Walking as a Christian: Our Five Senses – Taste

    I know very few people who can flip through an old cookbook, read a written recipe, and determine instantly how it would taste. They gain that ability from many years of experience in cooking and/or baking; by reason of use they have become familiar with both the ingredients and the processes. They have found fulfillment in following the recipe, and trusting the directions, they are confident that everything will turn out right in the end.

    Not all are like that. Many will glance at the heavy cookbook and say, “Ugh! Too many words, looks too difficult; who has the time? I need something easier!” While others will look at the cookbook and ask where the pictures are – they need to see the end results for motivation before they even begin to follow a recipe.

    But anyone who has been to a potluck* knows that tasting something new to you and liking it is the biggest motivator toward asking who made it and how. You are much more likely to take that recipe and try it out for yourself – gathering the ingredients, following the directions, and discovering the wonderful end results – simply because you tasted it and came to know that it was good!

*a meal where everyone attending brings a dish of food to share

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalm 34:8 NKJV)

    David pleads with those who are on the edge of understanding, those who are not sure of who they can trust. He implores them to take God at His word, trust Him, and try doing what He says – follow His instructions, discover the good end results!  We are to do just as David did and encourage others to “taste and see that the LORD is good” – just try a bite, so to speak, by inviting them to church services or a bible study (“Come and see,” John 1:39, 46; 4:29). Beyond that we can encourage them to read and study with us, so they can learn of God’s “ingredients” and “directions” and how they will come together into something worth having in their life.

    It’s important to note that we oftentimes become the “pictures” in the cookbook for those on the edge of understanding – they look at us and determine if we exhibit an end result that is worth the effort to try to achieve for themselves – so we need to be careful that our “ingredients” and “methods” are according to His recipe!

    We, who have tasted that the LORD is good, need to develop an appetite for His word; as we learn to trust and obey the first principles, we need to grow and begin to taste (try so we can understand) bigger bites and portions – things that require more chewing (meditating and thinking time), so that we can train our senses to properly discern what is good and what is bad.

“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 if 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 t I discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:12-14 NKJV)

    God gave us His word and He wants us to hear it (Romans 10:17), He wants us to taste His good word and the powers of the age to come (savour the hope one can have beyond this life) and then trust Him enough to follow His directions (James 1:21-25); He wants us to taste His heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit so we can gain knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual understanding (Colossians 1:9-14).

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” (Hebrews 6:4-6 NKJV)

    If you have tasted the good things of God and then fall away, there will be nothing new delivered – there is no new ‘recipe’ to try or ‘cookbook’ that will be manufactured to renew your interest in Him. If you have sat at the table He has prepared for you (Psalm 23:5), if you at one time joyed in the search of the unending treasures of His wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2-3), but now, for whatever reason, have decided that the junk food offered by the world is more appealing, there will be nothing new offered that will bring you back – and your rejection of God’s goodness and provision causes Jesus and His sacrifice to be belittled and blasphemed by the world you have turned to – you’ve put Him and all He has done for you to an open shame. Only humbling yourself in repentance, acknowledging the corruption of the world’s offerings and spewing them out (turning wholly from them), and once again regaining a taste for the good things of God can allow you a seat at His table once more – and it is only by God’s grace and mercy that will happen.

    We need to develop our sense of taste for what is good. Only God is good. His word is good. Follow the instructions of Philippians 4:8, think on (chew on) only what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy – that is God and His word! – and trust, after diligently following His directions, that everything will turn out right in the end (Hebrews 11:6, 2 Timothy 1:8-12, Romans 8:28)!

    If you have tasted and saw that the LORD is good, keep building your appetite for His goodness and keep following His instructions – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6, consider also Psalm 34:10) – God’s word will provide endless “meals” that will nourish you and allow you to grow (2 Peter 3:18) and flourish!!

You can do it! So can I!!