Our Bodies Can Heal Themselves!

A few posts ago, you may have been surprised to read me say that our bodies have the capability to take care of themselves if they have the right resources. Well, it's true! There are many awe-inspiring and interesting things to be found out about the human body, and one of these ways is manifested is in sickness.
When your eating habits stray from the healthy necessity's, and you eat some stuff that is far from beneficial to your system, your body must clean that junk out somehow, and it usually does this through a cold or something. Many colds are caused, not by pathogens, but the need to get rid of the bad stuff. Even a fever is not directly caused by bacteria, but it is a reaction body creates in trying to get rid of the bacteria through raised body temperature, after it has identified that it actually has a virus. And isn't it a good thing that our immune system can identify viruses, and deal with them when it has identified them?
Next, our fingernails. Now you just look at your fingernails and tell me you don't need them. Without your finger and toe nails, the sensitivity of your fingertips would be greatly reduced, even though the nails don't have any feeling capacity's in themselves. The nails also act as a tool for diagnosing basic body health. Major illnesses and physiological imbalances will cause imperfections and maybe even damage to the nails, so that a basic diagnosis of your system can be made just by looking at your fingernails.
And earwax. Have you ever thought of why ears need that stuff? Well if something gets inside of your ear, such as dirt, earwax is created, and it manages to push that irritator out of your ear, and keep your ear clean enough to hear out of!

Psalm 117: Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples! For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!

It's Music – So what?

If you're like me, then you probably like music. In fact, if you're human, (and I am assuming you are) then you like music of some kind. Maybe you like ragtime, and maybe you don't. Maybe you only listen to... 'gasp' acidic rock! The question I have is, what music is wrong, and why is it wrong?

I had that same question in mind a few days ago, so I went to my dad and asked him about it. He identified three different components in music. They are: The intent of the author, the content of the words, and the tune itself. Now the last one, the tune, isn't always bad, unless you're listening to country. And the original intention of the person who wrote the song is usually pretty hard to find out. So to check a song and see how “acceptable” it is, the easy thing to do would be to read the lyrics and ask yourself, are they God-honoring? Do they break any of the Ten Commandments? And remember, even if you can't understand all of the words, you are still feeding your soul whatever you are listening to. And not just what you are listening to, these rules apply to TV. Remember what Psalm 81:13 says: "Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!"

Now, this post doesn't mean that I am going to stop listening to tobyMac, but I will listen with different ears from now on.
Man cannot live by music alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Psalm 101:1 "A Psalm of David.
I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music."

Glorifying God with everything we have – Part 2 – The Mental

Our minds, just like our bodies, require exercise and rest. But one more necessary item that most minds lack is good food. People feed their minds, for sure, but it is not good to rely on the appetizers, like music and blog reading, to constitute the majority of our mental meals. So the question is, what are we to think about? What food should we cram down our mental throat? Philippians 4:8 is a great guideline. It says: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” That's a great verse to think on, isn't it. But how do we do all this? Can you just go and meditate – just like that? Since I am no expert on the matter, I will use the Navigator's hand illustration.

The first finger is hearing. First you hear the word, and this from parents or missionary's or whoever. This causes you to go and read the Bible. Then you are convinced and you jump to the third finger, and you study the Bible.

At this point whenever you read or study the Bible, you are glorifying God with your thoughts, but it is always better to make that a little more portable.¹ So hopefully you then go to the next finger and memorize the Bible. The fourth finger is very important. I know that I have talked about this topic somewhat considerably, but when thoughts wander, they must be checked. What better way to do this than to recite memorized scripture? And if you ever went to jail or you had no Bible for a prolonged period of time, what would you do for your spiritual life? If you haven't committed very much of the scripture to heart, I encourage you to do so.

Lastly, meditation. This, for no small reason, is the thumb of the hand. Deeply mulling over God's word helps keep the studying on a deeper level. And a deeper walk with our Lord is to be desired, right?

Anyway, we need to take every thought captive. Thanks for reading, and Providence permitting I will give the last part of the series, on the spiritual side of life, next Thursday.

¹This does not mean that you can not glorify God without always reciting scripture. But I won't talk about that now.

Glorifying God with our Whole Being – Part One: The Physical

Okay, so we are commanded to give our whole mind, soul, and strength to God. The question is, how do we apply that? Thus begins a three part series talking about the Physical, Mental, and Spiritual sides of life, all centered on 1 Corinthians 3:16, and on how we live all three for God.

So we start with the the physical, our bodies. First we need to remember that nothing in this world is ours. It is all God's, including us. As stewards of His creation, we need to know how to take care of His creation, starting with our bodies.

All right everyone, get down and do some push-ups! Really. If we are to be caretakers of our bodies, that entails some work. To keep ourselves in good condition, we have to do three things (among others) they are:

1. Exercise regularly. God made us so that, with the right foods and activity's, our bodies would heal themselves. But it must be regular and strenuous exercise. Studies show that exercise will do all kinds of things, including: improving quality of life, lengthening life, strengthening the immune system, and protect you from very many diseases and body part failures such as cancer and Alzheimer's and others.

2. Get enough sleep. If you don't get enough sleep you will lose your efficiency and clearness of mind. Even a loss of one or two hours of sleep will manifest itself in a lagging speed of thought. Sleep also helps to prevent weight gain! (so that's why I'm gaining weight...)

3. Eat right. Eating the wrong stuff will clog up the innards, leading to just about everything bad, from freckles on the fingernails, to kidney stones, to cancer. Eating right will starve the viruses and parasites and leave a healthy, happy, energetic person.

Hopefully I have you convinced. But anyway, as I have said many times, we are to glorify God in all areas of life, just as it says in Philipians 1:20: “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Younger Siblings are pretty annoying, aren't they?

So you're sitting there reading a book, and your little brother comes up to you and asks you to get him a cup of water. It's not a long distance to the kitchen, but you tell him to go ask another sibling. Another instance: Your friend tells you a joke and you laugh. Later your little brother tells a joke, and you ignore him.
I'm not saying that You or I have done that, but chances are something like that has happened to you. But why? Why is it so much easier to converse with our peers but not our siblings? 1 John 4:20 says: If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
So here there is shown an important link between our God and our family. So the issue of family relations is important, but still, what do we do?
We look at the three words: Love, Pride, and Duty.

#1. Love. Love is not just a feeling, and it most often feels bad because love is sacrificial. To have a close relationship with anybody, even our little brothers and sisters, you have to have the mindset that says: "I don't care if I am not the center of attention. I want to serve my family and those around me, even when that is hard for me to do."

#2. Pride. Pride is a human plague. It can be so harmful to your circles of friend and family. Usually when talking to younger people, pride is what restrains you from truly encouraging them, because your older than them right? Your supposed to be better than them, and some people will go to drastic measures to beat down people or talk down them when they feel that their younger siblings are doing better than them, or if they are smarter than them. Seeing younger or less experienced people do better than you or get more praise than you is a blow to the human nature but Proverbs 11:2 says: “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.”

#3. Duty. In Genesis 4:9 Cain doubted whether it was his responsibility to take care of his little brother or not. And this is a pretty common problem. As older siblings we don't realize just how much influence we have on the younger people. If you watch closely however, you will usually see some behavior in your little follower that looks just like yours. In a way, your relational abilities with your brothers and sisters show how you will act with your spouse and children, so if you don't teach your younger brothers now, how will you know how to teach your children? and because these little ones learn from your example, the pressure is on you as the older one to do what is right.