Genetically Altered Christianity

 There is much debate in our country today about genetically altered foods.

A few months ago I watched as a minister on Christian television interviewed a doctor who had studied the dangers of genetically altered foods and the health problems that were the result eating these foods. He said that our bodies could not recognize these products as nutrition.

Though these products may look good and grow faster, shouldn't the end result be that they are good for us and will meet our nutritional needs?

The thing that caught my attention though was a comment that the minister made next. He said that the church was suffering from genetically altered Christianity.

What would that look like and how do we know that Christianity has been genetically altered? What did Christianity look like at the very beginning?

The early church met in home in local communities.  The sick were healed and the needy were cared for.  And the "good news" was that an old covenant of laws and rituals that  was only for a select few, gave way to a new covenant where "whosoever will may come."

There were growing pains and differences of opinions from within and persecution from without and still the early church grew and flourished.

But somewhere along the way things began to change.  Despite all the warnings of the early church fathers, false teachers began to spread an "altered" gospel that was a mixture of the old and new.  And just like so long ago in the Garden of Eden when the enemy whispered, "Yea, hath God said?"  People soon began to feed on "that which was not bread" and the body began to suffer the consequences.

Today the gospel has been reduced to---get born again, do the best you can, and hang on til Jesus comes or you die.

Genetically altered physical food  and spiritual food have grim consequences.

There is good news though!  These bodies of our are "fearfully and wonderfully made."

We can begin to make changes in our diet and our amazing body will begin to repair itself.  With proper nutrition, exercise, and good supplements, our own built-in defense system will begin to target the bad cells that have entered and strengthen to good cells to work the way they were designed.  We just need to give them the right ammunition.

And so it is in our spiritual lives.  God has said in His word that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth.

Begin a search of your own.  Don't be afraid to say thatyou don't know anything.  Be willing to ask question.  God wants you to have answers.

In II Timothy  2:15 Paul told Timothy to study. That word means "ponder the intent of."

Imagine pondering the intent of God when He inspired those words to be written.

Proverbs 25:2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal and thing:  But the honour of kings is to search out a matter."

God has call us kings and priests and gives us the honor to "seek and you shall find."

Genetically altered Christianity results from eating from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil."  God said,  "In the day you eat, you shall die."

But He also gives us a choice to eat of the "Tree of Life"  and LIVE!

What Are Some Common New Year's Resolutions?

What Are Some Common New Year's Resolutions?

    Every year we pull them out -- you know "the list."  Those things we resolve to do or not to do anymore.  What are some common New Years Resolutions for the year?  They begin with the usual spending more time with the family and friends and enjoying life more.  We resolve to lose weight, exercise regularly, quit smoking and quit drinking.

    Where does our desire for New Year's resolutions come from? Sometimes some of the things that we have been doing have caused health issues and so we resolve to quit doing some things and start doing others.

    Perhaps our relationships have begun to falter.  So we resolve to make whatever changes are necessary to mend or save these relationships.

    My husband James and I began such a journey many years ago.  After years of resolutions and attempts to change things ourselves, our relationship, which began all wrong in the first place, was in shambles.  Our family was in total disarray.  

    I wish I could say we had a noble calling, but that would be inaccurate.  We were believers, attending church regularly, driving the church bus and teaching a class.  We were doing the best we knew how.

    Finally, separated, angry and bitter, we reached the end of ourselves and with no place to turn we had to cry out to God.  Well, He did put us back together, just the way we were.  However, as we began to look around at other believers, we saw that they were not any better off than we were.

    We made a startling discovery:  Christianity as we knew it did not work?  We prayed the most life changing prayer of our lives although we did not realize it at the time.  We said, "Lord, we want to know the TRUTH  of Your Word as You meant it when you inspired it to be written, and not what some man has said it means!"

    Our "New Year's Resolution""New Year's Resolution" may not have been at the beginning of the year, but with that declaration and prayer, we began a journey that has only intensified our resolve.

    We began to have a hunger for the Word of God and we literally has books and tapes show up at our home in the mail or on the front steps.  Some of them from people we have never met even to this day.

    

    God put people into our lives who began to speak truth to us from the Bible that we had never heard before.  We learned to study.  We invested everything we could afford in traveling to camp meetings, family and marriage seminars, deliverance and healing ministries.

    Little by little the pieces began to fit.  Years of religious bondage began to fall away.  Suddenly we had ears to hear and the more we heard the more wonderful the story grew.

    How great is our God and how patient and kind and how great is His plan for our lives.

    Where did we get off track?  I don't know the answer to that question except to say that from the very beginning that has been our tendency.  

    And that brings me to the reason for writing this blog.  Having trouble with your New Year's resolution?  Why not make it a radical one that can really change your life!

  

    Oh, and about that journey of our --- to be continued....

Happy New Year

What Are Some Common New Year's Resolutions?

    Every year we pull them out -- you know "the list."  Those things we resolve to do or not to do anymore.  What are some common New Years Resolutions for the year?  They begin with the usual spending more time with the family and friends and enjoying life more.  We resolve to lose weight, exercise regularly, quit smoking and quit drinking.

    Where does our desire for New Year's resolutions come from? Sometimes some of the things that we have been doing have caused health issues and so we resolve to quit doing some things and start doing others.

    Perhaps our relationships have begun to falter.  So we resolve to make whatever changes are necessary to mend or save these relationships.

    My husband James and I began such a journey many years ago.  After years of resolutions and attempts to change things ourselves, our relationship, which began all wrong in the first place, was in shambles.  Our family was in total disarray.  

    I wish I could say we had a noble calling, but that would be inaccurate.  We were believers, attending church regularly, driving the church bus and teaching a class.  We were doing the best we knew how.

    Finally, separated, angry and bitter, we reached the end of ourselves and with no place to turn we had to cry out to God.  Well, He did put us back together, just the way we were.  However, as we began to look around at other believers, we saw that they were not any better off than we were.

    We made a startling discovery:  Christianity as we knew it did not work?  We prayed the most life changing prayer of our lives although we did not realize it at the time.  We said, "Lord, we want to know the TRUTH  of Your Word as You meant it when you inspired it to be written, and not what some man has said it means!"

    Our "New Year's Resolution""New Year's Resolution" may not have been at the beginning of the year, but with that declaration and prayer, we began a journey that has only intensified our resolve.

    We began to have a hunger for the Word of God and we literally has books and tapes show up at our home in the mail or on the front steps.  Some of them from people we have never met even to this day.

    

    God put people into our lives who began to speak truth to us from the Bible that we had never heard before.  We learned to study.  We invested everything we could afford in traveling to camp meetings, family and marriage seminars, deliverance and healing ministries.

    Little by little the pieces began to fit.  Years of religious bondage began to fall away.  Suddenly we had ears to hear and the more we heard the more wonderful the story grew.

    How great is our God and how patient and kind and how great is His plan for our lives.

    Where did we get off track?  I don't know the answer to that question except to say that from the very beginning that has been our tendency.  

    And that brings me to the reason for writing this blog.  Having trouble with your New Year's resolution?  Why not make it a radical one that can really change your life!

  

    Oh, and about that journey of our --- to be continued....

Happy New Year