Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that’s thankful that many churches have wised up and are now putting their drummers in cages. You never know when a hotheaded percussionist might start hurling drumsticks into the congregation like tiny wooden javelins. At least now, the faithful can worship in peace without having to worry about an eye being taken out.
Before we plunge into today’s article, which can become a game-changer in your life, I have two quick updates:
1) The book cover for The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded is almost finalized. Once it’s finished, I’ll show it to you. If you’re new to my work, DO NOT buy the old edition. It’s greatly flawed and incomplete. The new version has been reviewed by four top-shelf scholars, it’s far more comprehensive and accurate, and it’s slated to release next year – 2025. Possibly in the spring.
2) I appreciate all the positive responses to last week’s episode on the CHRIST IS ALL podcast. “THINGS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD ABOUT THE BIBLE.” It’s refreshing to know that so many of you have a great sense of humor. I’ll be interviewing the pastor who gave the short sermon in that episode in a future show. Most of you are subscribed to the podcast, but for those new, you can find it on any podcast platform. You’ll want to hear his, um … fascinating … sermon first.
Now for today’s featured article on spiritual taste buds.
Last month’s piece, “Some Said It Thundered,” included a promise that I’d write an article about spiritual taste buds. Well, true to my word, here it is.
In 1 Corinthians 11:14, Paul asked “Does not nature itself teach you…?”
Then in 1 Corinthians 15:46, the apostle said that the natural comes first, then the spiritual.
Point: What God put into nature teaches us spiritual truths. Keep this in mind as you read on.
Throughout the Bible, Christ is presented to us as food.
One of the exercises I do with the leaders in the “Insurgence Experience Mastermind” is we walk through all the Scriptures where the Lord Jesus is presented as food and drink.
Few things in life satisfy more than food. But without functioning taste buds, eating is pretty lame.
Why do some Christians love the Lord more than others? Why do some treasure Scripture more than others? Why do some flock to superficial ministries and shallow teachers while others have an appetite for spiritual depth?
The reason has to do with spiritual taste buds.
The fact is, most believers today are settling for spiritual fast food. They’re content with the supersized combos of watered-down wisdom and deep-fried platitudes served up at the Christian McNuggetry.
Such places cater to the masses – the suburban consumers with undeveloped palates, accustomed to a steady diet of empty calories and artificial flavors. Sure, it’s familiar and comforting, but it’s not nourishing to our spirits.
And we are what we eat. That’s true in both the natural and the spiritual.
Milk is for babies, and at some point, we are called to wean ourselves onto solid spiritual food. That is, if we’ll grow and be transformed.
The good news is that the divine banquet has been set by some, with countless delicacies and delights crafted by true spiritual chefs, flavors you cannot experience anywhere else and that cause your taste buds to burst with the sublime. But to enjoy them requires cultivating a refined spiritual palate.
For many, even Christians, Christ is an acquired taste.
Just as children usually dislike nutritious vegetables, immature believers gravitate towards the spiritual equivalent of sugary milk.
The reason for their spiritual bland palate often comes down to lack of exposure to the deeper things of God.
Unrepentant sin also dulls the spiritual senses, causing divine truth to lose its savor. Ingesting false teachings poisons the taste buds. And remaining stuck on basic principles without progressing further impairs one’s ability to discern and enjoy the fullness of Christ.
But just as physical taste buds regenerate, we can revive and develop our spiritual senses through intentional spiritual nourishment.
When a person has regenerated their taste buds, the bland gospel fare of compromise and superficiality becomes utterly unappetizing compared to the symphony of flavors found in God’s highest revelations.
In the end, developing our spiritual taste buds allows us to finally enjoy the eternal banquet God has prepared – savoring not just the milk but the entire richness of Christ.
It’s a lifelong journey of cultivating spiritual taste that both satisfies and transforms us into the glorious image of Jesus.
It’s not easy at first. The taste of the deeper Christian life is intense, foreign, challenging to our childish buds.
Real spiritual nourishment has bite to it, complexity, and nutritious grit that sticks to our spiritual ribs. It also forces us to rid ourselves of our juvenile cravings for sugary platitudes and salty homilies.
We all like to think we have refined spiritual palates. But not all Christians are connoisseurs of the deeper realities of God. And if we’re candid, most believers today are still cramming their faces with infant puree.
Ultimately, developing your spiritual taste is a never-ending process of killing your old cravings while cultivating new, vibrant ones.
Before I get practical, here are some biblical texts that speak about spiritual taste buds. (I’m not making this stuff up.)
Exodus 16:31: “And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” (The manna was a picture of Christ; His sweetness is in view in this text.)
Psalm 34:8: “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
Song of Solomon 2:3 – “Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.”
Hebrews 6:4-5: “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.”
1 Peter 2:3: “If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
Job 34:3: “For the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.” (Tasting and hearing Christ are distinct metaphors for the same thing. See my article Dull of Hearing.)
Psalm 119:103: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Here is an introductory recipe for cultivating a palate for Christ, awakening your spirit’s appetite, acquiring a taste for the divine, and refining your spiritual senses:
- Begin by purging your pantry of all the sugary, deep-fried counterfeits you’ve been housing. Learn what actually constitutes “real” food for your spirit, not those empty-calorie snack wraps you’ve convinced yourself are gourmet.
- Avoid at all costs the faux chefs. I’m referring to those hucksters peddling rotten, spoiled teachings that will leave you with spiritual food poisoning. A discerning nose is required to sniff out the authentic from the insidious. And the sense of smell always affects our sense of taste, both in the natural as well as in the spiritual.
- Start exploring the deeper journey in Christ. Not the pre-packaged airport Truth-Bars, but the locally-sourced, organic, free-range mysteries found in Scripture and from guides who have first experienced what they’re teaching. It’ll be intense and bitter at first, but stick with it. Those buds will slowly reawaken.
The masses will always gravitate toward spiritual milk, junk food, or poison. That’s why a ministry that’s popular with the masses is always average and mediocre. By contrast, that which is remarkable and transformative is for a smaller group of people who have their spiritual taste buds engaged and developed.
C.S. Lewis observed that the problem is not that our cravings are too big, but our cravings are much too small and too easily satisfied with lesser things.
This is due to underdeveloped spiritual taste buds.
In a past video, I’ve offered a blueprint for how to develop your spiritual taste buds and acquire “a taste for life” – God’s life.
Go to The Peril of Listening to Too Many Voices. Or you can read the transcript: This Problem Causes So Much Confusion.
I’ll see you next Thursday to dish out more spiritual food.
Bon Appétit,
fv
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