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?

When We Need Right Discernment in Bible Study

 

For the first time, I feel like I have a tough assignment in making a blog post. So many issues are rising up over the Bible word now, that it's difficult to know what to try to address first.

Some folk are bold enough in error now, that they'll forbid Christians to dispute wrongs, despite how Jesus tells us to take wrongs to your brother and reason it out, and to go to good witnesses and the church if your brother won't listen, and to know you've gained a brother if he is willing to listen and reason together.

God's word doesn't tell us not to dispute wrongs. Instead, Heaven says to

• reason together;

• take matters to the church;

• be peacemakers;

• suffer a wrong if the wrong doesn't have consequences that ruin our witness in Jesus;

• let all you do be for God's glory;

• commit everything you do to the Savior we have in Jesus, even if that means correcting or rebuking;

• avoid foolish arguments and godless mockery;

• never argue with a foolish person;

• run from evil when there isn't any way to bring truth and healing;

• know that God doesn't intend for any one person to help reach every single person who has been in his or her life or who has crossed paths with him or her (Luke 10:4; Jude 1:22, KJV; and other scriptures);

• correct in a Spirit of gentleness;

• know what the word is truly saying;

• recognize biblical error, and rebuke it;

• know that God's New Testament word is a "sword" that may divide even families or households, or that may make shake up a household's thinking; but know that that does not mean the Bible is a literal weapon that murders (not at all!);

• seek Jesus through His word, and seek a good Shepherd to help open up and translate, to give background, and to guide you through difficult Bible books and passages;

• know that, as a Christian, it's okay if your Spiritual feelings and insights are different from how the world sees (for example, the scripture that says we shine like starry light in this error-prone world, isn't about being above others, being known, having notoriety, nor celebrity; it's about being a quiet light, among millions of other quiet, guiding lights, no matter how troubled and perverse the world);

• and know that God's word to us isn't understood by a person outside of faith, not until that person's heart of faith begins to know the love/Salvation we have in Jesus. (That's what the Bible says. So, try not to give a person outside of faith a Scripture that says we "go forth and jump about like calves in the stall"! The person outside of faith might not see right away, that the word isn't saying faith is restless and rambunctious, that what the word is saying is that we have inner joy in Jesus, like a new calf that's just discovering the world around him, even if we're confined to some small way of living.)

Also know that not every Bible translation is clear and accurate to God's meaning, which is why we need to study and pray about our and others' discernment of God's word. One translation says "do everything without grumbling or arguing," which means without grudges and quarrels. But the meaning is not "without dispute." "Dispute" is a word that some Bible translations mistakenly use.

And, here again, Jesus has told us how to handle disputes when we have to or need to.

When the Holy Spirit Speaks

 

When the Holy Spirit says something, we ought to hear His meaning. In Hebrews 13:5, for example, God isn't saying to be okay with not having what you've trusted Him for (Matthew 6:7-8).

Instead, He always says to be patient, even in affliction. And He says that, while waiting on Him to move,

"Be very thankful for and respectful about what you have, not wanting what someone else has" but only what Grace has given you at this time.

Hebrews 13:5

~

Just be sure never to misquote what the Spirit of the Lord has said to you! If you know it's only your own way of talking, not exactly what the Spirit has said, say I'm in agreement with Heaven but this is me talking, like the apostle Paul did.

A Bible-study Idea for Adults

  

 

 

Life is full with choices and dilemmas that keep us in need of prayer. But with prayer, choices become easier.

Some choices are easier when made shortly after being in prayer with others, like finally making peace with a decision just after leaving a church service, or days after beginning to pray for someone about a need.

But some choices also are made easier with grace. When you receive something — even the idea of something — with grace in Jesus, it's easy to receive* that something. But the Bible says if you the individual are not able to receive something in good faith, in good conscience, then that, for you, is sin. And grace may not help that sin.

When the King James Version of the Bible speaks of Heaven's "manifold grace," that means God's grace varies according to our individual relationship with Jesus. That's why, at one point as a minister, the apostle Paul made the decision to abstain from eating the meat he knew he was allowed to eat as a workman in the Lord. Paul reasoned, at least once, that it would be better to abstain, even for the rest of his life, as long as eating all that he was allowed to eat would cause a brother of weak conscience to stumble. That self-control, on Paul's part, could only strengthen Paul in faith.

Paul was one to rejoice, just like Nehemiah, that God made good our freely given sweet (like honey) and meaty foods. But Paul also was one to tell people bold truths: when people were twisting the idea of eating with grace, joy, and thanksgiving from the heart, together with thoughts of perversion or sexuality, as in Romans 1.

And Jesus, before Paul, had given stern warnings.

The truth of the matter is that anything of the life we are meant to have on this side of Heaven, can serve God's grace and glory, even if only for a season. Conversely, things of life on this side of Heaven, can be used ungodly, whether misuse is of food, or of the physical body.

It's shameful, but there are those who boldly say all things were meant for food, and that all appetites are for "God's" glory.

It's sickening, the way some feel.

But thank Heaven we can live delivered or separate from that. ... Thank you, Jesus.

And thank you, Lord, that, as Christians, we can have discernment about what's good for us, and what isn't — and can use that discernment to prepare both healthy foods and foods we realize are a little less healthy but joyful in a heavenly way.

That's because, in Jesus, we realize Heaven doesn't want bickering over food. He wants us to have fellowship, one with another, in as much as we can.

God gave Peter, the disciple, an uncommon calling — sometime after Jesus returned to the Spirit alone, or to His heavenly existence. I'm sure more than one disciple wanted to go onward to Heaven when Jesus wasn't physically present anymore. And I'm sure more than one felt convicted in Spirit, against doing anything of sin (because of a longing for Heaven, not so much because of legalistic feelings about Hebrew law).

I say that, because, in my walk in Jesus, I had so much a closeness to God's word at first, that a pastor who spoke with me personally, muttered, at one point, "too Heaven-bound to be any earthly good." I know that feeling, of being close to the Lord.

God knows that happens in the lives of some Christians. And to help bring our walk back closer to earth, for His good, Heaven may give special assignments. For example, in Peter's case, Heaven's instructions were to step away from His Hebrew understanding for at least a time, and go to fellowship, to eat meals, with Gentiles. Those (non-Hebrew) Gentiles weren't doing anything adverse to health, costly to faith, or against faith when they would eat "fourfooted beasts" (presumably, only those split-hoofed animals that ate grasses — because Heaven's morals had become part of the Christian heart — but maybe prepared in clean ways that were different than the Hebrew way), "wild beasts" (maybe chickens!), "creeping things" (maybe gators?), and birds that flew.

By grace, God gave freedom to make choices about meats He would no longer consider evil to consume for sustenance.

But being faithful, we know that can only goes so far.

Faith is a matter of living in good conscience.

~

* Dear Reader: Thank you for reading. I hope this is somehow a help to you or someone in your life. Please be patient, as I have been, wherever one of my posts may have an awkward sentence or word. I have a problem with someone hacking my posts, and I don't always realize, right away, that someone has changed something I've posted. ... God bless us, going forward.

It's Not about Having a Perfect Diet

     

There's so much to learn on this side of Heaven: how much to eat, and when; how often we can have a favorite unhealthy food; what's truly a blessing for us to eat; and how much we can be thankful for God's kind Grace on the a-little-less-than-healthy choices we sometimes need to make.

All over this world of ours, we're growing to have a little more awareness of God's Grace on our foods. We can thank Heaven for the healthy stuff we can only eat occasionally. And most of us can thank Heaven for the milk and eggs that help fortify us almost each day.

But some of us, like me, need to learn more moderation. And we ought to start talking with others about the moderation we already have.

When it comes to me and bread, for example, I'm not very moderate. I'll eat a lot - a lot! - of the wrong breads, every day, if given the chance. I have the potential to go for a large, factory-processed honey bun, every day, if I don't watch myself, and that's despite the fact that I know those honey buns are made of a fine cake flour and other stuff that a body digests so quickly, that it all (right away!) converts to sugars that put a sudden heavy load on those organs that are trying to handle my blood sugar.

And I know the same about the type of bread and the type of sugar used to make canned ravioli. But if there's ravioli like that to spare, and I'm having a difficult day, and I'm stranded for lunch, that's what I have to be thankful for. Yet it's days like this that remind me how much we need to do better than we are.

When we're thanking God for bread each day (both the bread of His word and the bread that helps us to physically live), we ought to be sure we're thankful. We ought to be sure we're thankful, from our heart of hearts, for whatever it is - thankful whatever it is has come from a place of Grace, and that whatever it is will help sustain us and help shape our sense of peace, thankfulness, and sometimes joy.

We also can be thankful for skills gained and lessons learned on those days we participate in preparing our own meals. Of all the things to be angry about while we're living this life, learning through food preparation isn't anything to protest!

In fact, did you know preschool babies as young as a year old, now, are dabbling in the kitchen - and not only at home? Before COVID, some preschools were having family-style meals, where toddlers were learning to appreciate selecting vegetables to eat at the lunch table, or were growing to like putting fresh lettuce on their individual sandwiches, for example.

Those babies were becoming more mindful and contented about food choices that were good for every day, instead of expecting foods that would have been candy-like, every day.

And some preschools took that a little further. Some encouraged their children by showing them the work that goes into cooking from scratch, and the fun in participating. That's something that has the potential to help a child develop, from an early age, in so many ways!

Just a few strengths built by participating in food-preparation tasks:

• Having stronger fine-motor skills (Fine-motor skills are those that give us dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and overall control of small muscles, including those muscles that help us use our fingers. Internet sources like WebMD say we need fine-motor skills in order to stir or mix food, for example, and imply early development of those skills helps better suit us for more complex tasks, such as playing instruments or participating in sports. But that's not all!);

• Having more aptitude to stand or sit still to engage in a task;

• Developing an ability to keep on task longer;

• Being better able to do coordinated, start-and-stop tasks (such as pressing a rolling pin to start, and quickly stopping to change direction);

• Having an overall awareness that food needs work to prepare;

• Knowing it's fun to complete tasks in a group setting;

• And beginning to know there's more to our day-to-day than just eating whatever we see!

It takes thought to make our meals, and to make food more healthy (and tasty). But I do not mean to say we have to have perfect diets, low-fat everything, or anything else on that order.

Instead, I want to say, we can do better at with our everyday ways of living! We can be more aware and active in living a little better.

We don't have to be vegan. We don't have to have organic. We don't need expensive. And we don't have to ban butter and buttermilk. We just need to be more aware.

We may need to recognize there's not one fresh fruit on God's green earth, that will give anyone diabetes!

And we need to maybe think things like: That old, family teacake recipe is naturally low on sugar; the small ratio of sugar to flour makes it nearly two times lower on sugar than a sugar cookie; it has only half a cup of traditional buttermilk (spread over 40 to 50 cookies!); and it's tastier than bread, because of the citrus juice in the traditional buttermilk, and because the just right amount of butter and sugar combine and caramelize. It's a perfect occasional treat, without changing anything about it. It's much lower on butter and uses a healthier flour than croissants do. And it's better to have that SOMETIMES, than lots of factory-made cinnamon sticks from Pizza Hut.

We need to maybe know a little more about how we digest one food compared to another. And we just need to want better in our every day.

Amen?