Taking Care of Our Body — Scott Stoll

The little phrase we remind ourselves each day to kind of set our focus for the day is this we tell each other speak life show love. Shine your light. And it just helps us to remember what our purpose is as Christians each day.

Speaking Life, Showing Love, and Shining the Light

We are to speak life. We're to use our tongues to exhort to edify to encourage. To share the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ with those around us. We're to show love. We're told in the Bible that they will know us by our love they will know us by the love we share with one another and the love that we share into the world and Then we're also told to shine our light.

Jesus said you were the light of the world you were the city set on the hill. Every day we go out we are supposed to shine our lights into the darkness. So this morning as we enter this day We declare that we will speak life.

That we will show love and that we will shine our lights for Jesus Christ. Amen, that's the way we will start this day and live this day and every day we speak like show love and shine our lights for Jesus.

A Physician Searches for a Better Answer

So I would ask to talk about Some revelations that God has given me as a physician. And I'll just give you some of my history. I started practicing medicine. Just as I was taught in medical school and in residency and I was doing just everything that I was taught diagnosing disease writing prescriptions to fix problems and My patients would come back to me and they would say dr. Stoll.

I'm falling apart. Can you help me? You ever heard that term before I'm falling apart. I hear it every single day and I would laugh. I would say, you know. That's a good joke and they'd say I'm falling apart and I didn't know what to do.

And then one day I had a woman sitting on my exam table and she said dr. Stoll. Can you help me? I'm falling apart. And so I said just a minute. Everybody tells me that they're falling apart. What does falling apart mean to you?

And I expected her to start with my knee hurts and I've got back pain. My neck hurts, but she started in a very different place that I wasn't expecting. She said because of all my physical illnesses, I cannot travel to see my grandchildren.

I haven't been in church in three years. My husband and I our relationship is falling apart because he's exhausted taking care of me. Our finances are falling apart. We haven't been it we're filing for bankruptcy because of all the medications and the cost of health care.

And she went on and on to talk about how every area of her life was falling apart. And then she looked me in the eye and she says can you help me? And I will tell you that all of my years of school and education didn't prepare me to help her.

I had no idea how to help somebody where their life was falling apart. So I left that day and I said Lord How am I going to answer the next person that asked me for help when they're falling apart? Medicine was not the answer.

Writing more prescriptions and more tests and more surgeries is not the answer. So what is the answer and we know that God provides right? He's our provider and I knew that he would provide an answer.

So I started to read and I started reading diet books. There's a lot of diet books out there, right? The 40 billion dollar a year industry. And I read all these diet books Atkins his own and when I finished I was more confused than when I started.

It was not the answer because diet industry focuses on what? Weight loss. But it doesn't focus on health and putting your life back together again. So I started to read some scientific articles and I started to come up with this common thread the more Natural foods fruits vegetables plants that people eat the healthier their bodies become.

I Said Lord, can it be this easy? And the Lord said yes. His yoke is light right? His burden is easy. His provision is full and perfect. It is that easy. So I said, okay Lord, I'm gonna take you at your word.

And I started to use my prescription pad to write breakfast recipes and lunch recipes and dinner recipes and snack ideas and Lifestyle recommendations and I would tear that off and I would give that to my patients and they would go out and they would start Implementing these things they would look at that prescription.

They say this is the strangest thing I've ever received from a doctor. But if you believe it, I'm gonna try it and they would come back to me and they would say I can't believe it. I'm off my medications.

My diabetes is gone. My high blood pressure is gone. I had a guy that couldn't walk to his mailbox without severe chest pain taking nitroglycerin on the way to the night mailbox. Three months later. He's walking miles without any chest pain.

And I said Lord your food is healing. You know so often we pray for healing but we don't realize that God's provided healing in some other way for us and It's full provision of the food that grows up from the ground.

Spiritual Healing Comes Before Physical Healing

It is healing. When we talk about healing. You know, we heal in so many ways and the first way that we heal is spiritually, right? Without Jesus Christ, we are dead and Ephesians 2 tells us this. Even when we were dead in our sins He hath quickened us together with Christ for by grace.

You were saved so spiritually and the most important healing that needs to take care take place in our lives is Our spiritually healing through Jesus Christ because without Jesus Christ We are completely dead dead spiritually dead emotionally and dead physically and without hope.

We have no hope in this life without Jesus Christ. Because we will live our lives and just like all those that have passed before us We too will die and be put into the ground and without Jesus Christ and the hope that we have in Christ We will not be raised to eternal life with God.

And Ephesians 2 goes on and he hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace you are saved through faith and not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Which God hath ordained before that we should walk in them. So as we talk about healing today I want to make sure that we understand the right context the first and the single most important healing that any of us needs to to experience is the healing of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

Once we can establish that in our lives We are alive in Jesus for the rest of our lives and then God will begin to heal us. He'll begin to heal us at the soul level and at the physical level. So that we can go forth and walk in the good works that he has created Beforehand that we might walk in them to bring glory and honor to him.

So that's the context of what we are talking today. I want to establish that because that's very important that we don't get upside down like the world is today. Where we focus all on physical healing or emotional healing?

To the loss of the person that they live their entire life seeking healing and they miss the most important healing which is Jesus Christ and Accepting the forgiveness that we have through his blood. So I'll ask you this question then to who are you?

The Body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit

It's an interesting place. That's a silly question Scott. Who am I? My name is Scott Stoll. I was born to so-and-so I live in this county. This is my work that I do, you know, we have different ways that we identify ourselves.

But we have a different identity when we are in Jesus Christ, and we have to understand who we are. You know. We can understand all of the I am's who tell us that we are a new creation in Jesus Christ.

We are the light of the world. But we also can learn something else when we start to look at our identity in Jesus Christ. And it's this verse that starts to unlock some secrets for us. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God and verse?

20 goes on for you are not your own you were bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. So this is interesting, isn't it? Did you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?

You ever think about that. It's an interesting thing to think about when we look at the temple. So this is the ancient temple and it contained three parts we have. This is the Holy of Holies. This is where the Ark of the Covenant rested.

This is where the glory of God rested in Israel as we saw last night with Steve Stutzman. But the power of God rested in the Holy of Holies. This is where the veil was established that that prohibited men from entering in but once a year.

The same veil that was rent in two when Jesus died on the cross giving us free access now to God's throne in God's kingdom. Then we have the inner court this is where the priest would meet offer daily sacrifices and then we have the outer court and.

The outer court is where a lot of the business took place. People would come into the temple and they would interact and and participate in business and this is where they actually would sell. The sacrifices that were given up.

But notice three parts outer inner Holy of Holies one temple one temple. So here it is again. So we have the Holy of Holies, which is the mercy seat and the veil which is the life we have the golden altar of incense the holy place the inner courts and The door was called the truth and then the outer courts and the gate was called the way.

So Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life three in one. And then when we think about our lives. We are three in one as well. So when God says you are the temple you are just like the temple you are three in one.

You have your spirit. The spirit which is renewed in Jesus Christ. That is the Holy of Holies. That is now when you are a Christian and you're made new in Christ and he moves into you. He puts his life into you.

This is the Holy of Holies now where Christ resides within you and then the holy place the the inner court is your soul mind will and emotions and. The outer court is your body brain nerves your organs and your cells.

So we just like the temple are three in one the outer court the inner court and the Holy of Holies. But it is one holy temple. And so when we now then when we read that verse and we understand do you not know that your body is a temple of?

The Holy Spirit. Every part of you is the temple. Your physical body your soul and your spirit are the temple of God. And it's something that we don't think about because there's been some some Greek Philosophy that has slipped in or Christian belief systems going all the way back to Plato.

Plato promoted this idea of dualism and dualism is that the body and the spirit are separated and That the body is not important. The spirit was the only thing that was important and Plato believed in reincarnation.

So your spirit would just keep getting reincarnated into a different body, but the physical body was not important. And so this dualism creeps into our thought and I see a lot in Christian churches. We start to believe that the physical body doesn't matter.

It's not important. Because the only thing that matters is our spirit and then secondarily our soul and we then what do with our body. What does that? Philosophy start to shift in us. What is the mindset that comes with that idea?

The body is not important. It leads to two things you think of the to Neglect. We start to think this isn't important. I will only focus on my spirit. I'll neglect my body and Then what's the other one?

Indulgence indulgence. So that philosophy that mindset creeps into our life and we start to think differently about our body and We either go down the road of neglect. Like the ascetics used to do they would neglect their body.

They would actually beat their bodies to get rid of the sin or it creeps into the indulgence. It doesn't matter. So I'll do whatever I need to do to my physical body because it's going to pass away. It doesn't matter.

Ownership, Stewardship, and the Whole Person

But what happens when we let that mindset in knowing that we are whole? First Thessalonians 5 tells us that you are spirit soul and body holy one. So if we are neglecting part of the temple or we are indulging part of the temple.

How do you think that plays out into our soul and our spirit? I? Wrote this down as I was thinking I'll just walk through this. So let's think about like working in reverse so we're we're either neglecting or we're indulging the physical body and Let's think about some of the consequences.

To our soul our relationship our relationship to God relationship to others and the consequences of those things in our life. So when we are living that way We are pursuing gratification of the flesh.

Right either neglect or indulgence is gratifying the flesh. We become dependent. We'll talk about dependence on some of the foods of this age we Can become separated from God because we start walking in sin.

We become self-focused when we're indulging ourselves and even neglect is self-focus. We become pursuers of our earthly appetites. We can then because we're not taking care of the body. Condemnation can come on us from others and from self.

And one of the things that I have seen in the research shows today that the church the Evangelical Church in America is more unhealthy than America isn't that amazing. Evangelical Christians tend to be more unhealthy and heavier than America and of all of the religions Hindu Buddhist Islam the most unhealthy group of people Evangelical Christians.

What happened? Where did we go wrong that we now who are the light of the world the ambassadors of Jesus Christ? Set free from our sin are now the most unhealthy religious group in America, I Believe it's a blind spot that Satan has Created in the church.

I believe it's a blind spot from you know, this infiltration of Greek philosophy. That has disrupted the church and our purpose and that's why I believe that this message is so important because it's an awakening on so many levels an Awakening for us to understand the beautiful provision that God has for us and that when we pursue his plans and purposes for our lives.

We can be confident that he has provided everything we need for health and strength and life and He also is calling us now to stand up and be salt and light in the world in a different way that when people see Us and what do they see first?

They see our physical representation. When they see us, they will know that we are representing the king of the universe so just a couple more when we are Not walking in that that mindset. We start to indulge the flesh and we start to begin lacking self-control and self-discipline.

Then we acquire guilt. Then if we gain weight or we're unhealthy we can take on shame. Then we can take on judgment from others as a Christian walks out and I hear this and it's a sad Story, but they they may be unhealthy and the world judges them by their physical appearance.

It's not right, but judgment falls. There are accusations that fall you go to the doctor and what does the doctor tell you if you have a disease? Oh. This is a lifelong disease. You'll probably die from this.

So what happens curses are spoken over you by health care. Not true, but curses will be spoken over you. There's a tendency then for some people to give up. But if we shift and we shift the way that we live and we shift into God's plan which we're going to talk about today a Major mindset shift occurs that leads us into this focus of others and God and not self.

Not pursuing our fleshly appetites we are expanding into the kingdom into God's kingdom. We have financial freedom because we're not bound to the health care system. We have more energy. We have a clearer mind.

We don't have any self-condemnation guilt fear shame. We walk in freedom because God's plan is freedom. We have abundance. We have opportunity. We have gratitude. Because when we take an eat of the things God has given us, there's a different spirit that comes with that food.

It's one of gratitude and not self focus. We have fulfillment when we engage in his plan. We are fulfilled. We have peace. We have love. We have blessings abundant when we eat the foods that he has provided we connect with others in a different way and We connect with the land and we connect with the environment in a very different way.

We have community. We have stewardship. We have God is the solution in our life. God's got it. He can take care of it. God is the solution not the doctor. We have healing that we can praise the Lord for when we see and we take this in and our body heals.

We praise God for his healing that he has given to us. And we have alignment with God in this part of our life, which aligns us in so many other ways going forward. It's powerful when we start focusing on this physical aspect and we stop neglecting or indulging that part of our lives.

So when we do this, it's a mindset shift from ownership to stewardship. And about this late 16 late 1700s and into the 1800s. Philosophically, there was the age of Enlightenment which was the age of science and reason and Skepticism and it was also a period of time when a lot of philosophers started shifting away.

From belief in God to questioning God. It's also that time period when Darwin rose. It was a pushback against the Catholic Church. And at the same time of the age of the Enlightenment. There was the industrialized period when we started creating new things scientifically we started Recruiting refrigeration.

We started packaging food. We started making food. We started shipping food on railroad cars across the United States. We developed grocery stores. We developed processed food and food on shelves so with the age of Enlightenment came the age of industrialization and a major shift occurred spiritually and physically at that time and The physical change I think followed the spiritual change.

An interesting thing Steve Stutzman told me last night. He said it was at that time That we stopped we took the bran out of our bread and we started using white flour. And at the same time that we took bran out of the wheat and made bread we took Repentance out of the church.

Interesting, isn't it? So this age of Enlightenment the industrialized period the refinement of food the Separation from God the separation from his creation and his provision dependence upon science dependence upon man and his provision left us physically ill physically bankrupt.

Spiritually in the same condition. Isn't that interesting? So that's why I think this whole idea of returning to God's provision in food opens up so many spiritual doors of understanding that we have forgotten about.

When we go back to understanding his provision in food. We go back to some of the foundational principles that we understand about our relationship with God. Coming to him with contrite and repentant hearts.

Understanding that his provision in Christ is complete understanding that his provision brings healing spiritually and physically. And during that period of time that that industrialized period an age of Enlightenment capitalism came in and capitalism came in with this idea of ownership.

Versus stewardship and we started to think that we own things. You know, even though we're only here a short time we buy something we say it is mine, right. Not realizing that it's only ours to use for a time and then we leave this earth and somebody else gets it.

But we think we own it and we treat it like we own it. But it's also crept into our bodies, right? So we always say this is my body. And when we start to think along the lines of ownership of our body it changes the way that we take care of this body.

If we start to think that our body is the Lord's. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the verse goes on you are not your own. You are not your own. You don't own anything. You have been bought with a price the precious blood of Jesus and then it says therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God's.

So let's think about this for a minute. How does an owner think? What are some of the the mindsets that come along with ownership? So that we can start to separate this out and gain freedom from the ownership mindset and Embrace the stewardship mindset.

So, I know it's early but I'm gonna ask you to activate your brains. We'll get you going Lizzie. This is mine. I will do with it what I want. Right, which leads to abuse and neglect, right? Very good.

Oh. Anyone else? That's right. Jake. I'm not accountable to anyone but me. And we really even hold ourselves accountable. Right, we never even we think we're accountable to ourselves in many ways, but we often are not even accountable to ourselves.

So it's like almost no accountability. What else what does the owner think? Pardon. Fear absolutely. The owner is afraid because you hold on to it. This is mine. I'm afraid something's gonna happen to it.

And so fear creeps in the spirit of fear creeps in and that opens the door for everything else to follow. That's absolutely, right. That's right. Yes, don't tell me what to do. Don't trespass don't get too close.

This is my body which distances us from people too and it creates what pride and resistance and separates relationship. What else think of any others? Jealousy. That's right. When we own something we start to think that it's important and Jake is absolutely, right.

We start to compare ourselves. The spirit of comparison comes into our lives. And you look and you say well, this is all I got for the my life. You know, that's not good enough. I want that and we start comparing and jealousy creeps in and Then we start pursuing other things that we can see.

Fixing our eyes on the things of this earth and not on the things of heaven and we become earthly. Focused and earthly minded and physically focused because we're worried that we might not be as good as somebody else that spirit of jealousy that Conceit yeah, look how good I am.

Look how look at the great thing that I have. Conceit slips in and pride slips in. Absolutely. We can take on lies. To maintain our position. We don't think about the future. We think about now. Right.

We're trying to take care. We want whatever we can get out of it right now. We we seek self-pleasure when we have an ownership mentality. We seek gratification. We want everything we can get out of life right now because this is mine.

It slips in so deceptively. David, that's right self-defense slips in when we have an ownership mentality self-defense. So you see how powerful this this mindset of ownership is over our bodies and how it can Inhibit the Lord from working through our lives and create breaks in relationship with the Lord and breaks in relationship with brothers and sisters and Lead to so many open doors for the enemy to come in and start working us over with fear and shame and guilt and disappointment and hopelessness the enemy can slip in and totally distract our lives.

How about a stewardship mindset, how does that look. Just the opposite. Aaron freedom. Right, and why do we have freedom because we say Lord it's yours. I'll do the best I can to maintain it. I'll figure out my the best options.

I'll look for the best way to take care of it, but it's yours Lord. That takes a huge burden off doesn't it when we release it to the Lord? We have freedom and what follows freedom peace. Built on trust and As we trust what happens our faith is built up because God provides so we have a greater faith as we go forward.

What else in stewardship? Absolutely, Todd. The Bible tells us that one day we will give an account to God for everything that's been given to us as stewards. The Bible teaches in stewardship that there's an accounting day that comes when we go before the Lord and you say, okay.

This is all that I gave you. God says this is what I gave you in your life. How did you use it for my kingdom? So there's a day of accounting which creates a sense of responsibility not fear but responsibility.

Because responsibility says that we can do something with what God's given us through the Holy Spirit's empowerment. David. Amen, it creates relationship with the king because we ask him for direction because it's his project.

So a stewardship mentality Draws you back into a right relationship with God because you are seeking God for direction saying Lord. Here's the issue. How should I handle this. And You pray and he speaks and you follow and so you're in a right relationship with him.

How about in relationship to others? Stewardship mentality creates right relationship with others because we walk in humility right. We walk in kindness. We walk in love. We walk in generosity. And we walk in a way that we're trying to help others with what God has given us to help establish his kingdom.

It's a powerful mindset shift and We'll pray about that at the end that God will shift our mindsets to be stewards of all that he's given us. So that we can work for his glory and for his kingdom. So as we look at what's happened with this this ownership mindset in our country and try to understand.

What's what's happened? To the Christian Church and We've shifted away from God's provision. Look at we in 1900 we eat five pounds of sugar per person per year and 200 pounds today. Now does anybody here buy 200 pounds of sugar?

That's a big mountain of sugar. Take a lot of teaspoons to eat that one down. But where is this sugar coming from then? It's in the processed food that we eat hamburger buns ketchup mustard mayonnaise.

Everything we buy has sugar and I'll tell you why in a minute. Look at oils and fats four pounds to seventy four pounds of oils. Every tablespoon of oil has a hundred and twenty calories. Isn't that amazing?

Cheese has gone up meat has gone up a little bit. But these are not the same animals that roamed the earth 150 years ago. These are industrialized animals and when we talk about stewardship, we're not stewarding the animals in a right way either today.

Fruits and vegetables. Nobody has gardens anymore. We don't eat fruits and vegetables. Our calories have gone up by 600 calories per day. Or food the amount of nutrients Antioxidants minerals and vitamins and our food has gone down 40 to 60 percent because we're not stewarding the land.

We are trying to get as much out of the land as we possibly can in a year because we're seeking what gain? Financial gain. So in the pursuit of finances, which is the pursuit of ownership. We are mismanaging the land.

Two bathtubs full of soft drinks in America today, the number one breakfast drink is Soda and we've added at least four hours of television and maybe six to eight hours of screen time in a day. Isn't that amazing and what's happened here?

This is called incrementalism little by little things have changed and we acquire a new set point where we become comfortable and Then it changes a little bit more and we get comfortable to the new set point and it changes a little bit more and we get more comfortable and.

So our taste buds have changed. Now to the point where with all this sugar if we eat a strawberry, it doesn't taste sweet. Because the enemy has deceived our taste buds to want to prefer the world's food and not God's food.

But the beautiful part of God's plan is that your taste buds change. In as little as two weeks. Getting off of the world's food eating God's food. Your taste buds will modify and change in as little as two weeks and you'll start to acquire a taste for the things of God.

Just like spiritually when we get off of the world's stuff and we start to read his word and enter into prayer and enter into worship our Spiritual taste buds change and we start to acquire a taste of things of God.

Food Addiction and the Modern Diet

So here's just another example. For most people today 63 of their calories come from processed food. That's food that didn't exist a hundred years ago. And if you they did a survey and they asked a large group of Americans that eat this way.

What percent of you think you have a healthy diet? 86 of people yeah, I've got a healthy diet you bet I'm healthy. But we know that this is the way most people eat because we have a blind spot in our lives and Because we are not stewards we think we're owners and so we do all of these things and we're blind to what we're doing to ourselves because we're pursuing our physical passions and You know this little section of fruits and vegetables at least half of this is french fries and juice.

So we are eating Very little probably less than 6 of our calories from the food that God gave us to eat. So here's a cartoon for you to keep you awake in the morning. So these rats are looking at the people in here and they say they appear to be intelligent.

But they display an irresistible attraction to sugar. Sugar is powerful, isn't it? Did you know that sugar? Salt and fat work on the same receptors in your brain where cocaine methamphetamine alcohol nicotine marijuana same reward center in the brain and in fact when they do studies on rats and Rats that are addicted to cocaine are given a chance to either continue giving themselves cocaine or choose sugar.

What do they choose? Sugar. 94 of the time. That's how powerful sugar is. There was a woman in our church who said that when she would eat one bite of sugar. It would send her into a binge cycle. Because just like some people that are have a susceptibility to alcoholism the spirit of addiction in that area sugar can be the same thing.

Spirit of addiction can overtake you and sugar can become your addiction. It was so powerful for her that she would sit in church. And if somebody brought doughnuts at church. She couldn't think about the message.

She could only think about the doughnuts. That's a powerful spirit of addiction in her life, isn't it? Disrupting her connection with God because of a doughnut. But that's what the enemy wants to do to us.

He knows that sugar is addictive. The enemy knows that we have this reward system in our brain and that we are all susceptible to indulgence by Repeatedly stimulating this addiction center in our brain and so he has created an entire food system that preys upon our susceptibilities and preys upon our susceptibilities while creating a blind spot in our life and Then we don't see it coming.

We incrementally start eating this way all this stuff starts to come upon us like we read earlier. Then we start to take on guilt and shame because we don't know what happened and curses from the health care system we become dependent upon the world to try and fix our physical problems and the enemy is laughing at us, but.

The solution is powerful and it's beautiful and elegant just as we would expect our God to come to our rescue. So today in America, we worship food you know Steve Stutzman said last night idolatry is whatever we bow down to and.

And how often in America do we bow down to food? We worship food. We have food networks 24 hours a day seven days a week where you watch food watch people make food. We have restaurants that are almost like temples where people go in and they just can't wait to eat.

We have smorgasbords where you can go and load up your plate 12 times. Go to eat as much dessert as you want. And what are we doing? We are bowing down to food. Now it's not to say that we should not enjoy food because God gave us taste buds and he created food to be enjoyed.

But not for self-indulgence not for gratification. Not to pacify the cravings of the flesh. Which is what the enemy wants to do. The food industry knows that food is addictive. They know that sugar fat and salt cause you to be addicted to food and.

They hire scientists to create a hedonistic spot in food. That's what they call it restaurants. Big food manufacturers. Create hedonistic points in food. So when you eat the food, it has a quick meltdown.

It has an early hit like a drug you feel good instantly you associate feeling good with the package. And you go back and spend your money and you buy it again and The other thing that's happened in the same area.

Is that in our brains? Sugar fat and salt work on pain receptors and they work on the same receptors where Valium works for stress and. So we have now gone away from seeking the Lord as our counselor.

Seeking him when we have pain and stress and seeking Twinkies seeking Turkey Hill ice cream. Seeking chocolate. To pacify our pain to treat our stress to escape difficult situations and relationships food has become our escape.

Food has become our counselor. And what do we do? We slip away and we eat by ourselves. We gratify the flesh and we temporarily feel better. But then on the back side, there's a dark side you become addicted to the food.

You start to become dependent on the food as your counselor you start to become isolated. And when the enemy knows when he can isolate you and get you away from the flock, you're more susceptible. And then all these other things that we talked about start entering into your life.

You're you feel guilty that you did this and the enemy comes in with more guilt on top of you and it just starts to crumble your life and. That's what's happening to so many people today because it's a sneak attack by the enemy.

Returning to God's Provision in Creation

But God's provision is beautiful. God's provision is perfect. God's provision is awesome. And it says in Genesis the earth brought forth vegetation. Plants yielding seed after their kind trees bearing fruit with seed in them.

After their their kind and God saw that it was good. God created something beautiful and God saw that it was good. So what did God do to provide food for us to eat? He grew it in the ground. This beautiful soil that is alive.