Rising Early Yields Benefits
October 20th, 2008Be Awake Before Your Enemies Get Set Up
Life continues to improve here.
As mentioned in an earlier post, my sister told me about an evangelist named Perry Stone, and she said one of his teachings was that Communion was something that could, and should, be celebrated privately as well as publicly. I read his book, The Meal That Heals, and I heard my sister’s testimony about the transforming effects, so I decided to give it a shot. I have kept it up ever since. I have also started getting up at 6:30 to spend the first hour or ninety minutes of the day with God. I’ve tried to do that in the past, but until now, I found it impossible.
For some reason, evil things are most active at night. So it’s probably smart to get to bed early and to get up and start preparing your defense (and offense) while it is still dark. To undo whatever traps have been set for you.
I have been using grape juice. The thought of drinking wine in the morning is just too much for me. And from what I’ve read, I’m satisfied that grape juice will get the job done. I started out with Streit’s lightly salted matzos, but I have since switched to Manischewitz whole wheat. It’s probably more like the stuff they used 2,000 years ago, and it’s not a big dose of refined carbs.
I don’t use a tiny amount of these things; I pour a 12-ounce glass of juice, and I use a whole matzo. I would feel funny playing around with tiny slivers of matzo and a glass the size of a thimble. The first Communion was part of a meal; I figure I might as well do what people do at meals and consume normal amounts. One problem: I really like grape juice. I have to be careful not to drink it during the day, because then I won’t have it when I need it.
When I take Communion, I make a serious effort to search my heart for things that will invalidate the effort. I try to remember whether I’ve wronged anyone and whether there is anyone I haven’t forgiven. And I pray about those things.
When it’s over, I have time for study and prayer, and after that, I fix up the birds and go outside and look over my trees and plants. That right there is a great reward. Although the climate here is not quite like the climate in Israel, the foliage is very similar. Walking around in the dew with the citrus around me, I feel as though I have been transported back to the Jezreel. I remember hopping off the wagon after my ride to the grapefruit fields and finding my ladder and the three wooden boxes that had been placed there by IDF General Eli, who managed the grove when he wasn’t commanding tanks. I remember climbing out of the Jeep and stepping onto the rich brown dirt of the almond fields and waiting for Zev and Avshi and Kalman to tell me what we would be doing.
Fortunately, the yard doesn’t remind me of the day I spent working in the chicken house. Don’t get me started.
Because of the way my schedule has changed, the day seem longer, and I get more done, and when bedtime comes, I am ready to sleep. It’s just a better way to live. If it happens after ten p.m., odds are, you are better off missing out on it. Seems like that principle applies to a lot of things. If it’s on a pay channel, you are better off not watching it. If it’s network-TV entertainment, you are better off not seeing it.
Here’s a funny example. Now that I carry a gun all the time, I can’t go into bars. It’s the law. Hmm…isn’t that a win-win situation? Seriously, is there anything that happens in a bar that makes the visit worth the down side?
Life is changing. I am discarding the objects and practices that invite attack and corruption. It’s like debriding a wound and removing the dead, infected crud the bacteria use as a base. I didn’t realize it until this morning, but Communion is part of that. You can’t just do it. You have to prepare yourself and clean up your soul. Holding hatred and vengeance and other bad things in your heart is about like keeping a Ouija board in your closet.
It’s all about t’shuvah; turning back to God. That’s where the power comes from. Think of God as the sun and yourself as a solar panel.
According to the Talmud (says Aaron), Jewish tradition teaches that today (beginning last night) is the Yom Kippur of the Gentiles. Fine with me. Two days of atonement have to be better than one. One day for the olive tree, and another day for the grafted branches. Can’t complain about that.
This morning, I will be driving my sister to Fort Lauderdale, to some sort of a garden center. How about that? I couldn’t have predicted that two months ago.
I have to thank everyone who offered guidance. Of course, I have to thank all the readers who quietly kept me in their prayers. And above all, God.
Time for breakfast.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:48 PM
I have lots to atone for. I could use a week.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:17 PM
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky (umpteen books by him on Amazon), who ran a medical center for substance abuse in the Pittsburgh area, tells a story of an alcoholic priest in his clinic who dreaded returning to his congregation because of drinking wine at communion. Rabbi Twersky contacted the Pittsburgh Archdiocese and had them forward a message to Pope John Paul II, noting that 2000 years ago, as now, grape juice was permissible for Jewish ritual, ergo, a priest with an alcohol problem should be permitted to perform Communion using grape juice as Jesus would have. The Pope sent word back that the priest was allowed to use grape juice.
Steve, you can probably rely on Rabbi Twersky’s logic, too.
Also, in kosher markets, Kedem makes a variety of grape juices, from sweet concord, to blush to white. I happen to like the white because it isn’t as sweet as the purple concord.
Also, for sacramental purposes, we use a cup of wine for each of the Passover 4 cups of wine measured to a “reviit” which is roughly 4 oz. 12 oz is huge. No reason you can’t have more than 4 oz of grape juice but I’d be spinning from the sugar if I had that much.
Regarding hatred, like anger, it is a tool. Misused, it is likened to idol worship. Used properly, it can motivate and energize for good.
Amos 5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
Psalm 87:10 O ye that love the LORD, hate evil; He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivered them out of the hand of the wicked.
Ecclesiastes 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
The key for such emotions is “in its time”. Better, when God would have wanted the emotion to motivate to do the right thing.
Regarding TV… I unplugged in 1996 and haven’t missed it. Anything that is worth seeing is worth seeing a year later on DVD, without commercials. The compulsion to be “with it” or “in style” has rarely been beneficial to character development.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:59 PM
I started early rising a year ago – to start my day with a brisk workout. I’m down 20 pounds and feeling more energy and such despite effectively losing an hour of sleep each day (well, sometimes I go to bed earlier than I used to).
I tended to get my scriture reading/mediation in on my train commute during the week, so that was already built in there.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:45 AM
The cookbook “Baking with Julia (Child)” has a very interesting recipe for unleavened bread. I wonder if it must be unleavened though. While the original first communion would have been, it’s entirely possible that the practice that developed among the believers used each day’s bread.
As for hate; Aaron strikes me as very wise and learned but his tradition differs from ours from time to time, eg:
[Matt 5:43-48]
You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: 45 That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? 47 And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? 48 Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:06 PM
Greg, as I am sure you know, the first Communion occurred at a Passover dinner, and that means unleavened bread. Also, leaven is a symbol of pride and sin, because it puffs things up. The idea is that unleavened bread symbolizes a human body (Christ’s) free of sin.
Somehow or another, it looks like that idea didn’t carry over to the wine, which is fermented. Maybe that’s because it’s impossible to keep yeast out of grape juice. It probably exists on the grapes while they’re still on the vines.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 PM
Leavened bread was also a symbol of Egypt, which worshipped rot (fermentation). Beer was also a coin of currency. Nothing says “in your idolatrous face!” more than slaves tying up a deity (Paschal sacrifice) and rejecting the coins of the Egyptian realm (bread and beer) before exiting, stage East, toward the Promised land.
Re the quoted Matthew… it would be difficult if not impossible to reconcile an imperative command to be perfect with a creator who legislated an annual day of atonement. Leviticus pretty much goes out the window, despite numerous “for all your generations” text in the scripture (which applies to Jews). Such a command won’t be found in the Jewish scripture because perfection wasn’t expected by our Creator. If, however, Christians saw that imperative command as pertaining to THEM, there would be no scriptural paradox to reconcile. Jews would still have their eternally-ordained system.
“Be perfect” simply isn’t possible for a human. I’d be nervous around any faith whose adherents claimed they were. Can Greg point me to any perfect people since Biblical creation?