes. The Psalms had anticipated the King. Then the Word became flesh and walked among them.

The One toward whom the Scriptures had been pointing entered their synagogues, traveled their roads, touched their sick, opened blind eyes, confronted demons, forgave sins, raised the dead, and spoke with an authority unlike anything the people had heard. Yet remarkably, some of the people who knew the Scriptures best recognized Him least.

They knew the words but failed to recognize the Word. They studied the prophecies while opposing their fulfillment. They were waiting for Messiah while arguing with Messiah. They were searching for eternal life while rejecting the One standing directly in front of them offering life.

That is why the Pharisees cannot be safely confined to first-century Jerusalem. They remain a warning to every generation of religious people. Familiarity with biblical vocabulary does not necessarily mean familiarity with the voice of God. Knowing what God said does not automatically mean that we know Him. Christianity was never intended to become merely the preservation of things God once said. The written testimony directs us into relationship with the living Christ.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
John 10:27

Jesus Teaching About Jesus

“And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
Luke 24:27

Perhaps there is no more beautiful illustration of this truth than the account of the two disciples walking toward Emmaus after the resurrection. They were discussing everything that had happened in Jerusalem when Jesus Himself joined them on the road. Yet they did not recognize Him.

Their situation presents an extraordinary paradox. They were talking about Jesus while Jesus was walking beside them. They were trying to understand what had happened to Jesus while the resurrected Jesus was listening to their conversation. Then their unidentified companion began opening the Scriptures to them.

Consider what was happening. Jesus was teaching them the Scriptures concerning Himself while He was physically walking beside them, yet they still did not recognize the One about whom the Scriptures were speaking. That scene provides a remarkable picture of the danger we are discussing. It is possible to possess information about Christ while remaining unaware of His presence. It is possible to discuss Him without recognizing Him. It is possible to hear a biblical explanation of who He is while still needing our spiritual eyes to be opened.

When they eventually sat down together, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Their response afterward is equally significant. Their recognition of Christ did not cause them to discard the Scriptures. Instead, once their eyes were opened to Christ, they understood what those Scriptures had been revealing all along. The Spirit does not lead us away from the Word. He opens our eyes so that through the Word we behold Christ.

“Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him.”
Luke 24:31

“Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:32

Knowing the Menu Without Eating the Bread

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
John 6:35

Jesus’ description of Himself as the Bread of Life gives us another way to understand the problem. Imagine sitting at a table with a menu describing an extraordinary meal. You could memorize every item on that menu, research every ingredient, learn where each ingredient came from, study how the meal was prepared, and spend years debating other people about the proper interpretation of its description. You could become the world’s leading authority on the menu and still die of starvation if you never ate the food.

That may be one of the simplest descriptions of the Dead Letter Society: we can know the menu by heart and never eat the Bread. Once again, the invitation is relational. The Pharisees searched the Scriptures, yet Jesus said they would not come to Him that they might have life. The Scriptures were never given merely to be analyzed, catalogued, and debated. They testify of the Bread of Life who must be received. Biblical truth is not merely something to understand intellectually; it is intended to lead us into a living relationship with the One who is Truth.

From the Garden to the City

This theme reaches much farther than the Pharisees or the road to Emmaus. In many ways, it is woven into the entire biblical story. Humanity’s relationship with God does not begin with Adam possessing a theological textbook describing God. It begins with communion between God and humanity. God speaks and man hears. There is relationship, fellowship, and unhindered communion.

Sin shattered that fellowship, and what follows throughout Scripture is the unfolding story of God’s work to restore what sin destroyed. The Law, the sacrifices, the tabernacle, the prophets, and the Psalms all point forward. Then Christ comes, and the Word becomes flesh. Through Christ, reconciliation is made possible. The veil is torn. The grave loses its victory. Christ rises from the dead, and the Holy Spirit is given to dwell within God’s people. When Scripture reaches its closing vision in Revelation, we again find God dwelling with His people.

From the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem, the biblical story is moving toward restored communion between God and humanity. The Bible therefore was never intended simply to produce people who possess increasing quantities of information about God. It reveals God’s redemptive work of bringing humanity back into fellowship with Himself. If our study of Scripture leaves us with an enormous amount of information about God but never leads us into relationship with God, we have somehow stopped short of the very destination toward which the testimony was pointing.

When Bible Study Becomes a Hiding Place

That raises an uncomfortable question that the modern church must be willing to confront: Can Bible study itself become a hiding place from God? John 5 suggests that it can.

The Pharisees could remain occupied with analyzing sacred texts while resisting the Person revealed within those texts. They could search Scripture while refusing surrender. The activity appeared profoundly spiritual, yet Jesus exposed the contradiction beneath it.

We should ask whether we sometimes do the same thing. Another sermon, another conference, another commentary, another Bible study, another theological debate, another podcast, another notebook filled with sermon notes. None of those things is inherently wrong. They can help us tremendously when they serve their proper purpose. But eventually Scripture brings us face-to-face with Someone, and when that happens, our response cannot simply be to take another note.

The Bible can tell us that Jesus forgives, but eventually we must receive His forgiveness. The Bible can tell us that Jesus is Lord, but eventually we must surrender to His lordship. The Bible can teach us about the Holy Spirit, but eventually we must learn to walk by the Spirit. The Bible can tell us that Christ is alive, but eventually we must confront whether our Christianity consists primarily of knowing information about Him or actually knowing Him. Otherwise, our libraries can grow larger while our bones remain dry.

The Spirit and the Word

The answer to dead-letter Christianity is not less Scripture, and it certainly is not abandoning biblical truth in pursuit of every subjective spiritual impression. Scripture and Spirit are not adversaries.

The same Spirit who inspired the testimony reveals the Christ to whom the testimony points. Jesus told His disciples that the Spirit would testify of Him. When the Spirit opens the Scriptures, our encounter with the Word becomes something more than intellectual accumulation. Like the disciples on the Emmaus road, our hearts begin to burn as Christ becomes increasingly real to us through the truth we are hearing.

This also protects us from the opposite error. If the Dead Letter Society reduces Christianity to information without life, ungrounded spirituality can pursue experiences without truth. Neither is the biblical pattern. The Spirit and the Word bring us to Christ. We therefore continue to study, search the Scriptures carefully, test what we hear, and treasure God’s written testimony. Yet our purpose is no longer merely collecting religious information. We are listening for the voice of the Shepherd revealed through the truth He has given us.

Leaving the Dead Letter Society

Perhaps that is the invitation for anyone who recognizes himself somewhere within these pages: leave the Dead Letter Society. Leaving does not mean closing your Bible. It means opening it with a different hunger. Study it. Search it. Treasure it. Meditate upon it. Test everything by it. But never forget why you are reading it.

Read Moses looking for Christ. Read the prophets watching for Christ. Read the Psalms longing for Christ. Read the Gospels beholding Christ. Read the Epistles learning what it means to live in Christ. Read Revelation anticipating the triumph of Christ. From beginning to end, allow Scripture to accomplish its intended purpose by directing your heart toward the God who desires to be known.

Never mistake possessing biblical information for possessing spiritual life. Never allow knowing verses about Jesus to become a substitute for knowing Jesus. Never become so familiar with the language of God that you cease listening for the voice of God.

Lord, do not let me merely learn another fact about You. Open my eyes that I may know You. Let Your Spirit illuminate Your Word until its truth becomes living reality within me. Do not allow me to become an expert in the testimony while remaining a stranger to the One being testified about. Bring me beyond the information and into communion with You.

The Bible is not the obituary of a God who used to speak. It is the testimony of the God who lives. The Word became flesh, the tomb is empty, the Spirit has been given, and Jesus Christ is alive. The great tragedy of the Dead Letter Society is not that its members have never encountered the words that lead to life. It is that they can spend their entire lives studying those words while refusing the invitation contained within them.

“But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
John 5:40

May we never become so occupied studying the road that we fail to arrive at its destination. The destination is Christ.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, when I open Your Word, open my eyes as well. Do not allow me merely to accumulate knowledge about You. Through Your Spirit, use Your Word to draw me into deeper communion with You. Let me recognize Your voice, receive Your life, and follow where You lead. Amen.