Day 004: Why MilktoMeat?

Christianity is built on the work and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life…” This one statement is where we get the titles for the three phases of our MilktoMeat study: Discovering The Way, Walking in the The Truth, Living The Life. Jesus is The Way—the “path,” the “road” —that leads us back to Father God. But Jesus also teaches us a Way of living in the Truth. In our readings, we will be discussing both how Jesus is THE Way and also the WAY He taught us to live.

MilktoMeat was first designed and taught by Tom Murray. His catch phrase for the study was, “Make Your Journey Worthy of Your Destination.” Over the years we have developed this study to be as impactful as possible. Our primary goal is to help you understand clearly what it means to trust and follow Jesus. But as we go, we hope to also encourage you to share what you are learning with others.

Jesus always intended for His followers and students (disciples) to be able to teach others the fundamentals, the basics of His Way of life. Unfortunately, today (just as it has been in the past) many of us have never had anyone teach us with a view to equipping us to share what we know with others as well. The spiritual health and wellness of the Body of Christ, the Church, depends on each and every member being equipped to teach others the life-giving and life-sustaining Word of Christ:

Colossians 3:16–170
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. {ESV}

So we begin this study with the end-goal in mind. This study is designed to train and equip anyone who is willing and ready to follow Jesus as He leads us in sharing what we learn from Him with others. 

How Do You Use This Study?

Although you could go through this study on your own, we would suggest getting together with someone else to study and pray together. Husbands and wives can use it as a time to grow together—it could easily be used as a daily devotion. You could also start a small group that follows along in the readings and then gets together to discuss what you are reading. We have found that this study is most effective in a small group with 3 to 4 people. This smaller group allows for honesty, vulnerability, and safety. It also tends to generate more “real life” discussion.

If you decide to use these readings for a group study, we would suggest that one person serve as the facilitator for each meeting. This person will guide the discussion. You might decide to be a facilitator and invite a few people to go through his study with you. As you move along, pass off the responsibility of facilitating to those who are in the group. In this way, everyone can learn how to lead a group. 

However, you can just read through this study on your own as a daily devotional. Whatever works best for you is what works best for you!!!

Next week we will start our readings that are taken from our MilktoMeat workbooks. Each week there will be a Key Question > Core Truth that we will be discussing throughout the week. At the beginning of each week, we will also provide a To Remember which is a short verse from the Bible that you can memorize. Some weeks we will also have a suggested Prayer.

There will also be WORDwork assignments in which you will read a portion of Scripture and answer questions about. This study is designed to help you build a living and personal relationship with Father God in Christ Jesus through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Developing daily habits to cultivate an awareness of His presence is essential to spiritual growth. One of our goals is to help you develop good practices and habits that will cultivate your spiritual growth and character development.

Each week you will be walking through a proven method of reading and studying the Bible. First, we will read through our key texts and talk about what we need to know and understand (Observation and Interpretation). Then we will link these passages with the bigger picture of the theology of the Bible (Correlation and Generalization). Finally, we will discuss how to implement what we have learned into our daily habits and practices (Application and Implementation). 

We hope that this study will be more than another program for you; We pray that it will be an introduction to a new way of life.

Next week, you will start working through the first questions that center around, “What Do We Need to Know First?”  We will focus on two key ideas: 1) Who we are as human beings, and 2) a Reliable Pattern for responding to The Truth.

We hope you will come back next week and continue along with us. Until then, think about these words of Jesus:

Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

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