Day 1: Beginning with the End in Sight

The Search for Meaning

“Our greatest desire, greater even than the desire for happiness,
is that our lives mean something.”

Daniel Taylor, Tell Me A Story

If you study the history of humanity, you cannot miss seeing our restless, unending, search for meaning in life. In order to make sense of life, we all must find the answers to three foundational questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here on earth? Where am I going? This search for meaning drives scientists to probe earth and sky looking for answers, while philosophers formulate complex systems of thought to explain our origin, our purpose, and our destiny. Everyone wants to know the truth. But what is The Truth regarding our origin, our existence, our purpose, and very importantly, our ultimate destination? 

The beginning of something is always significant. How we begin often determines where we will end up, where we will finish. It is important to have a view of where we are going so that we can see if we are making progress along the way. We are going to begin this study with this statement:

The only way for us to find the meaningful and fulfilling life that we desire is
to submit to the Truth of the Word of God and follow Jesus our Creator, Savior and King.

This statement may sound too exclusive or radical to you. You may not accept it completely, or you may not believe it at all. You may believe it, but you don’t know how to live it out. We have become convinced that this statement is true and everything that we will present from this point forward will seek to give the reasons we believe it is so. If you are willing to move on with us then we will begin where Jesus himself began:

Mark 1:14–17
…Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the Good News of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news!”

As He was passing along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother. They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. 1:17 “Follow Me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people!”

Jesus began His teaching with a revolutionary statement: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is near.” Jesus’ proclamation that The Kingdom was near challenged His audience’s understanding of reality. This statement still challenges our understanding of reality. It is as powerful today as it was when Jesus first said these words over 2000 years ago. 

This short passage touches on most of the central, core truths and ideas that we are going to be exploring and developing in this first phase Discovering the Way: The Good News, The Kingdom, Repentance, Believing, Following Jesus. These are all basic topics that we will be exploring all throughout these readings.

Just as Jesus called His first students to trust and follow Him, He is still calling us to do the same.

We will come back to this passage a little later this week. As we close today, let’s talk about what this study is all about.

What is MilktoMeat?

MilktoMeat is a roadmap designed to show you the way of true life that God our Father provided for us in Jesus His unique Son through the power of His Holy Spirit. It is designed to provide the proper diet and exercise any hungry and willing student needs in order to grow spiritually healthy so that he or she is also equipped to teach and train others in the fundamentals of following Jesus. 

MilktoMeat is the title that we have given to our larger curriculum for spiritual formation and discipleship. In the Bible, “milk” is used in a couple of passages to refer to the diet of a “spiritual babe” or “child” – someone who is new to the teachings of Christ and who is not ready for “meat” or solid food. “Meat” or “solid food” is a reference to teaching that mature followers of Christ can digest for greater spiritual nourishment. This curriculum is designed to begin with the basic, core, fundamental teachings of the Christian Faith (the “milk”) and then move to the deeper, sometimes more difficult teachings (the “meat”) necessary to grow to spiritual maturity.

And as we begin it is important to understand that many of the “milk” teachings – the fundamental, first things that you need to know – are sometimes challenging. Jesus calls us to a way of life that is fundamentally and radically different from all others. We will start with the “basic building blocks” and then build on these all throughout this study. Some of the things we will discuss early on may not become completely clear to you until later. The point is, if you hold on for the journey and just read along with us, things will get clearer the further you go.

Tomorrow, we will talk about how Jesus is central to all things.

*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.