Tag: health

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Ew. That looks like mold.

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Nancy Hughes on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Leviticus 14.

As soon as the water receded, they moved in. Volunteers from all over the country showed up and started mucking out homes that had been under three feet of hurricane storm surge water. Once the sheetrock gets wet, the mold will begin to grow in a humid Florida climate.

If you’re not familiar, “mucking” means ripping out any and all the walls that have been underwater. If you don’t do that, the mold will grow. It will grow behind the walls. It will grow quickly. It will contaminate the air in your home. Before you know it, you’re sneezing, coughing, and sniffing from the black mold growing in your home.

In the bible, it’s the priest’s job to deal with the mold in your home.

“When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a spot of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession, then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘Something like a spot of leprosy has become visible to me in the house.’ The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the spot, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house” (Leviticus 14:34-36).

I’ve sat in homes that made me sneeze, sniffle, and cough. Maybe it was the cat. Maybe it was the garbage. It could have been the dirty carpet. Mold? Maybe. Maybe it was something else. All I know is that it wasn’t healthy.

God cares about your physical and spiritual health. And sometimes that means you need to clean up whatever is making you sneeze, sniffle, or cough.

Our church had to deal with some roof leaks. A member stopped attending worship, claiming that some of the carpet had gotten wet and moldy. We analyzed the air, replaced the carpet, and fixed the roof. That member never came back to church. Even though the pastor (the priest) said it was all good. Go figure.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Are you going to eat that?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Leviticus 11.

At least once a month, lunch at the fraternity featured, “BLT – down all the way!” as Randy would mimic his favorite New York deli. I have to admit that we Gentiles made sure our Jewish brothers witnessed how much we enjoyed bacon as they settled for other leftovers.

I’m not saying they were devout. I only ever saw them go to synagogue on Yom Kippur. They didn’t eat pizza for the first three days of Passover week before they caved. None of my Jewish friends could explain the story of Hanukkah in December. But they drew the line at bacon and rare roast beef. I know, that’s not blood in rare roast beef, but that’s what they claimed they were avoiding. I would imagine they grew up in homes where those foods were avoided. (We Christians weren’t especially devout at college, either.)

Leviticus 11 is filled with dietary laws. Pork was unclean and off-limits for Israel. Swimming fish were fine, but shellfish was prohibited. It was OK to east locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers. What about lizards? Nope. No roadkill, either.

I find it interesting that holiness, at least in this context, was determined by your choice of food and contact with a dead animal. In hindsight, we know that may of these rules were for health reasons. They distanced God’s people from the pagan culture around them, who didn’t have as many regulations.

I read with interest those restaurants shut down by the health department. Sometimes, I’ll think, “Didn’t we eat there just last week?” I try not to think about that.

As New Testament believers, no foods are off limits (Acts 10). But I still try to distance myself from artificial sweeteners, chemicals, and processed food, along with too much fast food. I feel better, and feel better taking care of a body the bible calls a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).