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ISBN: 1-59755-016-7
Genre: Inspirational
Format: Trade Paper
Number Of Pages: 276
Dimensions: 6.00" x 9.00"

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BOOK EXCERPT

STOP! This book comes with a warning. Don’t worry — its content is not sexual or violent. But it does address a subject few people ever want to discuss. Here goes …

Are you consistently handling your health and nutrition in a way that is pleasing to God? Maybe these are some of the ways you’d answer this question:

“Well, the Lord knows my heart is willing but my flesh is weak.” “I’m only human and can only do so much.” “I figure if God made it, I can eat it. After all, I have to have some fun!”

These are natural responses to a supernatural problem. What’s the problem? Too much sickness and disease caused by things we can control, such as our diets and the amount of exercise we get. This problem is not only interfering with the quality of our day-to-day lives but also with the work to be done for the kingdom of God. It is a curse set in motion by Satan in the Garden of Eden and now it’s time to reverse it. Now is the time to make the connection between diet, exercise, and destiny. Now is the time to take back stolen territory that lands too many of God’s children in the hospital or the graveyard before they finish their divine assignments. Now is the time to exercise authority over our health.

So drop that Twinkie and get ready to make some decisions — and act on them! First, stop worshiping couch potato lifestyles and dead foods. You know what they are. They’re the stuff strategically placed in the middle aisles of the grocery store with ingredients we cannot pronounce. Much of the menu items at many fast food joints. The super-sized servings at popular chain restaurants, fried in partially hydrogenated oil and smothered in salt. The sweet treats prepared with four to five different sugars that seem to find us wherever we go. The “snacks” crowding our kitchen cabinets and crying out to us as we sit for hours in front of the television or late at night when we are bored or depressed.

These foods have become our sacred cows, even in the body of Christ. People are bowing at the table not just to say grace but also to pay homage to a variety of killer foods put before them. Meanwhile, the objects of our passion at mealtime are too often our poison. So if this topic is a No Trespassing zone for you, prepare to have your boundaries breached!

At this point, you may be thinking, Oh, great. Just what the world needs, another book on how to diet or lose weight. WRONG! That is not the message of this book. It is about the “why” — a “why” that does not get much attention. Why this struggle is more spiritual than natural. Why spiritual warfare against those who push killer foods is uncharted territory. Why Satan’s role in our food-related healthcare crisis is under exposed. Why Christians must raise up an organized standard against this assault. And why good health must be a priority for believers who want to finish the work God has assigned them. This is a consciousness-raising message designed to help you keep Satan under your feet at breakfast, lunch, snack time, and dinner. Since Satan wants you dead, you must immediately — once and for all — make up your mind to stop helping him kill you! As with everything else in life, there is a spiritual perspective and a worldly point of view. Food consumption is no exception. There are powers in the unseen realm constantly trying to influence our lifestyles so we will destroy ourselves. What better weapon than food? We need it to live, right? It is one of life’s simple pleasures, is it not? What’s wrong with indulging a little? After all, we have to have some enjoyment, don’t we? True. All true. But we can destroy ourselves by not controlling this “enjoyment.”

Self-control is still a fruit of the spirit. This is in stark contrast to a world that promotes a “see it, want it, eat it” mentality. Saying no is almost considered abnormal. In fact, people will even challenge you when you try to restrain yourself at mealtime. But with any war, you must know who is for you and who is against you in order to win the fight. So if you are ready to see how your perspective on food and fitness lines up with the Word of God, read on. But be warned again. This is not a “how to” book. It has no recipes or step-by-step instructions on how to eat or lose weight. There is more than enough information in the marketplace on that subject. But if you are looking to dig deeper, to understand “why” staying healthy seems to be such a struggle, even for Christians, then keep reading.

“Healthcare crisis” is now a common phrase in our American vocabulary. Everybody knows or should know we are in one. But look at the situation from God’s point of view. Compare what he says about managing your health to how you actually manage it. Bottom line: if your current diet does not line up with biblical teachings on physical wellness, you should not change your diet until you first change your mind about what food does for you and against you.

You may think, I eat pretty healthfully. I only eat out two to three times a week and I get some vegetables once or twice a week; I am doing okay. But look around. Health and fitness is a multi-billion dollar industry. Yet we are getting fatter and sicker every day. The dollars are being spent but the results are disastrous. It does not take a Rhodes scholar to figure out something is terribly wrong. Everyone from actress Suzanne Somers to TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, and every kind of new age guru in between, is telling us how to lose weight. We have fitness centers in virtually every neighborhood, workout specials at the local YMCA, diet pills, diet food, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Pilates, aerobics, workout videos, toning balls, treadmills, exercise bikes, Stairmasters, running clubs, fat-free candy, sugar-free candy, Slim-Fast, the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, the grapefruit diet, liquid diets, thousands of vitamins and supplements and a gazillion other gadgets on the market to supposedly “help” us stay healthy. Yet people in increasing numbers are still dying from diseases caused by obesity and nutritional deficits — including those claiming Jesus Christ (the Great Physician) as Savior.

As believers, we have a responsibility to show the world a better way. Needless to say, we are long overdue for circling the wagons in this war for good health. Thousands of Christians — and many others for that matter — are being slain daily on this battlefield. From a physical standpoint, believers look like the world in terms of our physical conditions and we too often die from the world’s diseases. This is not God’s plan for his holy nation — the royal priesthood redeemed by the blood of Christ for good works on earth. So the time has come to take authority over this situation and begin living and looking like the King’s kids. The only way to do this is to treat this situation like the war it clearly is.