you are what you eat - you are what you listen to!

Not sure how is it around the world, but in the UK the fall is coming - that is, autumn is here! It's getting colder outside, the wind is blowing, the windows are not being left open during the night, the heat is on inside, the lights are turned on earlier, and we just switched to the Winter Time! Thicker clothes, a hat on the head, jacket on, an umbrella with you all the time, solid shoes, thicker socks, a scarf maybe, some even wearing gloves... Praise the Lord, the sun is still shining some days - so this brings a smile on many faces.... :)

1 Picture in London - Manor House, close to Baker Street

This is one of the many Manor Houses in London, this time in Central London. As you walk from Edgeware Rd (where district 4 of the church in London meets) towards Baker Street (where you can see Sherlock Holmes' museum, you can visit Madam Tassauds, etc) you pass by some impressive buildings like this one, Manor House. Yes, there's a tube station and several bus stops in London called by this name, but this particular building is Manor House on Marylbone Road (see it online). As I was looking on google maps - google street view, I realized that - wow, everything can be seen on google street view now, all we have to do is "add pictures" to the existing data there!

You Are what You Eat, You Are What You Listen To!

Everyone knows this saying, You are what you eat, and it is true. We eat healthy food - we have a healthy body. We eat junk food, our body will have some problems. We drink healthy drinks - mostly water - and our body has a normal and proper digestion.... But it is the same in the psychological realm - you train your mind by going to school and gaining proper knowledge in a field you're inclined towards - your mind will work as trained. You don't train your mind and you don't put it to work but let it "chill" and cram lots of knowledge into it when exams come - your mind will not work in a proper way, but will tend to prefer the relaxing...

Recently I realized also that You are What You Eat also implies that You Are What You Listen To. More and more wherever you go you see that people are "plugged in" - they listen to stuff! I personally don't want to know what they are listening to, but many people are calmer and nicer to you only after they "take their dose" / after they have been listening to something... When we're on the PC / MAC, when browsing the internet or doing our homeworks, when working or playing, etc, we like to listen to something. .... we passively listen to something and are influenced / infused by what we listen, even without knowing it!

So my thought and my consideration is like this - why not listen to some healthy things, something that gives me more encouragement and even more life? Believe me, I tried to listen to positive thinking speaches, motivational stuff, the TWIT shows(since I like internet and tech), or even the TED conference amazing discoveries and analysis... - these don't give you life, but they burden you and rather load you with all kinds of stuff... It comes down to each one of us making a choice AGAIN and AGAIN - what do stuff myself with? Do I stuff myself with "fried chicken and chips" (the favorite meal of the UK young people, very toxic when consumed in high quantities) or do I choose to have healthy food?

What comes out of us towards others and towards life in general is determined many times by what we put into us. When we listen to something, we passively allow that music / speaking / thing we listen to to get into us and infuse us with a certain "state of mind", a certain feeling... I distinctly remember some walks I took while listening to a specific thing, either a message, a speech, or some music.. And I also distinctly remember when I tried to listen to certain music and certain things - and something within me just didn't agree with that! Oh... I tried to fight with it, and I kind of won... - but eventually I love LIFE and PEACE much more than the feeling of death...

How I wish that we all would really be careful about what we listen to! We tend to become and to be influenced by what we listen to! We actually "eat" that thing we're listening, and we get an appetite for it... We need to learn to change our appetite - yes, there may have been a time we ate "fish and chips" all the time, and we drank mostly fizzy drinks - but as we grow in the human life and in the divine life, we learn to eat healthy and drink healthy, so that we may live a long life and a healthy life! I want to EAT good stuff - healthy stuff!

Examples of good stuff to listen to:

• the NYC YP CD (the New York Young People CD's) - now even on iTunes and on facebook;
• Hymns and Spiritual Songs - download MP3's and listen to them online;
• HymnsRadio - listen ALL the day long to free hymns online...
• Hymnal.net - listen to the melody of all the hymns and many new songs;
• LSM Radio - listen to the whole life study of the Bible radio broadcast, everything is online as MP3's. I went through Luke, Mark, 1 Peter, etc.. - 30 mins portions, DELICIOUS and HEALTHY food!

[what do YOU think? Leave me a comment if you have a similar experience of "being bothered within when listening to stuff... DO YOU know any other websites / places where you can find good spiritual things to listen to?]

go for the chicken and forget about the bones! (1 picture + 1 experience with the Lord today) 30-days challenge

The title of this sharing is inspired from the article, My heart overflows with a good matter; I speak what I have composed concerning the King(Psalm 45) - via agodman.com, somewhere in the last few paragraphs. I like KFC (as I was sharing before) with the saints, and I mostly love having Nando's (grilled chicken - yummy!) with the saints. But when I have chicken, I don't emphasize or get disturbed by the bones of the chicken - I go for the meat! The skin is also good, especially if it's grilled.... - but the meat, that's what I like! It's the same with the church life - "go for the chicken in the church life"! More about this after,

1 Picture Today - King's Cross in Central London

This is the BIG building behind and above the King's Cross train and tube station in Central London. I promise you - I don't want to advertise for these guys, but it looks like Marriot Hotels owns this place also, and they call it, St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London. They have been working on this place to renovate it forever, and now it's open! I've been around King's Cross many times, especially since the saints live there and we meet around there many times. You can get the London Underground, the National Rail, and the International trains from this location (some leaving from St. Pancras). You can see more pictures of the hotel via, Explore St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, or check out what's up around this are - King's Cross stuff. Of course, the best thing about King's Cross is the saints - they are the excellent, all my delight is in them!

1 Experience with the Lord - Go For the Chicken and Forget About the Bones!

I was touched by this illustration that brother Ed shared in the message for this week - Crystallization-Study of the Psalms(1), message 7. If someone comes to your home to visit, you don't put the rubbish bin on the table and tell him, Here, have a banana peel! Neither do you put the garbage somewhere that can be seen - NO! You hide the rubbish, you clean the house, and you offer the guest something good to eat and drink! And if there's rubbish you see around, you put it away! No one invites someone else to his house and makes sure that people see the litter bin / rubbish bin...

It's the same in the church life - you don't point out the defects or weaknesses of the saints; rather, we learn to cover one another in love, pray for one another, and see Christ in the saints! This is a secret that will help us in our whole life and will uplift our appreciation of the saints - seeing Christ in the saints! Sometimes you can't even see Christ living in some of the saints, but your negative speaking or your condemnation / exposing will NOT help! What really helps is for us to throw away any weaknesses, failures, or defects - into the universal rubbish bin, the lake of fire! What we want to focus on is enjoying Christ, ministering Christ, and seeing Christ in the saints!

It's interesting: we eat the WHOLE LAMB(since the lamb is Christ), but we don't "eat the whole chicken" - rather, we eat the meat and the other softer parts that can be edible(depends on people's taste...). What really matters about the fried or grilled chicken is that we eat the meat and forget about the bones! Put away the feathers, the bones, or even the dung - focus on the meat! Look away and throw away into the trash can any "feathers" or "bones" or even "dung" you may see among the saints - and focus on the meat! I wanna go for the meat and forget about the other stuff! If you try to eat the bone - God forbid... - you may get sick! In the church life, go for the chicken!

In the Old Testament king Balak got Balaam the prophet to curse the people of Israel, but Balaam couldn't do it - he rather blessed Israel(Num. 23-24). There is no failure or sin in Israel! God sees His people as being holy and without blemish, filled with Christ an put into Christ! Blessed are those who bless the church / Israel, and cursed are those who curse the church / Israel. We need to learn to see the saints as the Lord sees them - God-men filled with the growing and flourishing divine life! When we see the church and the saints as God sees them, we will speak well and bless the church!

The church life is wonderful! The church is glorious! The church in our locality is spotless and blameless - it is pure and it is glorious!

If we "go for the chicken", we will see Christ in the saints and we will minister Christ when there's a deficiency or any failures... I want to learn to know the saints not in a natural way but learn to know them according to Christ and no longer according to the flesh. And if there's a lack of Christ, I want to learn to minister Christ and pray for others - rather than criticizing or pointing out their condition... God knows our condition, but He also knows that His divine life in us can do it! He can do it in us! :) Go for the chicken, and forget about the bones or the feathers!