God’s Commands re. the Earth’s Animals Present Us with a Dilemma

Leviticus 11:1-8

The Lord spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth. ³ Whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hoofs, and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat. ⁴ Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these, among those which chew the cud, or among those which divide the hoof: the camel, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you. ⁵ Likewise, the shaphan, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you; ⁶ the rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you; ⁷ and the pig, for though it divides the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it does not chew cud, it is unclean to you. ⁸ You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.

Thoughts on the Passage

Once again, we are faced with the dilemma of “how much of these commands apply to us today?”  The fact remains that not all of us follow these rules. We eat various foods mentioned in this passage.  Some don’t because they believe this applies to God’s people even today. Others don’t because science has said they are bad for us, at least in larger quantities.  Others just can’t stand the thought that they are eating some of them. Others won’t eat them because doing so is cruelty to animals.

So, what can we take from it all that most of us can agree with?

Chuck Smith says when we look at these practical laws, we need to be thinking of the spiritual laws that God has laid down for us. The bottom line is that if we seek to follow God’s laws we will be blessed and if we neglect to do so, we will not. And Smith has the references in Scripture that back him up. If we start with the Spiritual laws, including the law to obey God, the issue then becomes how far down the “commandments” towards the practical (read ‘food’ laws) do we need to go to still have the blessing?

Smith sees it this way. Those food laws show that God is in interested in our health and wants us to have strong bodies. If He were talking to us today about this topic, He would probably hit on ‘junk food’.  He shares the story about going “home from Bible school at night and buy ice cream and chocolate syrup and whipped cream and the whole thing. And then some guy would say, "Who's going to ask the blessing?" I said, "You can't ask God to bless this. It's no good for you, you know, it's not good for you." Eat it and take the consequences, but don't ask God to bless it.”

On the other hand, we can’t misquote I Corinthians 10:23 where Paul states, “all things are lawful for me” and claim that we can eat all the pork, ham, and bacon we want. We cannot misquote God in Acts 11:9 when He says, “Don’t call unholy what I have cleaned.”  That does not mean you can eat anything you want. Why? Because the passage is not about food – it’s about Paul taking the message to the Gentiles who were considered ‘unclean’ by the Jews up to that point.

The animals God lists here as being off limits to the Jews were animals that carried disease, especially if not cooked thoroughly. This is especially a problem in warm climates, according to Robert Jamieson. David Guzik notes that God wasn’t just coming up with new rules here about what animals were clean and what were unclean. In fact, these distinctions were known way back in the days of Noah (Genesis 7:2 and 8:20).

Matthew Henry reminds us that “God’s Will” is a manifestation of “God’s Wisdom”. So, anything He commands that we obey is ultimately the wisest decision we could make.  God was interested in teaching His people then and His people now that we are to distinguish ourselves from other people, not only by our belief in Him, but also in our practices, day to day.

We just presented the background to these verses and tied them in with some other passages in both the Old and New Testaments. It is now up to each of us to become aware of what God had commanded, and to decide what He intends for us today, and then to follow through on that decision. Here’s to your health and mine.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

I Want The Women In My Family To Know This

Women and Heart Disease: The Real Story

Author: Jacqueline A. Eubany, MD, FACC, FHRS

Self-Published in: Mission Viejo, California, 2016

Dr. Jacqueline Eubany, an American cardiologist, starts out to write a straight-forward, easy to understand, comprehensive, all you need to know “before you have a heart attack” book for women. And she succeeds with honors. In the process, I am sure she has helped hundreds of men.

With well-placed simple diagrams and short sections on key topics, this book is very well organized. And she gives us facts that are easy to remember such as “Heart disease is the number one killer of American women”. She explains why women often get misdiagnosed or diagnosed late, reducing the chance of full recovery. Her bottom line messages to each of us are: 1. Unhealthy lifestyles contribute to heart disease bigtime and 2. Time is tissue which she explains fully. She taught me, very effectively, about four different categories of heart disease and their risks and the symptoms to look for in myself and the women I love.

Then she deals with each of the lifestyles (using real examples from her practice) and showing us how these contribute to the disease.  She addresses: cigarette smoking, physical inactivity [simple lesson here: duration beats intensity and frequency], diet [here she tells you what’s good, what’s not so good, and then she discusses four modern diet plans including the Mediterranean, the DASH, the TLC, and the low carbohydrate], alcohol, weight, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome. From there she discusses hormone replacement therapy, aspirin as preventative measure, and antioxidants (sorry, supplements won’t cut it).

Highly recommended for women, and for the men that love them. In fact, I hope the author finds a cardiologist of like mind that can follow her formula and write a book for men. (In fact, if there is one, please let me know.)

When I finished reading her book, I felt much more informed than I was two years ago when my own wife had a heart attack. And I even felt better about recognizing one in myself.

Whenever Christmas rolls around again, this book makes a great stocking stuffer.

Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, November 19, 2016. www.accordconsulting.com

Get the book here: http://astore.amazon.com/accorconsu-20

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Whether You Know It Or Not, You Have Two Hearts

-->

It’s Always The Heart (book review)

 

I agreed to review this book for several reasons not the least of which were that my wife had recently suffered a heart attack; I may be a likely candidate for one; the author, besides having a heritage similar to mine (Greek) had a solid reputation in his field; and I always wondered if there was any connection between our physical hearts that beat away on average over 36 million times a year and our spiritual hearts that are referenced over 700 times in the Bible.

Dr. Arthur E. Constantine, MD, a practicing cardiologist at the Heart Group/St. Thomas Heart at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, in his book, It’s Always The Heart, published by Westbow Press, 2014, describes that connection well with examples based on his personal experience with thousands of patients.  He gives us life-changing spiritual and physical insights into the most important organ in our bodies by sharing accounts of circumstances that can easily represent almost all of us and/or those we love.

Constantine relates the story of Mr. Important who thinks that without him the world would not rotate on its axis and how that lifestyle or attitude impacts both our physical condition and our relationship with God. Through the ever-exercising Mrs. Tallent’s story, the author relates how fear and doubt are used by the Devil to challenge our very faith during times of surprise heart attacks. Through the story of underweight and undernourished chain-smoking Jacob, Dr. C. tells us how addictions impact us physically and spiritually, robbing us of our potential in both arenas. Through the experience of Joanne, who tried everything to be happy, Constantine shows us how the elusion of real joy and meaning in one’s life can cause trouble in both the spiritual and physical realm.

Jim Oliver had to change his spiritual heart with respect to a balanced life and only then could he help his physical heart to function well. And the life of Leroy Harris, the 347 pound truck driver who only ate at truck stops and drove all night except for six hours when his wife spelled him off, seven days a week chasing more income all the time, is a warning to all of us who take better care of our vehicles than our bodies. The author also has a special chapter dedicated to pastors who just don’t get it when it comes to their own health – both physical and spiritual. Through Jean he warns about being in denial about our lifestyle and its impact on our ‘two’ hearts. A second Jim shows us how to live with the fear of dying and the author shows us how to get out of that trap. And finally, through Mrs. Whitt (or Nana as she was so lovingly known to her family), Constantine talks about dying and how to deal with it.

No matter the circumstance, Constantine shows what many of his patients have discovered – somehow, it’s always about the heart.  Being in my senior years, I found myself thinking of so many loved ones I had lost who well could have been one or more of the people Constantine writes about.  What was worse, I found that I could well be one or more of them myself.  And that has its way of shaking you a bit, causing you to sit up and take notice to what the good Doctor is suggesting, not forcing on you. And hopefully taking action right away.

In fact, he goes one step further and makes some strong recommendations about diets (no, not off-the-shelf ones; he really dislikes those) and exercise (no, not the Jane Fonda dvd’s type) – just solid suggestions on how you can start to bring your physical heart into sync with the spiritual heart that God wants you to have.  But make no mistake about, Constantine pulls no punches – if your spiritual heart and life and relationship with God is not in order, do not expect your physical heart to stay fit for long. Kudos to a professional person who takes his faith to the office and by so doing has helped thousands.  Thank God our politicians haven’t found a way to stop people like him.

I strongly recommend the book for all who have been there in the cardiologist’s office or worse still under his or her watchful eye during an operation on their heart.  Also highly recommended for all counselors, especially in Christian counseling ministry.  It would be a bonus for pastors, too.

As for me, I have to run off and do my speedwalking, drink some more water, and strengthen my core muscles.

    -- Ken B. Godevenos, http://www.accordconsulting.com, Myrtle Beach, S.C. 15/07/08  

-->

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Giving God Our First-Borns -- Exodus 22:29-31:

--> “You shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. The first-born of your sons you shall give to Me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep.  It shall be with its mother seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me. And you shall be holy men to Me, therefore you shall not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.”

Interestingly, these three verses follow the one about how we are not to curse God or our rulers (see comments on vs. 28). So it appears not only are we not to curse our leaders (both God and those who rule our people), but also we are to give them what they require from us in a timely fashion.

For the Israelites that meant two things: They needed to present to the priests the first gatherings from their harvests and these were dedicated to God. Secondly, they needed to dedicate their first-born sons to God and His service. The statement is very direct – “The first-born of your sons you shall give to Me.” If you are a parent of a son in particular, have you thought about that instruction of God’s? It reminds me of hearing one parent of our grandchildren saying to them, in a strong tone, “Give me that right now!”  Well, if we know what is good for us (as my grandchildren do when they hear their mom or dad say that), then we need to hear it just like that from God while recognizing we have a choice not to obey.  So I ask, have you in your heart and mind settled once and for all that your son has been given to God for Him to keep and to use as His very own no matter what that means for you? That is the requirement. We either fulfill it or we do not.

And after we get that hard thing settled, then God says you are to do likewise with your possessions (the first-born of one’s oxen and sheep in the days of the Israelites).  Wait, maybe that is harder than giving our first-born son to God. I mean we are talking about real things here – things I have worked hard to attain. And many will feel exactly that. But God says, “I want your first-born son, and the best of all your possessions. I want you to know they are mine because you have given them to Me and that I am free to use them as I see fit – no ifs, buts, or whys.” In fact, it appears that God is saying, “Go ahead, enjoy them for a few days when you first get them – take that yacht down to the Caribbean, have a party at your cottage, invite friends to your box at the arena, do not let anyone drive that brand new car for a few days, but ultimately, figure out a way to use all of these things for Me and for the Kingdom.”

Then God makes another one of His logical connections: Do not curse God or rulers; give both God and rulers what they require in a timely fashion; and that will go a long way to make you “holy men to God”.  So far so good, I follow the argument.

But then God says “because you will be holy men, do not eat any flesh torn to pieces; give it to the dogs instead.”  Wow, and thus ended the chapter.  But what is the meaning of this last instruction here? David Guzik suggests that this simply is God’s way of saying, “As holy men of God, we are to act differently in all ways of our lives; in all of our behavior.”  Matthew Henry on the other hand seems to be implying that the statement is a call for the Israelites (and those in the body of Christ today) to be different in their diets than their neighbors. He suggests that one mark of our holiness is our distinction from others in what we eat and may I add, what we drink. And if not that, perhaps how we view our ‘food’ and ‘drink’.

[An Aside: I must admit I find it very strange and somehow troublesome when I consider how absorbed many Christians in North America, and perhaps elsewhere in the world, are with food dishes and recipes and gourmet this and that, and vintage wines, etc. I am not suggesting at all that food is to be drab and boring and I really appreciate the special efforts my daughters and wife go to in order for us to have most interesting meals. But I believe we need to do all of this in moderation, keeping in mind others that may not have a thing in their stomachs as they try to sleep tonight.]

The bottom line message in these last few verses of this chapter is clear: Honor God, Give Him what is His, be holy, and be different. How we do that in our personal lives is between God and us unless the Scripture is crystal clear on a matter of behavior or thought.

_______________________________________________________________________

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

 

 

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

A few years ago I had Colorectal Cancer. So far so good. But you can prevent it.

I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer a few years back.  They were able to get all of it, but since then I've had regular (every six months for two years and now every year) visits to the doctor for a colonoscopy.  Not fun.  The procedure is not so bad -- it's the prep work that kills you.    But here's the bottom line -- you can help prevent it or reduce your chances of getting and I'm living proof of that. . . .  so far.   Here's what you do:  less or no red meat; regular exercise; and loss of weight -- get down to where you've never been before!  (within reason of course)    And just in case, I am not a doctor -- I'm only someone who can attest to the findings in the attached research article.  The rest is up to you.

Obesity Increases the Risk for Colorectal Cancer and Polyps

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Sticking to Your Eating Resolutions And What To Choose

If you've been following my blogs lately, you know I am passionate about certain things. One is my faith (Christianity if you haven't noticed); another is the situation in the Middle East; then there's the American Political Scene; and the rise of Islam's 'political and social' movement across the face of the earth. So, watch for those issues to be discussed here, often inter-related. But you'll also know that I am interested in the current physical health of people (mostly because I believe God created us to have good health).

You'll find this article from Newswise most helpful in that regard. They have some great advice for all of us.

How to Stick to Your Healthy Eating Resolution

-- Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive updates. -- Ken B. Godevenos, Church & Mgmt. Consultant, bringing you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe free to Epistoli or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. An don’t forget to “share” this blog with your friends by clicking the “Share” link on your Navigation Bar.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.