Water

Health – Potential Hydrogens (pH) – Important for Health

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“I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Psalm 139:14.

Any imbalances in our bodies causes dis-ease. Any failure to follow the health laws causes an imbalance in one or more areas. That imbalance or dis-ease may not be experienced right away, but it will manifest itself in one way or another sooner or later. It gives God the glory to continually learn about our bodies to gain a deeper understanding of this intricate piece of machinery in which we live.

One important aspect of health is the body’s pH balance. There are many articles written on this very complicated subject. But I would like to share with you an excerpt from the book, Beating Cancer with Nutrition, by Patrick Quillin, PhD, R.D., CNS., with Noreen Quillin, Nutrition Times Press, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma, 234, 235. This particularly refers to cancer patients; however, this information is interesting to learn a little more about pH balance. He says:

“Acid alkaline balance (7.41 ideal in human veins) brought about by:

  • Proper breathing
  • Exercise (carbonic buffer from carbon dioxide in blood)
  • Diet (plant foods elevate pH, animal foods and sugar reduce pH)
  • Water (adequate hydration improves pH)
  • Other agents, such as cesium chloride, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate

“Cancer is acidic (low pH) tissue. [Newell, K, et al., Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, vol. 90, no. 3, p. 1127, February 1993.] It is clear from all human physiology textbooks that pH in the blood, saliva, urine and other areas is a critical factor for health. Blood pH is usually 7.35-7.45 with 7.41 thought to be ideal. Acceptable pH for saliva is 6.0-7.5, stomach 1.0-3.5, colon 5.0-8.4 and urine 4.5-8.4. Most foods influence pH—pushing toward either acid or alkaline. Clinicians will spend much time adjusting parenteral feedings to achieve a proper pH in the blood. [Parenteral is a route of administration that involves piercing the skin or mucous membrane.] Meanwhile, there have been many alternative health books that attempt to treat various diseases by adjusting the body pH via the diet.

“Potential hydrogens, or pH, refer to the acid or alkaline nature of a chemical. If you mix a mild acid, like vinegar, with a mild alkaline substance, like baking soda, then the resulting reaction produces a salt—they neutralize one another by exchanging hydrogens. Just about everything that goes in your mouth can alter pH, including oxygen. The acidic pH of cancer cells also decreases the oxygen-carrying capacity of the surrounding blood so that tissue can become somewhat anaerobic—which are perfect conditions for cancer to thrive. Deep breathing has an alkalizing effect on the blood. An alkalizing diet of lots of plant food also helps to encourage removal of toxic heavy metals.

“The macrobiotic book claims that pH adjustment is one of the more crucial objectives of their diet. [Aihara, H., ACID & ALKALINE, Macrogiotic Foundation, Oroville, CA, 1971.] Yet, I have worked with a few cancer patients who got worse on the macrobiotic program. … Not everyone will thrive on the same diet. … It appears that some people are prone toward extreme acid or alkaline metabolism. For these people on the edge of acceptable biological pH, diet provides a counterbalance to bring serum pH back toward normal. Think of sailing a small boat where you may have to use your body as a counterbalance to prevent the boat from being tipped over by the wind. If your metabolism is in jeopardy of ‘tipping over’ toward extreme pH, then diet and breathing become your counterbalances that keep metabolism upright.

“While this area may be absolutely essential for some cancer patients, a trial and error method may be the only way to find out which direction your pH needs adjusting. If your condition improves on the macrobiotic program, then you are pushing your pH in the right direction. If your condition worsens on the macrobiotic program, then you must push your pH in the opposite direction.

“About 8 percent of the population must have acid forming foods to counterbalance their extremely alkalotic pH. Some people can eat anything they want and their internal mechanisms compensate to find an acceptable pH. For many people, an alkalizing diet (toward the left) will help to neutralize their acidifying tendencies, which can invite cancer.

“Venous pH is the most accurate indicator of your overall body pH. Yet blood tests are invasive, expensive and not practical for regular use. A rough indicator of your body pH is your saliva and urinary pH. You can purchase Nitrazine paper from your local druggist and follow the directions for measuring saliva or urine pH. Test your saliva at least one hour after any food or drink.”

This little bit of information by Dr. Patrick Quillin on pH is understood by very few people. I found it to be enlightening.

It is not just through diet that you balance your pH. Balance includes deep breathing, diet, exercise and water. This should alert each one of us that these recommendations are included in following the eight health laws: Nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, air, rest and trust in God. It is up to each of us, to the best of our ability, to preserve our health.

This earth is filled with disease and we have a daily battle with which to contend. Let us always ask God to guide and protect us as we battle on by His grace.

To God be all of the glory.

Bible Study Guides – “There Is a River”

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February 17, 2013 – February 23, 2013

Key Text

“And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Revelation 21:6.

Study Help: Counsels on Diet and Foods, 419–437.

Introduction

“Thousands have died for want of pure water and pure air, who might have lived. … These blessings they need in order to become well. If they would become enlightened and let medicine alone, and accustom themselves to outdoor exercise, and to air in their houses, summer and winter, and use soft water for drinking and bathing purposes, they would be comparatively well and happy instead of dragging out a miserable existence.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 419.

“We have now the invitations of mercy to become vessels unto honor, and then we need not worry about the latter rain; all we have to do is to keep the vessel clean and prepared and right side up, for the reception of the heavenly rain and keep praying, ‘Let the latter rain come into my vessel. Let the light of the glorious angel which unites with the third angel, shine upon me; give me a part in the work; let me sound the proclamation; let me be co-laborer with Jesus Christ.’ Thus seeking God, let me tell you, He is fitting you up all the time giving you His grace. You need not be worried. You need not be thinking that there is a special time coming when you are to be crucified; the time to be crucified is just now. Every day, every hour, self is to die; self is to be crucified, and then, when the time comes that the test shall come to God’s people in earnest, the everlasting arms are around you. The angels of God make a wall of fire around about and deliver you. All your self-crucifixion will not do any good then. It must come before the destiny of souls is decided. It is now that self is to be crucified, when there is work to do; when there is some use to be made of every entrusted capability. It is now that we are to empty and thoroughly cleanse the vessel of its impurity. It is now that we are to be made holy unto God. This is our work, this very moment. You are not to wait for any special period for a wonderful work to be done; it is today. I give myself to God today.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 1, 179, 180.

1 THE NEED OF WATER

  • What is one of the most important basic needs of human beings? John 4:7; Proverbs 25:21.

Note: “I should bathe frequently, and drink freely of pure, soft water.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 419.

  • How important is water to our physical well-being? Judges 15:18.

Note: “Pure water to drink, and fresh air to breathe … invigorate the vital organs, purify the blood, and help nature in her task of overcoming the bad conditions of the system.” The Review and Herald, December 5, 1899.

  • How is the importance of water described?

Note: “In health and in sickness, pure water is one of heaven’s choicest blessings. Its proper use promotes health. It is the beverage which God provided to quench the thirst of animals and man. Drunk freely, it helps to supply the necessities of the system and assists nature to resist disease. The external application of water is one of the easiest and most satisfactory ways of regulating the circulation of the blood.” The Ministry of Healing, 237.

  • What spiritual truth is illustrated by water? John 4:10, 14.

Note: “The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going forth, and it appeals to us with even greater power than to those who heard it in the temple on that last day of the feast. The fountain is open for all. The weary and exhausted ones are offered the refreshing draught of eternal life. Jesus is still crying, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.’ ‘Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’ ‘Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’ (John 7:37; Revelation 22:17; John 4:14).” The Desire of Ages, 454.

2 THE NEED OF CLEANSING

  • What other work of Christ is illustrated through one of water properties? John 13:5, 10; Isaiah 1:16.

Note: “Brethren and sisters, we need the reformation that all who are redeemed must have, through the cleansing of mind and heart from every taint of sin. In the lives of those who are ransomed by the blood of Christ, self-sacrifice will constantly appear. Goodness and righteousness will be seen. The quiet, inward experience will make the life full of godliness, faith, meekness, patience. This is to be our daily experience. We are to form characters free from sin—characters made righteous in and by the grace of Christ. … Our hearts are to be cleansed from all impurity in the blood shed to take away sin.” Counsels on Health, 633, 634.

“The external application of water is one of the easiest and most satisfactory ways of regulating the circulation of the blood. A cold or cool bath is an excellent tonic. Warm baths open the pores and thus aid in the elimination of impurities. Both warm and neutral baths soothe the nerves and equalize the circulation.” The Ministry of Healing, 237.

  • Why is this cleansing important? Psalm 51:7, 9.

Note: “God is purifying a people to have clean hands and pure hearts to stand before Him in the Judgment. The standard must be elevated, the imagination purified; the infatuation clustering around debasing practices must be given up, and the soul uplifted to pure thoughts, holy practices.” The Review and Herald, May 24, 1887.

  • What needs cleansing in our being? James 4:8.

Note: “The cleansing must begin in the heart and mind, and flow forth in the actions. The characters of our medical missionary workers need to be refined and ennobled. This result can be brought about only as these workers are made partakers of the divine image, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust.” The Review and Herald, August 20, 1903.

3 TOTAL CLEANSING

  • How can we obtain complete cleansing? Psalm 51:2, 10; I John 1:9. How do we know that partial submission to the Lord is not acceptable? Matthew 6:24; 22:37; John 16:13.

Note: “Shall we hear the voice of God through His Word, giving warnings and appeals and commands, calling us to a new contest by a new and more thorough consecration of ourselves, of all our entrusted capabilities and powers? My brethren and sisters who are engaged in the solemn work of being the mouthpiece of God, be sure that the treasure house of the heart is pure and holy.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 19, 318.

  • What should we examine before approaching the Lord in prayer? Lamentations 3:40; II Corinthians 13:5. What physical cleansing is also required? Hebrews 10:22; Exodus 19:10; Genesis 35:2.

Note: “The skin needs to be carefully and thoroughly cleansed, that the pores may do their work in freeing the body from impurities; therefore feeble persons who are diseased surely need the advantages and blessings of bathing as often as twice a week, and frequently even more than this is positively necessary. Whether a person is sick or well, respiration is more free and easy if bathing is practiced. By it the muscles become more flexible, the mind and body are alike invigorated, the intellect is made brighter, and every faculty becomes livelier. The bath is a soother of the nerves. It promotes general perspiration, quickens the circulation, overcomes obstructions in the system, and acts beneficially on the kidneys and urinary organs. Bathing helps the bowels, stomach, and liver, giving energy and new life to each. It also promotes digestion, and instead of the system’s being weakened it is strengthened. Instead of increasing the liability to cold, a bath, properly taken, fortifies against cold because the circulation is improved and the uterine organs, which are more or less congested, are relieved; for the blood is brought to the surface, and a more easy and regular flow of the blood through all the blood vessels is obtained.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 70, 71.

4 WATER, A GREAT BLESSING

  • Why is God’s word so specific, also, about the details of hygienic habits? II Corinthians 7:1.

Note: “God requires purity of heart and personal cleanliness now, as when He gave the special directions to the children of Israel. If God was so particular to enjoin cleanliness upon those journeying in the wilderness, who were in the open air nearly all the time, He requires no less of us who live in ceiled houses, where impurities are more observable and have a more unhealthful influence.” Counsels on Health, 82.

  • What does God give freely? Psalm 104:10, 11, 13; Matthew 5:45.

Note: “God is the source of life and light and joy to the universe. Like rays of light from the sun, like the streams of water bursting from a living spring, blessings flow out from Him to all His creatures. And wherever the life of God is in the hearts of men, it will flow out to others in love and blessing.” Steps to Christ, 77.

  • What lesson should we learn from natural thirst? Psalm 42:1.
  • What is one example of the best time to use lots of water?

Note: “If, in their fevered state, water had been given them [many persons] to drink freely, and applications had also been made externally, long days and nights of suffering would have been saved, and many precious lives spared. But thousands have died with raging fevers consuming them, until the fuel which fed the fever was burned up, the vitals consumed, and have died in the greatest agony, without being permitted to have water to allay their burning thirst. Water, which is allowed a senseless building to put out the raging elements, is not allowed human beings to put out the fire which is consuming the vitals.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 419, 420.

5 COUNTERFEITS ARE HARMFUL

  • List the substances that would be included in the category of harmful items to drink. Proverbs 23:20, 21, 29–32; I Corinthians 3:16, 17.

Note: “Tea is poisonous to the system. Christians should let it alone. The influence of coffee is in a degree the same as tea, but the effect upon the system is still worse. Its influence is exciting, and just in the degree that it elevates above par, it will exhaust and bring prostration below par.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 421.

  • What type of wine was served at the marriage feast in Cana and was recommended to Timothy? Isaiah 65:8; John 2:7–10; I Timothy 5:23.

Note: “The wine which Christ provided for the feast, and that which He gave to the disciples as a symbol of His own blood, was the pure juice of the grape. To this the prophet Isaiah refers when he speaks of the new wine ‘in the cluster,’ and says, ‘Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it’ (Isaiah 65:8).

“It was Christ who in the Old Testament gave the warning to Israel, ‘Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise’ (Proverbs 20:1). And He Himself provided no such beverage. … The unfermented wine which He provided for the wedding guests was a wholesome and refreshing drink. Its effect was to bring the taste into harmony with a healthful appetite.” The Desire of Ages, 149.

  • Wine in the cluster is fresh grape juice. What would happen if it was placed into old wine bottles? Matthew 9:17. What is the meaning of the warning given by Jesus?
  • According to divine instruction, what quality of fruit should we choose?

Note: “The juices of fruit, mingled with bread, will be highly enjoyed. Good, ripe, undecayed fruit is a thing we should thank the Lord for, because it is beneficial to health.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 437.

PERSONAL REVIEW

1 How important is water, and how often do I need it?

2 Is physical cleansing really that important? How does it relate to my need of spiritual cleansing?

3 Have I asked Christ to cleanse me from all filthiness? Have I asked Him to show me what needs cleansing?

4 Are there counterfeits in my life either in what I drink or whom I serve?

5 Why should I avoid anything that is not spiritually or physically healthy?

The Benefits of Water

“Many have never learned by experience the beneficial effects of the proper use of water, and they are afraid of it. Water treatments are not appreciated as they should be, and to apply them skillfully requires work that many are unwilling to perform. But none should feel excused for ignorance or indifference on this subject. There are many ways in which water can be applied to relieve pain and check disease. All should become intelligent in its use in simple home treatments. Mothers, especially, should know how to care for their families in both health and sickness.” The Ministry of Healing, 237.

Never Neglect Bathing

“Persons in health should on no account neglect bathing. They should by all means bathe as often as twice a week. Those who are not in health have impurities in the blood, and the skin is not in a healthy condition. The multitude of pores, or little mouths, through which the body breathes become clogged and filled with waste matter.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 70.

Bearing the Marks

“Tea and coffee drinkers carry the marks upon their faces. The skin becomes sallow, and assumes a lifeless appearance. The glow of health is not seen upon the countenance.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 421.

© 2007 Reformation Herald Publishing Association, Roanoke, Virginia. Reprinted by permission.

Where the Waters Run

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In the immense universe stretching through the vastness of space is our nearest neighbor the moon. Man has actually walked on its dry dusty face. We now know for certainty it is barren, desolate and devoid of even the simplest forms of life. What a contrast to colorful planet earth, our home—a sphere of striking beauty, green, fresh, fertile and teeming with life in great profusion. A dazzling diversity of life!

What makes the difference between the lifeless moon and the living earth? There is nothing else quite like water in the entire universe. In a surprising variety of ways the peculiar properties of water seem to have been designed expressly to make the world hospitable to life, and the earth has a great abundance of water. It covers about 70 percent of the earth’s surface. That is an estimated 326 million cubic miles of water. If the surface of the earth were perfectly smooth, the waters of the oceans would cover the earth uniformly to a depth of between 8,000 and 9,000 feet. However, only a fraction of one percent of all the water of earth can be called fresh water or water suitable for our personal use.

Most of us tend to regard this remarkable substance as ordinary, but we must not take it for granted, for in reality it is the most extraordinary substance in the universe and one upon which we are totally dependent for life.

The symbol for water, H2O—two atoms of hydrogen, and one atom of oxygen, is rather short as chemical formulas go, but that is water!

Hydrogen itself is a gas, the lightest of all elements and very flammable. Oxygen is also a gas and readily supports combustion.

Think of it—two gases—hydrogen, which is highly combustible, and oxygen which supports combustion. When combined in precisely the right proportion they form water, man’s chief agent for putting out fires.

When you heat water to 212 F it ceases to be a liquid and becomes a gas. When you cool water to 32 F it freezes. Why water reacts precisely as it does can be understood only by examining the structure of the water molecule itself, which looks something like the head of a mouse. The parts that look like the ears of a mouse represent two hydrogen atoms, the larger part represents an oxygen atom.

The two elements are quick to join each other and once together are difficult to separate because of the strong electrical attraction between them much like a magnet.

Given enough time, water will dissolve almost any other substance, for it comes closer to any other liquid to being a universal solvent and plays an important part in erosion. As water erodes, it picks up chemicals and minerals and were it not for the ability of water to dissolve or break down the molecular structure of other substances, plants would not get the nutrients they need.

Water’s force in motion is another factor dramatically evident in its power to erode. Its relentless motion through continuing centuries has helped to shape earth’s surface in rugged artistry. Cutting and chiseling through solid rock, water has sculptured deep canyons of spectacular grandeur.

Have you ever wondered why water forms into a drop or bead, how it holds itself together? Again, the explanation is found in the molecule. Once formed, water molecules join to each other in a sort of liquid latticework. In the liquid state, the negative side of one molecule is attracted or joined to the positive side of another. These attractions or bonds are formed and broken at random. At the surface where the liquid stops, the surface molecules cling to the ones below and to the sides. This cohesion creates a sort of skin that holds the water together, providing what is called surface tension. A drop of water takes the shape of a sphere. The skin of the molecule holds the sphere together. A water strider can walk on water, for the skin provides a surface.

Water skin is also illustrated in the old saying “like water off a duck’s back.” It is surface tension, which causes water to bead and roll off the bird’s back. Actually, due to surface tension these coots (swimming or diving birds) are sealed in an envelope of air as they dive, but perhaps the greatest work of surface tension in supporting life is cohesion or capillarity. Capillarity is the force that causes water to rise in a constricted space; the greater the constriction, the greater the rise. To further illustrate this principle, split the stem of a white carnation and place the parted stems in containers of colored water and you will find the different colors rise through the stem changing the color of the flower.

As water goes up the trunks of trees, capillary action is again at work. Without the ability of water to creep upward against the pull of gravity, the chemicals and minerals needed by plants to manufacture food would remain in the ground. Cohesion or capillarity is a phenomenon of water necessary to sustain life on earth.

In its solid state, water exhibits another phenomenon essential to life. In the days when the milkman delivered his product in a glass bottle, and it was left outside with the temperature below freezing, the milk would expand popping the bottle cap. Milk is 87 percent water. It was the water in the milk that froze and expanded. Almost any other substance, whether liquid, solid or gas will shrink in volume as its temperature goes down and as it shrinks it becomes more dense.

Water also shrinks during most of the temperature drop toward the freezing point, but below 40 degrees something amazingly different happens; it expands and gets less dense. As it freezes into a solid, it becomes still less dense until it has finally gained about nine percent in volume.

Why does ice float? This is because ice occupies more space than liquid water without weighing more. Since ice floats on the surface it acts as a layer of insulation, which protects the water beneath from further freezing. If water, like other liquids, were to become more dense when frozen, ice would sink and more ice would be formed at the surface. In the wintertime the rivers and streams would freeze and stop flowing, lakes would freeze solid and even the oceans might become a solid mass of ice. In the summer the sun’s heat would only melt a thin layer on the surface forming a shallow slush and life would have little chance for survival.

But God created the earth so it would sustain life, therefore the molecule of water had to be different than the molecule of all other substances. With the warmer temperatures of spring, ice readily melts. The melting liquid flows from higher elevations to lower elevations forming bodies of water. The heat of the sun and the water lifts water vapor up. The sun, air and the force of gravity all work together, as they have for centuries, to keep the hydrologic or water cycle going. Warm wet air is lighter than cold dry air, which causes it to rise. The clouds began as rising currents of warm air laden with moisture. Borne by prevailing winds the moist air cools as it rises higher and higher up steep mountain slopes and contracts as it cools literally squeezing out most of the moisture as refreshing rain. Raindrops wash the air absorbing carbon dioxide as they fall, returning to the soil as carbonic acid vital to plants and providing pure fresh water for animal and human life.

Three thousand years before the principles involved were discovered by modern science, the Bible described the water cycle with amazing accuracy. “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” Ecclesiastes 1:7.

More energy is expended in the water cycle in one day than man has been able to generate throughout the course of history. This alone should make us stand in awe at the power of our God.

God’s power can also be seen in the conversion of salt water to fresh. Man has long sought for a simple inexpensive way to remove salt from seawater. Survival kits employ solar stills. They operate through a process of evaporation and condensation, a process that God has been utilizing for thousands of years. The process is referred to as desalination or desalting. These solar stills successfully make the conversion providing fresh drinking water from the undrinkable ocean.

Huge plants have been developed for converting larger amounts, but so far the cost of converting enough fresh water for even one city is comparatively expensive. However, desalination could well become our prime source of fresh water. Yet from the very beginning God has converted billions of tons of salt water to fresh every day.

We’ve considered many different things about water and its unique properties. All the evidence indicates that water possesses precise properties that make life possible. These properties were not acquired through a process of random change, but were designed into water from the very beginning by the master Designer, God Himself.

What does all this mean to you personally? Think again about how much we use water. Every day we use it in hundreds of ways. In a very personal way water means a great deal. Really it is a matter of life and death. Seventy percent of the average human body is water. You constantly lose this precious body liquid and if it is not replaced, and fairly soon, you will die. It is the water in your blood that carries it through 60,000 miles of arteries, veins and branching capillaries. Water plays a major role in the digestion of food and lubrication of joints. Mucous membranes would dry up without it and without water your eyes would cease to function. Water also regulates body heat. From the beginning of time to the present, water is supporting life on earth, your life! Water with its precise properties is God’s loving provision for our physical lives.

The formula of water is simple but it is also very special and very exact. Man did not create water and cannot change its formula, but he is absolutely dependent on it. Water has no man-made substitute. Where waters run there is life; where they do not, there is desolation and death. The Bible speaks of another kind of life, spiritual life, and reveals another kind of water—Living water. The living water is the Lord Jesus Christ. To a lonely and misunderstood sinful woman long ago Christ said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10 NKJV.

However, just as God’s provision for man’s physical life is precise, so is His provision for man’s spiritual life precise. Just as man did not create physical water, so he cannot create spiritual water. Just as he cannot change the formula for the one, so he cannot change the formula for the other. Just as man will die physically without the one, so he will die spiritually without the other. But just as physical water is abundantly available to man, so the spiritual or living water is also and the formula is simple but the formula is special, exact and precise. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Man is confronted with an awesome alternative; he can receive the spiritual water and live or he can reject it and die. Remember, just as physical water can be yours for the drinking so the spiritual water can be yours for the asking and receiving—free, without cost. Christ’s invitation given centuries ago still stands: “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. … Out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37, 38.

Receive Christ now and you can experience eternal life and your spiritual life will be fully and finally satisfied. “Come … you who are thirsty; accept the water of life, a free gift to all who desire it.” Revelation 22:17 NEB.

A Moody Institute of Science Presentation, Moody Publishers, Chicago, Illinois.

Health – Practical Suggestions

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In 1863, through His chosen messenger, God gave health reform principles to the early Adventist church. Some of those principles seemed quite radical, but were, in time, proven scientifically to be accurate.

More than one hundred and fifty years later, based on endless scientific studies on what he saw work best in his patients, James L. Marcum, M.D. in his book, The Ultimate Prescription, M.D., Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (2010), Carol Stream, Illinois, sets out a number of simple principles that if followed result in good health.

Practical Suggestions

  1. Eat a balanced diet with lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, legumes, and seeds. This would include soy, rice, beans, and whole-grain pastas. Fad diets can be harmful.
  2. Drink more water, and avoid soft drinks. Stay away from anything that contains corn syrup.
  3. Avoid foods with a high fat content. These are basically fried foods, meats, French fries, cheese, eggs, margarine and butter, ice cream, doughnuts, cookies, gravy, potato chips, and so on. These are high in trans-saturated fats (trans fats), which cause all sorts of stress and chemical problems in the body.
  4. Sparingly use monounsaturated fats like olive oil and canola oil. You might learn how to leave them out completely. The body doesn’t process such fats. It stores them. I don’t have to tell you where.
  5. Reduce salt intake by diminishing your use of table salt and processed foods. Remember, too much salt can increase blood pressure, which can lead to cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, osteoporosis, and kidney stones. In fact, half the people on dialysis are there because of high blood pressure. Try Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of salt to enhance taste without loading your body down with sodium.
  6. Avoid eating only for pleasure. Eat when you are hungry; stop when you are full. Eat small portions slowly. By the way, foods high in fiber (plant-based foods) send a clear “I’m full” signal to the brain, which switches off the hunger sensation at just the right moment. Non-fiber foods (animal products and highly processed foods) do not. Something to think about!
  7. Eat most of your calories in the morning. Not hungry when you get up? Simply eat a smaller supper and nothing after seven in the evening. The chemical reactions that result from skipping breakfast make it very hard for you to make good food choices later in the day.
  8. Become a vegetarian. Even most animals are vegetarians. When you eat meat, you’re getting your calories secondhand. In addition, the diseases the animals might have, the steroids used to promote growth, and chemicals added to the animals’ foods are passed on to you. Animal products are also absolutely loaded with fat. “But I’ll just eat fish or only organic animal products,” many patients say. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, meat is meat, and we weren’t designed to process it in any form.
  9. Avoid processed foods and the chemical additives found in them. Here’s a simple rule: look for packaged foods with the fewest ingredients. Again, if you can’t pronounce an ingredient, you probably can’t digest it.
  10. Eliminate caffeine and alcohol from your diet. These are two powerful toxins that do much more harm than good.
  11. Be careful with supplements and herbs. Take the time to learn about them from a reliable source. Some herbs interfere with cardiac medications. It’s always best to get your nutritional needs from whole foods—foods as they were grown.
  12. Eat plenty of antioxidants. These amazing micronutrients have the incredible ability to fight the development and spread of cancer cells. Where do we find these antioxidants? In plant-based foods like fruits and legumes.
  13. Find foods with omega-3, -6, -9 fatty acids—the healthy fats. Again, choose plant-based foods—like flaxseed for omega-3. Grind flaxseed before adding it to your diet.

I hope you’re not overwhelmed after reading the list. Instead, I hope you’re encouraged. There is hope for you and your family. There is a plan you can follow to bypass the bypass, to reduce the risk of contracting cancer, to shield yourself from the diseases that are filling doctors’ offices and hospital beds.

Choose a couple of items from the list and try to follow those suggestions for a month. I guarantee you will feel better. Once those become habits, pick another suggestion from the list and work on it as well. After all, you only have one body and one life to live. You are in charge of your choices. When it comes to lifestyle diseases, you decide how sick—or how healthy—you want to be.

Food – Vacation Plans or Weekend Outings

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When you think of summer weekends, what food pops into your mind? When you think of eating on the road, is fast food the first thing you think of? This summer, don’t eat foods that will leave you feeling depleted, bloated, and tired. Making better food choices will have a positive impact on your leisure time. Healthy food and plenty of water will sustain your energy levels, fuel your muscles, and help you recover quickly. The food you eat on the road will serve as your traveling repair kit.

Healthy eating starts where you stop – If you’re on the road and stop at a fast-food joint, your food choices will be limited to fast food. But if you stop at a grocery store that offers whole or healthy foods—fruits, bagged carrots, nuts, hummus—or a supermarket that features a salad bar, you quickly expand your choices (and reduce junk-food temptations).

Eat frequently, and in smaller amounts – Eating small amounts of healthy foods throughout the day sends a signal to your brain that the food supply is plentiful, so it’s okay to burn through those calories quickly. Limiting your calorie load at a single sitting also gives you lots of energy. Eating too much at one sitting can make you sluggish and sleepy.

Eat plenty of protein – Eating the right amount of complete protein for your weight and activity level stabilizes blood sugar (preventing energy lags), enhances concentration, and keeps you lean and strong. A complete protein for vegetarians is a grain plus a legume (such as whole grain bread with nut butter, or corn tortilla with beans).

Pack snacks so you’re not skipping meals – Often when we’re traveling, we don’t have access to food at regular intervals. The problem is, your body responds as if it’s facing a food shortage and your metabolism slows way down to prevent you from starving. To keep your mind and body humming, pack healthy snacks in your car or backpack. Examples are almonds, raw vegetables and hummus, soy yogurt and berries, fresh and dried fruit.

Avoid “feel bad” foods – These are foods you crave, but after you eat them you feel sick or depleted. When you’re on the road, it’s particularly essential to avoid foods that drain your energy and deflate your mood.

Drink lots of water – Yes, water is a food. The body needs water for virtually all of its functions. Drinking plenty of water will flush your body of toxins, keep your skin fresh, and help you eat less. It will also help you avoid travel lag, symptoms of overexposure to the heat or sun, and junk-food cravings. Believe it or not, many of the unhealthy cravings we experience on the road can be satisfied with a refreshing drink of pure water. www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-eat

Try cutting up fresh fruit and vegetables beforehand and leaving them nearby and handy as you travel.

Water, Is it Important?

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“Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power—these are the true remedies. Every person should have knowledge of nature’s remedial agencies and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the principles involved in the treatment of the sick and to have a practical training that will enable one rightly to use this knowledge.” Ministry of Health, 127.

It is a God-given duty that devolves upon each one of us to keep our physical organisms healthy and strong so that we do not prematurely wear out and die of degenerative disease, and by doing so, rob God of the time and the service that are due Him. Also, recall that there is a battle going on in our minds. If we live in such a way that the mind becomes clouded, we do not have clear judgment and discernment and we cannot make the right decisions; we will ultimately receive eternal death.

You see, God has made us not just physical beings. We are also mental, spiritual, emotional, and social creatures; and all of these components interlock.

In 3 John 2, we read, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” When John wrote this, he was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; so this was God, not just John, wishing this.

Good health is not just a result of some accident, some haphazard things that we do or do not do. It is a result of intelligent planning of the way we are going to live our lives. The Lord’s counsel to us is, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” I Corinthians 10:31. He also tells us, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” I Corinthians 3:16.

Let us consider some ways whereby we can intelligently understand the various principles that, when practiced, keep this temple healthy and undefiled.

The following eight things are not just to treat the sick but, when applied, will prevent us from becoming sick in the first place. “Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power—these are the true remedies. Every person should have knowledge of nature’s remedial agencies and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the principles involved in the treatment of the sick and to have a practical training that will enable one rightly to use this knowledge.” Ministry of Health, 127.

Water, as is everything else that we have, is a gift from God. Like air, it is something that we take for granted, until it starts becoming very scarce. Tragically, in the days in which we are living with all the pollution that we are experiencing, it is getting harder and harder to find a pure source of water.

The human body is 60–65 percent fluid. A loss of even 20 percent of the total volume of fluid can result in death. About two-thirds of the water volume of the body is actually in the cells of the body, with the other one-third outside the cells, namely in the circulation and the fluid that circulates around the cells themselves.

As we look at the function of the body, we find that virtually every activity that takes place inside the body is through the medium of water. Let me give you just two or three examples. How many times have you blinked since you started reading this article? You do not know; do you, because you did not even think about it? But friends, if you did not have a think film of fluid bathing the eye, you would be painfully aware every time you tried to blink. Because the Lord has made us so that we have certain glands that keep the eye bathed with fluid, we blink and we do not think about it.

Have you ever thought about trying to eat food without saliva? The Lord has given us saliva glands, however, and one of the functions of saliva is to help liquefy the food that we eat and to act as a lubricant when we swallow.

Each of the cells of the body requires nutrition to be brought to them and the waste to be removed. All of this is accomplished through the medium of water.

In addition, when the temperature outside of the body raises, water is crucial in the process of keeping the body cool. Now let me give you an example of why this is so. You see, the body of an average man can produce about 80 calories of heat an hour. That is nearly enough heat to bring a quart of ice cold water to the boiling point. Imagine that you are outside, you are in the sunshine, and the temperature is 95 degrees. You start to sweat, do you not? The sweat that comes onto the skin is not what cools you down, however; it is the effect of the water evaporating. As the water evaporates, it dissipates the heat.

For example, if you produce a quart of sweat, there is enough heat dissipated from the cooling effect produced by the evaporation of that one quart to take care of the heat produced from nearly seven quarts of water that is almost to boiling point. That is why, of course, on a hot day you need to drink plenty of water to replace that which is lost, allowing you to keep a normal temperature. This is also why, for example, when someone has a fever and their temperature goes up, you can help to cool them down by tepid-sponging them. In other words, you would not apply ice water because that would make them shiver and raise their temperature even higher. By removing them from any drafts and sponging them with slightly warm water, the evaporation will work to dissipate the heat. Start first by wetting one arm and allowing the water to gently evaporate. If they can take that without starting to chill, treat some more limbs and others areas of the body. As the water gently begins to evaporate, it takes the heat with it, which can lower the temperature.

On a hot day, if you are sweating profusely and you are not taking more fluid that you are losing, you will begin to dehydrate. As you begin to dehydrate, the body takes certain steps, as far as possible, to protect the vital organs, especially the blood stream. Though the blood stream is usually the part of the system that becomes dehydrated the last of all, nonetheless, as you become dehydrated, the blood tends to become a little more thick and heavy. At the same time, it becomes a little more impure because there is not sufficient fluid available to flush the blood through the kidneys and make it clean. As a consequence, you get a build-up of chemicals that can cloud the mind, making it dull. It is when the mind has become dull that the devil often strikes with temptation.

So you see, drinking water has something to do with our salvation. It is a component in fighting the spiritual battle.

Now, as we become dehydrated, the kidneys still work valiantly to try to keep the blood as clean as possible, but they have to do so under a tremendous strain. Because there is less fluid available, as the kidneys try to get rid of toxins and wastes, they concentrate the urine, thereby placing a strain upon them. It is like trying to wash a large load of dirty clothes with just two or three quarts of water. The water that is rinsed away is very filthy, and the clothes are still not as clean as they should be.

Now let us look at how the kidneys work to keep the blood clean.

Each of us has two kidneys that are located on either side of the spinal column. The right kidney tends to be a little lower than the left, because there is the liver that displaces it slightly. Coming down from each kidney is a ureter, which empties into the bladder.

The bladder is elastic in nature. It contains nerve endings so that when it expands to a certain point, you have the sensation of wanting to go to the bathroom.

If you do not drink adequate amounts of fluid, the urine becomes concentrated; and if this continues long term, it can lend itself to bladder infections as well as the formation of kidney stones. Incidentally, these stones can form in the bladder also. Remember that an effective way to help prevent all of these urinary problems is to drink plenty of fluids.

In the kidneys are minute little structures called nephrons. Each kidney you have has about one million of these nephrons. These nephrons have several functions. One thing they do is help regulate the amount of fluid in the system. A second function that they have is to help regulate the pH of the blood. Blood needs to be kept just slightly alkaline. If it gets either too acid or too alkaline, it is very quickly fatal.

In addition to the purification of the blood by the removal of waste and the regulation of the pH, the kidneys also help in the excretion of certain excess products, such as glucose if it reaches too high a level in the blood. They also help control and maintain the balance of certain minerals, such as sodium and potassium.

Now a question that might come into your mind is, How does the body know how much water it should conserve and how much water if should allow to pass out in the urine here in the nephron? David says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” Psalm 139:14. It is a fact that we are marvelously made.

The blood goes to very organ of the body, including the brain. In the area of the brain is the hypothalamus. Several things take place in the hypothalamus. As blood passes through the hypothalamus, there are sensors that are able to sense the viscosity of the blood. Perhaps you have been working outside and sweating, but you have not been drinking much and you are getting dehydrated. Your blood becomes a little bit viscous. The sensors in the hypothalamus are able to detect this and they say to themselves, “The blood is getting dehydrated; we need to tell the kidneys to conserve fluid.” If the sensors do not tell the kidney, it will let that liquid go and the blood will get more viscous.

When the brain senses that the blood is viscous, the hypothalamus sends a message to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is about the size of a pea and is situated at the base of the brain. This marvelous little gland does many things. In the back part of this gland the hormone ADH, or antidiuretic hormone, is produced. When the ADH gets to the kidney it tells the kidney to hold back, conserve the fluid. The kidney still tries to get rid of the waste, but it will do it using a minimal amount of water. As a result, concentrated urine is produced.

In the meantime, you begin to feel very thirsty so you start drinking several glasses of water. As the fluid goes into the blood stream and the blood becomes a little more diluted, the hypothalamus reduces the message to the pituitary gland, which tells the pituitary to cut back on the antidiuretic hormone. The kidney now realizes that it can let go of more fluid now.

It is just marvelous how the Lord has made us so that we can adjust to whatever is necessary in the environment.

Drinking fluid can help us meet the challenges of life. In 1952, the Swiss were attempting to climb Mt. Everest. They sent a crack team to Tibet that came within 1,000 feet of the summit of Mt. Everest when they became fatigued and had to turn back. The next day, they sent their best two climbers. They came within 1,000 feet when the fatigue got to them and they had to turn back. They just could not do it.

The next year, there was a British expedition. The British were under a physician named Dr. John Hunt, who was a physician as well as a mountain climber. Dr. Hunt knew his physiology and recognized that when people are at a high altitude, they lose more moisture through their expired air than they do at a lower altitude. He made sure that the team took stoves with them so that they could melt ice. The climbers drank between seven and eight pints of fluid a day, and they made it to the top.

For the last three days of the climb, the Swiss were getting less than one pint of water per man. As a consequence, fatigue chemicals built up in their system. Had they drunk enough fluid, they would very likely have made it to the top.

We do not climb Mt. Everest every day, but we still have challenges to face in this life; and at times they can loom before us like mountains. The Lord wants us to enjoy the best health we possible can so that we can better cope with these things. One of the ways that we can do this is to take advantage of the precious gift that He has given us—the gift of pure, clean, fresh water.

On the average, we lose about six cups of water a day through the kidneys, another two cups through the skin, one cup through the lungs, and through the bowels about one glass. That gives you about 10 glasses a day of fluid loss. We usually replace about four of these units just with the food we eat. You eat fruit, salad, and similar foods that have water in them. Also, as a by-product of oxidizing nutrients, water is produced. This totals about five units, meaning that just to maintain, we need to drink a minimum of five to six glasses of water a day, and preferably eight.

The best time to start is to drink two glasses of water when you first get up in the morning. If it is warm or hot water, it will help to regulate the bowels. Also, as well, fluid taken before the meal is better than fluid with the meal, as large amounts of fluid dilute the digestive enzymes, thus requiring that the stomach draw off a lot of that water first so the enzymes can regain their potency and start digesting the food. It is best to drink twenty minutes or so before a meal. This gives time for that fluid to be absorbed into the blood stream to come around to be used by the liver, the pancreas, and the lining of the stomach to produce the enzymes which are needed to digest food.

Friends, we need the physical water so that we can stay alive physically in this life, but we will die spiritually if we do not drink the water of life that the Lord has to give us. There are many cisterns in this world that people are seeking to drink from, but Jesus is the only cistern that has not run dry and can give us the living water. He has promised us that if we will drink of that living water now, if we will accept Him as Lord and Saviour of our lives, we have the assurance that we will drink of the living water. “And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Revelation 22:1. What must that water taste like!

“And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17. Are you glad that God provides us with the physical water, but above all else, friends, the spiritual water, through Christ? We have a lot to be thankful for. Praise the Lord!

 

Health – Water

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A continuous supply of water is needed for all living things. Our bodies require water, not just for washing but for breathing, digestion, elimination, lubrication of muscles, bones and tendons, and most other body functions. We could go on and on. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made.

“In health and in sickness, pure water is one of heaven’s choicest blessings. Its proper use promotes health. It is the beverage which God provided to quench the thirst of animals and man. Drunk freely, it helps to supply the necessities of the system and assists nature to resist disease.” The Ministry of Healing, 237.

Mark Stengler, N.D., in his book, The Natural Physician’s Healing Therapies, 2001, by Prentice Hall, pp 479–483, shares the following:

“I remember a span of about three weeks during medical school when I experienced dull headaches, dizziness, and lethargy. … While I couldn’t explain all these symptoms, I assumed that mounting stress of my classes, plus all the hours I’d been working in the clinic, were beginning to take their toll.

“Then, one day, when I decided I was tired of feeling this way, I sat down and analyzed everything I had been doing. I was eating pretty well, and exercising a reasonable amount. It seemed very unlikely that I was suffering any kind of nutritional deficiency.

“But even while I contemplated possible explanations, I happened to notice someone getting a glass of water at a nearby water cooler. Then it occurred to me. Many of my symptoms suggested dehydration. It was just possible that I was experiencing these symptoms because I wasn’t consuming enough water.

“As I reviewed my actions of the last few days, I realized I’d really had very little water—possibly two tall glasses a day, total. That wasn’t nearly enough; considering that I was exercising regularly, under stress, and mentally active, I decided that was a good time to start doing exactly what I was recommending to many patients—drink more water.

“With the phrase ‘physician heal thyself’ dancing in my head, I immediately resolved to triple the amount of water I was consuming. … My symptoms disappeared over the next three days. … Few of us are regularly in danger of dying of thirst—but I suspect that many of us are seriously slowed down by unrecognized thirstiness. …

“About two-thirds of the water in our systems comes from those glasses of fluids that we drink. The rest comes from food and from the leftover ‘disposables’ of cellular metabolism.

“Our bodies are really the middle of a streambed. While the water is coming in through various pathways, it’s exiting in the urine, evaporating from skin, hissing out through the respiratory tract and departing in stool. …

“Humans have a thirst mechanism that is activated when our body is becoming low in reserves of water. Researchers have noted that there is often a long delay between the time when your body actually becomes dehydrated and the moment when you experience the sensation of thirst. In other words, by the time you feel thirsty, you’re already somewhat dehydrated. … Low-grade dehydration can sap vitality and contribute to many of the symptoms I’ve noted.

“Cloudy Thinking. I call this symptom ‘brain fog,’ and most people know instantly what I mean. The mind is not clear, and you find it hard to concentrate. I have seen these symptoms improved with increased water consumption

“Dizziness. Unexplained dizziness may be related to dehydration. Water is required for normal blood pressure. When you’re dehydrated, your circulation may be poor, which deprives cells of needed nutrients. Dizziness is one outcome.

“Fatigue. Unexplained fatigue can be a result of dehydration. Many people notice increased energy when they drink more water.

“Headaches. Patients with chronic, low-grade headaches are often dehydrated. It is often described as a fuzzy sensation in the head.

“Heart Palpitations. Occasionally a patient reports a history of heart palpitations. These episodes may improve or cease completely when water intake increases.

“High Blood Pressure. You’d think that anyone consuming lots of water would be raising their own blood pressure, but the opposite is true. When you’re dehydrated, your body tries to compensate by increasing blood pressure. So for anyone with high blood pressure (hypertension), it’s important to increase water intake.

“Weight Gain and Edema. Your body will retain water if you are chronically dehydrated. This condition, called edema, contributes to weight gain as well. Thus, increased water consumption is an important therapy for helping these conditions.”

Dr. Stengler has presented good ideas for you to think about and to possibly incorporate into your daily regime. Just recently the following excerpt appeared:

Rescue hydration helped American healthcare workers survive Ebola

Water was the key to saving two American healthcare workers who were treated for Ebola at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, this past summer. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) explains how intravenous rehydration corrected their electrolyte deficiencies and intramuscular water losses, allowing for more rapid and efficient healing.

“We undertook aggressive supportive measures of hydration (typically, 3 to 5 liters of intravenous fluids per day early in the course of care) and electrolyte correction,” explains the study. “As the patients’ condition improved clinically, there was a concomitant decline in the amount of virus detected in plasma.” www.naturalnews.com/047714_Ebola_cure_water_hydration.html

“Pure water to drink and fresh air to breathe invigorate the vital organs, purify the blood, and help nature in her task of overcoming the bad conditions of the system.

“Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the tissues.

“If those who are afflicted would assist nature in her efforts by the use of pure, soft water, much suffering would be prevented.” My Life Today, 139.

Rivers of Living Water

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Pouring into Yosemite Valley are huge waterfalls that make lots of noise. In the Philippines I saw a roaring stream of brown water cascading over a waterfall and in Papua New Guinea are the most beautiful rivers that I have ever seen, as clear as crystal. The Bible describes you and me as being rivers. Some of us are fast flowing, some of us may be polluted and some of us may be quiet streams, beautiful and clear as crystal, but we all are described as rivers of water.

“Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people chided with Moses and said, ‘Give us water that we may drink.’ … And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord,’ and the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, ‘Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’ ” Exodus 17:1–3 NKJV. The people were in a state of unbelief, though God had never forsaken them; He had always taken care of them throughout their journey.

“So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me?’ And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.’ And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’ ” Verses 4–7 NJKV.

This was the first time that God brought water out of a rock. Moses was instructed to strike the rock to start the flow of water. The second time water was brought out of a rock is recorded in Numbers 20. Moses was irritated with the people and instead of speaking to it as he was instructed and glorifying the Lord, he struck it twice. As a result, he was not allowed to go into the land of Canaan.

David wrote, “He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.” Psalm 78:15, 16.

Isaiah wrote, “Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts: He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; He clave [split] the rock also, and the waters gushed out.” Isaiah 48:20.

David again wrote about the miracle at Horeb in Psalm 105:41: “He opened the rock, and waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.” This time it says that water ran in the wilderness like a river.

Paul also makes mention of the wilderness wanderings saying, “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” I Corinthians 10:1–4.

While God was present upon Mount Horeb about to speak the Ten Commandments to the people, they began to contend with Moses, accusing him of bringing them out into the wilderness to kill them with thirst.

God gave Moses instruction to take his rod, go to the rock and strike it. The rock that Moses was instructed to strike was symbolic of Christ. Isaiah 53 says, “… yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions.” Isaiah 53:4, 5. From that rock in the wilderness came water, gushing water. Christ had rained down manna (Exodus 16), and because they complained about that, He gave them quail to eat. Millions had been fed by the manna that had rained down to sustain them and still they questioned, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” Exodus 17:7, last part.

They were guilty of unbelief and human nature is not any different today. Any time a complaint comes out of our lips we are asking, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” Complaining is unbelief.

Ellen White wrote, “The smitten rock was a figure of Christ, and through this symbol the most precious spiritual truths are taught.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 411.

It was not long before the children of Israel began complaining again saying, “Why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?” Numbers 20:4.

Exasperated at the continual complaining, instead of speaking to the rock as he had been instructed, Moses struck the rock twice. This act was not a representation of Christ, Who died once for all (Hebrew 9:28). Christ was not to be smitten twice and Moses did not give an accurate portrayal of what was going to happen to Him Who died once for the sins of the entire world.

Isaiah 12:3 says, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Zechariah 13:1 says, “In that day [when Christ would be pierced] there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced … .” Zechariah 12:10.

In John 19:28, last part, Jesus said, “I thirst.” We all need to thirst for those wells of salvation, thirst to draw from that fountain for sin and uncleanness. In verse 30, Jesus said, “It is finished!” He bowed His head and He gave up the Spirit. When the soldiers told Pilate that He was already dead He was surprised that a man could be dead after only six hours on the cross. In verse 34, it says, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” When the rock at Mt. Horeb was struck, water flowed.

Christ’s blood was for cleansing from sin. In the Old Testament sanctuary, when the lamb was killed it took the penalty for the sin that the people had committed. The lamb had not done anything wrong. It was innocent, but a sacrifice had been made and the blood provided a means to atone for the person who had sinned against God and incurred the penalty of death, allowing him or her to live.

When Jesus, while on the cross, said He was thirsty, dehydration had set in and His tongue had swollen to such a proportion that He could hardly talk. When that soldier pierced His side, he pierced His heart. The pericardium that surrounds the heart contains serous, a water-like substance to keep the heart lubricated. When it was pierced, the serous fluid within flowed out. In The Desire of Ages, 722, it says, “But it was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus. That cry, uttered ‘with a loud voice’ (Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46) at the moment of death, the stream of blood and water that flowed from His side, declared that He died of a broken heart.” It wasn’t the cross, it wasn’t the nails, it wasn’t the thorns on His brow that killed Him, but it was our sins that crushed out His life. The guilt that pressed upon Christ’s mind, paying the penalty for the sins of every single person in this world broke His heart and extinguished His life.

“No matter what may have been our sins and shortcomings, there is a fountain open in the house of David for all sin and uncleanness.” The Signs of the Times, April 2, 1894. We can draw from that fountain for sin and uncleanness today and be cleansed. The fountain has been opened.

Isaiah 44:3–5 says, “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.” The water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 16:7, 8, “Nevertheless … it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter [Holy Spirit] will not come unto you. … And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

Our hearts, according to the Bible, are desperately wicked, like clods. When I lived in Wichita, Kansas, I remember walking out into a field looking at the ground that gets so hard and dry there were cracks about two inches wide. When it rains the water closes them right back up.

“His heart is as hard as stone, even as hard as the lower millstone.” Job 41:24, NKJV. If our hearts are like clods, hard and beaten down, we need some refreshing. We need some water upon the dry grounds. This is what Christ offers us.

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit.)” John 7:37–39, first part. The feast here spoken of is the Feast of Tabernacles that went back to that story at Horeb, reminding the people of the water that gushed out of the rock. Jesus is the living water, a fountain that is opened up for the one who thirsts. Only those who want it will be satisfied.

When the Holy Spirit is received into our lives, we will become rivers of life. In my travels around the world, I have always noticed that ancient cities are built upon river ways. Water brings life and you can become a well of water. This is not for the unbeliever but for those who believe. The Bible says, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14.

Think of yourself as a river today and ask yourself, What kind of river am I? Am I a muddy one, polluted, or a clear one? There are some that are quiet and beautiful, not making any noise, and there are big, gushy ones that make lots of noise. What kind of river are you?

John 4 records Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman at the well, even though it would have been taboo for a Jew to talk to a Samaritan. She had come to draw water and did not even notice Him except that He was a Jew. Thus there was no reason to try to engage Him. He arrested her attention by asking her for something to drink and began to engage in a conversation with her. Amazed at what she had heard, she left her pot and went back to the city to invite her friends to come and see this Man. Jesus was the gushing well of water and told the woman of Samaria that if she knew the One Who was asking her for a drink, she would have asked Him for living water.

Jesus makes it very clear that receiving the water that He gives, you will never thirst again but will be filled. The Bible goes on to say that the woman was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, whole-heartedly. Racing back into the city she told the people of the city of Samaria, “I found the Messiah.” I have found Him and He told me everything that I’ve ever done. He could read my heart.

The whole city came out. She became a flowing river. “She proved herself a more effective missionary than His own disciples.” The Desire of Ages, 195. Jesus said right there, the harvest is ripe. Why do you wait four months until the harvest? The harvest is ripe right now.

“Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver.” Ibid. When there is no outlet for water to flow through, it stagnates. There are a lot of stagnant Christians. They are not wells or rivers, but stagnant ponds. To become rivers of water we need to receive more of God’s Holy Spirit and then give to others what we have received. We are not to be stagnant; the receiver becomes a giver. “The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.” Ibid. We need an experience that people will recognize and desire. Only then will we have something to give them because we have drunk deeply of the wells of salvation ourselves.

One of the signs of the end is found in Amos 8:11–14, which says, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.” This describes a day of spiritual famine when the word of God will not be found.

The solution to this problem is that you and I need to become wells of water, springing up into everlasting life, to go out and refresh the thirsty souls that are hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God and do not know where to find it. If they see professed believers living in sin, talking and acting like the world, they will not want to come and drink from some polluted stream. They want to see a clear-flowing, crystal river.

In II Kings 2:19–21, it says that Elisha threw salt into the polluted water to purify it. Salt is a preserver. Jesus said, “Have salt in yourself.” Mark 9:50.

It is said of false teachers, those that claim to be Christians but bring damnable heresies into the church, “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with a man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.” II Peter 2:15, 16.

Notice verse 17: “These are wells without water … .” These are people who have nothing to give. They are not wells of water springing up into everlasting life, but everlasting death because you cannot live at a dry well for very long.

God offers something to Israel. He says, come and drink of My waters from My well, My spiritual drink from the well of salvation. They were drinking from the rivers of Egypt, the rivers of Babylon, which is spiritualism and confusion. He says, “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13.

“Unless His grace transforms them into the image of Christ’s likeness, His Spirit will leave them as water leaves a leaky vessel.” Christ will leave us just like a leaky vessel, unless we have a Christlike character. “Their only hope is to seek God with all their mind, heart, and soul. Then they will lawfully strive for the mastery. Satan will steal the imagination and affections if you give him a chance.” Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 1, 102.

“Unless the people of God watch and pray, spirituality will go out of the heart as water out of a leaky vessel.” The Review and Herald, July 3, 1888. We do not want to be like Israel of old, and drink from the wrong stream when there is this Fountain opened before us. Are we hewing cisterns for ourselves?

“The mind is occupied with worldly interests, and as soon as they leave the church door, the impression is lost; for as water flows from a leaky vessel, so the truth leaks from the heart. The more preaching they have, the less they do to carry out the truth in practical godliness. They are glutted with sermons, and the truth fails to arouse them to a sense of their condition.” The Review and Herald, March 7, 1893.

Jesus has a fountain flowing for us today. This fountain flows into our hearts through the Holy Spirit dwelling within. Christ was smitten at Horeb. He opened up a fountain of His blood to cover our sin and uncleanness. The water is the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. This is what Christ wants to make us into, wells with water gushing out of us, rivers of living water. This will happen when we have gone to the fountain, to the Source, with all of our defects, our short-comings and our problems.

We are no longer to be leaky vessels. Even a slow leak, be it one drop at a time, will eventually result in an empty vessel. Watch and pray with an intense earnestness as never before to know God’s will and strive for the mastery to develop a Christlike character. Thank God for the cleansing stream that is still flowing to wash away our sins and uncleanness.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the King James Version.)

Mike Bauler was ordained into the ministry in 2005 and serves as pastor of the Historic Message Church in Portland, Oregon. Prior to locating in Portland, Pastor Bauler served as a Bible worker for Steps to Life Ministries. His goal is to help give the gospel to the greater Portland area with an emphasis in helping his Bible students discover the truths in Bible prophecy, which are so often neglected today. His wife, Amanda, a family nurse practitioner, and their daughters assist him in his ministry.

Health – Cold Water

by

In the early 1800s, Priessnitz, while watching his grazing flock, noticed a wounded doe, injured by hunters, wade into the calm backflow waters of a mountain brook. The following gives us a history of how his curiosity changed his life.

“He wondered as the doe limped away and disappeared in the forest. That night he decided there must be a reason for a wounded animal to seek water to lave [wash, bathe] its wounds. Perhaps instinct was stronger than reason. He would return the next day. He did.

“Sure enough the doe returned to the eddying water at about the same time. It stood silently, without a move, and then after awhile limped to the bank and disappeared in the deep foliage of the forest once more. For two weeks the lad Vincent Priessnitz returned daily to his vantage point and watched. For two weeks the wounded doe returned and bathed its injured leg in the brook. Each day the deer walked better and finally scampered out of the water on the last day to return no more.

“Before his very eyes he had seen a badly injured deer healed with cool sparkling brook water. Vincent Priessnitz never forgot that experience.

“Some years later Priessnitz was injured severely hauling cord wood. Night stole upon him, as did a heavy snow storm. His team bolted through a gulch. The load slipped and his ribs were crushed.

“But while he lay there he had time to reflect on what to do. A doctor was out of the question on a night like that. No help was forthcoming. Somehow he managed to get home.

“No, he could not soak his injured ribs in water as the deer had done with its leg. He conceived the idea of wrapping the injured ribs with pieces of his torn shirt soaked in cold water. This relieved him. He continued to apply cold wet wrappings and in due course his ribs were free from pain and healed.

“The news of his accomplishment spread. When a neighbor became injured he called for the young man who healed with water. Requests for aid became more frequent and further from home, and his experience grew apace.

“He gave the matter of his discovery, which had meant so much to himself and others much thought. He tried various applications with varying degrees of success. Empirically by trial and error he evolved a method or system of cold water treatment that brought help to thousands.

“He opened a modest place where people could stay. In a matter of months it became the haven of the sick. His fame spread to every corner of the globe. He treated prince and pauper alike. The medical big wigs of the day protested and closed his doors. To his patients, called to the center of the square, he said, ‘be undismayed. If they will not let me use water we shall find a cure in air.’

“He was persecuted and prosecuted. By trickery and scheming the medical fraternity sought to discredit him. The people who had been healed were evidence against any wrong doing he was accused of. The final gesture was the claim that the water was drugged. The State found he used only pure mountain water.

“To end all persecution the State decreed that no one should ever molest him, that he be permitted to heal the sick as he had been doing.

“Grafenberg became a shrine for the ill. People traveled to it from all over the world. Some of the best records we have came from the pen of Americans who crossed the ocean to take the ‘cure.’

“In 1842, twelve hundred patients from all over the world visited and were cared for at his institution at Grafenberg. During the years 1849, 1850 and 1851, the number of patients rose to as high as fourteen hundred, and came from as many as thirty different countries, such was his fame. …

“Priessnitz’s work was absorbed by other systems which followed as the Kneipp and Bilz system and so on, until we find at the turn of the twentieth century an American Hydro-therapy fostered by the genius of the late John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek Sanitarium fame. …” The Cold Water Cure, pg i, ii, by Vincent Priessnitz, 1843.  Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing’s Rare Reprints.

There are instances in the Spirit of Prophecy where water treatments were used. Here are several:

“I am generally up hours before any other member of my family. On rising I build my fire, take a bath in cold water before the fire, and then, after my praying season, take my pen in hand and, from two o’clock until seven, write many pages. We have family prayers just before breakfast, which is at half past seven. I generally retire at seven o’clock in the evening.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, 259.

“If you feel that you must eat at night, take a drink of cold water, and in the morning you will feel much better for not having eaten.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 177.

“Do not sit in a meeting with cold feet. If the feet are cold, wash them in cold water, and then dry them thoroughly. You will find that the blood will thus be called from the head to the limbs.” Sermons and Talks, vol. 2, 142.

Amazing what a little water can do. Praise God for all of His blessings!