Gateway to Health: Conclusion

Rev. 8:13 "And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!"

Gateway to Health: Conclusion

Value Yourself!

I am concluding my Gateway to Health Series. I’ve shown you all I can about changing your diet, and the essential exercise necessary (simply walking 20-30 minutes a day or more) to keep blood flowing through your lymph nodes. I’ve told you of my successes and my failures, my ups and downs, and everything in between; now its time to let you fly. 

I realized that I might not have shown you one thing and that is to value yourself. I think people are so caught up in the fast pace of society, trying the fish joint, or the new burger palace or eating at that restaurant because of tradition and not many will give pause to waiting, valuing themselves enough to change their order for a healthier solution. People don’t think themselves worthy enough to save or are worth eating healthy to save themselves from numerous doctors visits to stay alive.

Statistically, only twenty percent of the people are willing to change their diet to save themselves from imminent death. Life is too short they say, you only live once they murmur, ‘hey, we all gotta die from something’. I get it, I know what you’re saying. Me, I’ve had the wake-up call of a lifetime. I’ve been given the opportunity to live instead of dying a slow, long drawn out, painful, drug-induced death. I’m one of the twenty percentiles that value living more than dying.

I have a Spider plant that I’ve had for about twelve years. It was always drooping no matter what I did. I watered, fed, and fertilized it but it continuously drooped. With the Christmas season came a rearranging of plants. I sat my Spider Plant in a window where it gets to see the sunrise every morning. Within two months, this looks like a whole new plant, reaching for the sky, turning towards the sun, and reproducing by having babies! 

I did something right and never moved the plant back to its previous spot. I let my plant flourish and grow. It listened to me when I said you need to have a change or you’re going to die. I know a lot of folks don’t believe plants know anything but let me tell you, weird Joni has witnessed this living breathing plant extend its life with CHANGE! That is my very reason for writing to you, so maybe you’ll change to live.

I could’ve left the plant where it was and just let it limp through life with wilted leaves but I knew a drastic change was in order for me to see this plant live up to its potential. That is all I want for my human friends who can actually change on their own, live up to your full potential, is that too much to ask? Apparently, it is. I can offer sunshine but most of the time I think your shades are drawn. I can offer you something new but too often you cling to the old. Old habits are hard to break, or so they say.

1 Thess. 5:24 “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

1 Thess. 5 is almost the same thing (as in so many scripture verses) that cries out to you, a guide for you, and an aid in hard times and struggles but do you adhere? If you are not going to listen to the Holy Bible who am I to think you’d change your diet because of a few words I pen? I cry out to you to change, not to shame you or judge you, I do it because I want you to live and not be imprisoned by the drugs that will usher you to your death.

To get through the Gateway to Health there is no other entry than to walk through it, taking the first step towards change. Even the smallest of steps will have you feeling the value of life. If you’re not willing to change then go to your doctor, ask him what drug will make the slow process of death easier on you because it seems that is all anyone wants is an easy route to get from point A to point B. 

A year into my changed protocol, I struggle daily with pains, ups, and downs and don’t feel much unlike Elijah in many ways. I understand the trial I must endure and it is not the easy route in life; I cry out.

1 Kgs. 19:4 “But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”

When I cry out to Him, God assures me of another path, one where I live and I’m shown the value of my life, my journey and the end reward. Am I wrong in wanting the same for my fellow man?

1 Kgs. 19:5-8 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

My journey is far from over. I will move forward with the strength of an army of angels plowing forward bringing peace and goodwill to man. I cannot devalue my life, my soul is too precious whether good or bad instances flare up, I roll right along facing what I must. My wish for you is that when you look in the mirror you see the value in yourself before giving in completely to the darkness that leads you in the wrong direction; strolling down the darkened path where the gateway of health is closed to you.

When God extends his hand, do you turn away? When He gives you a second chance, do you toss it in the garbage pail outside the fast food restaurant? When God speaks, do you listen or are your earplugs in and you only hear what you want to hear, when you want to hear it? I’ve had every opportunity that you’ve had, to listen to everyone else, go the easy route, to be thrown on the table to be sliced, diced and medicated or go the tough route of listening to the whispers of something greater out there in the void of the cosmos. I chose the harder route but, to me, the better route.

I’m now making a choice to conclude my Gateway to Health series and allowing you to decide for yourself whether you’re worth living or dying. Do you value your life or are you content with your health, weight, prognosis, or diagnosis? If you said no, then do something about it, change is within your grasp. Take a chance, that’s all. Either fall or walk, stumble or crawl, whatever you decide you’re WORTH it to stay alive!

May the Grace of the Lord be upon you all! 

Angel always…Godspeed my friends…

The Martyr

Rev 11:7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

The Martyr

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Christians beheaded by the ISIS group?

I read that they were Coptic Christians and I thought, what’s the difference, isn’t a Christian a Christian?

A Coptic Christian is called Coptic because this is the language of the Afro-Asiatic. I’m intrigued to know more about them. They are Christians living in a predominantly Muslim world, which is why they are persecuted on a daily basis.

This isn’t the first beheadings and certainly won’t be the last we hear of this atrocity. So why do these beheadings warrant an outcry more than the others?  I can’t say. I do know the bible says that we will be persecuted for His names sake so why does it shock us that prophecy is being fulfilled?

These people live in the very land where Jesus and His followers walked. His shoes were filled with the sand of the land and the same that were persecuted in Moses day and Jesus’ day are the same men and women being persecuted in this very day. Can you think of any difference in then and now?

I thought about it and the main thing I found different was the way we, in the safe zone called America basically thousands of miles away from the Middle East and these horrendous acts, hear the stories by the click of a button.

We’re sitting at our desks, all snug in our warm socks, possibly wrapped in a warm blanket, drinking our freshly brewed coffee, relaxing behind a screen. All the while Christians are being persecuted all around us in record number.

Imagine a time when we were fed our news via mouth. “I heard this...”

Yup, word of mouth, then it was the written word via a long article in the newspaper, now we click a button of our preferred news source and then we become the relaters of the words like little gossipmongers.

“He said this.”

“She said this.”

It must be the truth because they said this and that.

I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed that not only is God working here but satan as well? God is trying to hold us to our commitment to Him while Satan is waving his arms all around garnering our attention and it is working. Yes the crimes are horrendous, yes it is despicable to think that one must die proclaiming Christianity but it is also saddening to watch ‘Christians’ walk right into satans hands. How? By spewing hate, that’s how. This is his goal and all too many are the gullible, willing recipients. He spews hate, they spew hate, and the line of hate flourishes and grows.

Yes, we are called to despise evil but when YOU spew evil am I to despise you? Think about that. There are always two sides to every story. Did Jesus use just one disciple to spread his word? Did God have one man spread His word across the nations? No, He didn’t and as such we have the books that form the Holy Bible in front of us today. And an FYI, the Bible was not written in verse form I believe, so that one verse couldn’t/ shouldn’t be taken out of context.

We are in the midst of nation rising against nation. God and Satan are at war. Prophecy is being fulfilled and we cower and spread hate? We are divided spiritually, religiously and politically. I do not pretend to know the religion of my acting president no more than can I know who my fellow Christian brother/sister is. Just because I clicked a button and was fed lies am I to believe them as truth?

I am neither democratic nor republican, I am neither a Jew nor a Muslim but in this world I am persecuted no matter what I believe. I believe in truth. God’s truth not man and his twisted truth. Do you get it? If you partake in the spewing of lies and hate, you are no different than the men of the ISIS group; you want to be heard, you want to be right, you my friend are doing just what satan wants you to do, not what God wants you to do.

You say you’re a Christian but would you defend Christianity in death? Can you place yourself in the beheaded Christians place and say you too would die for your belief? I see Americans and people worldwide being persecuted for Christ and we don’t hear anything about them, they are all hidden deep within the information highway so you only SEE the most gruesome of crimes being committed. We FEED off this brutality hence become a part of the atrocity. To my eyes, you are fulfilling satans task at destroying us.

To be called a Christian you must act like one. Name-calling is not what Christianity is about. If our government stood firm and called themselves Christians and not ACTING like Christians, the fingers would be pointing, shouting even, you’re a liar, you can’t be Christian, but when the government takes no stance on religion they are called other names and the vicious cycle of satan-born hate goes round and round.

Instead of hate-spewing, I read this yesterday:

...whatever the world news may say about the Brave, Martyred 21 Christians who were beheaded by ISIS, Lord, we know Your Word speaks the Truth: "The world was not worthy of them." (Heb.11:38) However any evil thinks it's winning & overcoming, Your Truth declares that they are the Overcomers, that they overcame "because of the blood of the Lamb & because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death." (Rev.12:11) And wherever Your people are tonight, God, We will remember every one of their names because they did not forget You or forsake claiming Your name, We will pray for their families because they are our literal family, And we will pray that our faith *in You* is worth laying down our life *for You,* We will pray that we don't live lives of cheap grace but of costly Christianity, We will pray that their sacrificed lives will stir us to live sacrificial lives And we will weep prayers for the persecuted Church because we are *bound* to them through Your Heart & in Your heart they are UNBOUND, UNDEFEATABLE, UNDAUNTED, & UNFORGETTABLE.  ~ Courtesy of Ann Voskamp of Smoky Mountain Christian

I don’t know if the author is Ann Voskamp but instead of shouting injustices she took the high road and showed her CHRISTIAN faith! This is what it’s all about people, PRAYER! Not hate-filled, dogmatic words of prayer, genuine heartfelt, fervent prayer.

I am a child of God. I will not judge you for whatever road you choose to get to where you are at in life today, and I should hope and pray that YOU don’t judge others for whatever path THEY are choosing. Don’t let satan have the pleasure of deceiving you.

 Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”