CHAPTER 1.FOOD BY FAITH

 

FOOD COMMENTS ARE THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE

 

“If You Don’t buy it, You Won’t Eat It”

 

“FOOD AND FAITH GO TOGETHER”

 

You can have a noticeable change in your health in ten days. It took Daniel, and his three friends that long to prove that “things grown” are effective quickly (in Daniel 1:12).

If food by faith is a new thought for you, think of this: the journey of your life is a one-time opportunity to do the best you can, to search for the most wisdom you can find. You can become physically, spiritually, mentally all God created you to be!

The variety provided by our Creator is vast, from cows and sheep to grains and watermelon, nuts, broccoli, and squash…how about a focus on our health!

If we believe in an all-wise Creator, eating the right food makes sense. He made everything to be for the wellbeing of all humanity: our welfare, health, and our eternal salvation. He poured love into our world through the life, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, “The Way, the Truth and the Life….”

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thessalonians 5:23). Sanctified means set apart. Let faith be an adventure.

START SOMEWHERE

For the first years of our marriage, and before I could afford to buy what I pleased in the grocery store, our three sons, Joshua, Josiah, and Zachariah were one to five. Eric was earning minimum wage as an Electrician’s Helper. My budget for food was $18.00 a week. I remember praying as I shopped and looked at the fruit and vegetable departments, “Lord, I cannot buy those big red apples. They are there and out of reach. Help me to be able to buy them.” It was up to God to provide, I knew. We were eating healthy low-cost food. The grapes and pears were expensive, too so I looked for fresh fruit on sale. Vegetables, cut and bagged were beautiful just to look at. But I got good at chopping and cutting, and often still do. Buying whole wheat flour from a friend who ground it fresh, and baking our bread was natural because my mother had baked whole wheat bread often for our family of ten. Also, I could afford to bake granola with whole oats, raisins, honey, butter, and olive oil. I bought whole grains and made bread. Meat was for flavor, beef, and chicken. I made whole wheat chocolate cake, oatmeal, and carrot cakes. The frosting, cooked on a double broiler with raw sugar and egg whites, then cream cheese added.

When the three boys went to school with their homemade bread sandwiches, it brought attention to their lunches. I did not slice the bread carefully. Their sandwiches were all huge, each one was unique; They ate mounds of natural peanut butter. I packed cut vegetables and fruit and bought granola bars for them.

One mistake was to make beef bologna sandwiches with mayonnaise. It was cheap. On a field trip our middle son, Josiah, had to put his head out the bus window and vomit. I stopped buying bologna. The chemicals in cold-cut meats had warned me through our son suffering with a sick stomach.

If you take notice, the Bible is a Guide to food. Look closely and you will discover it. Beginning with Adam and Eve God told them, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat..." Genesis 2:16. God later instructed Noah about food in Genesis 9. Later there were guidelines and provision for His people when they escaped slavery in Egypt, their food was specific. Forty years it was manna every morning from heaven in the wilderness. Now we know that the food for the Passover Feast was a figurative “picture” into the future: a lamb slain pictured of Jesus the Lamb of God. His blood shed for us, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

“Hearken diligently…eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isaiah 55:2). “Thy words were found, and I did eat them…” (Jeremiah 15:16).

Food is traditionally part of connection to God, whether it is the Passover in the Old Testament or Communion with bread and wine in the New Testament. As a Christian our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit: this food is part of our worship of God.

WHEN FOOD IS PART OF THE STORY

In Exodus Twelve it is lamb or goat eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs just before the Israelites were “led by Moses” out of bondage in Egypt. (It sounds good to me!) In the New Testament bread and wine (described in I Corinthians Eleven) is part of our personal worship of God. Jesus began this worship when he took bread,"...and gave thanks, and break it, and gave to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.’" Luke 22:19

How you have decided to live every day is how your life and health will develop and progress. It is from these endless decisions.

If you begin with faith in God and the Bible then you believe that the God Who created the world and everything in it, the One who formed your personhood and very breath of life, has a Plan for you. (From the beginning of Creation God shows Himself to be the Great Planner). He cares about what you eat. Your health matters. The food that is good matters to God.

You have freewill and decision-making power. This makes all the difference in life and health and your future. Look to Scripture for wisdom to integrate into every area of your life. “You will show me the path of life…” Psalm 16:11. It is a promise.

The Creator of the heavens and the earth gives this admonition. Jesus, “It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." Luke 4:4.