What are you eating?

What are you eating? How are you affected by your diet?

This morning Stephanie commented on how her cravings have changed since we have become more careful about our diet. (Notice that we are discussing diet and not ration. Diet is the substance of what is consumed while ration is the amount. What most people mislabel as diet is really ration.) Stephanie commented that since we have cleaned up our diet and are eating more and more fruits and vegetables, and that we have begun spending the money for organic fruits and vegetables, that she now craves these. In the past I had to fight her to convince her to eat any fruits, but now she says that she actually craves them.

We have eliminated most of the processed foods from our diet, too. Processed food has many unnatural and unhealthy ingredients added to it. Some of the most harmful of these are the neurotoxins or excitotoxins MSG (processed glutamates) and aspartame (aspartic acid). What our bodies crave has changed as over time we have been cleansed of these toxins. We also have less headaches and other aches.

It is amazing to us to observe how powerfully we have been affected by using caution in our diet. As our diet has changed, so also has our desire for pure food increased. We drink reverse osmosis filtered water, and so we can hardly even force ourselves to drink Wichita’s city water from a water fountain or from the tap. We even make our own ice cream, after depriving ourselves for several years because of the toxins added to store bought ice cream. Things like these we make from pure ingredients, purchasing milk produced by herds free from the hormones that are added and from antibiotics and from other things added to milk and milk products. The more that we have done this sort of thing, the more that we crave pure and unadulterated foods. We have actually been changed by what we eat.

The same is true of spiritual food. How many “Christians” truly even consider the purity of what they are being fed in their churches? How many people even know how to identify the pure and unadulterated Word and Sacraments?

This is why St. Paul says:

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

When the apostle admonishes that we should work out our own salvation he means that we should very carefully and continually examine the doctrine and practice of our churches to be certain that what we are being fed is not poisoning us. He says to do this with fear and trembling. Why? The reason is that a little leaven leavens the entire loaf. Just a little spiritual MSG not only poisons one sermon or one worship service, but it works its way through the entire congregation and through the very essence of the faith of every worshiper. Moreover, like with MSG in processed foods, spiritual impurity causes the hearer to crave more of the same deadly corruption. For this reason St. Peter also gives a strong admonition, saying:

Having put aside, then, all evil, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes the word's pure milk desire ye, that in it ye may grow, if so be ye did taste that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming—a living stone—by men, indeed, having been disapproved of, but with God choice, precious, and ye yourselves, as living stones, are built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:1-5 YLT)

Most Christians acknowledge that the Word of God is what is needed in the life of the believer and of the Church. Most “Bible believing” Christians speak of the necessity of the Word. Many even acknowledge the importance of the pure Word. But do they really even know what pure means? Have they truly worked this out for themselves so that they crave the Word’s pure milk? Or have they eaten tainted spiritual food for so long that they actually crave the impurities and additives of their church bodies and of their preachers and of their own sinful hearts?

Since the Scriptures teach that only the pure doctrine saves, should we not stand with St. Paul and St. Peter rather than with those who preach tolerance of impurity?

In my own daily walk I find it amazing how powerfully I am affected in this regard. If I allow any impurity into my thinking or into my spirit or into my activity, this impurity immediately takes over me so that this is what I think, say, and do, and even desire. One stupid song can be so pervasive that it requires a deliberate and determined retreat into the pure Word to rescue me. I often find that the only way to escape the recurring tune and lyrics is to begin singing one of the powerful hymns that I know. The same is true of movies that we rent and watch. The same is true of any of the moronic frauds who claim to be radio evangelists. Even a billboard advertisement on the side of the highway can fill my thoughts with something impure. One jackass driver can likewise fill me with unholy and unhealthy poisons.

But the word’s pure milk empowers my spirit. Returning to God’s grace in my baptism purifies my soul. Setting my mind on the things above where Christ is completely changes my thought pattern. Singing or humming or whistling one of the powerfully rich hymns drives out the impurity and teaches me the true faith again. Then this is again what my soul craves.

But this does not happen if I allow one of the shallow so-called Christian songs from the radio to be my source of strength. These only direct me to my own emotions and my own reason and strength. Such are not the Word’s pure milk, but are full of impurities. These only substitute one spiritual poison for others. In actuality, these don’t really even replace the other toxins but only pile on top of them.

So then, what do you eat? What do you crave? Is this a genuine concern in your daily life?


† † †