John Thiel, The Sanctuary Series, study 13, mp3

We are living in the Day of Atonement, in which an investigative judgment is taking place, and the life and death seriousness of that investigative judgment calls for a serious self-examination as it did in the typical Day of Atonement. They were called upon to fast, to examine themselves, to make sure that there was no sin left in their life. That was the symbolic picture for us living since 1844. Now we are called upon to fast and to examine our lives to make sure that for eternity our sins have all been confessed and we have put away our sins not only in confession but also in living reality. Therefore we need to examine ourselves.

In this self-examination the true fast was the health message. We have looked at the health reform as being that fast from Isaiah 22, when God told them not to eat flesh or drink wine. Daniel, when he fasted (Daniel 10), did so for three whole weeks and did not eat any flesh, drink any wine or eat any bread of desires. The subject of the health reform is the putting away of those things that are harmful and eating healthily the things that are good for us. The third angel’s message is actually connected with the health reform, and the third angel is the one that opened to view in the mind of the disappointed ones the sanctuary, and the sanctuary has to do with the health message, as we can see it with the day of fasting and with the manna in the ark.

The angel pointed the disappointed ones to Jesus in the most holy place, and as they discovered him there the subject of the sanctuary and that great system of truth was opened to them. We are now launching out into that great system of truth, the first of that being the duty of the fasting of the health reform. The health reform is the right arm of the third angel’s message:

The health reform, I was shown, is a part of the third angel’s message, and is just as closely connected with it as are the arm and hand with the human body. I saw that we as a people must make an advance move in this great work. Ministers and people must act in concert. God’s people are not prepared for the loud cry of the third angel. They have a work to do for themselves which they should not leave for God to do for them. He has left this work for them to do. It is an individual work; one cannot do it for another. {CD 32.2}

Indeed, the health reform is what you do with your health, and nobody else can do it for you. No one can eat for another person. We have the principles of God’s word that we must understand in the health reform message. The loud cry of the third angel involves the embracing of the health reform message. It is connected to the third angel’s message as the arm to the body but it must never be above the third angel’s message. The third angel’s message is the body of the message and the health reform is the arm of that message.

You have stumbled at the health reform. It appears to you to be a needless appendix to the truth.  {1T 546.1}

An appendage, why should it be there? Is the arm necessary?

It is not so; it is a part of the truth.  {Ibid.}

It is a part of the truth.

Its place is among those subjects which set forth the preparatory work to meet the events brought to view by the message; among these it is prominent. {1T 559.2}

The health reform is prominent among the preparatory work to meet the events brought to view in the message of the third angel.

The presentation of health principles must be united with this message, but must not in any case be independent of it, or in any way take the place of it.  {CM 138.1}

The health reform message is not to take the place of the third angel’s message. We will now delve on this important point so that we understand the true principles of the health reform as the right arm of the third angel’s message, but not the third angel’s message itself. It is not to be presented independent of the third angel’s message. It is to have its place but not to be the message itself. We want to understand the third angel’s message, the message of salvation for the last days as it is portrayed and as we studied it in the sanctuary studies and in the three angels’ message studies. The health reform was only a very small part of it. As we study it now we want to understand its connection in a correct approach.

Life More Abundantly

Jesus Himself, in John 10:10, reiterates what He said before in Matthew 4:4, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We are to live out of every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth, and Jesus who is that Word, says:

John 10:10 … I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Is the health reform that which is going to be the abundant health? It says no, I, Jesus. We really want to think about this, because, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Jesus is that way. The health reform is an item in the sanctuary message. It is an item that is connected with Jesus. Jesus is the One who comes to bring us life. Let us really understand this. Where does our health come from?

Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Where is our healing coming from? It comes from Jesus. He is the One who is the health of our countenance. This is where we must focus our attention.

Psalms 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

What does He do? Who heals all our diseases? He does.

Psalms 103:4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

According to that scripture, where do we get our healing from our diseases from? From Christ. They are His benefits. This is very important, as in my own experience I was in health reform and I became ill, my heart played up at the age of forty, yet I was on health reform. To deal with my condition the Lord gave me promise and said, I am going to restore you. I had to depend on Him, while I did certain things, but I was puzzled, why was my heart playing up when I was on health reform? It had to be He that could actually help me as I called upon Him. As we go through this study, I would like us to notice where the health reform comes in in the light of where our health comes from.

Romans 8:10 And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

You’ve got a mortal body. It is mortified by sin. No matter what you do with your diet, your body is still decaying. Where do we receive the healing from, according to that scripture? It says, the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead, if He dwells in you He will also quicken your mortal bodies. The Holy Spirit is the One who can do the recreation of decaying bodies. This is where we must focus our understanding in reference to our health. It must be on the life-giving energies that come from God.

In relation to health, your individual relationship with God is the foremost thing to consider. Here we see the way that Jesus healed people who were sick and He actually acted upon them:

It required nothing less than creative power to restore health to that decaying body. {MH 77.2}

This was when the paralytic was let down from the roof.

The same voice that spoke life to man created from the dust of the earth, had spoken life to the dying paralytic. And the same power that gave life to the body had renewed the heart. He who at creation “spake, and it was,” who “commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9), had spoken life to the soul dead in trespasses and sins. The healing of the body was an evidence of the power that had renewed the heart. Christ bade the paralytic arise and walk, “that ye may know,” He said, “that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.”  {Ibid.}

To be healed from all of our diseases is to be redeemed from all of our sins. The woman that had the issue of blood is now mentioned here:

True faith is that which receives Christ as a personal Saviour. God gave His only-begotten Son, that I, by believing in Him, “should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. When I come to Christ, according to His word, I am to believe that I receive His saving grace. The life that I now live, I am to “live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.  {MH 62.1}

There is a heavy overburden on this subject in reference to believing in His saving, healing grace. That was how the woman that touched the hem of his garment actually found her healing.

Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction, by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which, through the grace of Christ, the soul becomes a conquering power.  {MH 62.2}

Faith is a mightier conqueror than death. If the sick can be led to fix their eyes in faith upon the Mighty Healer, we shall see wonderful results. It will bring life to the body and to the soul.  {MH 62.3}

The focus point is Jesus. He will rise with healing in His wings. We have to realise this fact that if we look at health reform to be the avenue by which we are going to be healed, our common sense will tell us that anything you eat in this world in today’s polluted atmosphere is polluted by some kind of fall out or another. Cancer and disease producing agents are bread through the air. You cannot benefit in anything in this world by simply depending upon food, fresh air. Can you really breathe unpolluted fresh air today? The whole globe is surrounded by polluted air. You can’t depend on the eight laws of health. Everything is polluted. The only principle by which we are going to be healthy is by what we contemplate here – where the health principles fit in relation to Jesus Christ. The very first thing that has to happen for us to gain health is the impact upon our mind of the gift of Jesus Christ. We need to accept the life-giving gift as the woman accepted it and came and touched His garment, and she received healing.

In the light of that, the title of our study is “My life and health principles”. Where do health principles fit into my life for Jesus? That is the connecting link that we want to consider here. The health principles that I need to understand in the fasting is the health reform, and yet it is not to be regarded as THE message but as a portion of the message. The message itself is Christ and His righteousness and all that pertains to the three angels’ messages.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

To be in Christ, to accept Jesus as your personal Saviour, we see here that there is a renewal, old things are passed away, and how many things are become new? All. What is involved in that renewal?

A Sound Mind

Here is the renewal:

Colossians 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

The renewal of all things becoming new is the very thing that was studied in the sanctuary message, in the forehead, it is renewed. The throne of God is placed in the forehead. Now in Christ Jesus all things have become new. The very throne room of our body has been renewed. That is where the beginning of the renewing process takes place, in the very mind. This new life that commences is in that mind that is now to govern the whole being.

The following scripture comes right into focus and will help us to understand how that renewal affects my health. We are renewed in our mind, in knowledge.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

The new mind that has been given to me is a sound mind and it is no longer affected by fear. What does fear create? Disease. To remove the source of disease is the first activity in saving us from disease, so that my mind is now absolutely transported into the life-giving streams of God’s power mind. The mind is free from fear, from stress that creates disease. More than that, the Lord arises with healing in His wings. From the mind, from the throne room of the forehead, there can be flowing the healing rays of God throughout our body. With that sound mind you can then make beginnings in the health subjects. As you think about it, if you rely on health reform without a sound mind, what will health reform do to you? You will become unbalanced. The sound mind is needed to correctly apply the health reform. It will not help us in regards to our health if my mind isn’t balanced. Notice what E. G. White writes in reference to this:

At meal-time cast off care and taxing thought. Do not be hurried, but eat slowly and with cheerfulness, your heart filled with gratitude to God for all His blessings. And do not engage in brain labor immediately after a meal. {GW 241.4}

There is something about your mind affecting the food that you eat. When we sit down at meal-time, we must not permit our mind to be taxed. If your mind is not sound and resting in the precious knowledge of God’s rulership within, what will you be thinking about while you are eating?

The less the attention is called to the stomach after a meal, the better. If you are in constant fear that your food will hurt you, it most assuredly will. Forget self, and think of something cheerful.  {2T 530.1}

Here is where health reformers become sick. Because if they are eating something and they are in mind concerned that what they are eating might do them harm, they will most definitely be suffering under it. That is why there are numerous statements in the Spirit of prophecy that tell us we are not to think about the food we are eating while we eat. We are just to partake of it with gratitude and enjoy it. The intellect, that sound mind, is to be used to take away the very concern of what the food might do to me. In the following scripture we see that we are to relieve our mind concerns in the Lord Jesus Christ

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: [and] again I say, Rejoice. 5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord [is] at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing;

What does that mean? Don’t worry about anything.

Philippians 4:6 … but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The peace of God will keep my mind. The beautiful appreciation that I can rest in Him will affect me.

Man is to cooperate with God, employing every power according to his God-given ability. He is not to be ignorant as to what are right practices in eating and drinking, and in all the habits of life. The Lord designs that His human agents shall act as rational, accountable beings in every respect. {1SM 380.3} 

With this sound mind I am now to learn from God what He instructs me in reference to eating and drinking, not for me to think about my food, but for me to think of God and of what He instructs me to do. We are to be rational, accountable beings in every respect in the right practices in eating and drinking, and in all the habits of life.

We cannot afford to neglect one ray of light God has given. To be sluggish in our practice of those things which require diligence is to commit sin. The human agent is to cooperate with God, and keep under those passions which should be in subjection.  {1SM 380.4}

Can you see that our healing comes from God? Our sound mind comes through the reception of the beauty of Christ. Fear is removed and I am renewed in my thinking, and I become rational in respect to cooperating with God and following His instructions. As we highlighted in our previous study, God calls upon us to fast. What is the fast? He gives instruction to put away the things that are harmful, every stimulating kind of food, and to eat with temperance the things that are freely given to us from God. The instruction is cooperating with God. My health comes from Him, and as He heals me, as He gives me the healings rays of His truth, then He says, Now that I am healing you, follow My instructions. My first and foremost focus is upon Him as my Healer, and the health reform as something that I am connected with Him to make a correct assessment of, nothing else. There are many people who are health reformers and who are following guidelines from others but from Him, and that is confusing.

We are to cooperate with God. The work that we have to do as we continue with the Lord is one of co-partnership, our part, and His part.

The work of gaining salvation is one of copartnership, a joint operation. There is to be co-operation between God and the repentant sinner. This is necessary for the formation of right principles in the character.  {AA 482.2}

One of the principles is the way we eat and drink. That must come from cooperation with God.

Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining to perfection. But he is wholly dependent upon God for success. Human effort of itself is not sufficient. Without the aid of divine power it avails nothing. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, compassion, and power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness.  {Ibid.}

There is to be developed a formation of right principles. That is the work that, now that I have the mind of Christ, I am going to follow those principles that He is forming in my cooperation with Him.

Some health reformers are continually worrying for fear their food, however simple and healthful, will hurt them. To these let me say, Do not think that your food is going to hurt you; but when you have eaten according to your best judgment, and have asked the Lord to bless the food, believe that he has heard your prayer, and be at rest.  {CTBH 59.1}

“According to your best judgment,” where did that judgment come from? From a sound mind that has followed a cooperation with God. I can’t emphasize this strongly enough because we are often bombarded by the notions of naturopaths instead of God. That is why I get my first counsel from the Spirit of prophecy, and if the naturopaths harmonize with the Spirit of prophecy then I’m happy, but if they don’t, Sorry. Because it is the Testimony of Jesus that is going to give me rational conclusions. We see then that we are to cooperate with God in the formation of right principles, that the health reform is first and foremost the fast and secondly God’s beautiful way of the manna, how people will learn to get together food to the glory of God, to their wellbeing, to replace flesh-eating.

He who would build up a strong, symmetrical character, he who would be a well-balanced Christian, must give all and do all for Christ; for the Redeemer will not accept divided service. Daily he must learn the meaning of self-surrender. He must study the word of God, learning its meaning and obeying its precepts. Thus he may reach the standard of Christian excellence. Day by day God works with him, perfecting the character that is to stand in the time of final test. And day by day the believer is working out before men and angels a sublime experiment, showing what the gospel can do for fallen human beings.  {AA 483.1}

We learn that our sound mind that has been given to us is to exercise itself with an intricate relationship of God and me, and then we learn through the sound mind the intricate relationship between the body and our spirituality. That is what apostle Paul was talking about in Romans 7. Now that the Lord has given me a sound mind, I will discover my body, my sinful flesh, giving me a little bit of a hard time, and I must follow a simple direction from the Lord:

Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

He’s got this battle that every person has, he’s got this sound mind and yet there is a law within my flesh that gives me a hard time. But in the battle against sin Jesus gives the victory, yet we must cooperate.

God wishes us to have the mastery over ourselves. But He cannot help us without our consent and co-operation.  {AA 482.3}

This is the practice that we need to go into when we deal with the health reform message.

God Has Pledged Himself

God, the Creator of our bodies, has arranged every fiber and nerve and sinew and muscle, and has pledged himself to keep the machinery in order  {HL 22.3}

God has pledged Himself to keep our machinery, our body which He has created. He has pledged to keep it in order,

if the human agent will co-operate with him and refuse to work contrary to the laws which govern the human system.– U. T., Aug. 30, 1896.  {Ibid.}

He is the One who has arranged every fiber and sinew and muscle, and man comes along and meddles with it outside of God’s instruction. A perfect example is kinesiology. It is actually dabbling with the electrical currents of our body. It’s what the Spirit of prophecy warns against, she says, Don’t go to these electrical physicians. That is where people study the body but they don’t study what God knows about the body. It’s the same thing with allopathy. They know that certain chemicals can affect certain parts of the body and so they dabble around with it, but they are not in touch with God who knows the exact answers. It’s a bit like in a house. The electrical wires are there and if you’ve got a novice handling the electrical wires you can blow your house up. That’s what man does. He blows the beautiful harmony of the body into difficulties. People even do it with their diet, they confuse their systems because they don’t follow precisely the counsel of God. He says, He has pledged himself to keep the machinery in order. Can you see that we are not to take over? We are simply to cooperate. It is He that is arranging us, not us with our food. I get very upset when naturopaths use food to meddle around with our body. I’ve seen this happen and it confuses the body system. We are to follow God’s instructions and rely on Him to heal us, not on the food. We think this is a good saying, “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine your food.” We think that’s a good saying. Sorry. Let God be your Healer and follow His instructions with the food He gives you. Don’t make the food manipulative upon your body, it’s very dangerous.

A careful conformity to the laws which God has implanted in our being will insure health, and there will not be a breaking down of the constitution. — H. R.  {HL 22.4} 

God has pledged himself to keep this machinery in healthful action if the human agent will obey his laws, and co-operate with him.– U. T., Jan. 11, 1897. {HL 22.5}

It is God who’s got to keep it going, not me with my manipulative ways. This is very important. We therefore apply our mind now to what these principles and laws and governments are, and how they affect our spirituality. Because our spirituality has been affected by God speaking His word to us, and now we must cooperate with Him as we wants to sanctify us, as He wants to cleanse the sanctuary, as He wants to cleanse us spiritually. He gives us the health reform as the fasting that is going to give us the assistance.

Many people refer us directly to the eight laws of health, don’t they? But I am not going to give those eight laws of health in terms of the way that they are usually given, I have six laws here that encompass those eight, but they are focused upon the most important principles that come from God’s word:

1. Regularity
2. Balance
3. Abstemiousness
4. Nourishment
5. Simplicity
6. Exercise

If you think about those you will realize that that is encompassed in the eight, but it narrows it down to some important principles that are not usually considered, even with the eight.

Regularity

Your body has been created to follow rhythm. There is a rhythmic principle that is established in everything that God has created in the body. Your heart is rhythmical, with its hear-beat. There is a time element inside of your brain that has times for certain situations, for instance: sleep.

To Have Regular Hours for Sleep.–How prevalent is the habit of turning day into night, and night into day. Many youth sleep soundly in the morning, when they should be up with the early singing birds and be stirring when all nature is awake.  {CG 111.4}

That’s part of the rhythm of nature. Night time sleep, early morning awake, night time sleep, early morning awake, as the light dawns with the birds.

In regulating the hours for sleep, there should be no haphazard work. Students should not form the habit of burning the midnight oil and taking the hours of the day for sleep. If they have been accustomed to doing this at home, they should correct the habit, going to bed at a seasonable hour. They will then rise in the morning refreshed for the duties of the day.  {CG 363.3}

Your sleep clock is often totally confused, and it is by developing a regular sleep pattern that it is brought back into rhythm again. Regularity is so important, and that applies exactly to meal-times as well. Your stomach has in it functions that can function rhythmically, and if you get them out of that rhythm you get the whole system confused.

You should never let a morsel pass your lips between your regular meals. Eat what you ought, but eat it at one meal, and then wait until the next.   T., V. II, p. 373.  {HL 85.6}

Three meals a day and nothing between meals   not even an apple   should be the utmost limit of indulgence. Those who go further violate nature’s laws and will suffer the penalty.  R. and H., 1883, No. 19.  {HL 86.1}

What are nature’s laws? Regular hours, regular meals. Three meals a day. That is what God knows about our body, and nothing in between. Not a nut or food of any kind. Nothing is to pass the mouth in between those times. Nothing is to be digested so the stomach can rest until the next meal.

The stomach must have careful attention. . . . After it has done its work for one meal, do not crowd more work upon it before it has had a chance to rest, and before a sufficient supply of gastric juice is provided.  {HL 83.6}

Because it has a rhythm of working. It’ll shoot the gastric juice and then if you start expecting more gastric juice maybe an hour after or two, it’s not ready for it. It will be able to shoot the next gastric juice in about 5 hours.

Five hours at least should be given between each meal, and always bear in mind that if you would give it a trial, you would find two meals better than three.  U. T., Aug. 30, 1896.  {HL 83.6}

It is quite a common custom with the people of the world to eat three times a day, besides eating at irregular intervals between meals; and the last meal is generally the most hearty, and is often taken just before retiring. This is reversing the natural order; a hearty meal should never be taken so late in the day. Should these persons change their practise, and eat but two meals a day, and nothing between meals, not even an apple, a nut, or any kind of fruit, the result would be seen in a good appetite and greatly improved health.– R. and H., 1884, No. 31.  {HL 84.2}

Then she does say that a third meal is not out of order, it depends on the people, on the people’s make-up.

Most people enjoy better health while eating two meals a day than three; others, under their existing circumstances, may require something to eat at supper time; but this meal should be very light. Let no one think himself a criterion for all, that every one must do exactly as he does.  C. T., p. 58.  {HL 84.3}

I eat only two meals a day. But I do not think that the number of meals should be made a test. If there are those who are better in health when eating three meals, it is their privilege to have three. I choose two meals. For thirty-five years I have practiced the two-meal system.  {CD 178.2}

She says, I do well on two meals a day but others can only do well on three meals a day; and that’s me, I can’t do very well on two meals a day. The reality is that we must leave the time between the meals because there is to be a regularity. This is the law, and we need to obey God’s instructions and just place ourselves into the regular program of our rhythmical body functions.

Balance

Our body is very carefully balanced by God in the first place. There is an acid-alkaline balance. The acid-alkaline balance has to do with when the food has been digested and metabolized. It doesn’t mean acid in itself, it’s talking about acid-alkaline balance after it has metabolized in your body, in your tissues. The food that becomes acid in your body is all the nuts and the grains, and the food that is alkaline are the fruits and the vegetables. The balance in the body that has been observed is about 80% alkaline and 20% acid. E. G. White puts it very simply, that we are to eat largely of fruits and vegetables, and smaller amounts of the others.

Misuse of the body shortens that period of time which God designs shall be used in his service. By allowing ourselves to form wrong habits, by keeping late hours, by gratifying appetite at the expense of health, we lay the foundation for feebleness. By neglecting to take physical exercise, by overworking mind or body, we unbalance the nervous system. Those who thus shorten their lives by disregarding nature’s laws, are guilty of robbery before God.– R. and H., 1896, No. 48.  {HL 47.3}

We mentioned about the balance of the acid and alkaline in the bodies, and then we have the balance of working, resting, recreation, and sleep. That is necessary because there must not be an “unbalancing of the nervous system.” It actually needs balancing. If I am in sixes and sevens in my life and I have no regularity, there is an imbalance. My ingestion of food must be as much balanced as my ways of living.

Abstemiousness

Abstemiousness is where we realize we put away flesh foods, and practice vegetarianism, because flesh foods are stimulants. It is to abstain from stimulants such as harmful drugs and health-destroying fashions. The principle of dress comes as part of these laws that God has put there.

There is but one woman in a thousand who clothes her limbs as she should.  {HL 124.2}

One woman in a thousand. You wonder why the dress reform is not regular anyway?

Women should clothe their limbs as thoroughly as do men.   H. to L., Chap. 6, p. 64.  {Ibid.}

The portions of the body close to the life springs need less covering than the limbs which are remote from the vital organs. If the limbs and feet could have the extra coverings usually put upon the shoulders, lungs, and heart, and healthy circulation be induced to the extremities, the vital organs would act their part healthfully, with only their share of clothing.  H. to L., Chap. 5, p. 73.  {HL 124.3}

Many people when cold put vests and things around the chest and shoulders but their limbs are left less covered.  We should be equally covered so the limbs are as equally covered as the other parts of the body. Why?

The extremities are chilled, and the heart has thrown upon it double labor, to force the blood into these chilled extremities; and when the blood has performed its circuit through the body, and returned to the heart, it is not the same vigorous, warm current which left it. It has been chilled in its passage through the limbs. The heart, weakened by too great labor and poor circulation of poor blood, is then compelled to still greater exertion, to throw the blood to the extremities which are never as healthfully warm as other parts of the body.  {HL 124.4}

There is a constriction of the blood vessels there, because they’re cold. And the heart has to push against that constriction.

The heart fails in its efforts, and the limbs become habitually cold;  {HL 124.4}

I know exactly what this is talking about. In winter time I had habitually cold feet, and I thought it was just from my father’s condition because he always had cold feet. But when I started to put this into practice after a period of about five to six years, I don’t have habitually cold feet anymore. Because the system has been brought back to order under this kind of instruction.

The heart fails in its efforts, and the limbs become habitually cold; and the blood, which is chilled away from the extremities, is thrown back upon the lungs and brain, and inflammation and congestion of the lungs or the brain is the result.  H. to L., Chap. 5, p. 72.  {HL 124.4}

So many people’s brains are inflamed, and you wonder why they behave strangely. The cold blood is thrown upon the lungs and people wonder why they suffer with colds. We are dealing with laws that affect our health and we need to examine the laws rather than notions of what we think it is or what the people of the world do.

It is impossible for women to have, habitually, chilled limbs and cold feet, without some of the internal organs’ being congested. . . . The many extra coverings over the chest and back and lower part of the body, induce the blood to these parts, and the animal heat, thus retained, weakens and debilitates the delicate organs, and congestion and inflammation result.– H. R.  {HL 125.1}

You know where women get their hot flushes from? From congestion in their organs. Women who have practiced wearing their clothes well, covering all their limbs over a long period of time have far less of that than those that haven’t. I have seen women when I was a child, and I never heard of hot flushes as a youth. My mother never talked about it, never revealed it. Yet later on it became a situation, I thought, What’s wrong? It is a condition that develops over a long period of time. Then people wonder and say, Well that’s normal. As we have just read, the organs that are in the torso are congested, and then come the reactions. A perfect example was one gentleman who’s always worn shorts in the winter, and when the summer time comes up he is just overwhelmed, because the system has developed that reaction. It happens to men and women.

Nourishment and Simplicity

The nourishment comes next. This is another very important subject, that we nourish ourselves. It’s a law that we must nourish ourselves. We must replace the things that we have used up. If you are working hard, or you are mentally working hard, you are actually burning up nutrition. You’ve got to replace that. The best nourishment is found in food that is not being denatured.

At meal-time cast off care and taxing thought. Do not be hurried, but eat slowly and with cheerfulness, your heart filled with gratitude to God for all his blessings.– G. W., p. 174.  {HL 85.3}

That is the way we are to eat for nourishment. There is a simplicity with which we need to eat. The Spirit of prophecy identifies the combinations of foods and their impact upon our health.

Mixed and complicated dishes are injurious to the health of human beings. U. T., Nov. 5, 1896.  {HL 82.4}

It is not well to take a great variety of food at one meal. When a variety of foods that do not agree are crowded into the stomach at one meal, what can we expect but that a disturbance will be created? U. T., Jan. 11, 1897.  {HL 82.5}

At one meal, “a variety of foods that do not agree.” Here lies the important point: foods that do not agree. There are certain foods that do not go with other foods, and that’s where the counsel is that we must not mix fruits and vegetables together in one meal.

I advise the people to give up sweet puddings or custards made with eggs and milk and sugar, and to eat the best home-made bread, both graham and white, with dried or green fruits [fresh fruits], and let that be the only course for one meal; then let the next meal be of nicely prepared vegetables. U. T., Oct. 29, 1894. {HL 82.6}

There are certain foods that don’t go together. The fruits and the breads go together nicely. But the next meal you eat vegetables, not together with the fruits. Did you notice here: “both graham and white”? There are some people that think, Oh, we mustn’t eat any white bread. But according to this, it says, the best home-made bread, both graham, that’s wholemeal, and white. White bread, white flower is sometimes lighter for the digestive system. If you mix white with the wholemeal, don’t feel bad about it. It’s alright, it makes the food a little lighter. Simplicity comes into this, and nourishment as we see.

If we would preserve the best health, we should avoid eating vegetables and fruit at the same meal. If the stomach is feeble, there will be distress, and the brain will be confused, and unable to put forth mental effort. Have fruit at one meal and vegetables at the next.  Y. I., May 31, 1894.  {HL 83.1}

We advise you to change your habits of living; but while you do this, we caution you to move understandingly. I am acquainted with families who have changed from a meat diet to one that is impoverished. Their food is so poorly prepared that the stomach loathes it. . . . Here is one reason why some have not been successful in their efforts to simplify their food.  T., V. II, p. 63.  {HL 83.2}

Exercise and Fresh air

As I have been touching on these principles, a lot of it is gained by following the instruction that is given from God’s word without going into very complicated research. Now fresh air and exercise are one of the most important things. What kind of exercise?

When useful labor is combined with study, there is no need of gymnastic exercises; and much more benefit is derived from work performed in the open air than from indoor exercise. The farmer and the mechanic each have physical exercise; yet the farmer is much the healthier of the two, for nothing short of the invigorating air and sunshine will fully meet the wants of the system. The former finds in his labor all the movements that were ever practised in the gymnasium. And his movement room is the open fields; the canopy of heaven is its roof, the solid earth is its floor.  S. of T., 1886, No. 33.  {HL 128.3}

Brethren, when you take time to cultivate your gardens, thus gaining the exercise needed to keep the system in good working order, you are just as much doing the work of God as in holding meetings.   G. W., p. 174.  {HL 129.1}

These are the things that we do because we have received the sound mind, the healing from God, and now to keep our body functioning soundly and capably, we function with that sound mind engaging in these kinds of principles.

How This Affects Our Spirituality

This is going to affect my spirituality. It’s going to affect my harmony with the work of God in the sanctuary.

If Christians will keep the body in subjection, and bring all their appetites and passions under the control of enlightened conscience, feeling it a duty that they owe to God and to their neighbors to obey the laws which govern health and life, they will have the blessing of physical and mental vigor.  {HL 23.3}

What sort of vigour? Physical and mental.

They will have moral power to engage in the warfare against Satan;  {Ibid.}

Isn’t that interesting? Moral power is connected with the submission to the laws that affect physical and mental vigour.

They will have moral power to engage in the warfare against Satan; and in the name of him who conquered appetite in their behalf, they may be more than conquerors on their own account.  T., V. IV, p. 36.  {Ibid.}

Everything that conflicts with natural law creates a diseased condition of the soul.– R. and H., 1881, No. 4. {HL 24.5}

Everything that conflicts with natural law creates a diseased condition of the soul. We want to have a spiritual condition that is in harmony with the Lord in our soul, we want to be in harmony with the work of Jesus in the investigative judgment. The submission to those laws will actually heal me from those soul-diseases that He is revealing to me as marring my life.

The moral powers are weakened because men and women will not live in obedience to the laws of health, and make this great subject a personal duty.   T., V. III, p. 140.  {HL 25.1}

That brings us full swing around again to the work of Jesus in the most holy place. We realize that the day of fasting is the health reform application, and we have studied now those health principles that have everything to do with getting ourselves ready for the close of probation, when Jesus finishes His work in the sanctuary. We can harmonize with His cleansing work by obeying those laws and being in tune with His work in the sanctuary above; but focusing on the gospel, on the message, not on the food itself, focusing on the counsel of Jesus and my relationship with Him, obeying His instructions rather than focusing on the food. We must not become deranged because my mind is not balanced by God’s illumination, and because I am concentrating on the fears on what foods will do to me.

That covers the points for our understanding, so that we can see that the sanctuary truth is part and parcel of the duties and the system of the health message that we need to understand in this great system of truth.

Amen.