When God offers you a taste test
Imagine going to a restaurant and eating your meal in the dark. The first venture of this kind took place in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1999, and is claimed to be the world’s first dark restaurant. Since then, dark dining has popped up in cities all around the world. Without any visual stimulus, people who eat in the dark focus even more than usual upon how the food tastes while dining in this bizarre manner.
A woman who attended “Dinner in the Dark” at a restaurant in New York City said, “It really heightens your other senses, and your connection with the people you are with becomes more intimate and enjoyable.” Someone in Singapore said, “I had a really unique and sensory dining experience. I had to depend on smell, touch and taste to figure out the food in the dark.”
Now compare dark dinners to what people experience when they eat spiritual food. In both cases, you don’t see what you are eating, but you definitely know whether or not it tastes good. When dining in the dark, your other senses are heightened. When eating spiritual food, your soul is nourished with peace and power if your faith is in the Prince of Peace.
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Scripture invites us to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). God essentially offers man a taste test, but you have no idea how good this spiritual food tastes until you actually trust Christ as your Savior. This is one reason millions of grateful Christians today encourage their family members and friends to come to Christ in order to experience deep satisfaction. Evangelism has been described as one beggar telling another beggar where he has found bread.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).
The taste test God offers people is not complicated. Repent. Come to me and believe the good news. Trust me to forgive your sins. This straightforward proposition has eternal ramifications. Your soul is immortal, but it must come alive through faith in Christ, and it must be nourished by the bread of life.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-55).
God is offering you a taste test in this holy moment. It is your opportunity to take God at his Word as you taste and see that the Lord is good. Will you take God up on His offer, or instead, refuse to come to the One who died on the cross to pay for your sins? If you refuse to feed your soul on Christ, you are turning down God’s gift of everlasting life in Heaven.
Jesus said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). And this fact is what led Peter to tell Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).
You too can come to know what Peter and the other apostles knew. The Lord will feed your soul as you rely upon Christ's death on the cross as the basis of your forgiveness. But the words of eternal life will not benefit you if you reject them and refuse to believe God’s promise.
Jesus said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:1-18).
Condemnation is horrible, while salvation is wonderful. Do you desire to be saved from your sins? “The Lord satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (Psalm 107:9).
It is impossible to know how much satisfaction this spiritual food provides until you come to Jesus in faith and take the taste test. Those who are critical of Christianity have never tasted God’s grace within their soul. And until you humble yourself before the Lord in repentance and faith, you will never experience the joy of salvation. Whether you currently realize it or not, you desperately need the soul food that only Jesus can provide.
Are you hungry and thirsty for God? You would be wise to ask the Lord to impress upon your heart and mind your sin and your Savior. God’s Word reminds us, “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2).
John Calvin said, “Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection.” Are you craving material prosperity, or spiritual satisfaction? There is still time to accept God’s offer.
“Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17).
Simply accept God’s offer by faith.
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
