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

https://www.seasonandstir.com

Topics:

Benefits and Top Recommendations of Olive Oil

Effective Remedies for Toenail Fungus

Factors to consider while buying foundation.

Effective Supplements to Improve Your Memory

 

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.

 https://smartanswers.net

Smartanswers.net

Smartanswers.net is a comprehensive platform that is home to everything you've been looking for! Unlike most other cluttered sources on the Internet, we offer reliable, cutting-edge information through our quick search tool and categorized blogs.

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.