Becoming a fully committed Vegan for Life.

Why I have become a fully committed vegan: 
 or Finding your way forward through Life's transitions.

It has been almost a full year since I made the deliberate decision to become a fully committed vegan.  This is a very unlikely shift in point of view for one who is an avid outdoorsman.  I love to hunt, shoot, camp, fish, kayak and backpack; all those outdoor activities I enjoyed as a young boy growing up in Southwestern Ohio.  My father had a quadruple bypass surgery at age 65 and my only brother died of a heart related issue after his triple bypass surgery at 58.  I knew that the genetic predisposition toward CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) existed in my family line.  So, in August of last year, I asked my family doctor for a recommendation to have the CT Calcium Score done on my heart.  This is a very simple and quick test that takes a series of CT pictures of your coronary vessels.  The conclusion of this test yielded a very high score of 900!  A score of 400 shows significant and serious CAD in the form of plaque buildup that has calcified.  Unfortunately, those who have a low score could still be at risk, in that the CT cannot "see" the soft un-calcified plaque that still could be present.  And by the way, it is usually the soft plaque that ruptures and causes a heart attack.  My score of 900 suggested a 20% statistical possibility of having a "coronary event" in the following 12 months.  25% of people who have coronary events simply drop dead without any prior warning.

I immediately began my learning curve into the field of cardiology.  The very first book that came up on my search was by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  His book, Eat to Live is an easy to access book that he methodically researched.  He showed me the dark side of eating the "Standard American Diet" and just how Westerners are killing themselves with their forks and knives.  One chapter into his book and I poured my "half and half" down the kitchen drawn.  What followed was getting rid of all meat, all dairy, all processed foods and all oil.  The journey had begun!  Shortly after beginning this book, my son recommended that I view a documentary called Forks Over Knives.  In this documentary, two researchers were highlighted, Caldwell B. Esselstyne Jr. from the Cleveland Clinic and T. Colin Campbell from Cornell University.  Both men were researchers who demonstrated the clear link between nutrition and what came to be known as the "diseases of affluence."

Caldwell B. Esselstyn's book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease was a clear portrayal of the cardio vascular dilemma of most Americans and what must be done in order to HALT AND REVERSE the disease. I had never heard anyone ever say anything about "halting and reversing" CAD.  But as I began to do the research, I soon realized that there was a clear polemic between standard forms of cardiology, as it is practiced by most of American doctors, and what was being said and demonstrated by a very impressive body of research on the subject.

A subsequent trip to the Cleveland Clinic (in February no less!) to meet and study with Dr. Esselstyn and his wife Ann clearly showed that Coronary Artery Disease could not only be halted but many times reversed.  This is only accomplished through eating a "Whole Foods, Plant Based Diet."  Me becoming a vegan? Not just for a short period of time but for the rest of my life!  This was serious lifestyle transition.

So, as I begin to approach my one year anniversary of living as fully committed vegan for health reasons, here are some of my highlights and take aways?

• Most of us are bound by food addictions that we're not aware of and these addictions are killing us.  (addictions to animal protein, fat, dairy and processed foods)
• Although the cure seems radical i.e., eating a vegan diet, it is not as radical as having your chest split open and veins from your legs grafted around your clogged arteries of the heart.  And by the way, this procedure only treats the symptoms and does not address the cure!
• Eating a vegan diet can be appetizing and attractive.  It just takes some creativity and relearning how to cook.
• Ones tastes actually change such that the real taste of whole foods and plants begin to actually taste good.
• I have become a vegan foodie!  I am challenged by creating and preparing tasty plant based dishes and helping others learn how to do it.
• Finally, I am a committed vegan for life.  I am gratefully vegan and am becoming rather proud of it, in the best sense of the word.
• Follow me on instagram@stevemattis or Face Book recipes at Steven Jay Mattis.

Displacing the Orphaned Spirit

     God seems to impart "revelation" to the heart at just the right time for each of us.  He has recently been imparting yet another level of revelation to me relate to the healing of the "orphaned Spirit" in my own life.  The "heart or spirit" of a man is the central place of government in a persons life.  It seems to me that one of the great strategies of the enemy is to keep this place of government locked up in the inability to trust, the fear of rejection and fear of real intimacy.
     The late Jack Frost has written a book by the title, "Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship."  In this book he describes a very powerful twelve step part cycle through which the orphan spirit progresses toward developing a Stronghold of Oppression.  This has been very insightful, revealing and instructive to me personally.  For in this cycle, I see myself and God's loving favor reaching down to pull me up and out of the quicksand of the orphan spirit.
     Twelve steps to developing a stronghold of Oppression:

• 1.  We begin to focus on the faults we see in parental authority.  Of course there are no perfect parents.  In fact, parents don't mean to be inconsistent, they just pass on their wounds from their own disappointments, broken promises and inconsistencies of their parents.
•  2.  We lose basic trust in parental authority.  Once disappointed, rejected or wounded by a parent, we begin to close off a part of our heart/spirit from being hurt again.  This closes us off from receiving any warmth, affection or comfort that is actually there.
• 3.  We lose basic trust in parental authority.  The loss of basic trust keeps us from holding our heart open to another person.  Basic trust is the ability to risk being real and vulnerable, to keep our heart open even when it hurts rather than close off our spirit.
• 4.  We move into fear of receiving love, comfort, and admonition from others.  We become fearful of becoming vulnerable.  Then we begin to take care of everything ourselves because we don't trust anyone else or believe there will be someone to comfort us.  Orphans always feel alone even in a crowd or during a time of crisis.  
• 5.  We develop a closed spirit.   Once we close off our heart to receiving love, we close our hearts to every form of intimacy.  We retreat into a closed spirit, isolating our heart from the outside influences.
• 6.  We take on an independent, self-reliant attitude.  Everything then falls to me to do what must be done.  I have to do everything myself!  Our insecurities and fears have shut our heart off from any meaningful relationship with others.  We become independent and self-reliant all the time.
• 7.  We start controlling our relationships.  Independent and isolated we begin to control everything and everybody around us, or withdraw into passivity.  The fear of trusting, the fear of rejection and the fear of intimacy prevent us from  becoming genuinely responsive to others.  All of our relationships begin to suffer.
• 8.  Our relationships become superficial.  We keep people at an "arms distance" emotionally.  We rarely realize that we are doing the very things we fear they will do to us: rejection.
• 9.  We develop an ungodly belief that says no one will be there to meet our need.  This is a major symptom of the orphan spirit.  The closed off heart/spirit begins to dominate all relationships.
• 10.  We begin to live life like a spiritual orphan.  The spiritual orphan feels like they do not have a safe and secure place in father's heart where they feel loved, valued and affirmed.  We have no safe harbor, no refuge, no place of rest.  Our identity then become developed around what I do or what I have.
• 11.  We begin chasing after counterfeit affections.  Having shut off my heart from genuine affection through loved ones, we begin looking for counterfeit affections or substitutes.  we were created for love, for family and for genuine intimacy with the Father...now we begin looking for the counterfeits.  Addictions begin to surface in order to cover the pain of separation and isolation.  Here are seven (7) counterfeits:  PASSION, POSSESSIONS, POSITION, PERFORMANCE, PEOPLE, PLACES, POWER.  Each of their counterfeits can be used to cover our pain of isolation and orphan spirit.
• 12.  We begin to daily battle a stronghold of oppression.  Having isolated ourselves from cultivating healthy relationships, we become trapped in a cycle of seeking fulfillment in things that can never satisfy.  Life becomes an oppressive mix of tension, agitation, anger, bitterness, restlessness and frustration that can eventually lead to deeper oppression and depression.

     Now having looked at the cycle degenerating into oppression from the orphaned heart or spirit.  Please remember that God is passionately displacing this spirit by pouring our his unconditional love.  We need to personally receive the revelation of the father's love to displace this void in our life.

Malachi 4:5-5 the very last verses in the Old Testament state:
          "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
          He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their   
          fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."

The curse was reversed in the person of Jesus, the one proclaimed by John the Baptist.  Right now, the Father is pouring out an anointing to raise up sons and daughters who have received this revelation of the Father's Love and share it with the people they meet.

Jesus sain in John 14:18, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.!"

May be begin to trust and press into this amazing transformational love of the Father!

Action Trumps Everything! by Steve Mattis

     The problem with dreamers and visionaries is that we often are not very practical.  Sometimes we spend lots of time thinking through problems, looking at possibilities and running solutions over and over again in our mind, sometimes with little or no results.  That is why leaders, dreamers and visionaries can sometimes drive managerial types banana's.  Thoughts are only as good as the actions and movements that grow out of them.
     Now that may seem pretty obvious to many of you, but I suggest that most of us have been carefully trained in a method of thinking and analyzing that has led us to become great thinkers but not always as productive as we might have been, given the development of an alternative method.  The method that is familiar to most of us is the scientific method.  You know, you analyze and evaluate past realities and attempt to predict the future based upon your observations and assumptions about the past.  This method of prediction is important, however, when you find yourself in an unstable environment, with an uncertain future the past is rendered quite unless and its time to consider another method.
     You might be saying to yourself, "oh, great! It took me all my life to learn to think clearly and analytically, now I have to learn another method!"  Well, its not really all that foreign.  In fact, its the method that we first learned as toddlers.  Thats pretty cool.  How do toddlers learn?  Well they ACT, then they LEARN, then they REPEAT with better information.  For example, a toddler puts his hand on a hot stove, LEARNS that the stove is hot and says, "well that didn't work, see if I do that again."  This is an incredibly high level of learning.  But, we have been taught not to think this way because it wasn't advanced enough; wasn't scientific enough.
     This is the type of learning referred to as "Creation Thinking."  Actions lead to better evaluations and to better actions in the future.  So we don't have to "predict" the future scientifically, we just need to create it by acting.  All this grows out of the most advanced research from the Harvard business school and other high level academic institutions.  It turns out that "Creation Reasoning" is what sets entrepreneurial thought apart from Corporate maintenance thought.  Entrepreneurial people create new things, new organizations and new businesses.  And it turns out that they do so because them think and therefore act differently then most of us.  It seems that these unique people actually use both "Predictive Thinking" and "Creation Thinking" to propel them forward in their thinking and their acting.
     Instead of thinking your way into a new way of acting, which is at the heart of using Prediction, you need to act your way into a new way of thinking.  That is what entrepreneurs do when faced with the unknowable - and it is an approach that will work for you as well.
     Now if all of this has pricked your interest...I suggest a wonderful book that will help you get ahold of this amazing new method of reasoning.  I have been using this method and have seen amazing results in a very short time.  I have accomplished more in a week than I have in a month of Sundays by using the Predictive method along.  The book: Action Trumps Everything: Creating what you want in an uncertain world.  By Charles F. Kiefer and Leonard A. Schlesinger.
     After all isn't God a creative God not just a maintenance God!  Remember, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  This wasn't just thought; it was action!

     Let our Dreams and Visions become reality as we act, learn and repeat our way into the future!

Steve Mattis

Learning to Rest

     Well my best intentions to "blog" at least weekly has proven to be unrealistic.  Life has a way of getting and staying pretty busy.  Pressures seem to abound.  Challenges and circumstances also seem to back log as we walk through this life.  Ever wonder when it will all end?  When will life quiet down a bit?  Well, I have asked those same questions.  What I have come up with was pretty obvious to many.  Life will stay as full as I allow it to become.  We scurry about almost frantic about nothing that really matters in the larger scheme of things.
     A friend related last night that she stopped using Face Book.  That may be unthinkable for many people.  However, it became a stumbling block for her.  She was spending time worrying and comparing herself to others.  Seems we always compare our weaknesses to other peoples strengths anyway. So she unplugged and cancelled her account. The end of virtual relationships! End of problem!
   
Jesus put it this way:
     "Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke                    upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your    souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  Matt 11:28-30
   
     I think rest is something we must choose.  Quietness is something we must pursue at all costs.
Maybe we should take some time just to breathe.  Contemplate the obvious or the not so obvious.  The only "yoke" we really need to shoulder is the yoke of Jesus.  And He says his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

          Take some time to unplug from the daily pressures of life.
          Consider all that we spend our time doing and be intentional about making choices.
          Take time for yourself.  Think.  Feel.  Enjoy the people around you.  They may not be there for ever.

Finally, keep Jesus in the mix of your life.  He is the only one who will really matter in the long run.
He is the one who keeps our relationships sweet and real.  Enjoy your weekend.  He is enjoying it with you.

Holy Spirit and the obliteration of class distinctions.

     Holy Spirit, having been conferred upon his disciples in John 20:22, sovereignly poured himself out upon them is releasing the Promise of the Father; the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Acts. 1:4-5.  Acts chapter two, then becomes that historic text documenting the coming of Holy Spirit upon "all flesh" right in the middle of the Jews second required festival.  Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection, was the time when Holy Spirit came in fulfillment of Joel's ancient prophecy.  The book of Joel in the Old Testament, written about 830 B.C. promised a time when God would "pour out His Spirit on all flesh."  The implications were staggering to that culture and in some ways mind boggling to our own.
     Prior to this event Holy Spirit was given to individuals in order to preform certain tasks.  Kings, Prophets, sometimes Priests and Judges were examples of Holy Spirit coming on people for a certain task and only for a certain time.  But now, the Father has fulfilled his ancient promise.  Jesus had been crucified for the "sin of the world."  Jesus had been raised from the dead on the third day and showed himself alive with many infallible proofs for forth days.  Acts 1:3  He had ascended back into the heavens, to the right had of the Father. Acts 1:9-11  Now the stage was set for God's greatest intervention that the world had ever seen.  He would begin a New Covenant.  He would make himself available to all people, personally.
He would pour out his presence and his power upon everyone who would receive this gracious gift.  This historic event would change forever, how God would work with his people.
   
Peter explained this peculiar event by quoting the ancient text of Joel: (Joel 3:28-29)
         
          "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of 
          My Spirit on all flesh.
          Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.  Your young men shall see visions
          and your old men shall dream dreams.
          And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit
          in those days; and they shall prophesy."

     The coming of the Holy Spirit was significant for a number of important reasons:

     1.  Holy Spirit was God and has now come to live within his people.  This was absolutely NEW.
   
     2.  Holy Spirit was given to all people.  Racial distinctions were overcome.  Jews and Gentiles were to be included.  Black and white, yellow and red.  All flesh meant that God would now come and dwell in everyone regardless of racial distinction.  All who would call upon the name of the Lord. Acts. 2:38-39

     3.  Holy Spirit would come regardless of gender.  Sons and Daughters would receive alike.  At this time during the first century, the gender distinction was sharp and clear.  God now came to live in all genders alike.

     4.  Holy Spirit would make himself available to both Young and Old.  God is no respecter of age.  The young may receive as well as the Old.  God is passionate about gathering to himself people of all ethnic origins, all genders and all ages.

     5.  Finally, Holy Spirit comes to everyone, regardless of class distinction or social standing.  Even upon slave and free.  God was passionate and committed to overcoming every class distinction made by the ideas and traditions of "men."


     He would now come and live in "all flesh;" regardless of race or ethic distinction.  He would live in all people regardless of gender or age.  Class distinctions were of no importance to the God who created the world and who how comes to live in all flesh; the "crown of His creation."

     Finally, God would come as Holy Spirit and release His presence in His People and would never leave them.  His coming was permanent.  Jesus promised, I am with you always.  I will never leave you.  You are eternally mine.

Maybe you 're exploring this wonderful gift of Holy Spirit.  By seeking Him you will surly find Him.  By opening your heart and mind to Jesus, Holy Spirit will come and live His Life in and through you.  This is the most wonderful gift that God could ever give anyone.  He Himself would come and live His Life in us and through us!  Gal. 2:20

 

2012 - The Year of The Holy Spirit

     In December of last year I began to "hear" deep in my heart/spirit that 2012 would be "the year of the Holy Spirit."  As with most of these kinds of "impressions," I usually listen, pay some attention, pray through the idea or concept and then move on.  However, this theme kept reoccurring over some period of time.  It was as if the Holy Spirit himself, was stating something that he wanted the "church" to hear.  So I boldly stated early in January of this year, that "I believed this year would be the year of Holy Spirit."  I quickly then said, in disclaimer fashion, "I am not quite sure what that means" other than this year would be different and that the Holy Spirit would begin to make himself known in unique and perhaps unusual ways."

     In keeping with what I thought I heard, I began a new preaching series on Sunday mornings called "Living Under the Influence."  We are still in the midst of that series.  It is a biblical study to understand the Person and Work of Holy Spirit and experience all that He has for us.  Additionally I began teaching Wednesday evenings in our worship and prayer time, specifically on the topic of the Holy Spirit.  What I am now noticing is that more and more people around the country are also beginning to say much the same thing.  Undoubtedly, Holy Spirit does little without first revealing it to a multitude of listeners.

     Now having said all the above, let me summarize what I believe to be true for this year, 2012:

• The Holy Spirit will continue to make himself known to his people and abide within them. Jn. 14:16
• There will be a fresh wind of the Spirit to ignite fresh fire through the "baptism of Holy Spirit."
• Holy Spirit will continue to reveal the heart of the Father to us.  Jn. 14:20
• He will reveal more and more of Jesus to his people. Jn. 14:21  
• Holy Spirit will renew an understanding that he is indwelling and inhabiting us forever. Jn. 14:17-18
• Holy Spirit will manifest his presence and release amazing signs through his people. Jn.14:12
• Holy Spirit will begin to pour out a fresh revelation of the glory of God upon the church. Jn. 16:14
• There will be a tremendous resurgence and revival of all of the "gifts of the Spirit." I Cor. 12:4-11
• Many believers will be reactivated, released and empowered to move in the gift of God. I Cor. 14:1
• Ministry will multiply as slumbering believers catch fire and flow in signs and wonders.  Heb. 2:4
• Evangelism will result as many people share the overflow of the life of Holy Spirit. Acts 2:41
• As this will be a fresh move; there will be a fresh anointing and compassion of Jesus' love. I Cor. 13

As this begins to come about in many places, the two questions that many will be asking are:

     Whatever could this mean?  Acts 2:12
     What shall we do?  Acts 2:37


For every earnest seeker and believer, God will gloriously fill and refresh and release them into a new place of effectiveness in his Army.  This then is a time of preparation.  Study to show yourself approved.
Learn and receive all that the Holy Spirit has for you in these days.
Watch as God begins to come again into His Temple (His People) with greater works than we have yet seen.

Running on Empty?

     We all occasionally reach points in our lives when we feel empty; sort of like your "running out of gas."  I have felt that way at times.  The demands of life, busyness of schedules, expectations of others and ongoing deadlines, all seem to pile up and create within me a mounting emptiness and exhaustion.  It is precisely at this point in life that I ask the question, "what is really fueling my life?"  What gives me the power to go on?  What creates the incentive, the motivation and the inner resolve to continue to move forward?  When disappointments and circumstances seem to be pressing in on me, what creates that inner fire to take heroic steps forward in doing the next thing, the right thing?
     Since the beginning of this new year, I have been doing a fairly exhaustive study of the personal empowerment available to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is often the forgotten or at least overlooked person of the Trinity.  You know, the God of scripture who has revealed himself in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
     Holy Spirit is a person.  According to Luke 3:16, John the Baptist said: "I indeed baptize you with water, but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Then at the very end of his book, Luke quotes the words of Jesus saying: "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." Lk. 24:49  Has God the Father actually given us a Promise of personal power from on high?  Is the power actually promised to us in the person of Holy Spirit?
     After Jesus was crucified for the sin of the world and raised from the dead, he showed himself to many people, giving them indisputable proof of his resurrection life.  On one of those occasions, he showed himself to his disciples and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for this Promise of the Father. Acts 1:4  Then he turned his attention to what this promise was and what the promise would do in his disciples and followers.  "But you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."  Acts 1:8
     Having received this person and the promise of his power, I always come back to Him when I find myself "running on empty."  Baptism literally means drenching, saturating or submersion in.  The baptism in or with Holy Spirit is an outpouring into us and then out of us by which He flows, drenches and saturates our soul and body with his Person, Presence and Power.
     John 7:37-39, "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his innermost being (Heart) will flow rivers of living water."  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."


     If anyone is thirsty.  If anyone is dry.  If anyone is overwhelmed and empty.  If anyone finds themselves in great need.  When circumstances press in on you and when you wonder if you can go one - that can be the time and our finest hour:  Believe in Jesus as the scriptures presents him.  Receive him through totally yielding to him.  Ask for the Holy Spirit to come in power and be released out of your inner most being.  Allow him to overflow in gratitude, thanksgiving and rejoicing.  He gives His Presence and Power to all who ask and receive in faith.

        RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT!  DRINK OF HOLY SPIRIT!  REJOICE IN HOLY SPIRIT.

I invite your comments.  I would love to dialogue about this most amazing gift of Holy Spirit living in us and through us.