Think on "these things".

This past week Clay and I and the kids did our "usual" Wednesday night dinner at the local Mexican restaurant. I have always loved Mexican food. Several months ago, I asked the people who work there if their chips were cooked in a dedicated fryer. This simply means that the chips were cooked in a fryer with only chips... not flour tortillas and such... I was informed at that time that they cooked them in a dedicated fryer. Well I went last week and found out that they do cook other things in the oil... which means, I have been eating gluten for the past few months. Clay and I knew I had been feeling rather "rough" over the past several months, but couldn't figure out why. When I explained to the waitress that I couldn't eat the chips anymore, because they have gluten in them and I had been feeling sick, she kept telling me, that I looked "fine". I would be "ok" to eat the chips. She was looking at my "outside" and not my "insides". To her, I was just fine! I was in excellent condition! But on the inside, my body has not done well, I am tired, sick, and my joints hurt frequently. My point in this story is not for you to feel sorry for me, but to think about how "my story" can really relate to all of us.

As believers, we look "fine" on the outside. We are going to church, smiling, praying at church, answering questions in Sunday School, singing in worship, etc... We look "fine" on the outside. But so many of us are walking around "sick" on the inside. We are allowing the world to eat away at us spiritually. Maybe it is the friends that we choose to spend time with, what we watch on T.V., maybe it is our extensive use of the Internet, it can be anything at all that causes our minds and hearts to drift away from Gods will or His word. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8

We read Paul's advice to us in Philippians 4:8 :

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Now, last time I checked, there is very little truth spoken on television or the Internet. Honorable television is rarely found on our shows today, there are adulterous affairs, premarital sex, and vulgar talk on almost every channel at any given time of the day or the night, none of these acts are honorable at all. Purity is a joke on about every television show, people laugh at the thought of anyone being pure. They are usually the "joke" of the show, not the hero. Lovely is a half-dressed woman wearing to much makeup, excellence is "so called" journalism on the network news, the praise shown on any of our media outlets is the praise of man, and last time I checked, none of these things offer salvation.

I say all of this not to condemn any of us for watching television, playing on the internet, or enjoying the news, but to remind us that our Almighty Father wants us to dwell on "good things" so that we can be healthy on the inside. Once we have seen or read something, it is automatically internalized and we can never erase it from our souls. We can seek forgiveness, and ask the Lord to remove it from our memory, but it has already done damage and it is irreversible. The great thing about all of this is that we are allowed to "heal" and grow once we study, pray and set our hearts to think about "these things"

My Celiac Disease has caused some irreparable damage to my intestines, but a small portion of them will be able to be repaired by me not eating a gram of gluten. See, I had been eating gluten once a week for a few months and it has caught up with me now. I think in the spiritual life it is the same concept. If we only spend small amounts of time with the Lord, we get caught up in the world and find ourselves "sick" and in desperate need of Christ. We must keep a check on our daily diet so that we can be "healthy" and nourished.