Of Buzzards and Eagles

   As I was driving home the other day, I came across a racoon that had been run over in the road. Feeding on its carcass were two old vultures, and it gave me a message idea. The buzzards, as they're known here in East Tennessee, mainly  only feed on rotting flesh. Death and decay do not deter them, rather attract them. The same is the spiritual life of the unbeliever. They fill their lives with things that do not have anything of godly value. The things they watch, listen to and speak are not things of God. Romans 8:5-6 says; "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Take for example the opposite of the vulture, the bald eagle. It soars high and swoops down and grabs living food from rivers and lakes. Its diet are fish and other smaller living things. The eagle is beautiful and majestic. Buzzards? Not the same. 

 After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus gives the crowd a little analogy. In John 6:35, He tells them, "I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me shall never hunger." It goes on to say in verse 63 that the words Jesus spoke were life. Jesus IS life, and the words He speaks give life. In Matthew 5:6 Jesus tells the multitude, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." He wasn't talking about physical hunger, because the children of Israel ate the manna from heaven and they died. He was talking about spiritual hunger. He loved speaking in parables and analogies. He says in John 6:26 to not labor for the food that perishes but for the food which endures to eternal life. Don't get it twisted; He didn't say that we didn't need to eat, but our main focus should be on the Bread of Life, which leads to an eternity with Him. 

  Proverbs 15:14 says that the heart of him who seeks understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on foolishness. You would have to be living under a rock to not know that this world has lost its collective mind. You have men wanting to be women and women wanting to be men. You have men dressed as women reading story books to children. Romans 1:24-27 says this; "Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanliness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due." Paul was talking about the children of Israel, but we see this kind of behavior running rampant in today's society as well. These people are feeding on the death and decay of sin, and are regurgitating it all over the world. 

 Philippians 4:8 offers this; "Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy- meditate (feast) on these things" We need to stop feeding our minds with the things of this world. As the saying goes, "garbage in, garbage out". The things that we put in our mind are the things that come out of us. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 15 verse 17, "Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the hear, and they defile a man." Let's stop feeding on the carcasses of the world, and let's eat from the Bread of Life, and let the things that come out of our mouth be used for the edification of our fellow man. Now go, and have a God day. Love ya, mean it.