MAKE YOUR HEALTH A GOAL

 It may take a turn around, but health is beauty. Make your health a goal.

The most powerful king in the world, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon commanded a diet for four captured Jewish boys. "And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank..." Daniel 1:5. But Daniel “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat…” It took ten days of healthy food, and Daniel and his three friends were outstanding in their appearance.

Daniel and his friends were trained in all matters of wisdom and understanding that Babylon had to offer, but the food was an issue. Daniel requested of the Prince, "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, (something sown, a vegetable) and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer (beautiful, best) and fatter (plump, firm) in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse." (Daniel 1:12-16).

Just do it. (The Bible does include beef, lamb and other “clean” food as in the sacrifices in the Law), Daniel here seems to have limited his food to vegetables and water. You have one life and getting from Scripture the wisdom to live it well is more than worth the effort. Settling into a warm and active relationship with Jesus through Scripture will change everything, beginning now. Your future will be changed.

MAKE YOUR OWN BREAD

 

MAKING YOUR OWN BREAD

It can be any combination of whole grain, but here is a bread recipe with whole wheat flour. Keep it simple and as you grow in experience, you will be amazed at its satisfying aroma, texture and taste. Bread can be powerfully good for your health. Fine whole grain flour, olive oil, honey, salt, yeast, and water.

 

Good health is beautiful.

 

"...thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful..." Ezekiel 16:13.

 

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

 

6 Cups whole wheat flour (room temperature)

3 Cups warm water

1/3 Cup Olive Oil

1/3 Cup pure Honey

1 Tablespoon active dry Yeast (check date)

1 level Tablespoon Salt

DIRECTIONS:

MIX WELL IN LARGE BOWL

3 Cups warm water

1/3 Cup honey

1/3 Cup oil

1 level Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

5 Cups whole wheat flour (first)

Let mixed dough rest 15 minutes … it will rise slightly.

On kneading surface or countertop put remaining 1 Cup flour KNEAD 100 X as you work 1 cup flour into dough.

1.   In a large bowl, mix the warm water, oil, honey, yeast and salt.

2.   Add 6 Cups whole wheat flour to liquid mixture. Mix well. (add one cup for kneading). Let dough rest 15 minutes in bowl.

3.   Add dough to flour on counter and knead 100X (working in cup of flour on counter). It will become a ball and easy to handle.

4.   Prepare a cookie sheet, spread liberally with butter, flour.

5.   Cut dough into two rounds. Place on cooking sheet.

6.   Beat one egg. Add 3 Tablespoons of Old Fashioned Oats to egg.

7.   Spread oat and egg mixture on round loaves with fingers. Let shaped dough rise in a warm place about 1 hour.

8.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake about 35 minutes.

Bake until top of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 to 20 minutes before removing from the pan and transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool an additional hour before slicing.

THE BIBLE ... IT'S A FOOD GUIDE, TOO

 It is coming clearer after years studying this. When you understand the Bible as a Guide, it covers every area of your life. It reveals how our “spiritual” and “physical” lives help to explain each other. "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 Jesus Himself is the symbol of health, both physical and spiritual. Why did The Holy Spirit choose bread as the essence of nourishment? Bread, the staff of life is indeed health benefiting if the ingredients are from the whole grain and the other ingredients are good. It is health building for your whole being. Like Jesus, the Bread of Life, whole grain bread is a mainstay.

"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

Whole grain bread, complete with the bran (the fiber rich outer layer has B Vitamins and trace minerals), the endosperm (with carbohydrates and protein) and germ (the nutrient rich core, Vitamin E, B Vitamins, healthy fats, and antioxidants) is known to be good for your heart. Jesus is the Way to a spiritually healthy heart. Whole grain bread holds the elements created within them for our health: it is profoundly, uniquely a picture of Jesus, The Bread of Life.

Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eats 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 

An understanding of the health benefits of whole grain bread (bread created from the natural form of the whole grain) comes from the illustration of Jesus Himself.

Considering the importance of the whole grain for our health, as I have grown up, it is a connection to God’s blessing. His creation of the whole grain and our need for it is in Scripture.

“He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied you.” Psalm 81:16 

“He makes peace in your borders and fills you with the finest of the wheat.” Psalm 147:14 

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eats 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 

Good bread is a contributor to your good health.

The “LIVING Bread which came down from heaven” is the Way to live forever with our God and Creator in Heaven. "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John 10:28. It is for you and me. This is, as Jesus said, “My flesh, which I will give for the life of world.” John 6:51. He is the “Bread of Life.”

Gluten is a protein found in many different grains as a way for the plant to store protein. https://www.livestrong.com/

BREAD IS BASIC…IF MADE AS IT SHOULD BE

Next time: A SIMPLE RECIPE FOR WHOLE GRAIN BREAD

FOOD IN THE BIBLE...

 

WHAT TO EAT...WISDOM COMES FROM SCRIPTURE!

Dad was a Christian Evangelist. His mission was to encourage others to love and read the Bible. He and my mother traveled the forty-eight lower United States, Canada, and Mexico with us, their eight children. His quest was to put into practice the Bible he proclaimed as the truth; it included the food so often mentioned in the Bible. He had been an athlete in Wheaton College and trained there in nutrition and exercise. Every sport the college offered he took part in until he graduated. He married my mother in Boston, where she was a Wheelock College graduate. When eight children were born, he encouraged us as we grew up to eat carefully and exercise.

As we traveled the Country singing and quoting Bible stories, a family of ten, there were brave families who took us into their homes and fed us. Their gracious meals included one of Dad’s excluded foods: dessert. It would be a beautiful white flour, white sugar, tempting dessert, which I, of course accepted. But my father would quietly wrap his dessert in a napkin and put it in his back pocket. I knew, and to this day smile.

Through these growing years, I believed that God, through Holy men wrote the Bible. Genesis, chapters one to eleven recount how God created the world and everything in it including the food He provided. Therefore, the Bible is an exact book, the final Word of Truth. Written for the enlightenment of every person. It is the “beginning of wisdom.”

Within the Bible is a surprising emphasis on food, both figurative and literal. This food I was increasingly interested in as I became a wife at twenty-nine and a mother at thirty.

Whole Grains for your health

 Whole wheat bread and cakes are from the entire wheat kernel: bran, endosperm, and germ. Breads, pastas, bagels, crackers, muffins, and foods listed as whole wheat are solely the whole wheat grain. Unrefined wheat features a host of important nutrients.

However, the standard for most wheat products available in the United States are processed into 60 percent extraction – meaning that 40 percent of the original wheat grain was removed. The 40 percent that is removed during this process is typically the most nutrient-rich part of wheat, the bran and germ of the whole grain kernel according to Snap Fitness USA. The Difference Between Whole Wheat and Whole Grain – Snap Fitness USA

Whole Grain Vs Refined Grain - Itsxtraliving

KEEP IT SIMPLE

In the morning, often we eat the same thing. Eric eats whole grain cereal with “Grassfed milk,” and honey. I eat two pieces of Ezekiel Bread with butter and honey and a glass of milk, or cooked oatmeal. Sometimes, I bake granola: Old fashioned oats, nuts, honey, maple syrup, butter and olive oil, baked at a low temperature for an hour.

On Sunday It is hot oatmeal with salt and butter and turkey or beef sausage. On weekdays, mid-day food is fresh fruit and a slice of cheddar cheese. Weekday dinner is a salad, vegetables and beef, chicken, or fish. Whole grain pasta, with tomato sauce, or Taco Salad with Beef Sauce and whole grain chips. Keeping it simple also keeps it healthy. I like sauces made with meat flavor from the pan, mixed with whole wheat flour, butter and chicken stock…it goes well over everything. Cheddar cheese grated often goes on top.

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him." (Psalm 34:8).

“And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and He shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away (decline, pluck away, take away) from the midst of thee.” Exodus 23:25.

 

Taking care for yourself and those you love and are responsible for, is in the tradition of historical truth. I check with the Bible first, then branch out from there. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases; Who redeems thy life from destruction; who crowns thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103 2-5.

 

"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing Psalms." James 5:13. "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." James 5:14.

"CLEAN AND UNCLEAN FOOD" THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

The Old Testament is clear about “clean and unclean” food: animals that we should and should not eat. Do the forbidden animals mean that God is harsh: do not eat this and only eat that! Having pondered it, my deduction is that it was the Creator telling us what He created and why and what animals his creation should eat for their good. Think about it: many of the animals God designated “unclean” in the Old Testament are scavengers, predators, bottom feeders.

There is, in the New Testament, freedom to decide what you will eat. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." I Corinthians 10:31. Take it seriously, think twice about habitual food, then someday when you grow old, just hopefully, you will have invested in yourself wisely. Of course, God has the final word on the number of our days, the health of our bodies.

As our three sons, Joshua, Josiah, and Zachariah were growing up, we visited the State of Maine one Summer. Eric traveled to many Naval Bases in the United States as a Logistics Manager for the Naval Air Warfare Center. A few times during the summer months our three sons and I traveled with him on his official trips. My husband would nudge me in a restaurant, “Go ahead, get lobster.” Fried clams and lobster were part of happy memories. I ate lobster.  

Eating lobster and clams in Maine brought back memories of my childhood: my father, mother, and grandparents, ran a Bible Conference on the ocean front in the summer. They owned several acres across the street from the Atlantic Ocean with a big, three hundred seat tabernacle and thirty summer cottages. Years later, when our little family drove over the border into Maine again, I cried.

The New Testament gives each person freedom to decide about food, the Sabbath of total rest, and other practices forbidden under the Law, in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Today much of the fast-food industry with its accompanying harmful processes, added chemicals, devitalized flour, processed oils, sugar, and corn syrup look like a modern-day rendition of “unclean food.” Reading labels is an effective way to stay away from ingredients that do not nourish you. Also, I prefer to stay away from the “Biblically unclean” food most of the time.

"All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eats with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended or is made weak... Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows." Romans 14:20-22.

THE BREAD QUESTION

IT IS SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL

FOR HEART AND HEALTH

Growing up, my father (who did not eat white flour, white sugar, or margarine) knew there was something wrong with the food culture in America. To prove his view to his children, he would sit on a loaf of white bread; it went “flat as a pancake.” My mother stopped buying white bread when we were young.

The naturally harvested wheat includes the bran, endosperm and germ. The unwitting consumer is denied the benefit of whole grain when it is taken apart and sold separately.

If the endosperm is processed (bleached white), then made into bread, it is minus the powerful nutrition found in the whole grain. The bread made from it becomes the airy white loaf most often sold in grocery stores at home and the world over. The white flour is eye appealing and has a much longer shelf life. The bran and germ are gone and sold separately.

This “allenpuff” which my father called it, could be one major reason for health problems. When a lifetime of devitalized bread with no heart strengthening power from protein, and minerals is our regular diet we suffer. Often the food industry separates the most nutritious parts and sells them separately.

Bread bleached and degermed are not health building. Like fast food available everywhere, it is a trap. Easy, quick, cheap, habit forming, addictive. Fad diets confuse and frustrate us and work against hope for good health. When a better Way is right in front of you, take it! “Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” Psalm 103:5