The RxF Life Concepts

Concept # 1 - Self, Deprivation and the First Sin

Stop and think about Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden. With every good fruit of the Garden to eat, Eve saw a fruit that was more lovely than them all. Besides the gorgeous, flattering talking snake and the idea that some marvelous knowledge was being hidden from her, Eve felt herself being DEPRIVED of this one amazing food item. Like standing in a room full of carrot sticks, this one piece of fruit and all it promised her was like the one piece of your favorite Godiva Chocolate sitting on a golden platter. With her name on it. And she ate it. Hunger was not her motivation, for all around her there was plenty to eat. It was a voice speaking to her inmost self, the part that said "I DESERVE THIS..." that finally overcame her. She deserved knowledge. She deserved that piece of chocolate...er--FRUIT.

A few thousand years later, a man walked out of the desert. He had not eaten for over a month. Talk about DIETS...

He had every right in the world to eat now that He was back in civilization. And He had the power to find food. He had the power to CREATE the most delicious meals in the world! But with this kind of hunger, even a piece of BREAD would be the most welcomed of feasts.

Then along came someone who said "If you really ARE the Iron Chef, the creator of all the best in the world, turn this stone into bread."

What is wrong with eating when you are hungry?

In this man's case, he WAS hungry, it was honest hunger. But the issue at stake was NOT hunger, but WHO HE WAS. Were he to take the impossible ingrediets and make them into delicious bread, like he was totally capable of doing, it would have taken the issue from feeding a real need -- physical hunger -- to feeding a real ego.

Look at that piece of favorite food. You can eat it to satisfy your very real physical need for nourishment, but when it fills a real EMOTIONAL NEED to say to yourself "I deserve this!" it suddenly is all about selfishness. About self-centeredness. About self. And when you feed self, you forget the rest of the world. So a piece of bread, a piece of fruit, a piece of chocolate taken for selfish reasons may not poison your body, but it poisons your soul. And the next time, it is even easier to make an excuse to take it, it is even easier to eat with disregard to physical needs. It is even easier to say "I DESERVE THIS!" and to eat for self rather than eat for health.

So the man said "No." Or really, what He said was "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." And yes, that man was Jesus. The first sin was when Eve ate for reasons other than hunger. The first recorded temptation of Christ in His adult life was for reasons other than hunger, but He overcame. As our perfect example, He showed us how to overcome. And that is what I am here to talk to you about, the HOW of overcoming.

Concept #2 - You aren't the only one being tempted

My husband smokes, and tells me how hard it is to give it up. I am sure it is, but as I point out to him when he cuts back on ciggys and starts munching all the time, at least with smoking, you can toss it out of your life and never have to pick up another one. With overeating, you HAVE TO EAT, and you HAVE TO SAY STOP when you have had enough. He just sits there with salted fingers and a bag of potato chips, starring at me.

Some people think that what your body craves is what your body needs. My body craves mushroom and pineapple pizza. My body craves a WHOLE mushroom and pineapple pizza. My body does NOT need a whole mushroom and pineapple pizza. My body does NOT know what is good for it.

That is why God gave us MINDS. Your MIND knows what is good. But the body doesn't. And when the body -- the FLESH -- says "Gimme da WHOLE pizza..." your MIND should be telling it "NO!"

Yes, I too have a weak mind. When it is filled with the thoughts of pizza, it is harder to argue with the flesh. My minds KNOWS what is wrong, but even my MIND then starts to rationalize..."Give her the pizza! She DESERVES the pizza! What a DAY she has had! She works HARD for things like pizza! She NEEDS pizza! Who are YOU or ANYBODY ELSE to say she can't have pizza???"

I eat the pizza.

Concept #3 - Who Shall Deliver Me From This Body of This Death By Pizza?

The Apostle Paul had other issues which plagued him, although he is never real specific about what they are. But "this death" was everything that he wanted to do for the wrong reasons, everything sinful that called to his selfish, self-centered, self-needs heart. Eating food is not a sin. However the fact is, overeating IS a sin. It is destroying God's temple. It becomes a "god" to us when we live to eat rather than eat to live. It is a passion that takes our minds off the glory of God. I don't want to make you feel bad when I tell you this, and I CERTAINLY don't want to discourage you, for that is not what God wants. He wants us to know that whatever is a sin, whatever behavior is out there that is destroying us, "where sin abounds, grace abounds much more." "My GRACE is sufficient unto thee." He is not telling us that we can overeat and He will forgive us. He is telling us that HE will give us the POWER TO OVERCOME.

And that is the core concept in the RxF diet. THAT is the key to overcoming, believing in the promises that God makes us. He doesn't ask US to make any promises, He ask us to BELIEVE that He will save us. That is why the next verse that you read after Paul's impassioned cry of WHO WILL SAVE ME???

"I thank God [that my deliverance is] through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Concept #4 - Tapping in to the Power

Maybe you already knew that Jesus is the answer to overcoming temptation, but it is still such an amorphous, untangible idea that you have never really figured out how to use it. It reminds me of some of the software programs that they say are "really easy to use." Well YEAH, but ONLY if you know HOW to use them!" Let me tell you a little secret...there are many minsters out there who will TELL you a lot of things, but like the rest of us human beings, THEY don't know what the catch words mean, THEY don't know how it works. Instead of finding out how it works, they simply say "Well, maybe that is YOUR CROSS to bear..." and then say "You are only HUMAN, God understands..." My heart goes out to these people, because they have missed the power too. The power is in FAITH, but it is like have a box that says "FAITH" on the outside, and saying "I HAVE FAITH! See? It is right here IN THIS BOX! It is MINE! I PAID FOR IT!"

But they have never OPENED THE BOX. Having the box with the faith inside is like having a bottle of medicine and holding it in your hand and refusing to take the pill. It doesn't work until you make it A PART OF YOU.

Concept #5 - It's What's INSIDE YOU that counts!

You can start to understand the RxF Concepts when I tell you that the "F" stands for Faith. But the Rx is not for "prescription" although that is not a bad way of looking at it! Faith IS prescribed here for overcoming sin! But when we overcome, what does God call us? RIGHTEOUS. But it is not by our OWN works that we are declared righteous, it is BY OUR FAITH in Jesus Christ and HIS works that we are declared righteous.

But what does this have to do with pizza and chocolate??? Thanks for asking!

Faith is not something that we have like "mind assent." It is important to realize that the word "Faith" and the word "Belief" in the New Testament come from the same Greek word PISTOU. You can understand "mind assent" when you read James 2:14-26 and it is all about faith "with works" and faith "without works" and in verse 19 when he writes "even the DEVILS --believe/have faith-- and tremble! To have the pills in your hand and not take them will not make you well. To hold the box with the tool marked FAITH in your hand and not open it up and use it will not use the FAITH. To SAY you have faith but not know how to USE IT will do you no good. If you don't plug it in, it will not work.

Concept #6 - How to PLUG IN to Faith and loose 10 pounds of ugly doubt

Here it is, the most simple concept of overcoming overeating. Here is the choice as you see it now:

Sinful Flesh says "Oh, there is the pizza...OH and the root beer FLOAT! Oh, I want it I want it I want it I want it..."

Converted Mind "Now S.F., you KNOW that it is not good for you and when we allow the hands to shove it into our face, stomach is going to have to pay dearly for the indulgence, and fanny will grow WAY out of proportion and..."

S.F. "...I want it I want it I want it I want it..."

C.M. "I know you want it, but you remember that little saying "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!"

S.F. "...I want it I want it I want it I want it..."

C.M. "Now S.F., "wanting" it is not enough, you are being selfish here."

S.F. "...I want it I want it I want it I want it...Selfish? ME??? Oh no, I NEED it I need it I need it I need it..."

C.M. "No, you don't NEED it, that is just your selfishness talking. You may have NEEDED the first two pieces, but everything else is just fattening and selfish."

S.F. "But I DESERVE IT! WE deserve it! Look at all the hard WORK we have done! It is a PARTY! WE DESERVE to be rewarded for all the things we have done this week!"

C.M. "Well, we DID do really well in all other ways, and..."

S.F. "Yes! We DESERVE IT!!! Yes, YES! DESERVE IT! Don't deprive yourself of something you DESERVE!"

C.M. "Well, now that you put it THAT way..."

Slurp! One who pizza, washed down with a pitcher of everything you deserve, and sits on your tummy with the weight of too much too eat. Guilt pizza never tastes that good when it sits on your belly.

You see, the Sinful Mind just never gives us. You simply can't argue with it, becuase it never STOPS arguing.

I heard a good analogy:

"When temptatation comes to the door, I simply say
"Jesus, could you get that for me?"

That's the key. Don't argue with your Sinful Mind. Let Jesus get it for you. Here is how: When the choice is between enough pizza and too much pizza for your health needs, don't sit there and argue, just GET UP and walk away. Your choice is NOT 2 pieces or 8 pieces, your choice should be JESUS.

Serious. Don't argue with your sinful mind. You know what you need in the way of food, that is why you study the Zone Diet. You KNOW what your needs are, so once those needs are met, the next choice is not to argue, but to choose Jesus. How?

Get up and walk away. Go for a walk. Read a book. Say a prayer. But don't stand in front of the pizza box to do it!!! Leave, and consider Jesus walking away from 40 days of hunger and turning down a loaf of bread. The power is in believing that HE can help you do it. In fact, here is how:

Studies on Opening and Exercising Faith

From another website I designed, here are TEXTS on Faith

We can have FAITH in the promises of God--it is HIS work, not ours!

What IS Faith?

Straight Talk about Faith and those who only know it passively

Interesting Bible Texts on Diet, Appetite and Gluttony in the Bible

The Only Real Authentic First Original Genuine Textual God-Given Diet in the World -- and where is the beef?