Carrots, Eggs or Coffee? Which One Are YOU

Daveswordsofwisdom.com: Carrots, Eggs or Coffee? Which One Are YOU: Grandmother says... Carrots, Eggs, or Coffee; "Which are you?" A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her lif...


I just loved the thought this one takes.  Hoped you enjoyed reading it and reflecting on where you actually stand in life.

Spiritual Vitamins No. 4

Quitting? 

Take Vitamin Q. 

“Quit you like men and women, be strong.” 

(1 Corinthians 16:13)

Restless? 

Take Vitamin R.

 “Rest in the Lord, 

and wait patiently for him.” 

(Psalm 37:7)

Scared? 

Take Vitamin S. 

“Stay with me, and do not be afraid; 

for the one who seeks my life seeks your life; 

you will be safe with me.” 

(1 Samuel 22:23)

Tired? 

Take Vitamin T. 

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, 

they shall mount up with wings like eagles, 

they shall run and not be weary, 

they shall walk and not faint.” 

(Isaiah 40:31)

Uncertain? 

Take Vitamin U. 

“Understand that I am (the Lord). 

Before me no god was formed, 

nor shall there be any after me.”

 (Isaiah 43:10)

Read more at Spiritual Vitamins A to Z 

Spiritual Vitamins No. 3

Well here is another dose of vitamins that you might need.

Jittery? 

Take Vitamin J. 

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” 

(Hebrews 13:8)

Know nothing? 

Take Vitamin K. 

“Know this that the Lord is God, 

it is He that made us and not we ourselves. 

(Psalm 100:3)

Lonely? 

Take Vitamin L. 

“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

(Matthew 28:20)

Mortgaged? 

Take Vitamin M. 

“My grace is sufficient for you,

 for power is made perfect in weakness.” 

(2 Corinthians 12:9)

Nervous? 

Take Vitamin N. 

“Never, no never will I leave you nor forsake you.” 

(Hebrews 13:5)

Overwhelmed? 

Take Vitamin O. 

“Overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)

Perplexed or puzzled?

 Take Vitamin P.

 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled, 

and do not let them be afraid.” 

(John 14:27)

Read more at Spiritual Vitamins A to Z 

Spiritual Vitamins No.2

Here are the next vitamins that are important to a healthy Spiritual diet.  We only may need them in minute quantities but each is very, very important.

Fearful? 

Take Vitamin F. 

“Fear not, for I am with you, 

do not beafraid, for I am your God.” 

(Isaiah 41:10)

Greedy? 

Take Vitamin G. 

“Give, and it will be given to you. 

A good measure, pressed down, 

shaken together, running over, 

will be put unto your lap; 

for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” 

(Luke 6:38)

Hesitant? 

Take Vitamin H. 

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, 

who announces salvation, 

who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns."

 (Isaiah 52:7)

Insecure? 

Take Vitamin I.

 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” 

(Philippians 4:13)

Read more at Spiritual Vitamins A to Z 

Spiritual Vitamins

I love the following comment "Begin each day with a Spiritual Vitamin.  Sit in a quiet place and read what is written.  Drop all Concerns.  Expect nothing.  Just Be Still." ~ Wayne Austin

These vitamins are different from the ones you take each day.  To help you with your fitness and health, to get over a cold or something worse.  These one's don't fix those types of needs.  These ones are very special.  They are used when your feeling spiritually low, when times are tough and you need a boost.  

Wayne suggested in his blog that you take them for 30 days and then see how your coping.  These are once a day Vitamins.  If your one of those people who can't remember to take a pill then see if you can take the Daniel challenge and do it for 10 days.

At the same time don't forget to pray and leave it with God to nourish you also.  He will richly bless you in ways you've never thought of.

Lets start with the following:-

Anxious? 

Take Vitamin A. 

“All things work together for good for those who love God, 

who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Blue? 

Take Vitamin B. 

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, 

and all that is within me, 

bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1)

Crushed? 

Take Vitamin C.

 “Cast all your anxiety on him, 

because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

Depressed?

 Take Vitamin D. 

“Draw near to God, 

and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)

Empty? 

Take Vitamin E.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, 

and his courts with praise. 

Give thanks to him, bless his name.” 

(Psalm 100:4)

Healthful Living

A time to celebrate.

May 18 - 25 2013

The Adventist denomination this year is Celebrating 150 years since Ellen G White one of our founders had a couple of visisons given by God about living healthfully.  She guided the church back to a more biblical based diet and also encouraged more exercise and how to dress for the climate rather than for fashion.

In reading about the good old days of medicine, smoking was good for lungs disease, sunlight and fresh air caused germs.  Plus no one really washed that well.  Some people I've read never actually had a bath in their entire life. Then medication was a hit and miss with opium being used, mercury (yes that's right), leaches and what we call from the old western movies snake oil.  (Don't forget Coke cola started out this way.)


She actually had 5 visions about healthful living.

The 1st vision was about keeping away from smoking or chewing tobacco her and her family healthy so they could continue ministering to people.  (Her husband actually had serious depression and a stroke for a time and had to give up his ministry. Two of her sons died from illness, which could have been prevented by following a good diet, lots of fresh air etc).

The 2nd vision involved cleanliness & the avoidance of fatty food.
The 3rd vision was about the lack of faith & education of healthy living in the church. (The importance of the mother in providing for her children).

Then the 4th & 5th visions were about the work of the church.  This vision changed the churches direction and promotion of health.  Now big food producing factories around New Zealand, Australia produce healthy foods, soy milk etc.  Plus running  triathlons for children.  There are also others around the world.   World class hospitals (that teach nurses and doctors etc) and small clinics in the Pacific (now being supported by churches in the 1st world). Professionals that give up their time to volunteer on ships or do surgery in various countries that can't afford this type of intervention.

Not only that but those some churches are influencing their own local community running health programs such as Vegetarian cooking classes, CHIP programs and walking or sporting events.

Yes she and people like Joseph Bates (against alcohol, tea and coffee) have influenced how Adventist's have eaten and lived for years.  

Some people still have problems with where this information came from at that time.  An Australian GP made a study in the early 2000's about her healthy guidelines and he wrote up his findings in a book "Acquired or inspired?"  He discovered that 78% have been verified by science in the 20th and 21st Century.  Yet she wrote the book back in about 1871.

The only thought I have now is just how many of us actually still maintain those healthful practices?  Have they actually given up this cause for  convenience of getting food quickly onto the table?

What mixed messages are we giving our kids about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, not just in diet, but do we think about the impact we have on the environment?  Do teach them how to make health choices, live a life of integrity?  What about living a balanced lifestyle between work, rest and play (to take on the Mars Bar ad).  To do things and eat or drink in moderation, where can they get support?  Yes what is the message that you are passing onto your family?

NOT ALL CALORIES ARE EQUAL

When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.  Do not crave his delicacies for that food is deceptive.  Prov 23: 1-3 NIV

I was flicking through books in my library to which ones I would give away and discovered a devotional on health that came from a while ago, so I decided to browse through it.  The title caught my attention.

You can’t just cut your calories and expect to lose weight.  Here’s why: by nature, your body is highly efficient in storing fat calories.  It uses only about 3% of the fat calories you eat to digest, transport, and deposit fat into your body’s fat storage areas.  That means you must exercise to vast majority out of the body if you don’t want to gain weight.

In contrast your body metabolizers from excess protein, and excretes the by products rapidly.  You can have problems with excess protein of course because it stresses your liver and kidneys by forcing them to work overtime.  But excess protein doesn’t usually add to obesity.  You have no efficient metabolic pathway in your body by which you can turn protein into fat for storage.

Calories from CHO also rarely get stored as fat, because the metabolic pathways that you body uses to convert extra CHO into fat then than store them demand that you burn a lot of calories to do the job.  It takes 24% of the calories in CHO to do this – a highly inefficient use of the energy for CHOs.

In studies in which researchers put radioactive CHO markers in food, they learned that the body converted and stored less than 1% of the CHO load as fat.  Even when people ate CHO excessively, they generally burned them up in “wasteful” metabolic processes that tended to increase the body’s metabolic rate, not reduce it – as happens in calorie – restricted diets.

Another way to put this is that 1g of fat contains 9 calories, while 1g of protein or CHO has only 4 calories.  The moral of the story is avoid fat calories – they stick to your bones! There’s an interesting bit of advice in Proverbs 23:3 about overeating.  It say’s don’t crave a ruler’s delicacies, because that food is deceptive.  How true!  Most rich food is filled with fat calories that may be tough to get rid of. 

Sin is deceptive, too.  It may look and taste good, but the consequences on indulging may be harder to get rid of than fat calories.

Watch your moral diet, “for the wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23)

Fit for My King Part 4

 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, 

but only one person gets the prize? 

So run to win!  

All athletes are disciplined in their training.

They do it to win a prize that will fade away, 

but we do it for an eternal prize. 

1 Corinthians 9:24 - 25 NLT

We have just finished the Olympic summer sport year and this year the winter Olympics is on later.  So we are well aware of what lengths athletes go to, to be their best.  Some of them use drugs to get there, others are clean.  

As I write this my hometown is gearing up for the Tour Downunder.  The bike riders have all come in for the week long event.  They have spent time training, riding on the road for months to get fit and ready for the start of the year of cycling events.

The same goes for us as well. God through Paul is asking us to train our minds and our bodies like athletes.  To prepare for the eternal prize and to glorify God.  We are to win lives to Christ.

Sheri's prayer for this reading 

"Dear God,

I commit to practice self-control over the next 30 days.  

May this 30 day commitment I am making to You turn into a life

 that runs the race of my faith with endurance.

In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. (p.21)

May God bless you as go throughout this coming week as God prepares, your heart, your mind and your spirit to experience his touch like never before ... the abundant life you were destined to live in him. (p.21)

The Church Pot Luck of Spiritual Gift

"I want very much to see you, 

to give you some spiritual gift to make you strong.

I mean that I want us to help each other with the faith we have. 

Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you." 

Romans 1:11, 12 NCV

This sabbath I read an article in the RECORD my church's magazine about the importance of Potlucks in the church's ability to bring people together.  At one church I know one of the attendees would visit each church in the area when they were holding a luncheon.

Some young financially strapped student's that I know regularly decide where they will go to church for the day to get a meal.  (Sometimes they choose which church depending on which hospitality groups is cooking.)  Other churches I know of provide lunch for these students.

Some people I know will avoid them at any cost.  What is the importance of having potlucks or luncheons at a church?  The following sermonette brings light to this subject.

Covered Dish - A DEVOTIONAL from jimcf on GodTube.

The Chocolate Teapot

 In the past he was useless to you, 

but now he has become useful for both you and me.  

Philemon 1:11

Have you heard the phrase as useless as a chocolate teapot?
I hadn't really thought about it until this summer when I read about a chocolate teapot and found the book I updated my book review with.

I thought I'd find out what a chocolate teapot was.  So here are the findings from that distrustful but helpful source Wikkipedia.

A chocolate teapot is a teapot that would be made from chocolate. It is commonly supposed that such a teapot would melt, and be impossible to use, therefore the term is often used as an analogy for any useless item.

A chocolate teapot, it turns out, is the ultimate in uselessness; a profoundly flawed design, whose defining characteristics make it unfit for its intended use. The metaphor makes sense; it’s obvious that if you try to make tea in a chocolate teapot, it will melt, and (boiling water being what it is), you’ll have a mess (and maybe a lawsuit) on your hands.

However author David Lawerance used this as a title for a book to give guidance to young teenagers in dealing with everyday crises that come their way.  I would suggest we are all like chocolate teapots. The world may tip in to our middle hot water or liquid and we melt.  Like the teapot in the clip from Iain Clarke.  (Sorry that it also advertises his company.)

A few people like Iain have tried to improve the chocolate teapot. One particular group found that it really depended on the thickness of the walls of the teapot whether or not it actually melted.  I believe that God knows how thick we need to be.  When  we read God's love letter everyday and pray with him and do his bidding every day we grow stronger and gain protection, so when we get into or have hot water in our lives we are made more sturdy.God is then the Chocolate Teapot Specialist.

Fruit of the Spirit

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,                                                                kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.                                                      There is no law against things like this."                                                                                Galatians 5:22-23

I have always wanted to write a blog on this topic, I love fruit.  I actually like summer fruit the best.  Unfortunately I am unable to enjoy it.  I have major allergies to most of it.    This type of fruit does not go out of season thank goodness.  It only improves on using it.

I found this a sermonette On GodTube.  For me learning has to be visual so I enjoyed the following animation.

Fruit of the Spirit - An illustration from inspiredfaith on GodTube.