Drinking Soda is a Sin

Now that I have your attention, lol, I hope you read what I wrote. :)  I'm not actually that legalistic.  But I think about my own life, how I didn't have a single cavity till I was 20 and started drinking soda.  I literally didn't drink any soda until I was 20 because my mom forbid it basically. :) And I honored her forbiding it.  Oh wait there were a few times I got fast food with friends and got a soda.  But we all know all the crazy facts of what coke can do, how it can clean a car engine and solidify a grahm cracker after a  few days etc.  But we ignore warning signs like that and drink soda anways.  Perhaps people think if they drink Dr. Pepper or Sprite and not Coke then they are ok, but no, it's all the same.  It's all very, very bad for you. Why could drinking soda be a sin?  Because it causes harm to our body and we are supposed to be good stewards over our bodies. 

I think often times people think they can eat or drink whatever they want and a doctor later can fix them.  Or us Christians might think we can eat or drink whatever we want and God can heal us.  Well often times God doesn't heal us.  He lets us experience the consequences of our decisions.  Jesus said "You will reap what you sow."  Sometimes God has mercy on us and heals us anyways, but sometimes he doesn't.

Jesus said something very interesting to the man at the well.  He said to him, "Go and sin no more or something worse might happen to you."  Hm...So the man had a physical illness and Jesus was linking that physical illness to sin that he had committed.  Do we do that today?  Do we ever make that link?  No, not really.  But what we eat causes us all kinds of physical illnesses; diabetes, cancer etc.  But we all want to live for today and not worry about tomorrow.  But tomorrow will come.  Someday you will get old and you will reap the consequences of the bad eating choices you made or your laziness and not working out etc. 

This sounds silly, but I always used to wish I could die in a car accident or something before I hit 60 so I wouldn't have to experience by body falling apart.  But most likely I won't and I will have to suffer the consequences for my own bad eating choices.  I'm not that bad but sometimes I drink soda and sometimes I'll have candy or cookies or ice cream or chips.  All of which I know is completely terrible for me and my body.  So why do we do it?  Why do we eat junk food?  Because it brings pleasure, it gratifies our flesh and therefore it is a sin.  Mainly it is a sin because junk food hurts our bodies.  Too much sugar, salt or fat will for sure hurt your body and you will see the bad effects eventually. 

Have any of you noticed, the one sin that you never hear a pastor talk about is gluttony.  They love to talk about sexual immorality or homosexuality or things they consider "the major sins."  But why don't they ever talk about gluttony?  Because usually the pastor himself struggles with that sin and he doesn't want to talk about it. :)  But it is a sin and we need to be careful of it. 

The best cure for gluttony really is fasting.  If you can take a 24 hour period where you don't eat anything and just drink juice or water it will help you tremendously.  I did this every Wednesday for a summer and I survived lol.  So you can survive too, not eating for 24 hours, every once in awhile. ;)  I think it did help me grow a lot in self-control and my relationship with God.  It helps you die to yourself, to crucify the cravings of the flesh and walk in the Spirit more.  It is good to tell the body no regarding for a whole day.  It is good for a day to not run to get food every time your stomach screams that it is hungry.  Your stomach can be like an unruly 2 year old.  Sometimes you have to make your stomach submit to your mind rather then you submitting to your stomach.  :)

Just think of how much of our day revolves around food.  I am almost always thinking of what I will eat next.  I have never really eaten 3 meals a day.  I more like graze all day on random things.  I hate the feeling of being really full after a big meal so I have never really eaten meals much.  But then all day I'm thinking about what my next snack will be.  And think of all the options we have now.  In the Bible they had like bread and cheese and that was basically it.  Now we have like 1,000 different choices of what to eat every time we eat.  And the packages are so colorful and fun looking.  So gluttony can easily become a problem for anyone. 

So try fasting. :)  And I promise you will be happy that you did.  It can change your whole life!  For the better. :)  May God bless you all!