Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Psalm  34:8  (NKJV)

Picture, if you can, two boys about 12 years of age, looking longingly at a tree in the neighbor's orchard, a tree loaded with Golden Delicious apples.  There's a high, barbed-wire fence between them and the tree.  Will they be satisfied to stand and look?  How much would it help to offer them a book on apples, complete with color pictures?  It would not be hard at this point to sidetrack to a homily on temptation.

My point is, a knowledge of God can never take the p;ace of an understanding of god.  An intellectual knowledge will not suffice.  Only as we open our hearts to His presence and enjoy fellowship with Him can we gain a true knowledge of our heavenly Father.  Intellect must be mixed with emotion and experience, or we can never truly know.  We could think of a man's intellect as his sight, and the emotions as the sense of taste.  The emotions are to the spiritual mind what taste is to the tongue.  To go through life with a head knowledge of the doctrine of God but no heart experience of fellowship with Him is like going through life with no sense of taste.

Ellen White, writing to ministers, spoke of this balance that should be maintained in sermons.  "The object of preaching is not alone to convey information, not merely to convince the intellect.  The preaching of the word should appeal to the intellect, and should impart knowledge, but it should do more than this.  The words of the minister should reach the hearts of the hearers."  Testimonies to Ministers, p.62. 

This is why our emotional nature should be carefully guarded in order to keep every emotion tender and responsive.  Satan attacks us on this point, especially rough television, theater and novels.  Horror in our day has become a joke and death a wisecrack.  The Holy Spirit finds it difficult to make impressions upon scarred and callous souls.  Our only safety is to daily "taste...and see that the Lord is good"!  Find refuge in Him!

taken from: First Things First
March 6
by: Bob Spangler