LECTURE 17
OF PRACTICES AND LIFESTYLES THAT SHORTEN EXISTENCE AND HOW THEY CAN BE REMEDIED TO PROMOTE SURVIVAL.
For a greater part of the the population, the purest meal they ever get to consume in life is the BREAST MILK they had in infancy. Take that aside, and everything else is poison. Most of the diseases we battle in old age is only a running commentary of the numerous toxins we consume on a daily basis.
The trouble of man begins after he is taken away from the breast and pushed to subsist on the fruits, vegetables and herbs of the earth. This is where our woes actually begin.
In our attempt to enhance on nature's food, we often end up destroying them and rendering them poisonous. What do we do? We barrage them with artificial flavours and preservatives in an overwhelming zeal to crystalize them for the lustful appetite and taste. I mean in our effort to delight the tongue, we toss divine fruits into fire and disfigure their chemistry and nutrients thereby. We also toss delicate vegetables into hydrogenated oils and in the name of deep frying, render them carcinogenic.
And Yes! we also press out the fresh juice of simple fruits, hasten their fermentation with yeast, pump them up with flavours and colours and leave them on counters and shelves as drinks, Liquors and champagnes!
We also pick healthy plant fats and instead of using them in their divine state, we pump them up with hydrogen molecules and refine them into oils bereft of nutrients. That aside, we also take simple and natural plant oils and harden them into butters and margarines just to gratify the appetite.
Notwithstanding that, we also cook our meals in heavy and reactive metals like Aluminium, Copper, Nickel etc and these always end up leaching metals into our food. Metals that end up poisoning and killing the brain or inducing pathological brain disorders.
Talk of the skin too, we destroy it by applying heavy cosmetics and chemicals on it, and they in moving through the tiny pores on its surface, end up in the blood to desecrate the body. For the skin, being the largest organ (both digestive and excretive) of the body, absorbs about 60% of the substances we apply on it. Mysteriously, it does absorb an overwhelming percentage of all the creams and the anti-perspirants and the body splashes and the lotions we apply on it. To prove this assertion, you can apply a ground paste of neem leaves or an aloe vera gel on you face and allow it to dry. In a matter of minutes, you will start feeling and tasting traces of its bitterness down the throat. As to why it is so, I may only repeat these words of the Psalmist; “we are fearfully and wonderfully made: and His works are marvelous.”
Every single stuff we seem to use for our daily survival in this twenty-first century has some sort of poison or chemical in it; including the water we drink. And of course, for those of us living in the urban centres, our tap water seem to be heavily polluted with toxins and heavy metals like lead, chlorine, mercury and etc, which also contributes to the heap of poison we consume on a daily basis. It is sad the extent to which industrialization has brought man. It has taught us to polish and perfume our whole grains. It has driven us to create hybrids for our seeds and to hasten the growth of fruits against the timing of nature.
Friends, this is not the type of industrialization God wants us to have. He obviously wants us to have industries but not industries that kills survival and wipes existence. He wants His Children to have industries that glorifies His Name and not one that aids man to transgress the laws of nature.
Our intuition should tell us that this way of living shortens life and the evidence is so clear; men and women of our time, compared to those of years past, scarcely live to their 40’s and 50’s. They simply poison themselves down to the grave. Truth be told, if the saints of old had so lived, they wouldn’t have had that blessing of physical and mental vigor to engage in the warfare against Satan. If they have so lived, they wouldn’t have gained the physical endurance to cross rivers and oceans and climb mountains to preach The Resurrected Christ. For they in perfecting their health, did also perfect their labor.
The Heavens have always wished that men stay in health. God has always wanted His servants to be in perfect health for His service. He takes strong delight in men of great health and vitality. Such are the vessels He reckons sanctified, fit and meet for his ultimate use. But usually, we the saints of nobler times disappoint God with our frail bodies. Moreover, we fail Him in our service and duty to Him by way of transgressing our bodies with toxic diets and lifestyle. Lifestyles with which our senses are dulled and weakened to even endure the slightest watch with the Blessed Saviour.
The testimony the Heavens bear concerning the greater majority of the church militant is none other than this – “their spirit indeed is willing, but their flesh is weak.” Which is to say, “the Spirit of God works actively in us to service but our ‘frail’ bodies wouldn’t move with the same zeal.” And indeed, when the heavens so expect to see us travailing in duty, it finds us asleep. Wherefore Jesus bemoan in anguish, “Friends, could ye not watch with me one hour?” But how can we gain the vitality to watch, if we keep transgressing the laws of health? How do we expect to climb mountains and cross oceans to evangelize, if we by way of toxic diet and lifestyle have rendered the kidneys and colon diseased, and can hardly stand for an hour?
We may firmly say of current evangelicals and saintlings that they carry no less anointing as compared to the saints of old. But our problem has always been the body. We carry bigger anointings but with ‘feeble’ and ‘diseased’ bodies. We are men of power, but little vitality. And it is so because we feed on junks and poisons. We will faithfully defile ourselves with the portion of the “King’s meat and wine.” Wherefore is our labor not anyway to be compared to the saints of century past who in vitality and vigor finished the race.
Friends, with our toxic dietary and lifestyle habits, we should obviously expect life to end sooner than it should. We feast on poisons with relish and then push them to settle on poor and delicate organs within the body (with the stomach being always first to suffer of the abuse). This is wickedness beyond all wickedness. Should we, for example, toss heaps of oil-stained clothes to a tender kid to wash, it would surely wear off her hands! The neighbors would even pity her from afar and lament our callousness. Even so, it is wickedness on our part to leave heavy toxins at the mercy of small organs. Well, the end result is what we see in the hospitals - kidney stones, diabetes, fatty liver, Alzheimer, hypertension, stroke, prostate cancer, scrofula, lung cancer, ulcers, cardiac arrest just to mention a few.
We develop fierce symptoms and we become so miserable. But instead of removing the cause and trusting nature to repair the damage the poor body suffers, we throw our frail substance into the hands of physicians. And they as usual, faithfully suppress the symptoms and poison the body even harder with their medicines. At the last, life is exterminated and the poor victim again is hurled to the grave. Oh life poisoned to the core, what a tragic price to pay at last!
Friends, by engaging in these corrupt ways of living, how do we expect to keep the body in perfect health to comprehend heavenly things? With this way of leaving, how do we expect to keep our senses active to engage in the warefare against Satan?
It saddens me that most of our deaths are store-bought or rather say factory made. How I wish men will be reasonable enough to go back to nature and to delight themselves in natural living and simple meals. For most food products and beverages packaged there on store shelves are poisonous and they injure man in the long run. They are full of toxic additives and preservatives and they who gloriously partake of such delicacies poison themselves beyond repair.
I will conclude on this lecture by advising men who wish to live and be hailed conquerous over appetite in the name of Him who conquered ALL on their behalf.
To such men and women, I will first advise that they learn to subsist exclusively on a WHOLE FOOD PLANT BASED DIET and LIVE OR RAW FOODS partaking in no processed food or drink, processed grain, flesh and dairy whatsoever. This is not to project veganism or any -ism whatsoever. My stance on this is an objective one; one that I call common sense . . . one that is in perfect alignment with the laws of health. My stance on this choice of diet is simply one that promotes survival and existence; and one that keeps the body and mind active and healthy to fulfill the great commission.
I, for one, choose what I eat by common sense and not by sheepishly following the projections of science or the testimonies of dieticians. I deem it so cruel and dangerous to make others think for me all the time. For the majority of dieticians and nutrionist, like Eve, do occasionally push us to transgress the laws of health. They, like Eve, occasionally show us certain ‘forbidden delicacies’ and project them to be very loaded in certain minerals and vitamins and how that they are favourable to vitality. And of course the majority of men, like Adam, jump to feast on them, totally ignoring the voice of reason and the voice of health. This is the broad way of living and it surely does lead to death. For even Adam in allowing Eve reason on his behalf, did transgress the first law of God.
There has always been a price to pay for totally relegating reasoning abilities unto others. And this is so evident as to why the majority of creation “groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” They so ‘groaneth’ because they wouldn’t put their minds to use or analyze things for themselves in the laws of God. They just follow the broad way and then die in the end.
So to the very few who wish to live and declare the works of God, I only advise that you to choose your diet carefully, paying earnest heed to the laws of your being, the laws of vitality and the laws of nature.
For so did Daniel and the three Hebrew men who were in confinement at the Kings palace in Babylon. Inasmuch as their native Hebrew cuisine, did include liberal delicacies like flesh and dairy, they did abandon their daily supply of the kings meat and wine and confined themselves to the eating of pulse (vegetables and fruits) only. Their decision I guess wasn’t one of a revelation or a divine restriction. It was one they only took to preserve their bodies in vitality. For it said that “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank” (Dan. 1:8). He wouldn’t desecrate his body with the royal junk. And ten days were enough to prove his decision and that of the three for “their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.” These were men who later interpreted dreams to kings and walked in the midst of furnace. Yours truly, men who conquer appetite will interpret dreams to kings. And they who shut their own mouth will shut the mouth of lions.
So friends, if you would live, you ought to choose your diet carefully. I, for one, subsist solely on plant foods. I mean simple and fresh whole plant foods; foods that come in their natural form or very close to how they come from nature using no flesh or dairy whatsover. That aside, I also use no salt, no oil and no refined sugars since I get them directly from plants and in their whole form. Some do attribute names to this kind of conscious eating; they call it veganism, but I call it common sense. I call it health friendly and I choose to eat this way solely for the vitality I seek to derive to declare the goodness of God. Though people, by referring to my youthfulness, have wondered why I eat this way, I only tell them that I do it for the love of God and for the love of His Service. Because it is only when I am healthful, that I can be helpful to the course of the Gospel.
My second advise to men and women who wish to live is that they cook their foods consciously and in the simplest form possible, always giving priority to what is healthful over what delights the taste. Trust me, the healthiest meals are the easiest to cook and prepare. They are the ones that do not stay longer on fire. Apart from grains, tubers, and some legumes which ought to be cooked until soft, vegetables should be cooked consciously. This is because they are very delicate. Once you cook them beyond certain temperatures, you robb them of all their nutrients and kill them entirely. And once killed, how do you expect them to nourish living bodies? This is the voice of common sense calling and we do not have to pay food experts to teach us that. Do we?
So to those of you who wish to preserve vitality, it will be expedient that you eat more of raw edible vegetables and fruits rather than cooked. But should you prefer them cooked, make sure you cook them consciously. It is for the sake of conscious cooking that I, for one, task myself to make my own meals. This is a responsibility I always task myself with. The majority of people, for example, stew their vegetables on fire for about 15-20 min but I stew mine for barely 3 minutes on low heat. And the reason is to keep the enzymes and nutrients intact even though I usually love to have them raw. I call it conscious cooking and it does keep meals clean and nutrients intact. It is for the sake of conscious cooking that I am my own chef and I will forever remain my own chef. If I will eat that meal, then I will have to make it myself except it be simple fruits or vegetable .
Finally, for those of you who wish to preserve vitality, I advise that you;
Friends, if we will do our part to stay in health, the Lord will fulfil His own part of the deal by keeping us in vitality.
“Many have expected that God will keep them from sickness”, says Ellen White, “merely because they have asked Him to do so. But God did not regard their prayers, becase their faith was not made perfect by works. God will not work a miracle to keep those from sickness who have no care for themselves, but are continually violating the laws of health, and make no efforts to prevent disease.”
She continues to say, “When we do all we can on our part to have health, then we may expect that the blessed result will follow, and we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts for the preservation of health. He will surely answer our prayer if His name will be glorified thereby. But let all understand that they have a work to do. God will not work in a miraculous manner to preserve the health of persons who are taking a sure course to make themselves sick by their inattentiveness to the laws of health.”
WE SCATTER SEEDS WITH CARELESS HAND,
By John Keble
We scatter seeds with careless hand,
And dream we ne'er shall see them more:
But for a thousand years
Their fruit appears,
In weeds that mar the land,
Or healthful store.
The deeds we do, the words we say,--
Into still air they seem to fleet,
We count them ever past;
But they shall last,
In the dread judgment they
And we shall meet!
--I charge thee by the years gone by,
For the love's sake of brethren dear,
Keep thou the one true way
In work and play,
Lest in that world their cry
Of woe thou hear!