Rev. A. Linford
SPIRITUAL OSMOSIS
Botanists tell us that some plants take in water nutrients by a process called OSMOSIS. Surrounding moisture is absorbed through an extremely thin membrane into the metabolic system. The plant is nourished imperceptibly.
So with us. We cannot live spiritually without the God as preserved for us in Holy Scripture; but there is) than one way of imbibing this essential water of life.
Ear culture: “Who hath believed our report”, said Isaiah 53:1. Paul takes this up and states that “faith come hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 11 Soul-food can enter by EAR-GATE (to follow Bunyan).
Eye culture: “Blessed is he that readeth …. the words prophecy” (Rev 1:3). This applies to the whole Bible. Book of God is “milk” to the spiritual babe, and “meat” the mature saint (1 Pet 2:2, Heb 5:12-14). But we must only ingest it by reading, we must digest it by meditation
Heart culture: This is where osmosis becomes a process. Paul exhorted Timothy not only to meditate “these things, (that is Biblical instruction) but also “to give thyself wholly to them” (1 Tim 4:15) literally “be in … them”. Thus surrounded by “the water of the word” we may absorb it until it becomes part of our very being, a lasting source of soul-nurture, a permanent ministry of our culture inner man, the Word in us, part of us, our very life.
