A Cup of Rice
by Mike Benson
You’re lazily flipping through the channels on your new
flat screen TV. Despite the vast array of viewing
options, there’s nothing worth watching, at least for
the moment. Your thumb stops on a random station. It’s
a half-hour long commercial for “Feed the Children.”
The broadcast depicts a hungry African child. His arms
and legs exhibit no muscle at all. He’s a veritable
skeleton with dark brown skin stretched over the bones.
Green bottle flies encircle his eyes and ears. His
belly is unnaturally distended and swollen. He’s weak,
pale, sickly, and frail. He’s had one “meal” in the
past seven days. A small cup of rice.
A phone number flashes at the bottom of the television.
You’re being asked to donate. Just the change out of
your pocket. For the price of a cheap cup of coffee you
could support this poor, starving child. You could put
food in his growling belly. Your heart and emotions are
aroused by this under-nourished youth. “How in the
world does he make it?” you ask yourself. “He can’t
live on one meal a week.” Determined to help, you pick
up the phone and punch in the 800 number.
Stay with me for just a moment.
We all recognize that to be healthy, we must maintain a
steady, balanced diet. We can’t skip meals for days on
end. We certainly can’t live off of a single meal once
a week.
And yet, isn’t that exactly what we’re doing when our
only source of spiritual nourishment comes from the
Sunday morning sermon?
When we habitually skip Sunday morning Bible class,
aren’t we saying that we can be healthy and strong by
eating just one meal a week?
When we miss the Sunday evening and Wednesday night
assemblies at church, and the only time we take in
real, biblical sustenance is the 11 o’clock Lord’s Day
message, aren’t we saying — at least by our actions –
that a child of God only has to eat one meal every
seven days?
When we fail to open our Bibles at home and pour
through the sacred Word each day, but then manage to
“squeak in” at the last minute for that one hour
worship assembly on the first day of the week, aren’t
we communicating that a Christian requires little food
for the soul?
A small cup of rice, indeed. What we acknowledge in the
physical realm, we tend to forget in the spiritual.
Some of us are starving ourselves to death (Hosea 4:6)
and we don’t even realize it!
When we go to the New Testament book of Acts, we find a
group of folks who understood the correlation between
regular Scripture “meals” and a strong, maturing faith.
The text says, “Now the Bereans were of more noble
character than the Thessalonians, for they received the
message with great eagerness and examined the
Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true”
(Acts 17:11 NIV).
Did you catch that? The Bereans were more nobly
disposed than the Thessalonians because (1) they
received the spoken Word with great eagerness (A. T.
Robertson says “eagerness” carries the idea of rushing
forward/1), and because (2) they “examined the
Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was
true.”
Watch it! The Berean Jews were commended because they
personally investigated the Old Testament prophecies to
which Paul appealed on a DAILY basis. You might say the
Thessalonians had a cup of rice once a week, while the
Bereans ate “three squares” a day.
Dear Christian, if the Word is food (Matthew 4:4; cf.
Psalm 19:9,10; Jeremiah 15:16; John 6:26,63), and it
is, shouldn’t we “pull up to the table” and fill our
plates every day? If we can make time for television,
sports, shopping at the mall, going to the movies and a
myriad of other fleshly pursuits, we certainly can make
time to read and study God’s Word.
When would be the best time for you to delve into your
Bible? At the breakfast table? During break at work?
Before you go to bed after the kids are asleep? Pick a
time that’s best for you and then enjoy the meal!
_______
1/ Word Pictures in the New Testament, p. 274.
