11/12/12- God of the Stomach

¹⁷ Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. ¹⁸ For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. (Philippians 3:17-20)

(Mayan human sacrifice glyph)

Thoughts: If the New Age thinkers are right, one month from now the world will end when the Mayan astronomers stopped their calendar on the winter solstice.  There is a large debate about whether the calendar was meant to signal something at all (maybe they were just tired of dates), or it has some special numerical meaning tied to the number 13. Christians have believed that the world can end whenever God decides it should.  We have purposefully avoided dates (Jesus said, "No one knows the day or the hour").  But we have always said that we need to live for eternity and not just for today. 
    In this passage in Philippians 3, Paul is contrasting those who live simply by their appetites- their feelings.  He describes it as "their god is their stomach."  Ooh!  Not a wonderful god to follow or worship.  Yet so many believe according to their feelings today.  They do not keep the Sabbath because they would rather shop than rest.  They make their ethical decisions by how they feel- so there is rampant sexual immorality today.  Paul says for such people "their glory is their shame."   The false god of feeling ("If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right"?) not only hurts their relationship with God, but ends up biting them in the end if they do not get it straightened out.  
    Instead of setting our mind on our feelings- our stomachs- on earthly things; we should set our minds on where our home is- where our citizenship lies- in heaven.  Today, lift up your heads and your hearts to God.  Put your hope in Him.  

Prayer: Let my hope lie in you, O Lord. Help me to remember my destiny is not trapped but lies in your gracious and loving hands.

By the way- speaking of the Mayans.  Let's look at their ethics.  They would fit right into what Paul was saying, "Their glory is their shame."  They practiced human sacrifice often (see picture above).  They would torture their body as part of their faith- making their noble children flatten their foreheads.  They would purposefully make their children cross-eyed as part of their worship.  They were in constant warfare with each other and valued power over peace.