In the Bible, in the very beginning, God created a garden with all that Adam and Eve would need to live and be healthy and happy. In that garden were fruits, with natural sugars, as well as nectars. There were nuts, berries, vegetables, including legumes, and even grains. God said it was all good. He put it there, so it had to be good! So why would we now say those are not good?
Fast forward a bit, after the fall, after Adam and Eve leaving the garden, into the Old Testament. Abel brought to God an offering of the first fruits of the ground. There was the lentil stew and bread that Jacob prepared. Grain and bread offerings were made in the temple, and breads were consumed with and without leaven as directed by God. Grains were important enough to their diet that God instructed the corners of the fields to be left for the poor. Leviticus 19:9 "'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest." Apparently, grains were a source of not only business but also nourishment. When God spoke of the Promised Land, He promised a land flowing with what? Milk and honey. While that has more meaning than the literal "milk and honey," milk and honey refer to sustenance, of which God was their provision. Milk and honey were also something they would know as part of their diet. Now, I realize that the Old Testament lived under the law, but even Jesus fed and broke bread with the people in the New Testament.
In the New Testament, Jesus fed crowds with fish and loaves of bread, which God had blessed abundantly enough to share. Jesus used fields and crops, including grains, in his parables. He broke bread with his disciples and referred to Himself as the Bread of Life. I have read and heard arguments for and against all of these facts as reasons to and not to eat bread, or other foods, and what the Bible ordains as good to eat and not good to eat. The fact remains that God gave us all of these things to eat and if they were important enough to Him to include in the very beginning, and important enough for Him to include in His laws, and again important enough for Jesus to use, then they must be important for life. Oh, but Jesus also referred to the wine as His blood, so alcohol must be okay, right? No. The wine of those days were not the drinks of today, but fermented fruits, which contained vitamins and probiotics, both necessary and beneficial for good health. They help cleanse and purify the body, improve digestion and enhance immunity. Perhaps Jesus was saying that by His blood we are cleansed, purified and made immune to the ways of this world. Romans 12:2, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will." (NIV)
Here's where I will admit that the grains of those days are not the grains of today, nor are the sugars, dairy products, fruits or veggies. Here is where man has messed up. Our food is processed, modified, treated, and mass produced. The grains that we get in the store such as breads, crackers, chips, cookies, and so on, even those that say they are healthy, are not "real" grains. You are getting a watered down version with little nutritional value. So they then become carbs that your body converts to sugars. The sugars are so refined that there is little nutritional value, and then people switch to artificial sweeteners which are nothing more than a chemical process to taste like sweetener. There are other ways, such as fresh-made breads instead of store bought, milled grains instead of bags of flour that have been sitting on the shelf and in the warehouse, farm produce instead of grocery store, farm meats and dairies instead of store bought, and real fats instead of manufactured ones. Use as close to natural sugars as you can, like pure stevia, or syrups like agave, maple or molasses, honey or coconut sugars. And lastly, exercise. In the Biblical days, people walked everywhere and worked with their hands instead of riding in cars or sitting at desks. So make sure to get out, work in the yard, stroll the neighborhood, play some ball, play with the kids or the dog, jump on the trampoline, and absorb some natural Vitamin D and fresh air! The Bible is our handbook for living, and God's Word is always right and true. If we live by it in all that we do, and listen to what He speaks to each of us individually, we will find life abundantly. Nourish yourself, body and soul, with God's Word.
Interestingly, as I finished this up, my daily Bible verse arrived in my email from Daily Manna:
Deuteronomy 28:11-13
The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully,
No comments:
Post a Comment