Have you ever eaten something, then suddenly gotten the craving to eat as much of that thing as you can no matter what the consequences? I've seen it with ice cream and almost always with Chinese food... but I find myself most often in the clutches of potato chips. I eat some. I want more. I grasp the bag. I eat more. I want more. And so the cycle continues. But now, something wonderful yet terrible has happened...
Thats right. Sweet Chili. They aren't potato chips. There are no DORITOS® here. These are none other than RiceWorks Sweet Chili Gourmet Brown Rice Crisps. Although they aren't much better for you than potato chips, they are intoxicatingly delicious. I keep eating them and eating them. I feel like I am their slave to obey their wises...
I feel like the Apostle Paul had something to say about this...
Romans 6:16-18
16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
If I read Romans correctly (and for the sake of my sermon on the 8th I sure hope I do) Paul is saying that we were formerly slaves to sin and our sinful nature. We obeyed the law of this world and the passions and desires it impressed upon us... but now that we are under the blood of Christ we are slaves to righteousness and we obey his passions and desires which are becoming ours. In the same way that I can become totally infatuated with chips or Chinese or crisps, we should be infatuated with Christ, that is, if we understand the Gospel. If we live like we understand the Gospel. If we allow the Gospel to take control of our lives and define us.
So, who are you offering yourself up as a slave to today? We're all slaves, like it or it.
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