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	<title>Partakers.Net &#187; beakennedy</title>
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	<link>http://partakers.net</link>
	<description>Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus</description>
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		<title>Disobeying Doctor&#8217;s Orders &#8211; The 2-Year Followup</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2012/03/disobeying-doctors-orders-the-2-year-followup/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2012/03/disobeying-doctors-orders-the-2-year-followup/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:55:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1575</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s a sad situation when we have to ignore our doctors’ advice in order to stay healthy. (Tom Naughton) Two years ago, I decided to chuck the advice of my then doctor, and go back on the low-carb diet I had been on for most of my 10 years as a diabetic, except for those 2 years between 2007 and 2009 when I apparently forgot I had diabetes. (Not really &#8211; I just started eating like I had been before the diagnosis.)  At that time, my hemoglobin A1c was 11.5 (it had been 9.1 when I was diagnosed in 2002), triglycerides 590, blood pressure 160/100, and weight nearly 200 pounds. In late 2010, the A1c had dropped to 7.2 (still above ADA goals, but better than 11.5), triglycerides to 118, blood pressure to 130/80,  weight to 175.  Three months later, with a hemoglobin A1c of 5.2, my doctor&#8217;s assessment was, &#8220;It&#8217;s like you don&#8217;t even have the disease.&#8221; Now, as of March 2012, my last 3 A1c tests have been 5.2, 5.5, and 5.8 (well below ADA guidelines), triglycerides still in the low 100s, blood pressure still 130/80, and weight down to 160.  Doctor&#8217;s words this time:  &#8220;You&#8217;re the picture of health!&#8221;  I&#8217;m glad she thinks so, but my guess is she would frown disapprovingly if she knew too many of the specifics of my diet, especially my liberal use of eggs and saturated fats, and my complete lack of &#8220;healthy whole grains.&#8221; Got a call from the doctor&#8217;s office....]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Hero Worship Part II</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/06/hero-worship-part-ii/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/06/hero-worship-part-ii/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:31:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1530</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ten days ago, I wrote about Hero Worship.  In the process of writing that post, I linked to Michael Card&#8217;s web site.  When I arrived there to get the correct url to link to, I found that he was coming to Ohio with a conference called Biblical Imagination Series.  A little whisper in my mind said, &#8220;go there.&#8221;  So I went. Beginning Friday night, the next 26 hours were quite a journey through Luke &#8211; the Gospel of Amazement -  as we all learned a little bit about how to engage with the Scriptures in a way that is both biblical and that bridges the gap between heart and mind.  One thing I discovered in the process is how that bridge has been made in my life &#8211; it is the visual picture that is formed in response to either the words of scripture, or more often when the right question is asked about the scriptures.  If I don&#8217;t have a picture, I don&#8217;t really understand in my heart.  I also realized how powerful these pictures are &#8211; not just for me, but for those I share them with.  This is something I&#8217;ve been hearing for years &#8211; every time I hear Mark Gostlin teach on Word Pictures. (I&#8217;m starting to think I&#8217;m the slowest student on the planet since I have to keep retaking the class!)  In fact, a lot of the scriptural pictures I have that bridge the gap between my head and my heart came out of....]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://partakers.net/2011/06/hero-worship-part-ii/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>A Happy Father&#8217;s Day</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/06/a-happy-fathers-day/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/06/a-happy-fathers-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:42:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1509</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[First up &#8211; a little baseball Last stop &#8211; a trip to the flying club with a couple of planes. Haven&#8217;t seen George for a long time. Then some flying between the raindrops This is what happens when you fly upside down a little too low Not to worry &#8211; preflight check for the little biplane No more dodging raindrops Raindrops on one of our trees Hope you all had a wonderful Father&#8217;s Day.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Finishing Well</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/06/finishing-well/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/06/finishing-well/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:17:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1503</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the questions from this week&#8217;s Bible study asks: Who do you respect and admire as someone who &#8220;finished well&#8221;?  What is it about their life that you respect the most? Without question, the first person who comes to mind is my Aunt Mimi.  On a long drive from Atlanta, Georgia, to Independence, Missouri, when I was 14, she and I had a lot of time to just talk.  Right at that critical time when I was already rebelling against God and was starting to bring some very destructive things into my life, she told me that God had a plan for my life.  I had forgotten about that until I saw her last January take the face of one of the next generation and hold it in her hands right in front of her own and tell him the same thing &#8211; &#8220;God has a plan for your life.&#8221;  How many other kids that she adopted as her own did she encourage that way? Lots, I&#8217;m sure. Last January when she was still recovering from a broken pelvis, my sister and I had the opportunity to spend some time with her.  While she was still in quite a bit of pain, the thing that bothered her the most was not being about to participate in her Bible Study Fellowship group.  She was determined to get back on her feet and serving the Lord as quickly as she could (and she did).  She didn&#8217;t like being sidelined one little....]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Hero Worship</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/06/hero-worship/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/06/hero-worship/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jun 2011 05:07:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1481</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the ladies&#8217; Bible study tonight, the question was asked, &#8220;How do you define success?&#8221;  There were a lot of answers &#8211; no right or wrong on that one.  I said that my definition of success is to be like Christ, and I&#8217;m a miserable failure.  To my mind, if I were actually like Christ, I would have arrived.  There&#8217;s nothing more I could hope to achieve.  Not going to happen in this life, but it&#8217;s actually not an entirely hopeless ambition as John states in his first letter: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2) There is coming a day when I will have my desire, and maybe along the way, I can have it in small measure. I&#8217;ve been thinking all evening about what it actually means to be like Christ, and a number of things are coming to mind: He was filled with the Holy Spirit without measure. He was truly humble. He always did the Father&#8217;s will, always said what the Father told him to say.  He was obedient to the point of death. He willingly served those who should have served him, those who never thanked him, and even those who hated him and betrayed him. He loved without reservation, without self-interest, and sacrificed everything for those he loved. He....]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>A House of Prayer</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/05/a-house-of-prayer/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/05/a-house-of-prayer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2011 05:17:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1472</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When my husband and I came back from Marion to live in our own house again, I was pretty sure that rather than slip back into the comfort of my old church, I was now supposed to get to know some of the people and churches closer to home.  During our previous years in this house it had occurred to me more than once that if I was ever talking to one of my neighbors about Christ, I had absolutely no idea if there were any churches nearby that I could recommend to them if they didn&#8217;t want to travel 15 miles to go to church with me.  Suffice it to say that I now know there are at least 2 Gospel preaching churches in my own little one-stop-light town. But on a similar note to my post in 2009 about looking for a church in Marion, I think I&#8217;ve found the place where God is going to park me for a while, and for a lot of the same reasons that I was attracted to my church in Marion.  The overwhelming impression after barely a couple of months there is that this is a house of prayer.  That&#8217;s because every time I turn around these people are praying for each other.  Both my first pastor and my pastor in Marion would also gather the church around individuals to pray for specific ministries or needs.  In fact, the church in Marion sent me out with just such a prayer when....]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://partakers.net/2011/05/a-house-of-prayer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Skeptics and True Believers</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/05/skeptics-and-true-believers/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/05/skeptics-and-true-believers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2011 02:53:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1432</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My friend and pastor, Ryan Strother, posted an article on his blog this week that got me thinking.  At this point, atheism is still the largest segment of my life &#8211; 20 years more or less.  Christ stopped me in my tracks in December 1997, and I fully committed my life to him in January 1999.  During that 13 months, He very patiently destroyed every argument I had raised against Him.  Twelve years later, I can still clearly recall the whole logical structure that under-girds atheist thought and describe it for my Christian friends who find atheists a bit mystifying.  I can still describe exactly how an atheist thinks about deities of any sort and the people who believe in them.  But I can no longer believe those things myself.  It&#8217;s like the old dot-matrix pictures people used to make.  Close up, it just looks like a jumble of dots, but once you gain the right perspective and see the pattern, you can never again unsee it no matter where you view the picture from.  I can recall a world without God, but I&#8217;ve seen Him now, and I can&#8217;t unsee Him, even if I wanted to try. On the other hand, I didn&#8217;t lose the skeptical stance when I became a Christian.  The reality of Christ and the Truth of what God has said in the Scriptures are as solid as bedrock to me, but beyond that, I have no sacred cows.  Sacred cows are meant to be barbequed,....]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://partakers.net/2011/05/skeptics-and-true-believers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Disobeying Doctor&#8217;s Orders &#8211; Update</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/03/disobeying-doctors-orders-update/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/03/disobeying-doctors-orders-update/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:07:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1424</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A little over a year ago, I made the decision to chuck the advice my doctor at the time was giving me (the standard advice given to all diabetics &#8211; 60 grams of carbohydrates per meal) and do what had worked so well for me in the past &#8211; a low-carbohydrate diet. It took all of two days for my blood sugar to come down below 200 and stay there. Since then, both my hemoglobin A1c, my blood pressure, and my lipid panel have all normalized nicely. My last A1c was so good (5.3) that my current doctor exclaimed, &#8220;It&#8217;s like you don&#8217;t even have the disease!&#8221; Yep! And that&#8217;s the way we&#8217;re going to keep it. No more thinking I can eat carbohydrates just like anyone else, or even like a diabetes educator would tell me to do. Nope. I&#8217;ve found out that throwing drugs at the symptoms (high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high triglycerides) leads to a lot of frustration and worsening of all three problems. Instead, by making one serious lifestyle change &#8211; removing as many carbohydrates as possible from my diet &#8211; I&#8217;ve actually normalized all three problems. It makes me wonder what kind of medical system we have that is so focused on treating symptoms rather than addressing the underlying causes of disease. There&#8217;s a reason I&#8217;ve gotten so drastically serious about eliminating the carbs from my life. My parents and I were talking recently. They also have diabetes. I asked them when they....]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://partakers.net/2011/03/disobeying-doctors-orders-update/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The importance of timing</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/03/the-importance-of-timing/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/03/the-importance-of-timing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:39:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Photography]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1412</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last fall, my friends Jean and Bob and I decided to go waterfall hunting. We only made it to two before the sun got too low in the sky, but it was a beautiful fall day, and we had a great time. I&#8217;ve been so busy trying to get things in order to officially open up shop that I haven&#8217;t had much time to look at the images that were made that day. Just a couple of quick glances at a few that immediately stood out either at the time I clicked the shutter or later in breezing through them in Lightroom. One image in particular that stood out when I clicked the shutter was made as I walked across a bridge at the top of the first waterfall. As I zig zagged from one side to the other, first capturing little pools of water in the afternoon sun, then the gathering swirls of water preparing to plunge down the hillside, I looked up and saw the perfect combination of afternoon sun skimming across gold and yellow tree tops, and a very ominous looking storm cloud that hadn&#8217;t been there the last time I looked that direction. I immediately went over to that side of the bridge and took my shots, then continued on to catch up with Bob and Jean who were pretty far ahead of me at this point. Just when I caught up to them on the other side of the falls, the storm cloud dumped its....]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://partakers.net/2011/03/the-importance-of-timing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Random Snapshot No. 541 and 542</title>
		<link>http://partakers.net/2011/01/random-snapshot-no-541-and-542/</link>
		<comments>http://partakers.net/2011/01/random-snapshot-no-541-and-542/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:33:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>beakennedy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Random Musings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://partakers.net/?p=1405</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Birds have eyelashes I never realized that before we got Spunkmeyer. Sometimes I can see them in pictures of birds, but most times not. Not only do they have eyelashes, but they like them to be very gently rubbed, or at least Spunkmeyer will tilt his head right over upside down and backwards in order to put his eyelashes right by the finger you&#8217;ve been stroking his neck with. Don&#8217;t know if birds can show emotional expressions or not, but if they can, then Spunkmeyer is in pure ecstasy when he&#8217;s having his little eyelids rubbed. Why do I go to church? Riding to church this morning, and a really neat song by Keith and Kristen Getty came on the radio &#8211; See What a Morning. The last words of each stanza are &#8220;For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!&#8221; I thought, &#8220;That&#8217;s why I go to church.&#8221; I suppose there are all kinds of reasons that going to church might be a more or less pleasant experience (I tend to like it), but that&#8217;s the &#8220;why do I do this&#8221; answer and the only one that really matters. However, it is my goal to someday belong to a church where THIS song is sung: Speak O Lord Speak, O Lord, as we come to You To receive the food of Your Holy Word. Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; Shape and fashion us in Your likeness, That the light of Christ might be seen today....]]></description>
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