However, I was happy being unhappy with myself. I was "Happy being unhappy!", but that was a facade. When I looked in the mirror and stepped on the scales, I was not happy with myself as much as I said "It doesn't matter!", it did matter!
People who have not, care not, about what they don't have! I grew up not having rich foods. Beans were a daily meal, although they varied as to type each day. Treats were things as pickled beats and even sweetened vinegar. Once a month we went to the grocery store to buy coarse oat meal and shredded wheat. I was satisfied with either, but never enjoyed either one. I ate to stay alive and was skinny as a rail. However, I was "happy, happy, happy!" Then with age and education, prosperity enveloped me. I found that rich foods were my fancy! I dreamed about pizza and was dazzled by candies and confections. Mind you, since we had no money for these foods before, they were of no consequence to me. After having them, I craved them!
Because of my metabolism I could eat 4000 calories a meal and never gain weight. Then all of a sudden my inactive thirties hit and I gained 30 pounds in three months eating delightful food. I was the customer of 29 large companies and they fed me well! A farmer would have been proud of his fatted pig and although I was still thin, my growth would be pleasing to a prosperous farmer!
At this time I developed new habits. Rather than tennis, basketball, running and swimming; I preferred eating. "After all, if I ate just a little, what difference did a sample make?" I rationalized! Like pennies accumulate into dollars, bites accumulate into gluttony. Before long after weighing 145 for years, I weighed 222 pounds! I had a double chin and a keg where my six-pack used to be. My belt warped downward as my stomach tried to push my pants down. I became lazy and apathetic.
While I was mowing I saw a reflection in the window pane. There stood Buddha without a shirt. He wasn't contemplating his navel because this Buddha couldn't even see it! "It's time for a change!" Buddha said philosophically.
Now there are two ways of doing things: I can do it myself or I can do it God's way! I had already tried numerous times "my way", but the flesh is weak. Perhaps it was time for God's way! Satan told me that I wasn't obese and "Don't worry about it!" A parallel would be "Don't worry about that cancer, it's not in the final stages yet!" Satan has a sense of humor. He likes to see us kid ourselves and is our biggest fan! He delights in our rationalizations and excuses!
Let's take a look at a little scripture to see what God says:
Acts 17:18 (ESV) "Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."These two groups of philosophers, and philosophies are truly religions, were at opposite ends of the spectrum. However, both did things for the "Self". Stoics sought peace by sacrificing grand lifestyles for austere existence. They sought wisdom and efficient living. They were frugal. On the other hand, Epicureans lived for pleasure. Both sets of philosophers left God out of their lives and Paul accused them of worshiping "an unknown God". I know who this God is and Paul did too! The philosophers worshiped "them selves" as all ungodly men do!
Genesis 3:6 (ESV) "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."Adam and Eve already had good food. They could eat of any tree in the garden, but this one. God provided their needs and they were satisfied. However, the serpent stepped in and deceived them; "You can have better food!" he said and they went for the bait. The tree was good not only for food, but "food for the gods" because they wanted to be as gods! The tree was a delight for the eyes!
There is an expression for those who eat at restaurants for the rich and famous: "The food is an Epicurean delight!" That means that it is rich, tasty and beautiful. It's things as caviar, escargot, pate, and so forth! Adam and Eve were "wannabe Epicureans"! Their descendants became just that!
On the other hand, this forbidden tree was "desired to make one wise". That's what the Stoics were all about. They reflected on inner things without gorging on the things of the world. Adam and Eve, not only wanted to be Epicureans, but they were "Stoic wannabees". What they didn't "wannabee" is obedient and practice self-control: not be too self-engrossed in either self-actualization nor pleasure!
We should neither abstain from food and a little pleasure for non-spiritual reasons, nor should we gorge ourselves in deference to self-improvement. This a a continuum of "The Self" with both ends extremism and sinful.
Now let's look at those "other gods besides God". Satan is not a god! He is a mere prince of this world. Satan doesn't care about that as long as we have another god besides God. Satan appearing as a serpent wanted Adam and Eve to worship themselves!
Genesis 3:22 "Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil."Adam and Eve didn't become Gods, but they sought to be as God. Hence, Adam and Eve became their own gods. They lived to satisfy "The Self"! They sought wisdom, good food and pleasure! These were the gifts that they gave to themselves. However, because they were punished, the food they had was earned by sweat and toil. Therefore, Adam and Eve were probably in fairly good physical shape because their food was sparse and they burned off what they consumed. You see, God wanted them to live a long time to multiply and populate the earth. Adam lived 930 years! Because he never got what the serpent promised and because he toiled, Adam lived a long time!
I think about life quite a bit. I kind of enjoy living. All of us "gods" do. We can stroke ourselves and make our idol feel happy. We live "in the flesh" and "for the flesh" because our own flesh is our god, at least until we give him up for God. That's being "born again". We change gods!
What most gods do is make sure that the harvest is plenty. Most people like to eat good food and a lot of it! Our god craves good food and we must appease god. Because we're so accustomed to appeasing "The Self" that when we do submit to Christ, Satan tells us to always withhold something from Jesus. We each have our own strongholds which we won't let go of, and for most of us that stronghold is food! Yes, gluttony is how we still worship "other gods besides him" because our god, besides him, is our own Self!
Philippians 3:19 (ESV) "Their (gluttons) end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things."Gluttons are those who overeat. I confess it. I've been a glutton and it's wrong! Yes, if we overeat our "end is destruction"! As I was running each morning I thought about my deep-breaths, sore muscles and being tired. Then I thought: I AM breathing, I AM tired and my muscles ARE sore. Death makes me incapable of all those things. By "toiling" and "reasonable eating", just like Adam, my life, God willing, will be extended! We take these breaths for granted that we breathe right now, but near the end each breath will be precious. By being healthy now we can add years to our lives and millions of breaths! The work and pain I do now are gain for later!
Those who eat for pleasure have a god: "their god is their belly", and likely more accurately "their god is their taste buds", but truly "their god is their own Self"! People who eat too much for pleasure are eating the Epicurean food from that tree which the serpent offered. We are doing Satan's will. We have been deceived and we put the belly of our idol before God. Not that we abandon God, but that we have another god besides him!
Solomon built God a great temple so that he would have a place to be worshiped.
1 Kings 6: 2 "The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 7a When the house was built, it was with stone 15 He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress."This description of God's Temple that he designed himself was simple:
- Small in comparison to temples built for other gods
- It was built plain with plain stone in contrast to temples of other gods which were ornate and gaudy.
- It was lined with good wood, but not expensive woods while other temples were lined with gold.
- Although modest and humble, this temple was from hewn stone and was beautiful!
That was the Temple God wanted. It was humble, practical and modest. Now God's temple is us!
1 Corinthians 6:19 (ESV) "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."Now God lives inside you! Where does he want to live? In a humble, practical and modest temple! However, he wants that temple (you) to glorify God. People don't glorify God by fattening themselves up with "food for other gods". We glorify God, not by being Epicurean-like, but by being God-like!
How are we to be God-like? Self-control to please God. Note that Stoics exercised self-control to the extreme, but it wasn't to glorify God. It was to exalt "The Self". To please God we are to be self-controlled:
Titus 1:8 ESV "But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined."Jesus left his Holy Spirit to comfort us. With his help all things are possible. All that we have to do is to have faith and God will help us be self-controlled.
Romans 12:1 (ESV) "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.""You can do it! You can do it because you're not alone!" God transforms our minds if we merely cooperate. Just as in patriarchal days the priest was commanded to bring to God an acceptable sin sacrifice, that "ram" we bring today is us! We are a "living sacrifice". There is to be life in us! We are to be God-like because God is life. While in days of old it was dead fatted calves that God asked for, now it's lean healthy live people type animals! He wants us as perfect as can be and God speaks of gluttony in very harsh terms!
Romans 14:17 (ESV) "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."In short... where God lives will be one where all is right and peaceful! Eating and drinking will not be important! Get used to it! Train now for your eternal home! Upon being born-again, we live in the "kingdom of God" on visas. We are to put aside the importance in eating and drinking and live righteously. We don't have to wait until we get to heaven to do that!
Will you go to hell for being overweight? I doubt it! You may be condemned though, for not putting God first! There is some point in our daily living where God recognizes "He's not serious about my will!" I don't know where that point is, but if we love God we want to live for him and we want to keep that temple (our bodies) in tip-top shape for him! God looks at it this way: "Is he living to please me or the Self?" because scripture tells us that we can't have two masters (Matthew 6:24). Is God your master or is it "The Self"?
Back to me. My work is my gain and to God's glory. I credit God for my success in losing 40 pounds and reducing my cholesterol to normal levels. The doctor cut my statins in half! I feel great and look healthy. I have energy and am no longer lazy. I believe that my body is a good home now for the Holy Spirit to reside. If I could have my mind as clean as my body, God would surely be pleased. Now that I have the main floor in order, it makes me want to get that attic in better shape!
Aint God good? We must let him be good to us and that's to partner with him to clean our house and his temple!
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