John 21:15-18 – When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "You know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." (NIV)
A local Christian bookstore uses paper sacks for their merchandise, with the lettering Feed My Sheep on the side. Recently, while waiting in line to make a purchase, a friendly young man ahead of me commented on this logo.
"There's lots of food in this store to feed the sheep. Everything in the store is food for the spiritual appetite," he said, looking around at the books that lined the shelves.
How appropriately said. In this day of food, food, and more food, we sometimes forget that Jesus said that we needed spiritual food. Our local food bank is careful to place devotional material in each bag of groceries given out. This is their way of saying that spiritual food is needful also. Many of our recipients comment on how much it means to them.
When Jesus commanded Peter to be the leader of the Jesus Movement that would start His ministry spreading throughout the world, He asked him to feed His lambs. The Word was to be the spiritual bread of life that man would feed upon.
We still need to feed on the Word of God daily, to sustain our spiritual bodies, and to keep them healthy and nourished. We need people like Peter, writers, bookstore operators, and people like us, to spread the Word by which our spiritual bodies are fed.
Prayer: Lord, help us to feed our souls generously on Your spiritual food, that we may be well nourished. Keep us aware of our need to feed Your sheep. Amen.
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