Taste (re-aired)
Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the LORD is good.
We try to encourage the children to pray before they eat. Once a little boy prayed. LORD, HELP DEAN TO BEHAVE HIMSELF TODAY, AND MAKE THE FOOD TASTE GOOD!
I don’t know if the Lord answered the first request, but the food sure tasted good!
We serve food as an act of love, and show that Jesus is real. When looking at cutting costs, I never cut costs on the quality and taste of the food we serve. The taste of the food brings memories that will last. Even the cleaner that we use on the floors, the kids remember 20 years later! Tastes and smells are memories.
I ‘tasted’ liver about a million times. The TASTE still has me scarred for life. My mom made me eat it once a week, every week. I guess she was waiting for my taste for liver to develop. One night, I had the last piece of liver in my mouth, and I could not force myself to swallow it. My mom and dad insisted that I could not be excused until I swallowed it. They got tired, so they, and big brother all left the table, and I was still there with that big chunk of evil in my mouth. If I am eating some exotic dish to this day, and it has have anything in it remotely related to liver in it, alarms go off in my head, like in a submarine bell clanging, and over the loud speaker comes the robot voice saying THIS IS LIVER! THIS IS LIVER! Come to think of it, I don’t like family meals at the dinner table either, maybe for the same reason.
A LOT of people have told me that they tried ‘church’ and it didn’t work. They are surprised when I tell them, SO DID I! This message on TASTE is not about TASTING CHURCH, NOR TASTING CHRISTIAN PRACTICES, it is about TASTING THE LORD.
Trying ‘church’ is not Tasting the Lord. My mom and dad used to drag me to church every sunday. It didn’t taste good. It was horrible. I still really don’t like going to church, to this day. I read the Bible through and through, again and again, sometimes 2 or 3 times a year. I even tried seminary. NOTHING! It all left a bad taste in my mouth.
One day, I got saved! I TASTED THE LORD, and found out that the Lord is GOOD! I tasted of the Lord and He IS GOOD. Still to this day, going to church just to go to church doesn’t do much for me. BEING WITH A FEW CHRISTIAN BROTHERS HOLDING THEM UP IN PRAYER IS GREAT! True Christian fellowship IS of the Lord, and He is GOOD! Church is good if you have true christian fellowship there. If you go just to make roll call it isn’t. Reading the Bible the same way. I know friends who GROAN with extasy when they read God’s Word. I don’t. But sometimes just one verse or chapter will bring me to my knees.
Tasting the of the LORD may be going to church every time the door is open, and Tasting of the Lord MAY mean reading through the Bible 3 times year, but IT ISN’T NECCESARILY THE ONLY WAY TO TASTE THE LORD.
What works for you might not work for someone else. For that reason, there are denominations. For that reason there are thousands if not millions of churches, evangelists, pastors, revivalists.
Some people like liver. Some people don’t like liver. Some people like one church or another. I am sure there is a church that each and every one of us would enjoy going to. I am sure there is a way to read the Bible every day that each one of us would enjoy.
The MOST important thing is to TASTE the LORD, and SEE that HE IS GOOD
Everything we hand out for the Glory of God should be the best! It SHOULD BE TASTY! BECAUSE THE LORD IS TASTY!
When people get around us to see if Jesus is real, they need to see His love. If they leave with a bad taste in their mouths, its not their fault but ours.
Once you have truly tasted the goodness of Christ, nothing else satisfies. We owe it to others to correctly portray HIM.
2 Cor 2.15 For we are unto God a sweet savior of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: