The Vegan Lifestyle

The most important thing in life is to know God and be acquainted with Him. No other earthly endeavor can be better than this. It is  the ultimate goal in life.

But people have other goals in their lives. Most people want to be rich. Money is the strongest motivating force of all endeavors in life. People believe that money can buy everything they want;  that it can bring them happiness, joy and peace.

People have not understood that in the end they will see God face to face. In the judgment day, God will not ask how much wealth you have acquired here on earth; God will not ask how many diplomas or doctoral degrees you have finished. We cannot bring anything with us when we die.

All striving under the sun apart from God are useless. We may acquire great wealth, but they will vanish like smoke. We can have happiness and joy,  but they are flitting and transitory.

People have not learned their lessons in life. In spite of the many sufferings and afflictions in life, they are still blind to the glaring fact that money cannot buy health and happiness. Many rich people are paralyzed in their sickbed suffering and afflicted. So many wealthy people die in their diseases in spite of their huge wealth. They are unhappy in spite of all their material possessions, and lofty positions in society.

Why should people remain blind and deaf to these facts? Why should people endeavor continuously to reach the unreachable to the detriment of their body and soul? If only people can understand that all their endeavors, no matter how successful, are only useless straws when they do not have God in their lives.

People need God in their lives. There can never be a lasting peace and happiness without God in our lives. God is the sustainer of our lives, and all our needs are provided by Him. Our strength and our very life emanates from Him, and all our endeavors are useless apart from Him.

To know God is the ultimate thing in life. God is the beginning and the end; the Alpha and the Omega. Whether we live or die, we shall always be with the Lord. And He will judge us according to our works in this life.

So let us endeavor to know God and be His intimate friend. While our strength is still with us to kneel in prayer, and our voice still audible to call upon him and praise his holy name, let us search for Him eagerly as we search our needful daily food. For we cannot escape from Him. Whether in life or in death, we are always with Him. And we shall see Him face to face during the final day of reckoning.

Man is very important to God. On the sixth day of Creation, God created man in His own image. Man is God’s masterpiece of Creation.

God created everything in this universe for the well being of man. The psalmist who realized this profound truth wrote with awe and wonder: “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4).

Man was created a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5), and made him to have dominion over the works of God’s hands, and put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:6).

Oh, what a great privilege for man to be so pampered by God! What is man indeed that God would be so mindful of him?

God was so delighted when He created man from the dust of the ground. He gave life to man by breathing His very own breath into man’s nostrils, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

Oh, what a wonderful and inspiring fact! The very breath of the  LORD God Almighty is in man’s nostrils! It is inherent in every man, and no diseases can ever thrive in him if he can fully realize and understand this awesome truth!

God spoke these things into  existence: the light, the firmament, the dry land and the sea, the grass, herbs and trees, the sun, moon, and stars. He created the fish of the waters, the fowls of the air, and all living creatures of the Earth. God created all these things, and prepared all these before creating man. All provisions for comfortable existence were made ready for man before he was created by God. What a loving providential God!

God created the universe and all the things in it for man’s well being. You may not believe this, but astrobiologists discovered 154 finely-tuned parameters in the whole universe that  show God’s tender love for man.  This wonderful phenomenon called anthropic coincidence or principle  is the coherent interrelationship and delicate fine-tuning of all things in this universe. These are parameters of a planet such as the Earth in relation to its moons, stars and galaxies whose values fall within narrowly defined ranges that make physical existence of man possible.

Let us talk about one of these amazing anthropic coincidences: the delicate complex composition of air. The air we breathe is precisely composed of 78.084% nitrogen, 20.9476% oxygen, 0.934% argon, 0.0314% carbon dioxide, 0.001818% neon, 0.0002% methane, 0.000524% helium, 0.000114% krypton, 0.00005% hydrogen, and 0.0000087% xenon. What a very delicate composition! Any alteration in only a few parts per million is fatal! What is the wisdom that keeps this extremely delicate composition intact all days throughout the ages?

The above delicate composition of the air that we breathe is just one of the many anthropic coincidences or principles in the universe that not only show God’s amazing love for man, but also prove that this Universe was created by a Master Designer, God. Another example of these anthropic coincidences is the distance of our planet from the sun. Had the distance of the Earth from the Sun been lesser than 93 million miles, all life on Earth would have been scorched to death, and if greater, the Earth would have  been frozen and lifeless.

There are many more anthropic coincidences that show God’s love for man.  The Earth’s magnetic field, oxygen and nitrogen quantities in the atmosphere, the delicate oxygen to nitrogen ratio, the levels  in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, water vapor, the ozone,  plus a hundred more interrelated anthropic coincidences that link the planets, stars, galaxies and all forms of life in the whole universe are among the many anthropic coincidences or principles that clearly declare the importance of man to God.

Sometimes I wonder and ask these questions: What if our solar system is located at the outer edge of the spiral arm of the Milky Way  galaxy – where shall we be catapulted in the universe? Or if our solar system is  located near the center of our galaxy, shall it escape the tremendous gravitational pull  of a black hole  as it plunges towards its  “Schwarzschild radius”? How dreadful it is to be engulfed in this Whirlpool of No Return! All communications are  totally cut  off from the universe once inside the black hole’s “event horizon”, and final death occurs at its  “singularity” point where all fundamental particles are stripped to vanish completely.

These are possible disasters so fearful that we do not dare to imagine them in our minds. Thanks be to God – He put  everything in order, and designed the whole universe for the well being of man. Truly God loves man very much for he is His masterpiece of Creation, and he is indeed very important to Him.

What a loving Creator who made all things in this universe for the well being of man! What a humble God who condescends to the level of the lowly mortal such as man! What man will not love Him in return?

People have different ideas about God. Some believe that God is an unknown super being. Others believe that He is one of the gods and goddesses in mythology. Others believe that God is just a legend – beyond ascertaining whether He exists or not.

Does God really exist?

If we base our answer on physical evidence, our answer is easily refutable. And so with those based on the Holy Scripture. God is a Spirit – He is invisible, and beyond experimentation.

To atheists, God does not exist. According to them, the universe came into being by itself through what they call as the Big Bang Theory, and life on Earth evolved from a one cell organism by chance.

To believers, God does exist.  To them, He is more than invisible, and He is more real than all other realities. The heavens, the stars, the sun, the sea, the air, the trees, the flowers, and the mountains bespeak the plethora of concrete evidences beyond refutation that God really exist.

But what do these evidences that the above creatures show to support God’s existence?

Let us take the flower as an example. Flowering plants, fruit-bearing trees, and some vegetables do bear flowers at various seasons. One is amazed and wonder how simple plants bloom and trees blossom precisely on time in due season. Wonder of wonders, they always infallibly come on their pristine original colors, and in myriad varieties. Our modern super computer cannot duplicate them. Only God can make flowers!

Let us take another example: the Earth where we live. This fortunate planet in our solar system is blessed with life. Scientists believe that this is the only heavenly body in the millions of solar systems in the Milky Way galaxy that has life on it.

We learn from astronomy, that the stars are suns, and planets revolve around them. They are not only suspended in the air but they  travel along orbits without swerving, and in precise accuracy.

What holds them, you may ask? Gravity, the physicists said. What is gravity? It is the force exerted by bodies toward each other. Where does the force emanate and how does it operate? Nuclear physicists can explain it to us clearly up to the core of the nucleus of every atom of matter – in the interaction of electrons, protons, neutrons, and positrons, and even elucidate them clearly through recent discoveries in quantum physics. But the fact remains, that after so much phenomenal discoveries today and in the future through the use of super cyclotrons and modern electron microscopes, that the final answer to this question points only to One and only one Being : GOD.

It is always better to forgive those who sinned against us. Not only because God enjoins us, but because it can bring sickness to us when we do not forgive.

We are all sinners. No one is righteous in the sight of God;  no, not one. When we point our index finger to accuse our neighbors, more fingers point to us. When we condemn our neighbors, we literally condemn ourselves.

As stated above, all are sinners, and have not done what the law of God requires. As such, we do same thing as what the criminals do. So, when we condemn our fellowmen, we condemn ourselves because we do the same thing and are guilty of it.

You may think that you are less sinful than your neighbors. But there is no such thing as small sin and big sin. When you obey the nine commandment perfectly, and yet violate the least part of the tenth, you are still guilty of violating the whole ten commandments. The laws are not independent and separate from each other. They are like rope strands that are intricately entwined and  permeably connected and knotted together permanently that destroying the least one affects all of it.

So we cannot rightly condemn our neighbors, for we are also sinners like them. So let us understand them, and forgive them in their mischiefs, for like us, they do not also know what they are doing.

Most of us are like that. Most of the time, we do not know what we are doing. We commit mistakes most of the time, and hurt our neighbors, not only in our bad deeds, but also in our unkind words, and in our malicious thoughts. We were conceived in sin, and we inherited the sin nature of our parents. We are all wallowing in the quagmire of sin – precariously popping up and down in a quicksand beyond coming out. But thanks be to God – he gave his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from that inextricable dilemma.

We should be thankful that God saves us from the curse of sin, and let us show  this gratitude by forgiving our neighbors as God has forgiven us. We were all created in the very image of God. We are his masterpiece of creation, and we are all children of God. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and we should love each other as God loves us all.

It is always better to forgive our fellowmen. It brings peace, joy and happiness, and good health too. Animosity, anger, and other pent-up feelings are vented, and heavy burdens in the heart are lightened when we forgive those who sinned against us. When our conscience convicts us, we lose the invigorating and rejuvenating effects of sound sleep, and maladies and afflictions follow. When we forgive our fellowmen, our prayers are able to penetrate the  ceilings of our homes and goes directly  to the throne of God. When we forgive, God hears our prayers, and grant all the desires of our hearts. When we forgive our fellowmen, God will also forgive us our sins.

Most of us do not realize the importance of positive mental attitude. We have been living almost all of our lives in poverty and afflictions, and we contentedly accept it as if it is our lot in this world.

Many people are in hospitals laying helpless in their sickbeds afflicted and suffering of imagined diseases which they have created by themselves. Many cancer patients should have easily recuperated had they known the power of positive mental attitude. Terminal cancer is reversible and curable even by natural medicine, much more by positive mental attitude!

Most of us are hypochondriacs! We have abnormal fears of almost everything. We imagine a lot of diseases in our mind without end. We seem to have been born with a phobia of bacteria, and we continually think that everything around us are carriers of diseases and we are continually in fear of it.

It is true that bacteria, microbes, virus and other pathogens are all around us. Some of them are air borne such as swine flu virus, and they multiply very rapidly not only in millions, but probably in trillions, quintillions, or even centillions. We are abnormally afraid of bacteria and the diseases they cause, and this is this fear in us that makes us very readily susceptible to all these diseases.

All the time we forget that we are the masterpiece of God’s creation and our body is not that frail to readily succumb to the assaults of all these pathogens around us. We are totally blind to the fact, and we always forget that in spite of all these dreadful diseases around us, we are still alive, and still wake up every morning alive and kicking.

As most research have proven, most diseases are 90 % caused by the mind, and only 10 % are caused by heredity, diet, and environment. It would help us a lot if we continually guard our mind from brooding on negative thoughts, such as failures, inferiority, diseases, death and so on.

To avoid all these dreadful diseases around us such as swine flu, AIDS, and all forms of cancer, we need to listen and obey the Word of God. In Philippians chapter 4 verse 8, God instructed us what to do to avoid not only the above dreadful diseases but also to spare ourselves from all the sufferings and afflictions that plagued this sinful world today. It says, ” … whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever thing are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

There are a thousand and one reasons  to be thankful to God. He is a very loving God who is full of tender mercies, and loving kindness, that we should be grateful to him. He deserves our praises and thanks; He deserves our love.

The following is a partial list  among the thousands of reasons why we should be thankful to God:

1. We should thank God of the very special privilege that He is our God.
2. We should thank God of the great privilege of knowing Him.
3. We should thank God for creating us in His own image.
4. We should thank God for giving us life.
5. We should give thanks to God for His Holy Spirit who  guides us in ways of righteousness.
6. We should give thanks to God for His guardian angels who faithfully watch over us.
7. We should give thanks to God for giving us wisdom to know and believe in Him.
8. We should give thanks to God for giving us faith to sustain that belief in Him.
9. We should be thankful to God for giving us joy and happiness in our hearts.
10. We should be thankful to God that we are able to wake up from our slumber every morning.
11. We should be thankful to God for the fresh air we breathe freely all the day, minutes, and seconds of our lives.
12. We should be thankful to God for the clean water we drink.
13. We should be thankful to God for providing us our food everyday.
14. We should give thanks to God for the peace of mind He has given us.
15. We should be thankful to God for the strength, energy and vitality He has continuously provided us.
16. We should be thankful to God for the good health He has given us.
17. We should be thankful to God for the time He has given us to gambol, to frolic and to play.
18. We should be thankful to God for our parents, brothers, sisters, and relatives.
19. We should be thankful to God for giving us a wife, a husband, and children.
20. We should give thanks to God for the home that shelters us and our family together.
21. We should be thankful to God for the work He has given our hands to do.
22. We should be thankful to God for the clothing that covers us from cold, and nakedness.
23. We should be thankful to God for our  friends around us.
24. We should be thankful to God for our neighbors that we are not alone here.
25. We should be thankful to God for all the material possessions and positions in life.
26. We should give thanks to God for the beautiful morning.
27. We should give thanks to God for the warm sunshine.
28. We should give thanks to God for the beautiful rainbow.
29. We should be thankful to God for the beautiful clouds in the sky.
30. We should be thankful to God for the trees around that gives oxygen for us, and fruits for our food.
31. We should give thanks to God for the beautiful fragrant flowers in the garden.
32. We should give thanks to God for the colorful butterflies and bees that pollinate the flowers.
33. We should be thankful to God for the melodious songs of the birds that fly happily in the air.
34. We should be thankful to God for the rain that water the plants in due season.
35. We should give thanks to god for the mountains, valleys and hills.
36. We should be thankful to God for sea that teems with fish and other marine lives.
37. We should give thanks to God for the rivers and lakes.
38. We should be thankful to God for the eyes He has given us to see all these beautiful things around us.
39. We should be thankful to God for the ears to hear the melodious songs of the birds, and the gurgling of the brooks.
40. We should give thanks to God for the voice to sing a melody to Him, and to utter praises and thanks to Him.
41. We should give thanks to God for the heart to love Him above all things, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
42. We should be thankful to God for restorative rest when we sleep at night.
43. We should be  thankful to God for the seventh-day weekly sabbath He has given us to rest and fellowship with Him.
44. We should be thankful to God for all the trials, sorrows,  and afflictions  in life.
45. We should be thankful to God for giving us His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin.
46. We should be thankful to God for His promise to come again and take us with Him to heaven to live there in total bliss forever and ever.

There is always hope no matter what the situation. Even in death, there is hope of after life.

People are suffering in miseries and afflictions. More people around the world are subsisting in hand-to-mouth existence. Millions are dying of famine, and still more from diseases that plagued our world today.

All of these can be attributable to our being ignorant of who God is and what he can do for us. The moment we learn of God, all our sufferings and miseries will vanish like a smoke, and we will have peace and joy in our lives.

Knowing God does not only brings peace and happiness in life, but eternal life as well. The seemingly insurmountable sufferings we have here on earth cannot go with us to heaven. And if you are willing to surrender your life to God, he will surely carry all your burdens and cares with him.

Knowing God brings the very best of health. It brings peace to a weary soul. It brings hope, and hope brings joy and happiness without bounds.

When in this life we have hope in God, our body is tremendously benefited health wise. All the organs of our body will be invigorated and strengthened by hope, and our immune system will become stronger and will function perfectly together with the other systems of our body.

Diseases cannot thrive in a body that has its hope in God. When we surrender our lives to God every morning, and allow him to work in us, our lives will turn for the better, and each moment of our lives will become happier and more livable.

Let us trust in the Lord with all our hearts,  and let us not lean on our own understanding. Let us not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.  The world will always have plenty of sorrows and miseries, and if we worry about all these, our lives will become more miserable.

We have a loving Father in heaven who loves us more than our parents loved us. His loving mercy never ends – he will surely lighten our heavy burdens and carry us through in our times of sufferings.

The Lord enjoins us not to worry about tomorrow for it is useless worrying when worrying  itself cannot change it a bit. When we worry so much, our minds and bodies become stressed, and very soon we become sick.

Let us not lean on our own understanding, as the Lord commanded us. Our human understanding is limited, and we do not understand the beginning and the end of a thing. The world is in economic crises, and we expected being laid off  from our jobs; prices of commodities rising up, and the fees of public and private services rising with it too. When we rely on our own understanding and strength to solve all these problems in life,  we will have lots of hardships, and end up in hospital, or worst, commit suicide when overburdened by so many insurmountable problems in life.

There is always hope even from an incurable disease. When we come to realize that God created us in his own image, and he breathed his very own breath into our nostrils, we will rise above all diseases and conquer them for good. We can rise above all the sufferings and afflictions when we realize that there is a divine breath in us so pure, so invigorating, and so holy for diseases to even thrive in our body, and for problems to even conquer our hearts and minds.

Since Jesus’ time up to now, the question of His divinity, remains very controversial. Millions died because of their belief both for and against the question.

Today, the divinity of Jesus is still hotly debated. Believers and non-believers present arguments without agreeing on a final conclusion.

Is Jesus God?

To find the answer, we must search the evidences from the Holy Scripture, from history and from archaeological findings. To use the testimonies of Jesus to prove His own divinity is not acceptable to unbelievers. Therefore, our only recourse is history and archaeology.

Jesus is a man of history. A Roman historian, Cornelius Tacitus, who was governor of Asia has this allusion about Christ’s death. Writing in 112 AD about the reign of Nero, he said, “Christus, the founder of a name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius…”
(Annals XV.44).

Another evidence comes from the writings of a Roman historian, Flavius Josephus. A Jew by birth, a Pharisee at age 19, and a commander of Jewish forces in Galilee, he was captured by the Roman army under Vespasian in 66 AD. Writing in the early second century, in his “Antiquities XVIII 33,” he said, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man… for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets have foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.”

Plinius Secundus or Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor (AD 112) while seeking counsel from the Emperor Trajan on how to treat the Christians, wrote about Christians whom he persecuted. “They affirmed however, that the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternative verse a hymn to Christ as to a god…” (epistles x.96).

Julius Africanus, a Christian writer about 221 AD, cited a Samaritan-born historian, Thallus who wrote in 52 AD about the total darkness that fell upon the earth during Christ crucifixion. He wrote “‘Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun  -  unreasonably, as it seems to me.’ Unreasonably, of course, because a solar eclipse could not take place at the time of the full moon, and it was the season of the Paschal full moon that Christ died.” He also cited from chronicles of Phlegon, a first century historian, about this darkness: “…during the time of Tiberius Caesar an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon.”

Many more historians can attest the authentic historicity and divinity of Jesus Christ. Also, latest archaeological finds proved beyond reasonable doubt the accuracy of the Holy Scripture as transmitted to us from generation to generation. It’s a wonder how a compilation of 66 books written separately by 40 authors of varied profession at the span of over 1500 years can be read without contradiction.

Therefore, it behooves to believe on it without doubt, much more on the words of Jesus testifying to His divinity. He was seen by men physically. He was crucified, and He rose again on the third day.

Jesus Christ is indeed God!