Comfort Food vs. the God of All Comfort

09/29/2011 by Michele | No comments

What’s really going on as I turn to food when I’m feeling empty, hurt, angry, depressed, lonely, afraid, or even bored? After all, I am a child of God (Romans 8:16), a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17), and no longer a slave to my flesh (Romans 6:18, 22). Christ is dwelling in me by His Spirit (Romans 8:9) and He has given me everything I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

The problem is that when we are hurting, we lose sight of all of this; we forget who we are in Him and all that He has provided for us. We start to feel like God is distant and doesn’t care, so we mistakenly conclude (consciously or not) that we must take care of ourselves and somehow fill our empty places. One of the easiest ways to do this is to nurture and comfort ourselves with food. But as we all know, this path leaves us feeling more miserable and dejected than ever.
Next time your emotions are crying out for “comfort food” to ease the pain or fill the emptiness within, remember:
• You have been given fullness in Christ. (Colossians 2:9-10)
• Because the LORD is your Shepherd, you lack nothing. (Psalm 23:1, 34:9)
• God’s love is able to fully satisfy you. (Psalm 63:3-5)
• His unfailing love for you is able to provide the comfort you yearn for. (Psalm 119:76)
• The LORD has promised to comfort you in your affliction. (Isaiah 49:13, 51:12)
• Our Father is full of compassion and delights to comfort us in all our suffering and troubles. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)
• Our God is the God who comforts the downcast. (2 Corinthians 7:6)

As we learn to persevere in the midst of whatever we encounter along our individual paths, we discover that In Christ we are complete, not lacking anything (James 1:4). He is able to comfort and fill us as no physical food ever can.

The Perils of Disregarding Self-Control

12/02/2010 by Michele | No comments

My last post dealt with the “forgotten” fruit of the Spirit, self-control; how it is often neglected, confused with legalism, or thought to be simply a matter of personal will-power. Yet self-control is actually a natural result of walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)–being led and controlled by the indwelling Christ rather than by our own fleshly efforts.

Self-control is a virtue stressed throughout the New Testament, and we neglect it to our own peril. Consider a few of the consequences of disregarding it. Without self-control:

1)   We are unable to pray effectively (1 Peter 4:7). Peter exhorts us to be alert, clear-minded and self-controlled “so that we can pray.” Why would a lack of self-control hinder our prayers? Think about it. When I am focused on indulging my flesh, whether by stuffing my face with more than my body needs, or any number of other ways, the last thing I am interested in doing is praying. After drugging myself with food, or whatever, I am sluggish and despondent. I have no energy for focused and effective Spirit-led prayer. By the way, fasting has the opposite effect, as it facilitates and empowers prayer. But that is a topic for another post!

2)   We become easy prey for the enemy (1Peter 5:8-9). In this passage, Peter draws a clear association between our self-control and our vulnerability to the evil one. Again, when I am intent on indulging my flesh, my defenses are down. I become oblivious to the enemy’s efforts to deceive, entrap, and devour me. How can I remain vigilant, strong in the armor of God, and able to stand against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:11-18) if I am busy gratifying my flesh? I believe the enemy is well aware of this, which is why he is constantly trying to distract us and lure us into a self-indulgent flesh-life.

3)   We seriously compromise our usefulness and example in this world. Paul clearly lays out the qualities that should characterize God’s people as we seek to lead and teach others (Titus 1:7-8, 2:2,4,6), and self-control is not optional. It is a necessary quality for elders, for men and women young and old who seek to minister to others. Self-control simply cannot be ignored if we are serious about walking in a way that pleases God and edifies those around us.

Without the Spirit’s fruit of self-control we forfeit so much—effective prayer, victory over the enemy, our positive impact and example for others, our overall usefulness in God’s hands. We effectively strip ourselves of the power that is ours in Christ. Isn’t it time we give our full attention to this “forgotten” fruit and allow the Holy Spirit to produce self-control in our lives?

The Forgotten Fruit: Self-Control

11/28/2010 by Michele | 3 comments

I ended a previous post noting that self-control, although a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and one of the Christian virtues listed by Peter (2 Peter 1:5-7), is probably the most neglected and misunderstood of those listed. Why is this? Several reasons come to mind. The first and most obvious is simply because we are products of our society. Our culture places little value on self-control; in fact, it celebrates the very opposite. Self-indulgence and instant gratification are encouraged and applauded; after all, “you deserve it!” If you want it, you simply go get it. Denying ourselves pleasure, whatever form it may take, is seen as unnecessary and foolish. Some may even use the Bible to justify this indulgence (1 Timothy 6:17).

Jesus’ words urging self-denial (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23) strike our American ears as foreign and leave us a little uneasy. Not to mention Paul’s words about beating his body and making it his slave (1 Corinthians 9:27). It is easier to just skip over these passages and focus on the more appealing ones, like “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10)!

Perhaps we pay so little heed to the Holy Spirit’s fruit of self-control because we don’t really think it matters that much. After all, we are under grace and free in Christ!

It is true that in Him we have freedom and are no longer bound by rules and regulations. But Paul warns us not to use our freedom as an excuse to indulge the flesh (Galatians 5:13).

It is true that we are no longer under the law; but everything we are free to do may not be beneficial. Paul cautions against being mastered by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12).

God’s grace and the freedom we have in Christ are clearly not a license for self-indulgence and immorality (Jude 4). In fact, it is this very grace that teaches us to say “No” to our fleshly passions and live self-controlled, godly lives (Titus 2:11-12). It is interesting that one of the characteristics required for service as an elder, is self-control (Titus 1:8, NIV). In just the first two short chapters of Titus, “self-control” is listed five times (Titus 1:8, 2:2, 5, 6, 12)! Peter mentions it four times in his writings (1 Peter 1:13, 4:7, 5:8, 2 Peter 1:6) Maybe self-control matters after all.

I wonder whether self-control is so neglected because we don’t understand what it actually is? Since it is called “self” control, we wrongly assume that it is something we must find within ourselves to exercise. It seems to be a matter of will power, and in our experience we simply don’t have the strength of will (power in ourselves) to overcome the desires of the flesh and its appetites. So, more often than not, we give in and assume that the elusive fruit of self-control is simply out of reach–except for those fortunate ones who possess the rare virtue of will power!

However, since their success flows from mere human effort, the result is inevitably self-righteousness and/or legalism. It is easy to think of self-control as just trying to keep a list of do’s and mostly don’ts, which God lays out for us and expects us to master. Such a misunderstanding of self-control leads to a life of discouragement and defeat, or just further apathetic self-indulgence.

This is where New Covenant living comes in. The reality that Christ dwells in us now by His Spirit means that we are no longer dependent on our own efforts, which always end in failure (John 15:1-5). As Paul warned in Galatians 3:3, we cannot begin with the Spirit and then rely on human effort to produce what only He can—His fruit. We have got to move beyond thinking of God as someone “up there” helping us apply biblical principles that will make us victorious. The truth is, He is actually and literally dwelling within us, ready to live His life through us as we choose to live by His Spirit’s power instead of our own futile efforts.

It is so much easier to identify what self-control is not—will power and keeping the law in the power of the flesh—than to clearly state what it is. I would love to hear other perspectives on this “forgotten fruit.”

What is “New” About the New Covenant?

11/15/2010 by Michele | No comments

I doubt that what is written here is some new teaching that you have never heard before. It can be found throughout the New Testament, and is foreshadowed and alluded to in the Hebrew Scriptures. You may have heard sermons on it and perhaps considered these truths in passing, but somehow they have not become reality in your life.

What follows is mostly a “spurring on” and a reminder of what all devoted followers of Christ know in their hearts to be true: Jesus ushered in God’s radical new way of relating to us. But the question is, as the title of this post indicates, what exactly is it that is “new” about this New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus?

I will sum it up as concisely as I know how:  Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God made it possible for us to be transformed from the inside out, removing from us our “hearts of stone” and giving us new “hearts of flesh” instead (Deut. 30:6). No longer do we have to strive to uphold an external rule of law written on stone tablets. Rather, we are able to live according to His Spirit who now indwells us and empowers us to fulfill the royal law of love inscribed on these new hearts of ours. In other words, before, we were dependent on an external code and our own efforts to keep it; now we are dependent on an indwelling Person and His power enabling us to walk in the new and living way (Hebrews 10:20).

If this is the case, and we are reminded throughout the New Testament that it truly is, why do most of us remain locked in our old sinful habits and patterns of defeat? Why is so little of Jesus’ life and transforming power manifested in our lives? The attitude is often, “Oh, that will all be true for me when I get to heaven…In the meantime, I’m not perfect but I’m forgiven!” It seems we have resigned ourselves to lives of defeat and failure, pointing to Romans 7 and concluding that what Paul is describing there is the normal Christian experience. Brothers and sisters, this should not be!

Jesus intends that we grasp and internalize all that He accomplished for us. I believe the reason that we don’t, is that we remain captive to “old covenant” thinking. We have reduced the New Testament, or Covenant, to another external code that must be followed. We have developed and embraced principles rather than the indwelling Christ. Oh sure, we ask God to give us His power and wisdom as we seek to apply His principles. We know that He is more than willing to help us out, but still we think of Him as “up there,” outside of us, not living in us and through us mightily.

Let me clarify first of all that I am not advocating “perfectionism;” as long as we inhabit these bodies we will struggle against the flesh and its desires (Galatians 5:16-18). But I would say that since Christ indwells us now by His Holy Spirit, power over sin rather than defeat by it is meant to characterize our lives and be the norm. This is not to say we never sin! It means, rather, that sin is the exception and not the rule as is so often the experience of God’s people. It concerns me that people balk at this, as though I am speaking some sort of heresy. I believe that somehow we have missed the reality and actual implications of the New Covenant. Let’s look at what is clearly said in Scripture about the “newness” of it.

Hints of the New Covenant are found in the Old Testament, as God alludes to giving His people new hearts, hearts that are able to love and obey Him. This implies that in our natural state we are incapable of these things. The first mention is in Deuteronomy 30:6 when God promises Moses that He will circumcise the hearts of his people so that they may love Him wholeheartedly. Paul picks up on this in Colossians 2:11, “In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ…” This is clearly something God must do for us and that fundamentally changes us from the inside.

A more familiar passage in the Old Testament that points forward to what Messiah would accomplish is Jeremiah 31:33. Here God promises to put His law in the minds of His people, and write it directly on their hearts. No longer would they be required to follow external lists of commands; instead His law would become internalized, part of their innermost being. Obeying it would now flow naturally from who they are.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 speaks for itself: “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” It is impossible to miss the fact that God is the One doing all of this, and that what He does effects real and fundamental change in His people. It is not merely a “positional” truth or just a legal standing. The problem is that we may understand this intellectually and academically, yet not experience it as we live out our lives. Are you beginning to see what we are missing?

Some may object that these promises were given not to us but to the Israelites and will only directly apply to them at some future time. But we are also descendants of Abraham by faith (Rom 4:16-17); we are partakers in the New Covenant, which Jesus clearly initiated at the Last Supper (Luke 22:20); we have been grafted into the root (Rom 11:17-18); we are true branches, one with the Vine (John 15). Granted, there is a sense in which the New Covenant will only be completely fulfilled when Jesus returns and restores all things, when we are freed from this body of death and receive our glorified bodies (Romans 7:24, 2 Corinthians 5:4-5). But how do we live in the meantime? My assertion is that God desires to live the New Covenant life through each of us now, by the power of His indwelling Spirit, even as we wait for His glorious appearing (Titus 2:11-14).

Why Your Body Matters-2

11/13/2010 by Michele | 2 comments

Perhaps the most important reason our bodies matter is stated best by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

This is not merely figurative, an effective allegory or word picture; it is literally true. The more we begin to grasp the reality of this truth and actually experience it, the more we come to understand the profound implications it has for our bodies. Yes, Paul refers to our physical bodies as “jars of clay,” (2 Corinthians 4:7) but consider the Treasure that inhabits these fragile jars! No longer does the Presence of God dwell in a man-made tabernacle or Temple, as was the case under the Old Covenant. He now resides in His people. This is the mystery that was kept hidden throughout the ages and has now been revealed: “Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27).

It is often pointed out that Paul is addressing the corporate Body in these verses since the plural forms of “you” and “your” are used. There is no question that God’s Spirit indwells the Church Body as a whole, corporately, which together makes up His Temple under the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 3:17). But this truth in no way undermines the importance of individuality and personal responsibility of each member of the Body. Unless of course you believe that upon becoming a member of Christ’s Body our individual identities are lost and somehow absorbed into a collective, universal “oneness”!

I believe that Paul teaches the responsibility of each believer to care for and control his or her body in a way that honors God and is befitting of His indwelling Presence (1 Corinthians 10:31). Because our bodies are now His Temple, we are to honor Him with them in every aspect of our conduct—whether sexually (as addressed in 1 Corinthians 6) or any other area requiring self-control.

By the way, self-control is one of the “fruits of the Holy Spirit” listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Yes, it is the last one mentioned, and probably the most neglected of all. A future post will hopefully address this misunderstood but vital fruit of the Spirit.

Why Your Body Matters-1

11/13/2010 by Michele | No comments

It is not my purpose here to address the many medical reasons for responsible care of the body. These are documented every day in the news: heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and joint problems; all are rising with reported obesity rates.

My focus for now will be limited to biblical reasons why our bodies matter, the first and most basic being that the body is an integral aspect of God’s image in man. In the account of creation in Genesis, we learn that God formed both male and female in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:27, 5:1). He designed man first as a physical being then breathed into him the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). He could have simply made us spiritual beings, like the angels, but He chose not to. Both the physical and spiritual dimensions are intrinsic to being human; both have divine purpose and reflect the image of God in man.

It is astounding to consider that when God created man, He did so with the Incarnation in mind. He knew His Son would ultimately take on human flesh, and he designed our physical characteristics and aspects accordingly. Our bodies are perfectly formed to contain the Divine. Wow.

Which leads to the second reason that your body matters. When Jesus appeared on earth, He appeared in a human body. We are reminded in Hebrews 1:3 that “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” Jesus Himself asserted to his disciples that in seeing Him they had seen the Father (John 14:9) This speaks of the Son in the entirety of His being, including the physical. In the same way, believers indwelt by Jesus through His Spirit are now meant to represent God here on earth. We, in the entirety of our being, spiritual AND physical, represent God to others. We are the visible manifestation of God’s presence on this earth. What others see (both inwardly and outwardly) when they look at us, has a direct influence on their perceptions of Him. Since this is true, don’t our bodies matter?

Does Your Body Really Matter?

11/13/2010 by Michele | No comments

I remember a conversation I had years ago with a dear friend of ours who was seriously overweight. He said he was not too concerned about it and actually laughed it off, because he believes that when he dies he will be rid of his present body. He was looking forward to receiving his new one, which would be perfect. His flippant attitude bothered me at the time, though I probably could not have expressed why.

In our society, the Church tends to mirror secular trends. Whether it is immorality, materialism, or unhealthy eating habits and weight gain, statistics show that the behavior of Christians reflects that of the surrounding culture. Presently about 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese. While I have no hard data to support it, I would assert (quite boldly) that this percentage is possibly even higher within the Church.

Do our physical bodies matter? Isn’t it what’s inside that really counts? In a culture that is so focused on externals, shouldn’t a Christian’s focus be internal, on things unseen? I realize this is the prevalent view, as well as the rationale for many who are overweight, but I would like to present a different perspective.

An accurate view of the human body requires that we avoid two prevailing extremes  in our perceptions of it, the first just described and represented by my friend. It goes like this: Our physical bodies do not really matter because they are only temporary; the spiritual, what’s inside, is all that matters. We have a tendency to separate (I believe wrongly) the physical and spiritual, and assume that the spiritual is what is important and all that matters to God. This concept stems from Platonic thought, the belief that the spiritual is good and noble, while all things physical are inconsequential at best and evil at worst. Platonism  has permeated the Christian mindset without our even realizing it. My purpose is not to delve into philosophy at this point; others have already done this so well (see Randy Alcorn’s excellent book, Heaven).

In support of this idea that the physical body is irrelevant is the teaching that God loves us just the way we are. His acceptance of us has nothing to do with our outward appearance or performance but rather our hearts toward Him. (Man looks at the outer appearance, but God looks at the heart–1 Samuel 16:7). While this is absolutely true, it is often taken so far as to imply that the physical body is not at all important to God; and has no impact or any effect on our walk/relationship with Him. I believe this is a serious misconception that leads to even more serious consequences, which is why I feel compelled to address this issue.

At the other end of the spectrum lies the opposite extreme, the belief that the body is all that matters.  Our secular society continually perpetuates this view—that the material world is all that is real. Nothing else exists, so the focus is entirely on the physical. This is the mindset reflected throughout Hollywood and the media. As a result, the physical body has become a god, an object of worship, and an end in itself… “If only I could have the perfect body, I would be happy and loved, and my life would be worthwhile.”

Perhaps the indifference that many Christians exhibit toward the body is a reaction to this secular materialistic view that we are constantly bombarded with. But my point is that neither of these extremes is healthy. Neither reflects God’s design for us as the crown of his creation. So why does the physical body matter? Coming blogs will focus on this subject.