FOOD IN THE BIBLE...

 

WHAT TO EAT...WISDOM COMES FROM SCRIPTURE!

Dad was a Christian Evangelist. His mission was to encourage others to love and read the Bible. He and my mother traveled the forty-eight lower United States, Canada, and Mexico with us, their eight children. His quest was to put into practice the Bible he proclaimed as the truth; it included the food so often mentioned in the Bible. He had been an athlete in Wheaton College and trained there in nutrition and exercise. Every sport the college offered he took part in until he graduated. He married my mother in Boston, where she was a Wheelock College graduate. When eight children were born, he encouraged us as we grew up to eat carefully and exercise.

As we traveled the Country singing and quoting Bible stories, a family of ten, there were brave families who took us into their homes and fed us. Their gracious meals included one of Dad’s excluded foods: dessert. It would be a beautiful white flour, white sugar, tempting dessert, which I, of course accepted. But my father would quietly wrap his dessert in a napkin and put it in his back pocket. I knew, and to this day smile.

Through these growing years, I believed that God, through Holy men wrote the Bible. Genesis, chapters one to eleven recount how God created the world and everything in it including the food He provided. Therefore, the Bible is an exact book, the final Word of Truth. Written for the enlightenment of every person. It is the “beginning of wisdom.”

Within the Bible is a surprising emphasis on food, both figurative and literal. This food I was increasingly interested in as I became a wife at twenty-nine and a mother at thirty.

Whole Grains for your health

 Whole wheat bread and cakes are from the entire wheat kernel: bran, endosperm, and germ. Breads, pastas, bagels, crackers, muffins, and foods listed as whole wheat are solely the whole wheat grain. Unrefined wheat features a host of important nutrients.

However, the standard for most wheat products available in the United States are processed into 60 percent extraction – meaning that 40 percent of the original wheat grain was removed. The 40 percent that is removed during this process is typically the most nutrient-rich part of wheat, the bran and germ of the whole grain kernel according to Snap Fitness USA. The Difference Between Whole Wheat and Whole Grain – Snap Fitness USA

Whole Grain Vs Refined Grain - Itsxtraliving

KEEP IT SIMPLE

In the morning, often we eat the same thing. Eric eats whole grain cereal with “Grassfed milk,” and honey. I eat two pieces of Ezekiel Bread with butter and honey and a glass of milk, or cooked oatmeal. Sometimes, I bake granola: Old fashioned oats, nuts, honey, maple syrup, butter and olive oil, baked at a low temperature for an hour.

On Sunday It is hot oatmeal with salt and butter and turkey or beef sausage. On weekdays, mid-day food is fresh fruit and a slice of cheddar cheese. Weekday dinner is a salad, vegetables and beef, chicken, or fish. Whole grain pasta, with tomato sauce, or Taco Salad with Beef Sauce and whole grain chips. Keeping it simple also keeps it healthy. I like sauces made with meat flavor from the pan, mixed with whole wheat flour, butter and chicken stock…it goes well over everything. Cheddar cheese grated often goes on top.

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him." (Psalm 34:8).

“And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and He shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away (decline, pluck away, take away) from the midst of thee.” Exodus 23:25.

 

Taking care for yourself and those you love and are responsible for, is in the tradition of historical truth. I check with the Bible first, then branch out from there. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases; Who redeems thy life from destruction; who crowns thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103 2-5.

 

"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing Psalms." James 5:13. "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." James 5:14.

"CLEAN AND UNCLEAN FOOD" THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

The Old Testament is clear about “clean and unclean” food: animals that we should and should not eat. Do the forbidden animals mean that God is harsh: do not eat this and only eat that! Having pondered it, my deduction is that it was the Creator telling us what He created and why and what animals his creation should eat for their good. Think about it: many of the animals God designated “unclean” in the Old Testament are scavengers, predators, bottom feeders.

There is, in the New Testament, freedom to decide what you will eat. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." I Corinthians 10:31. Take it seriously, think twice about habitual food, then someday when you grow old, just hopefully, you will have invested in yourself wisely. Of course, God has the final word on the number of our days, the health of our bodies.

As our three sons, Joshua, Josiah, and Zachariah were growing up, we visited the State of Maine one Summer. Eric traveled to many Naval Bases in the United States as a Logistics Manager for the Naval Air Warfare Center. A few times during the summer months our three sons and I traveled with him on his official trips. My husband would nudge me in a restaurant, “Go ahead, get lobster.” Fried clams and lobster were part of happy memories. I ate lobster.  

Eating lobster and clams in Maine brought back memories of my childhood: my father, mother, and grandparents, ran a Bible Conference on the ocean front in the summer. They owned several acres across the street from the Atlantic Ocean with a big, three hundred seat tabernacle and thirty summer cottages. Years later, when our little family drove over the border into Maine again, I cried.

The New Testament gives each person freedom to decide about food, the Sabbath of total rest, and other practices forbidden under the Law, in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Today much of the fast-food industry with its accompanying harmful processes, added chemicals, devitalized flour, processed oils, sugar, and corn syrup look like a modern-day rendition of “unclean food.” Reading labels is an effective way to stay away from ingredients that do not nourish you. Also, I prefer to stay away from the “Biblically unclean” food most of the time.

"All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eats with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended or is made weak... Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows." Romans 14:20-22.

THE BREAD QUESTION

IT IS SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL

FOR HEART AND HEALTH

Growing up, my father (who did not eat white flour, white sugar, or margarine) knew there was something wrong with the food culture in America. To prove his view to his children, he would sit on a loaf of white bread; it went “flat as a pancake.” My mother stopped buying white bread when we were young.

The naturally harvested wheat includes the bran, endosperm and germ. The unwitting consumer is denied the benefit of whole grain when it is taken apart and sold separately.

If the endosperm is processed (bleached white), then made into bread, it is minus the powerful nutrition found in the whole grain. The bread made from it becomes the airy white loaf most often sold in grocery stores at home and the world over. The white flour is eye appealing and has a much longer shelf life. The bran and germ are gone and sold separately.

This “allenpuff” which my father called it, could be one major reason for health problems. When a lifetime of devitalized bread with no heart strengthening power from protein, and minerals is our regular diet we suffer. Often the food industry separates the most nutritious parts and sells them separately.

Bread bleached and degermed are not health building. Like fast food available everywhere, it is a trap. Easy, quick, cheap, habit forming, addictive. Fad diets confuse and frustrate us and work against hope for good health. When a better Way is right in front of you, take it! “Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” Psalm 103:5

“FOOD AND FAITH GO TOGETHER” WHY?

A News Story November 2022 ... Medical News Today

It's a warning... 

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.

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

Monday, November 7, 2022 this was published

Ultra-processed food consumption linked to premature, preventable death

Written by Jessica Norris

 

·  Dietary patterns can have an immense impact on health outcomes. 

·  Ultra-processed foods that go through large amounts of processing can lose nutritional value and contain unhealthy elements.

·  A​ new study adds to a growing body of research showing that ultra-processed food consumption may cause premature, preventable death. 

 

 

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. The cost of food was often beyond my ability to pay for it. 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.

A TOMMY WASH...WATER FOR HEALTH

 

WATER, JESUS, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" John 7:37-39.

“I will give him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” Revelation 21:6.

"And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:17

JESUS, A PICTURE OF PURE WATER

"Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water." John 4:10. This meeting with the woman at the well, who was an outcast, goes down in history as a story of lifegiving water offered by Jesus to every person on earth.

The principles are consistent. Study food highlighted in Scripture that gives health, experience the spiritual health when you believe and apply it to your life.

PURE WATER

The first thing my father told his eight children every morning was, “Don’t forget your tummy wash!” As a child, I grabbed the first cup in sight, filled it with water and guzzled down. Now, in the morning, first thing, I drink one or two fourteen-ounce glasses of water.

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:22.

A TOMMY WASH? My Experience

·       Two fourteen-ounce glasses of water in the morning helps activate internal organs.

·       1 Glass of water thirty minutes before a meal, helps digestion.

·       A glass of water before bed might prevent brain stroke or heart attack.

·       Leg cramps are looking for hydration.

·       See Capitol Cardiology Associates Recommendations below.

HYDRATION AND HEALTH

FROM https://www.clearlyfiltered.com/ “From head to toe, fluids support the function of every (yes, every) system in your body. That means your heart, your brain, and your muscles all depend on fluids. As do other organs like your bladder, stomach, and kidneys. Fluids regulate body temperature, lubricate joints, flush waste, and transport nutrients to cells. Which are all essential processes in everyday life that we often take for granted. Let us take a deeper look at some of the physical benefits of hydration:  Prevent (And Alleviate) Sickness. Avoid Disease. Age Gracefully. Sleep Peacefully. Mood Booster. Dodge Stress, Depression, and Anxiety. Cognitive Function.”

Dehydration is Your Enemy

“Dehydration is your enemy, and it is time to give it the blame that it deserves. The human brain is 85% water, and the blood is 90% water. When your body lacks adequate water, the consequences go well beyond what most people understand. We have replaced the body’s NEED for water with a beverage-of-choice and we no longer recognize the signs of dehydration.” 

March 11, 2021, Lisa Alligood

https://livingwaterlivinglife.wordpress.com/

 

Capital Cardiology Associates

From Dr. Benton. He points out that water is the best thing to drink, not only on hot days but throughout the day. Drinking water has plenty of health benefits, and fluids contribute to every single metabolic process in our body, including absorbing nutrients and removing toxic waste. Our body is about 60% water. Our body fluids bodily are active in digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature. Drinking water throughout the day also replenishes our muscles, helps our skin and kidneys, and keeps our bowels functioning properly. For years there have been studies highlighting the importance of drinking at least one hundred ounces of water a day. Drink up, that is about thirteen cups!” https://capitalcardiology.com/ Dr. Robert Benton, Director of Clinical Research at Capital Cardiology Associates