Snacks and Spiritual Leaders

Walk through the grocery store on any given day and you're bound to see all sorts of grandiose claims.

"No Trans Fat"

"All-Natural Ingredients"

"Low Fat"

"Gluten-Free"

"No High Fructose Corn Syrup"

etc. etc. etc.

However, many hidden secrets can be found if you flip over that box and begin to wade through the lengthy list of ingredients. For example, several years ago, my mom discovered the folly of eating trans fats and she immediately trained my brother and I to be on the lookout for the dreaded fat whenever we walked into the supermarket. Trans fat was sneaky when it was put on the back of boxes; it had a secret identity to hide its true intent to DESTROY THE HUMAN RACE (insert dramatic music here). Its real name... partially hydrogenated oil. 

 So as a little 9-year old homeschooler, I became a pro at zooming through the lists of unpronounceable ingredients listed on the back of cracker boxes and cake mixes to find the villain of all oils. As I became a detective for finding partially hydrogenated oils, I realized something very shocking indeed; some of the boxes would claim to have "zero grams of trans fat" on the front of the box but have trans fats in the ingredients on the back! Then, I would figure out that this was simply because there wasn't enough partially hydrogenated oil in a serving to add up to a gram- a pretty cheap way to cheat people.  

As I've gotten older and continued to shop, I have realized that this paradox can be found in many other forms, such as the claim that Lucky Charms cereal helps kids grow stronger because it has "whole grains" in it. Basically, they're trying to say that their cereal is healthy simply because they add those little cat food-looking things amongst the rainbow marshmallows (and most kids don't eat the kitty kibble anyway...). Even the healthiest-looking snack that you can find at Whole Foods is bound to have something that can't be very good for you. Even an all-natural snack that contains "cane sugar" is still not the best for you to eat (even though it may be better than eating a bunch of artificial nonsense). Ultimately, the only food that is really trustworthy to be the healthiest of them all is... *drumroll*... FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

That's right. Go ahead and think through all of the other foods that you could be eating and see if you can find another food that is guaranteed to be 100% good for your health. It's hard to think of anything.

So, now I'm going to tell you why I just spent several paragraphs discussing Lucky Charms and partially hydrogenated oils. It all stemmed from an article I discovered on Facebook several weeks ago. This particular article was actually written to discredit the teachings of one of my favorite speakers, Joyce Meyer. It basically went through many things that she has said and discussed why they are against the Bible. While this article was rather shocking for me, it also opened my eyes to something that we Christians need to be aware of. We need to practice discernment when deciding what to believe. 

1 John 4:1 talks about this concept. It says,

"Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world."

When I bring up this verse, I'm not saying that Joyce Meyer, or anyone else for that matter, is necessarily a "false prophet". I just bring it up because it makes me think a lot and ask myself this important question: Am I actually testing everything I hear from my pastors and spiritual leaders, or am I just blindly absorbing everything they say?

Back to the unhealthy food examples, I like to think of secondary sources such as pastors and teachers as those snacks put into boxes; although they have lots of good things to say that stem from their faiths, there are also bound to be those things in them that are not good. The truth is, everyone here on earth is a sinner. All spiritual leaders are sinners too, so if we are blindly consuming every single thing they say without thoroughly scanning the "ingredient list" of their doctrine, we could be making a big mistake by believing the wrong concepts. Even blindly absorbing this blog is a bad idea. I'm a sinner too, you know. But, how do you test what these leaders are saying? 

Isaiah 8:20a tells us,

"Look to God's instructions and teachings!" 

That's it. You take everything your pastor or teacher says and weigh it to "God's instructions and teachings", also known as the Bible. I love it when a speaker backs up his or her points with LOTS AND LOTS of scripture, because that's a telltale sign that the ideas he or she is discussing really did stem from the Bible. Back to the food example again, if secondary sources such as pastors and teachers are like those snacks in the boxes, the Bible, the primary source, is like fruits and vegetables. It is the only way to find absolute truth. So, in order to have a healthy "diet" of teachings, we need to get daily dosage of the purest, healthiest food out there. Ultimately, by studying the Bible, we will be able to build an understanding of God's character and how he feels about us. With this basis of understanding, we will be able to move forward and test every spiritual leader that we hear. Then, we will truly receive impact from these spiritual leaders by picking out what we know is true and applying it to our lives. Plus, if you are thoroughly analyzing everything your pastor says in comparison to the concepts from God's word, I'll bet you won't be tempted to fall asleep in church anymore...