Well, this particular death wasn’t a homicide but a suicide. Just another self-inflicted “fork shot” to the mouth with most of the casualties not realizing the fork was “loaded”, loaded with hazardous materials causing its victims to die a slow death called disease and illness.

Our appetites can be a dangerous thing. What member of the body is the guide and leader of our appetites? Well, that’s not too hard to answer. It’s the tongue with its numerous little buddies called taste buds.

This is the same member of the body that the Third Chapter of James refers to as an unruly member. Webster’s defines “unruly” as “not submissive to rule and disregarding restraint”. So essentially when someone allows their tongue or appetite to choose what to eat or not eat, an unruly guide or leader is leading them. The potential outcome can be devastating. Just ask Adam and Eve.


The flesh will never have to stand and be judged before a Holy God. It will simply go back to the dirt from which it came. Genesis 3:19 states: ...til thou return unto the ground: for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. A few verses earlier when Satan was judged in the Garden, God said in Genesis 3:14: “...and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life”.

This suggests to me that Satan was limited to the realm of the flesh in his dealings with mankind. Therefore it doesn’t make much sense to allow such authority and decision making ability to that part of us that not only can be influenced by “the father of lies” but also will never stand in judgement.


It’s no wonder so many have such problems controlling what they eat. Their flesh is in charge, led by an unruly member. When the flesh and its appetites are in charge of someone’s life, it rules not only their body but ultimately their soul and spirit.

Doesn’t our Creator desire our spirit to be in charge of our lives as His Spirit leads us? Paul states in the Book of Galatians, Chapter 5: “...walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would”. In other words, you can’t do the things that you want to.


When our flesh and its appetites rule and guide us, we “live to eat”. When our spirit rules and guides us through God’s wisdom, we “eat to live”. Romans 13:14 states: “...and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof”.

The lusts of our flesh can manifest in various ways. When the eyes manifest its lust, we can’t control what we see. When the ears manifest its lust, we can’t control what we hear; what the Bible refers to as “itching ears”. When our tongue manifests its lust, we can’t control what we eat.

How many times have we eaten something because we just “had to eat it” then afterwards we ask ourselves, “What in the world did I eat that for?” That’s a typical example of “flesh in charge”.


I wonder how many Christians today fast? I would probably be stretching it to say 1%. Yet Jesus said in Matthew 6:16 and 17, “...when you fast” not “if you fast”. One thing I’ve personally experienced through fasting is that it breaks the power and stronghold of food or different types of food. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a fast from all foods; it can be a fast from certain foods or drinks.


My first experience of fasting was when our church called a time of fasting and prayer from its members and went on a “Daniel Fast”. This is essentially a fast from meats and sweets for 21 days as Daniel did in Daniel Chapter 10.

When my wife served our first meatless dinner on the diet, I thought I was going to die from “meat deprivation” but somehow I managed to live through the night and each following day, my struggle seemed to get easier and easier. By the end of the three weeks, I realized I could live without meat. Slowly, though, we allowed meat back into our diet.


A few years later, I learned about the devastation meat was causing to the health of Americans as the animal fat and cholesterol clogs arteries resulting in one in every two deaths from heart attacks and strokes. I also found out that eliminating animal products from my diet could reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by 96% for my entire lifetime.

Knowing this information and the fact I didn’t want to be just another statistic, it was time to make a tough choice about my meat intake. This decision I was undertaking wasn’t “legalism” or “save the animals”. It was “save me”!


I was 39 years old at the time and I was already having serious chest pains. At times it felt as though a knife was going through my heart. I also learned that if someone is having chest pains, they can have as much as 60% blockage in their arteries. So I was literally standing in line for heart disease.

Having given my life to the Lord ten years earlier, I had no greater desire than to fulfill the purpose for which I was created.

I knew how many times in my life I likely could have and probably should have died but God had His hand on my life for some reason and I was determined to find out what it was. I couldn’t imagine not fulfilling the purpose for which I was created because of a “chunk of animal” that sat on the end of my fork. It just wasn’t worth it to me.


All of us come to various “forks” in the road during our lives where we have to make hard decisions. The Psalms and Proverbs are filled with advice to get wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Why is that advice given over and over? I believe it’s so we can make good choices. I don’t know of anyone who can make good choices without good information. The best information we can get of course is the truth from the Word of God.


The gift to choose is one of the greatest gifts God gave mankind. God so highly respects and values the gift to choose that He didn’t even violate that right to choose in the Garden of Eden when he knew Adam and Eve were about to make a bad choice. He could have stopped them but He didn’t.

He wants us to exercise our right to choose with wisdom and truth. We are the ones who suffer the consequences of bad choices or blessings from good choices. Deuteronomy 30:19 states: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live".


The devil doesn’t care how he takes us out. A 357 Magnum or a fork, it’s all the same to him. He just wants us out of God’s will and dead before our time.

Genesis 1:29 gives us God’s original meal plan for mankind, raw fresh fruits and vegetables. This is considered “live” food or food with the life force still within it, uncooked and unaltered by mankind. This is the greatest source of nutrition for our bodies.


So the next time you make a choice of what food to put into your body, look at it this way…I have set before you this day “live food” and “dead food”, blessing and cursing: therefore choose “live food”, that both thou and thy seed may live.

Andrew & Romsey Foote
It’s Your Health
E-mail: andrew@itsyourhealth2.com