Gateway to Health: Change

Job 30:18 “By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.”

Gateway to Health: Change

Everyone thinks about change, little actually do something about it. In other words, change is just something people think about doing but if you put no action behind it, it is then just a word you throw around. This week is the week resolutions will be broken. The promise of change scared you back into your lazy habits.

You can’t just say you’re going to change your habits you have to actively seek out the best way to make your life better and cut those nasty, toxic routines down a couple of notches! 

When I was first diagnosed I knew a change was in order and one of the major protocols. I didn’t realize just how drastic the change had to be, but I dove right in, researching what needed to change first and foremost. I went from eating mac and cheese, pasta crazy woman who loved her milk and cookies and her unfathomable amounts of bad for me foods and sugar, to zero!

I cut out dairy, meats, carbs, sugar, you name it, I more than likely couldn’t eat it or was leery of it feeding the sick cells in my body. Let me tell you, just because you’re not diagnosed with the Big C doesn’t mean it isn’t sitting inside you right now festering and waiting for the right time to be caught. I know you’re saying, “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it,” and I pray it never finds you. If it does are you going to be ready?  Yeah, I wasn’t ready either. I too would much rather be eating junk food, drinking Pepsi and living like I just don’t care but God handed me a second chance. Not everyone is as lucky as me. Yeah, the diagnosis was shocking but it didn’t end me. God might not give you, your kids or your grandkids a second chance so why not change now, or at least TRY to change?

I think people in the world are disillusioned. They tell themselves lies to justify why they do what they do or maybe they really don’t care and the YOLO attitude is in charge. That’s still no reason to drink a beer because it helps you fall asleep, or drink aspartame even though you’ve read that it causes cancer. People lie to themselves all the time and justify each step of their wrongdoing.

From the link above:
“...this is due to the fact that tumors were extremely rare in the past. They only became common and rampant in recent times due to people’s poor diet habits, laziness, and excess technology.”

Do you see/read that and realize what it is saying? Our bad eating habits, our laziness has CAUSED cancer? You probably don’t believe that as you’re sitting there biting into a chemically laden burger, or drinking the toxic soft drink, with french fries soaked in grease then ingested. Oh, I know it tastes good, but when you’re popping numerous pills because of an illness, day after day, is that easier and cheaper than CHANGING your diet?

Change isn’t all about food. When you change your diet a lot of times everything else falls into place like exercise, less need of drugs to keep you going, your clothes size, and your health transforms. You no longer want to lie to yourself, you no longer are a person who whines and cries about every ache and pain, you’ve challenged the pain to go away and by changing, it goes away. Change is everything!

With this disease front and center in my life, I changed more than my diet, I changed the toxic water I drink, the soap I use, the shampoo, pots, and pans and with that change, I am no longer a prisoner to chemicals being ingested. We live in a world where no one cares about the round-up being used on our food, the chemicals to keep our food fresh for DAYS and maybe weeks, or the plastics that we radiate our food in a microwave and then eat the food. We have made ourselves sick because we have allowed ourselves to be simplified not knowing it’s what is basically killing us.

We live in a hurried and rushed world not ready for the change. Change is too hard, too challenging, too out of reach. We want our steaks bigger, so they’re shot up with GMO’S, we want our food bigger lasting longer and cooked faster. We don’t want challenges, we like being overweight and lazy. And what is so weird is if we’re not lazy we still gain weight. It’s the chemicals and drugs that have tampered with your metabolism and no matter how hard you try, the weight stays, you keep growing and nothing changes.

I challenged you on January first to give up just carbs and sugar. That’s it. I don’t think anyone took me up on the challenge and that’s okay. If you won’t give up those two, at least become a label reader and become aware of all the carbs and sugar you put in your stomach. Just by changing the way you buy food, can change your waist size, and everything else will follow suit. ACTION causes a REACTION! Guaranteed! It is scientifically proven!

I’ve changed for my health because I want to live yet I can’t figure out for the life of me why. I’m still working on that one. I’m going to live while everyone around me dies? I think I’m being transformed. I’m being prepared. My body is becoming the purity that was born into this world. I’ve only just realized now that I was a tainted lifeform and now my transformation will bring me back to the beginning. It makes no sense to you but all the sense to me.

While I write to try and help you to want to change, I realize no one really wants to change they want to stay the same. Change takes time and since I was in line with a ticket and it came that my time was up, it made the matter more urgent and change was necessary or I’d die, plain and simple.

I have seen testimonies of Stage 4 brain/ colon/ lung cancer patients heal with alternative protocols, I have read testimonies of Stage 3 Breast Cancer patients healing with self-care, I have also seen testimonies of the tragic Stage 1 patients being led to slice and dice slaughter and down the immune life damaging path because they were told they were going to die. One word – CHANGE. Change changes everything! Are you up to the challenge?

Job 14:14 “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.”

Poetry Sunday ~ No Heaven In Hell

Image by Elaine DeBoucher

Pss. 139:8 “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”

No Heaven in Hell

There is no heaven in hell

Only a place for sin to dwell

The liars charred in flaming fire

When hell becomes their one desire.

There is no hell in heaven

Souls transform like leaven

To rise above the earthly skies

Heaven gives home to the wise.

There is no heaven in hell

The hypocrites home a shell

Tears will be shed for the dead

Who dare not cling to the Bread.

There is no hell in Heaven

Unclean souls to beckon

Roaming through the stardust light

Bid the cosmos a sweeping g’nite.

There is no heaven in hell

The party’s over it's time to quell

Thirst you crave throughout the day

Allow our Lord to Light the way!

~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

Isa. 35: 8-10 And a highway will be there;

    it will be called the Way of Holiness;

    it will be for those who walk on that Way.

The unclean will not journey on it;

    wicked fools will not go about on it.

 No lion will be there,

    nor any ravenous beast;

    they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

     and those the Lord has rescued will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

    everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Quotation Saturday ~ Communication

Rom. 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

CYBER

“The problem with making a virtual world of oneself is akin to the problem with projecting ourselves onto a cyberworld: there’s no end of virtual spaces in which to seek stimulation, but their very endlessness, the perpetual stimulation without satisfaction, becomes imprisoning.”
~ Jonathan Franzen

“The separation between the cyber and the physical worlds was disappearing. Cyberbullying was just bullying, and cyberwar was just war - the true age of cyber began when we started removing it as a descriptor.”
~ Matthew Mather

“In this world where I sit at my desk writing these words, people die, they pass on, people are mortal. In the cyber world we inhabit they do not.”
~ Aysha Taryam

“I have to remember, the way we were is the way we are no more.”

~ Joni Zipp

COMMUNICATION

“You can talk with someone for years, everyday, and still, it won't mean as much as what you can have when you sit in front of someone, not saying a word, yet you feel that person with your heart, you feel like you have known the person for forever.... connections are made with the heart, not the tongue.”
~ C. JoyBell C.

“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
~ Hermann Hesse

“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”
~ Fred Rogers

“What’s not so great is that all this technology is destroying our social skills. Not only have we given up on writing letters to each other, we barely even talk to each other. People have become so accustomed to texting that they’re actually startled when the phone rings. It’s like we suddenly all have Batphones. If it rings, there must be danger.
Now we answer, “What happened? Is someone tied up in the old sawmill?”
“No, it’s Becky. I just called to say hi.”
“Well you scared me half to death. You can’t just pick up the phone and try to talk to me like that. Don’t the tips of your fingers work?”
~ Ellen DeGeneres, Seriously... I'm Kidding

SOCIALIZE

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social enviroment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions."
(Essay to Leo Baeck, 1953)”
~ Albert Einstein

“Why play, lounge or labour in a social wasteland? It's toxicity is contagious, and no respecter of persons. Fall back!”
~ T.F. Hodge

“I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien

“A rumor is a social cancer: it is difficult to contain and it rots the brains of the masses. However, the real danger is that so many people find rumors enjoyable. That part causes the infection. And in such cases when a rumor is only partially made of truth, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the information may have gone wrong. It is passed on and on until some brave soul questions its validity; that brave soul refuses to bite the apple and let the apple eat him. Forced to start from scratch for the sake of purity and truth, that brave soul, figuratively speaking, fully amputates the information in order to protect his personal judgment. In other words, his ignorance is to be valued more than the lie believed to be true.”
~ Criss Jami

DISCONNECT

“I was already at one remove before the Internet came along. I need another remove? Now I have to spend the time that I'm not doing the thing they're doing reading about them doing it? Streaming the clips of them doing it, commenting on how lucky they are to be doing all those things, liking and digging and bookmarking and posting and tweeting all those things, and feeling more disconnected than ever? Where does this idea of greater connection come from? I've never in my life felt more disconnected. It's like how the rich get richer. The connected get more connected while the disconnected get more disconnected. No thanks man, I can't do it. The world was a sufficient trial, Betsy, before Facebook.”
~ Joshua Ferris

“Disconnect yourself from people who cannot add five to your ten words, because, sooner or later, you won't be able to say even a word.”
~ Michael Bassey Johnson

“It seems perverse that we can be more social than anyone would have thought possible when we are at our most anti-social, locked away from the world and silently staring at a computer screen, but that, as psychologists will tell you is the way we operate. When we are at the maximum of our disconnect we also are ready to connect and feel the need for interaction.”
~ David Amerland

“The worlds within and without the Veil of Color are changing, and changing rapidly, but not at the same rate, not in the same way; and this must produce a peculiar wrenching of the soul, a peculiar sense of doubt and bewilderment. Such a double life, with double thoughts, double duties, and double social classes, must give rise to double words and double ideals, and tempt the mind to pretence or revolt, to hypocrisy or radicalism.”
~ W.E.B. Du Bois

Sin and Sin No More

Gal. 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

While man deemed the day Easter, my New Year and Resurrection Sunday was a blessed one. It was nice to peek into facebook and see how others celebrated the day. While some sat the entire day just posting pics and enjoyed sharing and liking, others celebrated with family, some boasted of a church service, and some respectfully didn’t post at all. Beautiful.

As my Holy season has come to a close, I realized something along the journey. I realized I don’t belong anywhere. I realize I am waiting the day I get married and become a united couple in the eyes of the Lord, while the world spins and goes on in the mundane manner that they deem okay.

I’m curious to know, did anyone look up at the sky early on Saturday morning? Were they so consumed with a social outlet that they missed out on something phenomenal taking place in the sky? Yes, I’m talking about the total lunar eclipse. I stood in the cold of the morning just gazing skyward and thanking the Lord for the blessings in my life as I watched the brightly lit full moon disappear darkening the sky.

It has been an awesome month and looks to be an inspiring wonderful year. I can’t say that for the rest of the world or the people in it. This is the time of the year that I am away from the computer more than I am behind it. This is the time I relish spending my days outdoors drinking in the sunshine instead of indoors sipping from the silliness of a society gone astray.

I’m saddened to think that the Resurrection Sunday celebration, which is really the Ishtar/Easter holyday, is relinquished to a reason to drink, a time to get together with family and get drunk. Drink and be merry the Bible says, but man takes that as a reason and a green light to sin; just as the death on the cross is nothing more than the go ahead to sin. Maybe the fall of man is because as you wish people a Happy Easter, you are in turn releasing the very presence of Ishtar into the lives of many. Christmas too has the same sin-filled overtones. It is no longer a celebration of the birth of Christ just as Easter is no longer the rejoicing in the resurrection after His death on the cross.

I know you’re thinking that drinking is not a sin, and I’d have to say I don’t make the judgment call of what sin is and is not, but there is many scriptures pointing to the fact that the Lord is well aware of man and his drunkenness and punishment is what He’ll unleash in His way, not my way. Many will spin their own take on truth, that’s what man does to justify his sin.

Titus 2: 2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

[4] That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

[6] Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

[12] Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Luke 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

Jesus’ death was not an occasion to sin but I feel many see it that way. ‘He died for my sins so I can sin and sin and sin and He’ll forgive me.’ Jesus’ death was not an occasion to sin. His death did not mean, ‘go and sin some more and you’ll find me waiting to forgive.’ I think His death meant a time of transformation! The time of your sin was over, to go and sin no more.

I see all to often people knowingly sinning but relying on the Lord’s death on the cross as a means of forgiveness. “I know I’m sinning, but Jesus will forgive me.” And they go on and sin over and over again losing sight of the entire crucifixion and resurrection.

We live in a world where people hate and hate some more because they are justified in their hate. Jesus declared that we are to love our brother, love our neighbor. He didn’t mean just our family members or next-door neighbors; He meant the entire human race. We are to love and turn the other cheek; even our neighbor’s in a foreign country. Should we jump on the hate bandwagon because everyone else seems to be enjoying the ride? NO!

We are a world built on conformity. We human beings follow along like lost little puppies yearning for their mother’s milk. When she stops we all stop to drink what she has to offer. She leads and we follow. No longer does man seek the depths of his being because he is too consumed with being a falsified follower.

I do not sin so I can be forgiven. When I accepted Christ, I try each and every waking day to keep myself from falling victim to sin. I am changed, transformed by my Lord, not using His death as a means to continue sinning. Am I a sinner? Yes! What I thank Him for every day is dying for me and allowing me the chance to change and be more like Him. And this is why…“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:”

Alleuia Amen! May the Resurrection of Christ transform you all! Not just with your lips but with your very heart and soul!

Isaiah 29:13-14 (NIV)

The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Lent: Day Forty-one ~ Transformation

Rom. 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Holy Week begins. This week we are winding down the Lent post. By Sunday I will have written forty- seven days in a row with a Christian theme every day. That is quite an accomplishment for me, since I’ve never written forty-seven days in a row ever before. What is my gain from all this? Transformation. A spiritual transformation! I am truly reaping what I sow.

While some people have gone on their merry way in life thinking Lent is just for the Catholics, I’m here to tell you that Lent is MORE than just a yearly observance in the Catholic church. Lent is so much more to me than an observance; Lent to me is a full-blown spiritual transformation.

To some, people take Lent serious, they will fast from meat from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday, some take it more serious than that and take a sabbatical from all things food, and some take it as ritualistic atonement and some never care about the season and don’t do anything. I watch from the background as addictions are still being fed; there is no break from the media onslaught of demoralization, no pause in footsteps of routine, no break from redundancy, no looking to Jesus for even a moment nevertheless forty-seven days.

One of the definitions of transform is this: change in form, appearance, nature or character. There hidden in a nutshell is what Lent is to me. I am busy being transformed but not by my own hand, by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit filling me day after day.

I don’t know if my form is changing, I’ve practically been the same size since I was eighteen give or take a few pounds. Form could mean a change in spirit, spirit being that which FORMS you. Yeah I like that better. Appearance could mean how I appear to others (and I don’t mean changing my hair color or adopting youthful sleaze-wear either.) Nature or character? Well yes! I’ve always been quite a character, that’s been my nature BUT I don’t think that is what that means either.

Lent is a transitional phase each year in my life, ending with the celebration of my New Year on Easter Sunday. I will either stay the same old person or I will be transformed and become the true natured person that God has planned for me. This is a ME thing and doesn’t mean in any way that all people or Christian’s celebrate Lent this way. I am dedicated to becoming a better Christian, and Lent is the best time for me to pause, breathe and drink in everything God pours out to me. This year He wanted me to write from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday and thus transforming me.

Forty-seven days of writing has caused me to focus on the Word more intently than I normally would; I have been more focused on God, I have plunged into research, I have dove into a spiritual awakening within and I have provided comfort and knowledge to anyone seeking and I can feel the transformation taking place within me. I think my appearance is changing in that people see the Light of the Lord more fully in me; which in turn shapes my character and the nature of my being.

If I haven’t touched one person in these forty-seven days of posts, then I’ve still gained because it is I who is being transformed by these posts. While my stats are up I’m also seeing that someone out there is enjoying my writing and finding them a comfort and warmth to their own soul.

As we come down to the last seven days of the Lenten season, may you be filled with Christ and may you find yourself growing in new and improved ways. May you find at the end of the week that you too have been transformed!

May God be with you all!

Revival begins in the individual’s heart. Let it begin with you on your face alone before God. Turn from every sin that might hinder. Renew yourself to a new devotion to the Saviour. 

~ Lee Roberson

Focus

For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.' - Proverbs 3:12 (KJV)

Focus

When skin is brittle and broken

We tend to see the scar

Why does man linger there

When we’ve tried to come so far.

To mend a tattered fence

Leaves room for shattered lives

Be still and try transforming

Awaiting the day He arrives.

Be still and know full clarity

Of a life that’s been reborn

Try not to complicate yourself

While you focus on the torn.

Looking at all the wrongs

Never makes the world aright

The action that you take to change

Helps peace rule the night.