“If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His eyes, if you pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.” - Exodus 15:26
As we observe the sea of people crossing our paths in our everyday lives, and as we reach out to help the many within our circles who are struggling, truly struggling, with a multitude of health issues - often crisis - we find ourselves in a state of sadness and frustration. Sadness, because none of us want to be sick, nor do we wish illness upon anyone else. And frustration, because over and over again we also see that as people of God, we have turned away completely from his divine plan for health and wellness.
We often ask ourselves why this is. Why do people who look to God’s word for direction about salvation, doctrinal issues, and of Christian living, etc., never consider that the same God who designed our bodies might also have provided a way for us, within His word, to be heathy and strong? Herein lies our sadness, as well as our frustration.
The same god who directed the paths of the patriarchs, of kings and prophets, who parted the Red Sea, the God who gave us his Son to heal our wounded souls; this same god has also provided us the way to build strong bodies, resist disease, to produce healthy children generation after generation, and to assist our bodies in healing from our afflictions.
Why don’t we see? Because we are not looking.
In our modern world of busyness, overwhelming schedules, and the drive to be “successful”, we typically turn to foods of convenience and indulgence, without really considering what affect all of this (including stress) has on our bodily or emotional health.
These factors also affect our fertility and our ability to bring into our lives healthy, robust children.
I am not suggesting that we don’t recognize the challenges of obesity, diabetes, and other issues, or the role that diet plays in these; we do, and yet most don’t understand that these problems (and others) are about more than just the usual culprits: sugar and fat. Indeed, there is far more to it! Toxins in agriculture and processed foods, fake food, foods that are devoid of nutrients, improper preparation of food, and more, present many deleterious effects upon our food (water, air) supply. We desperately need to open our eyes, our bibles and our hearts to consider what God has to say about nutrition, health and healing!
We desperately need to open our eyes, our bibles and our hearts to consider what God has to say about nutrition, health and healing!
We have strayed so very far from his plan…
This is exactly why we at God’s Good Table are putting together a very important event, God-Given Food, at Polyface Farm on August 11-13. Together we will take a look at what the Bible has to say about all of these crucial matters: what foods does God intend for us to consume? How should we be growing these foods and preparing them? What role does dietary fat play in heart disease, stroke, etc.? Is sugar all bad? Should we be eating grains? What about “clean” and “unclean” foods? Are we meant to consume meat, dairy, butter, or animals foods in general? And how about fasting?!
Believe me, there is a lot to consider and a lot to learn!
We have a bevy of excellent and engaging speakers including Chelsea Blackbird from the Christian Nutritionist, Pork Rhyne the “Pork Evangelist”, Sophia Eng (author of The Nourishing Asian Cookbook), Mike "The Fit Farmer" Dickson, Kat Owens from Taste and See Biblical Nutrition, Tommy & Luke from Raw Milk & Deadlifts, Mandy Bloom of Real Food Recovery, and me, Maureen Diaz of God’s Good Table, all who are well-versed in these matters and who have prayerfully researched these topics. We will take a deep-dive into God-Given Food, and why all of this matters. And the icing on the cake? A Sunday morning worship service featuring “Preacher” Joel Salatin, sharing another excellent lesson! (See his message from last year’s event, Does God Care, on our YouTube channel).
We will have breakout sessions for in-depth exploration each day where you can choose to tour the farm with Joel or learn to prepare healthy and beautiful foods with Sophia Eng, Mandy Blume, and myself, Maureen Diaz.
We also have a variety of hand-picked sponsors and exhibitors including Hearth & Homestead, Natural Hope Herbals, Simply Ghee, Front Yard Foods, Redmond Real Salt, Green Pasture Products, Heroes Media Coffee, and more!
So if any of this is of interest to you, won’t you consider attending? We will be hosted by the world’s most famous Polyface Farm and the farmer who inspires us, along with the entire Polyface crew. Also, we will feed you delicious, God-given food!
We even have an exciting program for the children led by our own Abby Lichliter and Lauren Diaz!
Early-bird pricing ends June 30th and space is limited, so hurry and register soon!
For more information, shoot us an email at hello@godsgoodtable.com. Interested in exhibiting? Click here for vendor info.
