How can I connect with God through the Bible?
Connecting with God is like finding your next favorite song of all-time.
Imagine you listen to the radio as you go about your day. You enjoy the music, but then somewhere, one song really catches your ear. You can’t wait for them to play it again. You need to KNOW the ARTIST behind the music. You sing along and engage with the song. Then you go deeper and find the LYRICS online. You read them and are amazed by the poetry of the song on a whole new level.
The LYRICS to the song is the Word of God - the Scripture or the Bible. It’s no wonder why the first of Jesus’ parables recorded in the gospels teaches on how we connect with God through the Bible. The teaching has been the named the Parable of the Sower by several translations. Here is my update to this famous parable, titled “The Parable of the Chinese Food Delivery Guy.”
The Parable of the Chinese Food Delivery Guy
The way God operates and the way people respond to his message is like Chinese food takeout menus. Imagine a Chinese food delivery guy is given a task. He must place the takeout menu for a new Chinese restaurant underneath every door of every apartment building in the vicinity. He goes to work and doesn’t discriminate against any apartment for race, religion, orientation, nothing. Did I mention the restaurant boasts better, cleaner, healthier food? Not to mention free stuff when your order is $10 or more?
So everyone comes home from a long day of work and discovers this new menu from a restaurant they never knew existed. There are four different responses.
First, there’s the person who takes one look at the menu and says “Oh great! Another one of these!” She is jaded. She doesn’t even take the menu into her apartment and sighs, “these places are all the same.” She tosses the menu out into the hall — littering.
Second, there’s the person who picks up the menu and says, “Hmm…. a new place! This sound good, really good in fact!” He decides that next time he wants Chinese food, he’s going to order from this place. Two weeks later, he comes home late from work and is starving — like the only thing he had to eat was a cup of coffee starving! So what does he do? He orders Chinese food from the same place he always does. He thinks, “I have to go with what I’m familiar with.” That initial excitement about the new Chinese restaurant fades over the next couple of weeks and before you know it, the menu is in the garbage.
Third, there’s the person who picks up the menu and is excited about trying it. He brings it into the apartment and throws onto a table with a bunch of other bills, cards, bank statements, insurance forms, loan forms, class dues, reunion notices – just everything you could imagine going on in this person’s life. As you can imagine, as more of these unopened letters come in, he piles more mail onto the table and the menu gets buried. He eventually forgets about it.
Fourth, there’s the person who sees the menu, takes into the apartment, and reads it over. Her mind is set on trying this new place. She goes through the menu and circles the things that sound delicious. She gets a magnet and puts the menu on her fridge so she won’t forget. A few days later, she places her order. She savors each bite and loves this great find! It really is the best Chinese food she’s ever had! She loves it so much that she tells all her friends.
Would you believe me if I told you that she even found a venture capitalist to invest in the new restaurant? Yes, her love of this restaurant, her publicity, and her connections make it a huge success! In just a few short years, the owner not only expands, but takes his restaurant international, delivering to people all over the world.
