Date of message: 03 January,
2004 Issue
123
Subject: O Lord, Sanctify Our Meat
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
Another year had gone pass and we are all wiser for that. May this year
2004 be even greater in blessing for you and your loved ones! In Deuteronomy
1: 10 - 11, the Lord God promised the children of Israel: -
10. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the
stars of heaven in multitude.
11. May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous
than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!
Indeed, as we enter this year, may His promise to the children of Israel
be unto you as well, that you will receive your thousand-fold blessing
in all that you have and put your hands into.
In order for us to enjoy all those blessings which the Lord wants to grant
us, I felt the need to share with you from His Word how to keep not just
our bodies sound but our souls and our spirits in tune with His Spirit.
The Lord direct me to Leviticus Chapter 11, the chapter on food that are
'kosher' to the Jews ('kosher' means ceremonially and religiously clean
or permitted for them to eat).
" Leviticus 11: 3 - Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof,
having cloven hooves and chewing the cud - that you may eat.
Recently nutritionists carried out a research on the dietary habits of
the various races and related their findings to the longevity of the lives
of the people of these races and the results were astounding. The race
that scored the highest age at death (on an average) were the Jews followed
by the Japanese and when they referenced their diets they found a common
thread - both races eat a lot of fish (raw or cooked) and that was where
the similarity ended.
Medical science has also found (in recent reports) that our bodies carry
with them latent traces of cancerous cells and depending on the type of
food we eat, these cells may be activated. So let us look at some of the
dangerous foodstuff that we consume.
The pig or the swine are animals created by God to be the "garbage
disposers" of the land. They would gobble any food that their snorts
can smell out even when the food had dropped into the mud. Again medical
research had discovered that the pigs carry in their body numerous viruses
and some of these viruses could not even be killed even under extreme
heat. So there goes the delicious roast pork and especially the 'char-siew'
(red barbecued pork), the pig's trotters, pork sausages, pork bellies
and pig's internal organs which are favorites among Chinese diners.
Last year some medical researchers were working on the theory that the
SARS outbreak in China was started by people who feasted on civet cats,
a delicacy in Guangdong province in Southern China. Now what do the pigs
and the civet cats have in common? Both are not herbivorous and they do
not have parted hooves. Because of the structure of their feet, it is
believed that their feet (or legs) gather much dirt in between and they
form fertile breeding grounds for viruses and worms.
Is there any spiritual lesson for us to learn from Leviticus 11: 3? Certainly!
When the Lord told Moses to tell the children of Israel what they could
eat and what they should avoid, He was laying down an important spiritual
principle for us. When we read the Word of God, we need to be able to
rightly divide (part) the word and we need to 'digest' (meditate) the
word we receive (chew the cud).
The whole Bible is written for us but not to us. Certain portions were
written specifically to the Jewish community while others were written
in a more general sense for us. Certain practices and customs apply directly
to the Jews and yet it has spiritual significance for us non-Jewish believers.
And so when we read the word of God, we need to understand its context
and find its interpretation from there; we should not simply lift one
verse out and make a whole doctrine out of that one verse.
After we have read the word of God, we need to spend time thinking through
the passage and allowing the word to minister to our spirit-man. Just
as the cattle would lie down in a quiet spot in the fields 'playing' with
its food (regurgitating the cuds from one stomach to another until the
grass had been completely digested), we too need to find quiet places
to sit down, think over the word and apply them into our daily lives;
that is the whole process of meditation.
It is important that we spend time with the Word of God and consistently
read a passage of scriptures a day. In these troubling times, it is vital
that we have the Word of God inside us to lead and guide us through the
day.
Have you invited the Author of the Bible to come into your life? Jesus
came for a specific purpose - to die for us so that we can have His eternal
life as an exchange. Because He died and took away our punishment, we
need not go through that again; otherwise that would tantamount to a double
jeopardy. Our Father is a Righteous God and He will honor His Covenant
with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
My friends, one day, after all the Christians have been taken home to
be with the Lord, and should you by any chance be reading this article,
be assured that Jesus loves you so much that He already demonstrated His
love for you on the cross. He died that we may have life in abundance.
Pray this simple prayer to invite Jesus into your heart and immediately
you will experience His peace coming your way.
O God our Heavenly Father, thank you that You loved us so very much that
You gave Your only Beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to die for all
our sin and to be raised from the dead so that we can be forgiven of all
our sin and now we are set free.
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into my heart and for making it Your
home. In so doing, thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit to remind me
of my very special position as a child of God the Father. Thank you that
as Your child, I can now start enjoying all Your blessings for my life
- Divine Healing, Divine Health and Divine Life in You. Thank you also
for the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit brings along with Him and
for imparting those gifts into my life.
Thank you for what You had accomplished for us on the cross and because
You were raised from the dead for our justification, I am now eternally
forgiven of all my sin, greatly blessed among all men, a highly favored
child of God, deeply loved by the Father and completely protected in the
Lord and in the most precious name of Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha' Mashiah,
I pray. Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family
of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important
that you are not alone facing your personal challenges but that you can
obtain good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your
own local Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together?
You will be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father,
for fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith.
It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these
blessings right now; you do not need to wait until you reach heaven and
there is more from where they come from.
And, my friend, continue to exercise the gift of praying in tongues and
with the usage, more gifts of the Holy Spirit will be imparted to you.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all
your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24-26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
This and other archived messages can also be found
on the following URL
http://www.oocities.org/fibredrive/index.htm