You Are What You Eat

Our eating style reflects and affects who and what we are. It identifies our approach to life. If we examine various societies and cultures, we see that each has its traditional foods and food ceremonies. "I am Italian. I often eat spaghetti, lasagna, or pizza," or "I am a real American. I eat hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, coke, and french fries." The French eat crepes, Belgians eat waffles, Chinese eat rice, the Swiss eat chocolate, Israelis eat felafel, Portuguese eat cod fish (bacalao), and Inuit eat whale blubber. In short, the "way we eat" reveals how we identify ourselves. It reflects and often determines our world-view, our values, and our entire approach to life.

To achieve historical perspective, we must go back in time to the beginning, to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge.

God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely eat from every tree of the garden. But from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil do not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you will surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17)

If only the first man, Adam, had kept on occupying himself with guarding the way to the Tree of Life, he would have continued to stroll through the Garden of Eden like one of the guardian angels. Shortly after God created Eve, in the afternoon of the first Friday of Creation, the first couple in the world committed the first sin by eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

Today I’m not talking about Pizza or Shepherd pie but would like to teach about our Spiritual food and the choices we make. We are what we eat! I will guide you through God’s initial menu and how man fell from Grace. What we eat influences the way we think about ourselves.

What do you think about yourself? God has a purpose for you. He created dry land before man so we didn’t had the need to learn how to swim.

It’s difficult to see the difference between bone and marrow

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Bible gives an analogy: It’s like dividing joints and marrow. Joints are the thick, hard outer part of the bone. Marrow is the soft, tender, living inner part of the bone. That is an analogy of “soul and spirit.” The Word of God is like a sword that is sharp enough to cut right through the outer, hard, tough part of a bone to the inner, soft living part of the bone. Some swords, less sharp, may strike a bone and glance off and not penetrate. Some swords may penetrate partway through the tough, thick joint of a bone. But a very sharp, powerful double-edged sword (sharp on each side of the point) will penetrate the joint all the way to the marrow. “Soul and spirit” are like “bone joint and bone marrow.” “Soul” is that invisible dimension of our life that we are by nature. “Spirit” is what we are by supernatural rebirth.

Practically speaking, when we read or hear “the word of God” we sense ourselves pierced. The effect of this piercing is to reveal the truth of our thoughts and our motives and ourselves.

It’s very hard even for a doctor to tell where the bone ends and where the marrow starts, but God knows all things and through His Word we can receive the right judgment and perspective about the intentions of our own heart. It’s easier for us to judge others rather than judge ourselves. But through the Word of God we can have the understanding of who we really are. Without that understanding we will either overestimate or underestimate ourselves.

TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

choice between good and evil

tree of the SOUL

CARNAL things

Knowledge with no Eternal Life

Lead by the FLESH

usually negative impulses

TREE OF LIFE

choice between life and death

tree of the SPIRIT

INNERMOST things

Knowledge with God’s Wisdom

Lead by the SPIRIT

usually faith driven and positive

God created two trees in the garden of Eden and it’s important for us to understand the whole process of our thoughts.

These two trees are going to determine everything that you are and everything in your life is fashioned between these two trees and the choices that you make for either one of them.

Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.