Pronounced: (mel – ee ag-ree-os)
Mark 1:6 - "John was clothed with camel's hair and {wore} a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey."
Over the past few months, I've run into both former students and old classmates of mine, whom I once knew to be in the Christian faith but since have fallen away. I've also encountered those who have told me that they've seen Christianity and found it lacking.
And after a little bit of studying about their search, their contacts and their place of worship, I can see what they mean.
They hit the A.S. Christianity...."artificial sweetener Christianity."
And we have no ones to blame but ourselves when we see people turned off by it.
I run into more and more people who are tired of the concert-type of gatherings - they want the direction to be toward Jesus, and how they can know him as the Bible intends. No games, no traditions.
I meet people who don't want a pastor who tells anecdotes and one-liners... they want someone who digs into the depths of the Scripture, with commentary limited to a helpmeet of how God intended for us to use this in today's day and time.
I am encountering people who want the "meli agrios" - the wild honey of Jesus' message. They want the grassroots works and words of the Messiah. Wow - and when they get it, they're changed, my friend.
Like Stewart in North Carolina, who sat in my office and wrestled with the problem of a death in his family. When he saw what Jesus offered, BAM! Stewart was a changed man. He became a joyous and energetic follower of Christ who was happy.
Like Jeanine, who came out of the depths of depravity from the Tenderloin district of San Francisco and met me in California, telling me that if she could not get the roots of Jesus' forgiveness and grace, she would end her life that night. Let me tell you, when she realized - through the Bible, not my opinion - the real Jesus and what He did for her, she changed that instant. The depression left, the guilt and the slavery to sin. As I watched her the next few weeks, I saw Jeanine grow in an amazing display of relief, comfort, and open joy because she was able to taste freely of the Wild Honey of Jesus' message.
Man, oh, man. We need to get back to this Wild Honey. Jesus, take us back to the basics.
Pronounced: (mel – ee ag-ree-os)
