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.

STRENGTH TRAINING and STRETCHING

 If a gym is not possible, stretching and weight training at home is also good. 

Eric and I learned the benefits of strength training from the book, “Body for Life,” by Bill Phillips. Early in the morning, before we thought about a gym membership, we began weight training at home.

For years we had jogged, (learning the process from Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s book, Aerobics). Now we learned that upper and lower muscle strength was important.

We began in our late forties. Our three sons were now in their twenties. Joshua was an Engineer at Lockheed Martin; Josiah was an Air Warfare Systems Operator on a P3 airplane. Zach was finishing Junior College, working, and living with Josh. My husband and I began to realize the importance of building our physical bodies with weight training. We began at home then bought a gym membership at the YMCA. And began traveling thirteen miles three times a week to the gym, again early in the morning.

A STEP AT A TIME

A privately owned gym moved near us. I began to attend the aerobics classes…and really liked the music and dance moves that motivated the class. For months I made it to the class, then worked toward becoming a Trainer. After months of getting my courage up, I began instructing a class in the same gym. The weights were two pounds in the beginning. By the time I stopped teaching, I was lifting ten pounds, which is still my habit. I was in my forties. Now at eighty, I am lifting ten pounds, running in place 200 steps, bicycle riding and doing exercises on the floor.

FOOD IS MENTIONED THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE

 A surprise waited for me when I began to research food mentioned in the Bible. It was a stunning revelation that when food is mentioned, it often gives instruction about your spirit and soul in a figurative sense. The assumption when food is part of a passage in Scripture, it is that this is good for your body. It is healthful. "Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." (Psalm 103:5). The wisdom is high, wide, and broad: learn about what is best for your body and the wisdom goes further to your spirit and soul.

 

"For the word of God is quick (to live), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing (to penetrate) 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 4:12,13).

 

God has written to us what the essence of health can be in the pages of the Bible! Though the nudge to health is here, God has the final “say” about you and your life and health and future…even how long you live!

Here is the Way to eternal life, through Jesus. It is a package deal: the Bible gives the way to success for your whole life here and now. Begin with The Ten Commandments. Continuing, Scripture shows the way to contentment, peace, joy. Why would Scripture not also show us the best Plan for health! Food that is health building is figurative and the real thing: real food.  “Ho, every one that thirsts, come ye to the waters, and he that has no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live…” Isaiah 55:1-3.

We must choose our way every day. A Christian, a believer who has eternal life lives a potentially fulfilling, useful life, but it is not possible to do it alone. We need the wisdom and Presence of the Holy Spirit guiding us. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things..." Jesus. (John 14:26).

"Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths (level, direct) for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." (Hebrews 12:12,13).