What an odd title for a blog post. But hey, it got your attention for even a second, right?
I did a quick post on Facebook about the homonym situation with the word palette. I work with palettes every day in design. I also work my own palate, and happily do so as I am a foodie! Yes, there, I said it, I AM a bonafide foodie! 
My husband and I have developed a hobby over the past 9 years. We go to the Library and check out cookbooks of different cuisines. We visit farmers markets and the Indian, Mexican, European markets. World Market is a fun place to browse and sample new flavors, each tidbits of life in another place. Then we cook the dishes, at least two new each week, and test out the palates. Most we find that we really enjoy. A few we did not. Those usually came from Pinterest. lol.
I don’t have much to do with pallets, but I want to grab the few I see each week that sit lonely,and discarded; they call out to be transformed into something clever and useful! { Uh-oh, I may also just have exposed the Pinterest problem! } Alas, my husband says “NO!” He thinks we would be arrested.
He might be right, it depends upon the location and the people involved. If you don’t hear from me for over two weeks, then you can start praying because I disregarded his counsel and grabbed some pallets. And I will be sitting on something just about as comfortable waiting to be released to go on my own recognizance. LOL, 
( snort! ) But I digress.
The subject of food, trying new recipes, broadening one’s palette palate became a meditation for me this past week. The Lord kept bringing things to mind and verses to match and I knew this was the post for you this week.
How open are you? I mean, really, how open are you to new things? Are you a meat and potatoes Christian? You know, a safe set of steady food repeated? Or are you able to share from various menus and know which is palatable ( there’s that word again!) and beneficial for you? Do you eat whatever is set before you?
The diet of the Believer matters. We are told to “taste and see that the Lord is good” ; and that His Words are sweet are “Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.” This last passage actually comes from the training a Jewish boy receives. When studying the Torah, the boy has a slate. When a three-year-old child starts learning Torah in cheder (school) for the first time, it is customary to place a little honey on the letters of the alef-bet, which the child then licks happily, so the child learns to associate Torah with delight and good taste.
I wish that had been done for me, and in all Christian homes so that as children we would have a hunger for the Word! Imagine that?! I am glad that we had daily family devotions and one of those “Bread of Life” loafs that sat on the table; it had little cards with a Bible passage on each one. We read one every day. And I saw my Dad reading his Bible daily. That made a huge impact. How great to replace the steady diet of television, games, telephone, and online surfing. My 21 month old grandson knows how to manipulate an iphone!!!!! My husband and I are committed to teaching him the love and the Word of Abba Father. We want him to have a balanced diet!
My passion is the nations. I have had that passion since I was 11. An elderly lady from our church went to Israel and brought back a small card with rose petals on it, from Israel. She gave it to me. She may not have known but she was imparting something precious to me. Same with a friend of my parents. Walt Patterson shared the gospel with them. They had been partaking from the table of religion, but he shared relationship with them. He was a world traveler, and artist. He would go to very remote places and do “rubbings” on buildings, gravesites, monuments… His home was filled with the wonder of the world. When I visited that home as a child about the same age as mentioned, he imparted a desire to know the world. I know now it was ordained to be so. That desire was enlarged when I lived with the 30 children in the Children’s Christian Home with my family. Several of my foster brothers/sisters were from other nations; Germany, Thailand, France, Puerto Rico, to name a few. Variety is the spice of life! I even dated an Iranian boy as a Senior in high school. ONCE. That was all Dad would allow. He knew of my passion and allowed a double date for one evening with Morteza Kareem Eghball. I still remember his name.
You see, the Lord had set a table before me, even in the presence of an uncommon childhood. He planned that menu.
I suspect it is the same for each of us. But if we do not realize that His Word is speaking through our life events and situations, we miss out on the banquet!
Such a beautiful invitation to Heaven’s banquet was engraved before you were born! And then embossed in red, just for you; underscoring His desire that you know Him, and that you taste and see how VERY GOOD He is! It is so very easy to fall into oblivion. Life pressures, stress, weariness, disappointments all play a part in numbing those taste buds. I know. I have experienced it. When I pick up my Bible that I have had since we married nearly 33 years ago and it feels more like a loaf of hard stale bread than my best friend, I know that my diet is “off”. I have eaten of the dish of frustration, anger, resentment, and misplaced trust. I feel obligated to read, to pray and to fellowship. But the Lord is good. He did not change! I fell into the trap of eating from the pig’s trough. That is why the Bible directs us to “think on these things”, and not all the things that are brought to us.
We do not have to digest (internalize) what is happening around us.We have a place to go, a banquet to attend that feeds our souls. He is that place.
I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit and the ways that He tries to bring me savory bites. If I accept them, He never fails to finish them off with the sweetest of times of intimacy with Him.
You could say that the Holy Spirit is Heaven’s butler, porter and server. He brings the scrolls of the King to life, guides us to the table and seasons our plate with truth and revelation. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, grace, forgiveness, mercy, life, breath, song, hope, renewal; all await us!!
God cares very much about us having a healthy appetite and diet, both for our body and our spirit. His schedule of the feasts given to Israel have such rich, deep meaning to each of them and we also see balance in an orderly schedule. But the feasts are “a whole ‘nuther post“. 🙂
The Holy Land is even called the land of milk and honey! We can learn from it!
Ways to eat: Here’s an interesting observation: Bees produce honey by flying many miles to collect nectar from flowers, while milk comes straight from the cow. Similarly, one learns Torah in two ways:
** One should gather insights from others, learning from diverse teachers; (scripturally sound, of course- I was taught to “test everything”!)
** One can also be creative and original in study and fellowship, developing his own insights. Faith journaling does this. As does the Journaling Bible {#Faith-spiration} movement. Prophetic ( God inspired) painting, and Scripture smash booking is also that way. For some, sitting with an open journal, a Bible and worship music is a feast. Praying with other believers restores your soul.
All of these things and more can be utilized to build up your strength and bring a balanced diet. Any one of these if practiced alone, without variance could lead to a weakness. It might not be quickly perceived, but it will eventually show itself. When we eat from the world, the soul-ish emotions, or enemy’s version of rotten perspective, we starve!
Don’t limit God by being so comfortable that you don’t realize you are starving. Starvation is a strange thing, it happens little by little, and eventually people lose their sense of taste! TASTE and SEE that your God is GOOD!
Open the door of your tent and peer out into the wondrous wildness of our limitless God!
So, here goes!
I challenge you this week to try some new dishes. Yes, I mean food! Try something that you would never have thought of eating! I will not eat (note I didn’t say “never”) octopus again. I tried it once though. I did it just so I didn’t have that regret of “oh…I wonder what it would have been like?” I never know when, or IF an opportunity will come again, and I don’t want to miss anything that Abba wants to grace my table. I want all the excitement, vigor, and wonder of the Zoe life! I want my grandson to say what I can say about my own grandmother- she LIVED! She scuba dived a 63! She was amazing. I want to be a good steward of each day- to use it and not hide it away. Even when that means some of my grandest dreams are still on the horizon, I can still seek out ways to live large! That is how we reflect Him- live in his image.
And …
I challenge you to call upon that waiter and let him know that the order of fear is not acceptable, and that you want something better. Pray and ask the Lord to reveal His menu for you today. EACH day this week open your mouth to the possibilities of new sights, new sounds, new understanding and new flavors of His Kingdom. Challenge yourself to seek them out! Make it a quest! Try new ways of approaching each day, the Word, prayer, and yes, even how you view yourself!
My River Dance 