Consumption

Have you ever heard the phrase, "You are what you eat"? It's supposed to apply to our bad eating habits. For example, if all you eat are Twinkies, you will eventually become one. Not really, but you know what I mean. The point of the phrase is, if you want to be healthy, eat healthy things.

This phrase extends WAY beyond our diet though. Our phones are a perfect example of this. We can spend a WHOLE lot of time on those things. I am guilty of that. If we really think about it, are we not merely entertaining ourselves because we're bored?

Another "branch" in this Y.A.W.Y.E. character study is the music we listen to. I have written here before about songs that fill the head throughout the day (and night). What we consume tends to fill us.

Our belief in Jesus is the same.

"I am the bread of life." - John 6:48

Jesus then went on to say that we must "consume" HIM.

"Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them." - John 6:53-56

Jesus is telling us to CONSUME who He is. To copy Him. This practice is carried out during communion in our churches.

"And He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." - Luke 22:19-20

Paul later confirmed this, using a phrase attributed to Epimenides of Crete while speaking in the Areopagus in Athens.

"In him we live and move and have our being." - Acts 17:28

We are what we eat. We become what we consume. May I suggest that we put down our phones and pick up our Bibles? Let us consume God's word. Live it. Move in it. And let us become who God wants us to be - His.

What consumes YOU?

The Parable of The Fries

Is your kid a picky eater? What kid isn't, right? Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned by us parents and grandparents.

Our grandson came to visit this past Saturday. We had broasted chicken for lunch but our grandson didn't have any. Apparently, "it's the wrong kind of chicken." Tasted good to me.

Then our grandson went for his backpack and pulled out a package of fresh broccoli and ate it. Well played. Grandma could say nothing.

That evening I was surprised to hear we were going to McDonald's for dinner. My wife hates McDonald's or any fast food place for that matter. Why would we go there? Well, I was about to find out.

Our grandson ordered a Happy Meal. A six piece McNuggets meal with fries, yogurt, and a milk. He didn't like the yogurt. Wrong flavor. But let me tell you about the fries!

He dumped them all out onto the tray and then opened a pack of BBQ sauce. Then everything went into high gear. And he had a system! He would dip the fries in the sauce and then shove them in his mouth again and again. Sometimes two-handed! He really liked those fries! My wife kept encouraging our grandson to take a breath and swallow. His fry consumption was amazing to watch.

Somewhere in all of the fry inhalation, the chicken nuggets disappeared. Apparently they were the RIGHT kind of chicken. LOL! We finished our meals and then left. Our grandson was stuffed.

On the way home I thought about what I had just witnessed. About how our grandson knew exactly what he liked and refused to eat anything else, even though it was good for him. There is a lesson to be learned here.

If we are to be consuming the Bread of Life in our faith we have to be willing to taste of the convicting stuff as well as the fruit of the vine. We need a well-balanced spiritual meal. We can't just eat French fries and nothing but.

Our grandson has a good mother. She knows her son is particular about what he eats. She also knows he needs to eat healthy. She found something he liked that was good for him (broccoli) and sent it along.

There is another meaning to this parable. There are some pastors who preach a slightly different Gospel. They soft-pedal the sin part and only preach about all the warm and fuzzy stuff. That's not a well-balanced spiritual diet. Not hearing the full counsel of God would be like eating nothing but fries for the rest of your life. Or at least until you got a stern warning from your doctor.

My dietician wife has a saying - "Everything in moderation." I think that's good advice for us Christians as well. Except when you get to Jesus. Then we need to gobble Him up like our grandson and his fries.

"35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirst." - John 6:35

Want A Heavenly Body?

Great news! I have discovered an amazing new way to lose weight. Want to know what it is? Of course you do! Here are my top five ways to lose a ton of weight. Just in case you want to have that perfect body in time for the beach this summer!

Bob's Top Five Ways To Lose Weight.

1. Donate blood - "A pint's a pound the world 'round." Simply by donating blood you can lose weight. One pound to be exact. Donate today!
2. Don't eat until congress actually does something constructive. Warning! This could be fatal.
3. Get sick. With all the flu and cold germs flying around, simply catch the flu and you will be losing weight in no time!
4. Dental surgery. I had this done Monday. I didn't eat anything until Tuesday morning and it was just a bowl of oatmeal. Lost three pounds just like that!

By far though the best way to lose weight can be found in the Bible. Open up your Bible to 1st Thessalonians.

^{"16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words."} - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

If we are to be caught up together together with Jesus in the air we would have be what? Weightless!!! Ta-da! PLUS . . . when we get to heaven, we actually get totally new bodies. What can be better than that?

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands." - 2 Corinthians 5:1

And what do we have to do to get these new bodies? We must call on the name of the Lord. We must repent of our sins, place our faith and trust in Jesus and make Him the Lord of our lives. Pretty simply yet why is it so hard to do?

Losing earthly weight can be a difficult thing to do, but through Jesus Christ we can cast off our earthly burdens, the emotional weight we've been carrying around for-e-ver, and finally have that heavenly body to die for. So die to self today. Only then can we be free of our earthly baggage.

What Does The Bible Say About Diet?

Fatty

When my wife and I were in Big Bay, MI earlier this month we passed a sign by a long driveway that read "Big Bay Health Camp." I looked at my wife and asked, "Well should I drop you off, fatty?"

Looking back on things now .. . perhaps that was the wrong thing to say. My wife is not fat and she knows I was just teasing her but every time we drove past that sign from then on my wife gave me the evil eye and said, "Fatty, huh?"

I suppose it didn't help that my wife is a dietician and is very conscious about what she eats. She is all about eating healthy. And she gets paid for it!

People come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are tall, some are short, there are wide people and there are skinny ones. The point of what I am writing about today is not about our differences and how we should all just get along and sing Kubiya around the campfire as one, big happy family. No. This is about what we eat . . . spiritually.

I'll start off with two sayings that probably everyone has heard of and I will ask you to think how they might apply to our spiritual lives. The first is "You are what you eat" and the second is "Garbage in, Garbage Out."

People who go to "health camp" are told they must watch what they eat if they are going to lose weight and get healthy. It is the same with us and the things we intake spiritually. If we simply believe everything we hear without questioning it or comparing it with scripture, how do we know if it's true or not?

The things we take in spiritually can be deceiving, kind of like junk food. It tastes really good but it is not very good for us. Instead, we must examine all spiritual food to see whether it is true or not . . . to see if it is good for us.

A few weeks ago in church I heard a pastor speaking about the woman caught in adultery in John 8(1-11). After all the Pharisees had left Jesus said, "Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?" To that the woman replied "No one." Then the pastor told us that Jesus said, "Go, your sins are forgiven."

That sounds right, doesn't it? It sounds like something Jesus would say . . . and a pastor told us this is what Jesus said, so it must be true, right?

No, it is not. Jesus did not say, "Go, your sins are forgiven." What Jesus actually said was "Neither do I condemn you." And then Jesus said something else . . . AFTER that. Something the pastor never told the congregation, "Go, and sin no more."

It is often things left unsaid that speak the loudest.

The next time you are reading a book, listening to sermon or just in general conversation, listen closely as the Bereans did, to determine whether of not what they heard in the synagogue was true.

"11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." - Acts 17:11

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures," - 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Trust only what you read in the Bible. There is no others source of truth, only opinion. Opinion doesn't save. Only Jesus can do that. A real, truthful accurate Jesus, not the watered-down, needy Jesus that is preached in many of our churches today.

"In the beginning was The Word (Jesus), and The Word was with God and The Word was God." - John 1:1

God doesn't sin. God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't have an opinion on things. He is right, never wrong. And so it is with His Word that still speaks to us today. Compare everything to his Word and don't be eating any of the junk food being served out there. And there is a lot of it.

Many of us with appetites for warm fuzzy sermons and the absence of any "meat" or "healthy choices" in our spiritual diet are getting rather obese these days. We should only be eating the things that Jesus offered us. Only then can we spiritually healthy and able to descern what things are good for us to eat, and what things are not. If we don't do that, we will end up being The Biggest Loser.

And now, to help you in your spiritual exercise, here's a little Christian workout music for you this morning. Have an amazing day!

Move - MercyMe