"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance."  Is.55:2

by Dwight Edwards

   Funny how some things stick with you. I've never forgotten something Luis Palau said years ago when addressing a group of us pastors and lay leaders. He posed the question, "What's the first thing a Christian should do with his salvation?" Now the answer to that question was utterly predictable. Whenever an evangelist/missionary asks a question like that, you know but know, what's coming. Any evangelist worth his salt, any missionary back on furlough, will tell you the same thing - "give it away, share it with others, proclaim it to your friends...", or something to that effect. And when one of the world's foremost evangelist/missionary poses the question...well, we all know what's on its way.

  That's why Luis's answer caught me completely off guard. Delightfully so. And that's probably why I remember it to this day. He looked out over the audience and with that great smile of his said emphatically, "Enjoy it!... The very first thing every Christian should do with their salvation is to take time to enjoy it to the hilt."

  What? Could he really be saying this? Yes he was, in no uncertain terms. Not only that, he was doing so with no qualifying remarks or attempts to "balance" his radical assertion. His comments reminded me of the intriguing quote from C.S. Lewis, "It is a Christian duty for everyone to be as happy as he can." Of course, what he meant was as happy in God as we can.

  But is this really biblical? Of the myriad of passages that could be used to support this idea; Is.55:2 is the one I choose for today. Note the order of the verbs - "listen...eat...delight". Not "listen...obey...proclaim" as many believers would have it. It's as if God is saying, "Take time to fully savor me. Don't just listen, but eat. Don't rush the meal though...delight in it." Hmm, maybe duty and delight are not an oxymoron after all. Perhaps they were always meant to be best of friends. Thanks Luis, I'll never forget the day you caught me off guard.