To Eat.....or Not to Eat?

Bacon-topped icing.....pretty enticing?

These days it's all the rage. It's enmeshed on the menus. It entices in the adds. It's layered on burgers, wrapped 'round Twinkies, mixed in mac'n'cheese, and even glorified as garnish on cupcakes. What is it? It's bacon, a food forbidden for the chosen people of God. But what's wrong with bacon for those who are non-Jewish believers in Jesus? What should our relationship be.....with bacon? "Too eat.....or not to eat bacon?" That is the question I put before you today.

Leviticus 11 

As sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we want what we want, when we want it. Yes indeed, we want our way! And we don't fancy the word no! When boundaries are set between us and our desires, we find ways to cover our ears, so as to be free from knowing our restrictions. We want freedom! In many respects, more than we usually dare to admit, we adults are very much like stubborn kids, and we probably have no idea how much we contribute to our own detriment. 

Oh, that we would be more pliable in the hands of the Master! Oh, that we would wholeheartedly seek to follow God's Word of Truth that brings Life! Oh, that we would recognize the seducing spirit that issues forth from the Deceiver! Wouldn't we avoid many-a-trouble if we simply put our trust in the goodness of God and the wisdom of His Word? Wouldn't we find true freedom if we were fully willing to submit our will for His will?

For just a moment, consider a thought that perhaps you have never considered before. Imagine.....WHAT IF you came to believe that the food you consumed mattered to your Father? WHAT IF your Heavenly Father told you that He had a specially formulated diet for you, one that would mark you as His, one that would bring you health and blessing, and one that would also bring glory to Him and His kingdom? Would you trust that your Daddy knew what was best for you to eat? Would you, if you believed that it mattered to your Abba, give up the beloved foods that had once been part of your lifestyle and that had once been such a source of comfort and pleasure?

WHAT IF God does care? - Click here!

The question at hand is more than a matter of what we will eat. At its core, it is a matter of the heart. To eat, or not to eat bacon, or any other unclean food, is a question of your heart's desire. Do we believe that the whole Bible is entirely true? Will we allow the Word of God to direct the details of our lives? 

Here are a few more WHAT IFs in regard to the question of eating versus not-eating such things as bacon.....

• WHAT IF there was a spiritual object lesson in denying our fleshly desire for this particular flesh?
• WHAT IF the idea resisting something that smells good and tastes good is exactly the point of denying ourselves of this pleasure?
• WHAT IF the spiritual lesson in the habit of denying our flesh of this unclean meat is that, "Not everything that tastes good is good for you."
• And deeper still, WHAT IF we learned, "Not everything that our flesh desires is good for us."
• WHAT IF the Enemy of our souls is also the Enemy of our body? 
• WHAT IF the Deceiver wants us to be sick in soul and mind.....and body?
• WHAT IF the Deceiver wants to rob us of the blessings of obedience?
• WHAT IF those who are selling us the notion that pork is good for us are misinformed or just plain interested in profits?

Life without bacon

And allow me please, a second serving of questions.....with just a spoonful of sarcasm.....

• Why would Jesus cast out demons from the two demon possessed men into a herd of pigs? And why did the demons cry out to be cast into the swine? And why would Jesus allow the pigs to run over a cliff and die?! And why didn't Jesus even seem to care when the owner's pig business went downhill?! Wasn't that mean of Jesus?!?
• Did Jesus die on the cross so we could eat bacon? Bfffff!
• Is that why Christians eat ham on Easter instead of lamb on Passover?
• Does eating ham on Easter declare the extent of Jesus salvation? Is it a celebration that God re-newed the pig, making it healthy for our consumption? 
• Or maybe the reverse is true. Perhaps since the cross, God changed human bodies so that bacon would no longer be bad for us????? Hmmm?
• OK, well maybe God decided that after Jesus resurrection, those who believed in Him no longer needed to be set apart for Him by the food they would eat. 
• Maybe the whole point of Christians eating bacon is for the sake of evangelism. Consider.....If Christians are not too weird, if we fit in with the world just enough, and if we eat bacon and other things that people all over the world like to eat, then we will be more accepted and likely to get invited to parties and homes of non-believers, and then we will eat their food, and they will like us, and we will become friends, and they will see how nice we are because we love Jesus, and then they will want to be like us and love Jesus too!!!!! And we'll all be happy 'cause we all love Jesus and get to eat bacon!!!!! Hooray!
• Here's another angle.....Jesus came to redeem the bad stuff right?!? So therefore He made bacon good! It's ALMOST as if God said after Jesus death and resurrection, "YOU CAN EAT BACON!!!!!"
• I meant, c'mon.....if anyone can change his mind, then God can too! After all He's God and He can do whatever He wants. Right?!? 
• Besides, doesn't it just kinda makes sense that God did away with the some of the OLD Testament stuff when Jesus died and rose again?!?
• For example, Christians now celebrate on Sunday, not the Sabbath. So there's an example of a commandment that has been changed!
• Well, maybe God just did away with parts of the Old Testament?
• So, I'm wondering.....what parts of my Bible should I rip out or take a black Sharpie marker to? I mean, the Bible is a very looong book, and I really don't want to waste my time on stuff that doesn't apply to me. 
• Perhaps I should just throw away the whole Old Testament?????
• After all, it's OLD right?
• Done away with, right?
• It has nothing to do with us today, right?
• So why do we even teach those antiquated OLD Testament stories to our children anyway? 
• And the OLD laws were just for the Jews, weren't they?
• So why waste my time learning about all those weird, freaky laws that God gave to Israel?
• Besides, believers in Jesus are the NEW Israel right?
• And Jesus gave His followers a NEW commandment and a NEW covenant right?
• And that means we're FREE from the boring OLD law! Right? 
• 'Cause law is bad. Yeah. That's right! And bacon is good!

UNLEARN the lies we have inherited

My Unleavened Seven

Matzah on the Menu

For the next seven days, matzah will be on my menu. Simply made of flour, water, salt, and olive oil, and given no time to rise, matzah is similar to the consistency of a cracker. This unleavened bread of haste is considered to be the bread of affliction and the sustenance of slaves, but I don't feel poor or cheated in limiting my bread intake to this meager, humble fare. No, quite the opposite. I am looking forward to creatively consuming matzah in meaningful meals for seven days.....my "unleavened seven." 

Seven days unleaven.....signifies significant symbolism!

Matzah, eaten for seven days as a memorial to the God of miracles, attests to God's mighty hand in freeing His people, Israel, from the tyranny of their enslavement to Pharaoh in Egypt. For me, this story gets personal. This freedom-from-bondage and freedom-to-serve story is my story too. For the last several years, as I have celebrated the Passover, I recognize that what the LORD Almighty has done for Israel, He has also done for me. Through the broken, bruised and pierced body of Messiah, I have been rescued from the captivity of sin under the deceitfulness of Satan, and I have been set free to serve my new master, my LORD and Savior, Yeshua the Messiah. 

This year, I'm gonna make matzah!

Although the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which follows Passover, is a rather new tradition for me, this celebration has been observed for nearly 3,000 years.....ever since it was declared by the LORD to be a perpetual regulation among His people. As one who has been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel by faith in Yeshua Messiah, this appointed time of the LORD has become a meaningful memorial for me as well. My Messiah is the Unleavened Bread upon which I partake. His body, broken for me, bore bruises, piercings, and stripes, just as the matzah. Likewise, the unleavened, yeastless matzah symbolizes the purity of Yeshua, our Bread of Life, who lived a life devoid of sin. Furthermore, just as matzah sustains preservation with a long shelf life, so too, the body of our Master did not see decay, even in death.

Messiah did some holy housekeeping!

In Preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, one must get the leaven out from their home. Yeast, representing the powerfully, pervasive quality of sin, requires only a small amount to work its way through a large lump of dough. So too, a little sin goes a long way to corrupt a person or a group of people. 

In obedience to God's instructions, we remove the leaven from our homes and we keep leaven-free for seven days. Biblically, the number seven represents perfection and completion. On a spiritual level, God is calling us to do some "holy housekeeping." He's calling us to get the sin out of our lives so that we can be a  pure and holy people, set apart for service to Him. In the words of our Master, we are called to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" Matthew 4:19. We need to continually turn from going our own way and turn back to God's ways and His kingdom. Yeshua instructs us to follow him by keeping his commandments John 14:15 that we may be as unleavened dough 1 Corinthians 5:6-8.  


From the standpoint of not wanting to waste, getting the leaven out of my home was not easy for me. I had tried to plan ahead. I had attempted to not buy more bread than what we would consume before the Festival of Unleavened Bread began. But when I searched through my cupboards, fridge, and freezer, I was surprised to find more products than I had expected. As my pile of leavened products grew, my heart sank further. Hating waste, I wondered, "What am I going to do?"

Getting out the leaven was meaningful to me.

I chose to give away most of what I would not keep rather than toss my products out to the trash. But my dilemma got me to thinking. Sin is not something to hang on to. It is detrimental and contagious. Sin, when we recognize it in our lives, is something that we should make haste to turn from.....to repent of.....to rid from our lives. We should want to remove every last crumb of sin and depravity. We should not want to savor even one little morsel.....because even a little bit of sin corrupts. Will it cost us something to rid our lives of sin? You bet. But it's OK. It's worth it. The rewards of "wasting" our lives on God are priceless and eternal.

At the time of the first Passover, the meager matzah, made in haste and eaten in haste, was part of a pre-get-away meal. It was eaten along with bitter herbs and a whole roasted lamb or a young goat. It was eaten wearing traveling clothes and feet fitted with walking shoes. Why the hurry? Because God, by His mighty arm, was getting his people out.....out from Egypt.....out from Pharaoh's captivity.....out from idolatry.....and out from slavery! This begs the question.....when God calls me out of my bondage, am I ready to go? Am I ready to risk the unknown future?  Will I trust and obey and follow Him into freedom? How about you? If He whispers, will you heed His voice?

The freedom, to which we are called, is a freedom to serve a new master. Matzah represents our Master, Yeshua, the Suffering Servant, but I believe it is also a picture of those who follow Messiah. If the sinless Son of God, Yeshua, was belittled, persecuted and condemned as he walked in the ways of His Father, should not those who are called to walk the walk he walked, expect the same? Yeshua's words warned us that following him would be difficult. "Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you" John 15:20. "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first" John 15:18.

Also, taking a piece of matzah, he made the b’rakhah (blessing), broke it, gave it to them and said, “This is my body, which is being given for you; do this in memory of me.” 

Luke 22:19

Matzah......a symbol of Yeshua, the Suffering Servant

Don't you know the saying, "It takes only a little hametz (yeast) to leaven a whole batch of dough?" Get rid of the old hametz (yeast), so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach (Passover) lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the Seder (Festival) not with leftover hametz (yeast), the hametz (yeast) of wickedness and evil, but with the unleavened matzah (bread) of purity and truth." I Corinthians 5:6-8

Thinking Too Hard???

Chewing the cud.

Many times I have been accused.....of thinking too hard. "Why do you think so much?" or "Stop thinking so hard," are the statements that I've heard too many times. One comment that especially hurt came from an older friend who realized that my thinking was affecting change in my behavior. When she remarked, "You really make it hard for yourself," I felt like she was condemning and belittling me. I sensed that she wanted to censure me.....from thinking.....from acting upon my thinking.....from stepping outside the box.....from just being me. 

I like to think.....to wonder.....to ponder.....to ask.....and to question. I like to look at nature, life, and Biblical concepts and then.....look deeper.....to connections, symbols, analogies and meanings. It's not hard for me. It's natural. It's who I am. It's how I was made, and it's what has been cultivated in me.  

Obviously, some sorts of thinking can lead to worry, and I confess that I have experienced the occasional restless sleep brought on by a brain that won't shut off. Worry, negative destructive thinking, and evil thoughts are indeed detrimental to relationships, emotions, health, and spiritual well-being. This is why the Father commands us not to worry or entertain evil or negative thinking. 


However, we are instructed many times over in the Psalms, and throughout the Bible, to meditate on things that are good, right, true, and lovely; values of the coming kingdom that bring goodness on earth and glory to God's name. Biblical meditation means to ponder, contemplate, and reflect on God, His works, His Word, His creation and His laws. Biblical meditation can be viewed as one examining and considering a subject from various angles, all the while looking intently through the lens of God's truth.   


Biblical meditation can graphically be compared to the process of an animal that chews its cud. Cows, goats and sheep are animals that chew their cud. After chewing a bite, moistening it, and swallowing it, these animals regurgitate and then ruminate by chewing on the partially digested food once again. God instructs us to "chew on" Scripture in this way, and to "bring it up" to talk about it and to teach it to our children throughout our day.

Chew, swallow, regurgitate, ruminate, digest.....Scripture!

In Acts 17:11, the Berean church set an example for believers to follow because of the way they "chewed on" and "ruminated" upon Scripture. They were labeled as "noble" because of their diligent study. When Paul and Silas brought their testimony that Yeshua, who suffered, died, and rose from the dead was the Messiah, the Bereans conducted a litmus test, comparing the new revelation to the former revelation that God had entrusted to them.  The Scriptures.....the Torah of Moses, the Prophets and the Writings.....were the foundation of truth to the Bereans. What the Bereans discovered was that the new testimony of Paul and Silas checked out as consistent and true with everything that God had previously revealed in His former testimony.....the "Old" Testament. 

Test all things.

When it comes to considering the Christian traditions that I have grown up with, I find it critical to apply the practices of the Bereans. When our practices, doctrines and interpretations don't line up with the Scriptures, I explore the reasons why. I observe. I question. I investigate.  Like stepping backward into a time machine, I search out historical origins, issues and practices, tracing the tradition to our observances of today. If the origins were unbiblical or pagan, I don't stop there. I make adjustments. I make changes. 

If we are going to call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, then we must do what he did and walk as he walked. What we do must be examined and tested according to the Scriptures. Our questioning may lead to needed change.  Change is hard, but we must do Bible things in Bible ways. 

Although we would be naive to assume that the Church, with its many factions, is all that it should be, we can be sure that the enemy of Messiah is ever-so-active, ever-so-sly, and ever-so-devious. He is out to infiltrate, kill, steal, destroy, and divide everything good and of God as inconspicuously as a sheep in wolf's clothing. So, let us be ever-on-the-lookout, because we are told to test all things.....like the Bereans.  

Think about it!