Dietary Woes

Posted on by frankwmcarr

Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. 1 Cor 6:12-13a, BSB

I’ve been having trouble with my diet. I may be entering a prediabetic state, and this could warrant changes in eating habits such as eating less red meat, sugars, and fatty food. The cardiologist suggested adopting a Mediterranean diet, but if I did so I thought I would sorely miss the foods I love.

According to the scripture above, just because something is legal or even desired doesn’t mean it’s good. Alcohol and tobacco are harmful substances to be consumed, yet people 21 and up can obtain them. They remain on the market so stores can make money off unwise decisions.

If you consider the ending verse of the above scripture passage, food is a temporal commodity that is important for bodily nourishment, as well as being enjoyable. But once we leave this world, it is unnecessary since we no longer need nourishment, and the enjoyment of food is trivial compared to the immense joy of our heavenly eternity. Everything on earth is just a drop in the bucket compared to what awaits us in the hereafter.

So since food will later be destroyed totally upon death, within this life we can certainly avoid foods. It’s easy to avoid foods we don’t like, so it just takes more discipline to avoid ones we do if they are causing health issues. You can have a smaller portion as well, but you would have to spend more time eating it. However, the silver lining is that you may taste the food more that way.

I own a Mediterranean cookbook, so maybe that can inspire some recipes. I also have some diabetic cookbooks, in case I became that way.

So, I guess I’ll see where this takes us. But at least I have a plan.

The Christian Benefit for the Blind (Especially From Birth)

Posted on by frankwmcarr

Perhaps many of you know about the scene in John’s Gospel (chapter 9), miraculously restored sight to a man born blind, known to be a sinner. Jesus placed His saliva on the man’s eyes, and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam. The man the could see. The man then believed in him due to his ability to see. It provides an image of salvation using the metaphor of vision.

Now blindness is no joke. The loss of our precious sight is tragic. There is so much beauty and business that the blind miss out on. While blind people do survive and adapt to life after sight, it’s just not the same. Some blind people are born that way, while others acquire it from disease or injury.  A woman I know from church was born blind, and so was the Motown legend Stevie Wonder. It is the job of top notch ophthalmologists and vision scientists to help people see as much as possible.

However, there is an advantage if you’re a Christian. Since Christians have eternal life, no matter if they are blind as a bat or have eyes like eagles, our heavenly eternity is far more crystal clear than any earthly visual capacity can contain. For those who lost their sight, at least they have enjoyed what eyesight has to offer. But for those who have never saw anything, it will be even more amazing, since they see for the first time!

Until then, we have to deal with problems like blindness. We must understand God’s sovereignty — He is God, we are not. He has a purpose for every person, whether they see or not. And we must be thankful and count our blessings, including sight.

The Apparent “Masculinity” of God and How to Deal with It

Posted on by frankwmcarr

Strictly speaking, God is neuter, neither male nor female. He is a spirit. And while God doesn’t technically have a “gender” (aside from the human person of Jesus), we generally use masculine pronouns to describe Him.

Perhaps you may watch the American sitcom series “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” aired on the CBS network. This is a spinoff of “Young Sheldon,” in turn spun-off from “The Big Bang Theory.” If you’re not familiar with these shows (especially if you’re from a country where it’s not aired), it’s okay, I will walk you through.

The show revolves in the fictional Texas town of Medford, around Georgie Cooper (a high school dropout and tire clerk) and his wife Mandy McCallister (a budding TV weathercaster). Georgie (raised Baptist by his religious zealot mother Mary Cooper), and Mandy (raised in a Catholic family) raise their baby on daughter CeCe on the show. Mary is the secretary for the First Baptist Church of Medford.

So the church holds a carnival, in which Mandy and the pastor, Jeff, appear live on the TV station. Mandy wavered over the male identity of God, while Jeff was firm that God was male. Viewers thought that was blasphemous, and while she apologized, apparently she wasn’t that sincere. She got a lot of hate mail. Upon returning to the station, she wound up resigning.

While God is not truly male (or female), for the public interest she should have just used masculine pronouns, the way that most viewers would understand it. Especially in the Bible Belt they live in.

As a spirit who created both males and females, he has to have both masculine and feminine qualities, to show His power and glory in a world where both genders exist.

Sometimes, if an idea goes against your beliefs, but you are faced with it, you must do whatever honors God.

For example, in college biology courses I have taken, I have had to face evolution, despite personally a progressive creationist, and just “regurgitate” what was correct according to the test. Similarly, in a later class, I also had to use evolutionary concepts in some work, but personally take it with a grain of salt.

Another example is politics. When you vote, you have to choose the better, or increasingly, “less evil” of the two candidates. You will never have a perfect politician. God sets up leaders in the world, and we should pray for them to properly do the work they are called to do, keeping order and justice.

Even in real life I have encountered a super-liberal Methodist church that sung “She’s Got the Whole World in Her Hands,” to celebrate Women’s History Month (March).

In Matthew 10:19, 20 Jesus mentions that in times of persecution, the Spirit will supply the words needed so you can have peace in Him in such situations.

So Mandy may have had a better way of dealing with that situation. Maybe she could recognize that the pastor wanted his way, and accepted that. And if she did cross the line, she could be more sincere on her job. After all, she is a weather reporter, not a televangelist. The weather is neutral, indeed, just like God!