Sound Bites

 One cannot live on snacks. Oh, we can get by outwardly, but inwardly our body's internal condition will deteriorate, and the cost will be "death" in the form of illness, disease, or even a literal death. In the same way, we cannot thrive spiritually by "snacking" on the word of God, though that is exactly what the majority of professing believers do. In fact, in the church, we don't so much as snack on His word as to depend on "sound bites" of it.

Sound bites are defined as "short phrases or sentences taken from a longer speech or interview." Too many in the church are getting nothing more than sound bites of His Word and Life. We get sound bites from the weekly message we hear from the pastor, or at least whatever part of it we may listen to. We get them from the songs we sing, or at least those songs that actually point to the heart of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We get them from the daily Scripture we receive in our email, or the devotional book we use that's designed for people on the run. We get a sound bite of His words, His mind, and His heart. We get sound bites of Him, but we don't get Him. We can't really realize Him or experience Him though the sound bites of our day. We need to soak in His Presence. We need to be saturated in His Word and His mind and His heart. We live life on the run and that leads to us to just simply run by Him as we do.

No one is immune to this. Pastors can be as guilty as anyone. I've listened to many a pastor confess that they didn't explore His Word in order to grow deeper in their relationship with Him but for the purpose of finding sermon topics to preach on. They depend on shortened excerpts of another's experience of Him. Someone said that the congregational flock will never be anything more than what their shepherd is. We have far too much evidence that this is so.

Are you depending on, living on sound bites of His words, mind, and heart? Are you trying to live an abundant, overcoming life in Christ by simply snacking on His bread of life? You can't. You will die of spiritual malnutrition and you will die by inches. Come to His bounty. Come to His table and dwell there. Partake of Him and His life. Listen to His heart. Turn away from sound bites and snacks and learn what it is to live in His abundance. Stop wasting away.

Blessings,
Pastor O