THE PROBLEM OF HUNGER - (part 5)

 

FAMISHED FOR THE WORD

 

In our speaking of hunger, we have seen a relationship between physical and spiritual hunger that is not often recognized by most people of the world. As a physical life cannot be sustained without physical food, neither can a spiritual life be sustained without spiritual food.

God has given us physical hunger so that we can learn that life itself depends upon him. It is not difficult to see that we need the physical food from his creation to sustain us in body. We become aware of that every day, usually around breakfast time.

From this observation, we should learn that even in our souls and in our spirits, we need his life-giving spiritual food. Receiving spiritual food is not simply a one-time event when we are saved, but just like our physical food, but we need it continually—even every day. As with our experience in our physical life, our spiritual life may have come alive when we are born again, but it needs to be sustained to remain healthy. 

The Physical and the Spiritual

Ours is a world culture that is centered on the physical. Watch any TV show, look at any of the advertisements, pick up any magazine, walk down to the mailbox and get your mail, look at the billboards as you are driving—in every single aspect of our life in the world, we see the emphasis on our physical well-being.

NATIONS

One of the most intriguing statements in Scripture concerning human history was made by the Apostle Paul when he was addressing the people of Athens in the Aeropagus of that city in Greece. The citizens of Athens had invited him to speak on his beliefs about God, since Paul was bringing to them some teachings that they had not before heard.

The Athenians were polytheistic in their beliefs, meaning that they had many gods. There were hundreds of images of various gods sculpted in stone that lined the streets of the city. In case the people had missed one, they even set up one captioned with the inscription, “To An Unknown God,”

A visitor to the city, one Epimenides from Crete, after viewing these statues as he walked the streets made the comment, “Finding gods in this city must be easier than finding men.”

KISII REPORT - LOG CHURCH OF KENYA

The Church in the Beginning

Since my main concern in these Kisii Reports has been for the orphans and their provision, I have not written much about the Log Church of Kenya itself.

It is not an old church, having begun under the shade of a canopy of branches only a couple of years before the Lord also called me to be involved.

I think that I must have mentioned that it was begun by four friends who felt a burden for the area, Pastors Joel, Vincent and Douglas, and Elder Benjamin. These men work very hard, visiting the houses of the area and telling the people about Christ.

 

Kenya is a country that is strongly Christian in their present-day culture, but in that remote area, there is still much paganism and witchcraft. The story of Jesus is new to many people.

 

The Size of the Church
When I First Visited in 2017

The church in Kenya is growing quickly. They no longer meet under a canopy of banana leaves, but have put up a mud building (wattle and daub).

 

The Problem of HUNGER - (part 4)

Why is there Hunger?

God has created us hungry beings. We need food every day—and it is not only us. Every living creature requires daily nourishment of some kind.

Why did God do this? Why is there even such a thing as hunger?

The Problem of HUNGER - (part 3)

AILMENTS OF THE HEART

 

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

This is the advice that the writer of the proverb gives to us (Proverbs 4:23 ESV).

We have been thinking of the subject of hunger and comparing the hunger that we feel in our bodies to the hunger of our souls, or the hunger in our hearts. I have spoken of the similarities and the differences between the literal physical food that we eat, and the spiritual food that we need to feed our hearts.

The central issue of this theme is contained in the words of Moses when he summed up the forty-year lesson of the wilderness experience. The lesson was that the people should come to know that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

I also quoted Jesus, when he told the great crowd of five thousand people, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life… I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger.” (John 6:27, 35)

Jesus was speaking primarily of spiritual hunger of course, but he was not ignoring the fact that our bodies also need physical nourishment. The day before Jesus spoke the words above, when that same crowd of people had become hungry, the disciples wanted Jesus to send them away, because there was nothing to eat in that place.

The response of Jesus to the disciples concerning their proposal was, “You feed them.” 

Feeding the Orphans