Skip to main content

Food


 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. (Genesis 9:3)

           Housekeeping! For those who wish to pitch fits because Christians do not abide by Jewish dietary restrictions, here is an Old Testament verse that says that we are free to eat any kind of plant or animal we see fit to eat. God will give instructions to Moses about what the Jews are allowed to eat, but He never restricts Gentiles in this regard. 
          With that out of the way, today’s topic is near and dear to many hearts. It’s been the subject of my prayers off and on for years. Even back in Eden, God provided food. Here again, He’s providing food. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” For some folks, food isn’t a big deal. For others of us, it’s a beloved, unwanted god. 
         For some people, the answer to the problem of food is to declare specific foods to be bad. Don’t eat carbs. Don’t eat fat. Don’t eat salt. Do eat like a caveman. Don’t eat processed. That seems to me to reject what God said here. He has given it all to us. We shouldn’t misuse it, but we shouldn’t demonize it either. 
          What comes to mind as I read this passage, and as I think about God providing our food and our relationship to food is the idea that food needs to be kept in its proper place. I tend to cook food in bulk so I can pull my dinner out of the freezer, defrost it, mic it and take it to my office to eat while I’m doing something else, without a lot of thought about anything but getting on with what I’m doing. What would happen if I took time to acknowledge, very careful, and clearly, the proper gratitude, and the proper relationships involved? What if I didn’t just “say grace” but properly asked God’s blessing on the food instead of looking to the food for blessing (enjoyment)? I don’t know. I’ll give it a try.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more