How's Your Diet?

I don't often eat bread these days, there are so many things put in it to stop it going mouldy quickly. There are quite a lot of foods like this, additives and chemicals and goodness knows what else is put into food to stop it going off.

I remember as a child runner beans being put in salt to preserve them over the winter, things were put in vinegar to preserve them, apples stored away in drawers in brown paper. But mainly we ate what was in season at the time, fresh. Not so in these days, we want everything now, and we want it to last far beyond its natural life. We don’t seem to be in the least concerned about the affects all these chemicals are having on our health. But there are more and more people becoming aware and taking control of their diet, cutting out anything that has those hidden extras.

What about our spiritual health, are we aware of those hidden extras that people sneak in? We are to be discerning people; we should test everything with scripture. A lady recently told me of a book she was reading where Jesus, had taken the author to heaven and hell, so she could tell people all about them. Jesus has already revealed all we need to know in scripture. He has already revealed heaven and hell to the apostle John, it is the last book in the Bible and is called Revelation. 

Revelation21:23

God is not going to keep on telling others, He has already revealed all He is going to reveal in the Bible.

Don’t be taken in by these additives, because they will harm your spiritual health. The Word of God makes it plain that those who add to scripture and those who take away will be punished. The canon of Scripture is closed, so don’t be fooled by those who have “special revelation” from God.

Test everything anyone tells you with God’s Word. Rely only on God’s Word and not man’s opinion of it. If you don’t understand something ask the Lord, He will help you. Ask for discernment, and grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. God answer’s the prayers of the diligent seeker. 

Proverbs 30:5-6

Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar. Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

Revelation 22:18-19

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

What Cost?

I read an article in the paper this week that you could pay up to £3000 to meet the actors of the tv series, Sherlock Holmes at the annual Sherlocked convention, you cannot even be sure the main characters will be there but you won’t get your money back. Why anyone one would want to pay that amount to meet a fictitious character I have to say is beyond me. I delved a little deeper into this and there are a lot of stars who charge anything from £350 for a quick hello and a photo to thousands for a dinner with them. I may be a bit green but these are just ordinary men and women who are either in the music business, or acting and I know they are probably very good at their job but let’s face it, nobody would dream of paying £3000 to have dinner with a man or women whose job it is to save lives whilst putting their own at risk!

These people who save up their hard earned money to pay people who already have more than enough just doesn’t make sense. But then neither does it make sense to me to pay someone for healing! The world is full of people on the make and the church is no exception, you only have to look at the faith and prosperity movement. People making money out of other people’s misery. I don’t find that in the word of God, far from it. So how much do you have to pay to meet God? How much do you have to pay to get into heaven? One thing is for sure no matter how much money you give to the church or a preacher that is not going to get you there. Neither is doing good words, neither is praying to Mary the mother of Jesus, neither is blowing yourself up. Neither is following every new thing that comes out in the name of Christianity, it’s been known for gardeners to keep poison in pop bottles. Don’t be fooled, there is only one way to God the Father, there is only one way to get eternal life in heaven, so what is the cost? 

You don’t have to pay a thing, you don’t have to earn it, you don’t even have to deserve it, it is all by the grace of God. Jesus bore our sins on the cross, He took the punishment for your sins, the only thing we can bring to this is our sin. We have a choice, accept God’s gracious invitation of forgiveness through His Son, repent. In other words, acknowledge that you are a sinner, ask God to forgive you, turn in the opposite direction from the one you have been going in and be born again. Jesus said that everyone must be born again to enter into God’s eternal kingdom.

Born again what does that mean? It means when we were born as a baby we were born already sinners, the sin nature was already in us and so our spirit was dead in sin. Being born again means that your spirit is alive when you come to Jesus for salvation. From that moment on we are no longer our own we belong to Christ and so we do His will instead of our own. People often say, why would a good God send people to hell? My question is, why would anyone choose hell over a good God? There are only two choices, God is not just good, gracious, merciful, kind, He is also holy, righteous and just. If you choose to reject His mercy, then you will come before Him for judgement and condemnation. Jesus paid the price for us to go to heaven, those who reject this pay the price of their sin themselves, that price is hell and damnation. It is worth it? I wouldn’t waste my money on the celebrities, are you going to waste your life in sin knowing now what it is going to cost?