And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8

A Reflection on Health & Wealth, as a Culture Issue.

July 20, 2020

REFLECTION ON HEALTH AND WEALTH as a CULTURE ISSUE

For several years, I would say 17 years specifically, I have been attending church at a Word of Faith denomination. In this belief system, they promote faith, health and healing, as well as prosperity. These are just some of the core values I submit to and have for almost two decades. I can say this foundation of beliefs has changed quite a bit, and in a negative way too, in what I would call extended circles of this denomination. It has changed so much so that most of the core Word of Faith camp does not support those newly sprouted ‘arms’ and ‘legs’ that have damaged the foundational beliefs of the main core.  We, as I am including myself in this core church, love them, they are our brothers and sisters still, but we will confront unbiblical teaching no matter where it comes from, or who’s camp the new theology sprouts out of. This topic is well versed in my house and we do subscribe to most of the beliefs promoted by the Word of Faith movement of religion, but not all.

I will attest to the factual viewing of the different income ranges compared to the different individual health standings in this church community. I know people who are wealthy, very wealthy, and I also know congregation members who are poor, poverty poor. I have noticed those who have access to more resources like money and wealth are considerably healthier than those who live at the poverty level according to US standards set out.  It is a real connection between wealth and being healthy. It is also a real connection between being poor and being unhealthy, especially in adults that I know.

There is an interesting connection that both the wealthy believers and the poor income believers attain to and that is joy. We both experience joy in being a part of this type of belief system, and congregation. Another interesting connection I have watched over the years is that if one comes into the Word of Faith denomination poor and unhealthy, over time, however much they do what is taught at home and at work, they become more wealthy and more healthy.

I have experienced this as well in my own life, but I have seen it happen in the lives of a vast many others repeatedly. I have also witnessed how some other faithful attendees’ lives and financial circumstances have not improved. In that regard I am understanding it is more of negative habits, or personal issues that have not been overcome yet.

Also, we all move toward bettering ourselves at a different pace, so I see those who don’t progress as more from personal issues and not because of something they are taught in church. I am not under the belief it is necessarily connected to them getting a better job or eating better. I have a serious, foundational belief it comes from the joy and connection they experience in knowing Christ and their time in reading and studying the Bible itself.

The ones who have made progress from living below poverty level to living in the middle-class range have only accomplished this because they changed their mindset, the way they think, and what they focus on, daily.

There are other sources that find wealth is connected to having and living in better health, such as an article I found from the Income and Health Initiative. The article I found shows this to be at least in theory true. Stating, the greater one’s income, the lower one’s likelihood of disease and premature death. (Woolf) It states also, income is associated with mental health. When two sets of income were compared, the families who earn more than $100,000 a year, to those with family incomes below $35,000 a year were four times more likely to need and seek out mental health services.

There is a spectrum of reasons why the money and health connection are there that I have both seen and read.

With higher income population:

• can afford the resources that protect and provide health
• paid leave when sick
• better health benefits because of better jobs
• healthy programs offered by their job, such as a matching Health Savings Account option
• less job injuries because of better jobsite protection
• access to a wide variety of healthy options in food
• more stable jobs

In contrast the low-income people experience:

• paid lower income or only part time work which do not have health coverage or lacking coverage to pay for deductibles and copays
• are not provided paid leave or paid sick days
• no extra programs offered by their job
• work in jobs that are hazardous or toxic to their health
• do not receive family health coverage, even if they as an employee do
• their access to medical care is limited

Socioeconomic Conditions also include:

• little or no childcare, single moms making the bulk of the income
• education limitations, illiteracy
• culture and beliefs about what is healthy and what is fine
• access to healthy food

I can see a clear and unfortunate connection in the wealthier you are the healthier you are as well. It is real. I see it also running in income levels, that as a person grows wealthier, they will naturally invest more money in their health and fitness levels naturally, and grow healthier.

RESOURCES

Woolf, S. H., Aron, L., Dubay, L., Simon, S. M., & Zimmerman, E. (2015, April). How Are        Income and Wealth Linked to Health and Longevity? In Income and Health Initiative: Brief One. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from    https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/49116/2000178-How-are-Income-     and-Wealth-Linked-to-Health-and-Longevity.pdf

 

WHY MILK?

1 Peter 2 talks about that a bit.

As a teacher of the Word I thought of this in our study of 1 Peter 2 today.

If we don’t feed the baby Christians, who we are disciplining, the pure, healthy, full-fat milk (refer to the old testament use of fat in the temple worship) they could begin to show signs of failure to thrive as a growing Christian…IF they are in fact even being discipled at all.

Giving watered-down milk to a child will surely cause this effect in the natural, from my own understanding. Watered-down milk removes the density and creaminess of the pure food to create sustainable life for the human body.

During the of discipling of new Christians, when I go to ‘correct’ the child some will receive it and yet some will choose the watered-down version instead. Maybe they have heard this weak milk in their own church or from their own interpretation of the Word. Maybe the person is just unwilling to be corrected, maybe there needs to be some time placed between the lesson and response and coming back to it later is the issue. Many times, new Christians need time to digest milk. Either way watered-down milk is dangerous, it will not produce lasting results.

Also, remembering that as the Christian believer matures to eating more responsible and tougher foods, what we call “the meat of the Word”, the milk of infancy is continuously needed as well to keep in mind the basic foundational truths. This keeps the Christian from getting too ‘high minded’ or in ruts of pride as they continue to mature.

As with any other skill the foundations are continuously practiced throughout the lifetime and in each exhibition of that skill.

Let’s look at learning a sport or the learning of musical instruments. The mastering of that musical instrument or sport depends wholly on the foundational applications that must be used through the entire process of practice.  This application should be no different in our Christian walk and as teachers of it when using the milk of foundational truths first, and then gradually adding the more textured meats is vital to proper nutrition and substantiated growth.

Example: drum rudiments are the basis of all aspects in drumming. A person can drum without them intertwined, but there will be a noticeable essence of lack in the sound. So, a teacher can disciple without the fundamentals of the milk, but the discipled could possibly walk around living with an essence of lack in this spiritual realm.

There is Grace for That

I heard a song last night during the Greater Faith Service at FLC which was just what a worship song should be to me. Some of the words are….”Mighty, Righteous, Matchless & Worthy, Holy, and I call you Lord, and You call me Yours….what more can I ask for? Power and might are in Your hands…who am I that you would care for me?… You look at me with such grace…” It makes me think about the other songs we sing…and why we sing them.
Do you ever stop and think about the words you say or sing? I have, most recently anyway. I have decided there are some songs I won’t sing along with, even if the whole congregation is singing it in a service.
Now, this was what I thought.

These are such simple earthly words but they really can’t contain His fullness or how BIG and AWESOME God is. Sometimes I pause, like a selah, and take in the vastness of who He is and I still come short in the true fullness of Him.

He MUST look at me with incredible, powerful grace to be who HE is and fellowship with who I am. The thing is, who I know I am, is not even in the fullness of who HE knows I am, and He still looks upon me with love and acceptance. He still, despite that knowledge, notices me. This grace is humbling, and His grace and mercy are the biggest benefits, outside of salvation, the blood of Jesus offers to me.
I call Him Lord, and truly worship Him as such. Then when I examine my life, on the regular basis, the decisions, reactions, and habits I see, I question that worship. “Is he really Lord, honestly?”

I do question this in myself more often now, but not as often as I want to. Especially as I knowingly rest in the complete and righteous child HE made me. It’s this same grace that drives me to let some of these hindering things in my life fall off. It isn’t the guilt I am speaking of because I know I don’t live in guilt; it is this powerful grace that continues to clean out my vessel. His cleaning won’t happen without my submission. Pruning won’t happen without my submission to the process. It’s my agreement to release of all the unnecessary things that shouldn’t be there, I thought I needed.

The title of Lord is a big deal. Webster’s Dictionary stays:
\ ˈlȯrd \
1: one having power and authority OVER others:
a: a ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are DUE.
b: one of whom a fee or estate is held in feudal tenure.
c: an owner of land or other real (see REAL entry 1 sense 2) property.
d. obsolete: the male head of a household
e: HUSBAND
f: one that has achieved mastery or that exercises leadership or great power in some area.
2 (if) capitalized.
a: GOD sense 1
b: JESUS

Some questions I ask myself sound like these –
Does HE have authority over the things in my life?
Does he have authority over the decisions I make?
Is my obedience faithful… is it complete?
Does He own me…. all of me, all my real estate, all my possessions?
Does He have full authority over my skills, talents, and gifts?

Maybe a better way to say it is, have I surrendered all the things, obedience, decisions, talents, skills,
gifts, real estate, possessions under His authority and Lordship to Him for Him to use as HE sees
fit? Yeah, that sounds more like what I want to ask.

Being honest in that answer…my life, body and time would look a lot different if I had. People have
called these priorities or commitments, even standards. I am not working to ‘get’ from God in any
prideful, gluttonous way. I know I just receive from Him what He has promised to me, but I do
have a part to play in accepting this gift, and this cleaning off of life’s residue. I don’t want to make
His gift look un-credible because of my un-submission, but it does. Being overweight doesn’t give
Him credit for healing, having credit card debt doesn’t give him credit for me being prosperous.
Healing and prosperous living are still my gifts from Him, but how am I representing them? How
am I presenting the gift from Him to the world? I have done better as time goes on with a
‘righteousness consciousness’ thinking, and obedience that brings health and prosperous living. I
would like to say it’s easy too, but it’s a mindset I am still overcoming. Walking from grace to grace
is changing my life and knowing who I am in Him encourages that change. Instead of living under
the mindset or the ‘law or works consciousness’ of doing good to get in His graces which I was
raised under, has taken more time than I like. He has helped me to heal, slowly, from grace to grace.
He doesn’t leave me stranded to move forward alone in His desires for my future, or yours.

Therefore, it is so difficult for me, (as well as many women from what I have seen recently in the
world) to feel “ok” about the submission to my husband. This is what Eve fell for, questioning her
submission. I am sure Adam discussed the tree with her. This is shown to us from her own remarks
to the serpent. I am sure they passed by the tree several times a week, looking at its beauty and
knowing what the ONE command from God had been about the tree. It was not so much a falling
because of temptation as much as I see she fell because she laid aside her SUBMISSION to … first,
Adam and second, to God. Eve gets a lot of chiding as so many of her sons and daughters still say
things about her decision to partake, knowing she walked about inside this beautiful garden with
God daily. That thinking has been almost hypocritical, along the lines of “How could she! If I had
walked with God in that garden, I wouldn’t, I couldn’t go against His will and command. I mean
He’s God! She walked with God….” I know this accusation exists because in my immaturity I
thought it too. I can imagine, during the cool of the afternoons, she talked to God about other
things as well, and surly learned different lessons from God, not just about the fateful tree law. She
stepped outside of that education, and submission purposefully. I can’t imagine the shame she felt,
not as the level of shame we feel, I think it was much more powerful because shame was new, she
had never felt it before. I don’t remember the first time I felt shame, but I know it stayed with me,
that is how powerful it was.

None of us step into sin accidently, we walk straight into it, looking
directly into its eyes, with a full knowledge and discretion of the wrong being committed. Which
shows me, in all reality… submission is true safety, and a willful direct decision, a deliberate act of
love. It is nothing to be feared when used the way it was created to be used. That is why God told
her specifically in Genesis 3:16– ” Unto the woman he (God) said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy conception; in sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy
husband, and he shall RULE OVER thee (wife).” Making the position of the wife, not woman in
general, notice the words, in submission to the husband. This was only said in response to her
actions with the serpent. Obviously, Adam did not rule over her previously or God wouldn’t have to
prescribe this penalty to her. Also, God never intended childbirth to be painful! Can you even
imagine giving birth without pain or suffering, just a natural beautiful occurrence? One day your
walking along the river, picking flowers and the next thing your allowing your body to release a
baby, without pressure, without pain and it is a triumphant event! It’s still so beautiful, don’t get me
wrong, but it wasn’t supposed to be the way we know it now even. That’s MERCY! He could have
said, “Be gone Eve, you disobeyed!”, and poof He evaporated Eve, right then and there. Instead, He
gave her something she could handle while trusting in Him through the process.

The key is, I don’t want to carry Eve’s ‘attitude’ into my own relationship with God. If I can’t submit
to my husband, then I would also be much less likely to truly submit to God. Like the very familiar
example of when a child refuses to submit to his/her parent’s rules. If the parent allows this
behavior the child also surely won’t submit to a teacher, or others in authority throughout life. The
biggest deception is the same one Eve faced in her temptation. It’s the deception laid out before me,
and thousands of other voices I hear in the world I live amongst. Voices which try to persuade this
attitude of not submitting is “ok”. Those same voice’s say, ‘I can just rely on the fact that I am
generally a good person and I do good things…’ but that isn’t what I am called to be. I can’t lead
others if I never submit to being led first.

I see so many baby Christians stepping out into serious ministry positions after only less than 5 years
of their salvation and I pray for them, for their inevitable difficult journey, and highly probable fall.
Toddlers aren’t mature enough to lead, it takes time to be discipled, more time than most think. It
also takes submission, and years of that, not just a couple solid ones.

I pray, I will SEE the areas where I am not submitting…because I don’t want to lie whenever I call
Him, Lord. I want to be able to truly call Him Lord. I WANT that submission in my life. How a
wife submits to her husband, is the very way she submits to God. I feel it is simple submission.
Submission is key to every healing, as well as the breaking of chains from bondages or addictions I
honestly search for. If I sit in my comfy Christian lifestyle and say “God, why isn’t this going
away?!!” AS IF I were not responsible somehow as well, I am fooling myself. I want to respond and
submit to Him more fully, quicker, and without fear. I desire to really see the goodness of God…in
all its fullness…in the land of the living (earth), today.

What if this submission I have purposefully avoided is exactly what I’ve missed in receiving what I
desire, or what God desires in my life? What if I was wrong all along in being unsubmitted?

There is grace for that…