| Health and Healing BASICS and DIET (The following are guidelines and suggestions not rules and laws) God's basic health laws for us are simple: Proper diet, proper rest, proper exercise and right living are the key to a happy and healthy life ! The Lord created us and He knows what's best for us. He’s like a father to us and He wants us to be happy and healthy. Of course, one of the greatest factors in maintaining good health is faith. – To know that God loves you and cares for you and is going to take care of you no matter what. Faith eliminates fear and tension, two of the greatest causes of disease and ill health. When you have faith, you can have peace of mind and can just rest in the Lord, knowing that He is going to take care of everything. The elimination of fear by faith gives peace of mind and rest to your nervous system, stomach and vital organs, including your heart. Faith also eliminates bitterness, hatred and a negative attitude toward life—all of which have been proven to cause the build-up of actual poisons in your body. Your physical state of health is largely dependent on your mental state of health, which in turn is dependent on your spiritual condition. 1John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casts out fear: Because fear hath torment. He that fears in not made perfect in Love.” Love and faith cast out all fear, therefore faith in God, trust in God, gives you a feeling of rest of body, peace of mind, contentment of heart and spiritual well-being, which all tend to greatly improve your physical state of health. Peace of mind is a great asset to health, but worry is a killer ! Therefore, people who know and trust the Lord can, in general, expect good health because they don’t have to worry. Obey Gods' natural laws and maintain a right relation with Him and you’ll stay healthy most of the time. But if you disregard and disobey His Laws, you won't get away with it! Since God has given us good bodies, we ought to take care of them! It’s a shame to abuse them, but so many people today do abuse them frequently with a lot of harmful junk foods, chemicals, pills, drugs and alcohol, as well as subjecting themselves to a great deal of unnecessary stress and risks. (See 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17.) We need to maintain healthy habits, starting with a good diet, eating the right kind of foods, being sure we get plenty of rest, as well as lots of good exercise. DIET A good, healthy natural diet is one of the main building-blocks for good health. That is why the Bible goes into such great detail about foods which we should or should not eat. We are told to eat the meat of animals which chew cud and which have cloven hoofs: Like beef, lamb, goat etc., but not horse, camel, rabbit or pork etc. unless absolutely necessary.—Leviticus 11:1-7. Even with clean animals, you shouldn’t eat unclean parts such as the kidneys, fat, gall bladder, blood and intestines. – Leviticus 7:4, 23, 26-27. The only clean seafood are fish having both fins and scales! All others are unclean, such as all the different varieties of shellfish, and all crustaceans such as crab, lobster, shrimp, prawns, crawfish etc. The reason for this is because they are the garbage men of the sea, and eat the junk and sewage that is dumped into our oceans, rivers and streams. – Leviticus 11:9-12. The unclean fowls are all the different kinds of eagles, hawks, owls, vultures, swans, pelicans, storks, herons, bats etc. – Leviticus 11:13-20. In our modern age there are many processed foods which have little or no food value. One of the worst things is white sugar. Besides the fact that it is very destructive to your teeth, doctors have concluded that too much sugar in the diet is one of the most common causes of modern illnesses. They have even traced a lot of heart failure and heart trouble back to too much sugar in the diet. Overeating or eating too much fat is also very hard on your heart. Many Westerners, Americans especially, eat far too much, which is why they have so many problems with heart disease, cancer and all kinds of other diseases that come from overeating. They are literally eating themselves to death, digging their graves with their teeth! Most people cook almost all the food value out of their food. Vegetables should be cooked as little as possible; in fact, if they are tender enough to eat raw, it's usually better to eat them raw. If you're living in a country where it is not safe to eat raw vegetables for one reason or another (for example, if human dung was use to fertilize them), then you’ll have to cook them, of course. In that case, cook them the minimum amount of time necessary, and in as little water as possible, to prevent the vitamins and nutrients from being cooked out of them. If you do eat raw vegetables, make sure they are scrubbed thoroughly. When you eat, eat to your satisfaction, then don't touch anymore food. – Let your stomach go to work digesting it. A normal healthy stomach takes about two full hours to digest a meal, so don't nibble or snack or eat again for at least two hours after a meal. written by David Berg Continue on to Exercise - Accidents and Medicine - Conclusion and Prayer |