A Delicious Meeting
It’s always a privilege to be graced with the presence of fellow Christians who delight in serving God. On July 14, 2017, the Toronto East Lifegroup had a meeting at the North York Center, facilitated by Sister Meena. Her husband, Brother Ferdie gave a short background and introduction, both are educators and servants of God for so many years now. I attended this meeting not knowing exactly what to expect.
The night started with an ice breaker that unexpectedly left us all craving for our favourite food. Sister Meena then started her teaching by talking about templates. Templates are used everywhere like at work, but there’s an important template that we should use regularly. Jesus gave us a template for prayer that we should follow. Matthew 6:11 says, Give us today our daily bread. “Why do we need to ask on a daily basis?” Sister Meena asked. We need provision everyday and we fight battles everyday were some of the answers.
The teaching was aptly titled “Fresh Manna”. I found it so interesting, especially when she mentioned that manna was described in the Bible as bread that tasted like wafer made with honey. Sister Meena stressed the importance of asking the Lord for food daily because Jesus wants to teach us dependence on Him and He wants to give us fresh provisions every single day. Who wants to eat week-old food? The Lord also wants us to realize that He is the only source of our needs, not work, not money or other things. In all circumstances, He provides faithfully. When we ask for provision daily, we get fresh revelation and provision from the Lord, and we have something to share to others about what he has revealed to us or provided for us.
That night we learned a lot about feeding the body, soul and spirit, including the essential ingredients for a healthy spiritual life. First off, choose the right ingredients. Sister Meena talked about how meatless Kare-Kare could be a better option if the classic Kare-Kare is your favorite. Then different kinds of Kare-Kare were mentioned (It’s a good thing this meeting was scheduled after dinner). Spiritually, this translates to: choosing the right word of God for your life; take only what we can apply for our lives.
Second, we need to prepare and cook only the ones we can eat. We don’t prepare for a crowd when only a small family will partake it. We don’t prepare eat food that’s not good for us. We don’t plan to read every single Bible plan, devotional and listen to every sermon and podcast out there and end up not doing any of them because it’s just too much. Sister Meena also urged us to do a spiritual assessment, we should check ourselves if we are lacking in reading the Word. Do we spend too much time on entertainment? Are we making it the main focus of our lives? Then there’s social media, do our lives revolve around it? Sometimes a quick devotional is just not enough.
When are satisfied with our daily portion from the Lord, the third ingredient for a healthy spiritual life should come easy. Having a positive attitude towards preparing or cooking food is important. Are we happy when we prepare and cook food? Or are we grumpy most of the time and we just want to get it over and done with. Cooking should be something that we enjoy and done with lots of love. Like how talking to God should be fun and not boring that we don’t mind doing it for hours. One Christian said, “We are born-again, not bored again.” When we put in our minds and hearts that we’re doing this for very important people in our lives, then there should be pleasure in doing it. Sister Meena mentioned how Jesus expressed joy in doing the will of God and pleasing Him in John 4:34 (Jesus saith unto them, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” KJV) After we receive our daily blessing, we were encouraged to be intentional in sharing it. More importantly, to be intentional in everything we do and we will get good results. A sister or brother mentions a need, do something about it right away. If they need prayers, pray for them on the spot. If our priority is pleasing God, then we should be intentional in being a blessing to others.
It dawned on me that if we choose to eat food that’s not harmful for our body, then we should be picky with what we feed our spirit. We should just feed it with something that gives us life. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed …” We should be excited about our spiritual meal like how we get excited over what we’re going to eat for dinner (while eating breakfast). That night I got my share of manna from the Lord. It was fresh, it was just enough, it was prepared with love, it was healthy and most of all, delicious. Spiritually, that is.
