Instruction
for Health and Nutrition is all through the Bible.
There is good news. Are you ready? All our food can be
good, healthful, nourishing, energizing. It is there, coming from the earth,
the trees, the vine, coming from rain from heaven. But of late, if we have been
hurting ourselves because we are taking the “wide road” with devitalized food. Why just quick and easy? Why processed food,
chemical additives, and addictions? It is making us unhealthy, sick; making us
less than we want to be and can be. There is another way.
This “other way” has been a profound subject for me, almost too
high, too broad, and too deep. At the same time, the worthiness and fascination
of it calls me. It has been a lifelong interest. I believe this “Way” because
the Bible is correct in every respect about spiritual food and physical food.
What has been inspiring as I study the subject is that one type of food
(spiritual) teaches about the other type (physical).
The Bible has profoundly influenced my life. From the
first day I was born, and every day thereafter, my father and mother and their
family of eight children read the Bible aloud together. Seven siblings and I
learned to read this way. It influenced me, even before I realized, it directed
my life. By my twenties, my health pursuits became an adventure primarily because
of Scripture.
At one point I traveled to Texas. I could type well
and got a job at Link-Temco-Vought (LTV) in Dallas. There all the ways of the culture came up,
including food and alcohol. Instead of going rogue, I decided to follow
the Bible already planted in my head and heart. My spirit, soul and body needed
to be fed. I saw good food described in Scripture. For example, Ezekiel’s bread. God told
Ezekiel, "Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils,
and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread
thereof..." (Ezekiel 4:9). Food is also figurative, "And Jesus said
to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he
that believes on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35).
The Bible has vital information about food and health sprinkled
all the way through. We can go to it with certainty that here is dependable wisdom
and knowledge because our Creator designed it all. It is the “bottom line” in
nutritional wisdom. Believe this with me.
The more you learn about real and nutritious food, and the value
to your health, the more you will enjoy it. Get it into your head and heart. Once
convinced, eating knowledgably, eating wisely becomes a habit. Habitually eat
what is good, you will soon look forward to it, even crave it. Grab salted
almonds or a crisp apple and cheddar cheese or grapes. Two pieces of Ezekiel
Bread, available in grocery stores (freezer section), with butter heated in the
microwave for 30 seconds, then honey added, with it a half cup of grass-fed
milk is one effective way to begin the day. You and your body are happy.
"And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that
they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall everyone eat
that is left in the land." (Isaiah 7:22).
Put together an aromatic loaf of whole wheat bread for yourself in
little more than an hour (see Chapter two). Make beef meatloaf with old
fashioned oats, onion, and salt. Healthy things become desirable. Our daughter
in law, Roxy wanted her birthday cake to be Oatmeal Cake. Whole wheat blonde
brownies with whip cream are good. All the desserts have whole wheat flour,
butter or olive oil, maple syrup or raw sugar.
All of us desire good health, satisfying food for our spirit, soul,
and body. Is this physical or figurative? The Holy Spirit calls to us in Isaiah
55:1: "Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no
money; come, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread?
and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently to me, and eat
that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." (Isaiah
55:1,2).
Finding what is healthy and good and pleasing to God, and you, are
what this book is about. Feeling better. Looking better. Being wise. By achieving
goals of weight, physical endurance and knowledge, this pursuit has been an
adventure.
FEEDING YOUR SPIRIT: THERE
IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BIBLE. “Thy
words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and
rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” (Jeremiah
15:16).
There are times that I have gone to
the Bible late at night, hungering for encouragement and comfort. "For the
word of God is quick, (alive) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
(Hebrews 4:12). “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, that man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Luke 4:4).
FEEDING YOUR SOUL: “And
the LORD God formed man of the dust
of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became
a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
Love. The powerful pursuit so intricately connected with relationship to God
and healthy relationships with our neighbor.
FEEDING YOUR BODY: The person you are deserves your best effort to
nurture, to strengthen and feed in this one life you are living this side of
heaven.
There are “voices” claiming to have the best, most authoritative
health regimen. My recommendation is as you study any of them hold Scripture up
as the first consideration. It is the final authority.
“What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For
you are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God’s.” (I Corinthians 6:19,20).
