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Key Bible Verse: They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth (Acts 17:11). Bonus Reading: Acts 17:10–12

Spiritual junk food is whatever curbs our appetite for God himself—filling us up without providing the nutritional value a healthy soul requires. A spiritual-junk-food "high" can result from:

• Just going to church on Sunday morning and punching the "one-hour-a-week time clock." You get your fill, but if that's all you get, those calories can be pretty empty.
  
  
• Watching TV. This can be inspirational, but if all you do is watch other people talk about their walk with the Lord, you're in danger of malnutrition.
  
  
• Reading devotional booklets and Christian books. While, in balance, these are healthy foods that help us understand the Bible and its practical truths, if these authors' insights are all we rely on, we never develop the ability to digest for ourselves what comes from chewing on God's Word and drinking in His presence in prayer.
  
  

No matter how satisfying spiritual junk food may seem, what isn't obtained through personal discovery is sure to burn off quickly in the face of personal testing. Nothing takes the place of firsthand study of the Bible and personal communication with God in prayer.

—Greg Asimakoupoulos in Jesus: The People's Choice

My Response: I'll give more time to thoughtfully weigh this week's Bible bonus readings.

Thought to Apply: The Bible sheds a lot of light on the commentaries.
—Johnny Cash (singer)

Adapted from: Jesus: The People's Choice (Mainstay, 1999) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, help me regularly to go straight to Your Word and find direction and nourishment.

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