Jesus Watchmen

Consumption and dependence on meat referenced in the bible are often made in reference to death and disconnection from God.

“6 You have killed many people in this city and filled its streets with the dead. 7 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: The bodies you have thrown there are the meat and this city is the pot, but I will drive you out of it.” - Ezekiel 11:6-7.

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“3 Tell this rebellious people a parable and say to them: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Put on the cooking pot; put it on and pour water into it. 4 Put into it the pieces of meat, all the choice pieces — the leg and the shoulder. Fill it with the best of these bones; 5 take the pick of the flock. Pile wood beneath it for the bones; bring it to a boil and cook the bones in it. For this is what the Sovereign Lord says… 10 Cook the meat well, mixing in the spices; and let the bones be charred. 11 Then set the empty pot on the coals till it becomes hot and its copper glows, so that its impurities may be melted, and its deposit burned away. 12 It has frustrated all efforts; its heavy deposit has not been removed, not even by fire. 13 Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided. 14 I the Lord have spoken. The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor will I relent. You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions declares the Sovereign Lord.” - Ezekiel 24:3-14

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4 “You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. 5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. 6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.”- Amos 6:4-7

If we take a look at this from a different perspective; what we still don’t see in scripture are God’s people or followers referred to as glistening meat that I crave or a cluster of new eggs to eat. However, in Micah 7 listen to what is being said about Israel’s misery.

“1 What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. 2 The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains.”

The upright people of Israel are referred to as a gleaning cluster of fresh grapes or early ripe figs. Why do we consistently see references to fruits, vegetables, and grains in the bible but no references to God’s chosen people as being meat, eggs or fish? Was God intentional when He instructed the vernacular of the bible? Was Jesus intentional about his word usage when using parables to answer questions of the Pharisees?

I hope something inside of you is starting to wrestle with the idea of diet and health as it relates to scripture. My goal today isn’t to change your mind completely. My goal is to help open our eyes to the possible fallacy, there is only one way and it’s the only way because it’s how we’ve been told to do it. If you think what I’m asking you to do is extreme, then let’s take a closer look at an even more extreme case of full reliance upon our Heavenly Father for our complete needs through John the Baptist.

In Mark 1:4, Jon the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching about baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the wilderness. John was eating whatever God provided him in the wilderness, but it doesn’t say he killed animals for food. Is it probable, John ate plants, insects, and possibly manna as we have seen God provide elsewhere in scripture, especially if John the Baptist was supposedly sent “to prepare the way for Jesus” (Isaiah 40:3; Mal. 3:1; Matt. 3:3)?

Exodus 16:31(KJV) - And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made

Preface

There are a number of topics which I hope to share regarding the current climate of health among Christians. These are my own observations and interpretations of scripture regarding these topics of health.

My goal in writing is to offer a different perspective for Christians furthering their walk in Christ. I offer my argument for why we should be approaching health in a new way based on my interpretations of scripture, new discoveries in health sciences, and a mutual understanding that Satan’s goal is to destroy God’s creation and sever our relationship with our creator. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 NIV).

You’re probably wondering how and why somebody would write a paper on such a controversial topic within our culture. It started with a simple question, “Does scripture say anything about diet and health?” I honestly had no clue. This paper began as the accumulation of notes and annotations of bible verses while listening to the bible cover to cover throughout the course of a year and ten months; listening specifically for versus regarding health, diet, meat, food, and nutrition. When I finally finished my read-through, I went back through my notes and something began to percolate from the information gathered. I can’t say exactly how or why this was put on my heart to write this paper other than I felt commissioned by the Holy Spirit. In the same way this seed was planted in me to share, I hope this small seed can be a continual presence which grows to glorify God’s kingdom and ultimately makes a larger impact on the Body of Christ, if it be in His will.

Worldly Health vs. Biblical Health

As Watchmen in Christ, it is our duty to hold one another accountable in all things including diet and exercise; yet it seems the world focuses more on health and fitness than Christian men. Men’s morning bible studies begin with donuts. Men’s afternoon bible studies consist of pizza and soda. Men’s retreats have seemingly endless supplies of comfort food. Men’s monthly breakfast is near all we can eat buffet of mostly unhealthy options. After God said all is acceptable and safe to eat, have we misused God’s gift to us?

In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden there was no sin in the world; therefore, the diet God originally intended for us did not include the consumption of animals because death did not exist. I wonder, if we can describe the perfect body, the perfect health, and the perfect food in the Garden of Eden, shouldn’t we strive to model our health and diet off of a perfect model; in the same way we strive to make who we are more like Jesus who was perfect?

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock

and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring[a] and hers;

he will crush[b] your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;

with painful labor you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;

through painful toil you will eat food from it

all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return.”

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made g

Chivington Massacre (Sand Creek Massacre)

Setting the Stage

* 1849 at the discovery of gold in California

* Drove mass settlers across the great plains in search for riches and a better life.

* When the US government realized the mass of settlers moving through the great plains and traveling through territory occupied by native American tribes, the government decided it would be in their best interest and the interests of the settlers to cut a deal with the native tribes to ensure that they would limit or prevent harassment of new settlers traveling through and allow safe passage for settlers through high risk lands.

* The government held a gathering and Fort Laramie, Wyoming

1. To this day, you can visit the historic Fort Laramie. It was an important stop on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails, as well as a staging point for various military excursions and treaty signings.

* In 1851 many of the great plains tribal chiefs were convinced by the government to sign a treaty to protect the settlers and allow for safe passage through tribal lands.

* The agreement allowed safe passage through the lands with the conditions that the settlers would not stop and attempt to seize tribal lands.

* The Problems Begin:

1. Although the intention of the treaty signing was good, a vast number or tribes did not sign the treaty and therefore did not agree to such terms and conditions.

2. The settlers were driving away migratory animals and buffalo which was a staple for many of the great plains tribes.

3. The settlers were disturbing the lands and using up natural resources and contaminating water sources

4. They brought new diseases from the East which ended up killing large swaths of native population through contact with settlers

5. Gold was discovered in the winter of 1858-1859 in Colorado which lay upon a portion of the tribal lands acknowledged as a no go area for settlers due to the treaty agreement; however, settlers began flooding the area in search for gold, all the while unregulated and therefore breaking the treaty conditions set forth by not settling on tribal lands.

6. The lands given to them expanse between modern day most of Eastern Colorado, to Western Kansas, South Eastern Wyoming, and South Western Nebraska

* These lands were designated as Cheyenne and Arapaho lands

7. Modern cities like Boulder and Denver, Colorado began as mining camps because of the gold that was found in the surrounding area

* The root of the problem began as the taking of tribal lands by the increasing amount of settlers in the area, breaching the original treaty the US government insisted upon.

1. Thus began a systematic problem of retaliation between settlers and tribal people. They began as small isolated incidents but over time the frequency and aggressive nature of the retaliation started the slow boil which would eventually reach a critical point.

2. The US government was aware of this settling of the tribal lands and yet there was no plan prepared to alleviate problems and equip the people on both sides to coexist with one another

* In 1861 this new influx of settlers in Colorado put pressure on the government to find a way to extract more tribal lands thus providing more safety for the settlers; as well as, increase their likelihood of finding more natural resources through the settlers who were essentially on the front lines of excavating what the government was not able to do.

1. In a sense, there was a unspoken agreement between the settlers and the government for the settlers to act as contracted prospectors. Once the natural resources were discovered it provided incentive for the government to increase the lands acquisitions in those areas.

* In 1861, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs which was the government office overseeing the relationship with the Indian tribes

1. Was sent to negotiate a revised treaty

2. The treaty was signed at Fort Wise in 1861 wa

Warning: This episode includes sensitive content not safe for children.

It’s just after supper in your hut. Your mother and father are tending the fire and tidying up as they ask that you go to bed. Tomorrow, father is going to take you out into the fields for the first time as a young boy. It’ll be your first time learning about the tills the ground using hand-tools. He’s going to show you all of the corn crop that was planted from the prior season and it will be your turn to help him plant seeds in preparation for next season harvest.

You tell your mother you’re still hungry so she hands you a fresh mango from the basket of fresh fruit she picked from the massive mango tree growing just outside your hut from early today.

You sink your teeth deep into the mango. The sweet juice seeps out of your mouth as you pull your mouth back from your bite still lipping the bits of mango fiber stuck between your teeth. “Mango is my favorite,” you say to yourself as you finish eating down to the pit.

“Now off to bed,” says mother, “tomorrow is a big day for you.” You hope into bed, place your head down on the pillow still half licking your fingers or the mango juice and picking the strands from between your teeth. As you fall asleep you think about the exciting time you are going to have with Father tomorrow, and you can’t wait to wake up.

You awake to the sounds of footsteps in the hut. It sounds like father and mother talking in the next room. You rub the sleep out of your eyes and look out the window – it’s still dark outside. It can’t be morning yet; father usually wakes up early for work, but this seems too early.

You begin to hear muffled, distant shouting coming from outside the hut. Father and mother are talking more loudly now and it’s beginning to sound like the whole village is has awoken. You hear more voices outside, and the voices are sounding louder and with more excitement in their voices about something.

Your father and mother run into your room and pull you up out of bed. “We have to run,” they say to you. Their here.”

There’s not enough time to grab anything from your room as you’re hurried out of the hut by the arms, fathers firm grip around your around your forearm and mother’s in his other hand.

As the door to your hut opens, your mind is flooded watching the other huts in your village as people begin to poor out of them and begin running in different directions.

The screams and yelling of the people outside are now far surpassing the volume level you are used to hearing even when hearing mother and father most excited. And then unfamiliar sounds begin to happen that you’ve never heard before like snaps, pops, hissing, and thuds all around you. People are beginning to fall over as they run and struggling to keep their step.

You realize in your paralyzed stupor that you’ve stopped moving because of the things you are seeing, and nothing is making sense. I grew up with these faces and I have friends lying about the ground still frozen with their gazes fixed on nothing. Your father is pulling on your arms really hard, and yells, COME ON, WE HAVE TO GO NOW!

As you, father, and mother make for the tree line, three dark figures step into your path and suddenly something else grabs you by the back of the neck and hard crack to the back of your head makes your eyes cease to see and suddenly you feel nothing.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, “At the end of 2018, some 41.3 million people were internally displaced due to armed conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations, according to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).”

During my recent trip to Nigeria with Integrita’s Men’s Ministry we visited one of these IDP camps for displaced boys due to conflict in and around Jo’s due to cult activity, secret society activity, and in most cases, terrorist activity.

This was our opportunity to meet with these boys who had lost everything and there was still no one th

Warriors Join David, Heavenly Reward, Extremist Groups in Scripture

We are the specifically selected men defecting from the enemy, to join the ranks of Heaven’s Armies

1 Chronicles 12 – The Warriors join David”

“12 These were the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was banished from the presence of Saul son of Kish (they were among the warriors who helped him in battle; 2 they were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed; they were relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin): 3 Ahiezer their chief and Joash the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; Jeziel and Pelet the sons of Azmaveth; Berakah, Jehu the Anathothite, 4 and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty warrior among the Thirty, who was a leader of the Thirty; Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Jozabad the Gederathite,[a] 5 Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah and Shephatiah the Haruphite; 6 Elkanah, Ishiah, Azarel, Joezer and Jashobeam the Korahites; 7 and Joelah and Zebadiah the sons of Jeroham from Gedor. 8 Some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the wilderness. They were brave warriors, ready for battle and able to handle the shield and spear. Their faces were the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles in the mountains. 9 Ezer was the chief, Obadiah the second in command, Eliab the third, 10 Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, 11 Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, 12 Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, 13 Jeremiah the tenth and Makbannai the eleventh. 14 These Gadites were army commanders; the least was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand. 15 It was they who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight everyone living in the valleys, to the east and to the west. 16 Other Benjamites and some men from Judah also came to David in his stronghold. 17 David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come to me in peace to help me, I am ready for you to join me. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free from violence, may the God of our ancestors see it and judge you.” 18 Then the Spirit came on Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said: “We are yours, David! We are with you, son of Jesse! Success, success to you, and success to those who help you, for your God will help you.” So, David received them and made them leaders of his raiding bands. 19 Some of the tribe of Manasseh defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. (He and his men did not help the Philistines because, after consultation, their rulers sent him away. They said, “It will cost us our heads if he deserts to his master Saul.”) 20 When David went to Ziklag, these were the men of Manasseh who defected to him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu and Zillethai, leaders of units of a thousand in Manasseh. 21 They helped David against raiding bands, for all of them were brave warriors, and they were commanders in his army. 22 Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God.”

God’s Preparation in Our Lives

Romans 5:2-4:

2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.

We will study key individuals in the Bible and how God’s preparation in their lives provided them with the necessary knowledge to be activated at their appointed time for God’s Kingdom.

How if we step out of our calling for God and try to go at things on our own, we often fall or lose our anointing in the spirit, as we will discuss in depth in a future session when we talk about Saul and Samuel; as well as, David and bringing the Ark of The Covenant into Jerusalem.

We accept that we are stewards of this ministry and carrying out God’s calling i

Sovereign Lord, you created the heavens and the earth and everything in it. Have mercy on us for you are perfect and we are sinners. Your grace and mercy is unending. Holy Spirit we beg your presence in this place. Allow us the gift of clarity; that we may hear your words today and not our own. Continue to guide us along the path you have laid out before us. Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. The King of Glory, The Lord of Heavens’ Armies, Yahweh. Amen.

World War II (1939 – 1945)

The Blitz (September 1940 – May 1941)

Nighttime bombing raids against London and other British cities by Nazi Germany during World War II.

The raids followed the failure of the German Luftwaffe to defeat Britain’s Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain

The daylight attack against London on September 7, 1940, marked the opening phase of the German bomber offensive against Britain, which came to be called the Blitz after the German word “blitzkrieg,” meaning “lightning war.”

Daylight attacks soon gave way to night raids, which the British found difficult to counter. The British lacked effective antiaircraft artillery and searchlights, as well as night fighters that could find and shoot down an aircraft in darkness.

The scale of the attacks rapidly escalated. In that month alone, the German Air Force dropped 5,300 tons of high explosives on the capital in just 24 nights. In their efforts to ‘soften up’ the British population and to destroy morale before the planned invasion, German planes extended their targets to include the major coastal ports and centers of production and supply.

The infamous raid of November 14, 1940 on Coventry brought a still worse twist to the campaign. 500 German bombers dropped 500 tons of explosives and nearly 900 incendiary bombs on the city in ten hours of unrelenting bombardment…

“I stood on the footway of Hungerford bridge across the Thames watching the lights of London go out. The whole great town was lit up like a fairyland, in a dazzle that reached into the sky, and then one by one, as a switch was pulled, each area went dark, the dazzle becoming a patchwork of lights being snuffed out here and there until a last one remained, and it too went out. What was left us was more than just wartime blackout, it was a fearful portent of what war was to be. We had not thought that we would have to fight in darkness, or that light would be our enemy.”

Daily Herald journalist Mea Allan wrote those words in 1939 as she witnessed the introduction of universal blackout.

From Thurso to Truro, from Hastings to Holyhead, Britain was plunged into darkness at sunset on 1 September, two days before war was declared.

Street lights were switched off at the mains, vehicle headlights were masked to show only a crack of light, and stations were lit by candles.

In the months leading up to the declaration of war, women made and hung blackout curtains and blinds, and sealed any gaps round the edges with brown paper.

Did the blackout have any beneficial effects?

Burglary and mugging increased, and looters took advantage of deep blackout and bombed-out houses.

By the end of the first month of war there had been 1,130 road deaths attributed to the blackout, and coroners urged pedestrians to carry a newspaper or a white handkerchief to make them more visible.

A coroner in Birmingham told old people to keep off the streets after dark, suggesting routine visits to the pub in the evening had to be relinquished for the war effort, as so many were killed when they stepped from pub into darkened street.

Thousands struggled to work

Consumer Goods and Public Rail travel, too, was made more difficult by the blackout.

In darkened railway goods yards, porters struggled to read labels on freight travelling by train at night, which led to increasing delays for passengers.

After the blackout was lifted in 1941, doctors had diagnosed a new condition among factory workers on the home front: blackout anemia.

Just as seasonal aff