On FOOD fixation

 

Philippians 3:18-19

King James Version

¹⁸ (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, 

and now tell you even weeping, 

that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

¹⁹ Whose end is destruction, 

whose God is their belly, 

and whose glory is in their shame, 

who mind earthly things.)

You will never hear JESUS glorifying food.

He doesn't have to.

And it's not in His nature to do so.

He is beyond, and above man's food.

He is TRUE sustenance.

He is the BREAD of LIFE.

John 6:35

King James Version

35 And Jesus said unto them, 

I am the bread of life: 

he that cometh to me shall never hunger; 

and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

In JESUS, we live.

He satisfies every basic need.

Which is what, anyway?

Salvation, first of all.

The rest, our physical sustenance.

And some basic essentials.

A roof over our heads.

Some food to tide us over.

A family that, ideally, loves us.

Work that serves the LORD.

Good health for all the people in the world.

Freedom from oppression for everyone.

Some income to sustain us, and our families.

And yet, I look to the world, and it isn't so

It's amazing how the world is fixated on the 7 Fs.

Man is fixated on food, face, flesh, form, fame, fine clothes, and fortune.

Do those really matter?

Would those be good for our soul?

Will we need it where we're all going?

We really have to stop this obsession with worldly stuff.

Perhaps, it's my training from childhood.

To make do with what you have.

Not to aspire for luxury.

Work, through honest means.

When GOD made me born again, all those things made sense.

I was prepared, and attuned, for simplicity.

Look at the state of the world today.

So many industries were birthed.

All focusing on food.

Social media made it worse.

Now, everyone can post their favorite food.

They can share, or boast, about the trending food places they've visited.

And you gawk at the abundance of food and partying.

It's like there's no end to it.

Everyone's trying to outdo the other.

Then I remember many people who have nothing to eat.

Or people oppressed in many societies.

We also witness uneaten food ending up in the garbage.

I honestly, honestly believe no one need starve.

There's so much food everywhere!

We just have to have the heart to share with others.

Probably, the only time people don't post, is when they're in the bathroom.

But surely, people also check their phones while in the bathroom.

Do we have to "document" everything we eat, buy, or do?

It's a selfish, narcissistic society, all right.

Not a healthy society, for sure.

A society that will perish.

People have forgotten GOD.

Or if they remember, they have relegated the "Father of lights" in some dark corner of their soul.

We have no idea what we're doing.

We gorge on food, and skimp on GOD.

We have become a world of gluttons.

With diseases hot on our heels, because of greed, vanity, and insatiable appetites.

What a terrible, demonic world we have.

Lose that fixation on food.

JESUS has already given the command:

Mark 1:15

15 And saying, 

The time is fulfilled, 

and the kingdom of God is at hand: 

repent ye, 

and believe the gospel.

Related material:

This PREOCCUPATION with FOOD

The WICKED shall PERISH

JESUS as BREAD of LIFE

The LIVING BREAD

SPIRIT and FOOD

BORN AGAIN classics

Image: Clipart Library

LAW on LEAVEN

 

1 Corinthians 5:6

King James Version

6 Your glorying is not good. 

Know ye not that a little leaven 

leaveneth the whole lump?

I can't ignore something I learned today.

SPIRIT led me to TWO types of leaven.

One, concerning the WORD of GOD.

Which we wrote about earlier in our "The LEAVEN parable".

And another, a different kind of "leaven" JESUS spoke of.

These verses clarify.

First, from the Old Testament:

Exodus 12:15

King James Version

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; 

even the first day ye shall put away leaven 

out of your houses: 

for whosoever eateth leavened bread 

from the first day until the seventh day, 

that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

Exodus 12:19-20

King James Version

19 Seven days shall there be 

no leaven found in your houses: 

for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, 

even that soul shall be cut off 

from the congregation of Israel, 

whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; 

in all your habitations shall ye eat 

unleavened bread.

Exodus 13:3

King James Version

3 And Moses said unto the people, 

Remember this day, 

in which ye came out from Egypt, 

out of the house of bondage; 

for by strength of hand the Lord 

brought you out from this place: 

there shall no leavened bread be eaten.

Exodus 13:4-5

King James Version

4 This day came ye out in the month Abib.

5 And it shall be when the Lord 

shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, 

and the Hittites, and the Amorites, 

and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, 

which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, 

a land flowing with milk and honey, 

that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

Exodus 13:6-7

King James Version

6 Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, 

and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; 

and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, 

neither shall there be leaven seen with thee 

in all thy quarters.

Exodus 13:8

King James Version

8 And thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, 

This is done because of that which the Lord did 

unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.

Exodus 34:25

King James Version

25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice 

with leaven; neither 

shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover 

be left unto the morning.

Leviticus 2:11

King James Version

11 No meat offering, 

which ye shall bring unto the Lord, 

shall be made with leaven: 

for ye shall burn no leaven, 

nor any honey, 

in any offering of the Lord made by fire.

Leviticus 6:14-17

King James Version

14 And this is the law of the meat offering: 

the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord, 

before the altar.

15 And he shall take of it his handful, 

of the flour of the meat offering, 

and of the oil thereof, 

and all the frankincense 

which is upon the meat offering, 

and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, 

even the memorial of it, unto the Lord.

16 And the remainder thereof 

shall Aaron and his sons eat: 

with unleavened bread shall it be eaten 

in the holy place; 

in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation 

they shall eat it.

17 It shall not be baken with leaven. 

I have given it unto them for their portion 

of my offerings made by fire; 

it is most holy, as is the sin offering, 

and as the trespass offering.

Leviticus 10:12

King James Version

12 And Moses spake unto Aaron, 

and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, 

his sons that were left, 

Take the meat offering that remaineth 

of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, 

and eat it without leaven beside the altar: 

for it is most holy:

Leviticus 23:16-18

King James Version

16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath 

shall ye number fifty days; 

and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord.

17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations 

two wave loaves of two tenth deals; 

they shall be of fine flour; 

they shall be baken with leaven; 

they are the firstfruits unto the Lord.

18 And ye shall offer with the bread 

seven lambs without blemish of the first year, 

and one young bullock, and two rams: 

they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, 

with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, 

even an offering made by fire, 

of sweet savour unto the Lord.

Second, from the New Testament:

Mark 8:14-16

King James Version

14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, 

neither had they in the ship with them 

more than one loaf.

15 And he charged them, saying, 

Take heed, 

beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, 

and of the leaven of Herod.

16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, 

It is because we have no bread.

Matthew 16:8-12

King James Version

8 Which when Jesus perceived, 

he said unto them, 

O ye of little faith, 

why reason ye among yourselves, 

because ye have brought no bread?

9 Do ye not yet understand, 

neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, 

and how many baskets ye took up?

10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, 

and how many baskets ye took up?

11 How is it that ye do not understand 

that I spake it not to you concerning bread, 

that ye should beware of the leaven 

of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

12 Then understood they how that he bade them 

not beware of the leaven of bread, 

but of the doctrine of the Pharisees 

and of the Sadducees.

Luke 12:1

King James Version

12 In the mean time, 

when there were gathered together 

an innumerable multitude of people, 

insomuch that they trode one upon another, 

he began to say unto his disciples first of all, 

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, 

which is hypocrisy.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

King James Version

6 Your glorying is not good. 

Know ye not that a little leaven 

leaveneth the whole lump?

7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, 

that ye may be a new lump, 

as ye are unleavened. 

For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, 

not with old leaven, 

neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; 

but with the unleavened bread 

of sincerity and truth.

Related material:

The LEAVEN parable

Image: Clipart Library