Food Is Not My Sanctification

Vision. Hmm. There is Federal Vision, American Vision and now Vision Forum. I am not up-to-speed on all these vision organizations. Not too much to write about here until numerous VISION Forum posts in the last several days came on my dashboard already cluttered with too many blogs.  I could get more of the conference for $35 with live streaming of

The Reformation of Food and the Family

conference through July 31, 2012. I am tracking it sort of as I was able to do with a recent Ligonier conference for free. See  20 quotes from conference. The digital age is amazing. Now I am not going to pay the $35 to listen to the Vision Forum conference, but you can if you wish with the above link. Meanwhile,  here are a few of my thoughts about food, diet and the Christian I did not see in the conference blog posts:

1. Romans 13:14 tells us to put on Christ and to not make provision for the flesh. Some think of this verse as applying to pornography but it might also apply to food. Gluttony is a biblical term. So is fasting, yet fasting is for the purpose of drawing closer to our LORD, not for the purpose of fitting into a certain size of clothing. Take me to a conference digitally on putting on the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
2. Like all obsessions, food and dieting with certain foods can wreak havoc on our spiritual life. Why are we doing it? So our behavior will be better, so there is less hyperactivity in our children? So we live longer as if heaven is not our hope? Does the fruit of the Spirit come from what we put in our mouth? So we can avoid suffering?  I think not. See what Christ said in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. It is from the heart that evil things come--not from what we put in our mouth.
3. Christian celebrities such as Michelle Duggar (yes she was at the Vision Forum conference) do not inform my theology.  
4. Even exercise has its limits. We are to train ourselves in godliness, according to 1 Timothy 4, whereas exercise has some benefits. Sanctification (godliness) is our part, not abs of steel.

Granted we Christians probably do not take care of our bodies like we should. Go to a gospel concert and look all around and you will most likely see many obese people, unlike a secular rock concert.

At this Vision Forum conference Doug Phillips said,

• “With the demise of family mealtime as a staple of household culture, we have watched the corresponding demise of the family. In the Bible, we see the family table as a place for feeding the body and the soul, as a beacon of hospitality, and as a centerpiece of godly culture. It is time to put away family-segregating lifestyles and return to family."
• “We are suffering from the accumulated consequences of many generations forsaking Biblical law and prudence on the issues of food and family.”
• “We view addictions primarily as a clinical problem rather than as a sin with clinical implications.”
• “Too many shepherds and pastors refuse to address gluttony or are themselves gluttonous."

Joel Salatin, a Christian farmer, said that there are both contributoring factors and solutions to the problem of food born illnesses.

What are the four contributing factors?

1. Centralized production.
2. Centralized processing.
3. Long-distance transportation.
4. Sub-therapeutic antibiotic use on livestock.

What are the four solutions?
1. Local production, family farms.
2. Local processing, community canneries.
3. Don’t transport it anywhere. Keep it local.
4. Raise animals that are healthier so they have a better immune system and won’t need antibiotics. Honor God’s design in creation.

The conference goes on to talk about hospitality, exercise and  toxins. The suggestion is to pay your grocerer, not your doctor.  I don't know about Vision Forum, but this conference is certainly of interest. However, food is not my sanctification.

Dear LORD,

Detoxify my soul

Make me more like Christ

If my food is not whole

Still make me more like Christ

Do a reformation in my heart

Justification You have done

Sanctification is my part
Help me run Your race

Make me glorify YOU

In all I say and do
and in all I eat.

Amen.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _  _

Added November 10, 2013: Vision Forum has now shut down. See http://www.visionforumministries.org 

Buyer Protection

Is it every woman's right to find a man, even one outside of marriage? No! Buyer beware. Is it every man's right to ignore biblical standards and opt for sex outside of marriage? No! Buyer beware.

A lady stops by our garage sale and she proudly reveals she is living with her boyfriend. They both met at a grief support group, having both lost their spouses. I offer my sympathies. She buys some of my gentle used clothes to wear to a church function I find out. Buyer beware. I ask this stranger about marriage. She says that the boyfriend is not ready. But she has sold her home and moved in with him! Someone is ready for marriage, but he is not. What is she buying in their collective grief? Perhaps more heart break. “Things start as hopes and end up as habits,” says Lillian Hellman.

Another Christian couple chooses sex before marriage because marriage just isn't convenient now. She is lonely and he doesn't want to be pushed. Buyer beware. She runs the risk of being used, abused, and left without recourse and with regret. She doesn't seem to care, although earlier she wanted marriage. How, pray tell, can that man become the spiritual leader he is meant to be if he can't obey Scripture? Why would he be Mr. Right for her?

The current philosophy seems to be people are basically good and there is no problem with sex outside of marriage for people who love each other. What could be wrong with love? they ask.

eBay sent me this message via e-mail:

After 15 years, we still believe in our founding philosophy: people are basically good. After all, how else could perfect strangers successfully trade with one another millions of times a day? This is what makes eBay so unique. But we also know things don't always go right. That's why we created eBay Buyer Protection. It's our way of saying, "We've got you covered."

The Bible is the Christian's buyer protection.

• Go and sin no more is what Christ told the woman at the well in John 4. He had faith to believe that she could live a moral lifestyle. She had the commitment to change also because she told everyone in town.
• Shun immorality, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6. Don't go that route.
• In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, we see that some "Christians" can receive the word with joy on their rocky ground, but then fall away. Perhaps they were never elect as the previous post indicates, and their immorality is just the proof.
• Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness we read in Matthew 6:33, and then all these things will be added to you.

Buyer beware. Often it is the woman who is lonely who can't wait for God's plan. The man isn't ready for a commitment and she compromises. Did that seed of the Word fall on fertile soil or rocky soil? The fruit appears for a time while it is convenient, but in the heat of passion or loneliness that fruit is gone. Are we talking Christians here? We are talking a couple who are not honoring God in a basic human relationship and we wonder where the fruit is. Buyer beware.

What will help the couple with no legal sanctions if one dies? The children from a previous marriage or their family will benefit financially and the grief of the remaining man/woman will go unacknowledged. Buyer beware.

I have nothing to say to those who are following Hollywood and coupling outside of marriage. I am talking to those who profess Christianity. The Bible tells us to judge not that we be not judged in Matthew 7:7, you say. Yes, one can take a favorite Scripture and make a case. But you have to take all of Scripture and need wisdom from counselors as suggested in Proverbs. Later in that same chapter in Matthew Christ points out that just because people claim to have a profession of faith, it may not be and to them He says I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers. Hollywood can have their immorality.

Christ told us that our Father in Heaven will give good things to those who ask Him in Matthew 7:11, but we dare not grab those good things ahead of His best plan for us. Buyer beware. Have self-respect that rises above loneliness, Christians. Do not buy into these lies. Repent, wait, and get into the Word and fellowship with believers. See How to Pray for a Future Husband.

Even eBay believes in sin and has a protection plan. Read the Bible's protection plan.