Doctrine of Food – Food Demonstrates the Goodness of God
Published March 8, 2012 | 
Food Demonstrates the Goodness of God
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food …
Thank you, God, that food tastes good. Food is delicious, scrumptious, tasty, yummy, and mouthwatering. Everything God made is good. Food is very good. I have yet to meet a person that doesn’t enjoy a good meal. All of us have seen the look of bliss in someone’s face when they bite into something they love; sheer joy! We are born with an appetite and a hankering for good-tasting, lip-smacking food. Around 99% of the time, I look forward to eating, and 100% of the time I look forward to eating when I know it is one of my favorite foods. We eagerly share our eating experiences with others.
God’s goodness gives us the ability to experience favorable things. Food teaches us that God cares about appealing to our senses. Things in the world are “sensational.” God wants us to observe and find that what He has made is good. He has given us tools and abilities to make observations and to evaluate the world around us and how He made it to be good. Food is one of those good things God made, and taste buds are what He gave us to realize that food is good. God made food good to eat. Imagine if food had no taste, and it all looked the same. Taste is known to have the ability to become an obsession. Ever have a craving for chocolate? Some of you reading this just did. People often overeat just for the taste. Even the mention of a food may cause the mouth to begin to salivate. People with the loss of taste have to force themselves to eat as the sense of taste is related to our appetite. People spend extra money on items that taste good. A real-estate investor from Hong Kong reportedly paid over $160,000 for a gigantic Italian White Alba truffle. Oh my!
God’s goodness has endless variety and imagination. When God made food, He made more variety than we could imagine. There is the rich delicacy of sevruga caviar and the New England favorite of baked beans and franks. I recall that my grandfather enjoyed eating pickled pig’s feet. God made such a variety of foods that it is impossible to taste all the different types of food that the world has to offer in our lifetime. There is variety in taste, color, shape, and size. In one meal you can have blueberries and an orange accompanied by black-eyed peas and yellow squash with green beans. We can eat tiny grains of wild rice or a large watermelon. Food can be a highly fattening donut or be tasteless and without calories. We can have an oblong eggplant, a flat tortilla, or a wedge of cheese. It is amazing to think of all the different types of food and recipes available to us.
It happened that my recent devotional reading took me through the book of Nehemiah. Toward the end of the book, the people were repentant for their sins which were drastically contrasted and highlighted by the backdrop of the goodness of God and His helping them rebuild Jerusalem, their great city. In their repentance, the Levites testified and praised God before the Israelite people. In their proclamation of praise, they told of how God had been with them throughout their history. When they recall the time period when the people of Israel entered and dwelt in the promised land and basked in the bountiful produce, they said this, “So they ate, were filled, and grew fat, and reveled in Thy great goodness (Nehemiah 9:25).“ In this sentence, I was struck by just exactly how the goodness of God was measured; by the abundance of good food.
God is good. His goodness is to be praised for its variety, plenty, beauty, and enjoyment. Taste and see that the Lord is good!
-Allen
Posted in Doctrine/Theology, Worship | 
doctrine, eating, Encouragement, food, giving thanks, glory of God, satisfaction, thanksgiving | 
Leave a commentDoctrine of Food – Introduction
Published March 2, 2012 | Doctrine of Food – Introduction
In God’s creation, there are no accidents and no surprises (for God there are no surprises, we are a bit surprised on occasion). We can be certain that all that God does is wise and has an ultimate purpose. All things contribute to His overall plan of having Christ have the preeminence. Even what may be routine or mundane for us has a purpose in His plan. When we go about our day, we need to heighten our awareness of God and see His sovereign providence in every moment.
With this in mind, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about food and how it relates to God. God uses all things for His glory, even when we do something as simple as eat a bag of potato chips. Food is one of the many “all” things. When God created us with the need to eat food, this was no accident or after thought. He could have made us as beings that have no need for consumption. Every edible thing and every portion of our digestive process has a place in the schemes of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us specifically that our use of food should be done for the glory of God (the verse says, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”).
In contemplating food and the glory of God, I will be sharing a series of thoughts on the “doctrine of food.” The purpose in writing these thoughts is to help us see that God is intimately involved in every aspect of our life. He cares about us and desires to reveal Himself to us. God engineers, influences, directs, and controls every moment of our day. When we have a heightened awareness of His providence, our appreciation and thankfulness of the Almighty grows to new proportions. My hope is in sharing this series, I can help both you and I grow in our affections for God. Use these thoughts on God as a springboard to other areas of your life (sleeping, driving, bathing, relaxing, etc.). Allow your mind to find application to envisage God in all things. As our affections for God increase, my prayer is that we will live more full lives, continually contemplate God’s goodness, marvel more at His handiwork, thankfully enjoy His bounty, persevere in life’s challenges, and grow in maturity by His grace.
-Allen
Posted in Doctrine/Theology, Encouragements, Worship | doctrine, eating, food, giving thanks, glory of God, God's glory, providence, sovereignty, thanksgiving | Leave a commentDeclaration of Thanksgiving
Published November 22, 2011 | Over the years I have made it a habit to read the presidential proclamation which set aside the last Thursday of October as a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the
heavens,” as it was declared by Abraham Lincoln 148 years ago. I trust you will be blessed as I am to read this during this season of Thanksgiving.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States
A ProclamationThe year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
