Our Faith Journey: Introduction

Rules, Rules, and More Rules!

When I was younger I remember a time when I began wondering why there were so many rules. I just did not get it! I mean it seemed like there was a rule against anything and everything that was fun. One such rule for my siblings and me growing up was that only two people could jump on the trampoline at a time. The problem with this was that there were three of us kids! Someone did not get to jump, while the other two did. Sure, we came up with games where all three of us could get involved, but I still did not understand why my parents would not let more than two jump at a time. I always had to explain to my friends that only two at a time could be on the tramp...even though I didn’t quite get why. I even remember my great grandma Eva Shively, who was the nicest woman you would ever meet, having rules. One of her rules was that if we were going to get a pop sickle out of her freezer then we had to find someone else to split it with (since they came in packs of two). Why couldn’t we just eat both if we wanted to? Why did there have to be rules against all of these harmless things? Don’t touch the stove...look both ways before crossing the street...etc. I may not have known why my parents said to do certain things, but I did know that they loved me and so I wanted to obey because I loved them. Today I now know why there had to be so many “rules” for me to follow...and it all comes down to a four letter word called love.

You see, when I was younger I didn’t have a clue why my parents said to do or not do certain things. But now that I am older I know that it is because they loved me. They told my siblings and me not to jump with more than two on the trampoline at a time because there was a higher chance of someone falling off and/or getting hurt in different ways. My great grandma Shively didn’t let us have more than one pop sickle because she knew that it was too much sugar for us kids to have at once. These rules ended up being for my own health and safety, even though I didn’t understand why I had to obey them. I now think about Yahweh...the creator of Heaven and Earth...the one who cares about us more than any other person ever could...does His love for us mean that He wants what is best for us...does it mean that He cares about our daily lives...does it mean that He also has rules for us as believers to follow? The answer shouldn’t surprise you, but YES!

Yahweh’s love for us surpasses any kind of love that humans can offer because HE is love. This divine love also comes with divine instruction. How do we then show love in return? By obedience! But don’t simply take what I have to say, but look to the scriptures. In John 14:15 Yeshua says, “If you love me, obey my commandments”. Then again in 1 John 5:3 it says, “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.” There are several verses which say this same thing over and over....and that is loving Yahweh means we will do what he says. There are several things that Leslie and I do that make some people’s eyebrows raise. They wonder why we don’t eat certain foods...why we don’t work on Saturday...why we keep Passover and other Biblical festivals. The answer is: Just like our parents, God is our Heavenly Father who knows what is best for us.

We have decided that we are going to be posting several of our beliefs in a series. We are not doing this to condemn others, but because there are some who have no clue what we believe and really don't feel comfortable coming to us to ask, while there are others who believe that we are trying to be Jewish and/or Legalistic! But nothing could be further from the truth! And so now we ask you brothers and sisters, that you would "...test the spirits, whether they are of God..." (1 John 4:1)

Posted by: Jeremy Gipe

A Holy Hike for Shavuot

Jeremy and I celebrated Pentecost/Shavuot today with our fellowship, The Gathering Place by congregating together for a few hours and trekking out on a 6-mile walking trail through a scenic wooded area, through the downtown of Winona Lake Village, and around Grace College. The comment was made by one that ‘today actually felt like a sabbath, because the streets and buildings were quiet as it was a Sunday and no one was working’. It is true that we are not used to that luxury since we celebrate the weekly sabbath on Saturdays trying to avoid the hustle and bustle of the town. It was very refreshing for all of us, I believe! We were incredibly blessed to have beautiful weather the entire time, and to have such fulfilling conversations with everyone in the group!

Our first topic was a quite predictable one involving speaking in tongues when filled with the Holy Spirit or having the gift of tongues/interpretation. This topic intrigues me so I said a silent prayer that Yahweh would open my ears and clear my mind in order to be ready for this discipling discussion. We talked about how on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out among the people, they spoke in tongues as a sign that the spirit was now dwelling in them. And since this type of tongue is only a sign, there does not need to be an interpretation like there does for the public tongue. It was interesting to relate that to modern day in dwellings of the Holy Spirit and how the sign could be speaking in tongues but that doesn’t mean that all who have the Holy Spirit in them would go on to have the gift of tongues (for a public setting) which would require an interpreter. Interesting stuff!

Bible Verses on my heart:

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend" Proverbs 27:17

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Acts 2:4

                                                                           

                                                                                    Posted By: Leslie Gipe

Worldview & Beliefs

A number of years ago, my sister and I went on a mission trip to Mexico with our church youth group. On the last day of our trip we went shopping to buy any souvenirs that we wanted to help us remember this trip. But before we took off into the streets of Mexico, our translators told us that we should never ever pay full price for anything. They said that we need to bargain with the person and get the item for as cheap as possible. As I was walking around to different shops with my sister I couldn’t get this foreign idea of bargaining with people out of my head. Usually I would just go to my local Wal-Mart, look at the price, and then buy the item for what it was marked at. It felt awkward, but I wanted to give bargaining a try. So I walked up to the lady with a firm look and offered her half the price of what the item said. She looked at me and came down in her price a little. But I was determined to get the item for as cheap as I could, so I stuck to my original price. A little frustrated, the lady came down a little more, but I just looked at her and said the price again. She finally just told me no. I was a little bit overwhelmed that she had turned me down, but I heard that if you start to walk away then they will call you back and give it to you for that price. So I gave it a try, but to my disappointment the lady never called me back. As I walked over toward my sister I saw she also was getting ready to buy something. The man gave her a price and I was expecting her to try to bargain with the man, but it must have slipped her mind because she told him that she would be right back after she got the money. As she started to walk away, the man yelled out an even lower price. Excitedly she said yes, but she would have to go and get the money. He must not have understood her because he once again yelled an even lower price to her. She came back to the man and paid him because he had brought it down so low that she had just enough money for it. I couldn’t believe what had just happened! Bargaining was a rich cultural experience, yet it obviously wasn’t my thing. My sister on the other hand thought it was great; she was excited for the next time she would get to do it again. So it all depends on your perspective. As the day went on I looked around at the culture I was in and at how everything was so different from my own. My worldview had changed and is something that continues to change even today.

A worldview is the way in which you see the world and understand the way in which it works. It shapes and guides our lives and helps us to explain the world in which we live. The worldview that we have has been shaped by assumptions that we have made which are generally sub-conscious. With this in mind, our worldviews are going to affect the behavior we have and the way we act towards this world. With all of the differing worldviews today which one should we pick? Can there be more than one worldview that is correct? Like we mentioned in our story earlier, our worldview is constantly changing when we learn new things. It is our belief that the model of the perfect worldview is to have the mind of Yeshua. This essentially means that one would think like Yeshua; love like Yeshua; act like Yeshua; and walk like Yeshua. And on top of this, have the humility, patience, longsuffering and all of the other fruits of the Spirit. Christ would not only be the model but the individual’s worldview would be an exact copy. That is the final target of any Christian Disciple's process of becoming more holy.

Now you may be wondering why I chose this story to talk about all of this and why it really matters. It matters because our God is the Father of TRUTH and Satan is the father of lies as it says in John 8:44,

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

We need to rid ourselves of the lies of the world that Satan has gotten his hands on and turn to truth. We need to change our worldview to look more and more like Christ's worldview.

                                                                                                                          Posted By: Jeremy Gipe

Judgment – OR – Discernment

These last couple of weeks we, as a couple, have been talking a lot about judgment. Whether someone else was judging us, or we were judging them, the topic was surfacing far too often for comfort! Needless to say, we want to eliminate the latter of these two for sure, so we found a sermon on this topic to listen to! Afterwards, we thought we would write out and share some of our thoughts...

DISCERNMENT says... “It is probably not a good idea to wear that outfit in public”

JUDGEMENT goes further... “That girl is dressed like a slut; I bet she is having sexual relations with that boy she is walking with”

So, when is it appropriate to discern?

First off, in order to Biblically discern we must have a real relationship with the person. The context for discernment is in a small, close nit group. UNLIKE IN BIBLICAL TIMES, today we as Christians simply DON’T have this kind of relationship with most other people! HEREIN LAYS THE PROBLEM: since we lack the close nit relationship, we WRONLY CONCLUDE that discernment applies to everyone! If we were to make discernment on a stranger, and go to them with our opinion, they would likely just take offense, and think we have NO place informing them of our opinion. They might think “who made you God?” (and on that note, God might think “why do you cast your pearls before swine?”)

If we DO have that close nit relationship and we discern something, we should be sure to ACT ON IT (for their benefit and out of love). What is the purpose of just holding our opinion in our mind, and NOT helping them? When we hold it in our mind, and dwell on it and don’t let it go, we are purposefully trying to distinguish ourselves, and feed off of it to make ourselves seem better...at this point our opinion TURNS INTO A JUDGEMENT! If at any time, we find our thoughts/opinions separating ourselves from another person, we are committing what is probably the 2^nd most mentioned sin in the New Testament: Judging! This is not to say that separating thing from thing or right from wrong is wrong.

Lastly, we need to be very careful not to hold another person to a standard we don’t hold ourselves, OR equally bad, to a standard that is not clearly written in the Bible. Do not try to morally police others! If you believe a standard is Biblical but cannot point that out in scripture, either from lack of knowledge, or simply because it is not actually written, then there is NO JUSTICE in discerning that issue!

To close out: We need this kind of close nit relationship with others in order to disciple and receive discipleship! The church as a whole is top on the list, having a reputation for being judgmental. We, as the church, are at our worst, when we should be at our best!

“It is ALWAYS appropriate to LOVE, it is NEVER appropriate to judge, and it is SOMETIMES appropriate to express discernment.” –Greg Boyd

Judgment

1. "You are..." 

2. Destructive

3. Bad outcome

4. Creates hate

5. Separates people

6. What we can’t know (heart)

7. Not compatible with love

Discernment 

1. "This feels like..."

2. Construction

3. Good outcome

4. Creates compassion

5. Separate things

6. What we can know (impact)

7. Compatible with love

Here is a compiled list of Bible verses for you to look into this for yourself:

(Matthew 7:1) (Romans 2:1) (James 4:12) (Romans 14:4) (Romans 14:10) (Romans 14:13) (1Corinthians 4:3) (John 8:15) (John 12:47-48) (Matthew 7:6) (Luke 12:57) (John 5:30) (John 7:24) (1Corinthians 5:12) (1 Corinthians 6:3) (Ephesians 4:15) (Hebrews 5:14)

Taking a closer look at matzah bread...

Tonight, as we celebrated the Passover meal with The Gathering Place, I was prompted to remember how matzah bread symbolizes our Messiah Yeshua . It was a nice reminder, and I would like to share it...

The piercings in the matzah = Yeshua was pierced for our transgressions 5 times while on the cross. 1 time for each limb and then lastly with a spear to make sure He had died.

The rows (stripes) on the matzah = by His stripes we are healed. These stripes are from when the roman soldiers dug into His flesh using whips to beat Him.

The brown braised bumps on the matzah = He was bruised for our sin. Yeshua was beaten so badly that His blood pooled underneath the skin, leaving the outward brownish colored bruise marks.

The Unleavened feature = His body has no sin. During the Passover Feast, leaven represents sin in our lives. Just as a little yeast will leaven the whole lump, a little sin will get bigger and bigger until you can no longer control it.

Check out my wife's recipe for matzah bread, if you like!

Bible verse on my heart: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NASB)

"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as your are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice or wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Posted by: Jeremy Gipe

Passover is coming! (Gluten-Free Recipes Included)

Jeremy and I have really been anticipating Passover this year! Mostly because this is our first year involved with our congregation "The Gathering Place". This will be our 3^rd Passover meal as a couple. As we prepare for this biblical holy day, we try to “make things right” in our life. For Jeremy, he looks forward to this meal with a body of believers who acknowledge that this is the meal Yeshua ate with his disciples just before he was crucified. This is important to him because he grew up in a church that adamantly opposed this idea. Every year, the pastor would stand up and say ‘the meal we eat is NOT Passover’.

Passover is also a day to prepare for the Feast of Unleavened Bread; a time that we will search each nook and cranny of our home for any crumb of bread, or leaven, and throw it out. This is an edifying time, as the leaven represents sin, and how sin can hide so deeply in our lives, that we forget it is there. Just like yeast, a sin will expand into a bigger and bigger sin until you rid of it completely! We search and search our pantry, checking each label carefully for a leavening agent so that we can clean it out, just as we are to clean out the sin from our lives.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread:

The 7 day long Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6, Exodus 12:15-17) is a time in which no leaven can be eaten, as it symbolizes sin. We do this in an effort to separate ourselves from sin and become a holy, set-apart people. We like to call this feast our internal spring cleaning!

The first and last day of this feast is a high sabbath (an extra sabbath besides the weekly sabbath). No work can be done on these days with the exception of preparing food (Exodus 12:16). We bake and eat matzah bread, which in many ways resembles Jesus' sinless body.

This feast was declared a memorial to be kept forever. “And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread… therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever” Exodus 12:17.

_____

We also want to share with you, some gluten-free Passover recipes we have found, that we plan to make this year! We are anxious to try these out, as this is our first year celebrating with these dietary restrictions.

Gluten-Free Matzah Bread:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup almond meal
1 Tbsp. flaxseed meal
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
3 Tbsp. warm water
1/4 tsp. salt (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 450 F. In a medium bowl, combine potato starch, almond meal, flaxseed meal, and salt. Next, mix coconut oil into the dry ingredients using your hands. Add water in small amounts until the dough makes a ball and isn't too sticky. Knead dough well enough to be sure there are no chunks of coconut oil. If the dough is sticky, add a bit more potato starch. Take golf ball sized pieces of dough and flatten until thin on a foil-covered baking sheet. Use a fork to poke holes into the dough. Bake for about 10 minutes, but watch closely to make sure they don't get overdone. Be careful not to overbake! Remove from oven as soon as the edges become slightly brown - The top should still be white. Makes 4 servings.

Gluten-Free Dumplings (Matzoballs):

Ingredients:
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup (plus 1 Tbsp.) potato starch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper
1 Tbsp. fresh dill, minced

Cut potatoes into large chunks and boil in water until soft. Drain and allow to cool. Once cool, mash with oil, eggs, salt, pepper and dill. Stir in potato starch until thoroughly combined, and refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour. Bring soup or a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Use your hands to gently form rough ball shapes from one tablespoon of batter at a time, and submerge dumplings in the soup or water. If you prefer, you may use a soup spoon or ice cream scoop to move free-form spoonfuls of batter into the pot. Boil for approximately 5-6 minutes - The dumplings will float up to the surface quickly but will need several additional minutes to cook all the way through. Serve in soup, or as a side dish with butter or margarine.

Gluten-Free Potato Pancakes:

Ingredients: 
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 - 1/3 cup potato starch
salt (to taste)
2 Tbsp. coconut oil for frying

Cut potatoes into large chunks and boil in water until soft. Drain and allow to cool. Once cool, mash with 2 Tbsp. of oil, both eggs, and salt. Stir in potato starch until thoroughly combined, and refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour. Heat oil in a heavy non-stick pan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place 1/4 cup of batter at a time into the hot oil, using the back of a spatula to press flat until each pancake is no more than 1/4 to 1/3" thick. Cook until golden-brown on each side (2-3 minutes per side), flipping once. Place on a plate lined with paper towel to absorb excess oil. Serve while hot.

Gluten-Free Potato Latkes:

Ingredients:

4 pounds Russet potatoes

1 large onion, peeled

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon ground white pepper

1/3 c. white rice flour

1/3 c. brown rice flour

1/4 c. potato starch

1/8 c. tapioca starch

3 eggs, beaten

Olive oil for frying

Preheat oven to 200 degrees or "warm" setting. Peel potatoes and submerge in cold water. Grate the onion into a large bowl. Grate the potatoes and squeeze handfuls of grated potatoes at a time over kitchen sink to remove all liquid. Add the dry potatoes to the onions and mix as you go. This step should be done as quickly as possible to prevent oxidation of the potatoes.

Heat 1/4 inch of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet, over medium-high heat. Add remaining ingredients to the batter, and stir until fully combined. Place a small handful of batter (approximately 1/4 cup) in the hot oil at a time, gently pressing each latke with the back of the spatula so that it is no more than 1/3" thick. Do not press too hard, as the latkes will be more crispy if the batter is not densely packed (leave space in between the pieces of potato). Fry until completely golden-brown on the bottom and crispy around the outside corners. Flip and brown on the second side. Transfer latkes to a plate lined with paper towels. Allow paper to absorb excess oil. Makes 6-8 servings.

He’s with us through thick and thin

About 2 months ago, Jeremy and I had a pretty substantial scare with our daughter. As we drove the 30 minutes to the Lutheran Children's Hospital, we each wracked our brains as to why our innocent baby started having seizures! They just came out of nowhere and we were trying to think of anything out of the ordinary that could have any merit in causing them. When we arrived at the hospital, we quickly realized how far away from our comfy cozy home we were. We could no longer live under our rules, we had to live under the doctors rules. Don’t get me wrong, doctors have a lot of knowledge and we respect their opinions, however most of them don’t believe natural treatments are a legitimate course of action. Simply put, it is not what they were taught in school, so it can't possibly hold any merit in the medical community. Since Jeremy and I have been married, we have always tried natural treatment FIRST. Yahweh, our God out plants on this earth for more reasons than we have discovered, but treating ailments with herbs definitely goes back to bible times. Its not that we avoid medicine at all cost, we just don't go their first. This said, the very thought of having to give our Makenna anti-epileptic medicine several times a day for many years to come, was enough to put us to tears! Now of course, we more than anyone wanted to see these come to an end, we just didn’t think medicine would do the trick. We both had that instinct, you know the one that only a parent can have for their child, that this was something different! Well, after over a week in the hospital, her grand-maul seizures were more frequent (30+/day), lasting longer (2-2.5 minutes), and getting harder and harder! It was clear the medicine (that we obviously agreed to give her, at least until they were under control) seemed to be making matters worse. 

 Finally Jeremy and I decided to throw in some of our own ideas. We wondered about a possible food allergy causing the seizures. Gluten was the first to come to mind, with dairy not far behind. So we had a major decision on our hands “should we put Makenna on a GFDF formula to see if they improve” at least until these elements were completely rid of my system!? We had NEVER though anything would pull her away from only getting “mommy’s milk” as quickly as this did, but we felt it was worth a try! We also found out that a possible subluxation in her neck could cause non-stop seizures until fixed. My brother convinced us to try a chiropractor, so after a short (and very subtle) adjustment, we were feeling less anxious, being proactive really helped. Lastly, we caught word of a couple from Columbia City, a pastor and his wife, that had experienced several miraculous events from intense prayer and the laying on of hands. We felt that Yahweh’s gift of healing could definitely apply to our situation. While the couple was visiting, the most amazing thing happened, Makenna started to go into a seizure 2 separate times, both while being held by the pastors wife, but they NEVER PROGRESSED into seizures, instead her little muscles just relaxed in her arms! It was so encouraging, we knew Yahweh was with us! Finally, over the next 24 hrs we saw huge improvement! She went from having 30+ per day to only 8, then the next day just 1! At this point, we were sure our alternative ideas made the difference! We were finally going back to our comfy cozy home after 10 days in the hospital! 

Life at home was much more comfortable! We were still giving her the medicine, and agreed to make monthly appointments to the chiropractor. On top of this, we went on a gluten free dairy free diet so I could start nursing Makenna again! Through this whole experience we discovered that Yahweh has a way of leading us to the answers we seek.


UPDATE: It has been almost a year since Makenna started having seizures and was put on anti-epileptic medicine to stop them. After we got out of the hospital, things were clear for a while. On top of a GFDF diet and some digestive enzymes to break down the lactose naturally occuring in "my milk", we were also giving her medicine every 8 hours, medicine that even the doctors said should not be given to anyone under 2 years old. After a couple months, Makenna had some seizures again, and they continued to happen after that about once every week or two. After much prayer, we decided to take a leap of faith and ween her very carefully off of the medicine. No doctor would back us, so we went to a naturopath for instruction. It was June 10th, my husbands birthday and we were in Fort Wayne for dinner; we had begun the weening process that morning by lowering her dose...when suddenly she went into a seizure :( we were so crushed, and confused! Still, we continued the weening process, believing that it was right for her. THAT was her last seizure! Over 6 months ago! We had decided that if we truly believed that her seizures were caused by a food allergy, that they were only a side effect and not a disease in themselves. She didn't have epilepsy so it wasn't good for her to be on an anti-epileptic drug. We believe now, that her original seizures were from the dairy, and that the seizures she had after months of being out of the hospital were a build up of the medicine she was on. We had learned that an anti-epileptic drug can actually cause seizures to happen when the person is not rightly diagnosed as having had epilepsy. That is our story! Still praying daily that we make the right choices for our daughter and that she remains a healthy little girl!

Bible verse on our hearts: Philippians 4:6

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” (NLT)