Our Full Meal Deal
I have always loved Dairy Queen, not only for their Dilly Bars, Peanut Buster Parfaits, and all the mouth-watering flavors of their famous Blizzards, but I miss the great taste and bargain of the Full Meal Deals. The Full Meal Deal was an ‘80s promotion that offered a hamburger, crunchy fries, a sundae, and a drink for—wait for it—$2.79. Oh my, those were the days.
As good as the Full Meal Deal was in my life, it only briefly satisfied my hunger pangs for a few hours and then I was hungering and thirsting for some more sustenance. In fact, The Full Meal Deal did nothing for my mental, emotional, or spiritual life. It might have been a meal and a good deal, but it was never really filling in the sense that it satisfied my life.
One of the many reasons Christianity is so amazing and Jesus Christ is “the Bread of life” is because of God’s Full Meal Deal, so to speak.
Let this water your spiritual taste buds:
In Christ, you and I are gifted a fully-loaded salvation. Colossians 2:10 says “in Him you have been made complete.” Ephesians 1:3 says you have been “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” 2 Peter 1:3 says, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”
In Christ, you and I are gifted a fully-loaded Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit, the gift of God living inside of us, convicting us, sealing us, gifting us, filling us, sanctifying us, and empowering us to experience and enjoy the fullness of our salvation. Galatians 3:3 says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” The Holy Spirit perfects us in Christ.
In Christ, you and I are gifted the fully-loaded Scriptures. This inspired, authoritative, infallible Word of God is “able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). It also is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).
What a fullness, what a completeness, what a sufficiency God has blessed us with. We couldn’t ask for more than getting it all in Christ. His life satisfies and doesn’t need additives, alterations or improvements. It is fully loaded and we never need to think there is reason to pursue something more or different or new or better.
We get to spend our life working out this fullness together in everyday life.
I love how the Apostle John appropriately sums it all up: “for of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace” (John 1:16).
Enjoy your Full Meal Deal in Christ. He paid for it and it never stops tasting so good (Psalm 34:8).
Pastor Jeff