(ML #3499, GN 1086)

FD/MM/FM June 2004

Food or Poison?

—MOJune 29, 1977DFONO.609 Vol 5

1. I RECENTLY READ SOMEBODY'S COLONY REPORT AND IN IT THEY SAID THAT THEY BOUGHT SUGAR! I thought, "My God, didn't they ever read the 'Health Revolution' in which we absolutely forbade sugar?"

2. I FORBID MY HOUSE TO EVER BUY SUGAR or have it in the house, or for sure sooner or later, sure enough‚ it winds up in somebody's dessert or coffee and eventually in their stomach. So I just refused to let my family buy sugar at all, I won't have it in the house!

3. (MARIA: IT'S NOT EVEN A GOOD SAMPLE TO GIVE TO VISITORS.—Some people use the excuse that the visitors don't like honey, but while they're in your house and you're the host you can politely say, "I'm sorry but we don't have any sugar, if you would like sweetening we use honey which is much healthier.")

4. ONE OF OUR GUESTS DID BRING HIS OWN SUGAR the other night, didn't he?—He brought his own dessert. One guy who frequently comes over to eat found out we didn't have any desserts with our dinner so he began bringing his own dessert. Well, the dessert was supposedly for us all.

5. BUT I WROTE BACK TO THIS PERSON who reported that they bought sugar for the Colony and said‚ "Didn't you read the 'Health Revolution'?"

6. DON'T YOU KNOW THAT SUGAR IS FORBIDDEN IN OUR COLONIES?!—And that as far as we're concerned it's worse poison than nicotine!—It's worse than smoking!"

7. DOCTORS HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT TOO MUCH SWEET IN THE DIET IS THE MOST COMMON CAUSE OF ILLNESS amongst Europeans. Now when they talk about sweets they're not talking about natural sweets like figs, raisins‚ honey, blackstrap molasses and raw sugar. They're talking about refined sugar sweets‚ desserts, candies, soft drinks and so on.

8. THEY CLAIM THAT MOST OF THE DISEASES EUROPEANS HAVE CAN BE TRACED TO SUGAR AS THE MAIN CULPRIT and fat as the next. Now I think that's what the Bible means where it says‚ "lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting". (Luke 21:34.) They have traced a lot of heart failure and heart trouble straight back to too much fat and too much sugar. Most diabetics, for example, suffer heart trouble. So in this note I said,

9. "DON'T YOU KNOW THAT SUGAR IS WORSE THAN SMOKING?" Our colonies are so self-righteous about not smoking, and I'm glad of it, because smoking is bad for you. If you're a real smoker and you get all that nicotine in you it's pure poison and it's bound to have a damaging effect on you. But even a heavy smoker can't possibly consume as much poison nicotine in one day as most people consume of pure poisonous sugar! Think of that!

10. MOST OF OUR PEOPLE WOULDN'T THINK OF SMOKING, BUT THEY EAT TEN TIMES AS MUCH POISON EVERY DAY IN SUGAR and sweets as they would imbibe if they smoked all day! So I wrote in this note, "Don't you know that's worse than smoking?" It's bad for you in every way! I explained all this in the health letter!—How come our people are still eating sugar?

11. I BELIEVE IT IS AN ABSOLUTE DEMONIC PERVERSION! I think it is just as diabolical and demon–inspired as a craving for liquor or drugs or gambling or what have you! I believe it! It's an obsession with some people, it is something that they haven't got the will power to withstand if it's within reach.

12. (MARIA: MOST AMERICANS HAVE GROWN UP WITH THAT PERVERTED SWEET TOOTH so in order to stop the habit, just like me, you just have to keep it out of reach. If you don't have it in the house I won't eat it. I don't go to the store and buy myself some sugar.) You almost were sucked right into the store tonight just standing in the street looking in the window at those baked goods! (Maria: I said, "Take me away!") I had to drag her away! (Maria: But I won't go buy it, if it's not in the house then I'm fine!)

13. IT'S JUST LIKE A DRUNK OR AN ALCOHOLIC OR A DRUG ADDICT you've got to keep it out of reach if he hasn't got the will power to resist it. If it's where he can get at it then you'll have to take it away from him. (Maria: Because if I know there's a cake down in the kitchen I'll go down and get a piece!) Aha!

14. THE LORD MUST HAVE PROTECTED ME FROM SWEETS EVER SINCE I WAS A LITTLE BOY. It must have been the Spirit of God that made me abhor very much sweet. I liked some of my mother's desserts but they were always low in sugar because she was always watching her figure.

15. MY MOTHER REALLY KNEW HOW TO MAKE PIE!—Apple pie or rhubarb pie! If it was made right it was delicious with the tart flavor of the apple or rhubarb. But it had to have a good crisp crust on it or I didn't like it.

16. LUCY MADE ONE ONE TIME THAT WAS JUST LIKE MY MOTHER'S PIES—I'll tell you, that was the best pie! I don't think she was ever able to repeat the performance. My mother was an artist at that with a real crisp flaky crust, it had to be crisp and flaky!—But make with honey!

17. (MARIA: THINK OF THE TIME WOMEN SPEND IN THE KITCHEN...) Just baking sweets and stuff. And think of the wasted energy in the ovens! (Maria: And they make it with white sugar so it's even bad for you!)

18. I LIKED A LITTLE OF SOME SWEETS IF THEY WERE MILDLY SWEET, something like my Mother would make, like an egg custard. But she didn't make it like they make it nowadays where it's so sickenly sweet, it's horrible! Hers was just mildly sweet. It was mostly an egg custard with just a little sweet. It had a little nutmeg in it I think.

19. (MARIA: HONEY, EGG AND MILK CUSTARD IS A GOOD HEALTHFUL DESSERT.) Yes, you can make that with honey—egg custard—and it's very good for you. My Mother always used to give me that if I was sick‚ it was almost worth getting sick for! (Maria: You can put extra powdered milk in it too to make it even more nutritious.)

20. I LIKED SOME SWEET DRINKS LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK. I liked that a lot, but that was a pretty healthful thing, milk with a little chocolate flavoring in it. That's not near as bad as eating straight candy or these sickening icky sweet desserts and stuff that some people eat.

21. I ENJOYED A MODERATE AMOUNT OF SWEET and sweets which were only moderately sweet. I didn't hardly care for straight candy at all. I liked some candy if it had a lot of nuts in it, but it was the nuts that I really liked.

22. I NEVER REALLY CARED FOR SUGAR OR CANDY when I was a kid‚ especially those gooey sticky gummy kinds of candy. That kind of stuff I could not stand!

23. I REMEMBER THEY USED TO STICK GUMDROPS IN MY MOUTH when I was little in the grocery store. The grocer would think he was doing me a favor or getting on the good side of my mother or something, and it was just horrible to me. But I had been taught to be polite by my mother and say thank you, blah blah, and as soon as I got outside I'd spit it in the gutter! That must have been when I was two years old that that happened!

24. AND THE EASTER EGG CANDIES, UGH! I COULDN'T STAND THEM! You know how kids gobble up those little things at Easter time? I'd rather have the hard boiled egg than that.—Jelly beans‚ gumdrops, yech!

25. I MEAN YOU HAVE GOT TO DEVELOP A PERVERTED SENSE OF TASTE TO ENJOY THAT JUNK because naturally your body just doesn't want it, not in that quantity. (Maria: But once you do develop it...) Then it's like any other perversion.

26. I THINK IT'S ABSOLUTELY DEMONIC, IT'S ONE OF THE DEVIL'S WAYS OF TRYING TO DESTROY YOUR BODY. A craving for sweets I think is like a craving for drugs or a craving for drink or a craving for gambling or something.—It's something the Devil knows would absolutely destroy you!

27. (MARIA: AND IT'S ALMOST AS DIFFICULT TO GET RID OF AS ALCOHOLISM!) Absolutely, you know yourself! Even today as much as you know about it, if there's a sweet in the house and they leave it lying around you cannot resist the temptation, you go ahead and eat it! It's terrible!

28. AS LONG AS THERE WAS ANY SUGAR IN THE HOUSE, although it was forbidden to eat sweets‚ we'd catch our kids sneaking to bake cookies or cakes in the oven when I wasn't looking, remember that?—And eating them on the sly! These little rascals, some of them we've got in the house right now were eating them on the sly trying to keep me from knowing that they were baking cookies! They remind me of Adam and Eve, they'd say‚ "Well, she made them so I just ate it!"

29. (MARIA: ONE OF THE GIRLS MADE THE MOST DELICIOUS BANANA BREAD which was more like banana cake.) Oh, that banana bread‚ it's so healthful and good for you. (Maria: It's very sweet, but it was banana, honey, wheat germ, whole wheat flour and lemon‚ all good healthy ingredients.)

30. SHE PUT ALL THE MOST HEALTHFUL THINGS IN IT AND IT WAS DELICIOUS! It was just like cake, sweeter than bread. So you can make delicious things very healthful that are great.) But how people can sit down and eat pure candy, just a pure hunk of sugar like that I don't know! It is repulsive to me.

31. (MARIA: THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS YOU CAN SUBSTITUTE FOR SWEETS—raisins, figs‚ all kinds of sweet fruits that you can make your sweets out of. Davidito loves peanuts and raisins as a snack.) Yes, natural sweets like dried figs, raisins and things like that are very good for you.

32. ANY FORM OF NATURAL SWEET JUST LIKE THE LORD MADE IT IS NATURALLY VERY GOOD FOR YOU IN MODERATION. But these horrible concoctions that the British eat and the Germans eat and the Spanish are eating now too, and the Portuguese too are terrible! I hope our kids aren't eating any of that junk!

33. NORMALLY I DIDN'T LIKE FOODS THAT WERE NOT GOOD FOR ME like awfully sweet candy and sickening icky sticky desserts. I wonder if making healthy desserts is a lost art now. (Maria: But there are so many good desserts that can be made healthful with honey.) With honey or with blackstrap molasses or with raw sugar.

34. WE WERE POOR IN THE DEPRESSION AND A LOT OF TIMES WE HAD WHAT THEY CALL BREAD PUDDING. This was nothing in the world but a custard mix poured over all the broken up pieces of old stale bread in the house, all the old bread and bread crusts.

35. THEY'D SAVE ALL THE OLD BREAD and use it for this delicious bread pudding which was made like a custard. They baked it in the oven in a sort of a custard mix, and that wasn't too sweet. It was delicious, I enjoyed it! (Maria: In my family they poured all kinds of brown sugar all over it to make it really sweet!) Oh no! Ai yai yai!

36. THEY WOULD ALSO USE ALL THE OLD BREAD CRUSTS AND CRUMBS FOR STUFFING in the turkeys and chickens. When I was little they never cooked chicken or turkey or any kind of fowl in the oven without stuffing.

37. (MARIA: WHAT ABOUT RICE PUDDING?) Well, that was just another form of custard really, and I liked it if it didn't have too much sugar in it and was not too sweet.

38. (MARIA: BUT WHITE RICE DOESN'T HAVE TOO MUCH FOOD VALUE AND NEITHER DOES WHITE BREAD. So if you make bread pudding with white bread and rice pudding with white rice there isn't much food value in it. As much as possible you should use brown rice, natural rice and brown bread.) It's especially bad if they use white sugar in the bargain.

39. WHITE SUGAR IS JUST ALMOST PURE POISON! I've said this so many times I can't imagine one of our colonies still using white sugar!

40. NOW SOMETIMES I GET CAUGHT IN A RESTAURANT WHERE THERE'S NO OTHER SWEETENING for my coffee or something and then I use a little bit of sugar, but I hate to do it. But the little bit I ever get like that is nothing compared to what most people eat!

41. BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES IS THE NEXT TO THE LAST STAGE IN MAKING RAW SUGAR. They squeeze the juice out of the cane or sugar beets and they boil it down until it's real thick and dark, practically black‚ syrupy, and that's pure sugar—that's just about as pure as it can get! That's just one stage before the crystallized raw sugar.

42. IN BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES THEY LEAVE JUST ENOUGH OF THE MOISTURE TO MAKE FLUID. But when they make raw sugar they keep on cooking it until almost every bit of moisture is gone and then after it's cooked it crystallizes and then they make the sugar.

43. (MARIA: BUT WHY IS BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES SUPPOSED TO BE EVEN BETTER FOR YOU THAN RAW SUGAR?) Raw sugar has been cooked even more and more and more and virtually all the moisture is gone, all cooked out completely. And as when you cook anything, no matter what you cook‚ the more you cook it the more vitamins and things you kill and some of the things that are supposed to be good for you are cooked out of it. So molasses is the stage just before this extra cooking by which it becomes raw sugar.

44. (MARIA: SO MOLASSES IS THE FIRST STEP WHERE YOU CAN GET ANY GOOD KIND OF SUGAR OUT OF IT?) Yes, it's better for you than raw sugar because it's before it gets to be raw sugar. The raw sugar is when they've cooked it so much that they cooked all the moisture out of it and all that's left is the crystallized sugar itself.

45. SO IF YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE SWEETS AT ALL, YOU NEED TO USE GOD'S NATURALLY CREATED SWEETS and not man's refined bleached poisoned man-made sickening poison white sugar or things made with white sugar! So, praise the Lord!

46. (MARIA: WELL I GUESS WE COULD STAND TO GIVE OUR KIDS SOME GOOD HEALTHY RECIPES for sweets if they're going to eat them anyway.) You ought to be able to get some of those from some of these health food stores and health food books. (Maria: You can cook almost any kind of cookies or sweets by just substituting whole wheat flour and honey instead of sugar and white flour.)

47. OF COURSE YOU CAN GET TOO MUCH OF ANY SWEET, even if it's honey or it's blackstrap molasses or raw sugar. The body can only handle so much and you're not supposed to eat too much of anything.

48. SOME OF OUR UP-AND-COMING TEENAGERS ARE GOING TO HAVE FACIAL PROBLEMS IF THEY DON'T QUIT THESE SWEETS! (Maria: I think quite a few of our kids do have problems with their complexion—I know one girl had a terrible problem.) Probably eats too much sweets or too much fats—one or the other. Some people can't eat any greases or fats or they'll blossom out right away with pimples. Other people it's sugar that does it.

49. SO THEY SHOULDN'T EAT TOO MUCH GREASY OR FATTY FOODS AND THEY SHOULDN'T EAT TOO MUCH SWEETS. (Maria: You for sure can experiment, but some greases and oils won't do the same thing for you that others will. You can have pure oil like sunflower oil or wheat germ oil and use some natural sweeteners and things like that.) Yes, most vegetable oils are fairly good for you, it's these animal fats that are not good for you‚ and are forbidden in the Bible (Lev.7:23).

50. (MARIA: BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? MY FACE HAS ALWAYS BEEN TEMPTED TO BREAK OUT a lot and I was scared of any sugar and any sweets and so I wasn't eating anything. But I started to eat honey and have honey in drinks and things, taking two and sometimes three spoonfuls of it in drinks during the day and sometimes even a spoonful of molasses too, and it doesn't bother my skin in the least!)

51. YES, IT'S FAR BETTER TO MAKE ALL OF THESE THINGS WITH NATURAL SWEETS and the most simple and natural and most easily obtainable natural sweets are either blackstrap molasses or honey. (Maria: Blackstrap molasses isn't too easy to get in a lot of places.

52. THERE'S NOT TOO MUCH OF A DEMAND FOR MOLASSES BECAUSE THE TASTE IS SO STRONG. If you put it in some things it sort of destroys the natural flavor of the food.) I've tried using it for example in coffee or something like that and the molasses flavor is so strong itself that it destroys the coffee flavor. And if you enjoy a coffee flavor you don't like it completely smothered up with molasses flavor. So I like to use honey as the sweet in my coffee.

53. I LIKE THE MOLASSES FLAVOUR ITSELF IF IT'S USED AS A SWEETENING in some other things like certain kinds of cakes and in some kinds of desserts where it is the only flavor and you're not trying to promote some other flavor.

54. (MARIA: DAVIDITO HAS IT, AND I DO TOO OCCASIONALLY, MIXED IN YOGURT AS A SWEETENING which is very good‚ and there you have the molasses flavor.) If you'll use it not only as the sweetening but as the flavoring in something which is fairly neutral, then it's good.

55. BUT OF COURSE HONEY IS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON SWEETS. You can find honey everywhere in every country in the world. (Maria: I've heard that a lot of people give the excuse that it costs more‚ but the thing of it is, like one doctor said,

56. ("IT WILL COST A LOT MORE IN THE LONG RUN TO TRY TO REPAIR ALL THE DAMAGE that's been done!") Yes, that's ridiculous! At the price of sugar nowadays I wouldn't be a bit surprised that you come out using honey even cheaper than sugar.

57. HONEY IS SO SWEET AND THE FLAVOUR IS SO STRONG THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE AS MUCH HONEY AS YOU WOULD GRANULATED SUGAR. There is so much more sweetening in one teaspoonful of honey than in a whole heaping teaspoon of sugar. If you'd use as much honey in your coffee as most people use sugar you wouldn't be able to drink it‚ it would be so sweet!

58. I JUST HAVE TO USE A LITTLE TINY BIT, I'd say about half a teaspoon really, about half as much as I would have to use of sugar. I'd have to use nearly a rounded heaping teaspoon of sugar in my coffee to get it as sweet as I like it. But I only need to use about half that much honey.

59. SO IF YOU BUY A ONE POUND JAR OF HONEY THERE'S AT LEAST TWICE AS MUCH SWEETENING IN IT, so it's like buying two pounds of sugar. And it's all good for you, healthful‚ full of vitamins and minerals and things that are very good for your health. Whereas there's hardly anything good for you in white sugar or brown sugar.

60. I SURE HOPE OUR PEOPLE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BROWN SUGAR AND RAW SUGAR. Brown sugar is nothing in the world but white sugar before it's been bleached with poisonous bleaches. It's still refined sugar.

61. BROWN SUGAR HAD BEEN REFINED JUST LIKE WHITE SUGAR, ONLY IT HASN'T BEEN BLEACHED. Well at least it's a little bit better than white sugar because it hasn't got that bleach poison in it.

62. BUT WHY USE IT WHEN YOU CAN GET NATURAL SWEETENING?—Either get raw sugar, blackstrap molasses or honey. Why use anything else if you can get something that's good for you? As I told you in the "Health Revolution",

63. SUGAR IS DESTRUCTIVE TO YOUR BODY IN SO MANY WAYS. It is not only bad for your teeth just being in your mouth in sweet food and drinks, decaying your teeth from the outside. It is even worse in the way it helps to decay your teeth from the inside by robbing your bloodstream of calcium.

64. WHITE REFINED BLEACHED SUGAR IS ALMOST PURE CARBON. Carbon has a chemical affinity or attraction for calcium and the minute that sweet stuff, this white sugar, gets in your blood it immediately attracts all the calcium that's near it and unites with the calcium making the calcium virtually unassimilatable.

65. IT ROBS YOUR BLOOD OF THE CALCIUM that your body would otherwise normally shoot up to your teeth to try to repair the damage that the sugar's already done to your teeth from the outside. The sugar goes inside and robs your blood of that calcium so it can't repair your teeth!

66. THAT'S BESIDES ALL THE DAMAGE IT DOES TO ALL YOUR OTHER ORGANS. Horrible damage! Damage to the pancreas, it's hard on the liver, it's hard on the kidneys‚ it's just absolutely really bad for you!

67. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT IF YOU EAT OR DRINK TOO MUCH SWEET YOU IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD FEEL DROWSY and sleepy because you have intoxicated yourself, which means you have eaten or drunk some kind of poison which literally poisoned or intoxicated your body. That kind of sweet is really bad.

68. SO WHEN YOU INGEST ANY OF THIS WHITE BLEACHED POISONED CARBONIC SUGAR OR ANYTHING MADE WITH IT, which is nearly all of your soft drinks, sweetened juices, desserts, candies and whatnot, you're just eating what is practically pure poison, pure and simple, which does your body absolutely no good whatsoever, only damage. It just absolutely causes almost nothing but damage.

69. THAT CANDY GIVES YOU QUICK ENERGY IS A FALLACY cooked up by the candy companies and medicine men. It may temporarily satisfy hunger, but is a toxic and depressant that tires you.

70. IT'S JUST NOT WORTH THE PRICE. They claim that athletes get extra energy if they eat a chocolate bar just before running or something like that, but I daresay that is probably candy company propaganda!

71. EATING A GREAT DEAL OF SUGAR USUALLY DRAINS YOUR BODY OF ENERGY. For example some people put too much sugar on their cereal and that sort of thing and then they're tired by midmorning‚ run out of energy. We use honey in our cereal and we eat homemade health food cereal at that! But too much sweet of any kind will make you a little drowsy because although it does convert into energy it also has some side effects which are intoxicating.

72. (MARIA: BUT THE SEDATIVE EFFECT OF HONEY ISN'T BAD.) No, the little sedative effect of honey will help you sleep if you have a little honey before you go to bed at night in a drink sweetened with honey—but not coffee or tea.

73. DON'T EXPECT TO GET MUCH SLEEP OUT OF A CUP OF COFFEE OR TEA AT NIGHT. I've heard people brag about, "Oh, I could drink two or three cups before I go to bed and sleep like a baby!" Well I think they're either lying or they don't know how little rest they're really getting! Because I don't believe it! It isn't possible!

74. CAFFEINE IS A STIMULANT AND IT STIMULATES YOUR BODY WHETHER YOU'RE AWAKE OR NOT! It quickens your pulse rate and your heart beats harder and your brain is stimulated even if it's in your sleep, so your body and mind don't rest properly or fully.

75. SO IT'S CERTAINLY NOT WISE TO DRINK STIMULANTS AFTER DINNER OR NEAR BEDTIME, such as coffee or tea or chocolate‚ if it's real chocolate. There is twice as much caffeine in a cup of real chocolate, real strong chocolate, as there is in a cup of strong coffee, believe it or not! And usually a lot of sugar too. God deliver us from sugar!

76. THEY SAY THE NEXT HIGHEST DIETARY CAUSE OF DISEASES IS FATS. The Scripture says‚ "Let not your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting," meaning having too much of anything. It's hard on your heart and it's hard on other parts of your body as well. Fats have been a proven cause of all kinds of diseases, particularly heart trouble and arterial sclerosis, hardening of the arteries, along with excess salt.

77. SO YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT, BELOVED, you are what you eat! And if you eat poison you're going to turn into poison yourself!—Poison yourself. And you are what you drink, and all this soda pop and coffee and tea and all kinds of sweets are not good for you.

78. I DRINK ABOUT ONE COFFEE A DAY. One cup in the morning of just about a level teaspoon of this instant coffee and that's all I drink all day. I like a little bit in the morning to sort of wake me up. I think a little bit is not going to do you that much damage, might even be a little bit good for you.

79. BUT THE WAY SOME PEOPLE DRINK COFFEE IS GOING TO KILL THEM, like some of those Canarians who drink ten to fifteen cups a day of that strong stuff! It's no wonder so many of the people there die of heart trouble. Most of the people there either die of heart trouble, probably from the coffee, or stomach trouble from all the unclean seafood they eat.

80. REMEMBER BELOVED, ALL SEAFOOD IS UNCLEAN EXCEPT‚ FISH WITH SCALES AND FINS. Just take that as your beginning criteria. All other seafood is unclean according to the Bible and should not be eaten. It's full of poison and disease or is just plain not good for you. It's full of garbage and sewage and so on.

81. THEY'RE THE GARBAGEMEN OF THE SEA! Most of those crustaceans and mollusks, that's shellfish, and the scaleless sea creatures make their living consuming garbage and sewage, believe it or not. So no wonder people get cholera from mussels and so on!

82. SO IT IS TERRIBLE THE THINGS THAT SOME OF THE MEDITERRANEAN, ISLAND AND ASIAN PEOPLE EAT, all the different kinds of sea foods they eat which are unclean! It's no wonder so many of them have stomach trouble, and the way some of them drink coffee it's no wonder so many of them die of heart trouble!

83. SO GOD DELIVER US FROM THESE POISONS that some people apparently are still eating in spite of everything I've said in the Letters I've written.

84. I'M GOING TO CALL SUGAR A SIN IN OUR COLONIES and just as forbidden as smoking! And if anybody is caught with sugar in their house they're sinners!

85. IT'S ALSO AGAINST GOD'S BIBLE LAWS TO EAT ALL THAT UNCLEAN MEAT because they contain poisons and dangerous diseases that can sicken you, paralyze you, give you cholera, cancer and multitudes of other diseases that can kill you!

86. HERE'S THE LIST STRAIGHT FROM THE BIBLE (Lev.7 & 11): Clean: Those with cloven hoofs which chew cud, like beef‚ lamb‚ goat, etc., but not horse, camel, rabbit or pork, etc.

87. EVEN OF CLEAN MEATS YOU CANNOT EAT UNCLEAN PARTS such as kidneys, fat, gall bladder‚ blood and guts. Brains, tongue, liver, heart, etc.‚ are okay.

88. CLEAN SEAFOODS ARE ONLY FISH WITH BOTH FINS AND SCALES! All others are unclean, such as all shell fish, all crustaceans (crab, lobster, shrimp‚ crawfish, etc.).

89. THE UNCLEAN FOWLS ARE all eagles, hawks, owls, vultures, swan, pelicans, storks, heron and the like, plus bats.

90. ALSO UNCLEAN ARE FOURLEGGED CREEPERS like lizards, alligators, crocodiles and other reptiles like snakes, etc.

91. BUT INSECT JUMPERS WITH SIX LEGS ARE OKAY, such as locusts and grasshoppers. But turtles, mice, moles, weasels, snails, etc., are not! Plus bears, lions‚ tigers, panthers, etc., with paws—which includes your dogs and cats!—Ha!

92. THESE SIMPLE HEALTH RULES ARE STILL GOOD and were not ended like the Mosaic moral code by Jesus Law of Love! So if you love yourself and others you won't eat'em! Happy health!

P.S.—OF COURSE THERE ARE TIMES WHEN YOU MAY HAVE TO EAT'EM (1Cor.10) for courtesy or when there is no alternative.—Pray!

The Fight of Faith for Health,

DON'T ABUSE YOUR BODY!—Eat Right, Sleep Right‚ Exercise Right!

(ML #2546:27-30, DB 10)

27. People need to realize that eating the wrong things is abusing their body just as much as anything else! They've gotten the idea that only things like smoking, drinking, drugs & that sort of thing is abusing their body, but there are plenty of Christians who abuse their body just as much, if not worse, by what they eat, & what they fail to do in the way of exercise!

28. You & I get out & exercise every day, vigorously, strenuously, whether we like it or not, & whether we think we have time for it or not! We have to if we're going to stay alive! You can't put it off & say, "Well, I don't have time today." If you don't have time today you'll never have time for it, because every day stands alone! Today is the day you should get vigorous exercise, some time today! Today is the day you should eat the right foods! Tonight is the night you should get enough sleep!

29. I wonder how many of our people are giving themselves the excuse, "I've got to get this done now‚ I don't have time to take a walk! I don't have time to exercise today, this is urgent!" There is nothing more urgent than your health if you're going to stay alive to continue to do God's Work! And you have got to get exercise, & you have got to eat right, just as much as you have got to get enough sleep!

30. Look at it this way: Eating the right food & getting enough exercise & getting enough rest is serving God! It's a part of your Work for the Lord! It's God's Work to let God work in you.

Eat Right!

Maria #428CM/FM 31804/98

1. Praise the Lord, dear Family! How would you like a new MO Letter?—Hot off the griddle! We've got one here for you, and it's hot‚ all right! God bless Dad! He's really one for telling it like it is, no holds barred!

2. Please take it to heart, dear ones. The Lord is asking us to tighten up in some areas that we've gotten lax in, and He's doing it because He loves us. Dad loves you, and he loves our little children and wants to see them get the very best they can. They deserve it, and you owe it to them as parents, shepherds, and older brothers and sisters. So please do all you can to heed this admonition, and I know the Lord will bless you for it.

3. Any time the Lord asks us to take a step in some area, whether it means forsaking something which He knows is not good for us or making more of an effort in some area, or whether He's just requiring greater obedience to Him, there are always sacrifices. These sacrifices often seem very great at the time‚ and of course the Enemy is always there to tell us that we won't be able to make it, or that it's not worth it, or that we might be an exception because of our circumstances.

4. The Enemy might try to make you feel defensive, or justify your situation. Please resist him, and really pray that you can take this correction from Dad as something that is needed and which is important for you to follow in obedience. Even if it requires sacrifices—whether in person or as a Home—I know the Lord will more than repay and will faithfully supply your needs as you obey and look to Him! He never fails! I'm praying for each of you‚ that as you take these words to heart, you will be strengthened through your obedience! Remember, obedience brings on the blessings of God!

5. First I'll include excerpts of a letter from a dear mother on the field who wrote us with her concerns. The scenario she describes might seem extreme to you, but please don't pass off Dad's message as applicable only to extreme situations like this one. Once you start compromising, it doesn't take long to lose your conviction completely! The dear ones in this Home undoubtedly didn't start out like this, but gradually got to this sad state through compromising little by little‚ to where it didn't even seem abnormal anymore. Lord help us!

(Excerpts of a letter to Mama from a concerned Family member:)

6. Dear Mama, I love you! I came here with a burden to work with toddlers, and this Home has seven children under 3 years old, all third generation children. Basically, I think the Enemy has somehow found a chink in our armor and is working overtime to see that these little ones' lives are damaged in every way he can.

7. In the last month we did the Home Evaluation Checklist, and we had to admit we were doing badly on the junk food score, and that many bad habits have been accepted in the Home‚ and the standard of nutrition for the adults needs to be reviewed. Nevertheless, I'm most concerned with how this low standard is compounded by the time it reaches the children.

8. Working with three of them in the nursery, I have observed that white flour, white sugar cookies are handed out on demand all day long, with no regard to mealtimes coming. I would calculate that for one of the little boys in my nursery, 50% of his food intake is cookies.

9. I understand that the shepherds have attempted to set a higher standard before, but I guess they got weary in well doing‚ or just plain got snowed under with other things. The contents of our pantry are like a junk food and poison supermarket, nothing left to the imagination.

10. After doing the Home Evaluation Checklist, the same week junk food was brought into the Home from the area provisioning. Unfortunately‚ along with the real food comes mountains of junk. I guess everybody is so used to passing the buck, "Well, the area provisioners must think it's okay," "The other Homes are getting it, too," etc.

11. Now, four weeks after the Checklist and resolving to do better, we have brought home eight varieties of white sugar, white flour cookies to stock the pantry (even cream-filled, Oreo–style), sponge cake mixes‚ waffle mixes, etc., as well as cases of sweet drinks (20% juice), and loads of other junk. I personally think about a third of the pantry stock should go into the garbage. Last Friday on provisioning pickup day our quality control person was sick in bed‚ so I took the liberty of cleaning two large garbage bags of "poison" out of the pickups—for example: strawberry mousse cups with whipped cream and a gumdrop on top, three boxes of marshmallows, etc.

12. The kids are the ones that are being pumped full of this crap. There is a little boy here who has cavities who's not yet three years old. The other day an FGA brother told me to look for a second while he raised the top lip of this poor little boy, and a third of one of his top front teeth is rotted away! I had no idea it was that bad. I would expect to see something like that in a ghetto in a Third World country.

13. (Editor: Reading this, some of you might say, "But any sugar or sweetener will cause cavities if you don't brush your teeth! It's not the fault of the white sugar; it's the fault of not maintaining proper dental hygiene!" While that is true in part, taking in such amounts of white sugar robs your body of calcium, which weakens your teeth considerably and encourages decay. Even natural sweets must be eaten in moderation, and be balanced with a nutritious, healthful diet!)

14. I've noticed that there are a lot of junk food wrappers in the garbage. At first I thought the chocolate boxes, etc., were just a hangover from Valentine's day, but it is still going on. I looked into just the top half of the garbage can, and I found empty boxes and wrappers for the following: milk chocolate sticks with butterscotch‚ Milky Ways, a family-size chocolate bar, two other chocolate bars, two cream-filled chocolate bars, a pack of chocolate-coated coconut cream wafers, Hershey kisses‚ ice cream (one quart size)‚ a small ice cream, and packets of gumdrops. (This is stuff people must have gone out and bought.)

15. One of our 1½-year-olds has such a sweet tooth that it is impossible to get a spoon of yogurt into him, even if it is sweetened. I was having good success with him with banana milk‚ but he has gone off that now, due to the full-blown resurgence of white sugar in his diet. When the new cookies came in, someone quickly restocked the nursery with four kinds of cookies, including cream-filled. I can just imagine what Dad would say.

16. Another part of the tragedy is that if we got rid of the garbage, there is plenty for the kids to eat which is wholesome and healthful, and we'd hardly need to buy anything. There are quality whole-meal [whole wheat, whole grain] crackers, top–class cheeses, dried fruit, fresh fruit, yogurt, banana milk, homemade oatmeal cookies, etc., but if you go to the kitchen at snack time the kids will be eating white bread with jam, one of several varieties of cookies, chips, sweet drinks, etc.—snack junk with more nutrition in the packaging than in the contents!

17. Well, Mama, I guess that is enough for one letter. At first I was afraid of what the shepherds would think, but now I realize they will be happy to get some much needed help and support in this area, and they know I love them.

18. I have tried not to cause any upset or schism in the Home, but have found that a couple of others are also concerned about the situation. One of our sweet YAs was standing in the pantry with me the other day, and turned to me and said, "It's sad that this stuff has come into the house." The next day she baked the most beautiful oatmeal and raisin cookies for the kids‚ God bless her!

Love and prayers,

From one of your little birdies

19. (Dad speaking:) I'm a real health food fanatic, and I always did my best to stick to the foods that I knew were good for my body. My parents raised me well and taught me to be mindful of what I ate. When I was a kid, we always had good‚ well-balanced meals, real good healthful stuff, and real tasty, too. My parents were usually a good sample to me about what kinds of foods to eat and what not to eat.

20. Of course, in those days there wasn't nearly as much processed food or junk food around as there is today. The food industry keeps pumping out the ready-made food, the preserved food, the sweets, the candy, the poisonous junk food! Slowly but surely the consumers are getting more and more addicted to foods like white flour, white sugar‚ candies, preserved meats, instant soups, microwave meals, imitation creams, imitation this and imitation that.

21. When I was a kid, I enjoyed the food that we ate, and because it was all relatively healthful, that was what I craved and that was what I enjoyed. When I was a young boy, I liked whole-meal things and healthful foods.

22. Do you remember the story that I told about the shredded wheat? That was something that I really liked eating, and it was also something healthful and good for me. I liked it so much that my mother helped me to write a letter of thanks to the company. To my surprise, they delivered some complimentary boxes of cereal to our doorstep one day! I really liked shredded wheat, and I guess the Lord knew that it was good for me and would help me to grow strong and healthy. So He supplied that for me, knowing that it was going to be good for me.

23. I think that's one of the main dilemmas in the Homes: A lot of the provisioning is below standard. In some countries, the provisioning is at least half junk food. It's a dilemma for the provisioners, because they want to supply the Homes with enough food‚ and they have a responsibility to do so‚ but then a lot of what is donated is junk—white-sugar foods‚ preserved meats, and meals that have no nutritional value left in them. Some of these things have more goodness in the cardboard box than they do in the actual contents! You'd be better off eating a cardboard box than filling your body with so much junk food.

24. Now I understand the provisioners, and how difficult their job must be. The Lord touches people's hearts and they donate all of this food, but then half of it isn't up to what our health standard should be. What do you do? Do you throw away all of that donated food? How do you do that and still have enough food to feed the Homes? How do you break out of this vicious cycle? I think we've done something wrong, somewhere back in time.

25. From the very beginning, you provisioners should make it clear to your contacts what kind of food we in the Family eat. You need to make it clear from the beginning what our standard is. You need to make it clear that we don't eat junk food and we prefer the healthful foods, the fresh foods. If you explain where you stand from the very beginning, then you shouldn't have a problem at all. They won't even give you the stuff that they know you won't use.

26. If you occasionally get something in the provisioning that isn't up to our health standard, then you can donate it to needy missions, shelters‚ orphanages, old folks homes, or even to the poor. Even if you haven't explained our stance on junk food to your contacts from the very beginning, it's never too late to do the right thing. In fact, it's better late than never.

27. The Lord wants us to eat right, sleep right, exercise right, and live right. He definitely wants us to take care of our temples, the bodies that He has given us, so don't you think He'll supply the healthful food that you need? It may take a little bit more faith‚ and it may take a little bit of conviction to buck the tide and search and find those who are willing to give you good, healthful foods. But it's worth it to keep your bodies in good shape—healthy, whole, and strong for the Lord's work.

28. I've seen some pretty sad situations in some of the Homes. I've been visiting Homes around the world and I've taken a peek into some of their pantries, and I've been shocked at what I've seen! Mama recently got a letter from one of our dear faithful mothers who was very concerned about the state of the nation's food situation. Well, the stories she told were pretty eye-opening, so I decided to go and check out the situation myself. I found that her observations were pretty correct, and the situation in her Home was in need of correction. But I'm not just zooming in on this particular situation. I believe that everyone could use a little warning to help them pull up their socks.

29. I've visited Homes where the young people keep candies and chocolate bars and gum and all kinds of things in their rooms. Some folks have their private stashes and it's a poor, poor sample to the others in the Home, especially the children! Maybe you older folks don't care so much about your bodies. Maybe you young people think that you're doing okay and you don't need to worry. But what about the little kids? What about your own kids?

30. How do you think you stayed so healthy all of your life? It was because your parents cared enough about you and your little body to give you the right kinds of food. They didn't pump your body full of sugars and junk food. They did their very best to give you the kind of foods that would help you to grow strong and healthy, fit to be a leader in our Endtime army.

31. What are you feeding your kids? Are you concerned about whether your child has an incurable sweet tooth at the age of 1½? These little bodies are still growing, and if you don't feed them good foods, full of the nutrients and minerals that they need, you're going to have a 5- or 6-year-old child with weak bones that will break easily, a mouth full of cavities, a low supply of energy, digestive problems, stomach ulcers, a lowered resistance to sickness from a weakened immune system, unhealthy hair‚ and much, much more!

32. These little bodies need good wholesome food‚ vitamins, minerals, lots of fiber, lots of calcium, protein, and nutrients. When you stuff sugar down their throats day after day, you're just robbing their bodies of all of their goodness. You're robbing their blood of its goodness.

33. Doctor Koger drilled this into me when I was a kid—that white sugar was a killer and a thief. Not only is white sugar a killer and a thief, but so is all of this other junk food that's around in the world today. I know that none of you would chow down a handful of white sugar‚ but by eating all of these sickeningly sweet cookies, rich cake and muffin mixes, full-of-air–and-sugar waffle and pancake mixes, sugar-filled soft drinks and even sugar-filled fruit juice drinks‚ you're stealing the goodness out of your body and you're replacing it with poison.

34. Now, I can't legislate righteousness and I can't appear in person and throw out all the junk food in your house, but I can tell you what I think about it, and I can get pretty hot under the collar about this issue! If you want to be lacking in energy, weak, and susceptible to the diseases and sicknesses that continually float through the air in the form of germs and viruses, then by eating unhealthful food you're certainly going in the right direction!

35. But for God's sake, give your kids a chance to grow up and be healthy, lively, energetic kids who are free from sickness! They're the hope of the future! They're the ones upon whom the ends of the Earth are come, and all of these little prophets and prophetesses are going to be used of the Lord in the days to come! They not only need to be prepared spiritually by avoiding the junk food of the spirit, but they also need to be prepared physically by avoiding the physical junk food. You need to make it as easy as possible for them to do the job, without handicapping them with the burden of poor health brought on by unhealthful living. It's one thing if they're blessed with afflictions which the Lord knows are making them fighters, closer to Him and better equipped in the spirit for the job He has for them, but it's another thing to spoil the good health the Lord has given them through neglecting to teach them to eat right and live right!

36. The Lord's placed these children in your care‚ and you are responsible before the Lord to see to it that they are given the best care that you can possibly give them. If you, as a Home, are slipping back in this area of junk food, then I think it's about time you check your hearts to see what areas you need to change in. Have your appetites become so perverted that you now crave these poisonous foods? Sad to say, I think some of you have become addicted to eating this way! Some of you have acquired such a sweet tooth that you now crave all of these junk food goodies.

37. I've seen situations where children at the ages of 1½ to 2 have such a sweet tooth that they don't even want to eat good food anymore. Some of the children's teeth are rotting, and others have health problems, continually catching colds and getting sick. It's no wonder that some of our kids aren't as healthy as they could be. It doesn't surprise me when I see what kinds of foods they're taking into their little bodies!

38. Some of you older folks are always tired and lacking in energy. Did it ever occur to you that if you started being a little more conscious of and concerned about what you ate, that that might have a drastic impact on your life? Did it ever occur to you that eating healthful foods would give you an extra boost of physical energy?

39. When you eat so many unhealthful foods‚ junk foods, and stuff that has no nutritional value‚ you clog up your whole digestive system. Pretty soon your body can't even digest the food properly. Your blood vessels clog, so the blood in your body can't flow freely to your heart. You start having problems in all sorts of areas in your body! But if you were more careful about what you ate and tried to stick to unprocessed, natural foods—good fruits and vegetables, good clean meats, eggs, milk, homemade or plain yogurt, and whole grain cereals, breads, pastas, and brown rice—you'd find yourself having so much more energy! Your health would improve drastically.

40. The counsel that I gave years ago still applies today. Why don't you reread "MO's Pointers for Health" (ML #353, Vol.3), and "Food or Poison" (ML #609, Vol.5)? Do a Word study as a Home on all that has been said in the Letters about eating right and taking care of the temple that the Lord has given you. [Editor: Also, see the "Food and Drink Rules" in the Charter. We've reprinted an excerpt from them on page 7 of this GN for your reference.] You're all bought with a price, each and every one of you, and you have a responsibility to the Lord to take care of the body that He's given you.

41. Are you taking care of the body that the Lord has given you, as well as the little lives in your care? Or are you abusing your body by filling it with the waste products of junk food and other poisonous pleasures? The Lord's not going to let you down‚ and He's not going to disappoint you. If you have the faith and stand firm in your convictions, your health convictions, then the Lord will not fail to provide and give you all of the good food that you need. In fact, He'll reward you over and above what you can ask or think!

42. He'll give you much better food and much more of an abundance of it, as you take the step of faith to begin to eat right once again. It may take some effort and a little bit of faith at first‚ but in the long run you'll save yourself and your Home and your children so much pain, sickness and problems. The Lord wouldn't require you to eat right and consume good nutritious foods if He wasn't willing to supply all of your needs. He is willing and more than able to give, but He's just waiting for you to make room for His blessings!

43. God help us to take care of the bodies that He's given us! It's a real shame and a terrible sample to others when we don't strive for a high health standard. One of the things we've been known for is our good, healthy children. God help us not to abuse our bodies or the bodies of our children by being slack in the area of nutrition! We certainly don't want to be a reproach to the cause of Christ by not taking care of ourselves and our children.

44. I'm not saying that you can't have occasional sweets and treats, cakes and ice cream on birthdays or special occasions. I'm not saying that at all. But even the majority of these could and should be made with healthful ingredients as much as possible—definitely natural sugar, avoiding the poison which the Enemy has associated with "special treats!" If you're really living the healthy way that the Lord intended and that I've tried to teach you, then once in a while to have a treat that's not possible to make with all natural ingredients isn't going to hurt you‚ because you're obeying, and so you're receiving the Lord's blessings and protection.

45. It's spiritual as much as physical, folks. Because the Lord has given us health rules to live by, and because I've spent so much time teaching you the specifics of how to live right and eat healthy, when you have that option but you choose the alternative of the Devil's poison, it's nothing but disobedience, plain and simple! The Lord can't bless it! I'm talking about the continual input of unhealthful foods with no nutritional value, as well as the snacks that just rob your body of all of its goodness and suck the life right out of you.

46. I've been very saddened by situations that I've seen in some Homes. As a matter of fact, I've even become enraged with Godly anger at times‚ because some of you folks and Homes need a real metanoia, a real change, a real health revolution! If you're one of the Homes that is falling short in this area, then it's about time for a change. In fact, a change is way overdue!

47. This problem has come to the fore and it's gotten to the point where I've had to come and give you a special message about it. So that in itself should show you the seriousness of the situation and how concerned I am about it. Mama's concerned about it, too, and that's why she called on me to give you a message about it.

48. The health and well-being of each of us is so very important. If we're not as healthy or as strong as we could be, how can the Lord use us to the full? Our spirits may be wildly willing, but if our flesh is weak and weighed down with junk food, then we're not going to be of much use to the Lord!

49. The body is a vehicle, and we need to keep our vehicle in good shape. We need to keep the engine tuned, the exterior clean, and the windshield wipers working. We need to stay full of gas, oil‚ water, and keep our tires pumped up with air in order to be useful to the Lord. He's counting on your faithful upkeep of the car that He's given you! He's counting on you to be faithful with the body that He's given you—and eating right is a major part of your care and upkeep.

50. Keep clean, keep free from junk, keep free from energy-depleting foods, and certainly keep those children in your care free from poisonous junk food that will rob their little bodies of goodness! Each one of you is very needed for the future! The more healthy and strong you are, the more useful you'll be to the Lord.

51. The Lord is able to keep you strong and healthy, but you have to do your part. If you do your part, then He'll do the rest. But if you're robbing your body of health, then He's certainly not going to feel like infusing health and strength back into you! You've got to do what you can in the physical, and He'll do what you can't. He'll make up for your lacks. He'll help those who can't help themselves‚ and He'll also help those who help themselves, but He can't help those who can help themselves but won't.

52. May the Lord bless and keep you living right and eating right! "You are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit—which are God's!" (1Cor.6:20). (End of message from Dad.)

"Food and Drink Rules," 6B‚ page 125-126 of the Charter:

Avoid eating foods and drinks with high sugar content, white sugar‚ bleached flour or rice and products made with such, and "junk food," except when unavoidable or on appropriate occasions.

Family members should avoid, which means to shun, as much as possible the eating of any kind of unhealthy food. This means you should not only shun Biblically unclean foods, but also avoid foods and drinks with a high sugar content, or other unhealthy or non-nutritious foods such as bleached white flour, white sugar and white rice.

This is oftentimes more difficult when you get something to eat or drink when outside the Home. Ideally‚ you should not consume any foods outside your Home that your Home would not have the faith to serve in your Home. Of course, if you are extremely thirsty and the only thing available to drink is a Cola, then you might have to drink it. But if there was something else available and safe to drink, which didn't have a high sugar content, then you should choose that instead. This is not a license to regularly eat food containing refined and bleached white starches or sugar, or drink beverages with high sugar content, either at Home or when out.

There are appropriate occasions for having foods that have sugar content or are made with white flour; for example, on a birthday you might have store-bought cake and ice cream. Ice cream, unless it's homemade, definitely has quite a bit of sugar in it‚ and would fall under the category of food that has high sugar content. However, it would be acceptable, because it is an appropriate occasion.

The key word pertaining to this rule is "unavoidable." Remember, the rule is to avoid unhealthy foods. If you are regularly eating and drinking such things, and are making an insufficient effort to acquire the proper types of food, you are breaking this rule and are subject to disciplinary measures.

FJWL 1:433

(Dad:) These attacks of the Enemy are a strange thing! You might wonder how come the Enemy can attack you so if the Lord loves you so much, and if He is in control and has His angels encamped around you. You might wonder how the Enemy can get through all of that and cause you such pain and suffering.

The Devil can take a weakness that sometimes comes through the flesh, and use it to attack you in the spirit. Sometimes these weaknesses in the flesh come through disobediences to the health rules, or are even disobediences to the Lord's spiritual laws; these things weaken you and open the door for the Enemy to attack you.

You need to get together and pray and see in which ways you are not obeying the Lord. Even little things can open the door for the Enemy to attack you. If you're not being faithful with your get-out, or if your diet isn't right, or if you're not getting enough sleep—if you disobey in these ways, it weakens your body in time, and then the Enemy can take that weakness and use it to attack you. The Lord allows him to attack you in that way because you have been disobedient. This opens a chink in your armor and a way for the Enemy to get through your defenses to attack you.

If you're not getting vigorous get-out and really making your heart pump, then your body can't get rid of the poisons and your circulation isn't good, and this can bring about all kinds of problems and difficulties. So even if you're young, don't think that you can get away with not having good get-out. You need to have good get-out every day or you are going to suffer for it.

You need to have a good diet to give your body the strength to fight off the attacks of the Enemy. And you need to have good sex to help you relax, to help get rid of the tension and to help you get the sleep you need. When your body is sleeping, that's when the Lord can repair the weak areas and restore your strength and give your resistance a boost to be able to fight the attacks of the Enemy.

So there are many things, even in the physical‚ which can open the door to the attacks of the Enemy. It is also true of the spiritual. If you get very discouraged, this too opens the door for the Enemy to attack you. You might think there's not much of a connection between a time of heavy discouragement and a physical affliction, but there can be a connection. Because when you get very discouraged and you lose faith, that's when you lose your Halloween Wheel of power and anointing. When you lose your power and anointing, then the Enemy can come in and attack you. And he'll often use physical afflictions, because they make you more discouraged. They weaken you in the flesh and cause you to fear. And unless you turn your eyes to the Lord and look to Him and His Word‚ they can even weaken you in the spirit.

So you see, my dear one, all these little details in your life are important: getting your get-out, eating right, sleeping right, loving right, working right, and staying close to the Lord. All these things are important if you want to stay in good health.

Daniel chapter 1, Bible

1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.

2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.

3 And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs‚ that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes;

4 Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skilful in all wisdom‚ and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

5 And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

6 Now among these were of the children of Judah‚ Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:

7 Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.

8 But 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: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

9 Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.

10 And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.

11 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

12 Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat‚ and water to drink.

13 Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee‚ and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.

14 So he consented to them in this matter‚ and proved them ten days.

15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.

16 Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.

17 As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

18 Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

19 And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel‚ Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.

20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them‚ he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

21 And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.

Copyright © 2004 by The Family

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