Idols and slavery

I know I stink at this blog stuff. I post then I take like 3 months to write a new one. So I am sitting here on my couch at 11:50pm and I think now would be a good time to post. To get you caught up on the goings on around here. Earlier this month I partially tore my hamstring and have nursed that back to health. Bella is sick right now and Becky and I are praying we dont get it. I am getting ready for my first week of Harvey Cedars Bible Camp with the sr. high group from SVEFC in about a week and half. While preparing a message for Sunday the 17th and finishing my messages for the week I will be the main speaker at Harvey Cedars for a Jr. High camp. As well as preparing for a soccer camp at the church. It is going to be a crazy month. But I am excited for what God is going to do this month.

So as I sit here tonight I have been thinking about some stuff God has been doing in my heart and soul. I want to share some of those thoughts. We have to go back a few years to begin this story. Back when I got married I stopped playing basketball as much as I did in college. Has nothing to do with marriage and more to do with the fact that I wasn't on a team anymore. But since college i have packed on about 60 extra pounds. Becky has been on me to lose weight and eat healthier. She is right I need to but it has been hard. Recently while preparing for a meesage God began revealing things to me in my life that needed work. One of those areas was food. it had become an idol to me. Looking back I think I replaced one idol for another. I replaced the idol of basketball with the idol of food. I have been spending a great deal of time this past month or so talking and seeking out God and His wisdom in dealing with this. So through His strength I have made some changes to my life. I joined weight watchers and in the past 2 weeks I have lost 8.4 pounds. But most importantly I can sense God is breaking down walls in my life to remove that idol and replace it with Him. Recently I have been reading a book with a friend called Slave by John MacArthur. In this book he is talking about the way we look at God and who has control over our lives. We are to be slaves to Christ. But that word leaves a bad taste in the mouths of Americans because of our recent history with that term. But if you look into scripture that is exactly what we are supposed to be. Not the way America has it set up a few hundred years ago. But as it is laid out in scripture. God purchased us from the slavery of sin through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Making us now His slaves. Since then we are His by His purchasing power we are then to act and respond in a manner worthy of that role. Through the small part of this book I have read God has convicted me that I am still a slave to my sin in some areas of my life the biggest one is food. But it is time to turn over that slavery and pick up a new one lead by a loving and gracious master. It is Him I want to serve and Him I want to follow. Where are you? Are you a Slave to sin or a slave to God?