THE CROSS AND OUR EATING HABITS

Why I blog about eating because when the Chinese meet each other, the invariable greeting is “Have you eaten?”

Remember what our Lord Jesus said in Luke 9:23 (NKJV)
Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

We are to deny ourselves and follow Him in everything we do. One of the areas we fail and fail miserably is the area of eating. In our affluent society, it is not the lack of food but the over-abundant of it. Every time when we go to the eating stores, we are just spoilt for choice!

A disciple of Christ is a disciplined person. When the Bible talks about self-control, many people think it is only in the area of fleshly desires. But fleshly desires also include the desire to eat. No wonder the Chinese sage Confucius equated eating and sex”Eating and sex are habitual.”食色性也” People like to eat what is tasty, not nutritious! Professor Luke Lin of Taiwan says:” Tasty food is not Healthy, Healthy food is not Tasty!” One of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. (Gal. 5:24) Why many have fallen sick? One of the main reasons is because they do not exercise self-control in what they eat and how much they eat. If we deny ourselves of all the favourite foods like fries, burgers, KFC, big Mac, coke, Maggie mee but eat the healthy fruits, vegetables and grains, we shall be healthier!

Have you noticed whenever there is a buffet lunch or dinner? How the people took a mountain full of the delicious food leaving nothing for others and how they gobble up the food like they had not eaten in a month! You think this only happen in the civil setting? Sad to say I have also noticed this in the church functions! Gluttony is a sin like idolatry!

What to eat is healthy? As a person who denies himself and takes up his cross daily to follow Christ, it is natural to follow what the Bible says about what to eat.

Genesis 1:29 (New International Version)
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. "

Every vegetable with seed and every fruit with seed is our food of choice. Do not eat any of the genetically modified food; you do not know what will happen to you. Neither do you eat the fruits without seed; these are only for the lazy people! The Bible says the seed of the fruits and vegetables is life as blood is to the animals. Do not eat fruit and vegetable that have no seed because they have no life. No wonder when we start to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of meat, we become more healthy! Many modern day terminal sicknesses are caused by eating meat. These include cancer, heart diseases, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity. I am NOT a vegetarian, but the less meat we eat the better!

What about meat? In Genesis 1:29, God did not say to eat meat. Then when did God allow men to eat meat? Not in Acts of Apostles as popularly believed. It is in Deuteronomy 12:20 "When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, "Let me eat meat, 'because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.'" Notice that it is man’s desire to eat meat that God allowed them to eat! It was only after Noah had left the Ark that God allowed man to eat meat. “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.” Genesis 9:3 (NKJV) This was the first time man was allowed to eat meat! Do you notice that animals are also to eat vegetables and fruits? Don’t believe? Please read Genesis 1:30 “Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so.” See, every living thing (animals and birds) were given green herb (vegetables) for food! The animals that eat meat are very fierce and easily agitated. Those animals that eat only grass are more tame and gentle. Many times in the Bible, I read about the lions and tigers lying together with the lambs and do not harm them. I have also read about the man of God, Sanda Sunder Singh in India. Many times the poisonous snakes, tigers and lions will come and sit beside him! This was the picture in the garden of Eden until man sinned! The day will come that animals and man no longer eat meat and all will stay in peaceful coexistence, heaven on earth (Revelation 21:1-2). That will be so when Christ returns. Come, O Lord, Please come quickly!

I have one concern though. If I do not eat meat, do not drink milk or eat dairy products and eggs, where do I get my protein? When I read Professor Luke Lin’s book on 21 days to a toxic-free body, then do I realize that some vegetables like celery, sea weed actually contain more calcium and protein than milk! I did not realize until now that the proteins in cow milk actually turn into something bad for the body when pasteurized! The only milk we can drink is mother’s milk! Or the closest is maybe goat milk, but then you have to keep a mother goat in your house.
The other things to do for health are also Bible-based. Drink good water without chlorine and boiling. Don’t drink reverse osmosis or distilled water. Many times the Bible compared water to life! "And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live." Ezekiel 47:9 (NKJV) "So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you." Exodus 23:25 (NKJV)

Pray and you shall have peace, and this peace shall bring you health. Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." When we have a cheerful heart, it does good like medicine! Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones." Cast all your worries, troubles and heartaches to Jesus and you shall have peace. “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” I Peter 5:7 (NKJV)

Confess your sins. You sin because you are a sinner. You are not a sinner because you sin. Many Christians are not truly Christians because they have not really confessed their sins and repented. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:9 Many cancers are caused by people harbouring hatred against others. In New York, while praying for a middle-aged woman in the Methodist Church, the Holy Spirit showed me that she has arthritis in the fingers because she harboured hatred against her elder sister. I asked her to go and make up with her sister if she wants to be healed of her arthritis.