On the occasion of....

I have a ten year old cousin brother named Jacob who owns a pocket sized Bible. The other day I saw his Bible laying on the computer table and just started to flip through the pages. On the first few pages of most Bibles is a gift certificate to fill before you give it as a gift to someone. Apparently Jacob had filled his certificate himself (it was his handwriting) and it went like this: Presented to "Jacob Gill" from "Mum" on the occasion of "the church". At first I thought that the last part was pretty funny. But then a thought suddenly struck me, forcefully. How truthful and honest little children are. My Bible doesn't have a certificate attached to it but many times, the only time I actually bother to read it is on the occasion of
"the church". The rest of the week, it just lies there. No wonder our spiritual lives are so week if not dead. God's word is the bread of life. Jesus told the devil, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt.4:4). We cannot even bear the idea of living without food for a week, yet we think our spiritual lives can survive on a weekly dose of our spiritual food. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "give us this day our daily bread", not monthly not weekly, daily bread. The Isrealitites were told in the wilderness, to gather the fresh manna or heavenly bread, every day. Adrian Plass, in his humorous yet thoughtful book, Bacon sandwiches and salvation: the A-Z of Christian life, makes a very true to life comment. The book runs like a dictionary from A to Z in which adiran gives his own definitions of a selection of words. Under letter "E" you would read:

Everyday with Jesus: excellent daily Bible notes written by Selwyn Hughes. Future publications for the lazier believers among us might usefully include every other day with Jesus or once a week if I remember with Jesus or random days in no particular pattern with Jesus or even its ages since I last spent time with Jesus.

Is is easier to laugh away his comment but difficult to realize that we need to change our habbits and pay attention to our daily diet of God's Word.