Rolling Hills Seventh-Day Adventist

Don’t sentimentalize love. It’s first a covenant, a commitment, an actionnot a fluffy emotion that can come and go. We can’t always control our emotions, but we can control our actions and the way we react to our emotions. Choose love.

Somebody said to me today, We don’t need doctrine & theology, all we need is Jesus. I said, What do you think Jesus is full of? Air? Cotton candy? No, He’s full of rich and beautiful and powerful doctrine and theology. He’s not an empty silhouette. Jesus is full of substance.

There are a number of beneficial reasons as to why we should be loading our plates up with vegetables. One of them simply being that vegetables contain both fib...er and phytonutrients (the nutrients that are known to give plants their pigment and act like an antioxidant in the body). In addition to aiming to fill half our plates with vegetables, we should also strive to include a variety of vegetables throughout the week. Dietary diversity is important because each plant family has a unique combination of phytonutrients that may bind to specific proteins within our body. The video "Specific Receptors for Specific Fruits & Vegetables" dives more into that: http://bit.ly/2Lkxd5e Dark-green, leafy vegetables are the healthiest foods on the planet, which is why they have their own category on Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen. As whole foods go, they offer the most nutrition per calorie. Of all the food groups analyzed by a team of Harvard University researchers, greens turned out to be associated with the strongest protection against major chronic diseases, including up to about a 20 percent reduction in risk for both heart attacks and strokes for every additional daily serving (https://bit.ly/3khLMYM). A more plant-based diet, in general, may help prevent, treat, or reverse some of our leading causes of death, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure, and may improve not only body weight, blood sugar levels, and ability to control cholesterol, but also our emotional states, including depression, anxiety, fatigue, sense of well-being, and daily functioning (https://bit.ly/3khLMYM). So next time you prepare a meal, think about all the ways you could include more veggies in it. Add zucchini, greens, tomatoes, and broccoli to a pasta dish. Load up a bean burrito or burrito bowl with greens, tomatoes, purple cabbage, corn, peppers, and onions. Adding more veggies to your meals not only adds a nutritional punch, but it makes your dishes more colorful too.

"Sunlight. This is one of nature's most healing agents." Healthful Living p229 It's increasingly clear to me that we've missed the boat on eradication of Covid...-19 and we are just going to have to deal with it becoming endemic. Because my job consists of people coughing in my face all day, I figure that being exposed is an eventuality for me and just a matter of when not if. That being the case, I'm doing everything I can to mitigate my risk of having severe disease. A few things are pretty clear from the data we have collected thus far about the disease. 1. Overall risk of death is pretty low (most likely less than 1%) and the vast majority of infected have mild disease. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01738-2 https://www.who.int//de/estimating-mortality-from-covid-19 2. Several factors predispose to worse outcomes: advanced age, male gender, obesity, vitamin D deficiency, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, pulmonary disease and some others. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7263798/ 3. Severe disease seems to be the result of severe inflammation secondary to an overdriven immune system. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7194613/ One of the more interesting things I've noticed is the relationship between Vitamin D deficiency and disease severity in covid 19. Mechanistically, this makes sense because Vitamin D is important in immune system regulation and thrombosis which are two important system in the pathogenesis of covid 19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6920963 https://www.medrxiv.org/conte/10.1101/2020.04.08.20058578v4 And there is a long history of data to state that Vitamin D is protective against respiratory infections. https://www.medrxiv.org/conte/10.1101/2020.07.14.20152728v1 Several epidemiological studies have shown a strong association between Vitamin D deficiency and disease severity https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/5/1359/htm https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-020-01570-8 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cen.14276 So while the data is not watertight, given that Vitamin D is already known to be an important nutrient, and the risk profile is very low, increasing vitamin D levels seems to be a good strategy. The Endocrine Society agrees and states that the best way to get vitamin D is with 15-30 minutes of direct sun exposure daily. https://www.endocrine.org//2020/joint-guidance-on-vitamin-d Vitamin D is not a vitamin in the traditional sense in that usually when we say vitamin, we mean an essential nutrient that we need to eat. Vitamin D is something we can make. In fact, we "photosynthesize" vitamin D. This is the one area that we are like plants! 7dehydrocholesterol, which is the penultimate molecule in cholesterol synthesis, turns into cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) when exposed to UV radiation at 290 to 300nm (present in sunlight). There is more than enough 7-dehydrocholesterol to supply vitamin D needs for everyone in their skin and if we never ate any vitamin D, we could all make plenty if given enough sunlight. So vitamin D is a vitamin that we have absolutely no dietary requirement for. Many studies have shown that nutritional supplementation is not as good as getting the nutrient naturally. https://www.acpjournals.org//0003-4819-159-12-201312170-00 https://www.acpjournals.org//0003-4819-159-12-201312170-00 https://www.acpjournals.org//0003-4819-159-12-201312170-00 So basically, I make sure I get plenty of Vitamin D by spending about 1 hour every day outside in the sun while I commute to work by bike. 15-30 minutes daily is the recommended amount of sunlight but people should vary that time based on their geographic location and skin color. Darker skinned people need more sunlight. People living at higher latitudes need more sunlight. Another interesting point is that sunlight inactivates SARS-CoV2 within 7 minutes of exposure so basically you can sterilize your exterior as well as get vitamin D. https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/222/2/214/5841129 "Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun." Ecc 11:7

Tomorrow our young people will be leading our worship service. Join us tomorrow on Zoom to worship with us and encourage the youth in their ministry!

Our instinct tells us to cover up or hide our sins. Sometimes, we even think we can hide from God. But the way to receive His mercy is to confess and repent.

Can air quality impact your chances of combatting COVID-19? Join Dr. Lela Lewis and special guests, Dr. Steve Lee, Dr. Zeno Charles-Marcel, Dr. Anil Kumar Chill...imuntha, and Dr. Carlton Byrd, tonight, July 12, at 5 p.m. Pacific 8 p.m. Eastern, for episode 6 of Level Up. Tonight, we will discuss if air quality makes a difference in catching and recovering from COVID-19 and how this impacts oxidative stress? We will also explore how some hospitals in India are using fresh air to combat the virus? Join us live this evening here on our Facebook page as we bring straight answers from medical experts.

We must learn how to extend mercy to others as God continuously shows mercy to us.

"We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history." How has God led us in the past? Refresh your memory on our Adventist movement by listening to this engaging series on Adventist History, by the Adventist History Podcast (you can find this in podcast as well as Youtube below). Gather the family to listen and enjoy the story!

A brand new online Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists is the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s first online reference work. The Encyclopedia currently contains... over 2,100 articles on Adventist history, crucial events and themes, organizations, entities, institutions, and people, over 3,500 photographs, and a growing collection of videos. Hundreds of new articles and photographs will be added to the encyclopedia in the upcoming weeks and months, with thousands being added in the following months and years. The Encyclopedia draws on the expertise of hundreds of authors and editors worldwide, from many cultures and ethnicities. It is a great tool, not only for those seeking to learn more about the Adventist Church but also for those looking to witness to others. Discover the encyclopedia for yourself at encyclopedia.adventist.org

Don’t get the two mixed up.

Christianity is not dying in the West for want of sufficient apologetic argument, but for want of sufficient demonstrative love.

You are loved. Always. Period.