Got Junk Food In Your Mind?

Jesus had a problem with the Pharisees and teachers of the law who questioned Him when they noticed the disciples
ignoring the observance of hand wahsing before eating. They were relating defilement with the intake of  eating food with
unwashed hands. Jesus explained that it is not what you put in to you that creates impurity, but rather what comes out of you.
Mark 7:20-23
Jesus said, " It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a persons heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.
All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you."
It does appear that He was expressing all the things the religious people around Him were dealing with. Perhaps they were more concerned with their ceremonial traditions rather that dealing with the real sin issues inside their heart.
As a matter of fact, if you think about it, this is a list of things that many people deal with. Even many well meaning religious people that have yet to offer ownership of their lives to the authority of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, deal with these very issues in their lives.
A vast number of people who claim to know God have still yet to discover the life changing power of the Holy Spirit that is
available to help to overcome this list of things that God considers vile.
The list is something to ponder to use as study material to make sure that we do not have any of these things residing in us.
If we do, we can learn to trust God to deliver us from these evils,and overcome as He has promised.
Know this for sure, that whatever junk food we have in our hearts will eventully come out.
If it's an addiction you are dealing with, Jesus is the right person to place yourself before as an opporunity to show
 Himself stong on your behalf. 
I want  to share a portion of my book, "Are you Saved or Deceived?"
This is about my personal struggle of addiction to cigarettes and how God delivered me...for good!
Although nicotene addiction is somewhat different from sins of the flesh, this is still a great example of the power of God
 at work on a willing heart.
 At age eleven, I picked up a pack of some non filtered Pallmalls one of my brothers had placed in the cabinet while home on leave from the service. In no way am I blaming him, but this was how I started. Once I had smoked a few, I can still remember the addiction I felt. And as a young boy, I did not understand the consequences of smoking. I just wanted to try it. Through all my teen years, I slipped deeper and deeper into smoking pot, drinking alcohol and was many times willing to try any kind of drug or drink that landed in front of my face. I am sure many of you also can relate to that temptation. I had no resistance to the things of this world that would confront me because my heart was still in darkness and in bondage to my worldly and fleshly desires, without God in my life. I danced and smoked and drugged my teen years away, many days smoking as much as three to four packs a day. Eventually my life became more and more vulnerable to all the temptations that would come my way.
Proverbs 11:27 “He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but he who searches after evil, it will come to him.”  The more I partied, the more the party accessories would keep coming to me.
On the day I prayed to accept Jesus, July 15th, 1978, I was not instantly changed and set free from all my addictions. Salvation is a daily experience of being rescued from this dark world and its ways. One thing I did know was that I had asked Jesus to come into my heart and He was in there to begin a work in me that has lasted now for thirty years. After I had prayed and asked Jesus to take over my life, I recognized that my desires were beginning to change. God was beginning to work on my will.
I was still smoking, drinking and smoking pot, but I was not enjoying those things and my desires for them were growing dim. There was a churning on the inside of me and that churning was the Spirit of God preparing me to experience His outpouring presence in my life. About two weeks after I prayed to receive Jesus Christ into my life, He led me back to Kansas City Missouri, directly into the lives of the couple that had picked me up hitch hiking and led me in prayer. By the series of events that led me back, I knew this was where God wanted me to be. Michael and Brenda as gracious as God had created them to be, invited me to come into their home to live with them and their two small children. What hearts!!
 After being there with them a few days I was still smoking cigarettes, yet with a knowing that God was about to help me with this addiction that seemed so impossible for me to quit in my own strength.
Soon after I had settled in with the Costello’s, Michael drove me to a friend’s house, with the purpose of helping me to get my walk with the Lord established. As the three of us were there in Pastor Frank’s living room, Frank began to illuminate with an unusual love and presence that I had not seen in my life and he began to speak to me about receiving that baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in an unknown language, also known as “tongues.” I said yes, I was willing to receive whatever God wanted me to have. Within moments of our conversation, Michael, Frank and I were standing in a circle and Frank laid his hand on my head and I began praying to receive this gift. Immediately I felt a strong warm presence like I had not ever experienced before, touching me from the top of my head all the way down to my feet and I began to speak in a language that I had never heard before. It was strange to hear that language coming from me. I knew God had filled me with His peace and His presence. God had struck me with the brightness of His light and now He was present in me to expel the darkness from my heart. I know people also who have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, yet did not necessarily have any feelings that accompanied the experience.
We are all different individuals and can experience the outpouring of His presence in different ways, though it is the same spirit that fills us. Anything you receive from God you receive by faith. You may have a major experience of emotion that accompanies the gift of the Holy Spirit in your life. That doesn’t mean that God will then begin to direct your life according to how you feel. We are all individuals with specific needs, and He knows how to administer to each one what we need.
In my addiction to smoking, God was preparing to help me and set me free from this stronghold. Just a few days after our visit to Pastor Frank’s house, I asked for prayer from Michael and a close friend of his named Bill. Michael and Bill prayed for God to help me with my need to quit smoking. Bill also began to share the word with me concerning my smoking addiction.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own. For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your body.”
As Bill shared this word with me, I had a vision of the cigarette smoke going into my system as though it was smoking out the Spirit that God had placed in me. My initial thought was that I surely did not want to smoke God out, so with just a few guidelines of instruction, I began to read God’s word and pray every time I got the urge to smoke. I was doing real well until the fourth day, when I began facing a strong temptation to go buy a pack of cigarettes. After much debating with the temptation, I yielded to it and went to the nearest gas station where I stood with money in my hands shaking as I had never done before while putting the money in the machine. Still with trembling conviction I proceeded to the park near to where I was living to have a smoke. As I began to smoke, I was reminiscing just how much I had been changed in my spirit in just a few short weeks. Then, as I lit up another one as soon as I had finished the first one, this unusual anger came over me and I smashed the whole pack of cigarettes on the ground and threw it into the garbage can and that was the last time I have touched a cigarette. Within seven days, I was completely free of the temptation to smoke. God had delivered me from an addiction that I could not conquer in my own strength. It was like being set free from some kind of prison. I was free and He had done it. After that, I was convinced that God was real and from that moment in my life, I have not doubted the absolute assurance of God's power and working in my life.  It was so amazing that in the very first few weeks of my decision to follow the Lord that I was experiencing His life changing power in my life.
He is willing to help us in every struggle and every temptation and is able to give us victory in every circumstance in life. His desire is that we would ask Him to be involved in every area of our lives. The bondage of smoking was discouraging. What I experienced was freedom from bondage that I could not free myself from. If you know that God is dealing with you about giving up smoking, respond to Him when He begins to deal with you. Otherwise you could miss the opportunity to receive His help by putting it off only to remain in your addiction. It really bothered me to be in bondage to something that I could not conquer. That is where your humility towards God can take shape when you realize you need His power to deliver you. I have known people who have quit smoking without His assistance, but some still have the addiction because they still have the craving for the cigarette. When God delivers you, He will remove all the sources of addiction, not just part of it. Your self effort can help, but trusting in God’s power will help so much more. In all of life’s journeys we must come to realize that the addictions that control us are stronger than we are. That is precisely why we need someone stronger than we are to break the addictions over us. That someone is Jesus!
Your bondage may not be cigarettes. We all have some kind of bondage that we need to trust God to help us to get free from. What is your bondage? Are you willing to take the steps that are necessary to bring you into freedom? Are you ready to give ownership of your temple to God?  He can do for you what He has done for me, no matter how deep the darkness, no matter how gross the sin. His death on the cross was the price He paid for your sin. His resurrection power applied to your heart through faith will bring the deliverance you need. Trust in Him, and He will do it.

 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
  • No trackbacks exist for this entry.
Comments

  • 3/30/2009 9:09 AM Victoria Joe wrote:
    Dad, I really appreciate your testimony, and I use your example of living as a reference on how a Godly man lives. As your daughter I may have been rebellious and at times a heart ache, but I truly am thankful for your kindness, and love. You are a blessing, and I appreciate your faithfulness to my mom, and to our family. I know at times you as well as mom don't feel like you are appreciated, but I think about you guys and the love, and shelter that you provided. When you are a child, you have childish mentalities and the thought process is life is greener on the other side, but life shows you different. I want to apologize for any attitude that I have displayed. I am in the process of change in my life, and I am thankful for your words of encouragement. Keep on keeping on for the Lord, because if you are a light to at least one person you have help show them the way. I pray that all your efforts are blessed, and that you and mom find peace, and healing in all your relationships. I pray that you both will continue to shine the light to this dark world, with the love of Jesus, and the words of grace and mercy. Thank you for staying focused on God!
    Reply to this
    1. 3/31/2009 5:20 PM New Birth wrote:
      Dear Victoria

      Thank you bunches for your words of encouragment!!
      I am just trying to make a difference in the world in which I live. We were all birthed in to this world for a reason.
      I believe I have found the reason.  That is why I am doing what I am doing.  I have already tried living for myself
       and found that to be futile. Their is joy in the Lord, and responding to Him activates the joy.
      The other day i spoke to an auto parts clerk, who had mentioned that he has been smoking since he was 15. He said he was 28,
      and was thinking about his need to quit. I quickly refered to my book and how it was God who helped me to quit. 
      It was interesting to know that when i suggested that God hasd been trying to talk to him for at least 15 years, i simply
      said,  'Now it is your time to respond."  I could see it in his eyes that the Lord was seeking him, as he has sought out the rest of us and is waiting for our response to His calling. He still has a plan for your life, even if we have been on a detour.
      Keep working hard through your school years. It will pay off when you endure.

      Love ya to the moon
      Dad

      Reply to this
Leave a comment

Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.