Kingdom Mindset

I’ve always wondered why I thought the way I did. Why the smaller issues in life meant nothing in comparison to what really mattered to me – my big issues – attitude, spirit, heart, etc. It’s as though I’ve never given myself the opportunity to deal with “things” that came up in my life, things that maybe needed to be dealt with, but in my mind, these things were solved when a change of heart or attitude was made. Or maybe if I could just know God more then it wouldn’t happen…? Those mindsets seemed so far away and unachieveable; just another expectation I had set on myself that I couldn’t meet. How do you create a change of heart? How do I just CHANGE my attitude or be closer to God (spirit)?? You can’t. God can. Praise God if you want him, and he will change your heart to his. Worship God with all of yourself and your attitude is never something you will worry about. DEEP issues of the heart and spirit that are the true issues of life but where the enemy places obsticles in our way and other small things to “care about” in order to sway us from what really matters. Is God what really matters? Well, that’s up to you. Is he what matters to you? That’s where I have to begin my everday right now. My faith is tested, my world is rocked, and questions about what the heck I’m doing come up everyday…but do I want him? or that? First choice of my day – Him. It’s not always this way, and it’s not always immediate. God does not work immediately all the time…but he DOES work all the time.

God is at work in his people. We are a part of his kingdom and yet, living in America, it’s hard for us to understand kingdom. The bigger issues that kings and queens deal with or try and solve…. their mindset could never be focused purely on circumstance (as I mentioned above), but on future, on what’s good, on the root of change. A kingdom can not be run by the situations that come, it can only be run by the Governor General that is God. If God let his kingdom be run by situation, then the devistation of Christ’s death would have ended it all I’m sure. But he used the hurt for good that by accepting God, we now are citizens of the kingdom of God.

“Don’t ask why a man says what he says, find out what made him say it.”

…it takes a little more time to wait, and that’s just enough time for God to work. We can apply this to whatever situation in our lives, but realize that it’s even bigger than that. It’s about a KINGDOM.

Thank you Rabbi Ralph Messer for showing us so that God can teach us who we are.

The Terminal

Yes, God speaks to me through movies, and yes, there are several that take/create things out of the movie and it’s context trying to apply it to something spiritual in their lives.  However, when the realization of something through God is right there infront of you, there’s really not alot of creating you have to do.  It’s just there!  This realization was through the movie The Terminal with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones, GREAT movie!  In this movie he is stuck in the New York International Airport because his country was attacked while he was in the air and has no government so they can not allow him into the USA without his Visa/Passport/Country recognition.  He lives in a run down gate for 9 months I believe, and you find out later that all of this trouble was for a promise he made to his dad.  All of his struggles, waiting, hard work, and care came down to one promise he made to his father to go to New York and get an autograph from a jazz saxophone player.  What incredible dedication and faith he had to wait.  It never occured to him that he would not be getting out, it was just a matter of when.  He would push through whatever was thrown at him and have patience through the quiet times all to get a result he wanted.  He was so faithful in waiting and continuing toward his goal.

God spoke to me and said “this is about your healing – sometimes you have to wait, but what are you doing in the process?  I want you to be diligent and faithful in prayer, patient in waiting, and never doubting that it will come.”  It’s so clear to me what I want, but it’s not for healing that I pray.  I will pray for my healing and I WILL be diligent, but it is not for my healing that I pray to God, it’s because He’s so good.  I love Him, and he’s lead me to Himself through Torah, Christ and relationship.  I will never understand everything he does for me and why, but I know he loves me, and this is just another snippit of what he’s done for all of us.

You Are What’s Good In Me

No song can express what my heart says to You without words

When my deep cries out to You, I feel my God living in me.

No place is better than in my own heart with You.

I will only breathe Your words to inhale everything You are.

I will only exhale who You are and taste what is good from inside of me.

I had no idea that there was SO much information out there about health and what to eat/what not to eat until I started eating that way. It’s so amazing how God is literally causing this change to happen in our lives. The other day I had chicken and it tasted bad…BAD. I’ve never had meat and thought “man, this is horrible!” However, today my research and heart was drawn to different things we need to include in our diets whilest not eating meat (or eating meat in moderation). There are several good things in meat that benefit us, but several things that do not. My first question was “Ok, if we’re not getting our protein from meat anymore, then how do we get it?” There are SO many veggie options out there with amazing amounts of protein in them. I also found that if you’re NOT eating meat and finding your protein in veggies then you aren’t getting all the different types of amino acids (so watch out for that). HOWEVER, it IS possible to not eat meat and get everything you still need. Protein is definitely an important PART of our diets, but it’s not all of it. So, eating large amounts of protein will not harm you, but it won’t necessarily do great things unless you include all of the other things your body needs to operate well.

So, then I started thinking about Calcium. A simple, not very recognized, ingredient that is needed in our bodies. We’ve tried all kinds of milk out there and honestly we liked them all, but only one really got our attention that we actually really enjoy! Coconut milk! Of course! Always heard about it, but never thought of it as an option in our lives. Well, now it’s all we drink! But it doesn’t have calcium. I looked into powdered calcium that you can put into drinks (or smoothies in our case) and found that it’s important to take magnisium along with it if it’s going to be supplimental. I’m not against suppliments, but if I can get something naturally instead of in a pill, why not?! Right?? So, back to veggies I went, trying to find those that had large amounts of calcium to see what we could do. According to my research we should have 1000mg of calcium per day…but how do we get ALL of that out of veggies?? Impossible really. Well, I found two seperate lists of veggies/foods that contain BOTH protein and calcium! So, I decided to combine them so we knew what we could eat to fulfill both of these needs our bodies have just by what we eat. There are several different calcium “infested” (I say infested because there simply isn’t another word for it – some of these are LOADED with calcium) veggies that were not listed on the protein list…however, it’s still needed! My thought was, if we could get both in one then why not?! But I’ll also list those that have a ridiculous amount of calcium, just because it’s kinda cool/crazy how much they have! Of course, there are different variations, and I’m sure, several different veggies out there that could be included, but here’s what we like, and what we personally can do on a day to day basis. Btw, depending on the way you eat the veggie, (raw, boiled, canned) the amount of calcium will vary.

Fruit/Veggie                     Protein                         Calcium

Asparagus 1/2 cup              36.10%                            21mg

Broccoli 1 stalk                    33.60%                         112mg

Celery 1 cup                         11.24%                         41mg

Carrots 1 cup raw                  6.46%                           42mg

Bok choy                                                                 158mg

Beet greens                                                             164mg

Collards                                                                    266mg

Mustard spinach 1cup                                                 284mg

Soybeans 1 cup raw                                                   504mg

(holy soybean batman!)