A reason to know the voice of the Lord

When the Lord speaks through a person, what they say will be backed up by scripture. But also, when the enemy speaks, he will use misapplied scripture to defend his poison. How will you distinguish? If you’re relying on your intellectual knowledge of scripture to distinguish, be careful, you’re up against the one “more crafty than the rest.” The truth is that you must know the voice of the Lord. If you don’t, you’ll believe the misapplied scripture of the enemy’s agent before you believe the Lord’s servant!

Quick Reminder: Be content in the Lord God

• Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
• 1 Timothy 6:6-12 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
• Proverbs 19:23 The fear of the LORD leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

The Banquet is ready, the Bride is NOT!

This parable is as true today as it was when Jesus walked the earth. (Luke 14: 16-24)

Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.‘ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.‘ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’  “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.‘  ” ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.‘ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ”

Much of the Church is tied down to the cares and riches of this world, making them unready for the Lord’s return. Make no mistake, the Lord is coming back for a bride without Spot or Wrinkle, not for a bride caught up in sin, those people will not make it. [raptureprophecy.com]

An Idol is anything that takes the place of God

A true believer in the Almighty will not worship false gods be it idols, treasures or anything else.

Idols need not be only statues, but anything that people try to set up above the Lord God. In this evil and adulterous generation, therefore one must have control over one’s appetites, for anything and everything, lest you become the laughing-stock of your enemies. Your true enemies are first and foremost all those in enmity with the Lord God. Rest of your enemies are just personal and temporal enemies.

Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” (1 Corinthians 10:7)

Therefore, my beloved, shun the worship of idols. (1 Corinthians 10:14)

Every evil earthly nature that causes sinfulness towards God must be eliminated from your life if you claim to truly worship the Lord God. Or else its just a waste of time. No matter how natural the world justifies sin to be, get ride of all your base desires, before they all give you the fruit of your unjust labours.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)

Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

True

Pray and be holy as well

A message to those rich in the present age

​As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)

Be careful of putting your trust in your riches. Moths destroy costly clothes. So do the rich get conned into buying things they don’t need at all. Because of their abundance they neglect to give glory to God. But yet at the moment they avoid the Lord they become diligent to the wrong paths of life. There is only one life and then comes the afterlife. The legacy of the rich can only go this much. Perhaps their true friends and select relatives will remember them once they are no longer on earth. But if they choose the Lord God even to their last breath then the angels of God will remember to bring them to heaven. There they will be comforted by Jesus Christ and the saints of the Lord God forever and ever.

Food rewards anyone?

All praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lead us O Lord God, by your Holy Spirit into self control in all things we think or do. Amen.

Right at the beginning want to say to any dog owner reading that this; please don’t get carried away by the experiments mentioned below. Simply treat your dog(s) normally.

Now it’s a very nice experience to look after little pets who are the creation of God. Just to let you know, in the scientific world and especially those concerned with psychology, Pavlov’s experiment’s with dogs are quite a nostalgic thing.It rings a bell for them.

Now there was this Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine called Ivan Pavlov. This man who is also a Russian started his experiments on dogs, about Classical Conditioning which are now called as Pavlov’s experiments. In such cases the subject dogs were given food bits after hearing a bell sound. Eventually the dog’s mind’s got accustomed to receiving such ‘rewards’ after the bell sounds that they would automatically salivate in anticipation of the food they’d be receiving very shortly. Those with dog’s at their homes might possibly observe that such loyal creatures do salivate at times of eating food etc.

Pavlov’s dogs along with their handlers

Pavlov’s findings are used not only by those wearing lab coats but other’s too. Certain companies have marketing strategies which still use Pavlov’s theories about rewards for classical conditioning to outsell other competitor’s who have similar products. Basically they show some cheerful looking young man or woman who seems to derive happiness once he or she consumes so and so product. In reality the actor’s in such videos or poster’s are smiling only because they are being paid for such smiles as part of their contract. But in general, people still fall for this trick and buy products based on such advertising despite having availability of other such products which use lesser or no exaggeration in their sales. I’d suggest that one checks the actual product’s reviews instead of going solely by the advertising alone.

Now with regards to the topic of eating and drinking, we are not to get trapped into this food rewards program. Pavlov might have had his own agenda for his famous experiments but he surely didn’t intend for humans to see food as rewards for themselves.

However there are certain people who reward themselves with food. They set benchmarks of achievements and upon achieving them they gorge themselves on a huge amount of food. Nothing wrong with celebrating success. But the way you celebrate is the real issue.

Let me give you an example. There are people who after a hard day’s work reach home and eat as many donuts they can after dinner. They do this as an emotional pat on the back for themselves. It feels so nice to them. Yet this slowly over a period of time makes them unwittingly gluttonous. Now it reaches a stage where subsequent weight gain is visible to all. Such persons don’t stop but continue to reward themselves with more food. Some these don’t get into all such overzealous eating all by themselves, they do it in a group.

Now what does the Bible teach us about gluttony. Here’s a few of them:

Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. (Proverbs 23:20-21)

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it. (Proverbs 25:16)

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19)

Now one may feel that one’s got a right to spend as they wish for their food especially since they don’t steal for it. I have no objections to that but I still have to say that not everything that’s lawful will help.

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12)

At times you might need to eat a lot but ideally this should be for strength and not for the wrong reasons.

Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! (Ecclesiastes 10:17)

Never follow the example of Sodom even in terms of eating.

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. (Ezekiel 16:49-50)

Keep yourselves away from emotional eating. Surrender all your cares and worries unto the Lord Jesus. Don’t depend on food rewards but eat rightly. Because life is more than food and drink.

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)

Overeating can and must be avoided

There’s a famous saying which goes like this ‘Eat to live but never live to eat’. What it means that eating is needed for your body but don’t overeat nor be obsessed with eating.

Romans 14:17 says that; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 23:2 says that; and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.

Medically it has time and again been proven that overeating is related to obesity, blood pressure and heart attacks. So one must eat as much is actually needed by one’s body instead of greedily eating. Does not make any logic to eat so much that you need medical treatment later.

Being too stuffed with food results in slowness of movement and general laziness. Some people find it easier to breathe when they lose weight. While these people were overweight due to excess eating, they would experience breathlessness too.

Now you might face situations like at a wedding banquet  that you have taken too much to eat. You can choose to eat only what is needed as per your bodily requirements and leave the rest. Yes, leave the rest. I faced this personally and actually left out the food when I was getting overstuffed.

Someone might say you are wasting food but if that extra food is going to make you feel nauseous you better leave it. Actual food wasting is when you habitually eat only a partial amount of food on your plate. However if on a one-off instance you had got too much food and you want to only eat a part of it please feel free to do so without feeling guilty. The choice is yours to make for a healthier eating experience.