I’m So Glad the Postman Brought These!
Farifteh (Frith) Robb writes from Edinburgh that her spirits lifted when these two books arrived in the mail delivery. “They cheered me up,” she wrote.
Frith herself is a gifted author and tells the story of God’s kindness to her in her memoir Unexpected Grace, also made available through Great Writing Publications. More info HERE.
Observant readers of this post will pay attention to the detail of the coffee cup, too, testimony of Frith’s recent visit to the beautiful upstate of South Carolina
Enjoy reading the meditation (#2 from Book 6) below…
From God’s Word, the Bible…
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil.
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Hebrews 5:12-6:2
Milk and Meat
We know the Bible is both milk for spiritual babes and meat for the spiritually mature. We also know that we are not to continue to subsist on the milk of the Word. We’re to progress to the meat of the Word.
So we’re face to face with an important question: at what point does the Word of God cease to be milk for us and become meat?
I mentioned in the previous reading that some think the milk of the Word has to do with Christ and His salvation, and we are to graduate from those truths to the greater truths of the Spirit. Imagine it! The Christian graduating from Christ!
But the Christian moving from milk to meat is not a matter of leaving certain doctrines behind. It is rather a matter of coming to a greater understanding of those doctrines. It is building on the simple doctrines that we heard when we first accepted Christ.
Doesn’t the book of Hebrews tell us to leave “the elementary principles of Christ”? Yes, but this leaving shouldn’t be understood in the sense of departing from a place to never return again. It should rather be likened to a man building a house. He lays the foundation, and then he leaves it so he can go on to build on top of it. He doesn’t leave the foundation by destroying it or by denying that it is there.
The author of Hebrews was concerned about his readers because, after laying the foundation and starting to build the house, they were acting as if they wanted to destroy the house and the foundation so they could start all over.
These people should have been at the meat level. That means they should have been able to teach others, and they should have been able to discern between true and false teaching (Heb. 5:12-14). But they were back at the milk level—unable to teach and unable to discern.
I was very much at the milk level in the early days of my Christian life. My understanding of salvation was very simple and elemental when I came to Christ. I knew I was a sinner. I knew Jesus was the Savior. I knew I must repent of my sins and trust Jesus as my Savior. I came repenting and believing, and I was saved.
But I didn’t stay there. As I read God’s Word, read about God’s Word, and heard godly men preach, I began to move off the milk level to the meat level. It wasn’t that I ceased to be interested in Christ and salvation. Far from it! I became more and more interested in Him and His work of salvation. As I learned, I was amazed at the glories folded into the simple gospel.
For example, if I had been asked as a new Christian to identify the three mediatorial offices of Christ (prophet, priest, and king) and explain each one, I would have been at a loss. With the passing of time, however, I learned about these offices and rejoiced in them.
If I had been asked on the day of my conversion to explain how Jesus could pay for our sin in the six hours He was on the cross, I would have been bewildered.
On the other hand, I was easy prey in those days for those who had mistaken notions about Christ and His redeeming work. I now shake my head in amazement at some of the “teachings” that I simply accepted at face value. One especially comes to mind—that teaching that suggests that God tried first one plan of salvation, then another, then another, and finally decided to send His Son. The truth is God has always had only one plan of salvation, and that plan is His Son.
Am I where I want to be and need to be in the spiritual realm? No. After all these years, I can say with Paul: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended…” (Phil. 4:13).
When it comes to the deep truths of Christ, there should be an end to the milk, but there will never be an end to the meat. There will always be more to understand, and each new understanding will bring greater wonder and awe.