Eating Paper For Jesus

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A little boy named Joey loved Jesus and wanted to make sure He knew it. To find the best way for communicating his love he sought his mom’s counsel and asked, “Mom, I know that Jesus lives inside my heart but how do I tell him I love him? Do you think if I write ‘I love you’ on a piece of paper and eat it, He’ll get the note?”



Kids do say the darndest things. Nevertheless, Joey does has a point. No, I’m not advocating the eating of paper. I am advocating the internalization of God’s word, and the external action that should accompany it. The first step is this internalization of the word. David wrote in Psalm 119:103, " How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey." A cow will eat grass, hay, whatever...I ain't no farmer...but it has a terrible digestive system. So it will regurgitate the partially chewed grass. This is called cud. It will then continue to chew the cud, swallow, regurgitate, chew, on and on this process goes until it has chewed the cud into a pulverized substance that it can digest. (David said that the word is sweet as honey. I doubt it would taste like cow puke.) Nevertheless, we are to do something similar to God's word. Take it in. Meditate. (that's the chewing the cud part) Internalize. Bring it back to memory. We do this until the Word has fully digested into our system. In-other-words, until we have a greater understanding of what the truth of the Scripture has to offer.



But that is step one. Step two is to put what has been digested into action. Paul said, "Do your work willingly, as though you were serving the Lord himself, and not just your earthly master." Colossians 3:23 (CEV) So we are to be more than just theologs studying and internalizing the Word, we are to put what we know into action by serving Jesus in everything that we do. Are you a carpenter? The build for Jesus. Do you empty trash cans? Write technical manuals? Are you a CEO? An engineer? A bank president or a ditch digger? Then do it for the Lord. What Paul was saying was that the best way to tell Jesus that you love Him, is showing others that He loves them. Adrian Rogers was fond of saying, "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." The bottom line is that folks come to church looking for what people need most…someone to care enough to reach out, to be a friend, to say with the simplest of invitations, “I care about you. You are important to me.” How many more people would come to your church if they could feel like they are important to God, simply because they were important to His people?



Listen to how Peterson's paraphrase put that verse from Colossians. "Servants, do what you're told by your earthly masters. And don't just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you'll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance." Colossians 3:23 (The Message)