Cheeseburgers, Steaks, and Why They Matter to You

If you had to choose between a $15 cheeseburger with fries and a FREE Filet Mignon complete with Hollandaise sauce, loaded mashed potatoes, and asparagus, which would you choose?

Both of these meals fulfill a need: Hunger. However, one is going to leave you feeling satisfied, and the other? Only temporarily satisfied. A cheeseburger may make you feel good for a moment, but the effects aren’t going to last. Before you know it, you’ll be hungry again in the next couple of hours. Eating a steady diet of cheeseburgers won’t only turn into an endless craving for more fast food, but you’ll likely start noticing some other unpleasant side effects as well like breaking out, weight gain, sluggishness, increased mood swings, and the list goes on. Whereas a high-quality steak will essentially do the exact opposite to your body leaving you satisfied longer with an increased sense of clarity and a desire to continue eating healthy, sustaining foods.

Now as much as I love eating food (cheeseburgers and steaks alike), I’m not here to talk about it. Instead, I want to talk about spiritual food and the effects they have on our spiritual health. In a western culture where christian devotionals, study guides, podcasts, New-York Times Best Sellers, conferences, and apps are at our emotional fingertips, it can be challenging as a follower of Jesus Christ to simply read the bible. We have become a church inundated with extra-biblical paraphernalia by (sometimes) well-meaning and well-known authors, teachers, speakers, and pastors. Like a fully-stocked buffet, we have access to choose from thousands of different types of subjective literature based on thoughts, revelations, and ideas derived from scripture to satisfy our hungry appetites. And how much easier it is to listen or read someone else’s idea than form our own! Why are we so inclined to read about other people’s revelations of scripture and how it impacted their life when we can have a revelation of our own? Because it’s easier. And this is why I believe the American church is in the state it is in. We’ve gotten fat, happy, and complacent on a steady diet of extra-biblical, feel good for the moment, $15 cheeseburgers instead of eating the sustainable, nutritious, and free Filet Mignon (the Bible in this illustration).

Please know I say this as cautiously as possible because I am literally in the process of putting the final touches on my own, Galatians: Sustaining Freedom in an Enslaved World, study guide. While I do believe there is a benefit to extra-biblical material, this material should never replace time spent in the word of God. If we are allowing this to happen in our lives, I believe we are in danger. Here’s why:

1. The extra-biblical material may not line up with scripture, and if we don't know scripture we can become prey to deception. Over and over again in the New Testament letters, believers are warned to be on guard and watch out for false teachers that disguise themselves as apostles of Christ (2 Peter 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 11:13-14). These people typically came from within the church and spoke messages that appealed to human flesh in order to draw crowds and gain followings (Matthew 7:15; Galatians 6:12-13; Jude 1:4). What they say might sound true and good - it may satisfy our ever-evolving emotions just like a cheeseburger will - but is it sustainable? Can the information we're subjecting ourselves to stand up against God’s word? If we’re not actively in God’s word, how will we know?
2. A well written manuscript about how to pray won't transform you; God's word will. Transformation, real transformation - the kind that changes you from the inside and brings a dead heart to life - doesn’t happen through human wisdom and fluffy messages. Those certainly help and encourage us, but this deep rooted transformation happens through the living and active word of God. The bible has the ability to pierce you straight to the heart (Hebrews 4:12). It's the only book I’ve read that can punch you in the gut and give you the warmest embrace you’ve ever felt all at the same time bringing you to repentance. It’s the only book where one word can jump off the page and into your heart completely shifting your outlook and perspective. But if we aren’t accessing that type of transformative power and instead relying on someone else's revelation then how are we ever going to truly change and step into the purpose God created us for? You can't bring a cutout piece of cardboard shaped like a sword to a battle or you'll lose. You've got to have the real thing.
3. When we substitute the word of God for someone’s message about it, we're in danger of idolizing the messenger. How many times do you go to church or to a christian conference to hear "that speaker"? When we become obsessed with someone's message instead of THE message, we’ve essentially taken Christ off the pedestal and put someone else on. Drastic? Maybe. But so is an eternity spent in hell. I’ve just seen too many women idolize the “glamour” of women’s ministry and put famous teachers and their motivational messages on a pedestal while Jesus is deserted completely. In case these “teachers” haven’t told you, following Jesus is anything but spotlights and glamour. Following Jesus is a call to die. It’s a call to die to your passions, pursuits, dreams, ideas, calling, and the like, and live for Christ (Philippians 1:21; Matthew 16:24; Galatians 5:24). Think about that devo you love so much, that podcast you play on repeat, or that study guide that gives you all the feels. Are their author's pointing you to follow Jesus or them?

I realize I’ve gone straight for the jugular with this one, but I’m okay with that. I can’t stay silent about this anymore while millions of women (men too) are being deceived by an assortment of fast food christianity that leaves them spiritually dry and unfit for the Kingdom of God. I won’t sit around any longer and pretend to be okay with the lukewarm condition of God’s bride, the church. It’s NOT OKAY that bible’s aren’t read in church anymore, houses anymore, or bible study gatherings anymore. Teachers, leaders, pastors, It’s NOT OKAY that the bible is considered an accommodation to our cute little grace filled messages of a faux hope while we gain monetary profits, members to our congregations, and followers on our social media accounts while those same followers are perishing daily. Church, it’s NOT OKAY that our greatest offensive weapon (word of God) is lying dormant on our nightstands while our enemy is continually launching a campaign to destroy us. We’re in a spiritual battle, people. We can either stay happy with our steady diet of $15 cheeseburgers or we can eat the steak and fight well with the truth of God’s word. I’ll leave you with this because His words are always better than mine…

”Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” - Jesus praying to God on behalf of His disciples (John 17:17 NASB).