Am I Allowed To Do that?
Principles are being brought out of food issues
10:31 Paul explains the grand principle of Christian living and the chief purpose of all life. No matter what Christians choose to do, whether it be godly activities or neutral ones (such as eating certain foods), they must have an overarching goal: to glorify God.
Eating Cheese Pizza for 25 Years
Genesis 1:29; 9:3; Proverbs 15:17; Daniel 1:8–15; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; 10:31
Preaching Themes: Healing
Dan Janssen lives on a daily diet of cheese pizza, and has for 25 years. Janssen ate your average meat and potatoes diet until he was 14, when he became a vegetarian. Alas, he found out he didn’t like vegetables. That’s when he stumbled across the cheese pizza diet, and he’s been eating it ever since—for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When he was in college, he even worked at Domino’s. Janssen says, “If I could say anything to the men of the world, it’s you can do it. You can eat two 14-inch pizzas a day and be fine.”
However, change may be on the horizon for Dan. His fiancée is gently nudging him to widen his culinary horizons, and he is seeing a nutritionist about his extreme eating habits. “I do see a day in the future when I get a little more adventurous,” he said.
—Jim L. Wilson and Ron Williams
Righteous for Being Green?
Luke 18:9–14; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Titus 3:5
Preaching Themes: Righteousness, Legalism
A 2010 study by Canadian psychologists found that people who purchase environmentally friendly items feel a “moral glow” that makes them more likely to cheat and act selfishly elsewhere in their lives. In the study, which was a computer game, subjects rewarded themselves with money based on certain results. “Green” consumers were more likely to lie about test results so that they could take more money. The explanation for this is that acting virtuously in one area seems to make people feel they have earned “credit,” and now they have a license to act unethically and selfishly in other parts of their lives.
Our lives are to be an open book before the Lord. Because we are righteous in one area doesn’t give us license to fail to live for God’s glory in every other area.
—Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell