Sunday, June 24, 2012

Purity of the Body: Our journey to the fasted lifestyle, pt. 20

This post could also be called "Guarding the Gates".  As in guarding the gates into your body which then leads to your soul, then onto your spirit.  This is eyes, ears, and mouth.  "Speak no evil, hear no evil, and see no evil."

Mouth
When we fail to capture thoughts, we speak what we feel rather than what we know.  We have knee jerk reactions and don't filter through a Biblical perspective.  "From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."-Matthew 12:34  "The power of life and death is in the tongue."-Proverbs 18:21  Are we speaking life over people or death?  When we use condemning words like "never", we are dooming that person in our own eyes and dooming ourselves to judgmental attitudes that are spirit crushing.

Another aspect of guarding our mouth is guarding what we are putting into it.  A few weeks ago, my husband and I watched a documentary about food and how the western diet destroys you from the inside. Through a plant based diet we can undo damage wrought by heavy meats and animal proteins.  Something resounded in our spirits when we saw this (hence the vegan announcement a few weeks ago).  So we have taken steps on the journey.  We look at Biblical examples throughout Genesis and Daniel and know this to be the right path for us.  If we are going for purity we want it on the cellular level!

Ears
Oh be careful little ears what you hear.  We must be vigilant against false teaching and unfruitful things.  Faith comes by hearing.  What you listen to, increases your faith.  But what faith is increasing?  If you are listening to self promoting, moral relativistic jibber jabber, you will only produce a boastful spirit.  If you are listening to gossip, slander, and bitterness, your faith in your own self sufficiency will increase.  If you are listening to Truth, you will wash yourself in holiness and increase your faith in the Lord.

I know that when my daughter hears us, she repeats us.  As a 1.5 year old, she has picked up the words, "no", "don't" and "stop" because those are said all the time.  When we are told or hear something over and over we begin to repeat it then believe it.  I only want what is pure, righteous, and holy to be repeated and believed in my spirit.

Eyes
One of the easiest ways to allow sinful influence into your life.  The vast majority of people operate visually. It's easy for a visual image to roll around in our brain all day, doing damage.  How do we guard what we see in a society inundated with sinful images?  For us, it was getting rid of TV.  Internet is difficult for us too.  Sometimes staring at the screen is so mind numbing that it feels like you are taking a break from the stresses of life.  It's taking time away from what we need to be looking at, the face of God.

So at the end of all of this, am I seeing, speaking, eating, hearing things that will kill me physically and spiritually or give me life?  I can say I'm not anywhere near the "give me life" answer at this point in time.  I know that with discipline it will get better.  The path to purity starts here at the gates.  If I can begin here, the other's will be less hard.

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