Gluttony

(The following is an edited excerpt from the (free) The Lord's Table course I have been involved to help me overcome gluttony in my life!)

One of the problems among Christians today is that very few are willing to say that the act of overeating is sin. It is socially acceptable to overeat and so most would rather say that overeating is a "weakness," or a dietary problem that may be corrected by changing foods, a glandular problem, or that we simply "have a big appetite"...etc.

Overeating is a sin for the following reasons:

• Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). God is not glorified when I evidence a lack of self control in my eating habits.

• My body is the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:17, 6:19). The temple of God is not to be destroyed or defiled. Overeating or other sinful eating habits defiles the temple and if continued in can lead to its early destruction.

• Sinning leads to slavery (John 8:34). Overeating, like any sin, becomes addictive and may be extremely hard to overcome.

• Jesus told us to take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23) and Paul told us to crucify the desires of the flesh (Romans 8:13, Colossians 3:5). To overeat is to gratify the cravings of the flesh, rather than to crucify them. This is sin. However, we are not at all saying that it is sin to eat when hungry. What we are talking about here, gluttony, is the habit of overeating and indulging our flesh, not the necessary requirement to receive daily nourishment for our bodies when we feel hungry. Food is not evil. Eating is not a sin.

• There are many passages of Scripture which speak of the sin of "gluttony" and instruct us to avoid the path of the glutton (Proverbs 23:20-21) and to "put a knife to our throat" if we are given to gluttony (Proverbs 23:2). (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines gluttony as "excess eating.")

In Acts 3:16-18, we see that repentance opens the flood house of God's blessing as it brings not only glorious refreshment from the Lord, but Jesus Christ Himself.

You see, if we fail to call overeating sin, we miss out on the blessings of repentance. Why not call overeating by the biblical term of "gluttony," so that we will see the need to repent? And, as we repent, we will experience such sweet refreshment from the Lord, such satisfaction from the Lord, such enjoyment in the Lord, that we will wonder why we weren't ever told this truth before.

Repentance is that which causes me to do a full turn away from overeating or any sinful eating habit and a full turn towards the Lord. In practical terms, it means that I have been looking to food to supply something that has been lacking, and now I turn away from overeating food and, instead, look to the Lord to meet that need. We mourn that we have hurt the heart of God by sinning with food and we may even weep over our willful and stubborn pursuit of satisfaction in food. Our sins not only pierced the heart of Jesus on the cross but, when God grants repentance to us, they also pierce our hearts, and our hearts become torn over our rebellion. But oh, what joy comes when God enables us, by His grace, to turn from overeating to seek the Lord. We experience the refreshment of God’s grace, the renewal of His love, the joy of His fellowship. Oh dear ones, I pray you will see the amazing value of repentance.

At The Lord's Table, we are not into a 60-day diet plan, pills that guarantee weight loss, programs that focus on food, or methods that require us to count calories, fat grams, carbohydrates or sugar. We are about calling ourselves to repentance from habits of overeating, about setting forth Christ as our soul's satisfaction and about developing habits of eating in a disciplined manner. If satisfaction in Christ and self-control would become the habit of our lives, we would see the blessings of God being poured out on us. In Christ there is joy and heart satisfaction, spiritual refreshment and renewal, and we "eat in plenty and are satisfied." Yes, repentance brings refreshment!

www.settingcaptivesfree.com/lords_table

Don’t Let Your Guard Down

Today I have been humbled in the most unexpected way! If you listen to Christian Hip Hop, you would have heard about Cross Movement Records artist, The Ambassador’s moral failure. Now before I continue, I do not want to gossip about the issue or judge Ambassador for what has taken place. My heart and prayers go out for him, his family and his church! I pray by the grace of Jesus Christ that there will be healing that comes from repentance and that this will lead to his restoration! This all really and utterly breaks my heart!

What I would do, rather, is share with you how complacent I have been in my faith and pray that it makes us all look at ourselves and realise that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)! Often we do not realise that this Christian life is a battle, like Ephesians 6:12 puts it, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The life we are living is a war against the devil and his dark forces. And because we cannot see the demons, we carry on like they are not there! It is time to wake up and to be on guard.

To see our brother Amba get taken down by the enemy really shakes my faith! I look up to this man (even now) and saw him as an example of the way I should go! Now I question myself. Can I make it through? Do I have what it takes? If he can fall, then I must be doomed? These are the questions that I had running through my head today and I really hope they are running through your head now! Friends, this is not a joke, the Bible tells us to, work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). I had lost this fear and trembling! I go about my day without real thought about the battle and I am caught, like so many people, in the day-to-day things in life that I fail to take a step back to take stock. I forget that I have to be sober, be vigilant; because our adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). We are so quick to notice someone fall but fail to notice that we are right on the edge of doom ourselves!

We need to look to Jesus! We need to individually, fight the good fight of faith, laying hold on eternal life, to which we were also called (1 Timothy 6:12). We need to put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11). Practically this means taking time out regularly to see where we are spiritually, how much time do we spend with God (reading the Bible, praying, worshipping), who are we accountable to, making sure that we are constantly fleeing from temptation and repenting (turning away from sin) when we mess up.

There are three things that I have learnt from the events of today and they all apply to all of us! Firstly, it could have been me! It is only by the grace of God that we are where we are in our lives. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Therefore, we have no right to feel self-righteous because God is sovereign over our lives! Secondly, we have to look to Christ and not to man! People will always let you down, and if you let other people and their actions determine your faith then your faith is in the wrong place! “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Christ alone should be our only standard that we look to! Any other standard is not high enough. Finally, love those who fall! We live in a generation that loves to see stars rise so that we can watch them fall! That is evil! We need to love those that have fallen! We need to pray for them and hold them up because who knows, next time it could be you! Above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8)

Ultimately, we need to keep our guard up by relying on Christ! We have no idea what is coming around the corner. Only God knows what trials we will face but if we have confidence, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6), then we should have no fears. Don’t let your guard down, this is a race. Please keep your eyes focused on Christ the King!