ThreeDs

I like to tell people, that before Hillsongs, before Israel Houghton, before United, before alternative rock became the part and parcel of today’s worship songs, there was Hosanna music. And in Hosanna music, a few names come to mind: Ron Kenoly for all the Israel Houghton aspirants of soul; Paul Baloche, the inspiration of many songwriters, who wrote Open the Eyes of My Heart and God of Wonders; Don Moen, to all those pianist-songleaders and to us, the guitarist worship leaders: Bob Fitts.

I recall listening to my very first worship cassette way back when I was about 12-13, about the time I picked up guitar. I played ‘The Lord Reigns’ so many times it broke. I spent countless hours learning the intricate chord transitions and strumming patterns of that song (D-A-D-A-G-A-G-A) etc, until I could lead it while playing the guitar.

To say Bob Fitts has been an influence would be a slight understatement.

It’s not that we hero-worship people, or we idolize them, but to me, it’s just extreme gratefulness that a person like him would allow himself be used by God, and in doing so, introduced me (and countless others) to worship and the joy of music. When I worship led the first time when I was 14, most of the transitions, transpositions, medleys were direct copies of the ones found in ‘The Lord Reigns’ album. It allowed me to set foundations, in which to build my own worship voicing later on.

Bob Fitts came down to Malaysia last weekend, and even if it was for one night and half a morning conference, the simple truths of worship leading were passed down, so simple that we sometimes miss it. Worship is a matter of the heart. We can’t force people into worship, the heart is a private place between man and God. All we can do is to ensure there is freedom in worship, the dispellation of fear, and the ever presence of God’s amazing love. And it starts with the worship team. It starts with us.

Gate of the Year - Minnie Louise Harkins
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

And he replied,
‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!’

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife of things
Both high and low,
God hideth his intention.”

Invictus — William Ernest Henley
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I was a little bit of a literary rat when I was younger but I was never much into poetry. Two poems really stand out to me. The first is the “Gate of the Year”, which was introduced to me by the booming voice of Ravi Zacharias when he came down to speak in GTPJ a few years back. The second, “Invictus” was first heard during my revolutionary university years, when the last two lines were perhaps the most inspiring phrases of defiance in the midst of exams and assignments: “I am the master of my fate! I am the captain of my soul!!”

How strange, that these two poems (perhaps the only two that I ever bothered to remember) would have such different extremes in the way life is viewed: One, a gentle submission to life’s vicissitudes, and putting it in God’s hands; the other, very much like our way of approaching exams in Uni, convincing ourselves we are the masters of our own destiny.

William Ernest Henley wrote the poem from the hospital bed, as he was bed ridden early in life due to tubercolosis. He died at the age of 53, after a lifelong struggle with the disease. More ominiously, the poem was used as the last words  of Timothy McVeigh before he was executed, convicted for the 1995 Oklahoma Bombing that killed over 160 people.

Minnie Louise Harkins wrote the words of the Gate of the Year at her home, while sitting at the balcony, and put it aside. It was called ‘God Knows’ back then and it was an anonymous poem written on greeting cards and such. She led a simple life, and most of her works focused on helping people and tutoring students in the London School of Economics. At the start of the second world war, King George VI read part of the poem as his Christmas message to England. It was broadcasted nationally which astounded even Minnie Louise herself. Her subsequent royalties received from the usage of her poem, she donated to charities. Britian went on to fight back the German troops and became the critical lynchpin in which the Allies would launch their attacks from later in the war.

Both poems were beautifully written, but each brought different inspirations to different people. One, a poem that contends the absence of an eternal being, almost struggles with its own rhetoric: is man truly the captain of his own soul? What happens beyond this life, when we are no longer the masters of our fate?

In another, the simple faith in God, as she admits that she has no idea what lies ahead, or how she would approach the coming year. But with trust in the hand that holds tomorrow, she gladly steps forward, knowing there is one who is the master of her fate, the captain of her soul.

Time is always a premium, so says the wise sages of today.

We did a very simple illustration in cell.

All of us have different jobs. Within these jobs, there are different tasks. It can be anything. Something you have done today or yesterday. For instance:

1)    Photostat 15 copies of training materials
2)    Prepare a bill to be passed out
3)    Create a program
4)    Create a Purchase Order
5)    Follow up on client on issues

Now, in your mind, those tasks achieve something called an objective. And to achieve those objectives, you have steps, for instance, picking up the phone, emailing your procurement department etc.

Ok, imagine you are taken back into the middle ages.

Now imagine you are in the same position as you are now and you need to achieve the same task or equivalent.

How would you do it using what we have in the middle ages?

Interesting ideas like communicating via pigeons, doing powerpoint illustration with chalk on a cave wall, riding a horse to client’s place etc came out. But it just goes to show, that through the years, technology have helped us save millions of hours in doing things, and yet, we say time is a premium.

How did we do business before e-mail? Or even fax?

How did anything get done at all without SMS, or video conferencing?

In fact, how did people change channel without remote control?

But still we come back to the same place with God: No time, Lord.

Our walk with God has no shortcuts. Nothing. We need to spend time with God the same way as Daniel did thousands of years ago. We don’t have remote control, sms or email to get God to answer faster or talk to Him quicker. So when we say no time for God, for ministry, it’s simply because we have no shortcuts with the Lord.

Mark 6 tells of an interesting chapter in Jesus’ ministry:

“7Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil[b] spirits. 

8These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. 10Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” 

12They went out and preached that people should repent. 13They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.”
Actually, the more interesting part is in verse 30:

 ” 30The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

So here we have the disciples, after their short term missions trip, coming back to tell Jesus about all the stuff that has been happening. Instead of saying, “ok, let’s get to work,” Jesus observed that they were simply overloaded and told them to get some rest. It’s interesting.

Many of us work and serve. For me, nights from Wednesday onwards are usually geared for ministry. It’s rewarding in its own way but sometimes, burnout becomes a high probability. When that is close to approaching, Jesus says, come on guys, let’s get some rest. Take a break.

From that line in verse 30, we can derive 3 ways for us to rest and recharge.

1) With Him

He didn’t say, go on a break. He said, come WITH me.

In other words, he’s saying rest, but rest in me.

“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28

Our walk, our relationship with him is paramount. To the newer Christians, the bible says that Jesus is our High Priest in the order of Melchizidek. We no longer need to go to the levitical priests like the old testaments, because Jesus becomes our permanent high priest. He provides the WAY to God, so we can have the WORD of God.

This is a personal relationship with Him. Yes, in James 5:16, God teaches about accountability and confessing our sins to each other, and that we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), but only God forgive sins. Our confession to each other is for inner healing, but at the end forgiveness only is from the Lord.

“Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” Mark 2:7

So in truth relationship with him is most important. We can have a great relationship with each other, but none of us are high priests that can take away sins. Only Jesus heals. He can heal through us, but the source is only Him. He is the only one that can give us rest.

So, I really do advocate rest from ministries when required. These so called ’sabbaticals’ are actually good, and we shouldn’t judge/begrudge ministers who step back from ministry for a while. I know some might not agree, but we need to look at each case on its own. For instance, if I’ve been serving non-stop and request a 1-2 months break from a ministry to look into my family, career, wedding etc, that’s very viable. It saves ministers from burning out.

Another extreme case, is to take a vacation from all service responsibilities and ministries on a ’sabbatical’. These so called ’sabbaticals’ sometimes go over a year or so. You’d think the church was requesting for kidney donors by the way some make of their ministry. In these cases, unless there is a very special case, most ministers are probably already running on their own steam and looking for a way out. This still remains a cagey subject to some, (I don’t know why–service should become a lifestyle to us anyway), so that will take a whole other post to discuss.

So, the first step in getting our rest: Rest With Him.

2)    By Yourselves

In other words, no activities, except for Him. Corporate prayer meetings are great but at some point, we’ll need to break away and start our own relationship with God. This is a personal one on one time. No girlfriends, no wives, no husbands, no parents, no cell members, no pastors, no worship leaders nobody should define this relationship for you. This is YOU.

Especially couples, it’s very important to understand. Yes, we need to pray and to fellowship together and be familiar with having Him in our relationship, but we must always respect each others time alone. If someone needs to go off some place to seek the Lord, allow that person to do it! I know of a pastor who takes a week break a year to seek Christ at a remote place. The family will need to understand that. Not everything needs to be done as a couple, your private walk is simply that.

This also extends to other parts of your relationship with Christ. I never really understood the concept where some couples come to the conclusion that the guy pays for offering and tithes for the both of them. I’m sorry, that is simply just amazing to me. It’s like, sure, he pays for dinner, he pays for lunch, he pays for the shopping, and yeah, he pays her tithes too.

Why?

The guy likely has little or no control over his ‘better’ half, for one reason, and does not have the gumption or discipline to say no. Or likely, the guy is also misled into this kind of teaching that men should do everything, including paying tithes. It’s your personal relationship with God, your personal sacrifice, your personal giving, your personal understanding. So, please, get away from these, “let’s do everything together!” philosophy. You don’t need to get a mediator to stand between you. We already have one. His name is Jesus.

3)    Quiet Place

Finally, get a place free from everything and use it. This is vital. In our busy lives as executives, engineers, business people etc, it’s really hard to find a quiet place. This is tied down to point 2). It’s your quiet place. Not you and your other half. It’s you. God wants to speak to you and He might not want others being a lamp post in that relationship, including your wife/husband.

This quiet place can be anywhere, in a car, in a retreat, in the mountains, in your special room in your house. It can even be in the toilet, since many guys find that particular room fairly relaxing. Some do it in the car, which is a good option, since it tunes you out from the jam, but special care needs to be taken care in terms of concentrating on the road.

And as always, for the couples especially, it’s vital that the other person should understand: Your date with God is YOUR DATE with God. Tell him/her, don’t be involved. Get your own time.I’ll see you in half an hour, or I’ll call you back. Don’t bother us.

Of course, in a nicer way that that, if possible

Guard your time with God, by yourself, in your quiet place.

Every Christian would be familiar with the famous Sermon on the Mount. It’s Jesus’ breakout moment, in it, lies the basic landscape of Christian tenets. One of the most famous verses in the bible is found in Matthew 5:13-16:

“¹³“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

 ¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

And here’s a look deeper into these passages, in light of our marketplace ministries.

The first thing is to look into the first of these two illustrations: Salt. What does Salt do?

1) Salt preserves food.

In the time that Jesus spoke there were no refrigerators to store the meat and it was very hot. No Panasonic, Sanyo and Electrolux. The meat could spoil in the heat so salt was rubbed on the meat to preserve it. The salt prevented the meat from spoiling. How? According to the wisdom of HowStuffWorks,com:

Salting, especially of meat, is an ancient preservation technique. The salt draws out moisture and creates an environment inhospitable to bacteria. If salted in cold weather (so that the meat does not spoil while the salt has time to take effect), salted meat can last for years.

Society is turning for the worse. I mean, here’s something for us: Jesus never told us that He would bring peace on earth. His goal wasn’t to bring peace to the world because the world has fallen, and in conflict with God, and any change to that would face resistance. Jesus has indeed brought peace and hope to those who call on His name and believe, but for those who reject the gospel, there will not be any reconciliation. In Matthew 10:34, He says it outrightly that He didn’t come to bring peace but the sword. He offers peace, but to the world that rejects Him, there will be division. His message is of peace, but is also controversial and is the truth. Truth hurts, and for those who can’t handle it, they rebel against it. So, the world will never be at peace, as a reaction to His message. Hostility is the effect of His message in the world of unbelievers, not the content. The society of this world has been in decay eversince Man gave the key to this world to Satan.

But if Christians were suddenly taken off the scene there would be even quicker decay. The church is the preservative. Christian is the salt preserving God’s moral standards. Even a small percentage of Christians can have a profound effect on keeping society from decaying just like a little salt can preserve meat. Why do we bother to preserve a dying world? Because of the people. Jesus found us when we were lost, and it is our life mission as Christians to bring this message of hope wherever He places us in.

In some parts of the world, Churches have compromised the Message to accommodate political correctness. Black and white becomes grey; what seemed like a straightforward response is now muted because we no longer want to appear exclusive, old-fashioned, non-mainstream. In many ways, the post-modern culture is easier to adapt than many of the so called hardline teachings we find in the bible. As christians in this age, in this marketplace, we cannot compromise the Word, because that’s the only authority we should base our actions and principles upon.We are the salt of this earth and we are called to preserve what is good in our workplace and society through the truth of the gospel.

Mustard Seed Faith in Business
by Os Hillman

“He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” - Matthew 17:20
 
Does God do miracles in business? Is He concerned about the mountains we face in our work life? Does He want us to bring the everyday problems we face in the workplace to His attention? The answer to every one of these questions is yes. God wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives. 
 

Gunnar Olson, the Swedish founder of the International Christian Chamber of Commerce, tells a story about God performing a miracle in his own business a few years ago. He owns a plastics company in Sweden. They make huge plastic bags that are used to cover bales of hay in the farmlands across Europe. It was the harvest season and they were getting ready to ship thousands of pallets of these bags to their customers. More than 1,000 pallets were ready to ship when an alarming discovery was made. Every bag on the warehouse floor had sealed shut from top to bottom. Scientists declared the entire stock as worthless trash. Nothing could be done. The company would go out of business. 

Gunnar, his wife, and children sought the Lord in prayer about this catastrophe. The Holy Spirit spoke through various family members. The wife said, “If God can turn water into wine, what are plastics?” The daughter said, “I don’t believe this is from the Lord. We should stand against it.” Gunnar sensed they were to trust God for a miracle in this situation. They began to pray. They took authority over this mountain of a problem based on Matthew 17, which gave them the authority to cast a mountain into the sea if faith only the size of a mustard seed could be exercised. The following Monday they went to the warehouse and laid hands on every pallet asking the Lord to restore the bags to their original condition. It took several hours. Later, the employees began to inspect the bags. As they inspected the bags, they discovered that every single bag had been restored to its original condition! An incredible miracle had taken place. 

What obstacles have been placed in your life that need a miracle today? Could God be setting the stage in your life for you to trust Him at new levels you’ve never trusted before? God sets the stage to allow His power to be revealed for those willing to exercise the faith of a mustard seed. All things are possible with God.

Like many others, I was quite struck by the viral youtube making its round in the internet, of a frumpy, middle aged lady looking 10 years older than her 48 years would suggest; coming onstage for Britain’s Got Talent show among jeers and snickers and completely sweeping away the audience and judges with her rendition of Les Miserables “I dreamed a dream”. No, this is not another post for Susan Boyle, but just a reminder that we all have certain prejudices towards people, without even knowing them. We put people in jars, in containers whether we’re conscious of it or not. I admit, I have a few: BMW drivers being reckless; mechanics are out to cheat us all the time etc. Our worldview is so small, it has a devastating effect on the way we deal with others.

Why not widen our views, and give extra grace because of what grace has been given to us? Ask God to increase our tolerance for others, to break us out of prejudices, to allow us to view each other as brothers and sisters, and to pursue peace with all men. I always think that conflict, like love, is a decision. We can choose to hold on to the bitterness of unforgiveness or relent and forgive each other…as Christ has forgiven us.

And back to Susan Boyle…I think her rendition of I dreamed a dream is probably one of the best I’ve heard, and mind you, I’ve heard a lot. I have several recordings of the original barbican, the broadway, the new casts, the australian cast etc. Patti LuPone is still the original Fantine and she has a great haunting voice, perfect for Fantine, but in terms of strength and power, Susan Boyle’s delivery is fantastic…especially when she hits that “And they turn your dreams to shame”, the toughest stretch of the song where she transposes. Most singers break at the last transposition, but hers didn’t. Of course, the song dynamics is a little different, i.e performance vs play but still it was close to call.

I’m a certified Les Miserables geek, so anyone who wants to discuss Les Mis with me, I am more than game! =)

OK, here’s the summary of what happened in our first Jeopardy-like Battle of the Sexes last week:

For guys, we found out that:

1. Chanel “Diamond Forever” Classic Bag is USD261,000,

Leiber Precious Rose cost USD92,000 (Guys answer) and Hermes Matte Crocodile Birkin Bag - USD120,000. Next time girls, listen to Mel, since she carries LV around.

2. KC knows that Louis Vuitton collaborates with Gisele Bündchen and fashion designer Marc Jacobs.

3. The smallest bra size is AAA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassiere_measurements (search for AAA))

4. Hairspray can be used to remove ink from fabric.

5. All guys know the main characters of “Sex and the City!”

6. Johann is very proficient at knowing that Reiki is NOT a massage, due to years of experience in Massage parlors.

Girls also learnt:

1. Spider-man’s first love is Gwen Stacy, not Felicia Hardy or Mary Jane Watson.

2. Dune 2 is the father of all Real Time Strategy Games

3. The golf wedge club with the lowest loft is the pitching wedge. There is NO SUCH THING AS A GREEN WEDGE!!

4. Wolverine’s claws are made of Adamantium.

5. Real Madrid is the club that won the most European and Champions League Cup - 9 times.

Strangely, the guys also know a lot about Lipstick Jungle actress Brooke Shields and know that Vivien Leigh was Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. The girls know Bruce Willis played Detective John Mclane in Die Hard.

We also learnt that Alvin Chan is considered as the most knowledgable in all girls and guys aspects, moving between the teams 5 times over the round. Questions he could answer included:

1. Fashion house in Italy not based in Milan - Gucci

2. Actor who played Mr Orange in Reservoir Dogs - Tim Roth

3. The line “The Best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist” came from The Usual Suspects.

4.  Roger Wilco was the character from – Space Quest

5. The brother of Gouken in Street Fighter and wants to destroy Ryu - Akuma

The two questions that no one could answer?

1. What is Thallasotheraphy - Use of seawater and marine products in Spa

2. Who died defending her team from Vargas in Extreme X-Men Series? Psylocke.

Final Score: Guys 4 Girls 4!

It sounds like a great title for a book, doesn’t it?

A simple illustration we used in cell a couple of weeks back on priorities in life was this:

1. Get an empty glass

2. Fill it with golf balls (you can probably fill it with 3 - 4) without it spilling over. Once again our cell host offered to be the Vana White assistant to the illustration.

3.  Ask,is the cup full of golf balls? Can we put in any more golf balls without spilling? (Yes and no)

4. Now, open a bag of kuaci. To the uninitated, kuaci are roasted melon seeds, extremely addictive, usually a delicacy for birds or chinese people who sit around coffee shops. Oh, for some reason, it’s impossible to resist it during chinese new year, especially when watching a kung-fu movie or playing cards. Anyways.

5. Pour the precious kuaci into the cup. (Don’t worry, kuaci is quite cheap). It will fill up the gaps between the golf balls.

6. Ask, is the cup full of kuaci and golf balls? Can we add anymore kuaci without spilling and making a mess? (Yes and no again)

7. Finally, fill in water. The water will seep through the balls and kuaci till it is full. Now you got a great kuaci-golfball cocktail!

8. Use another cup, but this time do it in reverse. Fill the cup with water, then try adding kuaci and golf balls without spilling anything. Is it possible? (No. If somehow it’s possible, you better relook at your steps)

What’s essentially being said is this. The cup represents our life. We have choices to fill it with different things. The golf balls are the important things in life. Our relationship with God, our family, or health, true friendships. Basically, if everything else is lost, and only these are left, your life will still be full.

The kuaci represents all the other stuff that are good to have but not essential. Our jobs for instance. Sure, money is really required. But hey, if we lose our jobs, is that at the same level of losing our family, our kids, our health etc? We can still adjust, if we have our health. Take a lower paid job, adjust expenses etc. Our house, our cars are all good to have, but if we need to scale back to a smaller car, a rented house, we still can do it. It’s nowhere at the same level of losing our faith, or losing our family members.

The water represents all the other things in life. The small stuff. Your sports. Your golf. Your movie times, your hangout times, your parties, your hobbies. If we don’t do these things, sure, we feel like we’re not fulfilled somewhat, but hey, don’t sweat the small stuff.

If we put in the small stuff first in our lives and worry about it, we’ll never have enough room for the things that matter. If we fill the cup with water, we won’t have time for the kuacis and the golf balls. And see, not everything can become your golf balls, because they are big and they take a big part of our lives. Sometimes I find it hard to understand how anyone can obsess over their cars and sports like golf and football and neglect their family or relationships. It’s ridiculous, to devote so much time into silly things like that. There’s a difference between passion and obsession. Passion is controlled, and is positively infectious to others around. A person passionate about his football team is a great person to be around. But obsession is uncontrolled. A person who neglects his duties as a father, husband and continuously choose hobbies over family and God and ministry? He’ll end up miserable, because he has filled his cup with useless water. And worse, he makes others around him miserable.

So, let’s pick the golf balls over the kuacis, and let the kuacis come first over the water.

We had a great time eating the remaining kuacis in the mamak later. Hmmmmm.

Now that we’ve gone through the verses that describes the joy of Peter, the frustration of the author of Hebrews and the outburst of Paul, each using the Milk Metaphor; we’ll look into what this ‘milk’ and ’solid food’ mean to us.
Milk

Milk can be described in a few ways.

One, milk is a very basic, easy to stomach liquid that requires almost no effort on the drinker’s part to take in to them.  All they have to do is swallow the milk.  The diet of an infant consists mostly of milk, because an infant can’t handle anything more complicated.  Spiritual milk for the Christian is the basic teachings of our faith, the fundamentals, and every baby needs the basic essentials after all.

Two, an infant requires someone to feed the milk to them in some fashion; this lessens the load on the infant even more, making it easier for the milk to get in them.
Three, milk is the springboard in to higher levels of food, without it, the infant never matures to the point of learning how to eat solid food. I want to look at a few verses here in the New Testament that deal with spiritual ‘milk’ for the Christian.

Solid Food

One, solid food is complex, deep, and requires a more mature and ready ‘stomach’ to handle.  It is the deeper teachings of the Christian faith; the things that help us grow up even more in to our salvation and bring us from infancy to maturity.  They are the things that hopefully will transform us in to being more and more like Jesus, and more effective for Him in this world we live in.  Without solid food this transformation cannot happen.

Two, as a child grows they begin not only to have these more complicated foods, but they begin to learn to feed themselves as well.  Anyone will tell you that this step is a normal and necessary step in the development of a child, so why not Christians?  This is the other aspect of what it means to have solid food: self feeding.  When you grow up in to an adult most of your food primarily comes from you ‘hunting’ down the food, cooking it, feeding it to yourself, chewing on it, digesting it, and then getting it back out of you (do the rough metaphor yourself lol).  Christians need to do this very thing.  We need to seek out the solid food of the Word, get it in to our spiritual mouths, and chew on it.

This means we must think long and hard on it, meditate on it day and night (Josh 1:8), and hide it in our hearts (Ps. 119:11).  We must let it become part of us as we ‘digest it’ in to ourselves, letting God’s Truth permeate us and become part of our very being, putting it in to practice, putting it in to “constant use”.  This is the step we need to make, from milk to solid food, from babe to adult.  If we just let someone else always teach us, then even if it is ‘solid food’ in the ‘deeper spiritual truths’ sense of the phrase, it’s still basically milk, i.e. spoon feeding.  What happens when we learn to feed ourselves and mature in to adult Christians?  I think these verses speak greatly to this question:

Three, I want to note that even adults still drink in the milk sometimes.  The fundamental truths of Christianity are great to always be learning about and remembering.  It should also be said that having someone give you a glass of milk is never a bad thing (like a sermon on Sunday!), it’s just that you cannot survive on that alone.  A pastor who is teaching and spoon feeding you the ‘simple milk’ all the time will never be enough fuel for you to continue to mature in Christ.

Solid food is primarily a self-feeding endeavor because like it says in Hebrews 5:14, it is by constant (personal) ‘use’ of solid food that a mature Christian is able to distinguish good from evil.  So now when a child becomes an adult, what do the adults do?  They feed the children their milk so that they can move on to solid food, and guess what?  They teach them how to get that solid food for themselves while they’re at it!  It’s the adult’s job to teach the children how to feed themselves, so that they can grow and help mature others.  In other words, you need solid food and not milk in order to grow in Christ to the point of becoming everything God desires for you to be in Him.