VALUE MORE THAN FOOD

If we just knew. Job knew.

“I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food."  It is about God’s wisdom and  discernment, which in the end is the most secure, safe, and satisfying thing on earth.

Food highlighted in Scripture does not give Protein, Vitamin and Mineral value. We can be sure of its potency because it is figurative wisdom right in the context of the passages: The Holy Spirit includes certain food like milk and honey because of its value for our health.

Job wrote that the value of spiritual food, God’s wisdom, was his highest priority. God’s wisdom leads to everything else in our lives that is the best for us. Food throughout Scripture is often figurative examples of spiritual truth. It is up to us to meditate on the meaning. “I have brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey” is memorable. It is encouraging because of its truth.

This example: “And wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart.” Psalm 104:15. Who does not want to be glad, have joy and a face that shines? A strong heart means the rest of you benefits from its power.

 "But he knows the way that I take: when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." Job 23:10-12. 

Reading the Bible “the words of His mouth” every day, and obeying it, is like “walking with God:” your guarantee for a successful life. A good diet alone may not contribute to a successful 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.

 

YOUR CENTER

A temple is the center of everything. A Holy place. The place where God desires to dwell. When you know Jesus, your center, your spirit, soul, and body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Feed your whole self. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:35. As sure as a loaf of whole grain bread is food, so is the “bread of life” that came down from Heaven. This truth is available to you in Scripture. "For the word of God is quick (to live literally or figuratively), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit (heart, life, mind, soul), and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12. Even the soul and spirit are divided asunder by the power of the Word of God.

Naturalists cannot understand this. What is life? What is the mind? They are at a loss to comprehend your soul and spirit. What is the soul? What is the spirit? What is creativity? Imagination?

God created you: He understands you because He made you. His provision to feed your spirit, soul and body is all provided. Start with the Bible.

Food is within the stories, Psalms, and doctrine throughout Scripture. Look for many, varied foods as you read every day…look for literal food and figurative food. “And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.” Psalm 104:15. You know, bread with the bran, endosperm, and germ! Unbleached. No chemical additives. Good ingredients added to wholesome bread: yeast, honey or natural maple syrup, salt, and water.

Whole grain

A whole grain is a grain of any cereal and pseudocereal that contains the endosperm, germ, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. As part of a general healthy diet, consumption of whole grains is associated with lower risk of several diseases. Wikipedia

YOUR BODY: A TEMPLE

 Learning about health in the Bible is exciting and very, very rewarding because it is about you, about now. About the future. The intricacies of your amazing body are brought into the spiritual realm: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.”

It is more than about you and me; caring for our bodies has to do with pleasing the LORD,

When you are in charge of your personal temple (and if you are a Christian) it is the temple of God, then eating, exercise, personal interactions with others, even your thoughts, and good deeds (like serving others) are all part of treating your temple with care and love and knowledge.

How much can you and I know about caring for our health? Not much: the more chemists study the tiny cell the more intricacies the cell reveals. So how can we be knowledgeable to know how to care for this personal temple, which is you and me? 

Look for food mentioned in Scripture.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

Today there are scientists who claim they are near creating life: they are not. According to Dr. James Tour, (American synthetic organic chemist, jmtour.com) we will never come near to creating life in our lifetime. The more scientists know the more they realize they do not know.

But we, as created in His own image, are privileged to be the most powerful and hopeful creation of God.

Taking care of this “Spirit, Soul and Body” is more than a responsibility, it is a calling. Where are the answers? Everything you need to know can start in the Bible. From there, go, research where He leads. The Holy Spirit of God will guide you: "…when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will shew you things to come." John 16:13.

THE FOURTH CHANGE...GIVEN BY GOD

 The fourth change was when Jesus came to earth as a man, the Son of God. Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Matthew 5:17. God's plan to include Gentiles with the Jews into His plan of Salvation came in Acts ten when "Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 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 unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven." Acts 10:9-16. Some think one way and some another about the correlation of this trance with the freedom God gives with food today. What do you think? 

"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 14:3, 4. 

We have freedom today. What we eat can be guided by wisdom, and if the Bible is the bottom line, your understanding will grow, but you will never have to eat according to the current fad. Realize that a food threat is around today: harmful chemical additives, processed food, highly processed seed oils, deceitful “Natural Flavor” and bioengineered additives. We are free but neglecting what is whole and good for us will eventually hurt us.

  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8,9.  Eating well has nothing to do with our Salvation: eternal life is a gift by the grace of God and grace alone.

 

FOOD ERAS IN THE BIBLE

There are four food eras in Scripture. They began with the creation of mankind. God said to Adam and Eve, “…God blessed them...Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Genesis 1:28,29.were  

It must be important…food instruction changed right after Noah and the global flood.

Our interest in the importance of what we eat will increase when we understand what was created for our health and wellbeing. Look closely: it also has a deeper spiritual lesson. Look for a figurative meaning to the food mentioned in the Bible.

Within the health qualities of the food are profound messages: Jesus said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:51. Bread made from grain grown by God from creation is for our health and vibrancy. Look closely, "And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart." Psalm 104:15.

1.    Vegetarian

2.    After the Global Flood

3.    The Law of Moses

4.    When Jesus Came

FOUR FOOD CHANGES IN THE BIBLE

Four times in Scripture, food instruction is changed by God Himself.

It is simple but important...

In the beginning God said to Adam and Eve, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Genesis 1:29. 

Then a change in dietary requirements was given to Noah after the global flood. When Noah and his wife and family emerged from the Ark after the flood, God told them, "Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have, I given you all things." Genesis 9:3.

Later God gave the third dietary instruction to Moses. They were Laws for the Children of Israel. In it was strict “clean and unclean” food laws. This had me intrigued as I grew up. 

My father was the first influence I had of a strict food diet as my five brothers, two sisters and I grew up. It would have been in the fifties and sixties and on. He pleaded with my mother to buy real butter, not margarine, and to buy only whole grain bread. He called soft, degermed, bleached white bread “Allenpuff”…sitting on a loaf to demonstrate how flat it would become, how much air it had.

He was an athlete all through Wheaton College, going into each new season eating at the “training table” as he described it. I became (though he never knew) his follower in health and healthy food habits.

Years later Eric and I took our young twelve-year-old Granddaughter to a restaurant. She ordered Octopus for dinner. I was disturbed. I had not yet realized the freedom in the fourth food designation in the New Testament. Octopus was part of the “unclean food” dietary law under Moses. After realizing I was wrong, we again took Lilly, (now fifteen) out for dinner. She ordered her octopus surprise and gave me a taste … which I accepted.

LITERAL AND PHYSICAL FOOD...

SOMETIMES LITERALLY AND SOMETIMES FIGURATIVELY:

FOOD IS MENTIONED THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE

THE FOOD CREATED FOR OUR WELLBEING

 

FEBRUARY 7, 2023 reposted

A surprise waited for me when I began to research food mentioned in the Bible. When oil, wine, and honey, for example, is mentioned, it is often giving instruction about your spirit and soul (in a figurative sense); taking for granted we would be wise enough to know this is good for our 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 dependable: high, wide, and broad. You will learn what is best for your body. But in addition, it is profound insight for 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 instruction for health is here, God has the final “say” about our lives and health and future…even how long our lives will be.

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. Why would Scripture not show us the best Plan for health! Food that is physically health building is also figurative.  “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 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 without Scripture. 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..." spoken by 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). 

BEING FAITHFUL

Sticking to it! The worthwhile habits. The productive disciplines of exercise, art, singing, blogging, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are worthwhile habits. Are they a faithful discipline? None of the above are anything more than what came to me as I grew up and later tried to improve.

My father was an Evangelist. An Evangelist, according to the Bible, is a person especially gifted by God to “preach the gospel” of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was “called” to be an Apostle. He wrote, “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; …By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain…how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” I Corinthians 15:1-4. 

 

The Apostle traveled extensively preaching the Gospel. This same message was my father’s. So, singing for me started when he and my musically accomplished mother started their eight children singing together on the platform at their Bible Conference in Maine. This was also my father’s time to perfect his evangelistic message of the gospel.

 

So, because our young singing family needed an alto, I became that fill in.

Every story is a long one, but my father and mother had a burden. Encourage families to read the Bible together every day together aloud.

 

The growing family, now ten of us, (how this began is an amazing story) started traveling, singing hymns together, with my mother on the piano and the rest of us chiming in with tenor, melody, alto and bass. The number of churches in the US and Canada we traveled to will always be an unknown. There were clubs, schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries in addition to Churches of any denomination that would receive us. My father being his own advance man.

 

My desire to sing and speak, to help my parents and siblings “preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ” developed as I grew. The art and writing came as I later cared for my husband and three sons. When I married Eric, his career took off when the Navy hired him as a Logistics Manager for simulated warfare. I had hours at home to study and write while our children were in school: I studied the Bible. When did the art develop? All I know is that I enjoyed it, and I could. How does faithfulness grow? It is a personal matter. It is between God and you. Are your gifts from God? Every gift is from above. “Every good gift and every perfect gift are from above, and come down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17.

 

What is a perfect gift? It may be the best you can do with what God has given you in your head, heart, and imagination. Being conscious of where it came from…from above. 

EXERCISE IS NOT A WASTE OF TIME

 Yes, our bodies are wonderfully created, but…HOW MUCH WORK DOES IT TAKE…to maintain your wonderfully made body? "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.

The more that we discover today about a human body’s makeup (according to biologists), the more we do not know. How to create life? Unknown. Where is the mind? Inspiration? Creativity? Where does the breath in our lungs come from? Unknown. The soul? Do we have one? "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7. Your breath and your soul come from God. I have a soul…and a mind and a fearfully and wonderfully created Spirit, and Body:  "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.

We have wonderfully made bodies. We sometimes take them for granted. At the age of eighty-one I am finding that exercise is not a waste of time. In a previous Blog I described in brief a lower abdomen pain that slowly developed until I realized something was very wrong.

It has turned out that after a bicycle accident about two years ago, slowly I realized that I “dropped the ball.” and took the demanding work of past exercise (biking, aerobics, walking) as guarantee for a lifetime of freedom from pain. Not so.

Feeling lost (after two CT Scans and many other tests,) the pain was still a mystery. Prayer, study of Scripture and faith in God’s goodness to answer my prayer, began to emerge. When a friend, who knew my pain, came across a video about exercise for “Lower Pelvic Prolapse” the symptoms were mine. I began immediately to follow the instructions for strengthening my core and lower abdomen. So instead of worsening pain, my body began to strengthen. Exercise is not a waste of time. Given the right conditions often the body heals itself Exercise strengthens weak muscles.

Now, with a couple of weeks of core strengthening, the pain is beginning to fade. My job? Keep it up for the rest of my life: God enabling me.

It’s hard to begin exercise (again). What is dreary and dreaded at first will become exciting when the results, the healing starts. I will report back as this journey progresses.

Keep going…just do it.

PRAYING AND REACHING GOD

“Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.” (Selah: Stop and think about that). Whatever is going on with you: pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father.

Lately a painful development in my abdomen has been waking me early in the morning. I must get up, because sleep is impossible. After a visit to the Emergency Room, after CT scans, many Ultrasounds, and other tests, I am thankful that no serious, life-threatening results have come back. But pain is a lonely experience. So, I pray. It’s before daylight and I am learning to discern the cause…it is coming, I believe.

This experience has done something refining and good. I know more clearly what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote: 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 “…there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Can I, a “Health Nut” and believer in the health recommendations in Scripture glory in this? Well, I can pray for that kind of a heart!

What pain also does is humble you! Pain might make you and me more conscious of the sadness and pain of others. Compassion for others is a gift from God.

So, to pray in a way that God hears pray according to His will. How do you know what it is. Scripture, in one way or another will teach you. Here are prayers from the Bible that are powerful encouragements and have given me hope.

This prayer is repeated three times and will give you hope!

Psalm 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

Psalm 42:11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Remember to give God His due of Praise.

Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Matthew 6:9-13 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Psalm 20 The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion; Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. Grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfil all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set upset up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions. Now know I that the LORD saves his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. They are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright. Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call. 

Psalm 4 A Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. 

O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. 

But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him. 

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. 

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the LORD. 

There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. 

Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. 

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makes me dwell in safety.

Here is a powerful secret: the Word of God changes you. 

1Timothy 4:15,16 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. 

Begin and end your day this way…and every time in-between when you have a minute.

 

YOU CAN RESPECT HIM

Every man has gifts because he is in God’s image. Abilities, giftedness is there; you can trust that it is.

 

My husband, Eric, worked as an electrician's helper when we first married; the pay was minimum wage and we lived on it about four years in a rented mobile home; our first two sons were born in those years. Work he did not know existed came to him just after our third son was born. Eric had a natural bent toward organization and Logistics. His education at Boston University in secondary science, work as a Radioman on the U.S.S. Ponchatoula and now his interest in electricity all qualified him for a career in the Navy.

 

If it takes time for interests and gifts to come out, listen carefully to your husband day after day. Watch him with fresh hope and vision. Look deeper than the surface you will discover his strengths, his gifts. He will be very encouraged if he suspects you are seeing him this way. Passion will rise again; fascinating layers to his personality he may not even know are there.

 

Beyond his encouraged persona, you have hope, too. When you met and agreed to marry him, you saw something important and worthy of love and respect. With years of marriage, with the disappointments, you may have forgotten all the reasons. But no matter what he has or has not accomplished yet you can begin again to believe because he is created in the image of God.

 

Look and listen. Focus. A spark, an interest he demonstrates. Being closest to him, you may begin to recognize it! His uniqueness needs pride from you. Your power is because you are created in the image of God!  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:27. 

 

For the minute, forget the past, forget the attitude of anyone else and think just of yourself, him, and God! Once you “see” with spiritual eyes and you decide to encourage what you see in your husband, you may just make the difference in his future . . . and in yours . . . in the future of your world.

With fifty years together, the solidarity, the agreement and love, Eric and I share covers even how we disagree. It has come from the Bible. 

"CALL UNTO ME"

In Scripture, there is an invitation to call on our Creator. The All Powerful One is there. We have needed Him in crises recently.

On the way out the door with instruments, music stands and time drawing near, we had to change the plan. My husband, Eric, our son Zach, and I have been ministering with Hymns and Bible verses at an assisted living home going on four years. Each month, we never knew what to expect: sometimes seventeen residents came. One month just one showed up, but she was confident enough to allow us to sing and read and quote the Bible just to her for an hour. Lately more have come.

Last month as we packed the car with what we would need, Eric had a pain in his chest, and a feeling of increasing weakness. It was time to show up for the Julin Family Hymns, but instead we talked him into going to the ER. It was the Sunday before Easter.

On the day before Easter, an intense pain (that had been increasing for months) took me to the ER. The Emergency Room is not where you ever want to be.

A CT scan, Ultrasound tests showed that I am healthy.

Eric’s tests for his heart also revealed nothing. Looking ahead, all we know is this:

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jeremiah 33:3.

What is going on? God knows. Our Creator is also our Redeemer.

“I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes, our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”

Psalm 116:1-9.

WHEN YOU FEEL BAD, DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEBODY ELSE

How vulnerable should I be! With our kids grown and married with children, work, admirable callings, I came home from Church this Sunday. Everything was all right at first: I made a late breakfast for Eric and myself, cleaned up and took a nap on the couch.

Suddenly I woke, my mouth open, my nap over and I felt bad, useless, a critical attitude toward the world flooded my mind. I felt afraid of the future, afraid of my own feeling of inadequacy.

I felt attacked.

As I lay there awhile, I decided to pick up the iPhone and look up Animal Control, to find the way to reporting a Pit Bull dog that had bitten both my husband and me. A nice couple, who have no children love this dog, as the owner told me, “We love her like our child.” But the website required personal information I would wait to give only if necessary. Instead, I will likely write a hardcopy letter.

I got up from my nap, looked at the Calendar and saw that next Sunday is both Daylight Savings and our children’s anniversary.

So, a pencil and chalk drawing for their card happened in the next hour or two. Thanks to my electronically savvy husband, Eric, the card should be ready to mail in the next couple of days.

I feel better now. I am useful. I love my husband of almost fifty-one years, our children…all of them: our three sons, three daughters in law and grandchildren. I am blessed. I have useful things to do…one attitude is to get once again interested in cooking healthy, good tasting, attractive food. "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world..." Philippians 2:14,15 

LORD, let me be a light.

  

IF ONLY WE COULD TRUST THE FREELY AVAILABLE FOOD

IF ONLY WE COULD TRUST

THE FREELY AVAILABLE FOOD

Eat in a restaurant, what is the bread, salad dressing, sauce, pasta, dessert made with! You will rarely find a healthy baked, fried food, salad dressing that is good for your health. Rarely…almost nowhere! This is where we as health minded consumers can have a say: speak out. Avoid it. Find healthy food.

Too often our American culture … which influences the world … is not concerned with taking responsibility for feeding people for wellness. They are “fast foodies” and looking for long shelf life and money, a lot of quick money: packaged, frozen microwaveable, fast food restaurants, canned soup companies with bioengineered ingredients, the cold cereal shelves in the grocery stores, bakeries that sell the cheapest, devitalized ingredients, corn syrup, even mixed with maple syrup. Natural Flavor is not natural. Check all of these online: many deviant “foods” will come to the light. What we are buying is hurting us, our loved ones, our friends…our husbands, wives, and children!

In early times, God spelled out in Scripture in the Law “unclean food.” Fish should only be eaten if they had fins and scales…of animals: "Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you." Deuteronomy 14:7

But in the New Testament, God turned it around. There is literal and figurative truth to consider.

Speculate why the food laws changed in the Bible: it may be because of the ability to store or clean or manage smartly. The Law of Moses speaks of this. The Bible changes from vegetarian before Noah’s flood to this: “Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have, I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Genesis 9:3,4

 

The vital subject of food: What we have before us today is the challenge of taking diligent care of ourselves smartly: “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 Thes.5:23.

 

You know the passage: “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?” I Co. 6;19

 

My interest is in knowing how to prioritize health and put it in its proper place. No, food is not our god. No, not making a focus on myself. But being wise!

 

https://smartanswers.net is a site to consider. When you compare its recommendations with the Bible and your common sense you will be interested as I am.

Best Olive Oil & Vinegar Collection - Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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FINDING REAL FOOD

In grocery stores and restaurants, it is almost impossible to order bread that is whole grain, made with good oil, such as pure olive oil or butter. Just simple whole grain bread: in Ezekiel 16:13; "thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful...", made whole with the bran, endosperm and germ, good oil, and pure honey. No bleaching or chemicals added.

Canola Oil

There is some scientific evidence that canola oil is bad for your health because an increased intake of canola oil is linked to inflammation, heart disease, impaired memory function, and stroke.”  

Source: Canola Oil Dangers: Why It’s Bad for You According to Scientific Evidence (healthyandnaturalworld.com)

Check this.

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Process for Oil: Bleaching and Deodorizing  

Some of these oils would be high in vitamin E and phenols, if not for the refining process itself. Alas…

“Most seed oils go through the refining process, which includes bleaching and deodorizing,” Zumpano explains. “This helps with the taste, color and shelf life, but it also removes the oils’ antioxidants.”

The result is oils with no real health benefits and more than a few health risks.

Unhealthy Oils

Seed oils are not necessarily good for you. But the real reason they are considered so bad for you is how they are most often used.

“Most seed oils are being utilized in the form of processed packaged foods, fast foods and eating out, and even foods that.

are considered minimally processed but are still packaged,” Zumpano reiterates. And that is where the danger is.

WHAT TO DO

When we go to the grocery store, I buy fresh Vegetables, fresh Fruit, frozen Fruit with no additives, pure Butter, organic Olive Oil, whole grassfed Milk, organic Half and Half, organic whipping Cream, whole Yogurt, Whole Grain flour, pure Honey, pure Maple Syrup, Raw Sugar and good Meat and cheese. You can possibly avoid lab grown “meat” by looking for meat with the bone. Reading labels will soon give you the experience to avoid Natural Flavor (which is not natural) and other chemicals.

One of the priorities in my profoundly serious attempt to “guide the house” is food…this “job” being extremely rewarding.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU DOUBT

When my older sister died this month, after a very long goodbye, my heart was preoccupied with her, and with her son and daughter in law who cared for her in their home. And her husband of only two years, was there, too. All of us in her family were somehow involved, watching, praying, grieving.

Why did God allow this hard and painful end to the life of my sister. She had lived a long and useful life of love and hospitality, caring for everybody in sight. Of course, she was eighty-six!

As God would have it, during this sad time, my husband and I are reading in the Book of Job. You know him! He was accosted by our archenemy, Satan: and God allowed it. We are in this amazing Book during our regular reading through the Bible. When you doubt, when you fear, where do you go? Go to God. Go to the Bible. Reassurance and hope will be there waiting for you. Psalms is one good place for comfort.

 "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." Psalm 42:5

 "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Psalm 42:11

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Psalm 43:5

"Thus, saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." Isaiah 48:17

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14. Jesus was speaking to you and me. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me." John 12:32

"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5. Stay close!

 

 

GUARDING HOUR HOUSE

If ever there was a time to be vigilant it is today: the influence on our household is from many sources. Watch for those aggressively promoting a godless agenda. We can discern between good and evil! We can be wise and courageous. Deceit is potentially inside your home through internet, the media, through television, YouTube, and radio. Wisdom by staying close to God through the Bible will give you courage to guard your home.

It might mean teaching a child a truth that is in your heart, and in Scripture. It might mean turning the YouTube off. It might mean warning, but always in a spirit of humility. “I love you. That video, (music, movie, show) is wrong to put into your head and heart, because…”

"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously, and without reproach and it will be given him." James 1:5. Liberal wisdom is what God is pouring out from Scripture. This is first, then go to a trusted relative and friend. But even they are not your final source: God through the Holy Spirit will guide you. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth..." John 16:13.  We can be watching out for those near and dear…husband, children, friends. A guide of the house is to “rule a family” … you can wisely guide and guard your house. “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house…” 1Timothy 5:14.

What is the threat, anyway? "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. So, for the sake of your future, for the love of those you care for, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves..." Matthew 10:16.

MY UNUSUAL UPBRINGING

Growing up our family of ten traveled on a mission for years. The vision of my evangelist father, Dr. Arnold Pent was to challenge and encourage families to read the Bible every day together and out loud. 

 My Dad was a visionary. When his ministry with his father in York Beach, Maine ended at his father's death, that left him free to begin anew.

 He was musical, as was my mother. Here, attached, is a link which was sent to me from somewhere .... It is the actual presentation of "The Dr. Arnold Pent Family" in a Church in Missouri. The eight children (I was fourth) were five boys and three girls. We gave presentations like this in forty-eight states and all the way through Canada. I heard Dad's passion and message for years. His death was years ago, but as I hear this again, it moves me all over again.

 To the glory of God, if you are interested, may it encourage and challenge you. 

Love,

Elisabeth Pent Julin

 https://youtu.be/W4pMxq-l3Gg

LINK DR. ARNOLD PENT FAMILY MINISTRY

FOOD CAN BE CONNECTED WITH FAITH IN GOD

There were “unclean” animals listed in Leviticus eleven: the clean eaten, the unclean to avoid. But in the New Testament God told The Apostle Peter,

“What God has cleansed, that call not thou common.” In Acts 10:15 Peter was sent by God to the Gentiles. Now they were “clean”: it is a spiritual and physical lesson.

But is our culture of “fast food” today the new “unclean food”? Food that is good for you, eat that! The modern, processed, bleached, bioengineered food is a risk to our health.

Bread, when it is bleached, degermed, chemicals added, and the bran used elsewhere is not only not health building, it is harmful. Like fast food available everywhere, it is easy, quick, cheap, habit forming, addictive. Today, important nutritional value from the whole grain (the bran, endosperm, and germ) are often taken out; chemicals are added, and the food value is gone.

Nearing my eighty-second birthday, the importance of eating wisely is more interesting than ever…below are excerpts exposing why wheat flour is bleached… with the link below.

 “Bleaching wheat flour is a common process that involves the use of chemicals such as chlorine dioxide or benzoyl peroxide to whiten the flour.”

·      One of the main risks associated with bleached wheat flour is an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 

·      Another potential risk associated with bleached wheat flour is an increased risk of heart disease. 

·      The Shocking Truth: Why Is Wheat Flour Bleached? Find Out Now! - Flavor Insider

The additive “Natural Flavor” on food products does not come clean with its claim. This Link describes the deceptiveness of Natural Flavor on food labels:

Natural Flavors: What are they and are they safe to eat? (foodrevolution.org)

“At the end of the day, many Natural Flavors are highly processed and contain a host of chemical additives. In fact, there could be as many as 100 chemicals in a single natural flavor.”

Modern fad diets confuse and frustrate us. When they are a fad, they work against our power to think for ourselves, do our own research, find dependable resources: study their value. A better Way is right in front of you in the Bible. From the Old Testament and through the New Testament are mentions of many foods.

What’s even more intense about the mention of food in Scripture is that there are deeper lessons for us: the literal food is there stated on the page (on many pages) and the figurative teaching will touch you when you know a powerful lesson is right before you. "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:35.

THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME

Food, but not too much. The challenge of a lifetime!

When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life…” that is a literal truth going spiritual. There is physical health and life, there is spiritual health and life: and that is eternal. Bread, not the bleached, devitalized, degermed, white bread. The bread Jesus stands for is made from a powerful whole grain. In wheat there are three parts: the bran, endosperm, and germ. This is a picture of Jesus, “The Bread of Life.”

Health has been a lifelong interest, and the Bible is profound inspiration on this subject. What has been a surprise as I study it is that food is physical and spiritual. One teaches about the other; it is useful and powerful in our lives and future if we believe it? There is a lifetime of benefit if we do.

The Bible has profoundly influenced my life from the first day I was born. Every day, my father and mother and their family of ten read the Bible aloud together. All eight children learned to read this way. It influenced me, even before I realized and directed my life. By my twenties, my health pursuits became an adventure primarily because of Scripture. About this same time, I traveled with my brother, Arnold, to Texas where he and his new wife, Esther lived. I could type well and got a job at Transicold Trucking Company in Dallas, Texas. There all the ways of the big city came up.

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 felt pointless and after six months drove home (in the new little Volkswagen my brother cosigned for). I look back now and wonder at God’s protection and leading, even when I was directionless.

“Don’t go home,” my friend advised, “nobody will come to your doorstep.” As it turned out, Eric Julin proposed on my parent’s doorstep. And our marriage started me thinking about not only feeding myself but my new husband. He amazingly approved of the budding “health nut” experimenting on him.