Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Healthy Living”
Our Bible verse for today: “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise … because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Make wise food choices.”
I’ve told you once before about a science fiction movie I saw when I was a kid which continues to haunt me to this day. The name of the movie was “Soylent Green”. It was about a futuristic society where overpopulation and low food supplies were a worldwide problem. Therefore people were only allowed to live until the age of 60. On your 60th birthday you were required to report to a “Transition Center”. In the Center you would be made very comfortable, you would be treated like a King or Queen, there would be pleasant sensory experiences, and you would be comfortably euthanized. Your life would be ended.
Another aspect of this society was that there were no longer any natural food sources. They had all been depleted many years earlier and therefore everyone survived on a substance provided by the government known as “Soylent Green”. Nobody knew what Soylent Green was or where it came from, only that it kept everyone alive. Long story short, it turned out that Soylent Green was made from the bodies of the people who were euthanized. (Now you know why that movie continues to haunt me!)
The story behind Soylent Green always causes me to wonder what’s in our food supply today. It’s not uncommon to read news reports about processed foods which were discovered to have been contaminated with things that were never meant to be consumed by human beings. But beyond that, much of the processed food available today is little more than a science experiment born in a test tube. Have you ever stopped to read the labels on some of this stuff? Out of 20 ingredients 19 of them have names you can’t even pronounce.
A primary focus of The Daniel Plan is to move us back in the direction of eating real food made by God rather than fake food made by man. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, fresh meats. The rule of thumb is “If it grows on a plant, eat it. If it’s made in a plant, leave it on the shelf.”
Paul’s lesson in Ephesians 5:15-16 that we should be wise can have a wide range of applications. In context, he was writing about spiritual wisdom. But it’s also true that we have to be wise about the food choices we make and what kinds of things we are putting into this body of ours, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
I encourage you give more thought to your food choices.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 