The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
6 If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters,[a] you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.9 This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.10 That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
11 Command and teach these things.12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
So far to date, I have lost 10.5 pounds. I have done this by eating healthier, meaning plenty of veggies and organic meat and intermittent fasting. I did a book review on Intermittent fasting by Gabriel Jackson you can read it HERE
I am learning to stop restricting myself so much and just enjoy life more. Now let me be clear about the restrictions, I am still eating low sugar low carb, but it doesn’t mean no sugar or carbs at all.
The other day I baked some bread and we had it with dinner. My husband was happy and we had a wonderful meal. He didn’t freak out and say, “Oh my God…carbs!” No, instead, we enjoyed our dinner and each other and that was it.
Take a look at a few of the things I’ve been making for our health journey.
This is how I make bone broth. I buy the bones from the meat department. They are called marrow bones. I slow cook them for about 18 hours with all the leftover veggies in the fridge like carrots, celery, onion, bok choy, and even garlic cloves (garlic is an anti-inflammatory) 1/4 cup of white vinegar (that helps to leach the nutrients and collagen out of the bones) and then pour filtered water (not tap) to cover the bones by about 2 inches. Then add whatever else you find that you like to eat and start it out on high and let it all cook down. Some say it should cook on low, but I cook it on high for a few hours before I turn it down.
Afterward, I strain it by placing a tea towel over a sifter to double strain it to get everything out, the debris I call it. (Tea towels wash up very easily by the way) Below are the results. Two beautiful gelatinous jars of love. This can be added to anything and everything. I never add water to any of my dishes, I always add some kind of broth, like chicken broth or beef broth because it gives the dish more flavor. Now I have bone broth so that is what I’ll add. You can even heat it up and drink it by the cup. I add a pinch of salt and pepper mmmmmmm, like drinking a hot cup of soup.
almost gone
Bone broth can help cure leaky gut, it restores immune system function, helps you overcome food allergies and so much more. The collagen/gelatin and the amino acids proline, glutamine and arginine that you get from bone broth help seal the openings in the gut lining that cause leaky gut and the collagen/gelatin also support gut integrity. (bone broth made at home, not the imitation stuff purchased in a carton on the store shelf.) Also, when it is cold, it turns to collagen/gelatin, when it is warmed up, it is liquid and you can add noodles to make a nice soup or drink it alone.
Below is a regular dinner we have been eating as you can see from the meal planners. These are the best southern collard greens ever, seasoned with onion, garlic, and smoked turkey leg. (Look for the tutorial in upcoming weeks before Christmas) Next to the collards is corn that I cut from the cob that we got at a farmers market in New Jersey a few days ago, along with a basket of honey crisp apples. I always pack an apple cut into wedges in my husband’s lunch box with leftovers.
I added bone broth to the collard greens and the corn.
Before we go farther, let’s finish chapter one before we dive into chapter two. In verse 19 Naomi and Ruth return to Naomi’s country and everyone knows about it. They were the talk of the town. They had left for a better life, to flee the famine but have returned empty-handed. Not only have they both lost their husbands, but this means Naomi has lost both her children as well. I cannot imagine how devastating this must be. Losing her family may have transformed Naomi because some of the people in the town almost didn’t recognize her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty[d] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
In verse 20 Naomi tells people “Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara.” We see that Naomi means pleasant, but Mara means bitter. Naomi didn’t feel pleasant or happy anymore, she felt bitter and she felt that God had punished her by taking away her family. But in chapter two something changes.
Verse 1-3 tells us:
1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”
14 At mealtime, Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.[a]18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
Ok, we can tell this chapter is not about Naomi anymore it is about Ruth, but that’s it, Naomi turned her attention from herself to her daughter-in-law. She began asking questions because Ruth brought home all this food. Naomi could’ve been so caught up in her grief that she continued to say “wow is me”, but she didn’t. She looked at her daughter-in-law and knew that she was suffering too and was trying to move on. She saw that Ruth brought home all this food which added up to be about 30 pounds, Naomi decided to step out of herself and find out how Ruth was doing and where she got all that food. Then she began to praise her relative Boaz for his kindness. Continue reading:
20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.[b]”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”
22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
This chapter teaches us that:
Naomi Focused on Others
Too many times we get caught up in our own situations and our own problems and we forget about what others around us are going through. If you look around there is always someone in a worse situation than ourselves. Thinking of others will not only allow you to reach out and help others, but it will help you heal as well. I’m not saying it is a quick fix for what you are going through, no one wants that, but focusing on others will help you put your own situation into perspective so you can be better equipped to get through what you are facing.
It is a win/win, it glorifies God (Matthew 5:16) and it is a way of praising God (I Peter 4:10-11).
Matthew 5:16 – In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
I Peter 4:10-11 – Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
What can you do to help others and be more focused on others in need than on your own self? This could be helping a neighbor in their yard, volunteering at church or a soup kitchen, start a group crocheting hats for the homeless, be company for someone (or a friend’s relative) at a retirement home, read to the blind, the possibilities are endless. Start at home with your neighbors, relatives or church and then think bigger. You can do so much and help so many by focusing on others.
Again, this week commit to being a Naomi. Commit to thinking of others instead of yourself. What will you do to focus on others?
This photo was found on Pinterest with no identifying information
Last week I posted about spiritual laziness and I am determined to shed that skin and renew my spirit. Laziness comes from different places, like complacency, ungratefulness or just burnout. It doesn’t matter where it stems from if it is affecting your walk with God things need to change fast.
Last week I began reading Ruth and wanted to do a Bible study starting with Naomi and what we can learn from her.
Naomi
Ruth chapter 1 (NIV)
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
This is Bethlehem the birthplace of Jesus. Although Jesus was not born yet this was the time when the judges ruled and there was a famine in the land. Elimelech and Naomi move their family to Moab for a while to escape the famine.
3. Now Elimelech, Naomi‘s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4. They married Moabite women, one named Oprah and the other Ruth. After they live there about 10 years,
5. both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6. When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
7. With her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dad and to me.
9. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept out loud.
10. And said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
We see no mention of Naomi having more children, and no mention of grandchildren. There was no life insurance, no inheritance, there was nothing. Having children, and grandchildren was a sign of prosperity back then, but Naomi had neither. Instead, we see in verse 9 Naomi blessed both women. Back then a blessing was something you spoke out loud, it was words of good fortune. It wasn’t merely “may God bless you” it was sometimes extensive. Naomi wished her daughters-in-law to have a good future, with husbands who loved them. We know that Naomi loved her daughters-in-law.
We also see that Naomi had made an impact on their lives, even in a different country. When they had nothing left Naomi still made an impact on them. They loved their mother-in-law not many can say they get along with their mother-in-law to the point they are willing to live with their mother-in-law instead of their own mothers.
Naomi was an example to these women they learned about God through her while living in their own land.
This chapter has taught us that
Naomi brought God with her where ever she went.
It is easy to act like a Christian at church, or to be kind to people you go to church with, but what about people at your job, people you meet at the PTA meetings, the sidelines of your kids’ soccer game?
Some people go to church read their Bible but when they get together with people outside of that circle the pristine gloves come off. They use different language, act differently, they have two sides to themselves. Naomi was the same person at home in her own land and the same person when she moved to Moab. Naomi was a light to her daughters-in-law and she showed them who God was in their own land, a foreign land with other gods. Orpah and Ruth were even willing to go live with Naomi back in Bethlehem. Would you leave your home state, or country to go live with your mother-in-law? I can’t say I would. Orpah and Ruth wept out loud when Naomi told them to go back to their mothers’ homes. Who does that? Cry out loud? Someone in sorrow. These women cried at the thought of leaving Naomi.
Verses 12 through 18 tell us that Naomi encouraged the women to go back to their mother’s home but in verse 16 Ruth replied, “don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where are you go I will go and where you stay I will stay. your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where are you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. When Naomi realized Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Naomi made an impact on Ruth. Ruth changed her faith because of Naomi. She gave up her old life and wanted to follow Naomi‘s God, because of what she had seen in Naomi.
Are you making an impact at work? You may not be able to share your faith openly at work but your good and godly attitude will shine bright through the crowd.
How do you impact your friends? Are you the one they come to when they want advice or are you the one they come to when they want to be worldly?
Look around, you may be the only person showing God’s love to those around you. Take advantage of that and shine.
Today commit to being a Naomi. Commit to impact others.
What will you do this week to let the light of God shine through you? How will you
Take God With You?
Share in the comments below.
Next, we will look at the rest of Ruth in this study on Naomi
As you all know I am very proud of my people the Lumbee and was very proud to see Charly Lowry and Alexis Jones perform at the Governor’s Mansion last week. They are both American Idol contestants that made it pretty far.
and previously at UNCP, they sang the Star-Spangled Banner. Keep reading to learn more about the career and music of Charley Lowry.
Charly Lowry is a singer-songwriter from North Carolina with Native American roots from the dark swamps of Robeson County. For over a decade, Charly has attained regional and national success as both a solo artist and lead singer of spiritual rock and soul band, Dark Water Rising. In summer of 2019, she joined forces with a talented ensemble of musicians to provide the score for the outdoor drama Strike at the Wind, a tale of the legendary Tuscarora outlaw Henry Berry Lowrie. The band’s style of combining storytelling and music is a reflection of the strong tradition of music and oral/family traditions that are rooted in many of the communities from Robeson and Hoke Counties. The ensemble features Aaron Locklear (drums), Alexis Raeana (vocals), Kyng Bea (vocals, keys), Zackary Hargett (bass guitar), and Tyrek Hearon (guitar). They recently performed at the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion as part of the Come Hear NC program.
This year’s Music of the Carolinas series is highlighting Millennial Traditional Artists from a new project from the Folklife Program of the North Carolina Arts Council. This directory highlights next generation traditional artists from the mountains, Piedmont, and coastal plains of North Carolina.
As a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, Lowry was a lead singer for Mr. Coffee and the Creamers, a Motown/soul cover band that performed throughout the Triangle region of NC. Lowry’s experience as a lead singer for Mr. Coffee and the Creamers served as a catalyst for her to begin the journey of living as a musician.
For over a decade, Lowry has attained regional and national success as both a solo artist and lead singer of spiritual rock and soul band, Dark Water Rising. In addition to performing with Dark Water Rising and The Ulali Project (a reincarnation of the world-famous First Nations female a cappella group, Ulali) she often shares the stage with the British funk/soul band The New Mastersounds. In 2004, Lowry had the opportunity to compete on the wildly popular television show, American Idol. She ventured through several rounds of auditions to land a Semi-Finalist spot (Top 32).
It’s a very well kept secret that before Santa and Mrs. Claus took up residence in the North Pole and started spying on children all across the globe they first met in a dusty old saloon way back during the Gold Rush. However, the details about this very first meeting and subsequent partnership are sketchy at best.
So let’s hear your version! Put on your thinking cowboy hats and put pen to paper, then send your submissions.
Please click HERE for the rules, how to enter and prizes for this contest. The contest ends on December 31st at 11:59pm.
Stepping Into The Life 