BIBLE READING: I Peter 2

CAPTAIN MARIEKE VENTER

Introduction:

I wonder of there is anyone here this morning who has ever been aneamic. You started feeling very tired, you just couldn’t get going, no energy, no zest for life, just wanted to stay in bed the whole day… and when you went to visit your doctor you were told: You are aneamic. You don’t have enough red cells in your blood. You need iron! And no doubt, you came away with one of two things: a prescription for iron tablets, or a nice big burning injection!

Anyone can get anaemic. I believe it can be caused by many different things. One of them is our modern lifestyle. Not eating the things we should include in our diet. Getting too fanatical about losing weight so that we even cut out the things we shouldn’t cut down on. And of course, once we get sick, the doctor will tell us what we need to eat in order to get better.

At the beginning of the winter you may recall we spoke about the spiritual common cold. This morning I would like to pick up that thread again and refer to another kind of spiritual sickness, and I would like to call it spiritual anaemia. Lack of strength, lack of energy and lack of growth.

I want us to look at what causes it.

And then I want us to look at what can cure it.

1. The cause of spiritual anaemia.

If you look at I Peter 2:1-3, you will see a strange picture – it’s one of a baby that is not hungry. Peter likens his listeners to a baby and he tells them in v 2 to crave pure spiritual milk. Now he wouldn’t have to tell them to crave milk if they were already crying out for milk! Let’s listen again to v 2,3………..

So here’s a baby that has tasted milk, but isn’t crying out for more.

Isn’t that unusual? Small children are always hungry! They should be hungry because they need to grow!

What’s wrong with the baby? I bet some of the mothers here have the answer: The baby doesn’t want the milk because he’s been filling his tummy with something else. Someone has been feeding him chips or chocolate or biscuits – and now he has had so much of what ISN’T good for him, that he has no interest in what IS good for him! And if he carries on like that he’s going to get sick! We’re going to have an anaemic baby!

There are some things, and just because we are Christians that doesn’t mean we are exempt from those things, that can fill our lives so much, that there is no space for the good things that make us grow. The effect they have on our souls is the same as the effect of junk food on our bodies. They make us sick and they make us tired and they rob us of our joy and energy.

• Feelings of hatred. We may hate someone with good reason, but do you know who gets hurt the most? The one who hates, not the one who is hated.
• Pretending to be good. Hiding an evil heart under a cloak of piety. Doing what the Pharisees did in the days of Jesus. This is dangerous, because you know the truth will come out somehow.
• Dishonesty and jealousy. Both things that are invisible on the outside and that’s why we can carry them inside us for years without anyone noticing – but they will stop us from growing!
• Talking about others behind their backs. This is a very "Christian" sin, did you know that? How often don’t we talk about someone pretending to be concerned, asking for prayer even, while deep down we are only satisfying that evil desire to either get into some juicy gossip, or to actually destroy someone’s credibility.

That, I believe, is a main cause for our spiritual anaemia. Feelings of hatred, pretending to be good, dishonesty, jealousy and gossip. Let’s see now, if we can identify from the Scriptures

1. The cure for spiritual anaemia.

If junk food makes the baby sick, what will make the baby well? Anyone can tell: Take away the junk food and bring in the milk! Milk for the baby, and later on some solid food and meat as he grows up. Did you know God’s word is our milk and our meat according to our needs? It is in Heb 5 we that we read about babies drinking milk and mature Christians eating solid food or meat – and where do either of those get their food? In the word of God!

If only we could get rid of the rubbish with which we fill ourselves and start feeding on the word of God! How much happier we would be. How much more useful we would be! As individuals, and as a Church!

I wonder and maybe you do too, what kind of stones we are that Christ is building his house with. Crumbly stones? Soft, weak stones that break and chip and crack? Or are we strong stones that are worthy to be built on Christ our cornerstone? It seems to me it all depends on what we take in.

But it’s not only about taking in. I have a friend who has a very serious illness. There’s something wrong with her digestive system so that no matter what food she eats, her body doesn’t absorb the nutrients. She can eat all the good things, fruit and vegetables and milk and vitamins… but her body doesn’t absorb or use or take in what she eats. So she’s starving no matter how much she eats.

So what’s the cure for spiritual anaemia? It’s all in the diet! The milk and solid food of the word of God that we take in, that we digest and that we put into practice.

Why is the word of God a cure for spiritual anaemia? Because of the reaction in our lives when we begin to read and do what it says! Suddenly a whole new world opens up to us! We see things and realise things we never knew before! Hey, we think, the world is bigger than just me and my problems! God’s plans are not just about me – they are about the people around me too! God’s love is not just for me – he wants to spread his love to my friends and to my enemies and maybe he wants to spread his love through me! New perspective, a cure for the anaemia that keeps us small and slow and tired.

Application:

I read about a study that was done during the 2^nd world war about coal miners. Scientists determined that it takes three slices of bread to energise a coal miner to cut a ton of coal. They found that each man required between 155 and 200 calories per ton of coal produced. Those calories they called "working calories", and they were required in addition to the 1600 – 1800 calories needed just to keep the men alive. If they did not take in the right amount of calories per day, the miners simply could not work as hard and as long as was required.

I wonder how many "calories" each of us gets from the Word of God daily. Starving? Taking in enough just to stay alive? Or are we taking in sufficient "working calories" to be useful to the Kingdom?

Yes, we need to take in the Word of God, the milk and the meat we need to grow. But, some may say very quietly in their hearts and many will never admit that they are asking this question: HOW? I’ve tried to read God’s word every day but it’s just words! How can it be meaningful?

Maybe you are not one of those. Maybe you have a good method of Bible study and you’re quite happy with it. But for the benefit of those who might otherwise go home saying: "I know what to do but I don’t know how to do it", let me share with you a simple method of reading the Scriptures that may make it easier for you:

• Read a passage. Not too long! Choose a book of the Bible and start working through it systematically.
• Pray that God will help you to understand the passage.
• Ask the question: What did God say, there and then?
• Ask another question: What is God saying to me today?
• Then another question: How can I obey what he says?

Let’s do what the Word says to us today. Let’s throw away the junk that fills us and keeps us from being hungry for God’s word,

And let’s start following the right kind of diet!

Let’s start it with a prayer from our Song Book: