Since this Fasting-For-Food project, I’ve been enlightened a bit about my eating habits.  I’ve been enlightened a whole bunch!

Exodus.

Captivity. Slavery. Bondage.

It just kind of happened.

First, everyone loved Joseph…then, generations forgot Joseph…and then, “why are we bein’ so nice to these people?”

First, I just ate…it felt good, it never argued, and, with fast food, it was always there!!!!

Why didn’t the Israelites just get up and say “No More”, and walk out of Goshen?  Why didn’t they just quit taken’ the stuff…and just leave?

Why don’t I just get up from the table and say “No More?” Why don’t I just stop eatin’ the stuff that’s killin’ me?

Captivity. Slavery. Bondage.

I have been held captive by food ads.

Seeing that Wendy commercial,

I can taste the fries! (side note – the new ones just aren’t as addicting to me…but then, I’ve eaten them anyway.)

THIS USED TO BE A HUGE PROBLEM!!!!!!! Well, true confessions, it still is.

The thing is…sugar, caffeine, chocolate, ice cream, french fries, Mike-Sell’s Potato Chips……

Yeah, a bag of Mike Sells, a tub of bacon cheese dip, a 2 liter of some diet pop….to make up for the calories of course…and I was in fat heaven!  Comfort Food Chaos!

These are my issues.  These are my food idols.  These have held me captive.

Writing about this now, having not eaten any of these for 23 days, I can taste the banana split, I can smell the potato chips…and I am struggling to say NO – even though they aren’t even here!

I am 130 pounds overweight – at least.  That’s the weight of a normal sized woman of 5’2″ stature.  I cannot move like a 120 pound woman.  That’s right, I’m over 100% excess person.

As is obvious, I need some help.  I am trapped by my ‘addiction’ to my ‘idols’.

~it is now January 30, and I have since eaten a banana split, and pancakes for the sake of research.  I even went to Wendy’s, but I could not bring myself to eat the french fries…so, I ate the salad!

I have suffered with health issues, because of the food I eat.

About.com has an article about how diet and disease correlate in a few cases.  What does your doctor say when you have a major issue? Stop the high sweets, caffeine, fatty foods and eat more fruits and veggies.

MedicineNet.com has an article, Healthy Diet for Disease Prevention, about what foods TO eat for Healthy Living.

If we consider disease as a path to death, and health as a path to wellness and living life…then fat, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes type 2 are all consequences of choosing ‘death’ in our food.

CHOOSE LIFE!

Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

Deut 30:20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

The Bible does have a few things to say about what we eat….not just the legalistic following of the Jewish Kosher Diet.

The first thing – is fasting.

Deut 29:5-6 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I [am] the LORD your God.

Part of the Israelites’ process in the wilderness was not eating bread nor drinking alcohol.  It was part of knowing that God was their LORD.

Isaiah talks about reasons for fasting:

Is 58:5 NIV Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

Is 58:6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is 58:7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

God doesn’t want fasting for fasting sake…but there is a promise for fasting to set the oppressed free…and break every yoke.  Consider fasting as part of your sacrifice to God.  There are many studies about it’s benefit…one is The Daniel Fast.

That brings me to a variation on fasting, the Daniel Fast, taken from Daniel 1, where Daniel refused to eat anything other than plant based foods, and water.

This book, The Genesis Diet, by Gordon Tessler, explains a lot about the types of food from the garden.

BUT HEAR THIS!!!! After the flood – God gave MEAT to man to eat!!!! Genesis 9

Romans 14 & 1 Corinthian 8 handles many of the discussions about what to eat.

And if anyone tells you that you should NOT eat meat…it is a doctrine of a demon! 1 Tim 4:1-5

1 Tim 4:1 -2 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

1 Tim 4:3-5 Forbidding to marry, [and commanding] to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God [is] good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

My point, in all of this, is that God is interested in what we eat.  And it IS between US and God…

Rom 14:5 Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. with

Rom 14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

It is IMPORTANT, because we are putting it into HIS temple – because WE are the temple of the Holy Spirit!

1 Cor 3:16 – 17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.

I admit, I’m in an Egypt of eating, I have idols of food, I have addictions to additives.  I confess that I am the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that I want the Godhead to dwell in me fully!  And I have read how carefully crafted the temple items were made that were put into the Tabernacle and Temple.  I admit, I do not take that much care, nor do I take care of myself as if I AM the temple of the Almighty God.

Exodus

Captivity. Slavery. Bondage. IDOLATRY.

It just kind of happened.

But what do I do now?

2 Cor 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Cor 6:17-18 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Glutton is sin.  It is one of the most accepted, if not THE most accepted sin in the church today.  God commands me to put off sin…tear down the strongholds and high places and go no more to them.  For me…that means….Wendy’s.  Yes – I’ve said it.  That means to NOT start up the Steak-n-Shake habit again.  No more drive through Cinnabon Pecan messes.  BECAUSE they pull me down a path I do not want to go!

Pr 23: 2-3 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [be] a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they [are] deceitful meat.

Remember the verse – let every man be persuaded in their own mind.  I have no problem passing cigarette displays.  I have no problem passing Captain Morgan or a Budwieser Poster.  I do have a problem passing the apple pie at Krogers!

My definition of idol is anything that comes between ME and God.  I am going to have to adjust it.

Idol: Anything that comes between me and God, or hinders my ability to be ready when God calls me.

Idolotry: choosing anything over what God has asked of me.

Ps 106:36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

1 Sam 15:23 For rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee….

But with confession, with repentance, comes forgiveness.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them].

My life is a living sacrifice to God. I do not know why I thought eating didn’t have anything to do with it! The great thing about God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, is that HE loves me enough to continue to call me further on and further in!

Thanks for joining me in this journey,

In His hands and under His wings,

~Christi

Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

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