While there are many things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day (in the states), eating seems to be a given when families get together. I found the following article online and thought it might be interesting.

Become an “intuitive eater.” It’s a better way to maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of heart disease, research suggests.

Intuitive eaters don’t diet — they recognize and respond to internal hunger and fullness cues to regulate food intake, explains Dr. Steven R. Hawks of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who adopted intuitive eating habits several years ago and lost 50 pounds in the process.

“The basic premise of intuitive eating is, rather than manipulate what we eat in terms of prescribed diets — how many calories a food has, how many grams of fat, specific food combinations or anything like that — we should take internal cues, try to recognize what our body wants and then regulate how much we eat based on hunger and satiety,” he said in a university statement.

In a pilot study, Hawks and colleagues studied the relationship between intuitive eating and several health indicators among a group of female college students. They identified 15 women who were intuitive eaters and 17 women who were not intuitive eaters and ran a battery of tests to see how healthy they were.

Overall, women who scored high on the Intuitive Eating Scale were healthier than were those who scored low on the scale. High intuitive eaters had a significantly lower body mass index than did low intuitive eaters and had lower levels of harmful triglycerides and higher levels of “good” HDL cholesterol and, therefore, a better cardiovascular risk profile. (more…)

  Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

As Thanksgiving Day approaches (for those in the states) I thought I would share some of the things that I am thankful for. Here goes. I am grateful that I have a personal friend named Jesus who tracks with me as I try to live in his story. I am thankful for my wife Donna, who is truly a helpmate, my son Jason who has a great sense of humor, my daughter Jeramie Joy who loves the Lakers. Some other things that I am thankful for, listed in random order are: a house to have a home in, a car to drive, a computer that works, food to eat, clothes and shoes to wear, breathing, painless moments, a working heart, a bionic one at that, full of heart stints, friends to share life with, books to read, being warm, a great community of faith in which to participate, smiles, you who read my thoughts from time to time, memories that give me stories to tell, and finishing my second doctoral dissertation. Well that’s a start. I trust that you may have a very blessed Thanksgiving.

I found the following in a news story from WZZM 13 in Grand Rapids, MI dated 11/15/2005.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire bans resident assistants or RAs from leading Bible studies in their own dorm rooms. University officials say some students may feel uncomfortable around RAs in charge of Bible studies.

The controversy began on July 26, when the University’s Associate Director for Housing and Residence Life sent a letter saying RAs could not lead Bible studies in their dorms at any time. The letter was sent to RAs who were members of the Student Impact religious group who led Bible studies on their own time, in their own rooms. The letter also added Koran and Torah studies would be similarly prohibited.

Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire asked the attorney general for her opinion yesterday to see if she thought the ban was constitutional. But a spokesman for Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said her office has not had a chance to review it yet.

I wonder if the students could say that “some students may feel uncomfortable around professors in charge of classes” or “some students may feel uncomfortable around students who do not want to study the Bible, Koran, or Torah,” or “some students may feel uncomfortable around the University’s Associate Director for Housing and Residence Life,” would the professors, students who do not want to study the Bible, Koran, or Torah, or the Associate Director get banned?

Question
When you speak with people who preach a prosperity message and they say because of being adopted into the family of Abraham we have the right to all the riches of Abraham. They say if we give, God will give back in return. But I do not believe we should give to receive. What do you think?

Answer
The prosperity message is an American cultish theology. God did not intend everyone to live in big homes and drive big cars in America or in any other part of the world or at any other time. Yes, God did prosper those whom God prospers. It is really his choice. Not a choice of a human who goes through some kind of step program to pull God’s chains and become wealthy.

One wonders why the author who wrote a large percentage of the New Testament books (Paul) had to work while he ministered.

You might think about the following: you give in order to receive in order to give in order to receive in order to give in order to receive in order to give. To be continued…

Question
Can you lose your salvation?

Answer
I think another way to ask that question is to put it in terms of “assurance” of salvation. “How are we assured of our salvation?”

This is a dominant theme in the books of James, Hebrews, 1 John, and Revelation. The books of James and Hebrews are written to shore up assurance by asking its readers to examine their faith. Salvation is pictured as a journey in Hebrews because conversion is a process (1 Cor. 1.18). At his conclusion of Hebrews (Heb. 13.22) the author calls his writing a “word of exhortation,” which is to bring encouragement to those who were discouraged and tempted to leave their journey of faith and return to Judaism. The author leads them to assurance by explaining to them not to neglect their salvation (Heb. 2.1-4). The loss of salvation is more a stopping of the journey or a losing of one’s way.

Question
We are nonexistent until born, then why all the concern for salvation after we begin to exist?

Answer
Would it matter if we didn’t exist at all? Or, did we have an identity before we existed? We learn God is good and the source of all existence, please explain how evil exists.

These are certainly interesting questions. First, I think it is fair to say that Scripture has nothing to say about pre conception. But it has a lot to say (from Genesis to Revelation) about after conception and birth. It seems to be God’s intention to bring us into relationship with him through Jesus so that we can be his image to the world that he has created and through us the world can also come to have relationship with him. I am not aware of Scripture saying anything about “if” it matters if we never existed.

Here are a couple of beginning thoughts on the source of evil. Sin was present in the universe before the Fall of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:1f.; cf. John. 8:44; 2 Pet. 2:4; 1 John. 3:8; Jude 6). The Bible, however, does not deal directly with the origin of evil in the universe, being concerned rather with sin and its origin in human life (1 Tim. 2:14; Jas. 1:13f.). (more…)