Indonesia, Part 2
Last night, I was at some friends house and stopped into the bathroom to “do my business”. There, on the floor, was an innocent looking digital scale. Should I?! YES! I got on the scale, and immediately wished I hadn’t. Staring back up at me was a number too large for me to count, and 10 lbs heavier then I had ever been in my life. The thoughts came to me:
- I was leaning to far to my left/forward/right/back.
- I must have pushed on the towel rack to make the numbers go up.
- The scale HAS to be wrong – it’s measuring some new-fangled pounds, not the American pounds that we’re accustomed to.
When going out of the bathroom, our hostess assured me that the scale was indeed correct, much to my chagrin.
I went walking this morning, praying as I was going – thinking about the sin of gluttony. How much do I trivialize this particular sin? We kind of wink at it, and go about stuffing our faces with more and more of “the kings delicacies”. A quick trip through Nave’s Topical gives me the following passages on the subject of gluttony:
Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” (WAIT – haven’t I been tired a lot lately???)
Proverbs 28:7 declares, “He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.”
Proverbs 23:2 proclaims, “Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.” (What? PUT A KNIFE TO YOUR THROAT!!!!!!)
Wow…convicting. How much time do we spend on dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, and yet neglect this very sin. It’s been my personal experience to wink at this particular sin of mine, and let it go rampant. I’m reminded that through my belly my lusts are fulfilled. When I can’t control my food intake, my self-control in other areas are indeed stunted.
What God has called good (food, wine, sex), man always seems to get out of whack. Where moderation is the key – we either go overboard into gluttony or drunkenness, or call it evil. Too many Christians will call drinking a glass of wine (and yes, enjoying it) a sin, then turn and go to a buffet and actually COMMIT the sin of gluttony while looking down their noses at those who aren’t even sinning!! We are indeed an evil bunch.
I need much cleansing spiritually and physically. May the God of heaven give me the motivation to do so in preparation for this Indonesia mission trip. Let me not hold back the kingdom’s advancement! Let me not deny my Christ by winking at my sin, and calling evil “good”.
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under Devotional, Indonesia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Allen December 29th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Thanks for the encouragement. I need it, as I’m VERY lazy.