Our small
group at church has been reading through the New Testament in an 8-week period. The 'book' we have
been using has removed all chapter/verse references so it's easier to read it
as it was written….mostly as letters from one person to another. When reading it
in big chunks like that, it's easier to pick out certain themes. For instance, one of the themes that stood out to me was that Paul kept needing to address was about how the believers were treating their bodies: the issue of circumcision (or not), eating
food sacrificed to idols (or not), engaging in sexual immorality, and a variety
of other body-related issues that kept arising.
I don't think we struggle with those same exact same issues today, but the message that
Paul gave repeatedly is still pertinent:
- There is little required of you physically after you are saved
- Salvation brings freedom, but don't abuse it
- Remember that you are no longer your own - God owns you; you are now a slave to Christ
In other words, you don't have to treat your body well, but you ought to out of reverence for Jesus.
So that's been
rolling around in my head lately, then last weekend I went skiing at Monarch
Mountain, and if you've read my latest blog post, you know what happened there. Someone stopped us at the top and entertained two of my nephews by telling them that if they pee on one side of the Continental Divide, it will end up in the Atlantic,and if they pee on the other side, it will end up in the Pacific. That got me
to thinking about the long-term consequences of decisions and actions. I ended
that post by asking, "will we
continue making the choices we want to despite knowing the outcome? If you know
the information is accurate and the person is trustworthy, why would you ignore
it?"
Then…..I saw this
video on YouTube.
Rachel watched a few
minutes of that video with me, then had to look away. She didn't want to hear
it since she loves her Coke. After it was over, I asked her what she thought,
and she said, "I guess we're switching to Pepsi!"
But listen to some
of the statements that are made:
- Coke has been known to accelerate aging and cause high cholesterol.
- The calories in Coca-cola products have no nutritional value.
- If you choose to live a healthy lifestyle, then you should not be drinking any Coke products.
- If you drink Coke, you'll get fatter and fatter. The solution is simple….don't drink Coke. It's killing you and your family.
I don't know about
you, but the culmination of what I've been reading in the Bible, what God's
been showing me through my daily interactions, and finally this commercial have
really convicted me that I'm not taking very good care of what's been entrusted to me, nor have
I been leading my family to do so, especially in the area of drinking soda (we have been going through almost a 12-pack of coke a week).
So going back to the
questions on my last post, "will I continue making the choices I want to
despite knowing the outcome? If I know the information is accurate and the
source is trustworthy, why would I ignore it?"
So in light of all that, I'm
saying goodbye to soda. I love it, it tastes great, but it's slowly killing me. It's not going to be easy, but I think it'll be worth it.
I think we struggle with exactly those issues that Paul was talking about. There is nothing new under the sun.
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant by that statement is that we generally don't deal with the issues of whether or not Gentiles can be saved, whether or not men should be circumcised, whether or not to eat animals that have been strangled, sacrificed to idols, or are still bloody, etc. Sexual immorality was an issue Paul addressed and is unfortunately still rampant within the Church.
DeleteThere is a lot that is 'new under the sun,' but other things are as old as time.