Chocolate Milk

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.  1 Peter 2:2-3

I really feel like I have the most non-random, random encounters of God. (There are NO coincidences, haha.)  So let me explain.

I was dropping off a friend of my friend after finishing getting my hair done.  He is a make-up artist and we talked on the way, about how he came to be in Atlanta, and what is his ultimate goal.  At some point in the conversation, he asked me what is my sign.  I said huh because I wasn't totally listening at that very moment, and he repeated it.  I replied, "oh, I'm a Cancer."  He then told me I have sweet spirit but can be crabby.  I burst out laughing because its true.  Then I thought about how a lot of stuff astrology and horoscopes have to say about people born around my time of the year are true.  Then somewhere in those thoughts and words buzzing around my head, God spoke to me about how religion and spirituality are now flavored or enhanced by these things that are not of God.  Growing up, I LOVED to drink chocolate and strawberry milk.  So it dawned on me: pure milk is what we need, but chocolate milk is what we want, and subsequently drink. 

Nowadays, in many churches, in many homes, and in many of the minds of the masses, there are beliefs that are not biblically based or that are variations of the word of God.  From Christian denominational traditions to the mainstream inclusion of astrology, voodoo, witchcraft, and other religions and New Age movements as parts of our everyday life and personal belief systems, there are many things that are flavoring the pure milk.  Sure, you may still be getting milk, but at what cost?  What are you sacrificing--are you getting whole milk, that full fat, pure milk of the Lord, or are you getting skim milk or 2% milk?  What are you adding to it?  What has been taken away from it?

I don't know why that stuck out in my mind.  I guess to show how we are easily deceived and make things 'doctrinal' that really should not be.  Or maybe to show how easily we get caught up in worldly things, flavoring that milk, until there is no longer any milk left, but the damaged caused by the additives.  Case in point, when we don't truly know the word of God, we get confused...and I hope you know that the enemy is the author of confusion, seeking to corrupt us all and damn us to eternity separate from the Father.

We are susceptible to it because of the society we live in.  We get caught up in them because they sound better than what the Bible tells us to do: making it wrong to offer correction to a brother or sister in Christ and right to encourage their downfall.  Religious freedom and tolerance allow for a variety of belief systems to flourish.  As a result, strangely enough, this tolerance promotes religious swirling.  By swirling I mean many churches and religious figures add a little bit of this and a little bit of that to get more people through the doors, and the more that happens, the more watered down the Word will be.  It is my hope that God corrects that in me, that I always accurately represent Him to the world and I pray you the same!

So I ask you today to ask yourself, are you getting pure milk?  Are you taking what you hear at face value because the preacher, or your teacher, or your friends, or your mom said it?  Or are you studying the Word for yourself, spending time with God for yourself, and praying, so that you can adequately test those things that come along--because they most surely will--and discerning for yourself through the help of the Holy Spirit, that which is truth?  Be careful, be leery, because all it takes is a turn off, a omitted word, or a rearrangement of the words, as the serpent did with Eve, to fall.  And if it sounds good and tastes kind of sweet, you might be getting some chocolate powder added to your milk!

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  2The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "  4"You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. 5"For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  Genesis 3:1-7