Are the Old Testament's strict food laws relevant for today's church?

I am on the last day of my fast and I am thinking about how to eat better when I start eating again this evening. I am going through the "Extreme Makeover - Body by God" study with some other people of LCC who are also concerned about their eating and health.

I came across this article this morning, in Today's Christian, on the book Holy Cow! Does God Care What We Eat? by Hope Egan.


Does God Care what We Eat? By Jennifer Schuchmann

The petite, 5-foot-4 woman stepped up to the podium at a Chicago church and lowered the microphone; her auburn curls framed the gentle smile on her face. Hope Egan doesn't look like a revolutionary, but her recent book, Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?, and her passionate endorsement of Old Testament food laws for today's New Testament Christians have been stirring up discussion wherever she goes.

This crowd of 200 Christian women listened intently as Egan shared her struggles with compulsive eating, her discovery of a "biblically kosher" diet, and God's role in the journey.

"I was consumed with thoughts of food," she began. At work, she visited the candy machine several times a day. Though she sat at the same table when eating with others, she wasn't fully present. Instead, she fixated on the food, obsessing about something as simple as a plate of cookies: How many should I eat? We each get three, but I've already eaten my three; there won't be enough if I eat more. Why aren't they eating their share of the cookies? Don't they like these cookies? Will anyone notice if I eat just one more?

Click here for the rest of the article

C3 Post #1 - A Ministry to Pastors and Lay Leaders

I spent Thursday and Friday with my staff at the Creative Church Conference (C3) at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. It was a great conference. It was inspiring, exciting, emotional, worshipful and a great opportunity to sit under the teachings of some pastors I admire who have been there done that and been very successful.

For many pastors, including myself, it is hard to get totally into worship on Sunday mornings. On Sundays I am more concerned about creating an environment for others to worship and receive ministry more than for myself. At conferences like C3, they usually have a pretty powerful worship set before every session and the worship sets at this conference were awesome. I laughed, cried, clapped, and praised and it really felt good to just focus on praising my Father and Savior and be the focus of someone else’s ministry. I need to put myself in the position to be ministered too more often so I can be more energized to do ministry.

The conference speakers included; Ed Young of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Bill Hybels of Willow Creek in the Chicago area, Erwin McManus of Mosaic in LA, California, and Bishop T. D. Jakes of the Potters House in Dallas.

Although the C3 conference is specifically geared toward church professionals and lay leaders, most of the teaching is very applicable to apprentices of Christ in any field who want to develop into strong Christian leaders. I want to spend a couple of posts or more to reflect on the conference and pass on some good God stuff.

Thank You to Ed Young and his staff for caring about other churches and pastors. As Bishop Jakes said, By feeding and ministering to the twelve you can feed the 5,000.

a refreshed apprentice of Christ
Royal

Persecuting Jesus - Crushing Revelation

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? —Acts 26:14

Stubbornness and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our own rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Him. Whenever we rely on self-respect, we systematically disturb and grieve His Spirit. And when we finally understand that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all this time, it is the most crushing revelation ever.

Oswald Chambers - My Upmost for His Highest

Fast - Day 18 - Removing the Gap

I think it would be safe to say that when the average Christian thinks of worship the first thing that comes to mind is attending a church service. Many churches even call their gatherings a worship service. The place we meet is often called the worship center. We feel comfortable with this distinction because it is in our human nature to separate our secular lives from our spiritual lives. We have our work, play, family, and whatever part of our lives and then there is our spiritual or church life. This separation, whether it be conscious or not, is the basis for the hypocrisy that makes Christians so weak in our faith and such poor witnesses of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Word of God defines worship and church. In Acts chapter two the church is defined as a coming together of the family of God for corporate worship, fellowship, outreach, ministry and discipleship. This kind of corporate worship or unity as the Body of Christ is important to the cause of Christ and for our own personal growth. (You can't be a productive and obedient Christ-follower without being a part of the Body we call the church.)

But real worship, real obedient personal worship of our Lord and Savior is described in Paul's letter to the church in Rome.

so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Rom. 12:1-2

I think the main advantage one receives while fasting is that the constant focus on Jesus when one is tempted to eat puts one in an attitude of constant "practicing the presence of God." As you constantly practice the presence of God you can't help but worship Him by giving up your will and being a Holy Sacrifice at all times of the day. Even when you are distracted, as will happen out of habit and the constant prodding of the enemy, it is easier to redirect, repent, and get back into the attitude of the worship of God through Jesus.

When a Christian's worship is focused on a service or a day of the week, it is not truly worship and it is not a transforming relationship into the person that is in the middle of God's perfect will. If you are in the world for all but the time of the week you set aside for worship, you will be more like the world than like Jesus. If you spend your time worshiping our Lord while you are in the world, you will be transformed into the person who knows what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is.

Fasting helps me remove the gap between the secular and the spiritual. Fasting helps me practice being in the spiritual in all occasions so I can learn to be spiritual when I am not fasting.

I like this quote from Henry Blackaby's daily devotional. "God wants to reveal Himself to those around you by working mightily through you. He wants your family to see Christ in you each day. God wants to express His love through your life. There is a great difference between ""living the Christian life"" and allowing Christ to live His life through you."

an apprentice of Jesus
Royal

I Hugged the Comfort Messenger from God

Check out this great post by Rick.
It will bless you today.

"I got out of the cab and said goodbye, that’s when we hugged. Right there outside the US Air gate in the middle of the busy airport traffic I hugged the messenger God had sent to comfort me-- my cab driver from Pakistan."

Check out the rest of it here.

Thanks Rick
Royal

Prayer is a Two Way Conversation

An article by Newsweek in 1992 said that 78% of all Americans report praying to God at least once a week. Twenty percent of atheists and agnostics say they pray at least once a day. Americans reported to pray more than go to work, exercise, or have sex. But for most people that pray, it is a one way conversation with God. People talk to God on an as needed basis and don't expect Him to answer.

People who report two way conversations with God are considered weird, crazy, radical, or blasphemous. Most people continue to talk to God even though they don't expect Him to talk back.

Brother Lawrence wrote: There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advice you to do it from that motive. It is not pleasure that we ought to seek from this exercise; but let us do it from a principle of love, and because God would have us.

Jesus said: "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Jesus said that our prayer life and our relationship with Him and the Father should be an ongoing interaction and conversation through the connection of Jesus to the Father. We are in Jesus and He is in us. He is always present to guide, counsel, comfort, confront in every situation and at any time through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

We have to choose to stay in the "in Him and Him in me" attitude in order to practice His constant presence. Most Christians never truly get to know Jesus because they only talk to Him one way in the form of a request in a situation where it is decided the possibility of His intervention could be beneficial. (Try getting to know a person with one way conversations)

Jesus answers our prayers but we have not learned how to understand His answers. I think we need to listen more than we need to talk.

an apprentice of Jesus
Royal

Fast - Day 12 - Smell the Roses

I have found that when I am fasting my senses become more acute. My sense of smell is incredible. As I walk or ride my motorcycle or just walk into a room it seems I can smell everything. Maybe not everything, but good things. Flowers, grass, food, cologne. I seem to be much more aware of what is going on around me, I mean the good stuff. Life smells good. The things I am blessed with seem to come to the front and have a smell or a feeling that goes with them.

Last Sunday, after church, I went with my family and some friends to our favorite local family owned Italian restaurant, Bellisimos. I sat at the table and drank coffee while everyone else ate lunch. I really enjoyed myself. I enjoyed the conversation. I especially enjoyed listening. I listened to my kids talk with each other and with a couple of friends. They were having a good time. They were laughing and telling jokes and I was having fun watching them and thinking how blessed Lisa and I are. I also noticed others watching and listening. They were smiling also.

It seems that the more time I spend focusing on God, the more He shows me how much I am blessed. It is really quite incredible. My life really is more full than I often realize. (John 10:10) There are many things I take for granted that are amazing blessings and they are there every day.

You know the old song that says, "You got to stop and smell the roses. You got to count your many blessings every day." The more attention I pay to God, the easier it is to smell the roses.

I walked into a coffee shop yesterday and felt led to buy coffee for the two people behind me. They were beside themselves grateful. The whole place seemed to get brighter all of the sudden. The lady behind the counter wrote on my cup, "The nicest man in the world." All I did was buy a couple of cups of coffee. The man behind me started telling me about his window washing company and the struggle they were having. I got a chance to encourage him. What a blessing. I could really smell the roses.

God truly wants us to experience joy. He wants it so bad He sent His only Son to pay for the sins that keep us separated from Him. The more we see things through the eyes of Jesus, the more roses there are to smell.

an apprentice of Jesus smelling the roses
Royal

Fast - Day 11 - Awareness and Energy

It is day 11 of my fast and yesterday I noticed a big jump in my energy level. Usually, for me, in the first week or so I lose all of my energy and feel tired and cold. My wife enjoys my being cold because we then sleep without the fan and I am in favor of turning the heat up in the house a little more. And although my spiritual awareness rises with my more constant focus on God, my mind is not very sharp. Not that I normally have a sharp mind, but it is quite dulled during this first week of fasting.

It's kind of hard to explain the spiritual awareness. And when it is hard to think clearly, I confuse intellect with spiritual awareness. In other words, if I am having a hard time focusing on scripture, it is easy to feel I am not focusing spiritually. But, if I let go of intellectually looking at God's Word, He relates to me within my spirit. Does that make sense? It makes me realize how often I depend on my own intellect to understand God's Word and although intellectually God's Word is exciting, there is definitely a peace that comes from connecting in the Spirit instead.

Last night, as I interacted with and taught our Jr. High and High School students, the ministry was a spiritual high. Talking, hugging, listening, laughing and teaching were all spiritual events for me. I don't know how the students felt, but while I was talking, hugging, listening, and teaching I felt more like I was responding in the spirit and ministering in the spirit. (I was God's love with skin) It was a deep sense of caring for their souls and it was coming from my soul.

As I write this I know it may look goofy to some. I will try to make it clearer in later posts.

an apprentice of Christ
Royal

Fast - Day 2 - The Difference is Focus

The difference in a fast and a diet is focus. I used to think I could not fast because I had never been able to diet succesfully. The thought of going 30 days without food seemed impossible to me.

There is a difference in dieting and fasting. The difference is the focus. When you diet you tend to focus on not eating. Guess what? The more you think of not eating the more you want to eat. You stay focused on food and before you know it the temptation overpowers your will and you eat.

The Object of focus while fasting is not the food or lack of it. The object of focus while fasting is God. Instead of thinking about not eating when the urge to eat comes, and it will often, you use the urge to eat as a reminder to focus on God. It is amazing how focusing on God takes away or makes the urge to eat less powerful. The more you focus on God, the more you feel in tune, in touch, and spirit-filled.

...God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it...1 Cor. 10:13

Since we all like and need to eat and our body responds when we don't, while fasting, we are tempted to eat constantly.

Dallas Willard writes about fasting, "This discipline teaches us a lot about ourselves very quickly. It will certainly prove humiliating to us, as it reveals to us how much our peace depends upon the pleasures of eating. It may also bring to mind how we are using food pleasure to assuage the discomforts caused in our bodies by faithless and unwise living and attitudes---lack of self-worth, meaningless work, purposeless existence, or lack of rest or exercise." Ouch

Yesterday - I had a hard time with focus yesterday. Peace did not come easy on day 1. In fact, there was more agitation yesterday than peace. As I tried to focus more on God I found it was more of a wrestling match. It was not a hard day physically. The first day of a fast, for me any way, is the easiest physically. I was having a hard time psychologically and spiritually.

Unfortunately, my wife did not enjoy my first day of fasting. To focus on God yesterday I had to take a couple of walks and talk to him while I was walking.

Today, as my body cries out for solid foods, and tomorrow will be harder physically.

an apprentice of Christ
Royal

Fast - Day 1 - Who What Where When Why?

Today is the first day of my 30 day fast. I want to share insights and what God shows me on this blog throughout the fast. I hope you don't come here looking for a reality show, I won't be sharing everything.

Several years ago when I started fasting in January, I was a little disappointed that God did not lay out my year for me during the fast. I thought if I was going to make this kind of commitment, maybe then God would write the Who ,What, When, Where, Why, and How on the wall. He didn't.

But then I realized (as the month went on) I didn't need all that. I just needed Him. The more I got of God, the less I needed of the other stuff. The more one comes to trusting God, the more one can be open to doing whatever God wants or going through whatever God allows you to go through.

God's goal: Make me more like His Son. (Rom 8:29)

Today's My Utmost for His Highest is "Will you go out without knowing." The scripture for the day is Hebrews 11:8. In the middle of the faith hall of fame in Hebrews the writer says, It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave...He went without knowing where he was going."

Wow...I want to be there. If you are like me, you want to know all the details before you leave (serve, obey). (Lord please write it on the wall) I want to be like Abraham...In my flesh that scares me...In the Spirit I find peace just thinking about the possibility...

Chambers writes "It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don't know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to "go out," building your confidence in God."

I look forward to being closer to God
An apprentice of Christ
Royal

Apprentice Focus - Honor Christ In Everything

For I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that causes me shame, but that I will always be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past, and that my life will always honor Christ, whether I live or I die. Eph. 1:20

Oswald Chambers - "My Utmost for His Highest"
January 1

"It’s as if Paul were saying, "My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory." To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone."