I am thankful for each of you and for all of you who read this through the internet/blog. Sometimes I wonder if I am making a difference in your life and then I go back to last week’s lesson and realize the sin of insecurity is creeping into my mental again.
It is indeed a daily decision to clear the clutter from the hidden chambers of our temple and that is what we will be talking about after we go over the homework.
I do hope you are taking the time to dig deep, by doing homework and looking for any tools from God’s Word that will help you get to the root cause of anything that is troubling you, spiritually, mentally or physically.
Proverbs, Chapter 5 is loaded with just the right tools (instruction) to keep us straight (on the Way).
Everyday, every moment of everyday, we must choose to stay on “the Way”, the path towards righteous living. Why? To reflect the image of Christ to the lost.
Here’s a Word from the Word for Health and Healing
Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.
Turn to someone and say something pleasant!
Have you noticed that the healthier you become spiritually, mentally and physically the more you realize how sick you were? Just the mere recognition of the areas of sin (disease) in our life is the beginning towards wellness. I also see my sin in other people and it hurts me to wonder how much damage I have done.
I am also extremely grateful for the chance to change. Praise God!
Let’s take a look at last week’s homework. Chapter 5 is filled with tools to keep us straight!
Healing Spiritually
This is last week’s homework and answers. Give more thought to these answers as you delve into God’s Word.
- Go Lightly! Reach for His hands of mercy. Choose each day to follow “the Way”
Spiritual: Read Chapter 5 from the book of Proverb at least 5 times. Answer the following questions.
a. What is the definition of understanding? Understand – how we interpret knowledge – to grasp the meaning of
b. The following three words need to be put in the order for which they occur in our lives: understanding (2) , wisdom (3), knowledge (1). Explain why you chose to put them in the order that you did. Go back to Week 5 for further explanation. - What is the definition of discretion? Individual’s ability to make a decision based on the Bible (faith based decision) vs 2 your goal is to preserve discretion or in other words, always base your life on the Word.
- Vs 5: What does Solomon mean when he said, “his lips drip honey (sweet and enticing) and his mouth is smoother (very convincing) than oil; To me his can mean any temptation not just lusting another man…be careful when your thoughts are confused…do not make any decision during that time for you will live to regret it. Live moment by moment but do not live for the moment!
- What happens in the end if a woman chooses to desire an immoral man? Permanent soul damage that only God can set you free from
Vs 5 His feet will lead you __death________________Follow HIS steps.
vs 6 Ponder the path of “the Way” versus a path that is unstable____________Know the righteous path. - vs 8 If you struggle with anything that is dishonoring to God, what is the best thing you can do to remove this addiction? _______remove yourself from this existence –don’t go near it____________________
- vs 12 why is it that we hate instruction and despise correction? _self serving – MY Way, not the Way!______________
- vs 13 if we are to change, we have to expose ourselves to the voice of teachers.
Is it possible that teachers are a gift from God? Do you believe God provided you with teachers (pastor, mentor, devotions, etc) because you were are the verge of ruin? Vs 14 Are you in this study by coincidence? - Drink water! Vs 15 What water is Solomon really talking about? Do you find it kind of weird that a man who had 700 wives would tell his son to drink only from his own cistern? Think this through. Live and learn perhaps?
- Pray for someone you know who is contemplating divorce or is flirting with an affair. Vs 18-20
- vs 21 Nothing that we do along our path goes without God's notice.
- What sin are you caught in the cords of? __Insecurity, discontentment, desire for something that will happen in the future_______________________
- Vs 21 God is constantly watching over us, noting our decisions, pondering (considers carefully) our plans, observing our behavior ----not so much to judge us for doing wrong but to bless us for doing right! He knows what we need so He wants us to ask Him for His counsel.
- Get instruction from someone through God's Word or you will die a slow death of destruction vs 23
- Pray that God will reveal your sin so that you will be blameless before Him. Pray for each sister in Christ that is a part of our group. I am in need of a breakthrough mentally and spiritually. Are you?
- Do you remember what these words mean? Blameless, (no willful sin in your life) sanctification (the process of being set apart for God), discipline, (training that molds and perfects the mental faculties and moral character. Control and power derived from the Holy Spirit) understanding, (a mental grasping. Comprehension. Even if the knowledge is too difficult or missing clarification. We fill in the missing components.) Discretion (choosing to base understanding on faith not emotions), Wisdom (ability to receive knowledge, understand it through faith based discretion and then apply it to your life – act on it – recall it).
- Do not forget to drink water.
- For this week only, do not eat any red meat. Also go two days without any meat or animal products.
- Add a red vegetable, a yellow vegetable, and a orange vegetable to your lunch or dinner at least three times this week.
- GO LIGHTLY by digging deep into the Words of Truth!
Healing Mentally
I believe the Old Testament is filled with parallels and foreshadows of Christ and our body. Studying Solomon’s Temple is just one example of how nothing that you read in the Old Testament is irrelevant to us today. Understanding God and His love for us comes through understanding His Word.
Let’s begin in:
2 Chronicles 7:12 (-21) says: Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
When you became a born again Christian, a Christ follower, God chose your body for Himself as a house of sacrifice. What does that mean to you?
2 Chronicles 7:16 I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever.
God says: I have chosen you Joanie and I have sanctified you: He set me apart for Himself.
I choose to set myself apart for Him because He chose to set me apart!
2 Chronicles 7:15 tells me that His eyes will be open and His ears attentive to my prayer.
Vs 17 tells me that if I walk (my journey/path) and do according to all that He has commanded us, if we keep His statutes (laws/follow the Word), He will establish His kingdom in me.
But if I turn away (vs 19) and disobey, choosing to serve other gods, then He will uproot me and cast me out of his sight.
The reason we want to dig deeper and uproot all the sin and transgression we have inside us is because that is indicative of our serving other gods…one being our self! If we don’t uproot the sin, God says, He will uproot us and cast us out of His sight.
If we compare our body to Solomon’s Temple, God tells us that He chose us as a sacrifice so that His name may remain in us forever. He has set us apart and His eyes and ears are attentive to our prayer. Our path (life) is to be lived according to His laws.
Vs 21 Why has the Lord done this? 22 Because they forsook (disobeyed) the Lord God, and worshiped other gods, therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.
Calamity – (Arabic “ed) means disaster – an occurrence inflicting widespread destruction and distress.
Listen to some of the reasons the thesaurus gives for calamity:
- adverse happenings usually occurring suddenly and unexpectedly
- may be caused by negligence, bad judgment, or irresponsibility
- great affliction
- a personal change that turns our lives in a new direction
Romans 12:1 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
What is an understandable definition of sacrifice? Give it up!
Your bodies are to presented to God as a living sacrifice (give it up).
You are not your own, you were bought with a price…therefore honor God with your body! (give it up!) 1 Cor 6:20
Think of yourself as a human sacrifice, lying on the woodpile, with both hands bound. Do you have any control at all of the situation? God wants us to totally rely on Him.
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people who are “called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
He wants us healed.
We do not have the power to change others, we also cannot change ourselves unless we ask God through prayer to change us.
Jer 17:14 – Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; Save me and I will be saved, For You are my praise.
When we talked about finding the real root causes of our present problems, we simply must give God permission to expose the sin in our life.
Once He brings it up, instead of pushing it back down again, ignoring it and getting mentally or physically sick over it, we need to be obedient and deal with it. Dealing with it means to figure out why it is there and ask/plead with God to remove it from our being.
He promises us He will remove it “as far as the east is from the west” if we ask.
Ps 103:12 -As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Define transgressions: to violate God’s law – sin -
Define removed: to destroy all traces of. IT’S GONE.
Why do we keep allowing Satan to bringing it back up? It’s gone! His word promises us that.
Why is it that God wants us to be transgression free? Because we cannot have fellowship (communion, communication) with Him if we have any sin in our life.
That is the gospel message. There can be no sin between us and God if we are to be in communion with Him. Jesus died on the cross to take away the sin of the world. He became sin for us and at that very moment, Jesus could not be in the presence of God. The veil in the temple split from top to bottom indicating that we could now communicate with God because of His sacrifice.
1Pe 2:24 - and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed
1Jo 1:7 – but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1Jo 3:9 – No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Being a Christ follower is a huge and humbling responsibility.
The outer courts of our temple parallel with a Christ follower’s physical body; the part you can see with the physical eye. Before we can come into the presence of God within the Holy of Holies, we must become aware of the part of Solomon’s temple where the hidden chambers were and how that parallels with our body.
1Ki 6:5 - Against the wall of the temple he built chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it.
These inner chambers were secret recesses (locations), hidden away from everyone except the priest. They were to be used to store the priest’s items of worship used in the Holy Place and also for storing Israel’s treasures to remind the people of all that God had done for them.
Instead the priests stored their own personal idolatrous worship item there, thinking that since these were secret, hidden places, no one would see and no one would know about them.
Within our temple we too have hidden chambers where we hide our deepest secrets and bury our hurts, guilt, shame, wounds, painful memories, our faults.
If we do not go inside these hidden chambers of our temple and clean them out thoroughly, the filth that remains in there will continuously surface like a festering pimple. Whatever is going on inside those Hidden Chambers (internally) will either reflect the image of Christ or it will reflect the image of Satan.
I believe the Word of God has the answers to healing every part of us and cleansing every part of our hidden chamber. I believe God is going to reveal these to us gradually so we will call on Him to clean them up once and for all! Just like dust and dirt around the house, it takes continuous cleaning (asking for forgiveness) to stay on top of it. Same thing occurs within our hidden chambers.
God is going to “bring up the dirt.” His Word cleanses us from the dirt. We will only be able to maintain a clean temple if we continue to use the Word of God to keep our temple cleansed.
When you dust something with a dust rag, is the dust actually removed permanently or is it transferred to the rag?
What can permanently remove the dust?
Joh 7:38 - "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
The Living Water (Jesus Himself) is the only thing that can permanently remove the “dirt” that is hidden within the hidden chambers of my temple.
Has the Lord brought something up to you during the last couple of weeks? He has me! Lots!
I believe that this is going to continue throughout our lives but the “content of the dirt” will be different each time it is revealed. Sin is a lifetime battle but we believe Jesus paid for our sin once for all on the Calvary cross.
Ro 6:10 - For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
When He brings up the “dirt” what do we need to do?
DEAL with it. We no longer can pretend we do not have a dirty temple. Whether the dirt that is surfacing is spiritual, mental or physical; it will eventually surface (sometimes in the form of disease) and we need to turn back to the Word to clean house!
Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”
Why would the spirit search our inward parts if not to reveal sin in us, to us?
Proverbs 18:8 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
We do not want anymore roots of bitterness, revenge, anger, we want roots of forgiveness, mercy, kindness.
Proverbs 24:4 “by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
God wants us to get rid of the junk, the debris, the wounds before they surface into heart attacks, headaches, and high blood pressure. God wants us to get rid of the junk, the debris, the wounds before they destroy our testimony. He wants to fill our hidden chambers with His Truths. Truths that change us from the inside out. Truths that transform us into butterflies!
That’s the Way to Go Lightly.
Praise God!
Healing Physically
What’s for Breakfast?
There has been a huge controversy in the world of nutrition regarding what a person should eat for breakfast. Every diet tells you something different.
I am not going to suggest anything in particular that you should eat for breakfast other than you must eat breakfast and it must be foods that God created.
I believe everyone should eat breakfast because it helps regulate and control what you will eat the rest of the day. Breakfast calories will more than likely be burned off versus calories you consume late at night when you haven’t eaten all day.
Eating breakfast makes you more productive because it improves your mental performance, your ability to concentrate, and increases your physical energy.
Another reason is that you are less likely to overeat for lunch and less likely to snack during the day. Keeping a balanced blood sugar level is crucial to mood swings, energy level, and susceptibility to disease.
Is God’s word specific about what we should eat for breakfast?
No but following Jesus’ example, we should first eat breakfast and then go Tend His Lambs!
Joh 21:15 - So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus *said to Simon Peter, "Simon, {son} of John, do you love Me more than these?" He *said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He *said to him, "Tend My lambs."
Here are a few breakfast recipes that are very nutritious and they will add essential fiber, vitamins, and minerals to your day’s food intake.
FYI - Oatmeal – Old Fashion Whole Oats – not quick and not packaged instant oatmeal. Oatmeal is high in soluble fiber. It is filling and will prevent you from taking the 10:00 sugar dive. Contrary to old-school thinking, oats do not have to be cooked for a long period of time.
Oatmeal Recipe
Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add ½ cup whole oats, ¼ tsp sea salt, ¼ tsp cinnamon, ½ apple, (or any fruit), 2 tbsp raisins, dates, or figs, 2 tbsp walnuts, almonds, or sunflower seeds. Cook 5 – 10 minutes.
You may pour 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed for Omega 3 fatty acid and either ½ cup of organic soymilk, nonfat plain yogurt, kefir, or nonfat organic milk.
All grains can be eaten for breakfast. Do not limit yourself to “traditional” breakfast grains. Leftover brown rice, quinoa, millet can all be reheated with the above ingredients added to it.
The main idea is to eat whole grains, fruit, nuts, and a small amount of dairy (unless you are allergic to it).
Whole grain breads (be careful – just because it says whole grain on the label does not mean it is whole grain). Read the fine print. The ingredients should be: stone ground whole wheat, barley, millet, amaranth, etc.
Eat whole grain breads with flaxseed oil instead of butter.
Eggs are another controversial food. If you do choose to eat eggs, eat only (1) egg in an omelet along with lots of vegetables.
Egg Recipe for 1
Choose 2-4 vegetables – whatever you have on hand. Chop into small pieces. Steam in 1 tbsp of water then spray organic Canola oil in the pain and add scrambled egg. Never turn fire above a 5. Sprinkle parsley, dill weed, garlic, curry, red pepper, ginger, kelp or dulse while setting for added nutrients.
Suggested veggies – asparagus, artichoke, broccoli, peppers, zucchini, celery, onion, spinach, kale, and peas.
Eat only the whites if you have high cholesterol or heart problems.
Shakes are another excellent breakfast choice. You can get very creative with shakes. A high quality whey protein powder is recommended if you are unusually tired or low in iron.
Recipe for a Basic Breakfast Shake
1 cup plain organic yogurt, kefir or nonfat milk
½ cup – 1 cup frozen or fresh fruit
Sprinkle chopped walnuts, almonds, Go Lean, or another Kashi cereal on top of shake for added nutrients
Suggested fruits: frozen bananas, dates, pineapple, apples, berries, mango, oranges
Add nutmeg, cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, organic nonfat dry milk, cloves, honey, maple syrup and molasses for more nutrients.
¾ tsp instant decaffeinated coffee would not be my choice, but can be added for a coffee shake. Choose high quality coffee beans.
Almond butter and peanut butter can also be added for a delicious shake.
Make sure you do not add too many ingredients and not enough liquid or you will burn up your blender.
Recipe for Superb Waffles/Pancakes!
Blend 1½ cups of buttermilk and 1 egg in the blender until airy and fluffy.
Pour into the blender 2 tbsp olive or canola oil and 1tsp pure vanilla extract.
Add ½ cup whole oats and 2 cups barley flour, whole wheat pastry flour, kamut flour or unbleached white flour. Mix together in blender.
Next add 2 tbsp maple syrup or sweetener of choice, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp baking soda, and 2 tsp baking powder. Blend gently.
Make sure your waffle iron or griddle is ready because baking powder will kick in as soon as mixed in. Bake until lightly browned. Serve with fresh fruit topping below:
Combine in saucepan: 4 apples (grannies), peeled and chopped and just enough water to prevent burning. Remove from heat and add ½ tsp cinnamon, and ¼ cup of raw honey.
YUMMY!
Never overlook unusual items for breakfast like leftover salmon or white fish on Ezekiel bread with lettuce and sprouts. Leftover vegetable soup. Leftover tofu lasagna.
Think outside the white bagel!!
Experiment…just make sure you are not eating any manmade foods. Know your body. If you feel bloated after eating breakfast you either ate too much or you are not digesting the foods you ate. Delete one of the items and try to chew as thoroughly as possible. If you still feel bloated, eliminate different foods that could possibly be the culprit.
Last week’s recipes + a bonus!
Quinoa Pilaf
Cut up: 1 onion, 4 sections of garlic, and 2 inches of ginger into small pieces.
Stir fry them in a little water in wok or skillet for a few minutes. Add 2 cups of whatever vegetables you have on hand and stir fry about 3-5 minutes until vegetables are heated through.
Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa, brown rice, millet or grain of choice. Add soy sauce to taste or sea salt. Mix thoroughly.
Additional spices to add: cayenne pepper, turmeric, sesame seeds, dulse, kelp, and cumin.
I also added 2 tbsp of organic olive oil so the grain does not stick together and is fluffy.
Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Stir together
1 cup buttermilk, or plain yogurt (thinned with water to buttermilk consistency)
1 cup rolled oats, uncooked
½ cup raisins/dates or walnuts (combination)
Blend together
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp sea salt
Add 1 egg and 1/3 cup honey to buttermilk mixture.
Mix dry with wet and add 1 medium apple that is chopped small or grated.
Fill muffin tins almost full. Bake 20 – 25 minutes at 375. May take 30 depending on oven
Steamed Crock Pot Date Bread
Sprinkle 1 tsp baking soda over 1 cup chopped dates. Add 1 cup of boiling water and 1 tbsp butter. Allow to cool. Mix together ½ - ¾ cup of raw sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla. Add 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt and ½ cup chopped walnuts. Add dates. Pour into can and Bake covered on High for 2 to 3 hrs.
Pumpkin Biscuits
Combine: 2 ½ cups whole wheat, kamut or barley flour, 3 tbsp raw sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp ginger. Using a mixer or pastry blender, add 3 tbsp butter and mix until blended. Add 1 15 oz can unsweetened organic pumpkin. Bake 400 for 20 minutes….check for desired browning.
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