Posted in God Speaks

My kiddos are still in homeschool!  Normally we would have from Thanksgiving until the New Year as our Christmas vacation.  We still do things during that time that are school related but it is more relaxed and things are supposed to be more fun.  We school year round taking another big block of time off in spring around Easter doing school in the heat of the summer inside under the air-conditioning.  HA!  Not this year!  I don’t know if it was all the summer yard work that has put my kids behind or if it is just their lack of discipline that we are still in school but we are still doing reading, writing and all the rest.  It stresses me out but it has led us on a different path this season that makes me think that G-d planned it that way.

This bunny trail all started with a God’s World News Issue that my son was reading.  We used these for studying current events (I say used because I’m not ordering them again in that he is woefully behind in reading these although we all enjoy them.  The subscription is too expensive for the magazine not to be used in a timely fashion).  The article was about how they are experimenting with pig bladder extract (?) for regenerating limbs and such.  I immediately thought that it didn't sound right so I Googled it and sure enough it is happening and they have even tried the stuff on salamanders and have grown extra legs -- or something like that -- don't quote me.  Here is an article for you to read for yourself.

Anyhow ds was telling his piano teacher about it and she says that the white fat in bacon is pig puss – because they don’t sweat (or some other disgusting thing UCK!!!) and she read that pig flesh is very similar to human flesh (even tastes similar - ewwww!!).  So of course I come home to Google that (which makes sense why they use pig valves with heart surgeries and such but I wanted facts -- just wish I could remember those facts so I can discuss it rather than only internalize it).  I end up on a site (there are a few) reading a V-E-R-Y biased and very disgusting article from Mr Kellogg (yep the cereal guy) from 1897 about the dangers of eating pork (don't ask me how I ended up there when I Googled "Pork Facts" LOL).  I know Mr. Kellogg had his own agenda but as far as I could tell everything he was saying about pigs was truth just written to convince others not to eat pork. 

Of course I told and read all this to dh who had a different perspective but felt that for health reasons, it might be a good idea for us to cut pork from our diet AFTER Christmas LOL (sidenote:  Christmas food in NM is laden with pork products so this will give our extended families yet another reason to think we are radical Jesus freaks which I guess we are but not how they think LOL).  Dh mentions this at his work to some guy who is going to seminary - what religion and how serious he is, is left to be seen, - but he brings up that Peter's vision cleaned up all the animals.  I don’t remember anything like that in the Bible so I start researching the facts in Bible for myself:   

1) G-d commands us not to eat pork: 

"The pig is also unclean; although it has a split hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses." Deuteronomy 14:8

2)  Okay I was always taught that was Old Testament laws and that we live in the New Testament so we are free from the laws because of Jesus.  But when I actually searched out the truth for myself and read the entire chapter in Matthew 5, I don't see that Jesus is "getting rid" of the Laws in the OT but actually explaining them more succinctly.  This seemed like a new revelation to me.  G-d likes change but He is unchanging.  I don't see Him changing His mind about the OT commandments (of not eating pork) and every time He says DO NOT do something, I have discovered that there is a perfectly G-dly answer to why we should not do it (whether we are Jewish or not):  

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."  Matthew 5:17

3)  But what about that Peter vision?  I wasn't sure what vision we were talking about.  Where dh's work friend and most other people, seem to be basing their "it's okay to eat pork" is in Acts 10.  This is the story of Cornelius, a Gentile, and Peter, a Jew and how G-d hangs a sheet and shows the hungry Peter "unclean" animals to eat.  Okay, I must admit that this one took some digging in my memory banks & study notes as to the true meaning of it all but I remember that it really had nothing at all to do with what you can and cannot eat.  Rather it was about Peter's attitude towards unbelievers & Gentiles (being "unclean") and how Peter was supposed to be a light to the Gentile to lead them to Christ.  I see this not as Peter cleansing the animals but of G-d cleansing Peter of his prejudices.  The L-rd prepared Peter to be of service and to be a light to the Gentiles.  I believe that this entire chapter is about   G-d’s Grace and I really didn’t see that it allowed us to eat pork.   

Yes, I believe that "not eating pork" applies to the Jewish people and if I chose to eat pork that G-d isn't going to condemn me however, if eating it causes something like 30 different diseases in people and if G-d sees the Jewish as the apple of His eye, and if He has soooooo blessed my family when we have held and honored His Holy Jewish Festivals, then why would I not want to emulate and do the same and not eat pork?  

The more I thought about it and thought about when we eat pork and how we LIKE pork -- I realized that this would be a HUGE sacrifice for our pig loving family but one that I (& even more importantly that my dh) was willing to make to show that we wanted to obey G-d's laws.  The more I study my Bible I see that the NT explains the OT but one doesn't invalidate the other and that made me think of: 

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship." Romans 12:1

4)  Well, then I spoke to a friend who eats this way  & I hadn't even considered the other Kosher food laws (yet again another Google search LOL) and was overwhelmed by it all.  I prayed and G-d sent me to Romans 14 - pretty much the whole chapter told me that it was up to me to decide what to do but these are the verses that stuck out for me and why I can eat pork but why maybe I shouldn’t. 

“As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.”  Romans 14:14   

“Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.” Romans 14:20

“But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”  Romans 14:23  

I have my doubts about eating pork (especially after that nasty article).  I feel confirmed because dh agreed to cut out pork (he doesn't usually usually jump on a bandwagon with me right away as in this case).  So for the time being I will "in faith" not be buying any more pork, I will use up what pork we have (although it is pretty tough to eat the stuff after everything I have read) and I will try to replace what pork we usually eat with substitutes and see how that goes.  Becoming completely pork free may not happen until after we spend the Christmas holidays with our pork loving families.  Going completely kosher may or may not happen in our family.  I'm still in prayer over it all.  I really don't want to get legalistic and I sometimes feel like the Jewish requirements are just too legalistic but maybe we as humans just need those sorts of rules so that we stay focused on Him.

And maybe that is the whole journey that G-d wanted me to see.  That yes, my kiddos are behind in school but they are also right where they need to be and I shouldn’t get legalistic with them in “fulfilling MY homeschool requirements” but to just show them the rules and keep them faithfully focused on Him.