國度小筆

A: When I prayed into this situation, what came to me was the exhortation in the Word to pray blessing over our food.  I am not sure if you are aware of this, but most American imported foods and clothing are made in Asia, where in most cases the workers dedicate their days work including the food and the garments they make to the company's idol (often Buddha or other figures that they sacrifice to each day). Most of your tea brands for example, are produced and packaged in Asia ... almost every single piece of clothing you wear and every imported food item has been sacrificed to an idol. For this reason, I bless my clothes, food, furniture etc. The proclaimed blessing of the Lord breaks any curse as the prayer of thanks and blessing puts it inside of God's covering. His power of light expels the darkness.

Although we definitely do not want to bringing idols into the home to worship, I believe the scripture means items that we deliberately worship. An example would be the daily newspaper. Inside the newspapers are horoscopes, yet most of us have stacks of newspapers in our home. We are not idolizing the horoscopes and agreeing with them, but we enjoy the paper. However, if we open the paper each day and submit our hearts and minds to the content of the horoscopes, that is very different.

For me, I find that Starbucks makes one of the best coffees I have ever tasted (this is my personal preference). Most coffee companies use cursed beans if the beans grow in fields where people dedicate their work to false idols. It would be hard to find a non-cursed coffee bean these days. The other thought would be the god of Materialism. Most of the marketing of brands go through a marketing expert who is very much like a psychologist in order to grab attention and manipulate the consumer.  This type of activity does not come from the true God but from the god of Materialism.  So dear friend, we are in the world … BUT we are not of the world. We are separated unto God and everything we partake of, we dedicate to Him for blessing.  We worship only Jesus.  We serve only Jesus.  But, I believe, we can also drink blessed coffee (smile).

I think Romans 14 can help us here.  Hope this helps!

羅馬書14章14-23:

我憑主耶穌確知深信、凡物本來沒有不潔淨的．惟獨人以為不潔淨的、在他就不潔淨了。你若因食物叫弟兄憂愁、就不是按愛人的道理行。基督已經替他死、你不可因你的食物叫他敗壞。不可叫你的善被人毀謗．因為　神的國、不在乎喫喝、只在乎公義、和平、並聖靈中的喜樂。在這幾樣上服事基督的、就為　神所喜悅、又為人所稱許。所以我們務要追求和睦的事、與彼此建立德行的事。不可因食物毀壞　神的工程．凡物固然潔淨、但有人因食物叫人跌倒、就是他的罪了。無論是喫肉、是喝酒、是甚麼別的事、叫弟兄跌倒、一概不作纔好。你有信心、就當在　神面前守。人在自己以為可行的事上、能不自責、就有福了。若有疑心而喫的、就必有罪．因為他喫、不是出於信心．凡不出於信心的都是罪。