Words Of Wisdom - Being More Intelligent - Healthier With Vegetables And Water : A reading from Daniel: DN 1:1-6, 8-20 : In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and laid siege to Jerusalem. The Lord handed over to him Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and some of the vessels of the temple of God; he carried them off to the land of Shinar, and placed the vessels in the temple treasury of his god. The king told Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain, to bring in some of the children of Israel of royal blood and of the nobility, young men without any defect, handsome, intelligent and wise, quick to learn, and prudent in judgment, such as could take their place in the king’s palace; they were to be taught the language and literature of the Chaldeans; after three years’ training they were to enter the king’s service. The king allotted them a daily portion of food and wine from the royal table. Among these were men of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. But Daniel was resolved not to defile himself with the king’s food or wine; so he begged the chief chamberlain to spare him this defilement. Though God had given Daniel the favor and sympathy of the chief chamberlain, he nevertheless said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king; it is he who allotted your food and drink. If he sees that you look wretched by comparison with the other young men of your age, you will endanger my life with the king.” Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief chamberlain had put in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days. Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then see how we look in comparison with the other young men who eat from the royal table, and treat your servants according to what you see.” He acceded to this request, and tested them for ten days; after ten days they looked healthier and better fed than any of the young men who ate from the royal table. So the steward continued to take away the food and wine they were to receive, and gave them vegetables. To these four young men God gave knowledge and proficiency in all literature and science, and to Daniel the understanding of all visions and dreams. At the end of the time the king had specified for their preparation, the chief chamberlain brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. When the king had spoken with all of them, none was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; and so they entered the king’s service. In any question of wisdom or prudence which the king put to them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom. Living in the modern age with conveniences and being affected by mass media, people have lost their mere simplicity in daily meals. Instead of using simple ways of preparing meals, they choose luxurious, delicious, tasteful, and nutritious food with complex processing and cooking for the sake of their health, and as consequence, we could see that the more they enjoy these, the more serious their illnesses are, the sooner and more unexpected they die. At the very early time of conception, people were soon infected by this kind of illusive complexity and luxury in food, specifically in time when they realized that they were pregnant, babies were fed with nutritious ingredients that guaranteed their intelligence, good health, and bright future, and as the result, they are in “obesity” from their mothers’ womb, and when the time comes, they were born with the help of operation instead of being natural born for the sake of the so-called “intelligence” and “health” with more financial burdens. That is the law of “human intelligence”. From the very early age of our lives, we have been cheated and programmed by media coverage and PR articles by irresponsible and conscienceless nutritious and medical experts, who are hired by food and medicine corporations as their spokesmen, and those whose voices just serve the interest groups’ purposes to poison the healthy lifestyle of the majority of the humankind. Their expert advice is the same, just to praise the nutritions of the industrial processing food so that we could ignore or dismiss natural nutrition from fresh food, with just one trick: tapping into the subconsciousness of the fear of death, the consciousness of being more intelligent and better in those whose knowledge and point of view are limited, and finally they will smile at their unhealthy and ill conditions of life when they happen as if they are heroes of being blinded with the “scientific way of life” standards, DYING YOUNG. Farmers, who are overwhelmed with stupidity and benefits, deny their high identities to make fresh and healthy food for their communities to serve interest groups by making high productive products with various chemicals to make these more attractive and more seasonal, to bring higher benefit for both the farmers and the groups, and finally to bring illnesses to the communities. Moreover, they cheated themselves with that they make themselves healthy and non-chemical products just to serve their own family and friends with the motto that “We live healthily for the sake of ourselves, but others” and pride of this. But they forget that they are not exceptional to the world, because if everyone thinks as same as they do, they just can escape with their own products, but still get into the others’ products, which are as poisonous as their mass productive products. People become more selfish and kill each other just for the mislead desire of “being healthier, more intelligent, and better than others.” Today’s reading, we will see Daniel, whose faith is mere and pure, put all his trust in God’s power more than in the wisdom order from the king, and this is why he courageously suggested the steward, ““Please test your servants for ten days. Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then see how we look in comparison with the other young men who eat from the royal table, and treat your servants according to what you see.” Marvelously, the test passed, “after ten days they looked healthier and better fed than any of the young men who ate from the royal table. So the steward continued to take away the food and wine they were to receive, and gave them vegetables.” Many times our infants, who utter silently Daniel’s request, to ask us for stopping to harm their lives with human food, instead, beg us to pray unceasingly and to meet God, who is life and the only source of life, so that they could be healthy and intelligent with God’s grace, but our intelligence in earning more money to afford the human food for them. Also, many times our souls utter their voices to beg us not to listen to such absurd advice from experts and to the world’s noise to let our bodies overindulge into sensual pleasures and luxurious nutritious food just to die young, because our souls know their missions in this life, not to enjoy food and die young when we cannot do any good contribution to the human community. However, what do we do with small voices? Do we trample them down or even kill them with the power of our free will just to die forever? High demanding and complexity in our daily meals are doors open wide to illnesses and death in both physical and spiritual entering into our lives. Because they are doors that lead to many other bad passions and habits, which are from our bodies’ negative and low vibrations, whence many bad consequence and crimes happen. This is why “Daniel was resolved not to defile himself with the king’s food or wine; so he begged the chief chamberlain to spare him this defilement.” Be simple and honest in our daily life, especially in taking care of ourselves and our beloved members. We should know what are core values that need to show, not in luxurious and nutritious food, not in precious and expensive things, and not in high material value things, but from and in our sincere and honesty of hearts, which are from God’s pure love. And in God only, real life exists, develops, and lives eternally. Apart from God, other gods just give us false and virtual lives, real illnesses, and eternal death. ( Joseph C. Pham )
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 17:53:14 +0000
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