"Excitotoxins & Sin."
By: Pastor Jack Schneider
“He loved the
taste of his wickedness, letting it melt under his tongue. He savored it,
holding it long in his mouth. But suddenly, what he has eaten turns deadly
within him, a poisonous venom in his body.” [Job 20:12-14, PJV/NLT]
My doctor is
helping identify foods I cannot afford to eat, and we’re not talking dollar
signs on a menu. Built-up physical/nerve damage over the years has taken a toll
on my back and hearing, triggered by foods containing certain chemicals and
even natural substances proving harmful to my health and, perhaps, to yours.
The worst, for me, have a name: excitotoxins, and they act exactly as they
sound. They excessively stimulate nerve and brain cells [think of your brain’s
response to your taste buds on this one…] until, after a short time, these
cells die. Hence, the last part of the name: “toxins.”
You’d think
this would keep me in check. But we like flavor and sweetness, don’t we? We
don’t want bland, tasteless food or crave drinks that pass for last night’s
dishwater. So, on goes the MSG [monosodium glutamate, “flavor enhancer”] and in
goes the aspartame [“natural sweetener”]. Our taste buds are thrilled! Oh,
yeah, one more thing… For the next two days I walk and move like I’ve been run
over by a truck, and that’s how I feel.
On a
spiritual level, this is exactly how satan pitches us with the excitotoxin
known as sin or, in the Word above, “wickedness.” What does the Father of Lies
slip under your tongue to get your senses rolling and your brain charged up?
It’s the same process as our taste buds, but far more deadly. Flattery is
sweet, and envy has a way of creeping in to add a little “zing.” But there are
some biggies that absolutely burst onto our spirits: pride -- because we do not
like it when someone appears to get the better of us or things have not gone
our way; and do not forget the subtlety of lust and the physicality of our
looks. Make no mistake, satan knows just
how to pull your chain and mine. He knows us inside and out. And the flavor
lasts, like a Jolly Rancher.
The Good News
is, “He that is in you is greater than the one who is in the world!” [1
Jn.4:4] Jesus lives in you and will not
leave; He will not quit. Even when we
struggle with the lure of sin and only later discover how deadly it is
[Prov.20:17 “Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but we end up with a mouth full
of gravel.”]. There is joy and forgiveness as we turn and confess our sin,
trusting our faithful Lord’s promises. You see, it takes two days of drinking
pure, cleansing water to flush the poison out my system before I can walk
upright again; it takes only one instant of absolution based on the pure,
cleansing waters of your baptism to flush the poisons out of your life. [1
Jn.1:8-2:2]
- Jack
