Where's the Beef?

Many years ago there was a commercial on TV with an old woman, her cane and a hamburger. She demanded to know “Where’s the beef?” It was cute and the line caught on. People used it, and then reused it regarding anything they questioned the quality on. There is not a lot worse than a skimpy dried out ‘slice’ of meat in a burger so it challenged the populace of burger maker to compete more. Burgers got a bit better till the fervor died down and then a lot of burger joints went back to the rubbery patty again. Things look better once more with fat juicy burgers making a come back. This is good for John Q. Public if you throw caution to the wind regarding eating fast food.

Vegetarianism and Vegan-ship(?) are making a lot of noise on the health scene. The bandwagon is loaded with all sorts of promoters and products that are simulated replicas of real food; by ‘real’ I mean that with which was made by God. My Honey and I partake in a ‘Daniel Fast’ at the first of each year for spiritual reasons and have learned more than we probably ever wanted to know about these food wannabes during these times of fasting. In a Daniel Fast you simply eat veggies, fruit, whole grains, etc….no bread, sweets or meats. Thus, our introduction to meatless meat.

In and of itself, meatless meat is usually a soy based product chocked full of protein and shaped to look like a burger patty, crumbled ground meat, and even BBQ ribs….the kind on a McRib sandwich. The BBQ rib-less ribs are my Honey’s favorite. And I have to say, they are not bad. Not great, but not bad. Even though our fast has ended, I still incorporate those into our menu. I made sandwiches with them the other night on Kaiser rolls and with some pickle and onion, you can’t really tell it’s meatless meat. Low fat, high protein, low calories and BBQ sauce, what more could you ask for?

The problem with ‘created’ food is that it did not come from the Creator. It may have good aspects to it and I do not argue those points. In a world demanding more food to feed its increasing population, some of these foods could make the difference between starvation and health. That is not, however, the topic today. I used the meatless meat to make a point about how, more and more, there are people ‘creating’ their faith with a God-less god. Like the meatless BBQ ribs, they have aspects that make it look like a god without it actually being THE God. These god wannabes can never be holy, life giving, and sanctifying gods with eternal life or bring salvation yet many flock to the wannabes in droves because they are starving for spiritual nourishment. They may as well be bowing down to a cardboard cutout for all intent, purposes and spiritual nutrition they get from their God-less gods.

Then there are the ‘cotton candy’ Christian preachers feeding people a sugary diet of goodness and light that will rot their spiritual teeth. We have gotten away from telling people that hell is a real and very bad place. Let’s just smile and wave our holy hands and be happy! If we join hands and sing a round of ‘Kumbaya’ all is right in the world. This lack of reality is misleading as many people as the God-less gods.

People need to know that sin is bad, personal choice or not, sin is bad. Agree or not, sin is bad. You can’t live like hell all week long and say a chant or sing a song and make things right with God, not THE God; maybe that works in your ‘Alice in Blunderland’ world but the One True God requires more of us than that.

A friend and I had a conversation a while back; her position was that preaching mercy and grace of God was the best way to win more people to Jesus and talking about sin and hell would scare people off. I felt it was imperative that people know that they are sinners and that Jesus was the only way to God; that’s where the mercy and grace come in. I do not think we should beat people over the head and drown them in recanted tales of their sins, that is not my point; but I think as servants of God we have a responsibility to let people know that eternity in hell is the only other option. Would we not warn them of a damaged bridge when certain death lies below in the ravine? Jesus is the Bridge between sinners and heaven, should they not know that He is only bridge that keeps them from hell?

There are millions of people out there that do not know they are sinning against the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Unless they hear, how will they know? How can they accept Jesus as Lord of their lives if they do not know and believe He is the path to salvation? It’s easy to see how people can be drawn in and duped by cardboard cutouts of a god when they do not know the real God. My Honey will eat an old shoe if it has BBQ sauce on it. We need to show people real meat that is God so they will know the real difference between what is genuine and what is just covered in BBQ sauce to make you forget it is not the real deal.