SAVED BY HOPE

 Often, in a world that is all at my door by the worldwide internet, a gray cloud threatens my peace and calm. A single word “hope” changes my outlook. The fear subsides. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for?” Romans 8:24. The question: hope in what? Here is our relief: “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 .  But as if to say, “Are you paying attention?” this Psalm and the next repeat this verse three times. Disquieted is to be in great commotion, moan, cry aloud mourn.

We struggle with weight management, our health, pain, both emotional and physical. In one way or another life gets hard. But when hope in our All Powerful God, through the words of Jesus said, “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you…” hope emerges. We are saved from many of the fears, hopelessness and grief emotions that threaten to destroy us when we believe the Bible.

Months ago a struggle with pain began with a pause in concentration on a downward slope on my bicycle: I went down hard. I did it all by myself. A route I’d taken for many months, but this time I didn’t see a branch from a tree right at eye level. The accident caused three fractures put me in the ER and a wheelchair for a few months.

I gained weight and was glad to sit in that wheelchair until the very fit therapist told me to hide the wheelchair. I was shown how to walk looking straight ahead, rather than looking at the ground, practiced balance, did chair squats and got confidence back. Yes, surprises like accidents happen. Today in our culture a lack of knowledge in what we should feed ourselves (and everybody around us, if we’re the cook in the house). We slowly but surely lose our health. Our current culture has been interested much more in their bottom line than selling or serving whole food.

We do not need to be part of this. By the grace and wisdom of God through the Bible, you and I have the knowledge at hand, the wisdom and the power to get on the path that leads to abundant life. “The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10. Whole food, described in the Bible and in above Posts brought my weight down without counting calories or following a fad diet.

EAT WHOLE FOOD

Thinking about health our 51 years of marriage and growing up…

Let me help you…

It is becoming clearer: serious health problems are common in the United States, beginning with children and on we know that what we put into our bodies is critical.

Think about it for yourself: study the food you often eat. This subject began with my father as I grew up. His passion along with my mother for reading the Bible through time after time gave all eight children a keen sense of eating whole food, whole grains, real butter and milk and fruit and vegetables. You will experience for yourself that good quality food becomes as habitual as “fast food.” The highly processed devitalized food bioengineered and with chemicals added are up and down grocery stores’ shelves. Read the labels. The long lists of ingredients, sometimes so tiny and unreadable are a message: return it to the shelf.

Now, at fifty-one years of marriage and growing in understanding, it has become obvious. God has provided and put in front of us powerful things grown, natural, whole milk, butter, honey, pure olive oil, unprocessed meat, vegetables and fruit and whole grains, all in “the things He has made…” and intended for our health.

The simplicity is amazing. But it will require you to believe God and the Bible and the Truth of it to avoid “positive” and very enticing messages that differ from Scripture, which is undiluted wisdom.

The focus is on God’s Word; the food He created right within the stories and teaching through the pages of the Bible. If we read the Bible, we will find in the most surprising places in Scripture what is good inferred by God Himself. "Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money; come, buy, and eat; yea, 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. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live..." Isaiah 55:1-3.