{"id":316,"date":"2014-09-10T22:33:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T01:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/?p=316"},"modified":"2014-09-10T22:33:49","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T01:33:49","slug":"a-nation-of-coke-addicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/2014\/09\/a-nation-of-coke-addicts\/","title":{"rendered":"A Nation of Coke Addicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addictive America<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
I am a Coke addict.<\/p>\n

You might be addicted instead to Pepsi.<\/p>\n

I was asked what was the number one addiction in America in 2012. I guessed booze, gambling, pornography, or prescription medication.\u00a0 I was dead wrong.<\/p>\n

The number one addiction right now in America is sugar.\u00a0 Most of us in America are a bunch of addicts and no one knows it because it seems harmless.\u00a0 9 out of 10 dentists agree that they too are sugarholics. You likely are in denial if you think you aren’t addicted to something.<\/p>\n

Websters dictionary defines addict as someone who devotes time and attention by customary repetitive behavior.\u00a0 I would add that it becomes natural and ingrained in us, we\u00a0invest a lot of time and money to\u00a0it, and if we give it up for any length of time there are\u00a0noticeable withdrawal symptoms.\u00a0 Think of how many people are addicted to caffeine.\u00a0 Texting.\u00a0 Checking your blog stats. (No, I don’t know anyone like that). Fast food.\u00a0 Junk food. Organic Food. Comfort food.\u00a0\u00a0 Timbits.\u00a0 Whenever\u00a0a Tim Hortons donut and coffee shop opens in town,\u00a0 it is like our cars\u00a0switch\u00a0to auto pilot.\u00a0 We drive through but\u00a0not until we\u00a0drive-thru.<\/p>\n

I think that the recovery place for caffeine addiction is known as the Maxwell House.\u00a0 At the very least think how much time and energy and money is wasted on our seemingly harmless addictions.\u00a0 When I was younger I loved a comic strip named Dilbert.\u00a0 There was this dog Dogbert, and this tech nerd, Dilbert, who worked somewhere in a cubicle.\u00a0 One day Dogbert asked Dilbert if he wanted any coffee.<\/p>\n

Dilbert declined, and said, “No, I quit drinking coffee. I don’t want to be dependent on chemicals”.<\/p>\n

To which Dogbert said, “Well, how are you doing this morning?”<\/p>\n

Dilbert (yawning and looking like he just woke up) said, “Well, a little sluggish, but you would expect that for a Monday.”<\/p>\n

Dogbert replied, “Um, it’s Thursday.”<\/p>\n

Corn syrup is like crack in the body.\u00a0 It is absorbed immediately and gets to the blood stream, and there is a sugar high very quickly.\u00a0 You crash and if you don’t get more sugar you get irritable.\u00a0 “Snickers satisfies” is their cry. LIARS!\u00a0 The Bible commands us to fast, but when I am not watching my diet, I am absolutely miserable when I am fasting and off the junk cold-turkey for just 24 hours.\u00a0 I am supposed to be doing this spiritual endeavour yet I am about to tear everyone’s heads off I am so irritable!\u00a0 Hypocrite! I need a sugar patch on my arm or something.\u00a0 Or maybe I need a sugar stick.<\/p>\n

My one point is this —you don’t need to smoke crack to end up addicted.\u00a0 Until you try to run from your addiction and tell it no, you really don’t know you have a problem.\u00a0Most of us have politically correct addictions and will never realize we have a problem.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Crack gets people into trouble fast.\u00a0 They quickly lose everything and it’s destruction is almost immediate.\u00a0 The rest of the addictions are like the old frog in the pot.\u00a0\u00a0 You heat up a pot slowly with a frog in it, and it will boil to death and not realize anything was going on.\u00a0 Had you thrown a frog instantly in that same boiling pot at the end, it would jump out.\u00a0\u00a0 When I was a lost heathen, I sold beer and cigarettes from an early age.\u00a0 Back then cigarettes were $1.99 a pack.\u00a0 If we suddenly raised them back then to $10 a pack, people would have had an instant\u00a0fit, and say, “No more cigarettes! That is ridiculous!”\u00a0 Yet, 20 years later, people pay $10 a pack and don’t even flinch.<\/p>\n

Imagine if tomorrow Tim Hortons started charging $25 for a Double Double and $5 a timbit.\u00a0 Then on Friday, the government read my blog and said, “Dolly Madison, we have a problem” and made a ban on sugar.\u00a0\u00a0 And later Verizon had a change of heart and banned texting to help improve our social skills.\u00a0 And some terrorists launched an E Bomb and fried all our electronics.\u00a0 And all at once, the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, PGA, NASCAR, and Hollywood all went on strike.\u00a0 We would soon find out just how much junkies we really are and how controlled we are\u00a0by our American Idols.<\/p>\n

In America, there are junkies and junkfoodjunkees.\u00a0 It is just our sugar addiction is legal and helps stimulate the economy.\u00a0 One Super sized Soda at a time.\u00a0 The Bible says I won’t be mastered by anything.\u00a0 Our addictions do have a price to pay. The bible says the drunkard AND GLUTTON will come to ruin.<\/p>\n

I found the answer 11 years ago when I met Jesus. He set me free instantly from many addictions, but others resurface fairly fast when I turn my eyes away from Him.\u00a0 Now when I look to Him, I am not craving other junk.\u00a0 At\u00a0a camp meeting a few years back, a husband and wife named the Sutton Family sang a song that hit home.\u00a0 It is called HOOKED on JESUS.\u00a0 “I must admit it,” they sing, “I’m hooked on Jesus. HE’s\u00a0nearly always on my mind. I got me a drink of that living water, and now I stay high, most all the time.”<\/p>\n

You might not be addicted to anything that is that\u00a0obvious you need help.\u00a0 That I think is one of the devil’s greatest tricks today.\u00a0 We are not in the gutter drunkards,\u00a0and everyone\u00a0else is doing it, and we must be ok.\u00a0 You can’t swim to the lifeboat where Jesus is waiting with open arms, when you are calmly treading water in the River\u00a0De-Nial.\u00a0\u00a0 But do your soul a favor– cut out sweets and the media for 24 hours and then a full 7 days and just see how addicted to this world you really are.\u00a0 Then cry out to the Lord for deliverance!\u00a0\u00a0 He will be all you need once you see He’s all you have.\u00a0 Taste and see that the Lord is good says the Bible.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The only cure is Jesus. Snickers left me hungry for more and so did everything else.\u00a0 Jesus not only satisfied, Jesus saved me!\u00a0 Get hooked on Jesus today and you will be freed from the devil’s snares!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And keep looking to Him.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addictive America I am a Coke addict. You might be addicted instead to Pepsi. I was asked what was the number one addiction in America in 2012. I guessed booze, gambling, pornography, or prescription medication.\u00a0 I was dead wrong. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etvfc.org\/wp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}