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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Saturday, August 3, 2024
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Personal Habits and Faith Bible Verse:Romans 14:20-23 (ESV) "Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. " Message:
Our faith in Christ is more important than what we eat. If we have a friend with peculiar dietary ideas, and those ideas come from his faith, we should not belittle him; we should eat as he does when we are with him.
St. Augustine
St. Augustine
This issue isn’t the magnitude today that it was when Paul wrote Romans. Many (and in some places, most) early Christians were raised as devout Jews, and the issue of what food one could eat was a major concern for them. And thus, as more and more Gentiles adopted the faith, differences in dietary traditions became a source of friction for early Christians.
We still run into the issue on rare occasion. For example, we encounter recovering alcoholics and people who do not drink for religious reasons. So, in that regard, Paul’s admonition would be, “Do not, for the sake of alcohol, destroy the work of God.” One might also conclude that if you find yourself eating with a Christian vegetarian, no matter how silly you think it is, you would do well to give up eating meat for a meal. If eating a pork chop or having a cocktail is more important to us than a friend’s faith, it is an opportunity for self-examination.
The point here is not that you agree that abstaining from alcohol, or meat, or whatever, is necessary to be a Christian. What you eat and drink is between you and God; but in such matters, Paul tells us to keep our opinions to ourselves. Our duty is to help our brother, to make sure we do not cause him to stumble.
As for what we ourselves eat and drink when we are alone, we are “blessed indeed” if we do not judge ourselves for what we eat. This is an odd notion, that we should “eat from faith,” but it is worth thinking about. Although they do not see it as a faith issue, many people eat and drink things that they judge themselves for, usually eating unhealthy food, too much food, or too much alcohol.
In this regard, if you have problems with eating or drinking, remember that Christ was not born to make us feel guilty, but to forgive us for our sins through His grace and, by faith, to help us avoid sin. The last thing a person with eating or drinking problems needs is yet another reason to feel guilty. If we work on our faith, it will lift us in many aspects of our earthly life, as well.
Although it’s an overstatement (at least in some ways), C.S. Lewis said, “aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in.” Certainly, following the Bible will keep us at a healthy weight and free from illnesses ranging from anxiety and depression to STD’s! But we must “go easy” on ourselves and others for past sins, while fighting not to repeat them.
No matter how large or small the sin, you must forgive yourself as God forgives you and move forward in renewed faith. if we have had an abortion, or murdered a child, or eaten a doughnut, or drunk ourselves into brain and liver damage, we must wipe the slate clean and ask God’s help to resist temptation today. As the KJV so elegantly phrases it, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Meditation : Prayer : Let the word of Christ richly dwell within me all this day; and whatever I do in word or deed, may I do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father............Amen |
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