"The Cafeteria's Closed"

When it comes to the different styles of restaurants available to choose from, my favorite by far is the cafeteria style. You get a lot of different foods to choose from, and you can put different dishes together that don’t normally go together. Dishes like sweet and sour pork with macaroni and cheese for instance. Now you may be asking yourself where I’m going with this. Well where I’m going is to say that, while cafeterias go great in the area of cuisine, they don’t go so well in the area of Christianity. In my opinion, if you’re going to be a true follower of Christ, you can’t be what I like to call “a cafeteria Christian”.

A “cafeteria Christian” is someone who will open the Bible and pick out the scripture verses that they like, while disregarding the verses that they don’t. In a cafeteria, you can go through the line saying: “I’d like some of that but I don’t want any of that.” As a true Christian, you can’t go through the Bible saying things such as: “I like that John 3:16 and the whole 23rd Psalm, but I don’t want anything to do with that Matthew 5:29-30 or Romans 2:5”. You might have to look up those verses to understand what I’m talking about. I had to look them up myself, to know that I know, that I understand what I’m talking about. If you want to be a true follower of Christ (and not a cafeteria Christian), getting all that you can from Him…the whole enchilada…say to yourself: “The cafeteria’s closed!” You will find yourself in a better position to pass on to others what you have received from the Lord.

“Freely, freely, you have received. Freely, freely give. Go in my name and because you believe, others will know that I live." *


*A song I learned at a church camp when I was very young. Title and composer unknown…sorry.