Faithfulness in Health Reform
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must not eat eggs, or milk, or cream. You must use no butter in the
preparation of food.” The gospel must be preached to the poor, but the
time has not yet come to prescribe the strictest diet.
A Word to the Wavering
Those ministers who feel at liberty to indulge the appetite are
falling far short of the mark. God wants them to be health reformers.
He wants them to live up to the light that has been given on this subject.
[138]
I feel sad when I see those who ought to be zealous for our health
principles, not yet converted to the right way of living. I pray that the
Lord may impress their minds that they are meeting with great loss.
If things were as they should be in the households that make up our
churches, we might do double work for the Lord.
In order to be purified and to remain pure, Seventh-day Adventists
must have the Holy Spirit in their hearts and in their homes. The Lord
has given me light that when the Israel of today humble themselves
before Him, and cleanse the soul temple from all defilement, He will
hear their prayers in behalf of the sick and will bless in the use of His
remedies for disease. When in faith the human agent does all he can
to combat disease, using the simple methods of treatment that God as
provided, his efforts will be blessed of God.
If, after so much light has been given, God’s people will cherish
wrong habits, indulging self and refusing to reform, they will suffer the
sure consequences of transgression. If they are determined to gratify
perverted appetite at any cost, God will not miraculously save them
from the consequences of their indulgence. They “shall lie down in
sorrow.”
Isaiah 50:11
.
Those who choose to be presumptuous, saying, “The Lord has
healed me, and I need not restrict my diet; I can eat and drink as I
please,” will erelong need, in body and soul, the restoring power of
God. Because the Lord has graciously healed you, you must not think
you can link yourselves up with the self-indulgent practices of the
world. Do as Christ commanded after His work of healing—“go, and
sin no more.”
John 8:11
. Appetite must not be your god.
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The Lord gave His word to ancient Israel, that if they would cleave
strictly to Him, and do all His requirements, He would keep them
from all the diseases such as He had brought upon the Egyptians;