Brown's Daily Word 2-6-08

Good Morning,
Today is Ash Wednesday in Church Calendar. The season of Lent begins today. It is a season of soul-searching and repentance, a season for reflection and taking stock of our lives. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. It is a season of self denial, sacrifice, obedience and dedicated discipleship. We will look today at one of the Seven deadly sins, the sin of gluttony.
Gluttony is defined as “the habit or act of eating too much, an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.” The second part of this definition includes things other than food. The opposite of gluttony of temperance. Temperance accepts the natural limits of pleasures and preserves this natural balance. The chief error about gluttony is to think it only pertains to food. Some people cannot have enough toys, television, or entertainment. We tend to call over-consumption of these things an “addiction” rather than gluttony. You may not have an issue with gluttony pertaining to food, but may have an issue with one of the other forms of glutton.
Solomon said in Proverbs 23:2, “Put a knife to your throat if you are a man of great appetite.” The advice that Solomon gives is very clear - do not overeat. Use wisdom, restraint, and discipline in eating and practice temperance – know when to stop. Again, this applies to every area of our lives.
Do you remember the situation with the Israelites concerning the manna that God provided them as recorded in Exodus 16:16-20? Do you recall when they were in the wilderness and God fed them with the bread from heaven (manna) and gave them explicit directions as to how much to gather? Exodus 16:16-20, “This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer a piece according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent…..'(vs. 20), but they did not listen to Moses and some left part of it until the morning and it bred worms and became foul and Moses was angry with them.”
They had been give very detailed instructions as to how much they should gather of the manna for each individual of their household. They were only supposed to gather enough for that day and no more. Obviously some of the people did not trust that they would have more manna for the next day so they kept some. That which they kept bred worms and stank up the camp, which made Moses very angry. Here the manna was provided as food for the entire day – but some gluttons (or a case could be made for greed or insecurity) kept some extra “just in case” to ensure they would have the benefit of enjoying it again. They enjoyed it so much that they defied the guidelines that God had given them.
In “The Screwtape Letters” C.S. Lewis describes “delicacy as a desire to have things exactly our way”. He gives the example of food having to be prepared just right, or in just the right amount. When the food was not just right, the “so called” Christian could easily be led into sin without even realizing it. But it isn’t limited to food. We might complain about unimportant defects in a product, the temperature in the room, or the color of a laundry basket. There is a certain amount of discomfort to be expected in life, but the Glutton will have none of it. Instead of becoming strong by suffering the minor inconveniences of life, the Glutton insists on being pampered. Gluttons will not be inconvenienced at any time in their lives. No one dares to point out how petty or foolish they are. In fact, some celebrities are praised for their excessive perfectionism, as though it were a virtue.
In the book of numbers we find another example of gluttony, but with a different twist. Turn to Numbers 11:18-24. Numbers 11:18-20, “So say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, ‘Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well off in Egypt. Therefore the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the lord who is among you and have wept before Him saying ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?”
This is a classic example of Gluttony. This is what the Children of Israel did to God. He had been giving them manna to eat – daily – and they grew tired of it. They wanted some meat. What they actually told God was that the food He provided from heaven (there was nothing like manna on the earth before this time or since) was not good enough – they wanted meat. God’s response was that He gave them meat, but with the meat would come the plague for their ungratefulness. When you read the rest of the chapter you see when He sent the meat, as they were still eating it, He sent a plague among them.
The cure for Gluttony lies in deliberately reducing our use of pleasurable things, not in eliminating them. May Christ have mercy on us.
St. Augustine who says it best, "You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." We are not alone. We are not alone in our greed, our gluttony, or our lust (or our pride, envy, anger, or sloth, for that matter). We need Christ, and to know that Christ is the one above all else who satisfies our deepest hungers and longings.
It should be our prayer that God would give to us a passion for Christ that is stronger than every other passion, a passion for Christ that puts all those misplaced, limitless, unfocused, chaotic passions for what is good, in order in our souls.
When Christ becomes for us "the bread of life," when we hunger and thirst for such righteousness, then God places us on a road and a path in life in which we will find more satisfaction and fulfillment and joy than on any other path we can find.
Deadly sins, that leave us empty –– but Jesus Christ came, and comes, to give us lives that are filled and fulfilled.
"Lord Most High, you know the depth of our hunger, our hunger for meaning and purpose and for value and for joy and happiness and pleasure. We pray that in seeking you we might find you and find more of these things than we ever dreamed possible. Where we are weak –– strengthen us; where we are strong –– humble us before your mighty throne, through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen "

In Jesus,
Brown


"Our lusts are cords that bind us. Fiery trials are sent to burn and consume them. Who fears the flame which will bring him liberty from intolerable bonds? "
Charles Spurgeon "
"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." William Carey

"It is vanity to mind only this present life, and not to make provision for those things which are to come." Thomas a Kempis
" Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. " C.S. Lewis
"I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean. " G. K. Chesterton


"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. "
William James