FOOD BY FAITH IN 2024

The Creator’s design for us is for our wellbeing. It is what the Bible is about. And he created within the natural world natural nutrition. "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 (best), and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Isaiah 55:2. Fatness is abundance.

 When His people would not choose well, they hurt themselves. "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied you." (Psalm 81:16). "O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in Me is your help." (Hosea 13:9) "He makes peace in your borders and fills you with the finest of the wheat." (Psalm 147:14)

His people went astray, and he invited them back to Him using their health and beauty as an incentive: "And you were adorned with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered work. You ate fine flour and honey and oil; and you were exceedingly beautiful." Ezekiel 16:13.

If a loaf of bread says “Whole grain, Multi grain” it may also include bleached, white degermed flour for a longer shelf life. If the manufacturer has leeway to mark things deceptively, we should know. This Link clarifies the differences: https://www.naturespath.com/en-us/blog/difference-whole-grain-whole-wheat/.

Food eaten as naturally as possible enhances health: fruit, vegetables, nuts, natural olive oil, grassfed beef, milk, cheese, and honey. Exodus 3:17. Protein is there also, eaten at the feasts from sacrifices described in the Old Testament.

Food and Faith in our Creator. Could this be a key toward better health? My thinking process turned to logic: our Creator has given us food grown from the earth, whole grains, fruit, and herbs. Food mined (salt) from deep in the earth, protein from grazing animals, fish from the sea and lakes.

Now, as Eric, my husband and I read the Old and New Testaments every day, we notice food used as illustrations. It is literal and figurative: Jesus is “the bread of life.” Since the beginning, for thousands of years food grown, protein raised naturally, fish in lakes and oceans was provided from creation.

"He made him ride on the high places of the earth, so that he might eat the increase of the fields. And He made him suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter from cows, and milk from sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the sons of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat. And you drank the blood of the grape." Deuteronomy 32:13,14.  God and the Prophet Jeremiah interacting: “That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, so be it, O LORD.” Jeremiah 11:5.

The Bible includes important food as a way of teaching spiritual truth "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. Look for “milk and honey” in Scripture.

This is not spiritual teaching alone. It is a profound message from God to those who accept the literal and figurative message to us.

Take seriously the food the Bible continues to mention. This morphs into a deep understanding of our loving Creator’s care. "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. Literally and figuratively.

 

EATING BY FAITH

Take these specific words of Jesus literally and figuratively. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” The Bible is profoundly true on many levels. If we realize that food is mentioned throughout Scripture, recommended, commented on, given as the essence of God’s blessings to us, (“I have brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey,” Exodus 3:8) what does “eating by faith” mean?

Jesus said, “It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” To obey Scripture then is living by the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1:1-3. This is God, the Word, who created you, created the world, created the magnificent body you live in, and designed and created your spirit, soul, and body. All of you needs the Word. Not bread alone, not food alone, but you need every word of God.

When I decided to accept the challenge of our son, Zach, “Mom, write about health;” I knew major study would be involved, but the depth of change in both my views on food and profound excitement about food in the Bible has given me new purpose. If living by every word of God is about food, life, and eternity, as I now think it is, then eating by faith is an important pursuit. For myself, it is a new ambition: glorify God by living “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

After fasting forty days, Jesus was hungry. The enemy told Him to do something he could do but Jesus would not yield to the temptation.

In our current culture, food has become somewhat of a temptation because so much of it looks like food, tastes like food and is so easy to reach. With bleached, degermed flour, bleached sugar, corn syrup, chemicals, additives, “Natural Flavor” and devitalized, processed, bioengineered “food” we are regularly tempted to neglect the knowledge and wisdom to eat as we should.

Fast food is the new “unclean food.”  

 

The Temptation of Jesus

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 

Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. 

Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

YOUR LIFE and BREATH CAME FROM GOD THROUGH ADAM

As you breathe without a thought, most of the time, it is noteworthy to realize that that breath, came to you from the beginning. God breathed into Adam the breath of life and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7. From father and mother came life and breath with all the amazing abilities you have. Your body performs for you without your having to help. Well, you do help when you take diligent care of your body. Your body though does more for you than even the latest discoveries know.

No man has ever created life. What is life? What is consciousness? What is imagination and creativity? It is transcendent. These resources are given you at birth because you are created in the image of God … you, personally speak volumes about God. “For he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. Your life, you, the person is precious to God. It must be! “I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works and that my soul knows right well.” Psalm 139:14.

It is excitement in the highest degree when we begin to contemplate who God is, who I am, and how to grow in this knowledge and curiosity, if you will.

The Bible is more exciting than any work of a man. It is deep and broad. It is profound and simple. It is true and right. It is The Light and shows the way to eternal life after life on earth ends. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:9

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. Rom 10:9,10.

FOOD IN THE NEW AND OLD TESTAMENT

When our thirteen-year-old granddaughter mentioned her taste for octopus, my eyes widened. “Wait a minute, Lilly,” I warned, “The Old Testament food laws command that seafood should have fins and scales, otherwise it is unclean.” She showed disappointment. I had disapproved.

She is adventurous; part of her influences are her mother’s parents: one from India and one from Africa originally. So, our adorable granddaughter innocently taught me an important lesson.

What happened a few weeks later, “changed my religion;” my health nut tendencies had neared unchanging views. Only the Bible had an important broadening for me now. I was reading it one night and happened on New Testament verses about food that had eluded me. Here are the few I discovered that night. My favorite Version of the Bible is the King James, though my husband and I read others too.

The New Testament on Food Changed from the Old...

From the Law in Leviticus: “This shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall eat neither fat nor blood.” Lev.3:17. After the Flood, God told Noah and his family when they emerged from the Ark, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.” Genesis 9:3.

There is guidance in the New Testament: “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteems anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably.” Romans14:14. There is freedom in the Bible to develop a personal preference about food, worship, rest days and other convictions as you read Scripture. Consider the denominations and differences in understanding. That is exciting for me. I am amazed at how the Bible speaks through the Holy Spirit to every Believer in Jesus. Be careful about the belief of another Christian, “For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.” Romans 14:20. My grandfather forbad his family to play ball on Sunday, but my father allowed his eight children to play ball games on Sunday. “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.” 1 Corinthians10:23. “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2:16. Some make up non Biblical teachiing or deceive others about truth. “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.” 1 Timothy 4:4.

An endlessly exciting Book, the Bible, through the Holy Spirit will make you wise and strong and good and kind...if you let it.

[PapaJ's Blog] THE LIGHTED PATH

Lizzie here: The Blog posted here is by my husband, Eric. To his daughters in law and grandkids he is PapaJ). I was reading my email and came across this wisdom I had not yet seen:

The Lighted Path...by Permission:

Proverbs eleven shows that righteous people shall live through troublesome times, but the wicked will perish in them. Righteousness and wickedness start from within. It starts from how each of us deals with the sin nature that dwells within us. Yet for the righteous, what is rightly dealt with within will preserve him when the trouble comes, when the outward, uncontrollable, hurtful situation occurs. They must choose the right path.

Character and righteousness do not just happen, they are built up step by step on a daily basis. It is not an "unchangeable" part of our character - something like our body type that has been given to us at birth. If we haven't been working on it when we need it will not be there.

The righteous would have been doing good acts, gaining a reputation for it perhaps. Maybe the good acts condition them toward salvation. Right internal corrections result in the right outward responses during the time of trouble. It might be the righteous have developed righteous friends when the wicked have not (at least not the good type of friends).

By contrast what is internal to the wicked will have no worth for delivery to others, except to others who are like them. They have chosen to develop inwardly the opposite way. Proverbs 4:16, 17 says: "For they [the wicked] cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence".

Proverbs 4: speaks a lot of following the right path. The admonition is to keep on the right path. By contrast, the wrong path of the wicked leads to a downfall. To be doing wrong is to not be doing right. Everything that is not on the righteous path leads into the area of wickedness. When you do mischief, you are knowingly working against some God-established ways. And if it were not good enough to be there themselves, the wicked attempt to trip others on the path of righteousness.

Righteousness follows the path of light, whereas there is darkness everywhere on the path of the wicked. It is very important to keep on the lighted path.


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Posted By PapaJ to PapaJ's Blog at Aug 19, 2023, 4:52 PM 

MY BODY, A TEMPLE

When I was about five, I remember, I was lying on the bottom bunk bed, my older sister on the top. I was afraid, "Was I saved?" Dad and Mom were serious Bible readers, and they read it to us every day. We lived in a small, old house with an outside toilet. Five children were born then, of the eight who finally arrived. It was late at night, I crawled out of bed, went into the living room that doubled as my parents’ bedroom and into my father’s arms. I told him I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart. His arms around me, he led me in a simple prayer, and I went back to my bed.

It was then that the Holy Spirit entered my life and I also became the hallowed shrine of the Holy Spirit; "...for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." 2 Co.6:16.

To take that truth to heart and understand what happened and from then on grow with this holy privilege was only to happen over years.

Now, at eighty-one, the truth of it is still growing in me.

WE CAN EASILY LOSE OUR FOCUS

Last year, at eighty, my yearly physical exam was good. At eighty-one, this month, it still was. Why? I cannot take credit. If my health does continue to be good, for how long? You see, God holds our souls in life. But I have a part. I am still learning to take seriously this fact: my body belongs to God. I am a temple of the Holy Spirit because the Bible says that I am. It is because I belong to God by faith in Jesus.

How do I know? The evidence of my faith is that the Bible is guiding me. It works for the good of all who believe and take it by faith. But faith has substance: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen."Heb.11:1. “Does not even nature itself teach you…;” I Co.11:14. Where does life come from? Why does nature regenerate and grow? What is the mind, the soul and consciousness? What is gravity? How do you define these mysteries!

If I live or die this year, at eighty-one it is in the Hands of my Redeemer and Friend.

But I will continue to learn how to live, and eat, and exercise, and have faith, hope, and love.

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE!

 In Scripture, the people chosen by God to be His own, wandered away time after time, so much so that the sad accounts in the Old Testament arrest your conscience. Jesus said, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." Mark 12:30. 

Why does God demand so much of us? “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3; “...and ye shall not fear other gods...But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 2Ki 17:32-39.

A good answer is: He created us.

Jesus warned, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." Matthew 7:15.

Though lies and manufactured philosophies are “shouted from the housetops,” or the internet or the media: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." I John 4:1.

"Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him." Deuteronomy 13:4. This is why I read the Old Testament as well as the New.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3.

If my husband were flirtatious with other women, if he insulted or ignored me, I would say similarly, “No other woman before me.”” (For the LORD, thy God is a jealous God among you)” ...Deuteronomy 6:15. He deserves our awe because He has All Power in Heaven and in earth.

When God created everything as the Bible says, this means our intricate bodies, spirits, souls, minds and nature. If we know this, why would he share His Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent power with a "god" made with hands? Think about it. "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusts in them." Psalm 115:3-8.

It is our decision: I have chosen to serve the LORD.

WHY READ THE OLD TESTAMENT!

The importance of the Old Testament is confirmed every time we read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Eric and I, after our three sons grew up still read aloud together every day.

So, the Old and New Testaments stay fresh and relevant – reminding, inspiring, teaching and warning us. Sure, some chapters, even whole Books take faith to “read all of” – it is wondrous. “Why did God put this in His Word?” By now, though, it comes clearer.

The Old Testament also has power, knowledge you find nowhere else. It is written by an All wise Creator; the final Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 1:1-4.

 

In the Old Testament is Creation, Sin and Death, Prophecies of Jesus, The Ten Commandments, the hearts of mankind revealed. The problem of false prophets. There is profound Wisdom. There are heartfelt Prayers and Songs, Major and Minor Prophets who “spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Stories of good leaders and righteous kings and evil leaders and evil kings. In it is the true history of all mankind; within this documented history is the accurate age of the earth with the ages of men given from father to son; from Adam to Jesus. The genealogies are repeated in Matthew and Luke.

 

Amazing Truth (all that we need for a successful life) is at our fingertips: The whole Bible can be downloaded on our cell phones. I have five complete Bibles on my cell phone.

 

As my husband and I are doing – stay in the Word of God. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” I Peter 1:23.

 

In case you wonder I love the King James Version. Growing up with a dedicated father and mother who read the Bible with us, their eight children, after each meal for thirty minutes: they may not have had another version back then. By the time I was twenty, my life was powerfully informed by this habit.

WHERE TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED…THE CHURCH

 My husband, Eric and I have not signed onto a Church Denomination.  At the same time, we have gathered with Christians almost every week for all our marriage. The search for a true to Scripture gathering of Christians has taken us around.  

It has taught us a lot. As we attended weekly in several denominational Churches, as soon as we knew we could not support the theology, we began a weekly search all over again. But what is a Church? More specifically what is a true Church? How can we tell?

It is simply a gathering of people in the Name of Jesus, where the Scriptures are read and followed. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20. When we gather in Jesus’ Name it is powerful and life changing. It’s not that hard, because the LORD is interested in helping to enlighten us along this Way.

When the truth from the Bible is carefully and courageously adhered to you will know sooner or later. Sadly a “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) will come. Watch for it. Be aware. "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." 2 John 1:7.

The truth is obvious if you are reading the Bible every day, all of it. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man (human being) of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

Joash, (also called “Jehoash”) in the Old Testament left the Temple, the place God ordained to put His Name there.

Today it is not a certain place, but the Church, The Body of Christ, Christians who have the Holy Spirit. He indwells every one of us who are believers in Jesus, Son of God, Savior of the world. Jesus Himself said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John 12:32. (From the New Testament). In the Old Testament: "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13.

It is simple: The Body of Christ is the Church. We gather to uplift, encourage, strengthen and edify each other. Maybe a good reminder for being the Church: "How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying." I Corinthians 14:26.

 

WHEN KING JOASH LEFT THE HOUSE OF GOD

HERE IS THE WORD: DON’T LEAVE THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

Joash, seven-year-old son of King Ahaziah was crowned King of Israel because the wicked Queen Athaliah had killed all the descendants of the royal family.  “But Jehosheba, … sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.” "And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land." (The father of Joash, a wicked King, had been killed by Jehu.)

The powerful Priest Jehoiada, strengthened himself, had Athaliah killed and with the elders crowned seven-year-old Joash King.

Having a good beginning, he repaired the House of The LORD which had been broken up and brought the people back to their righteous heritage.

“Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. 

Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.”

We should pay attention to the end of this story of King Joash:

 

“And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. 

And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD. 

Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.”

 

God did require it. 

 

“And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus. 

For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash. 

And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchers of the kings.”

 

2Ki_11:2; 2Ch_22:12; 2 Ch.24:17-19; 2Ch 24:20-22; 2Ch 24:23-25  

 

LEARNING BY MISTAKES

 Through their twelve years of school, through high school, our three boys took homemade bread sandwiches for lunch every day. But the big slices, fat whole wheat sandwiches brought curiosity.  Every week I ground whole wheat in a Whisper Mill (most often Hard Red Wheat) turning it into fine flour, then into bread. Getting lunches ready quickly, I did not slice the loaves carefully. Every day the sandwiches were large and each one was different. Often, they were natural peanut butter and butter, and cut up vegetables, fruit and a granola bar.

A mistake was to make beef bologna sandwiches with mayonnaise. It was cheap. Back then, our budget constrained me to watch the food prices carefully. Though grinding wheat and baking bread was a priority, I had not yet learned to be careful with processed meat.

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.

I should have known that the preservatives in the meat were not good for health.

The Bible is a Guide to food simply by using certain food as illustration of God’s supply, created to nourish us. Look closely. Beginning with Adam and Eve God told them, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat..." Genesis 2:16.

Later, God 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 specifically specified on the night before the exodus. Then for forty years God sent manna every morning.

The Passover supper began when the Israelites were getting ready to leave Egypt where they had been slaves for four hundred years. The Passover Lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, on that fateful night, picturing a profound spiritual truth.

Now we know: The food for the Passover Feast was a figurative “picture” into the future: the perfect lamb slain pictured Jesus, God in human form, 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).

Traditionally food is 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: God is pleased when food is part of our worship to Him.

MODERN HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Two statements in Proverbs are noteworthy. The first: "A merry heart does good like a medicine..." (Proverbs 17:22). 

In Strong’s Concordance, the merry heart is glad, joyful. It is meant literally and figuratively. Good medicine and a glad and happy heart works in our favor.

The word "medicine" here refers to a cure. When God allows sickness and suffering, our first response can be, “Lord, please heal.” Medicine is affirmed. God heals with and without medicine.

The second inspiring thought: "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” (Psalm 103:2-5).

Healthy food and the right medicine can be healers.

HEALTH CHALENGES

Five years apart my husband and I discovered we had cancer; modern medicine saved our lives. The knowledge of the doctors and their expert care worked to bring us back to health. By the grace of God, their therapies (chemotherapy, radiation, and several surgeries for both of us) brought us through.

Eric, my husband, was ready to take off for a business trip to the West Coast. Before he retired, he worked for The Navy as a Logistics Manager. His trip from Florida to California was scheduled for a week of meetings. Our son, Zachariah and I discovered for the first time that he was bleeding heavily. It took both of us to persuade him to go to the Emergency Room instead of to the airport. It was Colon Cancer.

Life changed. Our future changed. After his radical colon resection surgery, while he was on chemotherapy, I drove him across Orlando from the west side to the east side of town every day to work. It was illegal for him to drive a car while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. I was writing Submission Is Not Silence, and the drive simply gave me a different place to think and write while I waited for him to call me from his office when his work was through for the day.

For Eric, the colon cancer changed his natural process by a resection. It is still a challenge but has given him years cancer free.

Five years later, a Primary Care Doctor’s Assistant discovered a mass in my left breast. It led to a biopsy.

Earlier that year I had seen a video of a Senior Woman’s Beauty Pageant taking place. I decided to try out for it. Was it vain? Was it an aside for what I was really interested in? As a Christian, could I be a good influence? Eric and I drove toward the first try out and my doctor’s office called my cell phone. The Physician herself was on the line. My biopsy had shown a cancerous mass. I should come to the doctor’s office at once. Eric and I drove to the next Exit on the Interstate Expressway and turned around. We drove straight to the doctor’s office where the process for removing cancer began.

A breast cancer diagnosis meant surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, a second surgery and therapy by a lymphedema specialist.

God was with us those years! The doctors, the assistants, surgeons, therapists: we entered a world that would never have been known to us. My breast cancer needed lymph nodes removed, which left me with lymphedema, a swelling from the shoulder to my hand. A therapist told me, “Take your wedding rings off or they will have to be cut off.” I did. The therapist God supplied is still watching over my tendency to swell on the left side. She is a teacher, a patient teacher. I had a tough time accepting the new reality. Now, though, with again, God’s leading, my care is in place, compression sleeves in the daytime, a Reed Sleeve sinched tight at night. “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 is amazingly true and real.

NUTRITION IN THE MEDICAL WORLD

How do you assess a world you are not a part of! I know what I am pursuing: that is insight and wisdom discovered in the Bible on nutrition and health.

I will say that doctors and medicine have kept us alive. We still have opportunity to gain experience in understanding and in strength.

I have friends who have suffered strokes, and depression. What to do? Pray, read Scripture with a prayer for wisdom and leading. For Job in the Old Testament and The Apostle Paul in the New, it was uniquely personal. How they were tried through extreme hardship and affirmed by God is a testimony to us. Look and listen. Read things that will encourage you in Scripture. "A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones." (Proverbs 17:22).

Health, life, and breath…began with Adam. I believe that the years of good nutrition, the strength training and exercise strengthened us for the battle each of us had with cancer. Eric began jogging at thirty, soon after we married. He rose before daylight and followed Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s book, “Aerobics” by jogging before driving to work. I joined him soon after. In our fifties we did strength training in addition to the jogging: lifting weights and stretching. Acting on Scripture as we went through “the valley of the shadow of death” and appearing on the other side was a day at a time. Our future, like yours, is in God’s hands. All of us have this dependence on God: what will He allow? Life can get hard. Remember, the apostle, Paul wrote, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2Co_12:10). At the same time, are we doing our best to live a disciplined life based on wisdom! Our faith in Psalm 103 can give comfort.

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." (Psalm 103:2-5). 

Look for the Light. He is the Light of the World. He knows and cares and loves you and will lead you as you continue learning to listen to Him and watch for His clues and cues. Then act on them. 

FOOD BY FAITH

 

Instruction for Health and Nutrition is all through the Bible.

There is good news. 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, devitalized, bleached and degermed grains and a listed “ingredient” called “natural flavor”? (So called “natural flavor” is a lie). 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, too high, too broad, and too deep. At the same time, the worthiness and fascination of it calls me. It has for a lifetime. It is a “Way” which is hopeful because the Bible is correct in every respect. Spiritual food and physical food have similarities: one is for the spirit and soul, the other for the body. God promised over and over to bring His people into a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is an example of abundant spiritual and physical nourishment. When Scripture highlights food it can apply to our whole person: “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). One type of food (spiritual) teaches about the other type (physical), but also the other way around.

From the first day I was born, and every day thereafter, my father and mother with their family of eight children read the Bible aloud together every day. Seven siblings and I learned to read this way. It influenced me, and 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). Physical bread and spiritual bread are a highlight in Scripture, in both the Old Testament and the New.

The Bible has vital information about food and health sprinkled all the way through and in surprising places. We can go to it with certainty. Here is dependable wisdom and knowledge because our Creator wrote it all for us. It is the “bottom line” in nutritional wisdom. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  (2 Peter 1:21).

The more you learn about nutritious food, its 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. Alternate with your simple homemade Granola. 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).

OIL IN TODAY'S DIET ARE OFTEN PROBLEMATIC...GO FOR OLIVE OIL

 

OILS THAT CAUSE HARM

Ava Rockwell, founder of the School of Holistic Medicine, commented that any mixed vegetable oils or straight vegetable oils, such as corn, canola, or soybean, are terrible for you. 

“They cause awful inflammation and are implicated by a famous, now-retired heart surgeon who has 1,000 bypasses under his belt. He claims that sugar and refined vegetable oils are the real cause of heart disease,” she said. “They damage the arterial walls, leading to injury, causing the body to create layers of deposits to repair the damage.” Ava Rockwell - Certified Holistic Health Professional - Self-employed | LinkedIn

Fast-Food Fans May Face Liver Damage

Written by Megan Brooks

Jan. 13, 2023 – A new study that shows the harm to the liver of eating fast food might provide people with motivation to eat less of it in the new year.

https://www.webmd.com/

Partly hydrogenated oil

Partly hydrogenated oil is often part of processed foods and is the principal source of dangerous trans fats in a person’s diet, crediting the American Heart Association (AHA). 

“These synthetic trans fats are made in an industrial procedure that involves adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to solidify them.

Trans fats raise your LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol levels and lower your HDL (or “good”) levels and increase your risk of developing heart disease and stroke, per the AHA.

 

TRANS FATS

"Artificial trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid."

"The primary dietary source for trans fats in processed food is partially hydrogenated oils. Look for them on the ingredient list on food packages. In November 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils are no longer Generally Recognized as Safe.

“Trans fats are easy to use, inexpensive to produce and last a long time. Trans fats give foods a desirable taste and texture. Often restaurants and fast-food outlets use trans fats to deep-fry foods because oils with trans fats can be used many times in commercial fryers. Several countries (e.g., Denmark, Switzerland, and Canada) and jurisdictions (California, New York City, Baltimore, and Montgomery County, MD) have reduced or restricted the use of trans fats in food service establishments.”

https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/fats/trans-fat

According to LIVESTRONG.COM

Hydrogenated oil, more specifically partially hydrogenated oil, contains a type of man-made fat, called trans-fat, which increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Although once "generally recognized as safe," the FDA has declared that after January 1, 2020, no food manufacturers are allowed to add partially hydrogenated oils to their foods. https://www.livestrong.com/

FREEDOM AND GOOD DECISIONS

Food is a source for thinking about God. We go to Him, “Give us this day our daily bread…”

Jesus "took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.’" Luke 22:19.

Scripture does not guarantee perfect health just because we find our resource for food in the Bible. However, it is the ultimate truth. "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." Proverbs 30:5. Food is important in the Bible, closest to leading the way to good health.

The Old Testament dietary law is clear. Leviticus 7-11 is one description of the laws about food. There is a different focus in the New Testament.

"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come...And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you..." Luke 10:1,8

Later Peter had a vision in Acts ten: "And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spoke to him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call not thou common." Acts 10:13-15. Peter was sent to Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. 

The vision demonstrated God including every person through salvation in Jesus. When Peter went on the mission to tell them about Jesus, he would be in their environment. He would be fed by a Roman Centurion’s hospitality.

The Book of Romans comments on these differences in people, "Him that is weak in the faith receive, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believes that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eats herbs. Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; and let not him which eats not judge him that eats: for God has received him." Romans 14:1-3

When I am in the home of a friend who serves pork, I eat it. But personally, I stay away from pork, (swine have one digestive tract. Pigs will eat you if you “are disabled” in their pen; this was told me by a farmer who raised them.) Crab, lobster, and other bottom feeders seem risky, so I think of them as reason to understand why God would forbid eating them in the Old Testament. When we visit the State of Maine, where my father and grandfather ran a Bible Conference in York Beach, Eric, my husband, urges me as we visit a restaurant located by the ocean, “You like lobster. Go ahead, get it.” I do.

WHO IS WATCHING?

After the serious bicycle accident in December of my seventy-ninth year, I was in the hospital, finding from the doctor’s consultation that I had two pelvis fractures and one fracture in the clavicle. “You will be off your feet for at least three months,” the doctor said. “Don’t go gaining twenty pounds.” I confidently assured him that I would not. But off my feet, in a wheelchair for several weeks and off the bike, I didn’t weigh for months. An awful reality stared me in the face when I finally stepped on the scales: I was up eight pounds.

Who is watching? I think in my head, “Are angels watching me?”

Whenever I think I’ll take a second big tablespoon of peanut butter on my celery stick (and what is a big tablespoon? It is a “mountain”, all you can fit on the top of a tablespoon); or, if I’m thinking about another “tablespoon” of ice cream, (you know… heaping).

At night (always thinking I’m hungry going to bed,) I put everything necessary into the refrigerator and there right in front of me is a slice of Muenster cheese in the container. “Don’t,” says my mind. Discipline yourself! It is hard to lose weight.

"For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee..." Luke 4:10. What does that mean? For sure I disappoint myself, but are angels watching? "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Psalm 91:11.

Accepting discipline for our lives, treating our bodies as a “temple of the Holy Spirit” is a “battle” in our head; sometimes overwhelming. But the Holy Spirit, who lives in this Temple which is our body is the Power behind this move, so we can be “ready.”  "What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 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. I’m down three pounds so far…and back on the bicycle.

A TEMPLE: IS IT REALLY!

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” I Corinthians 6:19,20.

In actuality the longer I live, the more grateful that God enabled my husband, Eric and me to overcome cancer. We had been exercising intensely for years and had been eating carefully. What causes these scary, life-threatening diseases…

Some are understood well enough. Some are total mysteries still.

What do we do about both? It might be that for all of them, what we can do is eat well, drink enough water and exercise. Yes, we, most of us know what to do.

I find that the hardest part, (though some powerful foods like the benefits of whole grains are not well known) is to follow the wisdom we know.

But the whole pursuit of healthy food can become an interesting challenge. Remembering to think on it! Go to the Bible for plenty of recommendations (you can remedy the “unknowns” by beginning to read it with food in mind).

Instead of running to McDonalds for a burger and fries for lunch, we eat an apple, a tangerine, peeled carrots and celery with natural peanut butter or something like it.

Getting on track and in the habit, it happens when the grocery list is written, the grocery store is shopped and the food stored in good containers in the refrigerator.

The older you get (by the grace of God) the more grateful you will be…the earlier in life you start the happier.

FOOD BY FAITH...NUTRITION IN THE BIBLE

 

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, devitalized, bleached grains 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, too high, too broad, and too deep. At the same time, the worthiness and fascination of it calls me. It has been for a lifelong but more so lately. I believe this is a “Way” because the Bible is correct in every respect. It is 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), but also the other way around.

The Bible has profoundly influenced my life because from the first day I was born, and every day thereafter, my father and mother with their family of eight children read the Bible aloud together every day. Seven siblings and I learned to read this way. It influenced me, and 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. Here is dependable wisdom and knowledge because our Creator wrote it all. It is the “bottom line” in nutritional wisdom. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  (2 Peter 1:21).

The more you learn about nutritious food, its 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. Alternate with your simple homemade Granola. 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. Whole wheat blonde brownies with whip cream are good. All the desserts have one or more: whole wheat flour, butter, olive oil, honey, 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.