FOOD BY FAITH PREFACE

 

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).