Christmas Reflections
Christian Love
As we draw near to
celebrating the birth of our Savior many of us reflect back on how we have
lived our lives. Have we put Christ first? If so how? How do we love our
neighbor as ourselves? Are we influenced
by Satan, the prince of the power of the air, who has spread evil throughout the
entire planet with his enticements, lure and deceptions? I suggest Satan’s
deceptions run deep into our daily lives. A simple change in our Christian
lifestyle can help change our hearts and help us to reflect to the world the
“love of Christ”.
Our American culture has developed into a taste good, feels
good, me oriented society. Our eating habits reflect our depraved, selfish lifestyle.
We now have the sickest, most diseased culture the world has known. Eating a
high calorie, high fat, heavy dairy and meat diet has created a shorter life
span for this next generation than their parents. Heart disease is killing over
600,000 a year (that’s one death every 34 seconds); cancer is not far behind at
577,000 deaths. With 2 out of 3 Americans overweight and 1 out of 3 obese America
indeed has a health crisis. Our nation, Christians included consume over 9
billion animals a year, and suck down millions of tons of milk, cheese, yogurt,
and butter. We are addicted to sugar, salt, and fat, the 3 new food groups.
This destructive behavior has not only crippled our health but
is also destroying the planet including all life. Animals raised for food are
no longer considered life forms but meat production units. They live a life of
hell and then tortured during slaughter. The sheer numbers that are slaughtered
each day, hour, minute is hard to conceive: 2,740,000 a day, 110,416 an hour, 1,900
a minute, 30 lives each second. This does not include seafood.
21 April, 2010 - Global seafood consumption reached 143
million metric tons in 2008, and global seafood consumption topped 17 kilograms
per capita in 2007 and 2008, according to a report the United Nations’ Food and
Agriculture Organization released on Tuesday.
It does
not stop with the carnage directed toward God’s creatures. The working
conditions in our “factory farms” are some of the poorest in the world. Many illegal
immigrants are used to keep costs down and are forced to work in extremely
unsafe, cruel and inhumane conditions. We as a nation have turned a blind eye so
we can have our meat and dairy addictions met.
As we continue down this evil path of death and destruction
our fresh water supplies are being drained and polluted. Over 50% of all water
used in the USA is consumed directly and indirectly to supply our meat and
dairy habits. Over 80% of all crops grown in the USA are fed to the animals that
we will consume, while 20,000 children die of starvation each day and millions more go to bed hungry across the globe each night.
There are consequences to the “Standard American Diet”
·
Unhealthy meals leading to a shortened lifespan.
·
Increased diseases that disable, and kill.
·
Billions of God’s creatures tortured and
inhumanely killed.
·
Loss of productivity and vibrant lifestyle.
·
Failure of being good stewards, destruction of God’s
creation.
·
Christian’s witness of compassion destroyed.
27 So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and
God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I
have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the
earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to
you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the
earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the
earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it
was so.
31 And God saw every thing
that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the
morning were the sixth day.
Vegan is putting Christ's love into
action.
A plant based diet that consists of high nutrient, low
calorie, low fat, high fiber foods heals the body from the diseases caused from
the “Standard American Diet”.
It is our Lord’s original diet for us and the animals. It is “The
Perfect Diet” since God himself designed it!
It is sustainable and in fact is the only diet that can feed
the whole world.
It is Christian because we would be following His original
perfect plan for our lives that is absent from death, violence and destruction.
We would not be a part of an evil process that kills, tortures, and destroys.
As we reflect on our past and look to the celebration of
Christ's birth let us put away the evil in this world and let our actions speak
louder than words. Not our past actions of being a part of the SAD but going
Vegan, a plant based healthy diet. A new year, a new lifestyle, a new Christian
witness of “love and compassion” for our neighbor with 2 legs, 4 legs, wings
and fins. Remember we are the ones who created this mess in the first place.
From
Suffering to Glory: Romans 8
18 For I consider that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. 19 For the
earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons
of God. 20 For the creation was
subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected
it
in hope;
21 because the
creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For
we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together
until now.
23 Not only
that,
but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Merry Christmas, this
is a message of hope and healing for all of God’s creatures
In Christ
Dale West
