Where's the Beef

               The fast-food chain called Wendy’s came up with an ingenious ad campaign back in 1984.  An elderly lady named Clara Peller is pictured going into a fictional restaurant and is served a hamburger with an oversized bun, and a tiny patty.  The small patty prompts Peller to angrily exclaim, “where’s the beef?”  The campaign highlighted that Wendy’s single had more beef than McDonalds and Burger King’s fluffy bun sandwiches.

            That same question needs to be asked today when people go into church.  “Where’s the beef?”  I consider the beef to be the solid teaching from the Word of God. So many of our churches serve their people a diet of fluffy buns.  They major in trying to meet the felt needs of the congregation and entice people with catchy programs and entertaining music.  But where is the beef? Where is the teaching of biblical theology?  Where is the verse-by-verse instruction of exegetical preaching?

            The writer to Hebrews had to address some fluffy bun believers in Heb. 5:12-14.  He told them: “12You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. 13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. 14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong”.  God’s people need and deserve the solid food of biblical instruction.  It is the only way we can grow.  It is the only way we can be armed for battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil.  And it is the only way we can be strong enough to faithfully serve our wonderful Lord.

            There are too many churches that serve up a diet of fluffy buns.  Be sure that you, like the lady in the Wendy’s commercial ask that important question; where’s the beef?