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.