A reflection on sermon

2 Kings 4:38 - 41

Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in the region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, "Put on a large pot and cook some stew for these men."

One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wile vine. He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it.

Elisha said, "Get some flour." He put it into the pot and said, "Serve it to hte people to eat. " And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
*********************************

Gilgal -- a place on the edge of the Promised Land. (ref Josh 4)

So, Elisha and his party are gathered at the edge of the Promised Land, and there was a famine there. Not stepping into God's promise, which overflowed with honey and milk, but staying outside of it, hence, suffering from the famine.

The people were hungry, so Elisha told them to prepare a stew, and gave orders to gather some food from the surroundings to cook into a stew. Servant steps out, and guess what? He can't find much useful herbs! (there's a famine in the land, duh.) But he did find a wild vine (contrast to the True Vine aka Jesus, ref John 15). So he gathers the gourds, brings it back, and cooks it into a stew. But it being a wild vine, the people naturally didn't know what it was, but it went into the stew anyway. Thankfully, when they tasted it, they realized that, hey, it's poisonous! There's death in the pot! Oh no!

So Elisha takes some flour, puts it in, and presto, it's edible again! Nothing about whether it's delicious, but it's edible.

In the modern day church, there's a spiritual famine. We're all hanging around on the outskirts of God's promise, not quite walking in to grab it, but just hanging around on the outskirts. Of course, on the outskirts, food is scarce. We're all kinda spiritually hungry.

When we're hungry, we search for food. But in a land of famine, even hungrygowhere.blogspot.com won't be able to help much. But we step out into the field anyway, trying to find something that will sustain us. We look for self-help books, we go for church conferences, we go for motivation courses, we look for a higher lifestyle. That which is obviously wrong, we forgo. But that which we don't know (maybe highly liberal bible interpretations, mormonism, wrong theology...etc etc), or that which looks like it could be the real deal, we bring it back home, and put it in the pot, to consume, to internalize. But alas, when we eat it, something in us tells us that it's wrong! It doesn't bring us the life we want, doesn't fill the hole in us, the spirituality remains unsatisfied. Something is not right, and we cry out, "There is death in the pot!"

The Man of God comes along, adds in his own patented cure (just flour, actually, but it's flour annointed by God, so deal with it), and it's edible again! In the real life context, Pastor's challenge was for us to be the flour, be God's solution to the problems that we see. A call to action.

What did I learn from this sermon?

We don't step into God's promised land, and we hunt around, and what we find may not necessarily bring life. What we've got to do, is to step into the Promised Land where God is, and seek His flour for our problems. His flour is distributed freely in licensed churches and in His holy word, so we all know where to look for it. And when we've found His flour, ingested it, grown stronger, we go out into the field, and bring the flour to people who have yet to find it.

For someone like me who likes to be in action, in the thick of things, it is a reminder that BEFORE i act, i must be sure that i'm acting with God's will and word in me, and to bring it to the people who need it most.

Sounds complicated, but faith is a simple thing. Believe, seek, and God will surely lead and guide. I believe.