What Is Marriage? 1 & 2. Farmed Fish vs. Wild-Caught.

.

What Is Marriage? 1  (Special thoughts for Valentine’s Day)

“The Creator God made humans male and female, and He made the institution of marriage. He tells us why He created it and what marriage is supposed to be.

There is only one original source on earth where you can find out how, when, where and why marriage began. More copies of this book—the Holy Bible—have been published than any other written work, yet it is little understood. But by going to it, you can find an understanding of the meaning of marriage.

 

Summing up what the Bible teaches about marriage

1. God designed marriage to be a lifelong, faithful relationship between one man and one woman.
2. Adam was created first and was initially the lone human. From one of his ribs God lovingly formed a woman and presented her to Adam. They were “one flesh,” and she was the perfect complement to Adam. Together they formed a whole, and together they were able to build a family, having and raising children together.
3. Because of sin, polygamy and divorce entered. Christ said divorce was only allowed in Israel because of their hardness of heart. While God does provide provisions for a marriage to dissolve under some circumstances, it is an extremely painful experience. God didn’t want His children to hurt one another in that manner.
4. Through the words of Jesus Christ and the apostles, we can see that God’s perspective of marriage as a loving, monogamous relationship between one man and one woman has not changed. In the New Testament God reaffirms it and shows how very important fidelity within marriage is.

Men and women are different by design, intended to complement each other. And it is only through the marriage relationship that God intended children to be brought into the world—to be raised and taught under the loving, thoughtful care of their mother and father.

If you would like to read further about how to have a happy marriage, this “Marriage” section has many related articles for you to read. You will be glad you did!”  Complete article at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/relationships/marriage/what-is-marriage/

________

What Is Marriage?  2

“Some topics are more personal than others and tend to trigger more emotional reactions. Food and holidays, for example. Or “is that dress white and gold or blue and black” and, of course, marriage and sexual relations.

Although the Bible has a lot to say about marriage, it never explicitly answers the question, “What is marriage?” Probably for the same reason it doesn’t give a precise definition for travel, war, and sacrifice. Everyone in the Bible’s original audience already knew what marriage was, so why waste expensive paper and ink explaining it.

Our world, on the other hand, has become so full of confusion that we need to spell out even the most basic ideas. So, let me begin at the beginning…

Adam gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field, but the man could not find a helper fit for him. So YHWH God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that YHWH God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman (ishah), because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.      Genesis 2:20-24

This passage gives us the three most important elements of the definition of marriage.

1. Marriage exists to help a man fulfill his assigned role in Creation.
2. Marriage is meant to be a lifelong union of a man and woman.
3. Marriage was instituted by God from the very beginning.

Marriage Exists to Help Man Fulfill His Mission

Although Genesis 1:28 records that the first collective mission of mankind was to be a caretaker over the earth and all life on it, Adam’s first individual assignment was to evaluate all of the other creatures to see if one of them might serve as a special helper for him. Of course, God knew that none of them would, but he had Adam go through this process so that the man would also know. When Adam was satisfied that none of the animals would meet his requirements, God created a woman, whom Adam named Eve.

Adam and most other creatures were created from the ground, but Eve was created directly from Adam. God didn’t create Eve from Adam’s head or foot, but from his side, showing that she wasn’t supposed to rule over him nor be his slave, but was supposed to be a peer. The woman was to be more like the man than any other creature in heaven or earth, a counterpart who would rule over and care for the earth together with him.

Eve wasn’t created to be exactly like Adam, though, or else God would have created another man and made them hermaphrodites or capable of parthenogenesis. Woman shares in the collective purpose of mankind as God’s stewards on earth, but each woman does so primarily by assisting her husband in his individual mission.

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.    1 Corinthians 11:8-9 ESV

I know that doesn’t sit well with many people, but it is the plain teaching of Scripture. Eve was created specifically to be a helper for Adam, and Paul asserts that this principle applies within all marriages.

While the original task of humanity was to be a caretaker of God’s creation, the Fall necessitated a change in mission parameters. Our task now is to expand the Kingdom of God through procreation, evangelism, establishing justice, and generally doing good works according to God’s standards of justice and good. How each individual and family participates in this mission varies in as many ways as there are individuals and families, but you can know this with absolute certainty: A woman’s divinely appointed mission will never be at odds with her husband’s.

All kinds of things can prevent us from fulfilling marriage’s full purpose: illness and other circumstances that might be out of our control, the husband isn’t fulfilling his calling, or the wife isn’t fulfilling hers. However, our circumstances and failings can’t change the reason God created marriage.

Marriage Is a Lifelong Union

Genesis 2:24 says that the relationship of Adam and Eve is to be a pattern for all marriages, that a new marriage is inaugurated when a man leaves his father and mother to become one flesh with his wife.

“One flesh” implies that they are united in a way that would be painful and unnatural to separate and Yeshua (Jesus) confirmed this understanding when he said “They are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (See Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-9.)

“Leaves his father and mother” doesn’t necessarily mean that he physically leaves their dwelling place. The Scriptural example is for extended families normally to live close together, frequently on the same land, and obedience to God’s instructions for the use of the land in Israel requires this. What this statement actually means is that the man steps outside of the nuclear family unit into which he was born and creates a new family still under the broad umbrella of his father’s clan and tribe.

This also doesn’t mean that marriage cannot be ended. God hates both divorce and death, but both happen, whether for good or bad, and both end a marriage. I’ll write more about this another time, but the Torah, Prophets, Yeshua, and Apostles all discuss when it is and is not appropriate to end a marriage. Divorce should be avoided because it breaks something that God didn’t want to be broken, but it is still possible.

Marriage Was Instituted by God

From the very beginning, God intended mankind to be male and female and to be joined in a union that he uses as a metaphor of his relationship with Israel.

Like the Sabbath, marriage was created for mankind’s benefit. Both parties, as well as their children, benefit from the arrangement, especially if it is conducted according to all of God’s instructions. However, also like the Sabbath, God created marriage because it suited his purposes. Every good master provides his servants with the tools necessary to accomplish his assigned tasks. The servant benefits because his job is made easier and more enjoyable. The master benefits because the servant is able to do a better job with greater economy.

Also like the Sabbath, marriage is not a man-made custom and man doesn’t get to define it. People today insist that they can make marriage whatever they want it to be: a man and another man, a woman and herself, and every other perversion one can imagine. Yet, Yeshua said that marriage is “what God has joined together”, so there can be no real question on this score. God makes the rules, not us.

Marriage was the very first government and was created by God to serve as the core of ministry, labor, justice, and civilization. It is a model of God and of our relationship to God and, as God is one (Hebrew echad), man and woman are to be one in spirit and flesh. Marriage benefits us and was created to help us in the work for which we were created, but ultimately both we and marriage belong to God and we have a responsibility to him to protect and honor it.”  From: https://www.americantorah.com/2023/03/27/what-is-marriage/

_______

Farmed Fish vs. Wild-Caught

Transcript of video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/farmed-fish-vs-wild-caught-2/

“The levels of industrial pollutants found in aquaculture.

Although the levels of dioxins and PCBs continue to decline, there is one dietary source that still remains a threat: fish. Everything eventually washes into the sea. Yes, we can get some from eating horses, but most of human dioxin exposure comes from eating fish. The World Health Organization puts the tolerable upper daily limit of intake at 1 picogram—one trillionth of a gram. As you can see, just eating dairy and we’re already skirting with the max, and fish takes us straight over the top.

Everyone agrees that the omega-3 fatty acids, like DHA, found in fish, are healthy. But, given the industrial contaminants in fish, as a recent analysis in Food and Chemical Toxicology concludes: “If people choose to get their recommended long-chain omega-3 intake from fish, the majority of consumers would exceed the safety limits for dioxins and dioxin-like substances (like PCBs).”

And, just like with eggs, factory-farmed fish have significantly more dioxins. In fact, for every toxin tested, farmed fish had higher levels of DDT, these other banned pesticides, over ten times more PCBs, and ten times more dioxins than wild-caught fish. Aquaculture fish can be considered farmed and dangerous.”

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.

_________

Seven Keys to Coping With the Trials and Tribulations of Life. Whose Prayers Won’t God Hear? Are Calcium Supplements Safe?

.

Seven Keys to Coping With the Trials and Tribulations of Life

“Sometimes life is tough! In troubling times we often turn to God, but do we pray for the things that will help us cope? Here are seven vital elements to request of God.

If you have never experienced any difficulty in life, and never expect to, you can skip this article.

Ah, you’re still reading, as I suspected. Because if one thing is certain, it’s that tests and trials and problems do come upon us. They vary in origin, type, intensity and length, but come they will.

When we read in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that “no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man,”  we can easily list the most common ones. There are health problems, the death of a loved one, financial stress, job troubles, loneliness, mistreatment, troubled relationships, dangerous circumstances, etc. Even blessings, when misused, have turned into trials for some.

And when we see unusual trials, none are so rare that others have not faced them as well.

No matter how big or small the hardship, how long it lasts, how temporary or permanent the consequences, we have to cope. Sometimes we cope well, and other times we don’t. You may recall examples of both in your own past.

But we don’t have to cope alone!

Peter says we should be humbly “casting all your care upon Him [God], for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He knows and understands our needs because “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Therefore we can “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (verse 16).

What are the needs that we should pray to God about? It’s easy to focus only on what seems obvious—I lost my job, so, God, please help me find work. I’m sick, so, God, please heal me. I’m lonely, so, God, please bring someone into my life.

We may always go to God, but we may not always ask for all the things we really need.

There is nothing wrong with asking for a specific answer to a specific problem, but is that the only thing we need in order to cope with the trial? Are there other things to ask God for as well, and maybe to ask for first?

Let’s consider seven needs—keys to surviving life’s trials—to cast upon God in our prayers.

First of all, we humans are heavily influenced by emotions, and in times of stress our emotions often fluctuate. We cannot afford to allow an unsettled emotional state to dictate our level of confidence in God. That means we need to …

1. Pray for faith

Four times Matthew records Jesus using the phrase, “O you of little faith.” Each situation differed, but in each one He identified an enemy of faith—worry, fear, doubt and human reasoning. When life goes well, those are nonissues. But in times of trial, those enemies tend to raise their ugly heads!

When the future is uncertain, when life is challenging, it’s not always easy to confidently repeat Paul’s words, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

That’s the time to pray, “Father, please strengthen my faith. Help me to remember this.”

“We know that all things work together for good” is a statement of faith, of confidence in what you will see in the future. Faith doesn’t tell us in advance how, or when, or what we will go through, or why it will work that way. Faith just says “we know.”

Do we? When God gives us faith, we do!

It’s called walking by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Sight only tells us one thing—when we see God has intervened. Faith tells us He will. We only see the past and present, and even then our perspective is often not very clear. But spiritually, God helps us see what lies ahead.

However, accepting that requires belief—faith—in Him, His Word, His way.

Why is faith important to God? Because He’s our Father. He’s in control. He wants His children to believe and trust Him.

If we have faith that God has the answers and will answer, we must also be willing to wait for Him. That means we need to …

2. Pray for patience

A scripture telling us to patiently wait for Christ’s return also holds a lesson for patiently waiting for Him to answer our prayers.

In James 5:7-8 we read, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

Sometimes we say God is in control, but get impatient if He doesn’t control things on our schedule!

The moment we become impatient, we start living by the clock, not by faith: “I’m running out of time. I need this faster; I want it according to my time frame.” Impatience starts evaluating our situation according to the time passing, and if change doesn’t come when we want, our attitude easily shifts—our faith wavers.

Certainly in tough times we want quick relief. That’s understandable. But it’s so important to tell God, “My problem is in Your hands, but help me trust Your timing so I can wait patiently on You.” Patience turns off the clock; it doesn’t put God on our schedule.

James reminds us that in times of trial sometimes God is working to build something in us—perhaps an aspect of spiritual character—that doesn’t happen instantly.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4).

Letting patience “have its perfect work” isn’t easy, but God can help you with it. Ask Him to!

Patience doesn’t imply that we do nothing, however. While patiently waiting for resolution, we must often take action and make decisions. That means we need to …

3. Pray for wisdom

James also spoke to this: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (1:5).

Big problems often require big decisions. When the doctor is asking your permission to treat your sick child in a certain way, how do you, as an untrained person, know what is in your baby’s best interest? That’s pressure, but you can’t escape it. That’s when you need wisdom to sort through all the thoughts that come to mind, wisdom to get the advice you need, wisdom to weigh pros and cons, wisdom to discern what to do when logic fails to clearly tell you.

Consider Proverbs 2:3-7: “Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.”

Later in the same chapter we read, “When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things” (verses 10-12).

Wisdom is a subject far too huge to detail here. These few verses, though, make the point—ask God for it!

Humanly, we have our physical, mental and emotional limitations. Knowing our tanks can run dry, we need to find the capacity to be strong. This means we need to …

4. Pray for endurance

Ephesians 6:13 encourages us to “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Sometimes there is nothing left that you can do but stand and ride out the storm!

“Recall the former days in which … you endured a great struggle with sufferings,” Paul said. “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:32, 36).

Sometimes we just need to hang on a little longer, not give in, and not give up.

James noted, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure” (James 5:11). Do we count as blessed those who quit and give up? Maintaining the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual stamina we need can nearly exhaust us at times, but God can and will grant us strength to endure. Just ask Him!

Likewise, most stressful situations in life carry the potential of fearful consequences. That means we need to …

5. Pray for courage

After the Israelites exited Egypt, they created their own trial, which led to a 40-year stretch of hardship. As that ended, Joshua assumed the reins of leadership when Moses died, and God, knowing new challenges would arise, encouraged him. “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5).

Then, three times in the next four verses, God exhorts him to “be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed.”

One needs courage when life is tough, when failure comes, when suffering mounts. And we don’t always have that quality on our own. So turn to God, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16:13, to help you “watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”

In recent years some fascinating studies of people with life-threatening illnesses indicate that those who maintain a particular mental quality have a stronger capacity to deal with their ordeal. That means we need to …

6. Pray for hope

Paul listed in 1 Corinthians 13 three of the most important qualities we can possess—faith, hope and love. Love is the greatest, he said, but hope is huge.

Hope is our vision of what the future holds. It keeps in mind a picture of life that helps us see beyond our present circumstances.Hope is our vision of what the future holds. It keeps in mind a picture of life that helps us see beyond our present circumstances. Faith is the confidence, and hope is the inspiring vision.

Perhaps the most dangerous mental state one can be in is hopelessness. Paul’s fervent wish for us was that “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Please download our free booklet Finding Hope in a Hopeless World from our LifeHopeandTruth.com website, and never underestimate the need to ask God for hope!

Having asked God for all these things—faith, patience, wisdom, endurance, courage, hope—now is the time to …

7. Pray for your specific needs

Whatever you need—the healing, the job, the friends, the money, the relief, the relationship—yes, ask God for it!

Just remember that God knows our strengths and weaknesses, sees things we don’t see, and has the wisdom to know what is best for us. So His answer may be yes, no, maybe or wait.

That’s why, when we ask of Him something specific that we believe is the answer to our problem, we need to also ask for faith, patience, wisdom, endurance, courage and hope.

When we do that in time of trial, not only can we cope with our situation, but we can thrive in our relationship with Him.”  From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/christian-living/seven-keys-to-coping-with-the-trials-and-tribulations-of-life/?

________

Whose Prayers Won’t God Hear?

Psalm 66:18

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

“Does God hear the prayers of sinners? Yes and no.

Yes, our merciful God always loves us and works with us, and Jesus Christ even died for us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). We were all sinners (Romans 3:23), so if God did not hear our cries for forgiveness, there would be no human He would hear. After sinning, David prayed, “Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” (Psalm 51:9). God heard that prayer.

But without repentance, as Isaiah wrote, “Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

Psalm 66:18 talks about sin “cherished” in the heart (New International Version). “If I have known it was there and encouraged it,” then God wouldn’t listen (Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Psalm 66:18).

To be assured God will hear and answer us, we must repent and work to root sin out of our heart with God’s help. See more about repentance in “How to Repent.” From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/whose-prayers-wont-god-hear/

________

Are Calcium Supplements Safe?

Transcript of video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-calcium-supplements-safe/

“The unnaturally large, rapid, and sustained calcium levels in the blood caused by calcium supplements may explain why calcium from supplements, but not from food, appears to increase the risk of heart attacks.

In 12 short years, government panels have gone from suggesting widespread calcium supplementation may be necessary to protect our bones to “Do Not Supplement”. What happened? It all started with a 2008 study in New Zealand. Short-term studies had showed that calcium supplementation may drop blood pressures by about a point. Though the effect appears to be transient, disappearing after a few months, it’s better than nothing. And excess calcium in the gut can cause fat malabsorption, by forming soap fat, reducing saturated fat absorption and increasing fecal saturated fat content. And, indeed, if you take a couple Tums along with your half bucket of KFC, up to twice as much fat would end up in your stool, and with less saturated fat absorbed in your system, your cholesterol might drop. So, the New Zealand researchers were expecting to lower heart attack rates by giving women calcium supplements. To their surprise, there appeared to be more heart attacks in the calcium supplement group.

Was this just a fluke? All eyes turned to the Women’s Health Initiative, the largest and longest randomized controlled trial of calcium supplementation. The name may sound familiar—that’s the study that uncovered how dangerous hormone replacement therapy was. Would it do the same for calcium supplements? The Women’s Health Initiative reported no adverse effects. However, the majority of the participants were already taking calcium supplements before the study started; so, effectively the study was just comparing higher versus lower dose calcium supplementation, not supplementation or no supplementation. But what if you go back and just see what happened to the women who started out not taking supplements and then were randomized to the supplement group? Those who started calcium supplements suffered significantly more heart attacks or strokes. Thus, high dose or low dose, any calcium supplementation seemed to increase cardiovascular disease risk.

Researchers went back, digging through other trial data for heart attack and stroke rates in women randomized to calcium supplements with or without vitamin D added, and confirmed the danger and most of the population studies agreed—users of calcium supplements tended to have increased rates of heart disease, stroke, and death.

The supplement industry was not happy, accusing researchers of relying in part on self-reported data—like they just ask if people had a heart attack or not rather than verifying it. And indeed long-term calcium supplementation caused all sorts of gastrointestinal distress including twice the risk of being hospitalized with acute symptoms that may have been confused with a heart attack. But no, the increased risk was seen consistently across the trials whether the heart attacks were verified or not.

OK, but why do calcium supplements increase heart attack risk, but not calcium you get in your diet? Perhaps because when you take calcium pills, you get a spike of calcium in your bloodstream that you don’t get just eating calcium rich foods. Within hours of taking supplemental calcium, the calcium levels in the blood shoot up and can stay up as long as eight hours. This evidently produces what’s called a hypercoagulable state, your blood clots more easily, which could increase the risk of clots in the heart or brain. And, indeed, higher calcium blood levels are tied to higher heart attack and stroke rates. So, the mechanism may be calcium supplements lead to unnaturally large, rapid, and sustained calcium levels in the blood, which can have a variety of potentially problematic effects.

Calcium supplements have been widely embraced on the grounds that they are a natural and, therefore, safe way of preventing osteoporotic fractures. But, it is now becoming clear that taking calcium in one or two daily doses is not natural, in that it does not reproduce the same metabolic effects as calcium in food. And furthermore, the evidence is also becoming steadily stronger that calcium supplementation may not be safe. That’s why most organizations providing advice regarding bone health now recommend that individuals should obtain their calcium requirement from diet in preference to supplements. But if we can’t reach it through diet alone, would the benefits to the bones outweigh the risks to the heart? We’ll find out, next.”  From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-calcium-supplements-safe/

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.

_________

Valentine's Day What's Wrong With Showing Love? How do I connect with God? Why did God change our diet?

.

Valentine's Day, What's Wrong With Showing Love?

“Valentine's Day has become a very romantic holiday despite its pagan origins. So what's wrong with celebrating this holiday?

Thinkstock

Valentine's Day is all about showing "love," giving a card or flowers or chocolates to a loved one. All of that's good, right? Wrong.

Valentine's Day is big business. According to the National Retail Foundation, Valentine's Day for 2012 added around $17.6 billion to the U.S. economy—making retail spending for this day the second-largest behind Christmas.

For a lot of people it's the holiday to express your love to someone special. According to Kemberly King, a business instructor at South University, young adults ages 25-34 spend the most on Valentine's Day gifts. Interestingly, men will outspend women—almost 2 to 1—with the biggest categories for all spending being restaurants, candy, romantic getaways and flowers.

A quick Web search for the origins of Valentine's Day will give you the basics of the accepted history of the day. A deeper search will acknowledge its pagan origins. The Good News magazine (sister publication of Vertical Thought) has published a variety of articles on both of these aspects of Valentine's Day. While Valentine's Day is the most promoted holiday after Christmas and Easter even among traditional Christian churches, it is definitely not a holiday with true Christian values.

How can "love" be wrong?

There's nothing wrong in showing love to others—after all, isn't that the most valued Christian characteristic? But what's been lost in how we go about it, and how we worship God for that matter, is whether we are actually following what God teaches in the Bible. It's like an automobile manufacturer tells you to put only gasoline in the fuel tank, but then you decide that diesel fuel is just as good! It just won't work.

Here's a quick review of the background of Valentine's Day—before exploring a deeper point about this holiday.

By most accepted historians, Valentine's Day was an adaptation by the Catholic Church of the ancient pagan Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival. The Catholic Church updated and connected it to a "Saint" Valentine sometime late in the third century A.D. (though there is some confusion as to who this person actually was). It really took off commercially as a holiday in the late 1800s, promoted as a day to show your "love" to others—especially romantic love to your special someone.

So what's wrong with that? Here's the problem: Lupercalia was an immoral fertility festival also featuring gluttony and drunkenness. At the end of the festivities young men would draw the name of a young lady from a box and the two were considered a pair (sexually and otherwise) for the coming year.

As a festival Lupercalia was dedicated to the Roman god Pan, recognized as the god of fields, groves and wooded glens—and pictured as having the hindquarters, legs and horns of a goat. This pagan deity was connected to fertility and the season of spring. None of what is connected to the feast of Lupercalia is worthy of a Christian's observance.

But what's wrong with a little paganism?

What about showing love on Valentine's Day if I'm not doing it for pagan reasons? Isn't that okay? No, because the expression of that kind of "love" is still rooted in a former pagan holiday. True Christians must not adopt pagan festivals as holidays, for they are to strive to please God in everything they do.

Even when you think you're innocently observing a holiday like this, you're still advancing the origins and meanings of the day—especially from His perspective, as He certainly knows where it came from. God said not to do this. He told the Israelites entering the pagan land of Canaan:

"When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:29-31, emphasis added).

When we merge pagan teachings with what God instructs through the Bible, we weaken the truth and violate God's clear command.

God's way is true love

Showing love as God instructs is not wrong—romantic love included. It's a good thing to express your love toward others through a card, flowers, dinner out or any number of other ways. But don't do it under the trappings of a pagan holiday like Valentine's Day! If someone is special to you, then do those things throughout the year rather than waiting until February 14th.

Our worship of God must first and foremost be according to His truth (John 4:24). Carryovers from pagan worship don't honor Him!

God is personified by the characteristic of love (1 John 4:8). Godly love is genuine outgoing concern for others as God would love them—not as a selfish love. Divine love is reflected in keeping God's commandments (1 John 5:3), including the Ten Commandments and instruction like that in Deuteronomy cited above. True Christians desire to faithfully observe God's own Holy Days (see Leviticus 23 for a list of them). Celebrating holidays like Valentine's Day in opposition to God's instruction does not honor or obey Him—no matter how well intentioned or innocent we believe it to be.

It does matter to God how we worship Him. He expects us to understand the difference between what He has declared holy and the profane teachings, customs and traditions masquerading as godly worship (Ezekiel 22:6).

For a more complete review of comparing traditional religious holidays to God's Holy Days, we recommend that you read our Bible study aid Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Observe?”  From: https://www.ucg.org/vertical-thought/valentines-day-whats-wrong-with-showing-love

________

How do I connect with God?

“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.” ~ Proverbs 8:17 

“We must be proactive, we must diligently reach out and seek God in order to find Him.  We need to literally make time to get to know Him because without a deliberate, conscious effort it will probably never happen.

How did you get to know your spouse?  You dated, right?  Did you just wake up one day and find yourself in a relationship?  No!  One of you specifically asked the other to go on a date so you could spend time with each other.  It's the only way to have a relationship with anyone, you must spend time with that person.  We get to know God personally through developing a deep, meaningful relationship by spending time with Him...and the best place to find Him is in His holy word.

Q: Why does it seem so hard to find the time?

A: Work, kids, breakfast, school, dance class, Little League, homework, meals, baths, chores, shopping, our social life…on and on!  These things can all get in the way. So now you must ask yourself, what do I want?  A hectic, chaotic life...or the peace found only in Christ?  We must prioritize our lives to include Him, make our daily reading as habitual as breakfast, and create a new habit.  We have to create a habit of going to our Bible, first thing, as soon as we get up every, single morning.

By starting my day off with praise (thanking Him for everything), worship (praying and conversing), and study (reading His Word) my day will always go smoother.  This is the thing that motivates me the most, the knowledge that my entire day will go better if I do this one little thing.

I’m just too busy…

But, you might ask, how can I possibly fit one more thing into my already crazy schedule?  You need to start earlier.  Start out by getting up just ten minutes earlier and go directly to your Bible.  No-one is up, it's quiet, and it's just you and God…He will do the rest.  Talk to Him, ask Him to help you…He will.

After you do this for a while you can gradually increase your time.  How long is less important than being consistent every single day.  I try to spend an hour, I call it my power hour!  It’s the most important hour of my day.  This is when I get juiced up with the energy I need to get though the day.

Here's how I start every day.  I get up, go to the living room, sit down on my couch and I pray.  I tell Him I'm sorry for messing up and how grateful I am for another day.  I then tell Him everything that's troubling me.  So often we complain to everyone about all our problems but forget to talk to God about them.

"And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” ~ Matthew 21:22 

I then ask Him to guide me through my Bible reading and impress me with the things I need to know today.  I then sing a praise song or two, either one of my favorites or I just Google "praise songs" on YouTube and then sing along while I get a cup of coffee and start my day.

Why you ask, is it so important for me to have this daily devotion time every morning?  Why can't I just pray when I need something or when I have the time?  Ask yourself this one little question to find that answer.  How long would I stay married if I approached my relationship with my spouse in the same manner...  just called him/her when I needed something, or had some time to kill?

We must make our relationship with God our number one priority if we truly want to get closer to Him.  He surely made us His biggest priority.  Just think about what He gave up, how He suffered and died to have us with Him forever.

Make your life easier...

I'm gonna be honest here, some days I'm beat, I don't even feel like getting out of bed, let alone doing this devotional time.  And ya know what…these are the days that I need it the worst.  So I lay in bed and I pray.  I pray for the will to get up and do this.  I ask for the desire to just put one foot in front of the other to make it to the living room.  I then ask for Him to take the lead and help me through.  And He always does just that....and moreover, He's happy to do it.  What parent wouldn't be happy to help their child?

“And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.” ~ Jeremiah 29:13

Now that you know how to find God, how can you grow closer to Him?”

From: https://thetruthmission.org/how-do-i-connect-with-god-2/

__________

Why did God change our diet?

“And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.” ~Genesis 3:2-3

“When you read the above verse, not much has changed. We are still listening to lies, and we are still defying Creator God with our disobedience. How sad is that?

So, why did God change our diet? He didn’t change our diet, per se, but rather added to it as was necessary due to our sin condition. God originally made our bodies to eat specific fruits (in the Garden of Eden). Then, He added vegetables (at the fall of man when Adam & Eve were kicked out of Eden). And finally, He added “clean meats” only after the flood because there were no vegetables or fruits available to eat.

But irregardless of what God has specifically created for us to eat, people still want what they want, they still want what God has told them not to eat! Just like Adam and Eve, they want what God has forbidden!

People want their fat-filled hotdogs and sausages, ham and cheese, bacon and eggs! They don’t want to hear what the Bible says, nope! However, if we choose to eat these unclean foods; things God has not made for food, we will eventually get sick. We really need to see the big picture here. We need to understand that certain creatures were created solely as environmental filters. If we eat these creatures, we are ingesting the toxins that are in the animals that God created as toxin filters.

Why would God make certain animals, and then tell us not to eat them? Let’s start with the bottom dwellers of the oceans for example. God made these creatures, not for food, but to filter the toxins out of the water. Clams and oysters, for example, filter the micro- contaminants from the water. Shrimp and crabs, lobsters and snails, as well as all the other things that live on the ocean floor, are there for clean up duty. They exist to eat the dead and decaying materials that sink to the bottom of the sea and to filter out the micro-contaminants as well.

What exactly do you really know about these sea creatures? They are bottom dwellers, they troll the bottom of the seabed sustaining themselves on fish waste, as well as dead stuff that sinks to the seafloor. And if all that isn't enough to make you want to stop eating shrimp and crabs, how about the scientific fact that because they are water filters, they are literally chock-full of toxins! And, if that still isn't enough to make you want to give up consuming these nasty little things, how about the fact that God clearly tells us not to eat any environmental filters?

Think of it this way, would we deliberately suck on a pool or aquarium filter? Of course not! Wouldn’t we also have an objection to not wanting to eat a rat or a mouse? Absolutely! But for whatever reason, we’re fine with eating other animals that are equally unclean.

God gives us a very specific list of do’s and dont's when it comes to foods, but we've been conditioned through generations of compromise to be okay with eating these unclean and unhealthy foods. We think we've somehow found a way to overrule God’s perfect plan for us. Crazy, huh?  We need to heed God's dietary commandments for our own good health, and learn how to eat clean!

What are clean and unclean meats…?

These dietary rules can be found in Genesis, Leviticus & Deuteronomy, but are mentioned throughout the Bible. According to the Bible, clean meat is defined as the meat of every animal that has a split, or cloven hoof in two, and chews the cud. Examples of clean meat include the ox (cattle), buffalo, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, antelope and mountain sheep, just to name a few.

God gave us a long list of what to eat and, and, more importantly, what not to eat! God clearly tells us not to eat swine, in fact, He compares eating pork to eating rats and mice! And yet we continue to eat bacon, ham, sausage and so on. Would we ever eat a rat or a mouse? Of course not! God clearly tells us not to eat these things because they are scavengers, as are pigs as well. Also, they do not have sweat glands which makes them even more toxic because they are incapable of expressing toxins from their bodies.

Seeing God’s word play-out in the Bible is a great way to understand why He did certain things. And even more amazing, is how somethings happened  before God ever mentioned them as laws.

For example, let’s take the story of Noah’s ark. How many of each animal did he take into the ark? Two? That's only partially correct. Genesis 7:2 tells us that God instructed him to take seven of each "clean" animal into the ark, revealing that the distinction between clean and unclean animals actually predates the dietary laws that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai, by centuries. These examples clearly show us that God knew all along what would and wouldn’t be acceptable for us to eat, as well as the fact that He would be adding to our diet. And more importantly, is the fact that the science surrounding these toxins never changes, nor does the law of God!

​“For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.”   ~Romans 2:12-13

​Q: Are you ready to eat as God specifies?”  From: https://thetruthmission.org/why-did-god-change-our-diet/

_______