Well, today, Pastor John and I fly west to Portland, along with others on the Desiring

God team for a gathering of our ministry partners in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded

by the beauties of the Columbia River Gorge.

I am always looking forward to that trip and certainly looking forward to seeing and thanking

in person a number of financial donors who listen to this podcast and who pray for and

support our labors here.

But before we head out, we have a question about junk food, a young man writes in to ask

at Dear Pastor John, I'm from Singapore.

If we are about to eat a meal, we know is unhealthy, like fried chicken or fast food that will

not serve our bodies like more healthy food will.

Should we pray and thank God for the food or is our praying over this food a phony act

because the food itself will wrong the body he gave to us to care for?

How should we think of gratitude in junk food?

Oh, good question, but here's my answer in a couple of sentences and then I'm going

to just kind of ramble.

I want to talk Bible here, but kind of hard, but you'll see if it helps.

Here's my answer.

To the degree that you are justified in eating something, to that degree you are justified

in giving thanks for it.

That's my short answer.

To say it another way, to the degree that your conscience is clear in eating something,

to that degree your thankfulness can be offered with a clear conscience or to put it one more

...