Common Sense Reborn

 January 5

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to John that he would baptize Him in the Jordan.  ¹⁴And John forbade Him and told Him, “I need for You to baptize me, and You have come to me.”  ¹⁵Jesus answered and said to him, “Allow it for now, since it is fitting that we should fulfill all justice in this way.”  (Matthew 3:13-15, from “The Original Gospels” pg. 3)

Many blessings upon you friends.  I have begun my journey of 2023 diving back into the Holy Bible.  I read the first five chapters of Genesis to SGZ3 and breezed through the first five chapters of the Book of Matthew.  I do not know about y’all, but when I read the Bible, and push out all the other distractions of the world, I just feel a blessed assurance of peace and comfort.  

Reading through Matthew, after watching the incredible first two seasons of The Chosen, allows the words of the Gospels to come to life in my mind through the incredible visuals that amazing series brought to the world.  I have not been able to watch Season 3 yet, but I hear it is simply beautiful.

Mrs. Z guided me to listen to the most recent podcast from Jay Shetty.  I will let Mrs. Z go into more detail about that podcast on her blog, but that show introduced me to Dr. Mark Hyman, who speaks to Mr. Shetty about the importance of eating healthy and cutting out ultra-processed food.  In the interview, Dr. Hyman gives listeners this little nugget of advice for eating:  “eat more of the things God made, and less of the things that are man-made,” meaning eat more fruits and vegetables, and less junk. Pretty much common sense, but Dr. Hyman goes much deeper about using the right balance to battle disease, mental health, physical fitness, and much more. Click here to listen to this important discussion.

Well, I challenge you, dear reader, to make this your goal of 2023.  Not just for your diet, but everything in your life:  fill your life with the things God made, and less of the things man has made.  Spend more time in God’s word.  Exercise and strengthen your body.  Get out in nature.  Fill whatever free time you have left with fellowship and family.  And if, somehow, you still have more time to spare, watch a show that teaches you and helps enrich your life.

And lastly, make the soundtrack of 2023 worship and praise music.  You can start adding tracks to that list with the one below.