Here is an excerpt from that article, what I think is the heart of what Darin is sharing:
"The one common denominator that I’ve noticed in this vast religious landscape of Christian beliefs is that they are all full of hurting and hungry people. Not just hungry people - starving people! Over the years I’ve watched different Christian “Fads” come and go. I’ve
seen twitching, barking, laughing, shaking, falling, hopping and dancing. I have found that you can always gauge the level of spiritual starvation in people by what they’ll ultimately accept as food. What will they put in their spiritual mouths, chew up, swallow, and call food? I do not believe that there has been a time in my entire life quite like the one we are living in now. There has been a famine in the Church for so long that people are showing signs of extreme spiritual malnutrition. Christians today remind me of the little starving Ethiopian children we see on the “Feed the Hungry” commercials. Their spiritual bellies are swollen from a lack of nutrition, their bones are showing through their skin, and there are flies buzzing around their faces.At this point I believe that most Christians, out of sheer desperation, will eat just about anything that’s given to them. Gone are the days of meat and potatoes. Anything will do for today, as long as it fills the stomach. I watch sincere-hearted people running from dumpster to dumpster eager to find just a scrap of whatever to ease their spiritual hunger pains. People will literally travel hundreds of miles to attend a conference where supposedly the fire of God is being poured out. They’ll wait in line for four hours and give away money that they don’t even have, only to leave blaming themselves for not having received the fire they had heard so much about."
For those of us who are in the wilderness presently, manna is good, nutritious, but it isn't a three course meal and God never intended it to be. We can become like the children of Israel and yearn for meat, onions, garlic. We can get hungry for real food, and go to those places where we used to go to find food. We yearn to go back to Egypt, where we had real food, not just this manna bread and cooked manna...:bo-manna bread..." (as Keith sang).
We start to think that getting some food is better than eating only manna. We start to think that maybe we were wrong, and misunderstood what was really going on. But were we really getting fed in those franchised fast food big boxes? Consider the difference between dining at a McDonalds franchise, day after day, week after week, compared to eating fresh wholesome foods cooked well at home.
God does have a meal prepared for us. A feast set for his family. His full intention is to bring us into a land of milk and honey. Fields of grain. Vineyards rich with grapes. Olive trees dripping with oil. Trees full of fruit. All there for us to use to create great nutritious home cooked meals. Meals to eat and feast in his presence, to share with the rest of the family, to share with all who are hungry.
God has given us a thirst, a hunger for what is his. We find a true satisfaction of this hunger when we are where he wants us to be. Whether it is with manna, for a time in the wilderness. Or in a franchise once in a while. But mostly when we share the goodness of the Lord from the rich goodness he gives us.
