Have we become:
I found some nourishing meat the other day in a book called Fresh Eyes on Jesus' Parables by Doug Newton. If anyone is hungering for meat in a menu of reduced calories, Newton is worth considering.... such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil1?
Previous Skimmed Milk: http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2010/10/skimmed-milk.html
Added Feb. 11, 2019
More Meat: Fresh Eyes on Jesus' Miracles by Doug Newton. Reading Newton is, for me, like breaking free from a diet of repetitive, recycling scripture sameness that has become habitual. As he says:
What if the commonplace understanding of a Bible story or a well-known Scripture passage is the very thing keeping us from seeing the text in a new, life-transforming way?----------------------/
We all find ourselves facing this problem when we study the Bible. We believe Scripture is living and powerful. But many of us, after a genuine encounter with God followed by faithful Bible study and many sermons, became so familiar with Scripture that it lost its impact. The Bible became a book of riddles to be solved. Once we “figured out what a passage meant,” we checked it off and moved on. We’ve seen these stories too many times, and everyone who’s been a Christian for even a year or two knows how that voracious appetite for the Word quickly fades.
Pastors and Bible teachers craft a message from a particular text, and the lesson they convey becomes the way we understand the passage from that point on. Within a few short years, it feels like we’re hearing the same thing over and over again. We begin to approach the Bible with less zip and zeal. Familiarity may not always breed contempt, but it does tend to breed complacency.2
1. New Testament | Hebrews 5:12-14 ~ For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. See also:
Old Testament | Isaiah 28:9 ~ Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
New Testament | 1 Corinthians 3:2 ~ I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
2. Newton, Doug. Fresh Eyes on Jesus' Miracles: Discovering New Insights in Familiar Passages (Kindle Locations 176-184). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.
