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"Watch what you eat. Poor choices can kill you because not all so-called food is healthy nor created equal!" ~ gfp '42™

Applying this verse is the wise person's context for ALL her/his behaviour... not just the limited ones involving "food" and "sex" mentioned by Paul in the immediately surrounding verses of this passage. gfp (2012-03-03) 

"Watch what you eat. Poor choices can kill you because not all so-called food is healthy nor created equal!" ~ gfp '42™ Blessings, GaryFPatton (2013-05-29)

Humankinds orignial and basic life purpose which has never been rescinded and is suplemeted for each Jesus Follower as outlined in Ephesians 2: 10 at http://diigo.com/0n20e in context.

In 1968, Karen, my wife, and I became changed our diet and our lifestyle from what most people follow. We gave up the SAD (Standard American Diet) after different diseases almost killed me and threatened Karen's life. In Karen's case, colon cancer could have killed her. The results of a gangrenous bladder almost put me in a grave.  In less than four (4) months following our shift in diet Karen and I were both completely healed. We have remained vibrantly healthy ever since. In November of that year, we became what are called "Live Food Vegans", i.e., we started to eat only fruits, vegetables, seeds nuts and and gluten-free grains. In addition, less than 20% of what we eat most days is cooked in any way. Karen and I have learned a lot about how to be and stay healthy. At 70+, we both are told we look like we're in our 50s.  Our lifestyle, which involves more than than just a diet change, we call our S-M-A-R-TLifestyle™.  You can read more about what happened to us and our lifestyle at this link (http://is.gd/l0mZPv). We agree that a Jesus Follower is free to eat what s(he) wishes, within reason. That's part of being free In Jesus! Nonetheless, we simply believe that the diet outlined in the Christian Bible in  Genesis 1:29 was God's "best" one for his perfect creation. He has never rescinded that diet.  By following it, you too can reap the substantial rewards of natural law which anyone can take advantage of ...like we did in 1998.

Genesis 1: 26-31 describe the first humans' creation as the original ancestors of every man and woman who has ever lived as confirmed by modern DNA and gnome science. They also confirm God's original life mandate and ideal diet for every human ...neither of which He has EVER rescinded. gfp (2012-01-31)

Is Matthew 6:16-18 and Jesus' comment on fasting His command to practise a "spiritual discipline" or a suggestion to religious Jews about their common practise? gfp (2012-04-07)

There is no command that we fast in either the Old or New Covenant that I can find. Verse 16 for me is a suggestion not a command. If I'm correct, why do Christian pulpiteers and writers talk about Jesus' quote here like, as this writer says, it should be taken as "an assumption" that Jesus Followers for all time should fast? Why not just consider it what it was? In context, I suggest that Jesus was teaching about an appropriate attitude to take in our relationship with God and our worship of Him. To do so, Jesus used illustrations about how to fast a worship activity practised by the Jews of his day and Old Covenant characters with whom they were familiar. His illustrations were made to a group of religious Jews when He was teaching them on a hillside by using inappropriate fasting practises which some of them followed that He and everyone else present probably observed regulalrly. Likewise, because Holy Spirit "drove" Jesus into the wilderness without food or water for 40 days for reasons unique to Jesus' ministry, why is it often taught that we must imitate that one time happening, as far as we know, in our Masters life? Undoubtedly, fasting can be healthy for some when properly practised. It may also have positive spiritual implications when done for reasons God leads the faster about. But, much of the super-spiritual things taught about fasting for spiritual reasons, such as in the Christianity Today article at http://diigo.com/0p9iv do not seem to have any real Biblical support, in my opinion.

Why would two people, Matthew and Luke, who were the more consistent eye witnesses to the accounts that they report copy Mark? It makes no sense. Mark was a boy while Jesus walked Israel and did not travel about with Him. Mark also was not an original Disciple of Jesus and reported on most the events in his Gospel based on second hand information from the Disciples who did travel with jesus, one can assume. I feel the whole Mathew and Luke copied Mark plus Mark is based on some lost document called "Q" theory of many scholars is rooted in a desire by many to deny or ignore God's supernatural involvement in the documentation of His Son's incarnation and ignores the fact that Matthew and John were eye witnesses to all of what they wrote about. They had no need to copy but had their own perspective on what they heard and saw as do modern witnesses. Likewise, modern research indicates that the reports of most eye witnesses are highly unreliable. If God was not involved, one would have to question the accounts. If that one is not a Jesus Follower and without faith in the supernatural inerancy of the Biblical accounts of both the Old and New Covenants, that's another matter entirely.

This April 2012 article in BAR analyzes the similarities between the Jewish Seder and what Christians call Jesus' "Last Supper" and the timing of the event based on archaeological evidence. gfp (2012-04-07)

How "worksy" is this statement? I thought it was Holy Spirit Who "shapes us into spirital people" using his lovingly slow process of sanctification ... not our disciplined, hard work by depriving ourselves to train our subconscious... as it says in Romans 8:29-30 at http://diigo.com/0lc07 .

But, in my humble opinion, Mr. Moll hasn't proven this concluding statement nor his thesis which isn't even a scientific theory because it can neither be replicated nor tested.

I wonder, assuming this is true, might what psycology calls our subconscious be the residence of Christian flesh. However, I believe the existence of a 'subconscious' is, like 'evolution', a thesis that is usually stated as a fact and truth but no one can prove. Neither is a scientific theory and are certainly not proven theorems because they are not replicable through experimentation.

There is no command that we fast in either the Old or New Covenant that I can find. Verse 16 for me is a suggestion not a command. If I'm correct, why do Christian pulpiteers and writers talk about Jesus' quote here like, as this writer says, it should be taken as "an assumption" that Jesus Followers for all time should fast? Why not just consider it what it was? In context, I suggest that Jesus was teaching about an appropriate attitude to take in our relationship with God and our worship of Him. To do so, Jesus used illustrations about how to fast a worship activity practised by the Jews of his day and Old Covenant characters with whom they were familiar. His illustrations were made to a group of religious Jews when He was teaching them on a hillside by using inappropriate fasting practises which some of them followed that He and everyone else present probably observed regularly. Likewise, because Holy Spirit "drove" Jesus into the wilderness without food or water for 40 days for reasons unique to Jesus' ministry, why is it often taught that we must imitate that one time happening, as far as we know, in our Masters life? Undoubtedly, fasting can be healthy for some when properly practised. It may also have positive spiritual implications when done for reasons God leads the faster about. But, much of the super-spiritual things taught about fasting for spiritual reasons do not seem to have any real Biblical support. It is Holy Spirit Who "shapes us into spiritual people" using his lovingly slow process of sanctification ...as it says in Romans 8:29-30 at http://diigo.com/0lc07 ... not our disciplined, hard work by depriving ourselves to train our subconscious as Rob Mol says in this article. Undoubtedly, fasting can be healthy for some when properly practised. It may also have positive spiritual implications when done for reasons God leads the faster about. But, much of the super-spiritual things taught about fasting for spiritual reasons do not seem to ha

Placing Burning Coals on Another's Head This Proverb confuses some people because its Jewish cultural context is not clear from its words. A "burning coal" was essential in Biblical Palestine each morning so Jewish families could re-light their cooking fire for the day after it died out during the night. In each Jewish village, one man carried a pot of coals from home to home to assist the homemaker who needed one. "Burning coals" are blessings not torture instruments in this Proverb as some think. "The head", in Jewish culture was the place on another's body where one anointed them with precious perfumes and oils as a extension of an oral blessing on them. Jesus' Disciple/Apostle (Learner/Sent-Out-One), Paul, quoted this Proverb from the pre-Jesus (Yeshua/Isa), Old Covenant in Romans 12:20 at http://diigo.com/0kmml to demonstrate that our heavenly Father does not overlook fairness and justice although he substituted New Covenant 'grace' for Old Covenant 'law' when He sent Jesus to die for us as outlined in His New Covenant. (gfp 2011-10-24)

This ancient, pre-Yeshua (Jesus), Old Covenant and Hebrew Proverb, contains and interesting cultural reference that you'll discover in the e-Sticky Note on verses 21-23 below. gfp (2011-10-24)

Regrettably, Christians and Jews seem to prefer to forget that Adam and Eve were each created naked by our God and walked together in public unashamed. It clearly says this here in Genesis 2:25. Obviously, we know better what's good for us than God because our first parents immediately went into the fashion business as noted in Genesis 3:7 at http://diigo.com/0m7tx . We also like to ignore how the Old Testament, for example, portrays Isaiah, the major prophet ignored or ridiculed by God's people, the Jews, as he wandered unclothed and unshod for three years under the power of God ...and not as a punishment. Maybe this helps to expalin why nudity in a textile social setting is often tied to lunacy in most situations of 21st Century society. Nudity and sexuality are often linked, but they don't necessarily have to be. In fact, most Christian naturists believe that it's clothes that make a body sexual. To put it simply: if you see someone in the naked all the time, you begin not to notice it anymore. It becomes normal and you no longer feel "urges" toward that person. However, if that person is normally clothed, due to the curiosity of the unknown and the "forbidden," when they remove their clothing, it is more likely to become a sexualized experience. Most anti-nudity views are originally politically-based, not rooted in religion historical research proves. I'm also unable to find a New or Old Covenant prescription against being naked in public. (Yes I know the OC story of the daugters and their father, but that's all it is, an Old Covenant story ...not a command to clothe ourselves. Might the more healthy attitude to how God created us, as advocated by Christian naturists, also help resolve the "body image problem" that is increasingly plaguing both women and men in our society. In a 2009 follow-up to a 1984 survey about female body image, Glamour at http://is.gd/D4IJbv found that for twenty-five years, body dissatisfaction has remained steady across eras at 40 perce

Genesis 2:23-25 causes me to wonder if the so-called shame about being naked in public, weather permitting, is not simply habitual, cultural and learned behaviour! Is it really God's will for us as so often taught? Might it instead be a punishment visited on us by Satan's con game of 'shame' given Who made the first garments? In this context, while not a Christian, Kahil Gibran makes an interesting observation in "The Prophet" in his section on "Clothes": "Some of you say, 'It is the north wind who has woven the clothes we wear.' And I say, Ay, it was the north wind, But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread. And when his work was done he laughed in the forest. Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean. And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind? And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." (p.35-36) gfp (2012-01-04)

Jonathan Dodson adds exciting new dimensions to the standard interpretations of Jesus' "Great Commission" in the article. It is the first of two parts. gfp (2012-03-03)

The only greater "poverty" is its lack of application in their lives by so-called Christians. In North America, a too-common and oft-heard phrase exchanged between so-called Christians is: "I'd din't know you were a Christian!" "Lord, please forgive us although we know what we're doing! gfp"