Spiritual How-to’s series
Here’s this weeks edition of Spiritual How-to’s for your consideration. It is also listed on it’s own page on the website with the corresponding notes for your potential download.
Have a blessed week.
Debbie
They are your natural shock absorbers and over the course of a day will take a cumulative force of 200 tons. Each, when walking, takes 1.5 times your body weight and when running 5 times your body weight. Yet, just two in ten people even consider their feet or their foot health regularily.
Sometimes, we just need to stop and consider how very blessed we are (most of us) to have two amazingly, functioning feet. Seriously.
How they are taken so for granted. How we pay them very little attention and how very much we expect of them. So in this post, for a change of pace, we will take note of our wonderful feet.
Consider, that at week eleven of your fetal development you had ten digits on your hands and feet. By week twelve you were curling your toes, and at week fourteen fingernails/toenails were present. At birth, your feet were underdeveloped and it took time for your arches to form.
Some 20-30% of you have what’s called Morton’s toe, you know, when the second toe is longer than the others. (Are you one? :-)) And most of us have experienced the most common foot ailment -an ankle sprain. (When was your last one?)
But here are some unreal foot facts: (according to thegoodbody.com)
Your feet have been equipped to withstand and bear so much. Their very structure and construction is a miraculous engineering feat. How they work alone or in tandem to support you for those 110,000 miles you will walk in your lifetime is unbelievable and so unnoticed.
Also embedded in your two feet are 250,000 sweat glands that are able to produce one pint of sweat each and every day! Phew… And let’s not forget about the strongest tendon in the human body that is also found in the foot. Know what it is????? The Achilles tendon.
It’s a shame that we wear shoes so often, as our feet work best in their bare, natural state. Plus, we can’t take notice of and appreciate those toenails that have taken 12-18 months to completely grow. The skin on the soles of our feet is thicker than any place else on our body, so again, why have we since 3,5000 BC worn shoes? (The first shoe was found in Armenia, dating back to then and was a single piece of leather.)
Doctors tell us that our feet often tell alot about our general health. Foot pain, sores, numbness, ulcers, loss of hair, etc. are often indicators of disease elsewhere. And women are 4 times more likely to have foot problems compared to men. Why? Largely due to wearing heels. (Yep, that’s why I stopped wearing them.)
I guess with the emphasis this week on the Olympics and the coming Paralympic Games, it has caused me to consider the tremendous value of my feet and to recognize how fortunate I am. How fortunate we are!
I trust you will give pause more often to take note of your feet and perhaps even enjoy a foot massage, which will not only improve your mood but your overall health.
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them…”
Cheers,
Debbie
Sunday Sermon 2.5.22
It is said that there are two things that people hate. Change and boredom. Would you concur?
I raised my son with, and taught my middle school classes the oft trumpted reminder that, “boredom is a choice“. To this day I still believe it and live by it. I believe we can manage boredom. Change on the otherhand, is less under our control.
Change is what God is up to right now, though. He’s not changing, but times are and so are things for His remnant, those who have held on to Him during these perilous times. Check this out:
” But now, I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the Lord of hosts. (ESV)
Things have changed. I’m taking the side of of my core of surviving people. Sowing and harvesting will resume. Vines will grow grapes. Gardens will flourish. Dew and rain will make everything green. My survivors will get everything they need – and more. You’ve gotten a reputation as a bad-news people, … but I am going to save you. From now on you’re going to be good-news people. Don’t be afraid. Keep a firm grip on what I’m doing.” (TPT)
Zechariah 8:11-13
Although this encouragement was given by Zechariah to Israel some 500 years before Jesus was born, it couldn’t be more fitting for us today. And, we are well within our rights and understanding of Bible interpretation to apply Zechariah’s words to ourselves and not just Israel’s remnant.
The Apostle Paul teaches us that:
So, let’s look more closely at these tremendously encouraging words. I read them in my private devotions on 1.29.22, and felt such a strong impression and inspiration from them. So much so, I wrote it in my Bible, and then dug deeper into the text.
God is speaking to you, He is speaking to me. It is a promise of positive change coming!
God says, look, this is the way is was, and he lists a few specific situations. Zechariah 8:9-10 Then verse 11 BLASTS THROUGH with, “BUT NOW”. I love that. Everything that had happened was no longer the driving factor or revelant. It WAS that way, BUT NOW, things were going to change.
Whatever has marked your life in the recent months may have been big and heavy and oppressive, BUT NOW God is going to deal with you differently. Verse 11 tells us God is no longer going to deal with us as He did in past days! That is wonderful news to you (and me)!
Here’s the change – it’s all good and it is so amazingly encouraging and freeing. Look!
Slow down. Stop. Go back and re-read those bullets. Those are promises for YOU, for NOW, because God is bringing change, now.
But wait, there’s more! (that sounds like an infomercial add, doesn’t it?)
It doesn’t end there. Zechariah 8:13 ESV
OMGoodness. When I read this passage last week, I physically felt that God was speaking it to the remnant of His followers. God was telling us that He was bringing change, doing things differently, because we had transitioned into a “BUT NOW” time.
Dear reader, you have transitioned! It is a new and different season for you. This is a season of peace, fruitfulness, productivity and fulfillment. The curses of the past have been broken and you have been released into a time of blessing, release, and possession of your dreams, and hopes in God.
It is altogether fitting that this passage closes with this phrase,
“Fear not, but let your hands be strong.”
Zechariah 8:13 ESV
It is time to choose faith over fear and to get your hands dirty doing what God has put in your heart, or placed in your path. Whatever your hand finds to do during this season, do it with all your strength for the Lord and see His blessing on it. It’s time to produce. It’s time for fruit, evidence. It’s time for peace. And it’s time for you to possess all of these blessings so that you can be a blessing!
God is here to help you, save you and make you fruitful in what you do in 2022.
What has been, has been. BUT NOW God is doing something totally different with His remnant. Fear not and be strong!
Be a blessing,
Debbie
This is the first in a new video series, that has it’s own tab on my website. Every Wednesday you can check underdebraspalm.com, IGTV, YouTube or here for the next installment of Spiritual How-to’s.
Lesson notes are included on the website and the use of these videos for discipleship and training is encouraged. Be blessed and build the Kingdom.
Under Debra’s Palm 