Fat and Happy: The Comforter instead of Comfort Food
Purity 507 08/26/2021 Purity 507 Podcast
Good morning
Today’s photo of a foot bridge over Cataract Gorge in Launceston, Tasmania
in the Land Down Under comes to us from our friends at Dave Baun Photography as
they have hit the road recently on holiday.
And yes that’s Laun CES ton -in Tasmania, whereas it is Laun (ce) ston
in the UK according to a video on You Tube.
I love that my friends travel to places where I have to look up how to
pronounce the names of the places. From
Gloucester (Glaw-stir), Massachusetts to Laun-CES-ton, Tasmania, wherever we go,
it is best to do a little research, so we don’t look too much like a tourist. For
instance if you visit NYC, you want to know the difference between a stoop, a schtup,
and a schmear. It could make quite a
difference in what you receive or where somebody tells you to go.
Anyway, its Thursday, and although a health condition is going to keep
me close to home today, I still wanted to share a photo of a pathway as is my
custom to encourage my friends to not only get out there and experience the
world around us but to endeavor to take a spiritual journey by seeking the Lord’s
wisdom and ways on the path of Christian Discipleship. Living out our faith in the power of the Holy
Spirit on a daily and continuous basis can lead us out of darkness of ignorance,
negative mind states, and bad behavior and into the light of God’s love and
truth that can result in experiencing the fruit of the Spirit and possibly
optimal health.
Yeah, this faith walk doesn’t necessary mean we are going to zone out in
some transcendental state of prayer and only develop our minds and spirits and forsake
and neglect our bodies. Scripture indicates we are to crucify the flesh, put it
into submission to our spirit, and to care for our body because it is the
temple of the Holy Spirit.
I have testified to my struggles with food addiction, that’s real what
it is, and how my research has revealed that processed foods are engineered to
make us crave them like an addictive drug and go back for more. Does the
phrase: “Bet you can’t eat just one” ring a bell?
So my spiritual journey, has led me to see this truth and to see the
effects that a lack of wisdom and discipline in terms of how I eat has
negatively affected not only my physical health but also my mind, will, and
emotions. The phrase “fat and happy” was
drawn from medieval days where it described those who had enough wealth not to
fear starving and who were “prosperous, content, satisfied, and unconcerned”.
“Fat and Happy” in that context doesn’t really seem to equal “morbidly
obese”, does it?. Unfortunately, “fat
and happy” has been used as a slogan to lead people into unhealthy states that leads
to pain and suffering. The remorse, guilt,
shame, and pain that is felt by someone who feels powerless to stop binging on “comfort
foods” and struggles physically because of their body size doesn’t really fit
in that picture of “fat and happy.”
The world system is under the sway of the enemy who seeks to deceive and
destroy us. The greed of men, the lust of the flesh, and demonic influences
have combined to create an obesogenic society, a society that causes obesity.
The only way out is to see the truth. We all “know” what we should do
for good health but somehow that “knowing” doesn’t translate into a belief that
impacts our behaviors.
Amazingly, I have discovered that my faith in Jesus Christ calls me to
examine all the aspects of my experience and has led me to see the deceptions
of the world system but has also given me the hope to change. My relationship
with God has shown me that nothing is impossible and that one of the fruits of
the Spirit is self-control.
This flow of the fruit of the Spirit into my life through my faith in
Christ and my relationship with God has given me victory over addictions for
years and now I am trusting the Lord to lead me to optimal health through
living according to the truth. The truth
in this area is that both exercise and controlling how much and what I eat, on
a continuous basis with intentional goals can undo the damage that I have
inflicted upon myself. A change of mind about
how I think about food, with the assurance of the Lord’s presence, has led me
to make great strides in walking towards my health goals.
My good friend, Bob Griffin inspired me by his example and has become my
“coach” on this journey and he checks in with me periodically to encourage and
support my walk towards where I want to go.
Unbelievably, my example has inspired a new friend to pursue the path of
Christians Discipleship and caused them to take similar steps in pursuing
optimal health! Today marks the first
week of their decision to join us on this journey of taming the flesh, while
they also seek to strengthen their faith, and I can’t wait to hear about their
progress.
While we all seek to be “prosperous, content, satisfied, and unconcerned”,
the Lord calls us to repentance. He loves us and wants what’s best for us.
When I first got saved, I was a mess. He loved me anyway and invited me
to be a part of His family and kingdom
with no strings attached. His love for
me wasn’t about my performance. But the
new life, and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, that He gave me
encouraged me to leave my dark and broken ways behind.
So, keep walking and talking with God. He has good things for you, and He
can give you the power to let go of the things are dragging you down and
causing you pain. Instead of reaching
for “comfort food”, we can let the Lord comfort us and lead us to be the version
of ourselves we always wanted to be.
This morning’s meditation
verse is:
1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NKJV)
11 Therefore comfort each
other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
Today’s verse speaks of our function as members of the body of Christ.
I pray my previous comments regarding
the flesh do not condemn anyone. On the contrary,
I only seek to encourage people to seek the Lord and to follow where He
leads.
As believers we are called to comfort
one another and edify one another.
To edify means to instruct or benefit
someone morally or spiritually, to up lift. So I endeavor to teach to others
what I have come to know through my trials and errors of my 49 years of life in
general, the 11 years of being a born again Christian, and through my studies and
application of the wisdom of the Word of God. While I learned a lot about what
not to do before coming to Christ, my focused advice and instruction focuses on
the word of God. Our experiences are one
thing, but truth and wisdom come from the Bible, and we need to know and do
what it says.
However, my experience tells me that
this process of transformation through Christian Discipleship is not always an
easy one and that we need to comfort each other as we surrender our old ways
for the ways of God.
We don’t just beat people up with the
Bible and whip them or ourselves into shape through trying harder and rigorous discipline.
Our faith walk is a relationship with
God and our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to foster the loving comfort
that the Lord gives us and apply it to ourselves and share it with our fellow Christians.
Many say that churches should be a
hospital for the broken, but I disagree. I think churches should be more like
physical therapy. Sure there is comfort
and healing available here, but that process of comforting and healing must be
accompanied by our participation to strengthen ourselves and walk on our own two
feet.
We can lean on the Lord and our
brothers and sisters in Christ, but our walk should be towards an increased
level of maturity and sanctification that results in our ability to not only
walk on our own but to become strong enough to help and comfort others in their
walk.
So receive
the comfort and edification that is available to you at your local church but take
steps to grow and to become stronger in your faith so that one day you can
comfort and edify others as well.
As
always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from
prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with
their walk.
Chapter
13
People
Grow Better Together
One January I had the privilege of taking 24 seminary
students to the Julian Center near San Diego, California, where we lived and
studied together for four weeks. My friend Dick Day founded the Julian Center
with the vision to educate Christians in a relational context. In the past he
had brought together groups for 12 weeks of live-in study, but that January he
joined me in teaching seminary students for an abbreviated session.
To introduce the relational dimension
of the retreat, I began the January session by dividing the students into
groups of three for a relatively nonthreatening get-acquainted exercise. I
concluded the exercise by asking students to identify one emotion they had
experienced. The typical responses were "happy,"
"accepted," "peace," "anticipation" and so on,
although a few admitted they were a little scared.
A young man named Danny surprised me
when he responded, "bored." Danny had come to learn, not to relate.
He wanted content, not community. He considered my attempts to build rapport
and relationship among the students a waste of his time. Day by day the other
students grew closer together, but Danny stayed cool and aloof.
After two weeks, Danny's resistance
finally wore down. He began to see that spiritual growth and maturity happen
best in a community of people who know and accept each other. When Danny
finally opened himself to his fellow students, he really began to get something
out of the content of the session.
Following his month at the Julian
Center, Danny had a new vision when he went back to the small group of
businessmen he was discipling. "Men," he told them, "we've been
meeting for a year now, but I don't know what makes you tick, what turns you on
or what your family life is like. And you don't know much about me either. We
need to move beyond sharing information and start sharing our lives."
Danny had learned Paul's secret of
discipleship: "Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased
to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you
had become very dear to us" (1 Thes. 2:8).
Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
God bless
you all!
Join our “Victory
over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via
the mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts,
Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com.
Email me
at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be
encouraged.
Encouragement for the Path of Christian
Discipleship
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