Aren't the Best Instructions at the End?

 

If the Bible can be counted kind of like a recipe book sometimes, the food for living the Bible gives is mostly in the New Testament.

My, my, my, do I have pet peeves about a lot of the photographs and other art illustrations that feature an open Bible.

Most of us are probably so used to seeing pictures, drawings, and other art showing the Bible opened midway, that we don't stop to think that the New Testament, where God fully makes Himself known to us, is not midway the Bible but is the last few pages, and that most of the Bible is God's record of sin and slavery and war and other turmoil with only brief glimmers of Old Testament insight into the Savior to come.

Because I, for one, know the hardships of people determined to live the Old Testament instead of loving the light of Jesus, it's a pet peeve to see art that superimposes an image of Jesus across some middle pages of the Bible, for example. And has anyone ever stopped to think how confusing it can be to someone who is trying to learn the Bible, to see things like

• a scripture saying Jesus is the "way," on a banner featuring a Bible opened midway?

• photographs of the Bible opened to middle pages, even on the cover art of books written about the New Testament?

• photographs deliberately doctored, to make the New Testament appear to begin midway the Bible?!

Who is it who is so obsessed with that Old Testament time when people were lost and many never knew the light of Jesus? Who is it who wants to point us to that time, as if that Old Testament time is Jesus?

It's downright difficult to find Christian art that shows a Bible opened to the New Testament. It's almost as if someone thinks it's a sin to acknowledge the New Testament as that part of God's witness to us that is able to stand on its own.

So when Jesus lets us know He is well able to divide, I believe by faith that the principle divide is around conflicts between Old Testament iniquity and New Testament faith.

Whenever some group or faction builds doctrine or a following around a grain of Old Testament "knowledge" that God didn't intend that way, maybe that always becomes a circumstance where we see the love of Jesus as divisive, with Him trying to bring us away from that ritualistic (even satanic!) use of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is about learning the hard way. And there are plenty of lessons there about coping. But the New Testament is about staying on mission, learning in truth, fighting for life, and overcoming. And although there is persecution in Jesus, life in Him helps us endure, makes the way in life easier to bear, and ultimately yields freedom.

"My yoke [My word] is easy, and my burden is light," He says.

He remains the same, in our hearts, yesterday, today, forever,

says a New Testament word of comfort.

O Happy Day

 

... when Jesus washed our sins away

Some of this world's feelings about faith, are outrageous. And, sometimes, the Christian response has to be in saying Satan is busy. The Bible says it's a truth he bites us at a heel, but the church yet lives.

Raise Up a Child

 

If God ever grants you an awesome responsibility, let it be raising or helping to raise a child.

A neighbor, a single woman who had survived an unthinkable problem, was given a foster child who was a baby. But she gave up on the responsibility, I think too soon.

I'll never know just what happened to cause her to give up, but so much is happening now in the lives of even our youngest children, that I can only wish I could help to give a child stability that's absent even in my own life right now.

Although I can only wish to help, be it said I'm someone who could never be contented caring for just a pet. When I think of pets, I think of a pet for my family, for a child or more than one child.

By no means do I consider a child's well-being and think, "Oh, how cute."

But I think, "Raise up a child in the way to go, and when he or she grows older, this child will know better."

Amen.

When Getting Well Is a Fight for Heart and Mind

 

I wanted to send just the right prayerful thought of heart to a godparent. I didn't want to believe the worst could come to pass.

In my own daily battle for health, I had had many trying times, including days when it seemed as if all well-being would fail. I had felt sick unto death at times, but always fought back by taking God at His word, knowing He knew what was needed before I could even ask.

I fought back by being thankful in all circumstances, eating as needed. Any fasting was limited to keeping away, for years, from pizza (which I like very much) and some other less healthy choices.

I trusted God for the creditable health information I was finding. And, true to my findings, whole-grain oatmeal and baked or boiled chicken became two of my superfoods. Over the past six months, milk also has become a go-to.

I also was thankful to read and see medical breakthroughs were dramatically decreasing cancer morbidity. I trusted that everything ultimately is in Heaven's hands.

And if ever I was feeling especially ill, I was thankful for high-protein options at low costs.

Complete proteins from whole foods, are just as vital in the fight to maintain health, as essential minerals like iron are. And anytime I felt worse than weak, as if a virus was taking hold, or even as if my mind and physical balance were leaving me, I had baked chicken with other healing things to eat, and felt much better within hours.

An article from Harvard's School of Public Health admits, "Animal studies have found that deficiencies in zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, D, and E can alter immune responses." Yet the Harvard school repeatedly says, "It is unlikely that individual foods offer special protection."

Harvard isn't one of my favorite places to read health information. Their take on living seems to give up too easily. In holding to the idea that there is no such thing as superfoods, institutes like Harvard deny every scientifically faithful study that shows things like oatmeal lowering and keeping blood sugar stable, even to the point of bringing a patient out of intensive care; things like grapefruit, including bottled grapefruit juice, reducing not only inflammation and gut infection but also the size of tumors (though no cure for tumors); and, yes, the selenium, protein, and other help we get from baked or boiled chicken as supports for strong immune responses and decreased respiratory inflammation.

There also is denial, in Harvard's strong assertion, that certain fruits, like raspberries, can help lower cancer risks when eaten routinely as part of a balanced diet, and that some foods have been proven to help fight in active cancer battles.

As a matter of Christian faith, no, we don't put our faith in food. But we certainly thank the one who provides.

I thank Him for all things He makes possible, if we only trust that He is leading the way.

I thank Heaven I've not only read about why high protein when there's sickness, but have experienced high-protein as more than a health gimmick. And I know the benefits of high concentrations of complete proteins and vital vitamins and minerals are one advantage of eating foods like chicken whole, instead of eating processed cold-cuts or nuggets, which taste good only because of sodium (including cancer-causing preservatives), but are almost non-nutritional except for small amounts of protein.

There is a way to bless our faith in receiving daily sustenance. And though our knowledge will pass away from earth one day, we can thank Heaven for those things we have learned for a time such as this.

God Got Me!

 

No long sermon today. Just a reminder that working toward peace means having a clean heart in each thing you do, whether confessing sins, forgiving others their sins, or rebuking sins by the way you speak and do.

And because this is the message today, I think the third chapter of James is a good place to read.

I like the Young's Literal Translation (YLT) of this chapter. I like the YLT, because it clarifies that, when we do ministry (or when we're just living life!), we're not supposed to be "contentious," like when I said, and said again, that something wrong was b*******, and I didn't want to repent of saying that, even though b******* is a word I very much dislike.

When we're not pure in heart about something, it eventually springs forth in ways we don't like: not a good thing to happen, not a good way to be or to feel. And James reminds us spiritually salty water can't come from the same soul that curses.

I can't curse something someone did, and still be okay in Spirit!

So, like the YLT, two other Bible translations clarify that where many translations say "wisdom from above" is "impartial" (which isn't exactly true), the closer meaning is that spiritual wisdom is "without variance" or is "unwavering," "uncontentious."

That means that something upsetting should never cause us to waver into cursing or belligerence, should never cause spiritual unsteadiness, spiritual variance, or a partiality toward cursing. Because, with cursing, we may forfeit everything we've done in the Lord!

With cursing, instead of steadily warning and teaching, who ever will listen to us again?