Don’t Neglect the Food

By Peter Thorniley

“If you’re going to get stronger, you’ve got to eat and work out,” said John Jacobs as we sat at breakfast. He weighed 300 lbs and could bench press 650 lbs. I watched his 21” biceps as he picked up another plate of breakfast. “I was in high school when I started drinking a gallon of milk a day and working out. “I was 3^rd in Louisiana in power lifting. After teaching a Bible study at the local prison, a detective told me if I was handcuffed, I could break them, pulling them apart. He handcuffed me and I broke them. After that I advertized my prison Bible study telling that I would break a set of police handcuffs and inflate a hot water bottle until it exploded. I had 25 times the crowd for that Bible meeting. That was the start of the Power Team.

I watched John Jacobs break two sets of handcuffs, tear apart 3” thick phone books, bend 1” steel rods, break baseball bats, etc. Though I won’t ever be that strong physically, I became much stronger in the Lord once I started to feed and work out from His word. I had incredible peace knowing God is working out His plans on Earth and I didn’t have to be upset about the wrongs in the world. I had incredible confidence in God knowing He was working all things for good. I can’t tell you how good it is to know God’s Word and understand what He’s doing.

The other day at the local all-you-can-eat restaurant, I watched people cram down the food. Many were building Mount Everest piles of food on their plates. God asked me as I was on my fourth plate, “Pete do you pig out on my word? You want all you can take of food after you pay here; do you eat all you can from me?” “Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

Do we eat all we can from God’s word? Do we eat on a regular basis? Do we even eat enough? Do we eat when we’re hungry or even realize how hungry we are? There’s only one way to grow in God - that’s to eat His word.

Peter Thorniley writes from Talent, Oregon.