Word Count: 671

Contact Jerry Ousley

The Personal Famine

by Jerry Ousley  
7/11/2014 / Christian Living

I've never experienced a famine; can't say that I want to. The Lord has blessed me so far in life and I can't say that I really know what hunger is. Oh, I've had days when I went several hours without food and got a few hunger cramps in my stomach, and there have been times when I fasted for a few meals. But to say that I've been in a place where I couldn't get food, or that I couldn't afford food, well, I can't. None of us knows what the future holds but for now I am humbled and thankful for God's provision.

That isn't to say that there haven't been periods in life when we couldn't eat steak and lobster. When Deb and I were first married I guess we were considered in the poverty bracket. We lived in a small mobile home, didn't have a telephone the first three years, both worked jobs bringing home about $20,000.00 to $25,000.00 a year together and spent a whopping $25.00 per week on groceries. Granted, things weren't as expensive as they are now, but still we weren't mentioned in the Fortune 500 (and still aren't).

I remember then that one of the foods we could afford was eggs. We ate eggs for breakfast and often had egg sandwiches for lunch, and surprisingly had eggs for supper (we weren't well-off enough to call it dinner). I got tired of eggs quickly. When things got a little better I stopped eating eggs for a while. Just the thought of them turned my stomach. But now that things are better I'm eating eggs again. There are times when a good omelet for supper (after all those years it's hard to change it to dinner) tastes just fine.

I believe that we are falling into a time of spiritual famine. The word of God is abundant. Today there are so many versions of the Bible to pick from that it's almost like trying to get a bag of potato chips; do I get barbecue, garlic flavored chips, toasted, fried, or a host of other varieties? I went in the store just the other day and there were so many selections that I had to ask a store employee where they kept the plain old potato chips!

In the U.S. there is an abundance of churches in nearly every town. If a person wants to go to church there simply is no excuse. We live in a time when a person can learn about God if they want to.

So why do I say that we are in a time of spiritual famine? It is because even though the Gospel is abundantly available, many have chosen to ignore it, even many in those before mentioned churches.

The spiritual famine runs much deeper. The famine in the Church is stemmed greatly because there is a spiritual famine in the lives of way too many Christians. Though the Bible is readily available they choose to never read it. Consequently their lives are deprived of the spiritual food necessary for spiritual growth.

As spoken of in Joel 1, the predators of the soul have been allowed to eat away the nourishment necessary to the life of a Christian. But we can stop those predators. We can turn things around very simply by beginning our own time of worship and Bible study. If we are to change our lives it is imperative that we begin to stop our own spiritual starvation first.

Determine right now, today, that it is going to cease. We are going to grow closer to our God by spending time with Him. We are going to get to know Him just like we'd get to know a friend by talking with Him, reading about Him and becoming interested in what pleases Him. You'll soon find that you want to do it. It will feel just like a big bite of steak hitting an otherwise empty stomach, and that's a good feeling.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be! Click here and TRUST JESUS NOW

Read more articles by Jerry Ousley

Like reading Christian Articles? Check out some more options. Read articles in Main Site Articles, Most Read Articles or our highly acclaimed Challenge Articles. Read Great New Release Christian Books for FREE in our Free Reads for Reviews Program. Or enter a keyword for a topic in the search box to search our articles.

Enter comments below. Due to spam, all hyperlinks posted in the comments are now immediately disabled by our system.

Please type the following word below:

Not readable? Change text.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

Hire a Christian Writer, Christian Writer Wanted, Christian Writer Needed, Christian Content Needed, Find a Christian Editor, Hire a Christian Editor, Christian Editor, Find a Christian Writer