One of my favorite verses in the Bible is I Corinthians10:31. It challenges the socks off of me because I realize, every time I read it, counsel it, ponder it, how I fall woefully short of the command. The verse says, "Whether therefore, you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God." It's pretty straight forward, wouldn't you say? Unfortunately, the very direct and specific command often times gets lost in the clutter of busyness. Perhaps it gets over looked because it can be so loaded down with "Christianeze" that most think it applies only to those who wear the clergy garb, or those who land in the leadership of some religious organization. Nothing could be further from the truth. The command is found in the letter written to a church in the ancient city of Corinth. The church was a mess at the time that Paul wrote this letter. Many in the church were struggling to leave behind the rudimentary effects of living in the moral filth of the Corinthian society. As one studies the book of I Corinthians, it seems like the similarities between the American church of the 21st century and the church in Corinth are striking. Needless to say, this verse was written to men and women who are just like you and me---common, everyday, down to earth folks.
So God's command through the pen of the Apostle Paul is diametrically opposed to how many of the Corinthian believers were living their lives. Paul makes it clear that even the most mundane things, such as eating and drinking are to be done for God's glory. That means, as John Piper instructs in one of his great articles, that one should drink orange juice to the glory of God. Everything one eats and everything one drinks is not just about having hunger or thirst satisfied. It isn't just about the simple enjoyment of the taste of something that we enjoy. No, it is about something much greater. It is about the Creator's glory. In 2 Corinthians 5 we are reminded that Christ died for us so that those of us who live will no longer live for ourselves but for Him. Everything we do is to be for Him, not self. So when we enjoy a great meal, a great cup of coffee, a nice cold glass of coke, or a bowl of ice cream, we do so with thankfulness in our hearts for the One who gave us all things to enjoy (see I Timothy 6). We do so, realizing that these things we eat and drink are merely tools that are intended to point to the Creator. The food we eat and the beverages which we drink are intended to give us the energy to do Kingdom business. Anything outside of that really falls short of what God commands of us. But there is so much more to the command of I Corinthians 10:31. But that is for another post.
So here's the challenge: Every time you go to eat something or drink something, enjoy it, but as you enjoy it, engage your mind to thank the One who Created; thank the One who gave you taste buds; and then take the energy you have and use the ability that the Creator gave you to speak, and tell someone else about the greatness of our God.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
I followed some advice
Ready? Here we go. Back some time ago, a friend suggested I start a blog. I laughed, not because I'm opposed to blogs, but because I had no clue how to start one. I'm still not sure if I know how to start one. But perhaps this will work.
So I'm home from work today battling a sickness that is going through the community. Sore throat, congestion, kind of an achy body. Just enough to leave me with that lingering, "yucky" feeling. Sickness serves as a reminder of our frailty as humans. We realize when we are sick that we are not invincible. We are driven back to why we get sick in the first place. It all began in Genesis 3 when the father and mother of the human race made a choice to step outside of the Creator's counsel and bite into the piece of fruit. From that one monumental decision came a curse from the Creator. Sickness, disease, thorns, thistles, and pain all became a reality at that point in time. Sickness is part of that "groaning" aspect described by Paul in Romans 8 where he notes that the whole creation groans. We long for the day of redemption. So the physical sickness I experience today is a reminder of that groaning.
With this sickness comes pain. Have you ever thought of pain as a gift? Really, in some ways it is. Now let me clarify, I don't like pain. But one way I look at pain is that pain tells me that my nerve endings are still working. That is a great thing. In that sense, it is a gift. Years ago, I remember missionaries coming to our church from the mission field. They would show us these slides of various tribes and invariably they would show a slide of a person who was missing a hand, or an arm, or a foot, and the missionary would always tells us about how the person had leprosy. Leprosy, as I understand it, is a disease that attacks the nervous system and makes it so that the person's nerve endings fail to work. So the person in the slide often lost their hand or foot and didn't even realize it because they can't feel pain. Sometimes these individuals would rub their fingers off and not feel a thing. I think we would all agree: Pain would be very valuable to those people. It is not a good thing when the nerve endings no longer work to alert the person that something is wrong.
Where am I headed with this? Besides the nervous system and the nerve endings, there is something else that humans were created with that is really critical. It is called the conscience. The conscience is that system that alerts the person that something is not right. According to Romans 2, even the person who has never read the law of God knows that there are some basic things that are right and wrong (murder is wrong, stealing is wrong, etc.). The reason this is so is because the Creator has given the person a conscience. But the conscience only responds to that which is fed to it. If the person feeds truth to his conscience, he will stay on the path of right. If he goes against his conscience, he will slowly, but surely harden it until it no longer responds to God's truth.
We dare not stiff arm the conscience when it speaks to us. Like pain, let us use this incredible gift that has been given to us by the Creator, to help us walk in righteousness.
So I'm home from work today battling a sickness that is going through the community. Sore throat, congestion, kind of an achy body. Just enough to leave me with that lingering, "yucky" feeling. Sickness serves as a reminder of our frailty as humans. We realize when we are sick that we are not invincible. We are driven back to why we get sick in the first place. It all began in Genesis 3 when the father and mother of the human race made a choice to step outside of the Creator's counsel and bite into the piece of fruit. From that one monumental decision came a curse from the Creator. Sickness, disease, thorns, thistles, and pain all became a reality at that point in time. Sickness is part of that "groaning" aspect described by Paul in Romans 8 where he notes that the whole creation groans. We long for the day of redemption. So the physical sickness I experience today is a reminder of that groaning.
With this sickness comes pain. Have you ever thought of pain as a gift? Really, in some ways it is. Now let me clarify, I don't like pain. But one way I look at pain is that pain tells me that my nerve endings are still working. That is a great thing. In that sense, it is a gift. Years ago, I remember missionaries coming to our church from the mission field. They would show us these slides of various tribes and invariably they would show a slide of a person who was missing a hand, or an arm, or a foot, and the missionary would always tells us about how the person had leprosy. Leprosy, as I understand it, is a disease that attacks the nervous system and makes it so that the person's nerve endings fail to work. So the person in the slide often lost their hand or foot and didn't even realize it because they can't feel pain. Sometimes these individuals would rub their fingers off and not feel a thing. I think we would all agree: Pain would be very valuable to those people. It is not a good thing when the nerve endings no longer work to alert the person that something is wrong.
Where am I headed with this? Besides the nervous system and the nerve endings, there is something else that humans were created with that is really critical. It is called the conscience. The conscience is that system that alerts the person that something is not right. According to Romans 2, even the person who has never read the law of God knows that there are some basic things that are right and wrong (murder is wrong, stealing is wrong, etc.). The reason this is so is because the Creator has given the person a conscience. But the conscience only responds to that which is fed to it. If the person feeds truth to his conscience, he will stay on the path of right. If he goes against his conscience, he will slowly, but surely harden it until it no longer responds to God's truth.
We dare not stiff arm the conscience when it speaks to us. Like pain, let us use this incredible gift that has been given to us by the Creator, to help us walk in righteousness.
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