For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 Certified Personal trainer and Master fitness trainer. Two titles I held that are almost meaningless to me today. They led me to be a very good rule keeper. First to the extreme of counting portions, calories and food groups; then to what I will call the should and shouldnt phase. Whoa to me for being focused on foods instead of Gods kingdom. Listen to the words from Romans 14 What’s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God’s sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. No matter what I eat- one way or the other- my first priotity is to give God the glory for it! Its that simple. Lord, thank you for providing this food! None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It’s God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other. Each of us must give account to God for the way we live, what we say and do, how we behave, how we eat and drink, the way we love or fail to love, etc. Thanks be to God that its his job - not ours - to police up other peoples eating and drinking. So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I’d say it leaves you looking pretty silly—or worse. I have to say this: Im sorry for all the times I thought I had the answer to someones problem with eating and drinking. For the times I gave my simplistic answers to peoples complicated issues. Eventually, we’re all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren’t going to improve your position there one bit. You can believe that I have my own issues to keep track of and work on. Who am I to wonder why people dont make different choices? Im so thankful for Gods grace and mercy on me when Ive looked down on others, when I have my own issues to deal with before God. Read it for yourself in Scripture: “As I live and breathe,” God says, “every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God.” So tend to your knitting. You’ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. When the day of judgment comes - and it is coming. I give praise to Jesus, my Lord and Master, that I can claim faith in his beloved son! I can kneel in his presence knowing I didnt do anything to deserve it, but praise God he made a way for me to be righteous because of my faith! Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I’m convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. God has already declared that is not what we eat or drink, but by living in right standing with God. No food or drink is bad. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it. If you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or don’t eat, you’re no longer a companion with them in love, are you? These, remember, are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over an item in their diet? So we need to be people who get off their backs about what they eat or drink and be concerned about if they are in right standing with God through Christ our Lord. Don’t you dare let a piece of God-blessed food become an occasion of soul-poisoning!
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:44:21 +0000
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