Healed, part two

Previously: God has healed me

I was at church Saturday night when someone prayed for me to be healed of intestinal trouble. The lady who prayed for me prayed for all the lining of my intestine to be healed, for all the balance of bacteria to be restored, and for the gluten allergy to be gone. I didn't feel a thing at the time. After church, I went out with my family for a snack, and ordered something with gluten in it which I wouldn't have normally eaten. Not a lot of gluten, but enough to trigger a reaction. Nothing happened!

So the next morning, my husband and I were getting breakfast. I made two pieces of wheat toast. I sat down at the table with my two pieces of toast on a plate, just looking at them. Because I was scared, frankly. Although it is not likely, the not having an allergic reaction the night before might have been explained away by the fact that it wasn't a HUGE amount of gluten. But you can't get much more gluten than in a piece of wheat bread.

My mind was telling me, "I can't believe you are going to eat that and put yourself in the hospital, are you crazy?" etc. I was thinking back to last fall when I accidentally ate a wheat cracker instead of one of my rice crackers, and I broke out in hives within 10 minutes all over my body and my husband had to run and get Benadryl fast.

But our pastor had just said something in his message the night before, about believing what God has told you, believing God's word and not doubting it - that is what makes us BELIEVERS, LOL. The enemy likes to put his word up against God's word and get us to believe him instead of God, if he can. He is really a one trick pony -- that is what he has been doing since Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden. Who are we going to believe?

I was thinking about that, while I was looking at the toast, and just all of the sudden I said, "I don't receive the devil's words," and took a bite. As soon as I did, the most amazing thing happened. I felt a warm glow start at the top of my head and kind of flow down over me, that same feeling you get at church sometimes when God's presence is very strongly in the room. So I chewed that bite, and swallowed. And waited for a second for the auto vomit response. Which never came! So I took a second bite, and chewed, and swallowed. I ate two pieces of toast for breakfast and never had any reaction whatsoever. I ate gluten that whole day and was completely fine! This was Sunday!

This year at Thanksgiving I do not have to make my own little meal separate from everyone else's! My husband never has to eat brown rice pasta again!. We can go to Chinese restaurants for dates out once more!

Thank you, God, for what You did! I am very grateful!

God has healed me

God has been healing people miraculously at church lately - it has been going on most of the summer. People have been healed from aches and pains, sprains, dislocations, all the way up to heart disease, kidney failure, and cancers (verified by x-rays, blood tests, and other diagnostics. It has been amazing!) My oldest daughter fractured the top of her foot when one of her kids dropped a heavy toy on it, and God healed that fracture miraculously. That was about a month ago.

So many of you know I developed an allergy to gluten about five years ago. I figured out that it happened after a double course of strong antibiotics one winter - I couldn't get rid of a nasty case of bronchitis. Now I don't take antibiotics anymore, and this bronchitis incident was the last time I ever took them. (I was even sick with pneumonia last winter, but I never took antibiotics - I strengthened my immune system so that my body could do what God designed it to do, and I got over the pneumonia without any complications on my own.)

After those antibiotics, I developed a systemic yeast infection. The yeast multiplied so overwhelmingly that I even developed thrush. What happens during a bad yeast overgrowth like that, is that the yeast grows through the lining of your intestine and sends "fingers" into your blood stream, in such a way that the lining becomes damaged. The lining is normally like a nylon stocking, but after a yeast overgrowth it can be like a burlap sack. This condition is called "leaky gut." Large protein molecules, then, which are normally broken down in your intestine, can leak through the large holes in the lining, and get into your blood stream undigested. Your antibodies detect a foreign substance in the blood, and a full blown immune response is triggered. Gluten is a large protein molecule. I never had a single problem with gluten until after this bad yeast infection. It just took me several years to figure out the connection.

So the lining of your intestine replaces itself every 14 days, but as long as there is yeast, new damage can be done. I was on probiotics for quite a long while, I did several detoxes and colon cleanses, I started following the dietary laws in Scripture, I did a parasite cleanse, I was off "white" or quick-digesting carbs, I was off sugar -- I made many changes in my diet to overcome the yeast and give the lining of my intestine a chance to heal. None of which ever made any difference to the gluten allergy.

In fact, in July my husband and I were having coffee with our kids and grandkids after church one night at a Starbucks. (The grandkids were of course having milk, and I was having herb tea - I was also off caffeine). Everyone had gotten a "treat" from Starbucks, and my husband went next door to the grocery store to get me a Nana's No Gluten cookie. (He is so sweet!) Only he didn't realize that not all of Nana's Nos are gluten- free, and I took a bite without checking, for some reason. Within 2 seconds of swallowing one bite, I had to run to the ladies room to throw up - it is the body's way of protecting itself from ingesting the allergen. It hasn't happened often, because I have learned to be so careful, but that is my typical response to ingesting any gluten, even unwittingly.

So we were in church this past Saturday night, when someone had a word from the Lord that He wanted to heal an intestinal problem. So I raised my hand, thinking a little prayer could never be a bad thing. I was thinking maybe He would heal the stubborn yeast overgrowth and give my system a chance to get back into balance. I was so shocked at what He actually did do!

To be continued ...

New moon feast days

I had put a box on the sidebar of my blog announcing the upcoming feast days. I thought it would be helpful. The next feast day is the new moon for the 6th biblical month. I was going to put a link in with the box, to a post I thought I had written last year on what the Scriptures say about celebrating new moons. But then I couldn't find that post, so this is it. :)

1. Rededicate ourselves - spirit, soul and body -- in love to YHVH, since we are to offer a whole burnt offering on the new moon; Num 28:11-15;
2. Remember Yeshua our sin offering with the bread and the wine of communion; Num 28:11-15;
3. Joyful feasting! 1 Sam 20;
4. Learn the word of God; 2 Ki 4:22-23;
5. Sing praise and give thanks morning and evening to YHVH; 1 Chr 23:30-31; Ps 81:2-3;
6. Worship YHVH; Isa 66:22-23.

Now Col 2:16-17 says, "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ."

Here we learn that the feast days, new moons, and Sabbaths are a foreshadow of Messiah Yeshua who is their substance. One possible way this might be, for new moons, is that Messiah Yeshua is called the Sun of Righteousness in Mal 4:2. The moon does not produce light, but reflects the light of the sun. And the body of Christ does not produce light either, but we are to reflect His light!!

Another way the new moon foreshadows Messiah, is that the old moon "dies" at the end of each month, is "buried" for three days (when there is the dark of the moon), and then is "resurrected" at the new moon! It is a giant reminder every single month of what Jesus has done for us!

Where did the summer go already?!!!

So sorry for that hiatus! We just finished the busiest few weeks I think we have had in the history of Nothing New Press! Thank you! While we are still busy, I have been slowing digging my way out of a hole left by the absence of my admin, who is no longer with us. She was on leave for a while, and is not returning. Boo hoo! But I am finally caught up, and Lord willing, will be able to resume blogging now. I have intended to do so every day for the past few weeks, but the end of the day, and fatigue, LOL, have hit before I got to the "BLOG" item on my to do list. :)

In a related side note, has this been the fastest flying summer in the history of time or what? Wasn't it just June a few days ago, LOL. My husband's birthday is in a few weeks, and that celebration has always marked the end of the summer for us. Yesterday I planned the get together, just marveling at how soon already it has come upon us.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

We finished shipping all the preorders for the new All Through the Ages, and since we were behind on getting everyone their e-mail shipping confirmations, we have been working double duty on those this week. By the end of today, Lord willing, we hope to have all of those out too. So I can tentatively plan on getting back to regular blogging by tomorrow ... barring anything else happening, LOL!

We wish we weren't so familiar ...

... with the inside of our local hospital. I spent the day yesterday at the emergency room with beloved family - we had a scary incident related to the emergency surgery of one month ago. Finally got home at 9 pm, after a full day of tests, scans, and more tests. Beloved family is home resting as well. We have to keep our eyes open for complications, but it seems the trouble is under control for now, for which we are very grateful. :)

Treasure which does not rust

We have been working on shipping all week, and are just about finished. But we are way behind on e-mailing the shipping confirmations to everyone. (If you are waiting for an e-mail, I apologize! It is coming, I promise!) So I can't do any blog posting until that is all caught up. I feel like I keep apologizing for how busy our lives are this summer, and I am. I will stop myself from apologizing for apologizing, LOL.

For example, this week is my deceased mother's husband's birthday. Instead of buying him something he doesn't need, I have spent hours upon hours in the evenings going through our family photos since my husband and I were married, scanning them, cleaning up the scans, and putting them on disk for him since he has one of those digital photo frames now. That was over 26 years of photos. And since we celebrated our first wedding anniversary with our newborn daughter, and had her siblings like clockwork after her, then started homeschooling, those 26 years of photos were in a box. Loose. Unsorted, unlabeled, LOL. There is a reason that box has remained untouched all these years, LOL.

So I would have saved myself lots of blogging time if I didn't decide to hand-make a gift. But this is my way of honoring my mother and her husband, and I think he will really like it. :)

Besides, now that the photos are sorted, I might take up scrapbooking. My daughter is into that, and it looks like fun. It would be wonderful to get our memories out of a box and into books, wouldn't it? It would be loads of fun, if I weren't already quilting, and being Grandma, LOL. Oh well. Investing in treasure which does not rust, like time with people, caring for them and making memories with them, is a wise investment and time well spent.

Perfect vs. perfectionism

We have a streak of perfectionism that runs in our family. I am afraid it comes from my side of the family. There is nothing at all wrong with doing the absolute best job you can, at anything and everything you do. But perfectionism becomes a problem when:

1) fear of making a mistake or of an imperfect outcome prevents you from starting a job;

2) the drive for a perfect outcome means you never finish a job, since there will always be something that could have been better or needs to be fixed;

3) your self esteem is so tied to your performance that you cannot receive God or anyone else's acceptance of you;

4) the need for a perfect outcome makes everyone else around you miserable, as you push them for more and better;

5) the need for a perfect outcome makes you impossible to please, no matter what anyone does.

The only way I have found to change an ingrained character trait like perfectionism is to tear down that stronghold with the Word of God. Scriptures that I have found helpful include those which reaffirm that God accepts me and others, not on a basis of works:

All who the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. John 6:37

Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. Romans 15:7

And those which reaffirm that God is surely working in my life and in the lives of those around me, so that I can not only release them into God's care and stop trying to make everything that I think should happen, happen; but also extend patience not only to myself, but to those around me:

The Lord will accomplish what concerns me. Psalm 138:8

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Even during plowing and harvest

I apologize for missing a post yesterday; as you can imagine, since the new edition of All Through the Ages came in on Friday, we have been working since Sunday morning to get all the preorders packaged and shipped. If you are waiting for a shipping confirmation e-mail, they are coming; we have had all hands on deck as it were to get the books out, so we will be sending the e-mails as soon as the last package has left the premises!

I admit I was tempted for a split second to work on the packaging Saturday too, but I soon discarded that idea. The Lord said, "You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest," (Exo. 34.21). A situation like this is as close as I am ever going to get to the equivalent of plowing time and harvest.

All Through the Ages arriving!

Whoo hoo! I just got a call from the trucking company which has had the new edition of All Through the Ages enroute from the printer's, and the books are being delivered TODAY!! That means we will be able to ship out everyone's preorders on Monday, July 14!!! I am so thrilled to have the books finally back in stock!!!

Back to basics

I am in a Bible study that meets every week, with my sister, my two grown daughters, and some friends from church. We don't do a prepared Bible study together; we basically ask the Lord to teach us what He wants us to learn. He always leads us in the way that we need to go. We have all been Christians for some time, so the direction the Lord took our study this week surprised us.

It was the study of daily time spent in the Word of God and seeking the face of the Lord, how that practice, expression of love, and discipline acts as guardrails in our lives to keep us in the way of the Lord. Of course, we all know how important this is. The first time of the day devoted to the Lord is our daily service of worship expressed by obedience to the command to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might, and to meditate on His word day and night. But it is so easy to let the busy-ness of our lives to take over and erode into that time. This week the Lord said to us, Guard that time as your most precious treasure. This week, the Lord said to us, I love you, and I miss you. Come meet with Me again.

Biblical holidays trump national ones

So far this summer there have been two national holidays which fell on the same day as Biblical holidays. The first was Father's Day, June 15, which happened to fall on Shavuot, or Pentecost, this year. The second was Independence Day, July 4, which fell on the beginning of the Sabbath. So how does that change the way we celebrate the national holiday? Can they be combined? This was the first year we had to address this question.

For us, it did not really matter that there was a national celebration; we did whatever we would normally do on a national holiday as long as it did not interfere with what we would normally do for the biblical celebration. So for Father's Day and Shavuot, Shavuot is a Sabbath of rest except that food for that day may be prepared. So we made a nice breakfast brunch for Dad, and a nice feast for later in the day for the Shavuot feast. On sabbaths of rest, we do not work, and we spend the day pursuing the Lord's interests, not our own personal interests. It is one way that we set the day apart (the meaning of keeping it holy). We had communion and did the other things we do on feast days. Resting, reading, Playing games, playing outside with the kids and grandkids, all these things are allowed on a biblical feast day.

On the 4th of July, since the feast day of Sabbath did not begin until sundown that evening, the only overlap was the evening activities. So we still went to our small town parade, grilled for lunch, and all the other things we would do during the day of the 4th. Only I did not go to the fireworks after dark, that would have interfered with my normal Sabbath activities of feast dinner, communion, worship of the Lord, and setting the time apart for the Lord's interests and not my own interests.

So that is how we handled a convergence of a national holiday with a biblical holiday so far this year. How did you do?

Why we homeschool

Two seventh- grade boys were punished with detention for refusing to pray to Allah. It happened in a UK public high school during the school year which was just concluded. Coming to a public school near you? Maybe, if CAIR has its way.

One question answered

While Obama claims to be a Christian, he has definitively answered the question of whether he is or not in his own words. The short answer: not in the biblical, historic sense. So the question remains: What does he consider himself, then? He is still afraid to say, which makes me wonder: What does he have to hide?

Best laid plans and all that

We had a bit of a scary emergency today with beloved family ... medical complications related to the emergency surgery of nearly two weeks ago. We may yet end up at the emergency room before morning ... but I am praying that the tide will turn and that it won't come to that. Thank you for your prayers!

Loving and supporting others is sometimes the best use of time

I am going with beloved family to follow- up doctor's appointments all day today; I have more holiday /theology posts waiting in the wings and will try to get them posted, but if not today, hopefully tomorrow!

All Through the Ages shipped from printer's

All Through the Ages is being shipped to us from our printer's this week. Because of the 4th holiday, I am estimating we will have the new 3rd edition back in stock by July 14, just to be on the safe side, when we will be shipping books to all those who preordered the newest edition. I have also updated the website with the latest info. The newest edition is harmonized and expanded in every area, but the Geographical section has been doubled, or tripled or quadrupled in some cases. With over 7000 books indexed by historical era, geographical region, genre, and reading level, including the latest books just out in this year's spring catalogs, it is proving to be the invaluable one-stop living books history resource!

When the church compromises with the world

An article in today's paper caught my eye: Neopaganism growing quickly, about the resurgence and growth of such pagan nature religions as druidism and witchcraft. The newspaper article claims paganism is the fastest growing religion in America, Canada, and Europe today, with the numbers of adherents doubling every 18 months.

The comments, though, on this article is what is really interesting. The pagans themselves discuss why the traditional American religion of Christianity is on the decline (many of the pagans identify themselves as former Christians or raised in the Christian church), some giving reasons that the "patriarchy" of Yahweh is less free than the "matriarchy" of their goddess ... the ancient Canaanites agreed with them. Some say that paganism is a more ancient religion than Christianity, as Christianity is based on sun worship. We have discussed the connection in detail here.

This is why God is calling His people out of Babylon, to return to the religion of the Scriptures, not the Roman church.