Feeding the Soil

"I am the bread of life.  Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:48-51)

We have gathered our ashes and we've turned the soil.  There's one thing left to do before we start planting: feed the soil (also known as fertilizing).  When planting flowers, or other living things, you want the soil to be as rich and healthy as possible, so it can fully receive and immediately begin to nurture those precious, vulnerable little plants.  There are lots of fancy products you can buy to promote the health of your soil and many of them do work to an extent.  But have you ever noticed that nothing human beings engineer can quite surpass the quality and efficacy of nature's perfect ingredients?  If your garden has ever experienced a particularly dry summer, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.  You can put the sprinkler on your garden for days on end and manage to keep your plants alive, but after just one night of good rainfall, those plants start to thrive.

And so it goes with the garden of the soul.  If we want to be true disciples, we must feed our souls with the greatest nourishment known to mankind - the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, given for us on the cross, sprinkled with the transformative ashes of our repentance.  This doesn't come from any product we produce and sell in a store or a church building.  It comes from knowing Jesus personally, through surrendering ourselves to Him, through reading the Word, through regular prayer, through service, and through fellowship.  Everything else is like the sprinkler on the garden - it may feed us for a while, but unless we submit ourselves to heaven's rain/reign, we will perish.

One of the greatest tools we have in feeding our souls is the Word of God.  The Word teaches us the Truth in various ways over time and in different seasons of our lives, but often there are a few verses that speak to us so deeply that they transcend every moment and season of life.  Do you have such a verse?  Would you be willing to share it?  Part of making disciples for Christ is sharing His powerful and transformative Word, and you never know when someone might happen upon a verse that will finally turn their hearts to Christ.  Please consider sharing a favorite verse of yours, either here or on Facebook.