Junk Food
Potato chips, candy bars, soda pop, “snack” foods and chocolate, these are just a few of the many kinds of physical junk food that we feed our bodies that are not good for us. Before I start comparing “junk food” with “spiritual junk food” I would like to point out that a candy bar every once in a while is not going to kill you and I personally like chocolate. This comparison is not perfect but it does work. The main difference is that spiritual junk food is more like poison and even a little can cause problems.
Spiritual junk food is the little “white” sins that we think are okay especially when compared to the “big” sins of murder and adultery. In essence this is one of those fabled “little white lies” that we hear of and which do not really exist. Taking that CD from the store is just as bad as robbing a bank, actually just thinking of taking that CD is as bad as robbing a bank. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” It is not the actions only that God will judge because He knows your heart and judges the sins that take place in your heart. If you think of sinning and do not take that thought captive to Christ then it becomes a temptation which leads to sin, and sin ultimately leads to death [James 1:14-15]. These “little white lies” that the enemy tries to convince us as okay are in-fact just as wrong in the sight of God as any other sin. To God anything that is not completely pure and Holy is entirely sinful and unholy, just the smallest “little white lie” is way too much. This is why God called us to the ultimate standard, His word says “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” [Ephesians 5:3]. As Joshua Harris wrote in his book Not Even a Hint “So what is God’s standard when it comes to lust [or any sin]? How much lust [sin] does God want us to allow in our lives? Are you ready for this? The answer is not even a hint. That’s right. Nada. Zip. Zero. I’m not saying this to be dramatic. I really believe it’s what God calls each Christian to regardless of what kind of culture we live in of how old we are. And it’s not because God is heavy-handed, or strict for the sake of strictness. It’s because he loves us — and because we are His. It’s because He is wise and His wisdom exceeds our understanding.” Mr. Harris later goes on to explain why he believes God made the standard so high “One of the reasons God calls us to cleanse our lives of lust [sin] completely is because He knows that lust [sin] never stays at the level of ‘just a hint’. Lust [sin] is always an unholy desire for the forbidden… It’s goal is the very act of desiring. The result is that lust [sin] can never be quenched.”. So because of this we must maintain not even a hint of junk food [sin] in our lives if we want to be spiritually healthy.

Spiritual “Health Food”
On the opposite end of the food chart is heath food, unlike junk food health food is the stuff that is good and beneficial to our bodies this is the stuff that helps us to grow strong and enables us to fight off the attack that come against us. In Joshua 1:8 we are told “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”. So the first type of health food is the Word of God, we are to meditate on it and study it so that we can grow. A strong hunger for God’s Word is a good sign of growth and development in our spiritual lives. When a baby desires more food we know that he/she is growing, likewise when a Christian desires more of God’s food (His Word) then we know that he/she is growing in Christ. And as a baby grows into a man he starts to long for meat and not just milk, so also does a growing Christian want more spiritual meat as he grows in the spirit. “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food [meat in KJV] is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” [Hebrews 5:13-14]. We do not start out eating meat when we are infants rather we start out by eating (drinking) milk so that we can grow stronger and become able to eat meat. We must start out by building our foundation upon the Rock of Christ and learning the basics of God’s Word before we eat the meat of the deeper meanings of scripture.

“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” [John 4:34]. This is another kind of spiritual health food, doing God’s will. Whenever we are walking in God’s will for our lives we grow and prosper, because God’s will is for us to prosper. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” [Jeremiah 29:11]

So if we are what we eat then what are you? Are you a healthy, strong and growing Christian? Or are you a junk filled, sinful, stagnate Christian? I would like to challenge you even as I challenge myself. Be a healthy and growing Christian, eat what’s right and shun what is wrong, grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God and maintain Not Even a Hint of junk food in your spiritual life.

AG•A•PÉ (a’gə-pā’): Greek word for love used by the early Christians to refer to the special love for God and God’s love for man, as well as the self-sacrificing love they believed all should have for each other.

So we are to have Agape Love towards God and towards others. There are three things that I would like to outline in this article they are: what is Love, how do we show Love and why should we Love. Lets begin with what love is…

What is Love?
According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” To me this says love is how we act not what we feel. It isn’t the warm feeling that we get when we hold a little baby it is the way we act when someone is irritating. Love is a verb, an action, not something that “grows in you” but something that you build towards others. Love is the kind word when someone needs comforting, the ready hug in times of trouble. Love is the smile on your face when everything seems wrong and when you feel all alone, and you smile not because you are happy but because you love God and He loves you. So if God abides in us then we will love because God is love and he who knows God has love.

How do we show Love?
Practically speaking love is: patience with your siblings or children, compassion for those in pain, kindness toward those who are friendless, help to the struggling and much, much more. As I said earlier love is an action not a feeling, and so we show it by acting it out and performing acts of love towards our neighbors and enemies. Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” this is how we show our love; we bear one another’s burdens and help them when they struggle. Love believes all things and acts accordingly. If we believe everything that the Bible says then we give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove themselves unworthy of trust. Love hopes all things, it hopes for the salvation of the world, the repentance of all sinners, it hopes for a better tomorrow. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). Love endures all things, love endures temptation, it endures persecution and afflictions. And love never fails! No matter what is set against it and no matter what attacks it, love never fails! It is eternal and everlasting, because God is Love so love is eternal. We show our love by acting it out toward our neighbors and enemies through compassion and unconditional love.

Why should we Love?
There is an old hymn that says “They will know that we are Christians by our Love” this means that people will notice that we are different and that we have something in us that makes us joyful in troubles and pain. In 1 John 4:21 we are told “And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” this is a commandment, not a suggestion or a request, it is a command from the LORD. Think about it, if we were to love everyone regardless of age, gender, race, political persuasion, or anything else then the world would be much more peaceful and if those people returned that love then the entire world would be saved because “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (Part of 1 John 4:7). But aside from these positive side effects “we should love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 adapted).

In conclusion we need to remember three key verses: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 1 John 4:7-21 and Mark 12:30-31. These verses explain the three questions I asked at the begining, What is Love? (1 Cor. 13:4-8a), How should we show Love? (1 John 4:7-21) and Why should we Love? (Mark 12:30-31). Love is first for God and second for your neighbors, these are the greatest commandments and these are the meaning of Agape.

When I talk about having the courage to resolve I am not talking about resolving to lose weight or work out, I am talking about resolving to be pure, resolving to give your all to Christ and further His Kingdom. It is not that losing weight is bad, actually it is desirable in 1 Corinthians Paul talks about how our bodies are holy and how we should take good care of them (1 Cor. 3:16 & 17). What I am saying is this, we should put the spiritual things before the carnal and the resolutions of the spirt before those of the body. Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” if we worry first about what Christ wants for out spirits then the physical things (health, finances, etc.) will fall into place.

I would like to issue a Challenge, I challenge you to make a resolution not a resolution of the flesh but one of the spirit. I challenge you to strive for purity, and commit yourself to the furtherance of the Kingdom of Heaven. In a letter to his mother John Wesley asked for a list of sins he should avoid his mother replied with this “Whatever weakens your reason, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, whatever takes away from your relish for spiritual things, that to you is sin, no matter how innocent it is in itself.” Think about that, that covers a lot of things. My challenge is this avoid those things, avoid the things that increase the influence and control of your flesh over your spirit, and take away your desire for God. I am not saying take it on all at once, start with the small things and go from there. Ask God for guidance and strength, ask for the wisdom and knowledge to stand strong and take out those strong holds one at a time.

The stakes are high and the risk is great, once taken this commitment will lead to death, death not of your spirit but of your flesh. This is not a resolution for the faint at heart, it will require Courage and Resolution beyond the physical. It will require supernatural strength from God and a ernest desire to give your all to Him. As an example I would like to use the story of Daniel and his friends when they were training to become wise men. The king of Babylonia told Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility- young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning [Daniel 1:3b-4a NIV]. Among these were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, instead he asked “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.” At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. Now you May be thinking “you said you were talking about spiritual resolutions, but Daniel resolved to go on a diet.” and you are partially right, I am talking about a resolution of the spirit, Daniel and his friends resolved to honor the Lord by refraining from eating the food of the king and instead devote themselves to God and seek first His wisdom and knowledge before the things of the flesh. What they were doing is fasting, not the kind of fasting where you eat no food but the kind where you stay away from things that your flesh desires and spending your time praying. You see the story does not end with them eating veggies for ten days, they continued this for three Years, however their fast was not in vain. Because “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.” [Daniel 1:17a NIV] You see Daniel and his friends resolved to please God before men and before the flesh and they were greatly rewarded. They were set aside to learn language and literature of the Babylonians and God rewarded their Resolution by giving them more than they asked for. It took great courage to eat only veggies and water when everyone around them was eating steak and drinking wine, I would guess that they were made fun of, laughed at and scorned because of their resolution. Most likely they suffered from a great desire for the things of the flesh but they had resolved to do something and by strength given to them by God they had The Courage to Resolve.

Have a Blessed week and remember the beauty of God’s creation.
Joshua

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise Give thanks to Him, bless His name.” Psalms 100:4 (NASB)