If you are new to Saylaway, welcome. This is my God Blog. Not everyone wants to hear it so I mark it personal. You may slip in and out and go unnoticed or leave a comment. I enjoy dialog. Saylaway has a diverse readership. There are people who know a lot about the Bible and those who know little. I try to have something for everyone. Those who know the Scriptures well are better served if not everything is over explained. I certainly like to spring board off a thought to come to my own conclusions. We do love our own ideas! Those who know little about the Scriptures can look up a topic with a good Bible Concordance .. in fact you can probably google Scripture now ..... I'll have to check into that.
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The main purpose of this blog is a vent for my thoughts and ideas. But also I hope it is a source of good information for folks who stop in and visit. I hope you sense the love, mercy and peace of God and that you leave feeling blessed.
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That said, I promised on my Birdhouse Blog to talk about a technique I am using in an effort to get healthy which includes losing some weight. First I would like to tell you about a problem perspective I was having. I am a perfectionist, born and raised in the Hollywood atmosphere we call America. Our perspectives are the product of illusion and the beauty industry. I look at myself and others through this lens and made automatic judgements based on people's physical imperfections. I was particularly hard on myself which resulted in a good bit of self loathing and hatred. I prayed about this problem and almost instantly I began to see flesh as organic rather then beautiful or not. Just as I would look at trees and identify an oak, maple or willow, people differed in shape and size but I now looked on them (and myself) with the wonder I would bestow on fresh fruit in the market or vegetables growing in the garden.
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With this realization came the obligation to stewardship for what God has given to us. If we want a garden to flourish or our pets or certainly our children and not forgetting our own selves there has to be nurture. Weeds and pests will come up in the garden, the dog gets fleas, we and our children may become overweight, ill or addicted with neglect.
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Certainly if our physical condition affects our spiritual condition then our spiritual condition affects our physical condition and I can't tell you which comes first in any given situation ... the chicken or the egg.
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But I have spent some time in my other blog relating the centrality and worship of God as the beginning of health. And most of beauty is health. If God is in his rightful, primary place in our hearts, if we love and cherish him above all else then all else falls into place. This is an issue of faith or faithfulness. The metaphor that runs through scripture is that of God as the faithful husband married to us, the unfaithful wife. The allusion is sexual. The God who created man and woman, gave them sex, told them to be fruitful and multiply and called it, "good", was creating a tender and passionate illustration of his love for mankind, who, like the woman, was made as a receptacle for God's love. And the woman was tempted and deceived by Satan the enemy of God, and the man followed her willfully into unfaithfulness. This I think is why woman are forbidden to teach/rule over men in the church .... it is a throw back to that forbidden fruit .... the one thing you may not eat ... the one thing you may not do. Or so says St. Paul .... but we don't like restrictions do we? Not even if it is for our own good? Women will rule and men must drool ... over other women. But the restriction is also a command for men to teach/rule in love. Nature is a woman and she abhors a void. But I digress.
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It was the blood of God's only begotten Son, the God incarnate Christ Jesus, that bought his people out from under their new master Satan, and the judgement of hell by paying the penalty for their sin. We receive this salvation, hope and heaven with a simple faith and acceptance but we continue to live in a fallen world with the problems of sin and unfaithfulness in and around us. But, dear reader, we have the promise of Christ that he will never leave us or forsake us. We have his presence now through his Holy Spirit. And it simply follows that if Satan is the prince of the realm of sin, disease and hell then Christ is the Master of goodness, health and heaven. Which kingdom will you prefer to live?
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If Christ is dethroned then our lives are out of kilter. We reap the consequences of living unbalanced lives. Pursuing this desire and that want ... anxiety, resentfulness, complaining, undisciplined with no sense of moderation. But with our Good Shepherd everything becomes simple. Love God .... love your neighbor. Trust God to take care of your needs. Be thankful. If you were invited by a rich friend to come and live on his estate where you enjoyed many fine things would you dare to complain to your generous host? .... yet we feel free to complain at God in the face of all his mercies when he has already pledged himself to take care of us. All we need to do is ask. At the root of complaint is discontent. We are discontented because we do not have something we need or want and it's not God we are wanting it is what he can do for us. So by our complaint we show the unfaithful condition of our heart which has been led astray from the love of God into Satan's camp. Complaint opens the door to much torment. Praise and thankfulness to God opens doors of deliverance and God's kingdom.
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It was when I discovered this that I began to sing and praise much more regularly and avoid complaint like the plague that it is. This led to an overwhelming sense of God's presence, his pleasure and delight in me. Out of my devotional time came personal healing sessions. I would feel God's will to lay me down in quietness and rest. There was a sense of a hand placed upon my chest so that I should lay very still. These times were sometimes long and sometimes short. I did not interrupt them for anything as I would accept all the healing I can get. Am I healed of everything .... no, but I recently took a telephone health survey and realized that I am the healthiest I have ever been. I do attribute much of this to God's direction in the area of diet, vitamins and exercise (faith without works is dead) but also to these episodes of stillness where his calming presence releases resulting healthy hormones into my system. However I would note that negative thoughts may begin to encroach during the stillness much like the grubs that eat the tender shoots in my garden .... squash them like the nasty pests they are. They are the beginning of destruction. Nurture and foster good and wholesome thought .... the love of God.
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Afterwards I would feel rested and satisfied. There would be the absence of hunger, stress and anxiety. I do believe that if I continue in this life style that my body will reflect the condition of my soul since I have placed myself into his hands. He will also prod me into what I should or should not eat. Sometimes there is testing .... Do I love him or my food? I don't always want to put down my fork! But I turn my heart to thanking him for his very good advice which I had asked for to begin with.
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Sometimes he interrupts my business for another quiet session. Anxiety tends to build when we work at something with out rest. We begin to feel faint and then we eat. And I pray for the strength and motivation to exercise. He grants it.
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Finally he has healed my self loathing. He has delighted in me and called me his beloved child. I am not perfect ... I have not arrived .... but I am loved.
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Dear reader, this may not speak entirely to your situation. We are all different .... some are oaks and some are maples and some willows but these are all trees and we are all people. I speak as a woman who is romantic in nature. My name, after all, is derived from the Song of Solomon and the book of Ruth ..... two of the most romantic books of the bible. I expect that God knows my name and my nature and that he will fulfill his purposes for me. And it will be good. Meanwhile, I hope to share whatever helpful information I come across as there are many like me.
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Coming Home
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When I wandered all alone
From his comfort and my home
Ghostly sadness, lonely croon
Barren hilltop, hollow moon.
Dark confusion laid the mist
Aimless wandering, empty fist
How I got here, I don't know
to my loved one I will go.
With my husband I will live
For a ring he will forgive.
~ Melanie Bird
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Dark am I yet lovely .... you have stolen my heart, my sister my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.... your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. You are a garden locked up, my sister my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates ... You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon .... Awake, north wind! and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste it's choice fruits. I have come into my garden, my sister my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. ~Song of Solomon
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Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel" ... So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. ~Ruth
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May God bless our marriage relationships so that they reflect the glory originally intended at the creation of all things. Happy Anniversary Today, Josh & Amanda.
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