Words of Truth

We don’t bake with margarine anymore.  We use butter.  It really makes a difference.  Sure, it costs three times as much, but which would you rather: eat nastiness for $1 a pound or natural tasty goodness for $3 a pound?  If you figure out how many pounds of margarine you use per week (including spread), and then calculate the difference, it’s not that much.  In my family I think we use about 2-4 pounds a week (depending on baking, etc).  That means over the course of a month we are spending $24-48 on butter instead of $8-$16 on margarine.  The average month we are therefore spending $36 instead of $12. That’s $24 a month to be healthier AND enjoy our food more.

Health tip: go to your refrigerator, take all the margarine and throw it away.  Replace with butter.  It’s better for your and tastes better as well.  We used to use Country Crock.  Now we have a butter dish that sits on the counter with two sticks of butter in it at room temperature.  It doesn’t need to be refrigerated to stay good (it will last at room temperature for several week…but it never lasts that long at my house).

Also, throw out your canola oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, etc.  There are studies indicating that these oils (including margarine) actually cause inflammation, which is what causes atherosclerotic heart disease.  It’s not the saturated animal fats, people, it’s the inflammatory process.

Use olive oil or peanut oil instead of vegetable/canola/corn oil.  Use non-hydrogenated lard instead of shortening.  Your heart will thank you. Oh, and your taste buds.

Warning: Adult Post warning

Seriously, if you aren’t allowed to watch PG-13 movies, don’t read any further.

In my nurse practitioner classes we have covered sexually transmitted infections (STI’s). We talked about them last semester in Adult Health. Now we’re talking about them in Women’s Health. With every picture more disgusting than the last, with every description of symptoms and treatments, my conviction grows regarding the rightness of God’s original design for sex: one man, one woman, for life.

I’m going to say this once: If every human on the face of the earth would stop having sex with people who aren’t their spouse, within 100 years every single STI would disappear. Do it God’s way: Stay a virgin until you’re married, and then only have sex with your spouse.

A nurse once asked me what kind of “protection” I use. I said, “Monogamy.”  It’s 100% effective if used by both spouses.

My wife told me a few weeks ago that there was a funny smell in the wall near our kitchen table. I had an upper respiratory infection at the time, so I couldn’t smell it. And then it was finals week, my new job started, and general life happening, so I had no time to address the issue. But we’re coming up on Nathan’s birthday (and mine), so we are going to have people in the house, and the smell was obvious even to me by this point. As my dad would say, “Something died, and did NOT go to heaven!”

Today was my last day of adult health clinicals (yaay!), and I got home around 3pm. When I got home, I noticed our kitchen whiteboard (which we use as a general “to do list” looked like this:

To do. Also, my son takes his S.A.T tomorrow.

I got my extra large X-acto knife, my hammer, my iPhone flashlight, and I got busy. First I smelled along the wall for where the smell was strongest. I unscrewed the electrical outlet box to see if I could get to it through that hole, but there was no smell inside the box. Next I used my stud finder to locate the studs in the general area of the smell, and cut a hole in the drywall between those two vertical studs. As I lifted the drywall rectangle away, the smell was stronger, and the insulation looked “lived in” if you know what I mean. I pulled the insulation out, and sure enough, there was a bunch of black “stuff” at the base of the frame inside the wall. After pulling that stuff out, I noticed the hole in the corner of the outer insulation sheet that the animal (mouse? Vole? Whatever) used to get in.

Note the hole in the lower right corner.

I washed the studs a few times with lysol, soap, and water, and then caulked the hole shut. There is now a fan pointed at the hole to dry the boards and set the caulking.

The base of the frame where the remainder of the black gunk can still be seen.

Tomorrow I will nail some 2×4’s in place and replace the drywall, plaster, sand, and paint.

The hole.

I am happy to say that the stench is no more.

Japan. Korea. China. Turkey. Heaven.

What do those places have in common?

• They are all real locations that can be traveled to.
• They are all places I have never been.
• They are all places inhabited with people that I love.

When talking to the unsaved who have had loved ones die, I sometimes get the impression that, even if they believe the deceased went to heaven, they still act like the person is gone forever. They immediately begin speaking of him or her in the past tense, as if they don’t exist. I am currently reading Divergent, and a line struck me. Someone in the book died, and the main character thinks to herself,

“He is (spolier description of character). No, was. That is death–shifting from ‘is’ to ‘was.'”

I disagree. Heaven IS a real place. Hell IS a real place too. Every single human being that has ever died is in one of these two places right now. They exist. My Uncle Danny and my Uncle David still exist. My Grandpa Don still exists. These people are not gone forever. Since all three were trusting in Christ alone for forgiveness of their sins, they are in heaven. Every adult that hasn’t done that is in Hell (the kids are up for debate as to when they “get a pass” and when they are held accountable).

That is why I determined some time ago to stop talking about dead people as if they don’t exist anymore. Sure, I will use the past tense when I say things like, “My grandpa was a really cool guy, especially when he took us kids fishing.” Because he was. Now that I am an adult, I know how much fun it is to take a few kids under 8 years old fishing.

It’s not.

But he did that. And so I say he IS a great guy, and I can’t wait until my departure date arrives so that I can travel to where he is and get to know him better. I can’t wait until I get to meet all the believers who have traveled to Heaven before me. I can’t wait until I get to meet my Lord and Savior Jesus, my Messiah.

My Uncles and My Grandpa: waiting for the rest of us who know Christ.

Sunday we celebrate Resurrection Day. Today is Good Thursday (I know, but I disagree). 2000 years ago this week God the Son paid the just penalty for MY sin, and for your sin. And if you trust in Him, you too will go to Heaven after your life here on earth is over.

So I challenge you, stop using the terminology of the lost. I heard a believing friend say, “I lost my mom last year.” Every time I hear my Christian friends say something like that, I want to ask, “Where have you looked?” I haven’t lost any of my loved ones that went to heaven. I know right where they are.