Bread is for Living

 

 

Click the photo, for a simple recipe.

  

Not all Americans made a habit of ordering food for delivery when we found ourselves homebound two or more years ago. Millions went to grocery stores and cleared whole aisles, even clearing baking ingredients at some stores. And millions combed the internet for recipes.

It wasn't that people were cake-making and celebrating. But maybe many were finding reason to be more at home while at home.

Some businesses that surveyed their customers, included The Hershey Company. According to Hershey, customers were finding recipes to work on as activities, with children at home. Hershey also found customers were relieving stressful feelings through kitchen creativity.

For some of us, 2021 was a tumultuous year, and 2022 is offering uncertainty. But we can hold out hope for quieter, more faithful days ahead.

One thing of living I'm looking forward to, is the ability to share a table, at least every now and then.

That's because I know life is meant for living. And our bread was meant for life.

***

What about Whole Grains?

A longwinded word on few things I've learned

(A journalist's notes, in want of an RD's review)

Kimberly H. Johnson

The USDA's 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines says we need at least three ounces of whole grains, daily. It's not only that whole grains give us fiber. It's that whole grains are packed with health!

Old-fashioned rolled oats, for example, gives us a healthy, soluble fiber that lowers cholesterol and blood sugar. The healthy calories in oats also come with cancer-fighting antioxidants.

Similarly, whole wheat has some cancer-prevention properties.

What is whole wheat?

A food is "whole wheat" when it includes all the parts of a wheat seed that we are able to eat. That includes the "bran" (the edible outer skin) of the seed, without the hard, inedible "hull" of the seed.

The whole edible seed of wheat is called a "wheatberry."

Some bread-makers throw in a few slightly cracked or crushed wheatberry seeds, along with other whole seeds that are slightly cracked or crushed (for example, poppy seeds and flax seeds). These breads may be a little unusual.

But, usually, whole-wheat breads are made by grinding all parts of wheat seeds into a powder that's called "flour."

The best whole-wheat breads say "100% Whole Wheat" on their package, regardless of how much bran is in the bread. The 100-percent-whole label means the bread flour is made of all three edible parts of wheat seeds; the 100-percent also means the whole flour is not mixed with any type of white flour that isn't made with all parts of the wheatberry.

White flours that aren't made with all parts of the seed can cause greater spikes in blood sugar, because those white flours are missing fiber and fats that help us.

By the way, white flours aren't white only because they've been bleached with a food-safe chemical. Some flours include bran skins that are yellow-white, instead of brown or tan; and the yellow-white bran makes the flour more naturally white.

Some whole-wheat flours also contain less bran than others, because whole-grain product-makers are only required to include "roughly" the amount of bran a seed has when it's freshly harvested.

However, most white bread flours don't have any bran at all in them.

Most white flours are made by grinding down the seed after the bran and germ — the most healthy parts — are removed. So, most white flours aren't only bleached; most don't have any of the healthiest parts of the seed. These flours are not "whole wheat."

How should we choose?

Some nutritionists may frown on all white flour that isn't made from whole seeds of wheat. But that's probably being a little too restrictive. Most wheat breads, even those that say "whole wheat" (but not "100%"), mix their whole-seed flour with white flour that does not include the bran and germ parts of the seeds. And that can be okay.

A bread that has a little refined (meaning processed to the point of being non-nutritional) white flour can be okay if we're not at high risk for diabetes, as part of a diet that seldom includes soft drinks and the other very processed foods that we call "junk food."

Less than 100-percent whole wheat, or made with a refined white flour, can be okay sometimes. Dieticians would say never have a fast-food burger bun, if white bread were an absolute no-no for everyone. What matters is whether we're avoiding soft drinks, commercially produced fries or potato chips, and other no-fiber, high-carb stuff when we have a meal with refined white bread.

A 2019 Advances in Nutrition article by Glenn Gaesser, professor of exercise physiology at Arizona State University, points to more than 20 studies that conclude refined white breads, by themselves, are "not associated with all-cause mortality," meaning not associated with type 2 diabetes, coronary vascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, or cancer. In contrast, he points to studies that demonstrate many of our health difficulties are worsened by the habit of eating foods like "red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, [commercially processed] French fries" at the same time as processed white breads.

Studies prove it's best not to have a habit of eating refined white breads with other less healthy foods. And, of course, it's good to be in practice of making choices to include at least a little whole wheat or other whole grains with each meal.

Finding products that include at least some "whole wheat," or at least some bran, is one way to do that. But, keep in mind, we can't know whether a whole-wheat bread has more or less bran by looking at it. Some bread-makers add brown sugar for color and taste. And some use the yellow-white bran that makes the bread a lighter color.

What's most important to know about a wheat bread is whether the bread alone causes an individual's blood-sugar to spike if diabetic, and whether we like it, can afford it, and how many whole seeds are in each slice of bread. The more whole seeds in a slice of bread, the more nutrition and the lower our blood sugar.

It's worth saying that some persons who are not at high risk for diabetes, enjoy the texture of breads made with a little white flour, instead of only with whole wheat, and that can be okay, especially if there is enough whole grain in the diet.

Although not every brand of bread tells customers how many whole grains (seeds) are in a slice of their bread, some brands do tell the public how many whole grains are in one slice. These are a few examples:

 

Arnold Whole Grains Bread

9 grams whole seeds, including wheat seeds, in each slice

 

Arnold Whole Grains 12 Grains Bread

13 grams whole seeds, including wheat seeds, in each slice

 

Bunny Made with Whole Grain White Bread

5 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

Nature's Harvest Honey Wheat Bread

8 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread

13 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat Sugar-free Bread

11 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

Mrs Baird's 100% Whole Wheat Bread

13 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

Oroweat 100% Whole Wheat Bread

23 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

Pepperidge Farm Thin Sliced 100% Whole Wheat Bread

14 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

Sara Lee Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread

13 grams whole wheat seeds in each slice

 

This list does not include every whole-wheat bread on the market, and this list is not meant to promote the sale of any brand. But based on these examples, many whole-wheat breads have about 13 grams of whole grains per slice. That's about one and one-fourth tablespoons full of whole seeds per slice. That may sound like a lot, but we're not talking about junk food; we're talking about something we're supposed to eat!

At least one, four-week study shows bread doesn't change the blood-sugar levels in pigeons. Although science has said not to feed bread to ducks and pigeons anymore, because doing so keeps them from hunting and deprives birds of the nutrients they really need, birds eat grains, too. But there's maybe a lesson in that for us: Just don't fill up on bread.

Even healthy lambs, by four months, may eat about four pounds of hay and grains each day, nearly three pounds of that being grains. After all, sheep have something like four tummies to consider!

Although we digest differently from many other animals, we at least know we need some of the same foods.

Oats: The "Best" Alternative

Not everyone is able to eat breads that are made from wheat. Some people's bodies overreact to the protein strands, or gluten, in wheat products. This food allergy is an immune response called celiac disease. 

Persons with celiac disease need to avoid wheat, rye, and barley products; but oats may be a good alternative for those who talk with their primary-care doctors about their allergy and food choices. 

And oats not only may help folk who have a wheat allergy. Whole oats can be a wonder food, for anyone.

A large bowl of old-fashioned rolled oats can be just fine: a whole bunch of whole grain in one serving. One and one-half dry cups (135 grams):

• provides more than 25% of the healthy calories we need each day;

• helps release a hormone that tells us we're full and won't need to eat for a long while;

• has more than 80% of the daily selenium we need (more about that, later);

• has iron (more than half the amount we need each day) and calcium;

• protein: 16.9 to 39 g;

• beneficial fats: 10 to 15 g;

• saturated fat: 0 g;

• cholesterol: 0 mg;

• dietary fiber: 13.5 to 24 g; and

• is a huge help in the fight against diabetes.

One study notes oatmeal was used in an emergency, intensive-care setting: to prevent a diabetic patient from dying. That's because oats don't only have essential calories, vitamins, and minerals. Oats also have antioxidants, and unique fibers, that aren't found in many other foods:

Beta-glucan, a unique soluble fiber in oats, makes up about four percent of rolled oats' weight. This healthy carbohydrate

• improves insulin sensitivity;

• slows the body's absorption of sugars;

• lowers cholesterol, through causing the liver to excrete more cholesterol in bile, so that the liver uptakes excess cholesterol from the bloodstream;

• helps prevent vascular damage from LDL (bad) cholesterol;

• can offer 100% of the magnesium we need each day for heart health and quality sleep;

• can offer five times or more the amount of manganese we need each day for proper blood-sugar regulation, nerve function, and bone health (A diet poor in manganese can lead to stunting in children, and poor bone health as we age.);

• offers a good amount of pantothenic acid, an aid for some types of arthritis;

• helps boost our immune health;

• raises the number of healthy bacteria in the colon;

• helps prevent colorectal cancer by strengthening cells in the colon and intestines; and

• helps eliminate the need for laxatives. (Some studies have concluded laxatives deplete nutrition and lower quality of life — and shouldn't be used often.)

As if that's not enough, oatmeal has two, unique antioxidants that gently open blood vessels for better bloodflow, and that further reduce inflammation.

All this may well make the case that mom knows "best."

Figuring It All Out

Only one dry cup of "old-fashioned" rolled oats gives us the minimum three ounces we need in whole grains. Remarkably, two slices of an ordinary 100-percent whole-wheat bread, only have a little more than an ounce of the grains we need.

Even two slices of the most nutrition-packed breads, may not meet our complete daily need. A bread that has 46 grams of whole-grain wheat in two slices, has only a little more than half the minimum.

To help make sense of that:

Three ounces of whole-grain wheat seeds is about an eighth of a cup (about 85.5 grams). Two slices of an ordinary "100% Whole Wheat" bread in a day, has less than 35 percent of the at least one-eighth cup we need. By the end of each day, we need to have had at least an eighth cup of grains from our favorite products. And, really, that's not a lot.

Different research shows from 40 to 98 percent of us, in the U.S., don't eat the amount of whole grains we need — a fact that impacts our cancer risks for the worse.

But it's not easy understanding why we're not eating many whole grains.

Only one-fourth dry cup of brown rice gives us more than twice the minimum whole grains we need in a day. Plus, rice helps us in many little-known ways.

An Underestimated Alternative

Brown rice isn't the diabetes-prevention and cholesterol-lowering powerhouse oatmeal is. It's a superfood in its own way.

Brown rice is a whole grain that, surprisingly, offers way more benefit than whole wheat — beginning with the fact that brown rice is high in selenium, a powerful antioxidant mineral.

Studies indicate selenium

• is crucial to thyroid function and metabolism;
• heightens immune responses in persons with HIV, influenza, and hepatitis C;
• helps in the fight against heart disease and cancer (even destroying some types of cancer cells);
• relieves side-effects of radiation during cancer treatment; and
• slows memory loss due to neurological decline.

  See https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/selenium-benefits.

Rice, oats, and eggs may be the most affordable food sources of selenium.

Brown rice also has

• vitamin B6, to help lower the amount of an amino acid that contributes to heart disease, and to prevent degenerative problems of the brain and eye;
• manganese for growth and nerve health;
• magnesium for heart health;
• iron for overall health;
• pantothenic acid, for help with some types of arthritis; and
• antioxidants, to reduce inflammation and cancer risks. (A type of antioxidant, lignans, in rice, don't only reduce inflammation; they help lower cholesterol and blood pressure.)

And while it's true that jasmine rice is an unhealthy option, studies indicate many types of rice — including simple, brown rice — may be responsible for lower rates of chronic diseases in some parts of the world. And, while a few people fret over the possibility of high arsenic in rice, the health benefits far outweigh the odds of any poisoning!

People who ate two large servings of brown rice a day, had lower blood-sugar levels after meals, says one study.

Other Whole-grain Options

Every family and individual makes their, his, or her own choices about whole grains.

While boxed cereals aren't usually the best option, some cereal makers do a good job putting whole grains in their products. For people who don't like the texture of oatmeal (despite how beneficial oats are!), there are other whole-wheat options in breakfast cereal.

Options can include whole-grain bran cereals like Fiber One Original Bran cereal with whole grains, Total Raisin Bran, and Great Value Raisin Bran. Manufacturers sometimes change their ingredients, but these examples, at one point, had more fiber and whole grains than most sandwich breads have. (Raisin Nut Bran also used to be a good option, but, at some point, the cereal's maker slacked off on the whole grains and added corn flakes to their bran. Corn flakes are not a good cereal option, at all.) Just check the ingredients label on your cereal. The first three ingredients tell you what the product is mostly made of.)

*       *       *

Not Mad about Nutrition: But fighting hard not to lead another crazy neighbor astray

 

 

I'm not a food alarmist.

I'm not one of those folk who goes around snatching food out of anyone's hands like retired NBA player Dikembe Mutombo blocking food purchases in a Geico commercial.

Although I never willingly choose to eat anything prepared with coconut oil*, and although I'll never agree with laxatives, I'm not one who goes around saying never eat this food, and don't ever eat that food. There's an occasion for everything that has Heaven's blessing.

Yet I may object when lives are on the line, and when we're about to spend a crazy amount of money only to do something unhealthy. Setting a good example is important to me, and to most other folk who are Christian.

But many folk never give a second thought to whether a food purchase is joyful, a blessing, or whether it will make sense to an onlooking, covetous, or confused neighbor. I, for one, am more special than not to give food a second thought.

I try to model food ways that most people can manage to follow. I try not to have food habits that are too expensive — or too unhealthy — for most other people to have as habits. That's the season Heaven has had me live for a long time (1 Corinthians 10:31-32).

I think that, from a Christian perspective, we're living during a very difficult time (Matthew 23:15), when many are easy to be conflicted, and sometimes enraged, by even our personal choices.

But food should be an easy matter to manage or to deal with. Although we may think carefully about it sometimes, our meals were never meant to torment us.

... After all: We've lived this far, by faith.

 

 

 

A school lunch during the Great Depression, in 1936, gives a fair idea how some of our elders not only survived, but thrived. 

Public-domain photo: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum

 

~

* Cooking with coconut oil is a fairly new trend on the global stage. But it's not a good trend. In fact, when I was a child, adults in the know, cautioned against eating very much candy made with coconut oil. I think news reports, at that time, may have been reacting to a study that may have found a popular candy prepared with coconut oil was raising bad cholesterol pretty significantly.

When we fast-forward more than 40 years to today, there's a push to accept global trends without regard for anyone's health. And maybe people who push that way, just don't recognize that, no matter where anyone is in our world, there is always some foodway that isn't exactly good for us; and coconut oil is one of those vices. Coconut oil is more saturated with fats that hurt us, than any other cooking oil, including shortening and beef fat.

Coconut oil does have some redeeming uses, however.

Plain, 100 percent coconut oil from the baking aisle at the grocery store, is very good for healing cracked skin on feet, and it conditions and protects our African-American hair beautifully, without unwanted fragrances and oiliness.

Amen.

The Fruit of Our Labor: How much is enough?

  

There's consensus among dietary experts, that a cup of sliced or chopped fresh fruit or vegetables is enough to count as one serving. And there's agreement we need more than one serving. At a minimum, USDA experts recommend we each day have one and one-half cup of fruits and vegetables.

But health organizations like the American Heart Association, aren't as cautious about whether we, as individuals and families, can afford enough fruits and vegetables to help us fight for health; such groups sometimes tell us more than some news sources tell us — more of what we really need in our diets. These groups tell the truth about our total health needs, and leave it up to us to budget and to find help we may need to be able to eat much more than one and one-half cup!

The American Heart Association, for example, says we need at least four to five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. That's four to five chopped cups worth of fruits and vegetables that are fresh.

 

A cup of sliced or chopped fresh fruit or vegetables is one serving. But we say one-half cup is a serving, if the fruit or vegetable is cooked, or if it's preserved in a can or air-tight container.

 

 

The Help We Have from Heaven

 

There is so much to share in life. But there is supposed to be fellowship, or relationship, in sharing. And sharing, as Christians, isn't supposed to be a mandatory percentage of what we have. But we're supposed to live, and to give as we feel led or called upon to give — not under compulsion nor coercion, the Bible says, but out of the hope we have in Jesus.

No matter what we've received in order to live, our giving has to be heartfelt and appropriate and not contrary to our own well-being. Our giving isn't meant to meet socialistic expectations and doesn't need to cause us suffering, but needs to answer our individual willingness to be loving (in Jesus) even toward someone who has hurt us.

When the Bible says we've freely received and are blessed to freely give, the meaning is most of all about spiritual giving: sharing God's word. When Jesus broke bread on a mountaintop, no one was expecting that act of friendship. The mass of people on the mountaintop that day, had only wanted to hear what Jesus would say. But He felt Heaven's leading, and asked everyone to be seated for an unexpected meal together. That was Heaven's heartfelt offering of Christian friendship. Jesus added a fellowship or friendship meal to the sermon or instructions He had given them.

And He added no sorrow to the meal.

To keep us safe from the perils of public meddling, probably most of what we do on our Christian walk, isn't meant to be seen or widely known. Jesus says, "Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do — blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private ... ." Matthew 6:1-4, New Living Translation

There should never be public backlash for what we do from the heart. What we do, no matter how small, shouldn't cause us to be mocked or persecuted or criticized. Indeed, in the Lord, what we do usually isn't about sharing everything we have, like some families who live together, but is usually about showing someone Christian love, or kindness — and helping someone understand what to do when they need help.

As an old song says, "If it had not been for the Lord on my side, where would I be?"

Life in Jesus Isn't about Suffering

 

 

Tell the truth. If you were born before 1990, didn't Sunday worship at church sometimes feel like being at a place of mourning, especially when there was communion? I remember how, when asked why not be at church, a relative once said, "No one died lately." But, since I've grown to know Jesus, that's the relative I have most hoped will be preserved blameless until Jesus returns to be among everyone in this world (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

And that isn't my only prayer.

I also pray that many sisters and brothers who are Muslim, will know Jesus the way I do. The way I know Jesus is set free from a constant review of child-like sins and mourning.

Life in Jesus — the life Heaven gave us through Jesus at Calvary — isn't a life of continual struggle and suffering. Although, in contrast, Islam tends to continually sacrifice life for life, to wrongly read biblical texts to mean we should cherish suffering, and to even practice whipping oneself with chains and cords, Christianity says Jesus has overcome the world; that He has given us traditions not like the world's; and that He wills us to have mercy instead of a continual heaping on of debt, sin, and dying.

Jesus also has told us He is our best example. He said that, although persecution is inevitable in the world the way it is now, He has never meant for us to remain persecuted. If any of us was appointed to suffer persecution, it was meant only during a difficult a season in the life of the church, and our suffering wasn't meant to do what Jesus already has done for us: Our suffering tests our faith but doesn't open anyone's eyes to how, through Jesus, we're set free from being bound to hell.

And just think: Even Jesus came down from the cross.

By the way, when the apostle Paul rejoiced that he had been "crucified with Christ," he didn't mean that life in Jesus is unstoppable suffering. Instead, Paul was saying that he had died to his old way of living — that he no longer was a murderer, not even in his heart. Paul had found new life, a new way of understanding and living. He had gone from being chief of sinners, to saving many souls. And the one thing he mourned was that there was a war in the church (a battle in the "body" of Christ). Those things he didn't want the body to do, the body was doing, anyway. And Paul knew that souls were being lost.

One lost soul was a man who was corrupting the church through being unrepentant about being in sin with his father's wife. Paul so hated that sin, that he said to put that man out of church, to give that man over to the devil to be castrated. Putting members of the church away from the main body is what Jesus meant when He said that, if the eye won't stop offending the body, to cast the eye away from the body.

But, being Christian, Paul knew that members of the body of Christ, even those who are cast away, are able to repent and to serve. That's the whole nature of knowing Jesus. So Paul reasoned: What can repentant Christian hands and feet do without those repentant eyes that want to serve?

Paul transitioned from being a persecutor of Christians, to being a minister who helped Christians repent and rejoin the church.

Also, in the new life that Paul loved, he realized he didn't have anything to be ashamed of in eating the food that Heaven intends for us to. After all, it was Heaven that told Peter to wake up and hunt for spiritually acceptable food, to eat the acceptable meats that were being served by those Gentiles who he was meant to minister to. A calling to eat nourishing foods with Gentiles was God's way of bringing Jewish believers together with people who had not believed at all — a means of helping to spread Heaven's Gospel.

Remember, life, under Heaven, does go on. After all, Jesus had at least two meals after getting up from the grave: one meal in a meeting place where disciples were probably so deep in mourning and eating that they had not noticed Him in the room, and another meal on the shore of the sea of Galilee.

It's as if Heaven was assuring us: Go ahead. Eat, and live.

We have a Savior who came down from the cross.

 

 

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God."

1 Corinthians 10:31, CSB

We Shouldn't Underestimate How Good God Is

 

 

 

Heaven gives special, very strong families the responsibility of raising a child with disabilities.

I thank the Lord there is that care. Because, many children with extreme disabilities do thrive.

From a faith perspective, that's a blessing, for a disabled child to thrive. But, for some, it's difficult to understand why Heaven cherishes the disabled, the same as the perfectly able.

It's also difficult for some to understand how supportive people in the life of a disabled person may value milestones in that person's life, the same as parents who sometimes remember a child's first words, first steps, and first quirks. Yet a simple fact of life is that, in faith, a child has worth, regardless of ability.

That said, I am a disabled person. I'm also a Christian.

And I thank God, I wasn't restricted or limited, as a child, to special classes. Instead, I learned in ordinary classrooms. And supportive people quickly saw I had a good aptitude for English language in writing — even an aptitude for creative writing and abstract language.

And, while I can never be a rap artist who races through the dangerous hairpin turns of his oral dissertations, I can understand what he's saying, if I can see it and study it in writing.

What Makes for Peace

 

 

  

Sometime between September 17, 2021, and November 20, 2021, this post was hacked into. I am holding out prayer no other posts have been tampered with: that my witness is secure.

 

Psalm 23:2-3:

He makes the way to green pastures. He leads beside still waters.

His word restores our souls.

 

 

 

Before the church was born at Pentecost, Heaven had a way of speaking into lives of people who would believe. It was hundreds of years before Jesus appeared, when David (a flawed man among a flawed people), heard from Heaven. David found stronger faith through believing the prophets and repenting.

David looked forward to the coming Messiah, but meanwhile found comfort in a personal prayer relationship with Heaven. David's relationship with Heaven was like the relationship Jesus promised the church. Jesus told those who followed Him that He would send "another comforter," the Holy Spirit.

It was through life in the Spirit that David knew Heaven, although David had not seen Jesus, who was yet to arrive. Despite the fact that we do see Jesus in one another today, the church kind of has a relationship with Heaven as David did: in the Spirit.

Although David had much more alone time, talking with Heaven, than most of today's church has, the church does know something about the importance of having personal space as a sanctuary.

That's the sense I get in remembering how Lydia, in the New Testament, offered her home for a few days' Christian fellowship, not based on anyone's need but based on her joy that a group of disciples had just saved her whole family. Lydia didn't want to part with those disciples right away but wanted to spend more time with them. In that moment, in Spirit, her home became a sanctuary not only for her, but also for those disciples.

It's in that sense that the early church shared with one another, not out of compulsion, and not based on a rule, but based on a desire to be supportive of those who were ministers, and a desire to spend time with those ministers.

In fact, the apostle Paul built on Jesus' teaching that disciples, or ministers, shouldn't carry money or extra goods when traveling from place to place, house to house, inn to inn, but should work as examples to others and should also depend on the kindness of believers who offered sanctuary and who wanted to continue worshiping together.

Through wanting time together because of ministry, the church began to have less alone time in the Spirit, but more shared time in the Spirit. And, so no one would have to worry about money, there was a sharing of goods, to support the ministers and those who traveled with them.

In terms of practicality, it was a little like when people join the armed services today and are deployed. Those servicemen and women kind of depend upon the kindness of the people in order to remain cohesive and do their work. But, obviously, most people are not in the armed services; and, like leaders and disciples of the early church, most people don't travel from place to place in ministry.

In the early church, most people were not those who shared all they had in order to minister: in order to, together, go from place to place, house to house (Acts 4:32). That wasn't everyone's calling to do.

Remember, even Jesus had asked some people to go in peace, to return home instead of following Him on foot. In fact, most of the mass who gathered at the Sermon on the Mount, went home after fellowship. And later, at Pentecost, when the church received the Holy Spirit, thousands were baptized but, again, most went home after their time together.

Today, there continues to be that way of being in Jesus, with some groups soldiering together in ministry, depending upon one another and upon others who are willing to be supportive. Yet, most of today's church does not so much soldier on in shared travels but meets together in sanctuary, both to do the work of the church and to fellowship like at Pentecost — but always departing and going on to create sanctuary at home (something hell likes to destroy, by the way).

That's all part of the life we live in Christ Jesus — or should be. I also believe it's worth saying that, when we read and teach that some of the early church shared everything they had (in order to go place to place in ministry), we should each seek Heaven's will for our lives and be accepting that, as Christians, we don't all have that particular practice of the early church as a calling, but that we all are called to be at home, in the church.

 

"He made the way for me to abide in peaceful pastures. ... He restores my soul." (Psalm 23:2-3)

~

Two Articles for Background:

The Holy Spirit Moves God's People from Law and Labor to Reaping in Faith

The Holy Spirit Moves God's People from Force to Freedom