Health inspectors give a weekly report on restaurants in the River Region designating a numerical score for each restaurant’s cleanliness.  The report ends with Mark Bullard giving a robust “Clean Up!”   But what about the food the restaurant serves?  Is it pure – untainted?

The Chinese have now developed a pair of “smart chopsticks” that will help you gauge the quality of the food you are about to consume.  These chopsticks have been developed by the Chinese tech giant Baidu, and they were recently displayed at a technology conference.

These chopsticks feature built-in sensors that “can detect oils containing unsanitary levels of contamination.”  They have named the chopsticks Kuaisou, and they link to a smartphone app which displays a “good” or “bad” reading depending on the quality of the food’s cooking oil.  The smart chopsticks will also record temperature, nutritional information, and calories.

Evidently the Chinese markets have had some challenges with food quality scandals such as “gutter oil,” or cut-rate cooking oil made from recycled garbage and sewage that is used by some street vendors.  These smart chopsticks will help determine the quality of the food.

We can see where external things are clean or not.  But we sometimes have real difficulty seeing how pure and untainted ideas, philosophies, opportunities, etc. are.  How do we discern that?

One way is the use of our conscience.  The problem with the conscience is that it is oftentimes based on education, values taught as a child, etc. and cannot be totally dependable.  The conscience can also be dulled.

I like the definition of the conscience by a little boy who said, “It’s a three-cornered thing in my heart that stands still when I am good, but when I am bad it turns around and the corners hurt a lot.  If I keep on doing wrong the corners wear off and it doesn’t hurt anymore.”  Another kid defined conscience as “something that makes a kid tell his mother before his sister tells her.”  You can’t depend on your conscience.

We need God’s divine help.  His desire is to help us discern where there is evil, even though it is well disguised.  We are tempted to consume a lot of things intellectually that are “gutter oil” and recycled from garbage and sewage.  Check out some of the things we watch on television and the movies.

God’s spiritual chopsticks come from a close relationship to God like Paul had when he wrote, “It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).  This relationship causes sensors to go off when we are about to consume something that would be unhealthy for us morally, intellectually, or spiritually.  The Chinese app is new.  God’s app has been around for thousands of years and it is the smartest app you can ever receive.

Eating unclean food can make you sick for a while.  Consuming things that are impure for our minds and souls can do permanent damage.

Do you have your “spiritual chopsticks” yet?  They carry with them a “life-back” guarantee that includes this life and eternal life.