By Pastor Joel Lawler

Pot Luck This Sunday!

All You Can Eat And More!

Belly up to the buffet. Get another helping. Loosen that belt and make some more room so you can pack it in.

Western culture has perverted the teachings of Jesus with it's gluttony.

Go to any Borders or Barnes & Noble [pick your favorite mega bookstore] and you will find a grotesque buffet of self help books in the Religious/Christian section. As if that were not bad enough, there are mega Christian bookstores that are packed with this syrupy goo.

The Western Christians have "Christian Radio", Christian Websites, Christian Television, Christian Music, Christian Books, Christian Movies, and Christian Art to gorge ourselves on. I find it ironic that some churches even have fitness centers and "Worshipasize" classes. The body gets heavier and the heart gets harder from having to try to pump blood to all the extra girth.

In Philippians, Paul tells us to "work out our faith" we are too busy waddling up

to the trough for our third or fourth helping to do such a thing.

1. Corinthians 9 (NIV)
24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
26. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
27. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)
1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

In the above writings, Paul talks about running a race. It is too much to ask some of us to get our fat lazy rear ends out the chair unless it is for another trip to the buffet.

We are killing ourselves and making only excuses for it. It is not a matter of slow metabolism. It is a matter of absurd proportions and slothful inaction.

You can slap the word "organic" on the label of a twinky and it does not make it any less poisonous.

God has blessed us with so much here in our country. We have been given much and much is required of us. We cannot keep endlessly consuming.

Cathedrals are beautiful but I see a tremendous flaw. The stained glass faces inward. Why are we focusing our resources on ourselves? Why don't the windows face outward to a world that needs to know the stories that these windows tell? So much of our time and energy is consumed consuming. We keep building more churches, writing more books writing more songs so as to feed our own.

We also try to pawn off our responsibilities to the government. We leave caring for the poor to the state. God gave us that duty.

It is our God given responsibility to teach our kids right from wrong. It is not the job of the public education system.

We are to be light to the world but the bulb is so dim from a comatose stupor of being overfed.

We are to be salt but the saltiness is buried in mounds of excess.

Jesus says "GO!".

We sit.

We eat.

We nap.
.