Milk or Meat?

I was reading an article today about how people are feeling frustrated in church and why that is. So after some thought, I decided to come to my blog and share my thoughts on the matter.

We, as sinful, broken human beings WANT to go to church and sit under the teaching of someone who will tell us that Jesus loves us, that we're covered by the grace of God, that we're doing a great job being good little helpers. We WANT milk because milk is easy to swallow and takes no real effort on our parts to digest.

However, the spirit in us NEEDS meat. It needs to be convicted and urged to repentance. It needs to be told that while God is loving and gracious, He is also just and jealous. It needs to be made aware of our shortcomings and our sin and reminded that being a Christian is more than just about the love of God. It is centered on that, yes, but because of the love, there is also sacrifice. Sacrifice hurts. Meat requires us to chew, it requires time and effort for our bodies to digest. We WANT milk but we NEED meat and in our hearts we know this.

In order to grow there must be growing pains. We must stretch and reach and endure as the Lord shapes us and burns off the chafe. Many times in the Word of God, believers are compared to precious metals that must be refined with fire. The metals are melted with very high temperatures and anything that is not silver or gold would be burned off by the heat. We are the precious metals but in us are impurities that must  be burned off- sin, bad habits, lustful thoughts, anger and bitterness, gossip, un-forgiveness, laziness, and so many others that must be burned off through trials and Godly correction.

So, as we sit through yet another sermon about love and grace and joy and all the feel good things, our spirit is starving to death and thus, we feel discouraged, frustrated, full of angst because we're not getting the nourishment we need from the one put in place to nourish us. Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep but many of today's religious leaders are failing to do that. We, as God's children, need to hold our leaders accountable for that. We need to demand- even though we know it's painful to be convicted- that our pastors teach from the whole Word of God and not just the feel good parts. They need to stop being so worried about offending people and be more concerned about offending and angering God.

Are you feeding on the meat of God's word or are you still drinking milk and starving for more? Does your pastor challenge you? Does your church convict you? Do you leave church some weeks feeling burdened with the weight of your unconfessed sin? If not, then you need to ask, "Why not?"