Welcome to the Overcoming the Acceptable Christian Sin of Gluttony podcast, a companion podcast to the Acceptable Christian Sin of Gluttony message series. The purpose of this podcast is to share with you, from a biblical perspective, the means by which we can combat and overcome the sin of gluttony and its outcome of obesity.
Our passage from the Word of God today is Genesis 3:1-6 which reads: “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
Now, let’s look at gluttony in the news: According to the Stanford Health Coalition, “Obesity is the leading cause of type 2 diabetes. This type of diabetes usually begins in adulthood but, is now actually occurring in children. Obesity can cause resistance to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. When obesity causes insulin resistance, the blood sugar becomes elevated. Even moderate obesity dramatically increases the risk of diabetes.”
In this podcast, we are going through the book, The RAVE Diet and Lifestyle: The Natural Foods Diet With Meals that Heal, by Mike Anderson. He writes:
Benjamin Franklin said, “If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.”
Dr. Andrew Prentice of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said, “Food is cheaper now by a long way, more abundantly available, more highly refined and more pressingly sold to us by very clever advertising companies and techniques. The remarkable thing is how anybody stays thin.”
We live in a strange world when it comes to weight loss. Imagine, if you will, someone who’s overweight giving advice on how to lose weight. Sounds ridiculous, right? Yet, what we have today are a bunch of fat doctors telling people how to lose weight. In fact, the most successful Diet Doctors seem to be the most overweight.
In the year 2000, long before the controversy about his weight after his death, Dr. Atkins exceeded federal guidelines for being overweight. One doctor, who saw him many times over the decades, estimated he was 40 to 60 pounds overweight.
Barry Sears, Ph.D., author of the hugely popular Zone diet, was also overweight in the year 2000. Sears even states he’s overweight in his own book! Yet despite this admission, millions of copies have been sold. Am I missing something? How can people who want to lose weight follow the advice of someone who proclaims, in his own book, that he’s overweight?
Perhaps the answer lies in some of the statements that Sears makes, such as “You can burn more fat watching TV than by exercising” and “About one-third of Americans are … suffering from protein malnutrition.” The last statement is like saying Americans are suffering from fat malnutrition. As a matter of fact, the average American eats enough protein to fuel a champion weightlifter. But burning fat while watching TV and getting too little protein are the things Americans love to hear because it justifies eating the very diet that has made us the fattest nation on the planet.
We also have Dr. Phil, who at 6 foot 4 inches and 240 pounds is at the upper-end of the overweight category and teetering toward obesity, according to Harvard’s Body Mass Index (BMI). And yet, he claims he’s at an appropriate weight for his age and height. By whose standard? And stating his weight as “age appropriate” implies that humans are supposed to gain weight with age, an obvious invention by Dr. Phil and his publicity machine. Of course, Dr. Phil also states that just about everyone can benefit from the supplements he’s selling, particularly Dr. Phil.
Then again, other Diet Doctors are just plain terrified of their own diet. Look at Dr. Agatson, for example, author of the best-selling South Beach Diet. Here’s a cardiologist who admits to taking an aspirin, fish oil capsules and a statin drug every day to prevent a heart attack.
Imagine, if you will, a cardiologist who cannot even design a diet that will free him of drugs that treat a disease he’s supposed to be an expert at preventing; a cardiologist who’s incapable of designing a diet to lose weight and prevent heart disease. A cardiologist who says that eating a candy bar is healthier than eating a potato. And while he tells his readers “Don’t even think about limiting the amount of food you eat,” his menu plans are, in fact, severely restricted in phase one. But, of course, if you start to gain weight in the later phases, you have to go back to his more restricted diet. In other words, he has a built-in yo-yo cycle within his own diet. And, there are no secrets. It’s a simple calorie restriction diet, as are the Zone and Atkins diets. As Dr. Marion Nestle has stated, “What it comes down to is that this is a standard 1,200- to 1,400-calorie-a-day diet, so of course people are going to lose weight.”
Parenthetically, if you follow the South Beach Diet like its author, it’s going to cost some $3,000 just in heart medicines, not to mention the aspirin and fish oil tablets. There are many doctors who design heart-healthy diets, they keep their total cholesterol well below 150 and they do not take aspirin, fish oil or any heart medicines, all of which can have serious side effects. Their healthy hearts are due solely to diet, not drugs. You can achieve far better results with diet than you can with drugs when it comes to heart disease, because no drug has ever cured heart disease whereas the RAVE Diet has.
— PRAYER —
Now, in this series, as we focus on overcoming the sin of gluttony, and managing our bodies as God intended, we must not lose sight of the most important part of our existence — our spiritual life. Even those of you who are fit, who eat right, and who exercise regularly must still address the condition of your soul. You may keep your body in perfect condition till the day you die, but you will still die — we all will, and the only thing that will matter is the condition of your soul. Is your soul in shape? Is your soul in right standing with God?
The only way to make sure of that is to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin and the consequences of sin. He alone can save your soul, put you in right standing with God, and ensure that you do not perish in Hell. Now, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, here is how you can trust Him today.
First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”
Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Now that is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.
Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and today I choose to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and I choose to follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.
If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
If you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior today, please email me at [email protected] and let us know. There is some free material that we want to send you. If you have a prayer request, please e-mail that to us as well, and we will pray for you until you tell us to stop.
God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.
Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books including the Essence Magazine, Dallas Morning News, and Amazon.com national bestseller, Letters to Young Black Men. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry.
He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts/podcasts, which include: The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update and the Soul-Winning Motivator, among others.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary). He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree.
He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.
When you purchase a book below it supports the Number #1 Black Christian Newspaper BLACK CHRISTIAN NEWS NETWORK ONE (BCNN1.com) and it also allows us to spread the Gospel around the world.
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