Monday, November 29, 2004
Man! Going food shopping just isn't as simple as it used to be. We used to buy whatever looked interesting, or affordable, or yummy. Now we have to allow extra time for a shopping trip. We have to read all those labels. Actually, it's a good thing that they're telling us what's in that cereal or those cookies. We're realizing how much of what we eat has to do with how healthy we are, and maybe how long we live. A lot of damaging ingredients are hidden in some of that food, like fat grams! Before we buy something, we have to know how many fat grams are in it. Who needs that stuff keeping your blood from getting to your heart? Right? Yes, we smart shoppers who want to live a little longer realize the damage that the fat can do that's hiding in that food. So we don't buy that good-looking food because it looks good. Oh, no! First, we check for what's in that product that could do damage to us!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Look at the Label."
We've gotten more and more vigilant about what we put in our body - things that can hurt it. But what the things we put in our soul? Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 2, beginning at verse 9. It tells us who we really are. "We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God!" Then in verse 11 it says, "I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul." Wow! I mean there are desires and temptations that literally attack your soul, and your soul is the "command center" of your choices and your imagination, your dreams, your lifestyle. If it gets poisoned, your life gets poisoned. So, like a health-conscious shopper, we have to look at the label. We have to check what damaging ingredients there might be and what we allow to feed our soul. Our soul feeds on the books and magazines we read, the TV and videos we watch, the music we listen to, the movies we go to, the jokes we listen to, the conversations we're involved in, the relationships we spend a lot of time on, and God's command is to do that without compromise. Abstain from sinful desires! Don't touch, don't watch, don't listen to, don't be around any input that Satan can use later to attack your soul.
Maybe you've become careless about what you're letting into your soul. It's easy to do, especially in times when you just want to relax or be entertained, times when you want to hang a "closed" sign out on your brain. Those times when your guard is down are the most dangerous of all for your soul. Why is it so important, as the Bible says, to guard your heart? Because every sinful image is an opening for Satan to come into your soul and poison it and "erode" you! Sinful images last much longer than the moment you see or hear them. For example: dirty jokes and dirty pictures live on in your soul, often for many years, don't they? Every portrayal of something dark wears down your spiritual resistance and you need all of that you can muster. Sinful input dulls your heart to Jesus' voice and it weakens your soul.
Here's the bottom line: you cannot afford, any longer, to let that poison into your soul! It just is not worth the damage it can do. I've decided that about what I let into my body. That food may look good and it tastes good, but the pleasure isn't worth the damage to my heart. No matter how attractive that sin-selling input is, don't let it in. It is not worth the damage to your heart.