Spring Cleansing | March 2015

Lilies in the City - March 2015 - Issue 3

lilies city

CUTTING THE

Fluff The Bandaid Cleanse

Heart

THE OF THE MATTER

SIMPLE GREEN DRINK

Spring

Cleansing

THE BACTERIA DECOY

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11 8 2

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lilies city Lily Lifestyle Glowing Lily Lily Eats

6 The Heart Of The Matter

8 The Bandaid Cleanse

10 Simple Green Drink 13 Cutting The Fluff

Practical Lily

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The Bacteria Decoy

Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are taken from the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Version) Photo credits (pg 2,13,14,) : Ricky Skrzepa Associate Editor: Delnita McDavid 3

Beye Clean Signs of spring are coming up everywhere: birds are flying back, snow is melting, trees are budding, we're shedding the extra layers of clothing, and the sight of smoothies and green juices abound. Spring is a good time to deep clean those high, low and dark places of the home. And let's not forget to look into those high, low and dark places of our soul temples too: “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1).

The Bible is the greatest cleansing agent; the Psalmist exclaims, "the entrance of thy words giveth light" (Ps. 119:130). Like the light of the sun, the Bible dispels darkness and purifies the soul.

But true soul cleansing is a two-part work: removing the bad and filling with good. Christ shares a solemn parable in Matthew 12:43-45 of a man who was cleansed but remained empty; an unclean spirit returned with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself" and dwelt there (vs. 45). We're told that, "the last state of that man is worse than the first" (vs. 45). He was cleansed but not filled.

The Lord has a plan for filling; He wants to put in us a new heart (Ez. 36:26) so that our thoughts and desires align with His. Along with downsizing your shoe closet and trying new green juices this spring, "be ye clean" (Is 52:11) and filled.

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EDITOR'S NOTE

Contributing

MINISTRIES Almarie Hill and Sarah Victor (Wholly Whole) Natural health is Almarie and Sarah's passion. Together they run Wholly Whole a wholistic health ministry geared to women. It explores how to partake of Christ’s complete restoration – physically, mentally, spiritually and socially. It is preparing a people to be completely whole and ready to soon meet our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Almarie and Sarah are a part of the Lilies in the City (LIC) administrative team.

Akilah Ballard (every thing Beautiful) Akilah specializes in skin and natural beauty, amongst other things. She’s found that He who transforms the butterfly and the sin-polluted heart from degradation to purity also provides nature as a restorative agent for physical beauty. The goal at every Thing Beautiful is to employ natural resources to provide skin-loving, chemical free beauty care products to help renew and maintain natural beauty. At Lilies in the City, Akilah is head of “lily glows” the section dedicated to health and beauty.

Rochelle Willis Rochelle provides strategic guidance to ministries in their marketing and development efforts. She has always had a passion for ministry and the furtherance of the gospel. When not working on various projects, she can be found in nature, doing a bible study or writing. Here at Lilies in the City, Rochelle organizes the “lily lifestyle” section.

Janelle Louis (Saving Health) Janelle is a firm believer that while Christ was on the earth, it was the healing ministry that He used to bring the gospel of salvation before the people, yet Christ focused on the wholeness of man. To Christ, without spiritual restoration, physical healing would have been meaningless.

Christ’s mission is the same as Saving Health Ministries. At Lilies in the City, Janelle organizes everything for “the practical lily” section of the magazine.

Xavia Le Xavia is well versed in food and nutrition and organizes “lily eats.”

She brings with her a love for God, people, science, health and restoration. Her kind spirit has given her the privilege of sharing these loves and mentoring many. She currently teaches children and toddlers and can be found disassembling thoughts and ideas.

Have Any Questions For The Lilies Staff?

Contact us: admin@liliesinthecity.org

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THE

Heart

OF THE MATTER – Rochelle Willis

THE GOSPEL HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION OR OUTWARD CONFORMITY. RATHER IT’S ABOUT CLEANSING OF THE HEART.

Imagine each day passing by a home that was simply magnificent. The perfect architecture of the building is a marvel, with intricate details of craftsmanship, a perfectly manicured lawn, leading to a large and pristine edifice.

In your heart you begin to think, “I wish I lived in an house like that.

It is awesome.”

One day as you walk by, you see the owner outside. You strike up a conversation, and are invited in.

You are barely able to contain your excitement to finally get a chance to look at the inside of your dream 6

house. You are sure that it will be breathtaking. With bated breath, you wait for the big front doors to swing open, and then you step in.

You stop suddenly, stunned by what you see as you look around.

While the outside of the home was beautiful beyond description, the inside was a filthy mess. “What a deception,” you think to yourself.

“If only the owner spent as much time working on the inside as he did fixing up the outside.”

The story above illustrates a problem within Christendom. Where the gospel is held as a theory

in the head, and never has an opportunity to work transformation on the heart. So, like the magnificent house, we practice “good” acts and exhibit “good” behavior, but yet our hearts are filled with all manner of evil. It remains uncleansed and unconverted. So that even the so-called good acts we do are tainted with impure motives.

But this is nothing new; Jesus confronted this during his ministry here on this earth. Listen to what he says in Matthew 23:2728, “woe unto you scribes and

source of everything. But from what does the heart need to be cleansed?

The answer is a simple three-letter word, sin.

What is the state of your heart? Do pride, anger, jealousy, impatience and selfishness dwell there? Do you have idols enthroned on the seat that should be reserved for God only?

Twice during the course of His ministry, Jesus had to cleanse the temple at Jerusalem (John 2:13-24 and Matthew 21:12-17). The temple at Jerusalem was supposed to be a dwelling place for the presence of God (2 Chronicles 6-7). But it had become defiled and corrupted. In His cleansing of the temple, we see an illustration of what He wants to do in our hearts.

According to 1 Corinthians 6:18, our bodies are the temple of God. With great longing, God desires to abide in our hearts. Revelation 3:20 pictures Him standing at the door of our hearts, knocking. You see He wants to come in, but we have barred His way. Through our illicit affair with sin, we have evicted God from His residence. And only as sin, is cleansed or moved out of our hearts, can God safely and fully be enthroned.

Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also appear outwardly righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

thew 3:10). It’s not enough to prune the branches or the limbs; the very root must be taken care of. It is the root that causes the problems and so the solution must be applied there. The root of all our problems is an unconverted heart. Our hearts must be cleansed.

The gospel has never been about behavior modification or outward conformity. Rather it’s about cleansing of the heart. When John the Baptist preached, he said that the ax must be laid to the root (Mat-

In Proverbs 23:26, we read “my son give me your heart.” The question could be asked, “Why should I give you my heart?”

The answer is found in Proverbs 4:23, out of the heart flows the issues of life. The heart is the

This month as we focus on the theme of cleansing, while we might think of cleansing or detoxifying our bodies and cleansing our homes, there is a higher cleansing that we will do well not to forget.

How do we obtain this cleansing?

Commit to three things: Spend time in the Word (Psalms 119: 9; Ephesians 5:26: John 17:17) Spend time in Prayer (Psalms 51; 1 John 5:14,15) Claim the promise of Ezekiel 36:26-27

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T he

– Janelle Louis

Bandaid Cleanse

A

mericans

are slowly waking up to the reality that the prevailing diseases plaguing our society are due chiefly to lifestyle. In the generation that birthed Whole Foods; produced a plethora of health awareness documentaries such as HBO’s The Weight of The Nations and Forks Over Knives; inspired whole industries which craftily marketed words such as “all-natural” and “organic”; and spurred the growth of health-food stores: there is seen a robust response to the health crisis which is disrupting our social, economic and spiritual health.

More and more studies are emerging, which not only advocate the healing properties of the original Genesis diet (Gen 1:29; 3:18), but also substantiate the toxicity of high8

– Akilah Ballard

ly processed and flesh foods. It is with this focus that natural remedies are increasingly used to prevent disease.

Yet, even among the growing awareness and impetus towards healthier lifestyles the majority of Americans are by large nowhere near the similitude of health. One does not need to cite the alarming disease statistics, but can look inside their own families as a living reality of those numbers.

While many reasons can be provided to explain the impediment of optimal health, there is one widely held belief that I presume much damage can be accredited to: the idea that “everything is good in moderation.”

I sometimes cringe when I hear the concept being promoted because it

is a Band-Aid approach that endorses a happy medium between virtue and vice. At best it offers a temporary solution, at worse, an answer that seems to be a solution but has no real effect.

What’s more, the same attitude towards the cleansing of our bodies is the same being embraced by mainstream Christianity in regards to spiritual cleansing. The “moderation-like” practice of perpetually committing the occasional sin being permissible by Christ is a branch that stemmed from the theology that Christ’s sinless character cannot be perfectly reproduced in us. This teaching thwarts the power of the gospel.

In the documentary, Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock explores the ef-

GOD HAS NOT CALLED US TO A PARTIAL CLEANSE, BUT TO

Perfect

PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH.

fects of a solely McDonald’s diet for one month. After only one week there was significant increase in his body fat, cholesterol and blood pressure.

After Spurlock’s experiment, his then vegan girlfriend, Alexandra Jamieson, nurtured him back to health on a total plant-based diet.

After healing, Spurlock experienced only a stint of veganism. What is even more interesting is the major shift made by Jamieson. Where she was once quoted in 2006 saying, “Food can hurt us or heal us, and given what’s happening to us on the current SAD [standard American diet], it is now, frankly, killing us” , she now sings a very different tune.

As expressed on her website, she still maintains that veganism and whole foods saved her life but also believe: “there are many paths to health.” She declares: “…trusting your body, living your truth, whether it be vegan, parttime vegan, flexitarian or carnivore is all inherently good.”

The “everything good in moderation” position is represented in varying degrees, but has one central theme: a complete reformation is not necessary in order to obtain health. Likewise, in the spiritual sphere, it asserts a complete cleansing from sin is not necessary for fellowship in heaven.

Well, are all diets “inherently good”?

How many paths has God prescribed to ensure health? What is God’s desire regarding our physical and spiritual cleansing?

“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” {3Jn 1:2} God’s greatest desire, above all things He says, is that we are healthy. The degree of health He desires is expressed as: “even as.”

That is – in the same proportion of our souls. To what extent then does He desire our souls to prosper?

Christ bids us to be perfect – even as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Again, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7 explicitly states: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”

God has not called us to a partial cleanse, but to perfect physical and spiritual health.

The original diet God prescribed to mankind was plant-based and provided all that was required for life (Genesis 1:29; 3:18; 2:9; 3:22). After the flood flesh eating was permitted with some prohibitions (See Genesis 9:3, 4; Leviticus 3:17; 11).

The drastic decline of lifespan from 900 to 300 years on average after the flood marks the perilous impact of meat consumption on the human body (note Genesis 9 & 11). Since then, man’s lifespan has continued to degenerate to only 80 years expectancy today. I present that eating poorly even in moderation is not good.

While the person who smokes just one cigarette per day may develop lung cancer at a slower rate than

the person who smokes a pack, they both meet with the same consequence if the practice is not abated. The rate of the effect is controlled by the degree of transgression; however the consequence of the transgression cannot be altered.

Furthermore, the bible does not support this concept of moderation, but temperance; which is to abstain from all things harmful and eat judiciously those foods that are good (see 1Thessalonians 5:22; Proverbs 24:13; 25:27). Let us resolve to make a complete lifestyle change for “ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” {1 Corinthians 6:20} 1

Pool, H. (2006, January 6). US News. Retrieved

from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/ world/2006/jan/07/usa.booksonhealth.

2

Jamieson, A. (2013, February 27). Retrieved from

Alexandra Jamieson: http://www.alexandrajamieson. com/im-not-vegan-anymore/

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SIMPLE

Cleansing GREEN DRINK

– Queenette Jenkinson

Blend 2 cups greens (choose from spinach, kale, swiss chard, beet greens etc) 2 tsp lemon juice 1 small chunk of ginger 1 handful of cilantro 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric Experiment with the drink base: use either water, coconut water (adds electrolytes) or pineapple juice (for detox properties)

Benefits: Lemon is an overall great cleanser; the added benefit of turmeric makes this drink excellent for immunity. Cilantro is rich in minerals such as iron and magnesium and helps to detoxify the body from heavy metals.

Note - "Frozen greens can be used, but it is never quite as good as fresh!"

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Fluff

CUTTING THE

– Xavia Le

T

here is nothing quite like setting goals and reaching them: measurable, attainable, timebound goals. And there is an even greater joy in helping someone else to reach their goals.

My friend Alexis is a wonderful young woman. We met when she was just a tyke and she has grown into quite the go-getter. On our early morning walks, we chat about the politics of life, personal growth, and other typical teen chatter: AP classes, guys, and body issues.

We first began walking together when, one day on my daily jog, I saw Alexis on my route and she mentioned that she would like to join me. Great! I thought, because

jogging alone is no fun. I altered my routine to fit her schedule and my jogging slowed to walking because Alexis could not jog.

You see, Alexis was diagnosed with childhood obesity, and is on the “extra-fluffy” side.

Our walk ‘n' talks begin quite early with a 5:20am phone call. It is on these walks that I translate what her lifestyle choices mean for her young body and mind.

For example, what happens when you eat 1/2 a pizza pie at 11 at night.

In a recent study by researchers at Northwestern University, published in the Journal Obesity, researchers found that an eating schedule is what may determine weight gain. The six week study,

performed on mice, found that mice that ate outside of their usual hours had an average 48 percent increase in “fluffiness” while those that ate on schedule had a mean increase of 20 percent of body weight. This study is major because I don’t know if I could count on one hand the people around me that eat on a schedule during the day.

Another study done by the FASEB Journal (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) and reported on in the NY Times by Tara Parker-Pope in an article entitled “Fatty Foods affect memory and exercise” she says that previous studies “have suggested that long-term consumption of a high-fat diet is associated with weight gain, heart disease 11

Why should we be careless with the type and amount of fat we eat, and the time we choose to place it in our mouths?

and declines in cognitive function."

What I found compelling about the new research was that it was shown that “Eating fatty food appears to take an almost immediate toll on both short-term memory and exercise performance” and “how indulging in fatty foods over the course of a few days can affect the brain and body long before the extra pounds show up.”

“We expected to see changes, but maybe not so dramatic and not in such a short space of time,” said Andrew Murray, the study’s lead author and a lecturer in physiology at Cambridge University in Britain, “It was really striking how quickly these effects happened.’’'

If a lecturer on physiology from Cambridge can have such an unexpected finding: Why should we be careless with the type and amount of fat we eat, and the time we choose to place it in our mouths?

This info may seem like a lot to 12

wrap ones mind around, especially when we consider our lifestyle, and we see the changes we must make in order to be free from obesity, heart disease etc.

Make it attainable: many of us have the luxury of overindulging of even good foods of our choice!

Make this object measurable: try to keep your goal for 21 days to make it a new habit References: Murray, Knight, Cochlin, McAleese(2009).

Deterioration of physical performance and cognitive function in rats with short- term high-fat feeding. The FASEB Journal, vol.

I encourage my friend Alexis to understand how her body works so that she might make the right choices to remain a top student and to be healthy.

And it was on one of these walks that she outlined her goals for losing the fluffiness.

The lifestyle decisions that she makes will determine what type of statistic she will become and these new changes, are in her reach because with God all things are possible (Matt 11:26). “The go-getter gets what the go-getter goes for!” And Alexis, is certainly a go-getter.

How can you cut the fat “fluff”?

Make a specific goal to keep a set schedule. Make it timebound by having a set meal time; eat the last meal of the day a few hours before bedtime.

23 no. 12 4353-4360, Retrieved from http:// www.fasebj.org/content/23/12/4353.abstract Parker-Pope, Tara. “Fatty foods affect memory and exercise.” New York Times. August 13, 2009. Web

13 - Lilies in the City - January 2015

The Bacteria Decoy Psalm 19:1-3 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.

Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.”

As a person extremely interested in the natural sciences, this has always been a powerful quotation for me. I’ve always been inexplicably fascinated by the idea that God places within nature lessons of eternal import, and that He seeks to teach us things which we do not understand by making associations between those things [we do not comprehend]

and that which we can easily see and understand. Throughout the course of my life so far, this fascination has continually heightened.

One day, while studying the infection process of a specific class of bacteria, the Lord taught me a very valuable lesson. There is a class of bacteria called Gram positive bacteria.

Some Gram positive bacteria have the ability to form what is known as a superantigen within the human body. If one were infected by Gram positive bacteria, these would be able to ramp up the body’s immune response much more than another strain of bacteria which lacked the gene for superantigen formation.

For perspective, under the circumstances of a typical infection by a bacterial strain which does not have the gene, only about

– Janelle Louis

one out of ten thousand T and B cells (white blood cells which fight infection in the body) would be activated in response to the bacterial invasion. When a superantigen is produced and secreted into the bloodstream, however, one out of five T and B cells will be activated.

You may be thinking, “So these bacteria ramp up our body’s immune system. What’s the big deal? Doesn’t that help us fight them off more efficiently?” If those are your thoughts, in a sense you are correct; in most cases of acute infection, we want to activate the body’s immune cells to better fight the infection, but in the case of superantigen formation, this isn’t the case.

The superantigens produced and secreted by these bacteria serve as triggers, in a sense, for the immune system. The immune cells perceive each superantigen as something that needs to be de13

Lilies Lilies in in the the City City -- January January 2015 2015 -- 14 14

"Satan works in a similar way. He uses the things of this world to distract… from eternal realities." stroyed, and more and more immune cells are activated to fight the perceived threat, leading to a massive inflammatory response.

This immune response causes hypovolemia (a decrease in blood pressure due to a decrease in the amount of circulating blood), shock, multiple organ failure, and, if untreated, death. The superantigens produced by these bacteria serve as decoys to distract the immune cells from the real problem—the bacteria. As a result, the immune cells chase after and seek to destroy the growing number of superantigens; meanwhile, the bacteria quietly continue to replicate, resulting in more and more superantigen-producing bacteria.

Satan works in a similar way. He uses the things of this world to distract the ungodly, the carnal14

minded, those engaged in worldly pursuits, and the unsuspecting alike from eternal realities.

The quest to make a living, the ambition for education and selfsustainability, the desire for acknowledgment and accolades, the search for a life-partner—all of these things he seeks to elevate as of utmost importance in an attempt to devalue in our minds the beauty of a Christ-like character and the urgency and blessedness of developing and nurturing a closer walk with Jesus.

For those of us who are Christians and earnestly seeking to allow God to accomplish His perfect will in our lives, our adversary has an additional deception. With us, he seeks to cause objects of minor importance to occupy our minds to the forgetfulness of Christ and His attributes.

He seeks to cause us to be unlike Christ in our thoughts, our words, or our actions in retaliation to the words or actions of others. He seeks to bring in issues of comparatively minor importance to separate us in action or in mind from our brothers and sisters in Christ. By erecting imaginary walls of separation, he weakens the power of God’s church.

When the Holy Spirit impressed upon my mind the greater spiritual lesson that He was seeking to teach me through the lens of the natural sciences, I was in awe. God is seeking to unmask the wiles of our adversary to us.

He wants us to allow Him to remake us in His image. May we heed His call each day, and not permit the distractions of the devil to gain footing in our lives.

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