Resolution (Firmness of Purpose)

 How can you keep your resolution to eat healthier this year?

(My daughter Miranda wrote this post due to her passion for living healthy with a little reformatting from me.)

I recently attended a holiday brunch where there was a beautiful spread of food. It started with appetizers then went to salads then to main dishes and finally to desserts. We went through the line like a buffet. At the end, one of the ladies looked down at my plate which was not very full and said it was no wonder how I maintain my girlish figure. In which case I thought, I do that through exercise, not through not eating. In fact, I have no problem with eating. I eat three meals a day and usually a snack or two. I eat as much as anybody in my family if not more. So, if this was supposed to be one of my meals for the day, then why did I have so little on my plate? Simple, most of the food there was not really a healthy choice. I believe in feeding my body the right things.

Why do we find it so important to take care of our bodies? Why is it that around this time a year we make resolutions to lose weight, to exercise more, and to eat better? What is our drive as the Children of Truth (those who obey The Father of Truth because they love Him) to fulfill these resolutions?  Our society encourages these drives by telling us what beauty looks like.  A good looking man is tall, dark, handsome, and buff. A good looking woman has a small waist line, has no wrinkles, and looks forever 21. Is this what drives us as followers of the Man of Truth? It should not be.

What should drive us as followers of the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) is recognizing that under the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) through the Man of Truth that our body is the temple of the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) and it does not belong to us (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  If our body is the place where the Spirit of Truth lives then we want to make sure that it is the best possible place for the Spirit of Truth because the Spirit of Truth is also the same as the Father of Truth in nature (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).  I know I do.  So how do we make sure that we are taking proper care of our bodies?  Well, we could follow the advice of modern physicians or we could look to see what the Great Physician has to say about it.  And where do we look to find such information?  In the Book of Truth (The Bible), of course!

In the Book of Truth you will find the answers on how to be healthy (i.e. the best possible shape our temple can be from the inside out).  What is one of the best ways to make sure that you are healthy on the inside and the outside?  By what you eat!  There are the obvious choices such as not eating a lot of sugary food or high calorie foods with little nutrition but the Book of Truth tells us specifically what to eat and what not to eat.  A lot of the Children of Truth think that since we are under the Renewed Covenant that the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law) is has no meaning for us. Of course, if this was really the case then we would not need the whole Original Covenant (Tanach aka Old Testament) to begin with.  We could simply grow in the faith and knowledge that we need from the Renewed Testament.  The Book of Truth would certainly be shorter and easier to read that way. However, the Man of Truth tells us that He did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).  If the Man of Truth fulfilled it and did not destroy it, then we should probably pay attention to it.

Our faith is built upon the foundation of the Renewed Covenant written by the Apostles of Truth and the Original Covenant written by the Prophets of Truth (Ephesians 2:20-2). The entire Book of Truth came from The Father of Truth so that the Children of Truth could reach full maturity (Timothy 3:16-17). This is why things in the Renewed Covenant align with things in the Original Covenant, so let us explore what the Renewed Covenant has to say about our eating habits.

First let us take a look at the diet of the Man of Truth. After all, he should be example in all things in life, right? That is part of the reason he came to Earth in human form was so he could model the proper lifestyle so that the Children of Truth would no longer live in darkness (John 12:46).  The Man of Truth was Jewish (Matthew 2:2).  The Man of Truth followed the Law of Truth that was given to the Jews by His Father so that no one could convict him of sin (John 8:46).  The Father of Truth told the Jews if they were to follow that Law of Truth then they would have a long healthy life (Exodus 23:25-26).

The Man of Truth chose to only eat what His Father said was good to eat because he had faith that the Father of Truth had greater understanding of the limits of a human body and knew why we should only consume certain foods. The Man of Truth lived by faith in His Father (1 John 3:4).  The Children of Truth are to also live by faith in their Father (Hebrews 10:38-39).  They should in like manner keep His commandments because they have faith in Him like the Man of Truth (Revelation 14:12).

Also a common argument is often made with the dream of Peter. In this dream, the Father of Truth sends down on a sheet with a whole bunch of animals for Peter to eat that as a Jew he would never even consider eating (Acts 10:9-13). Peter tells Him that he would never defile himself in such a way by eating something unclean (literally “unable to be cleaned from pollution”) (Acts 10:14).  The Father of Truth states that what He has cleansed of pollution is alright to eat (Acts 10:15). This repeats 3 times (Acts 10:16). Peter did not understand what this vision meant when the Gentiles came to him (Acts 10:17). Then shortly after the vision, Peter understands that the Father of Truth was telling him that He could cleanse the Gentiles from the pollution of sin (Acts 10:28).

In the Rabbinical law that was added by men to the Law of Truth, it was unlawful to eat with Gentiles (anyone not Jewish) because they were considered not able to be cleaned from sin. This man-made tradition was no more the commandment of the Father of Truth than their commandments concerning washing cups and pots (Mark 7:6-8). So He was saying that Gentiles could be cleansed by the blood of the Man of Truth to become as clean the Jews that had been cleansed by his blood (Acts 11:17-18). Anyone, Jew or Gentile, that had been cleansed through his blood is no longer polluted by sin (1 John 1:7).

 

So, all in all, this passage has absolutely nothing to do with eating. It was simply a metaphor from the Father of Truth.  This vision was no more about Him making all animals clean to eat than the parable of the sower was farming advice from His Son (Matthew 13:3-8).  The Father of Truth, who gave of the vision, told the meaning of the vision just like how Jesus, who told the parable of the sower, gave the meaning of the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:18-23).  Who are we to apply a different meaning other the one given in the Book of Truth?

In addition, even if it was not symbolic, the Father of Truth had only cleansed those exact animals on the sheet - not every animal on Earth.  Since the animals floated down on a giant sheet, my guess is they came from Heaven, not the Earth anyway.  So this is not a reasonable argument that we are going to be healthy while eating the food that He has declared as polluted (unclean).  We should want what is best for our bodies and food that is recommended by Him is what is best for our body.

So where do I find the list of the right things to eat for my body?  I find it in the Book of Truth where there are no lies about how I can live a blessed, healthy, and full life.  So I suggest that you make it your New Year resolution to dig deeper and find out what the Book of Truth tells you about how to take care of your temple so that you are eating in the House of Truth.

Of course, in the long run it does not matter what you eat if you do not come into the House of Truth.  You need to come into the House of Truth so that the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) can help you keep this resolution (John 16:13).  You come into the House of Truth when you give control of what you eat and everything else in your life to the Man of Truth because you believe that His Father raised him from the dead (Romans 10:8-10).

Come into the House of Truth.