Detours

"Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2)
"For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)

I have been battling food habits (that I thought I had broken) since late April/early May. I had lost over 100 pounds during a 2-year period and now my cravings for sweets have gotten the best of me. I have allowed it. It's my own fault. Why I have allowed it I don't know. It certainly doesn't do me any good. It does taste good, that first moment when it touches my tongue. But in the long run, I can't keep saying yes to sweets and no to better choices.

It's a detour. All of life offers detours for us to take or not take. If we keep our focus on God, we won't get off track. We will obey the Lord at every turn, always seeking His will for our lives and the detour will vanish or we will be able to overcome what seems insurmountable.

Food is necessary to the body, for sustaining physical life, but not all food, not all the time. It is among "the affairs of this life" and its not good to stay entangled upon it, to be focused on it. It can become a hindrance to what we should be doing. Philippians 3:18-19 says, "For many walk, ... whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly (sensual indulgences, such as food), and whose glory is in their shame - who set their mind on earthly things."

Today is the day. Dear Lord, help me stay away from that which is harmful to my body. Only allow me to only take in that which is useful. Keep me from harming myself. In your name I pray. Amen.

"God wills it!" ... ?

I've been reading about the Christian Crusades between 1096 and 1272. The book was written for young people and with that, it seemed somewhat easier to grasp what was going on during that period. The pilgrimage of the first crusade may have had good intentions, but by the time of the last crusades, any good intentions lay in ruin, deceit, disgust, death.

Historian Steven Runciman noted "The triumphs of the Crusades were the triumphs of faith. But faith without wisdom is a dangerous thing ... ... the Crusades were a tragic and destructive episode. There was so much courage and so little honor, so much devotion and so little understanding. High ideals were besmirched by cruelty and greed, enterprise and endurance by a blind and narrow self-righteousness; and the Holy War itself was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of God, which in itself is a sin against the Holy Ghost."

Faith without wisdom is a dangerous thing ... have we yet learned that today, hundreds of years later?

"God wills it!" -- how can any of us presume we know what God wills. Just by saying it, does not make it so. Just because you believe God is behind anything you do, does not mean it is His will. To have even an inkling of what God's will is, you must have a personal relationship with His son, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. You must seek His will for you, praying always, continually.

This Is God's World

This is God's world
All that is is His
It is not mine
Nor is it yours
It is God's
and only His.

No other power
nowhere no how
in times past,
present or to come
God has it all.

We - you and me
created in His image
to rule
the fish of the seas
the birds of the air
and all the animals.

But, alas,
it was not enough
We - you and me
wanted more
and more
and more.

And now,
we have more
don't we?
Or do we?

We - you and me
wanted so much
more
that destruction and utter chaos
settled around us.

And now
we - you and me
struggle to find a balance.

God provided that balance ...
in the beginning.

Why wasn't it enough?

by Cathy Orrick Luders

6.2.2006