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VISITING PR0GRAM
TRAINING CLASS
Ninth
Class
January 5, 1968
(WIVES
PRESENT)
FORMAT:
1.
Open with prayer.
2.
World news discussion and drill (5 - 8 minutes).
3.
Difficult scripture drill (30 minutes).
4.
Sermonettes and evaluations (30
minutes).
5.
Recess (10 minutes).
*6.
Lecture (one-and-one-half hours).
7.
Assignments for next class.
DIFFICULT
SCRIPTURES
1.
Disprove: Paul did not eat meat
(I Cor. 8:13).
A. As shown in Verse 4, Paul was talking about
those meats offered in
sacrifice unto idols.
B. Paul showed that Christians know an idol is
nothing and that there is
only one God (Verse 4). But some of the brethren who were new and
weak ate the meat still
thinking the god was in the meat or that it
had special significance
since it had been offered to the idol.
Be-
cause of this, their
conscience was being defiled.
C.
Verse 10 shows some may have been eating meat in. the temple or were
close to doing so. They would not worship there, but they
could get
a cheap meal there,
something like a church supper. This
led the others
who were weak to feel bold
to go also into the temple to eat meat.
But they still ate the meat
with the consciousness that it had been
offered to an idol.
D. This was causing the weak brother to perish
(Verse 11).
E. Paul condemned the whole idea of going into
the temple to eat meat
as sin against the brethren
and Christ (Verse 12). Later in this
same
letter (I Cor. 10:19-23)
Paul shows that though the idol is nothing
there is a demon spirit
behind it, and that spirit permeates the idol's
temple or false church as
well. Therefore, Paul said they should
never
fellowship with demons, which they would
be doing by eating meat in
the temple. In I Corinthians 10:21 Paul told them they can't be par-
takers of God's table and
the table of demons. Acts 15:29 shows a
command from James to all the Church to
abstain from meat offered to
idols.
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F. Paul condemned the idea of eating meat in
the temple and their flaunting
of their knowledge and
liberty before those who were weak and didn't
yet understand, not the
eating of meat per se. So in Verse 13
Paul
is saying that if eating meat
would make my brother to offend as their
eating meat in the temple
would cause their brothers to sin, then he
wouldn't eat meat.
G. The fact is that Paul did eat meat, and he
condemned vegetarianism as
a doctrine of demons (I Tim.
4:1-3).
2.
If someone invites you to dinner and serves pork, should you eat it
and
not ask questions about it, so
you don't offend him? (I Corinthians
10:27.)
A. The context has nothing to do with clean or
unclean meats, but with
meat offered to idols (Verses
19 and 28).
B. You don't have to ask whether or not what
you are eating is pork, you
can readily discern
that. The question here is whether or
not that
which you are served has been
offered to idols.
C. If you want to take this verse out of
context, then if your host puts
cyanide, razor blades, or a bowl of
acid in front of you, you should
eat it, lest you offend
him. This is, of course,
ridiculous!
D. The true meaning is if they went to an
unconverted person's house for
a meal, they didn't have to ask
him if the meat he served them had
been offered to an idol. Idols are nothing to true Christians, and
whether or not the meat had
been offered to an idol is of no importance.
E. However, if the host or someone else
brought up the subject and told
them the meat is offered in
sacrifice to an idol, they should refuse
it, not because it harmed
them, but because of the conscience of the
other person, lest he feel
idol worship was all right or lest he think
they were hypocrites for
claiming to be Christians and appearing to
worship the idol by eating
meat sacrificed to it (Verse 28).
F. The whole crux of the matter is setting the
right example before the
unconverted or weak brethren,
not clean and unclean meats.
HOW TO MAINTAIN GOOD Health
AND PREVENT SICKNESS
I.
WHY SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED ABOUT OUR HEALTH
Why should we devote a lesson in
this visiting Program Training Class to the
subject of health? Why is it important? III John 2-- It is Almighty God's
express will and intent that His people
be in health -- and for good reason.'
GOOD Health is one of the seven
laws of success. Our health will
vitally
affect, first of all, our
success in this Christian life -- the degree to
which we overcome and grow
spiritually - - and secondly, our success in this
class -- the degree to which we
can be used in God's Work.'
A. To Grow Spiritually
In order for us to use this
physical life as God intended -- to build godly
character -- we need to have
the very best health possible. A
tired, run-
down, sickly body will
automatically cause you to have a dull, lethargic
mind. In order to have a sharp, clear, alert,
sound mind, you must have a
healthy, vibrantly alive,
physical body.
Any of us can think more
clearly, concentrate better and retain what we
learn much more easily if we are in good
health! Our spiritual growth --
the extent to which God's
Spirit can enlighten, inspire and motivate us --
will be in direct proportion
to the condition of our health.'
B. To Do the Work of God
The secondary reason that we
should maintain good health is to do God's
Work. If we are physically run-down and weak --
and at times sick - - how
can we do our part in the
Work of God -- whatever that part may be in
serving in the local area,
as well as by staying on our jobs to contribute
as much as possible to the
Work?
In order to really produce
and be profitable in God's Work, we must main-
tain
the best health possible!
II.
BASIC KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH
All of you know that sickness is
not normal or natural and that a healthy body
is not susceptible to sicknesses
and disease - - no matter how many germs it
comes in contact with. But you need to apply that knowledge and
accept full
responsibility for the present
condition of your health. And when you
do
become sick, you should try to
understand what caused it and resolve to change
in order to avoid repeating that
same mistake.
We are living in a physically
degenerate age, and all of us are now suffering
from physical weaknesses which we
either inherited as a result of the physical
sins of our forefathers or which
we brought upon ourselves by our own past
physical sins. Rather than using this as an excuse for not
maintaining the
best possible health, however,
you should strive all the HARDER to negate
those weaknesses by complete
obedience to the physical laws of health!
There
are certain basic keys, which if
followed, will insure that each of us in our
present circumstances will have
the best health possible.
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A.
Proper Sleep
The first basic key to staying
healthy and being alive, alert and productive
is getting regular sleep. Our bodies have an inner clock that
regulates our
metabolism and all our bodily
processes. So that this inner clock
can function
at its optimum level, we need to
have a regular pattern of life. This
applies
to eating and exercising also,
but it especially affects the benefits we
receive from sleep. The average individual needs about eight
hours of sleep,
beginning and ending at
approximately the same time each night to be effective.
The human body is not like a
machine -- it tires. During the time
you are
asleep, your bodily processes
slow down and your internal organs rest as well.
At the same time poisons are
expelled through your sweat glands, and the body
repairs itself. When you skip sleep or get it at odd hours,
you throw additional
strain on your body, wearing it
down, and you upset your metabolism and make
your body vulnerable to sickness
and disease.
Also, failure to get proper sleep
results in loss of memory. This means
your
study of God's Word is
ineffective and your prayers are lackadaisical, which
stunts your spiritual
growth. In addition, you are more
accident prone and
tend to be more irritable when
you have robbed yourself of needed sleep.
Set a definite, reasonably early
time each night to go to bed, and stick to
it! Then get up early each morning after a good
night's sleep. Make it a
regular way of life, and you'll
be far more alert, alive, healthy and pro-
ductive
B.
Regular Exercise
The second basic key to good
health is regular exercise. No human
being on
earth can be in good physical
condition without regular exercise.
Have you
ever seen an out-of-condition
deer, squirrel or grouse? Their whole
way of
life is exercise. It is normal to be alive, zestful,
energized! But many of
us have been living in a physical
straight-jacket for years -- in most cases
simply because we do not get
enough exercise.
I Timothy 4:8 -- God tells us
that for the time we are in this flesh, regular
exercise is profitable to
us. Let's understand why.
Your heart is designed to pump
blood through your body. If you are
continually
inactive, many of your arteries
and capillaries will dry up and dissipate,and
your blood will not be able to
carry enough oxygen to all parts of your body
to keep it full of life and
energy. As a result, you will begin to
feel tired
all the time,and
your circulation will become poor in your fingers, toes,
hands and feet. At the slightest constriction of
circulation, they will then
begin to tingle and "go to
sleep."
Our heart is a muscle, and any
muscle out of condition works inefficiently
and produces fatigue toxins at
twice the rate of muscles that are in good
condition. Also, in a time of stress, a heart weakened
by lack of exercise
is vulnerable to a heart
attack.
Drivers involved in automobile
accidents sometimes escape serious injury in
the accidents but die of heart
attacks. This is how a person is
literally
"scared to death." The heart can't take it and just runs away
and bursts.
A heart in good condition cannot
run away, and it will remain steady after
reaching a peak of 180 beats a
minute.
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As this world and this Work
crashes to a close, we are going to be under more
and more stress and
persecution. We are going to face
crisis after crisis, as
a Church and as individuals. Knowing what we will face in the very near
future,
all of us should set ourselves to
get in top physical Shape!
The best exercises are running,
cycling, walking and swimming because these
exercises not only tone up muscles in
your body, but they also build up your
heart and increase the
circulation of your blood. We suggest
that you buy
a book on exercise entitled
Aerobics by Major Kenneth Cooper. Read
and study
it, and put it to work.' When you first begin "aerobics,"
you will put a load
on your muscles and arteries, so
that your body will begin to produce new
arterioles for the blood to flow
through. The new strain and flow of
life-
giving oxygen and blood will
clean ~ the old arteries and expel the poisons.
The muscles will become healthy,
you will lose the feeling of fatigue, and
your mind will become much more
alert.
It takes persistence,
stick-to-itiveness and character to begin and continue
on this regular exercise program,
but it will pay off in better health for
you today, and may save your life
in the next few years.'
C.
Peace of Mind
The third basic key is peace of
mind. Develop a positive approach to
life.
Don't stew and worry about minor
things, and learn to cast your real concerns,
worries and burdens on Christ (I
Pet. 5:7): Proverbs 17:22 shows that a merry
heart does good like a medicine,
but a broken spirit breaks up the body.
Many glands in your body respond
to mental stimuli and react adversely with
your body when you are angry,
frustrated, sad, sorrowful or upset in some
way. If you argue, you can't properly digest
your food. Many people stimu-
late fatigue in their bodies by
constantly being in a downcast attitude.
II
Corinthians 10:3-5 -- Bring all your thoughts into obedience to
Christ.
Philippines 4:6-8 -- Stop worrying about things beyond your
control. Begin
to de-emphasize your problems and
exercise faith. Refresh yourself with
the
promises of God and clean up your mind through God's Word. Really believe
and know that all things work
together for good to those who love and obey
God and with whom He is working
to perfect for His ruling Family and Kingdom
(Rom. 8:28).
Practice a smile, a cheerful
greeting, just radiating happiness, and really
pursue peace. Don't brood over things. Be open, talk things out, get the
problems, misunderstandings and
traumas solved quickly.
You'll be surprised if you really
begin to practice these things, how much
better you'll feel and how some
of your chronic ailments, pains and fatigues
will subside. If you don't understand just how much
mental attitudes and
anxieties can cause physical
diseases, an excellent book that covers this
topic as well as other
interesting points about health is None of These
Diseases, by S. I. McMillen.
D.
Wholesome Diet
1. Eat BALANCED Meals
We are what we eat: Even though we are getting regular sleep
and exercise
and maintaining peace of mind,
unless we are eating properly, we cannot be
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as healthy as we should be. This is perhaps the most important basic
key
to good health.
You should eat a wholesome,
well-prepared, well-balanced diet.
Vegetables
and fruit should predominate,
unspoiled by injurious dressings and sauces.
This should be the major portion
of your diet. Next in importance
should come
protein -- good lean meats, fresh
raw milk, butter, eggs and cheese.
Last
should come carbohydrates - -
sparingly - - whole grains and potatoes chiefly.
Then drink plenty of fresh, clean
water daily.
Most people emphasize these
things in just the reverse order. The
major part
of their diet consists of sugars
and starches, followed heavily by protein.
Then they rarely eat green leafy
vegetables and occasionally have an apple
or orange. Some drink virtually no water at all!
It takes more effort for you
women to prepare a nourishing, wholesome meal.
It is easier for you to just
serve pre-cooked, pre-prepared, pre-packaged
foods, than to take the time to
bake your own bread, prepare nourishing,
colorful salads, carefully wash
green leafy vegetables and watch them closely
to insure that they cook slowly
but are not overcooked or burned.
Starchy
vegetables and products take
virtually no effort on your part to prepare and
cook. Many of you are just too lazy to make the
effort to insure a healthful,
nourishing diet for your
families.
Daniel 1:4-16-- Daniel was
healthy and wanted to stay that way.
He didn't
intend to defile his body and
sludge up his mind with the rich, starchy,
spiced-up concoctions the king
was eating. But he was not a
vegetarian, and
he did drink wine (Dan.
10:3). Daniel simply ate natural
vegetables and fruits,
and later in life, clean,
unadulterated meats and good., natural, unfortified
unmixed wines. We would do well to follow his good example
in this.
2.
Avoid Preservatives and Artificial Colorings, Flavorings, and
Supplements
You should avoid knowingly eating
foods with preservatives or artificial coloring
or flavoring. People today are suffering from unheard of
diseases and paying
a horrible penalty in their
bodies largely due to these factors by themselves.
These things are out and out
poisons in most cases and are very harmful.
To
make matters worse, many of them
are residual -- they accumulate in your
system, polluting your body
constantly and building up for a grand, final
knockout blow.
It is a simple matter to check
the things you buy for preservatives.
All
products list their contents --
"BHA added to preserve freshness;" alum and
sodium this or that. God holds you responsible, where you have
the choice, for
just being a little careful and
not buying these things!
If you are visiting someone's
home and you don't know whether or not what they
serve contains such things,
simply ask God's blessing on and purification of
the food, and trust Him. Don't worry about it. But where you are doing the
buying and it's your decision, God holds you
responsible to do the best you
can and only buy that which is
wholesome and nutritious.
Mr. Herbert Armstrong has
constantly stated that we should eat only those
natural foods that will spoil --
and eat them before they do. This is a
good
overall principle to follow with
regard to every area of your diet.
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Strictly avoid artificial
supplements and vitamins as well as food "enriched"
or "fortified" with
such supplements. A balanced diet of
natural, wholesome
foods is the surest, quickest,
best way to health. many of these
"health foods,"
pills and vitamins are very
harmful. They get your body out of
balance or
react adversely. Iron supplements often take the enamel off
your teeth, vita-
min D during pregnancy can cause
mental retardation of your unborn child as well
as heart and bone defects,
vitamin K can cause jaundice, etc., etc.
Perhaps in some rare cases a
natural dietary supplement may be required for a
limited time for a special
dietary lack, but a balanced, natural diet is all that
is necessary to maintain good
nutrition.
3.
TOTALLY Eliminate ALL Refined and Processed Foods
Avoid the starchy, greasy,
sugary, spiced-up concoctions that may taste good at
the moment, but which contain
little nutritional value and will simply clog up
your system and wreck your
stomach and health in time. Virtually
all of you know
the great harm that is caused by
such "refined" or "improved" products as white
bread, white sugar, canned fruits
and vegetables and pasteurized milk.
When this
type of food is fed to rats and
dogs they become cowardly at first, then go out
of their heads and ultimately die
of starvation.
This nation is paying the penalty
of having a generation grow up on
refined and processed
"non-foods" rather than on wholesome,
nutritional foods. These refined
and processed foods are not only
definitely detrimental
physically, but they are detrimental mentally.
Psalms 104:15 -- God gives
mankind bread which strengthens his heart -- gives him
courage, stamina and health! The nutrients in natural whole grains do
just that!
But man "improves" the
natural grains and destroys his mind and body!
Where are men of courage and
conviction in our nation today? They
plead for peace
and decry the riots on campuses and the
violence in the streets, but they do not
have the courage or the will to
do anything to solve the problems -- to stand up
for decency and order.
Our hospitals are filled with
people with mental disorders, and our streets and homes
abound with them. Tooth decay affects 98 percent of American
people, and our nation
is wracked with unheard-of
sickness and diseases that are the direct result of its
diet of processed and refined
foods!
Desserts made with refined
ingredients are a big offender among God's people. Most
of what is palmed off as dessert
today is totally unfit for human consumption!
Des-
serts
are not necessary after every evening meal, and on special occasions when you
have dessert, serve fruit or nuts
or be sure that the dessert is made wholly with
natural ingredients. If you are visiting and are offered a
dessert that you know
is not good food, you can easily
turn it down without offending your host or making
an issue of it. Simply decline the dessert, and if pressed,
you can quietly and
graciously say you have already
had enough or that you have learned from bitter
experience that that type of
thing just has an adverse effect on your system.
We recommend a book entitled Food
Is Your Best Medicine, by Dr. Henry Bieler, to all
of you, as an excellent basic
book on the subject of nutrition.
Anyone with any
knowledge of God's Word can
detect the few areas in which he is off.
The vast
majority of the principles of
nutrition he gives in the book are sound, and it
can be suggested for all of you
as a textbook on good nutrition.
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III.
STOP COMPROMISING With WHAT YOU KNOW TO DO.'
By being in God's Church for
years, all of you already know many of these
basic keys to good health, but
are you acting on that knowledge? Have
you put
Lesson Two on organizing your
time God's way into effect, and are you following
a regular pattern of life which
includes enough sleep? Are you getting
regular
exercise of a type that is
really beneficial? If not, are you
convicted of
the need to change, or will you
be glad when this lesson "blows over" so that
your conscience will not
continue to bother you about this aspect of life which
you are not changing?
How about your diet? Far too many in God's Church are constantly
sick, weak,
and physically degenerate --
thickheaded, thickbodied and poisoned. Thousands
of God's people have only
enough energy after dinner to stagger to the T.V., and
sit in a stupor and watch
it. In most cases it is not a lack of
knowledge, it
is simply a lack of the
character, the "guts" if you please, to do what they
know is right. Just how much sin do you permit
yourself? And what excuse
do you use?
Many people in God's Church
look around and see people in the world and others
in the Church losing sleep,
burning the candle at both ends, "too busy" to
get regular exercise and eating
junk and conclude, "Oh well, it doesn't seem
to affect them too
adversely. It won't hurt me any worse
than it hurts them."
Others look to someone else and
justify what they do because so and so does
it:
That, in other words, makes it all right in spite of what they
personally
know is right. God doesn't reason that way.' He holds each of us responsible
for doing what we know to do.
Still others think, "Look, I've only got a few more years
in this physical
flesh. It doesn't matter that much. I'll make it:" But it does matter,
and with that attitude they may
very well not make it.'
Some people joke about
"abominating" -- meaning to
eat what they realize is
junk which is not fit to
eat. They then justify it by reasoning
that the "good"
things they eat make up for it,
not seeming to realize that such "abominations"
not only lack nutritional value, but
they are, in effect, poisons to their system.
People who reason this way
often feel that just because they have changed their
diet in one or two ways --
perhaps starting to eat whole-wheat bread and drink
raw milk -- that they are now
eating God's way! Ridiculous! They have barely
made a start in that
direction.
Many, when they are given
knowledge on specific items, through their own reading
or by their local minister,
reject that knowledge. They are slaves
to their
own lusts, their own sweet
tooth, and just can't bring themselves to give up
that which is sludging up their bodies and ruining their health. They toss
off Romans 14:17 to justify
their continuance of the defiling of their bodies
"Oh well -- let's not get
buggy. Remember, the Kingdom of God is
not meat
and drink!" This scripture has to do with offending a
weak brother who is a
vegetarian by your liberty of
eating meat.' It gives no one any
justification
whatsoever for not
changing his abominable eating habits!
Some in God's Church hang onto
their old eating habits by saying, "When God's
Church commands me not to eat
such and such, I'll stop eating it."
But God's
Church will NEVER begin to
legislate on any food other than unclean food.
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It is not the purpose of
God's Church to give a series of do's and
don't's
in regard to diet or any other area of your lives. The Church
can only explain the
principles. It is then up to the
individual to
build character by applying
that knowledge!
Let's quit kidding
ourselves! Let's stop playing little
games to
justify our rotten diets and
hideous eating habits. God holds each
of us responsible for doing
the very best we can to find out what
constitutes proper nutrition
and changing our diets to conform to
that knowledge to insure
good health, stamina, endurance and resistance
to disease. Then if through our human weakness we sin,
as we all do
from time to time, He is
merciful to forgive us and heal us through
Jesus Christ! But He will neither condone our compromise
and willful
disobedience, nor heal us,
when we continue to justify ourselves and
refuse to do what we know we
should.
IV.
PHYSICAL SIN CAN BE SPIRITUAL SIN!
There is an expression to the
effect that "a little knowledge can be a
dangerous thing." Much knowledge can also be dangerous if you
are not
acting on and obeying that
knowledge!
James 4:17-- This is the very
heart and core of the reason that so many
are constantly sick in God's
Church, and why so many of those sick are just
not healed when they are anointed,
but have to tough it out! Many claim
to repent of the physical sins
that caused the illness, but continue to
do the same things that caused
it - - they will not change - - yet they
know better. Still others toss it off as attributable
solely to the fact
that this is the end time and we
are all so degenerate it couldn't have
been avoided.
Galatians 6:7-8 -- Healing is
the forgiveness of physical sin! We
can't
mock God! We can't claim to repent and continue to
repeat the same
mistakes that caused the
illness, knowing better, and expect God to heal
us. If you know a particular so-called
"food" is not good for you and
you eat it anyway, you are committing both
physical AND spiritual sin!
The thing you ate was harmful to
your physical body and the fact that you
did it anyway, knowingly, was
lust, which caused you to weaken your
spiritual character!
Colossians 3:25 -- You are going
to pay a penalty for both sins! The
more
you compromise in this way the
more you lose both character and faith.
I John 3:22 -- You can't go
wholeheartedly to God in faith for healing
when you know you haven't been
doing the best you can with the knowledge
you have -- when you know you
have been compromising continually with
that which makes for good
health!
I Corinthians 6:19
-- Don't we understand -- can't we grasp that we are
the temple of God's Holy
Spirit? For those of us who know and
understand
what physical sin is -- and the
penalty that Christ willingly accepted in
our place so that we can be
healed - - we cannot shrug off or take lightly
physical sin with some trite
excuse. Cod does not shrug off or take
lightly physical sin. He allowed His Son's body to be utterly
broken so
that those physical sins could
be removed and our bodies healed. Our health
was -- and is -- that important
to God! How about you?
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V.
RESOLVE TO BUILD GOOD HEALTH - - AND GOOD CHARACTER
Psalms 91:2-3, 9-10 -- Men, don't
sell this area of your life short. If
we are to withstand the plagues
and disease epidemics that are increasingly
coming upon this nation, we must
first do our part, and then trust God
for the rest. We need to be healthy, energetic, filled
with life and have
sharp, clear minds in order to
really grow spiritually. And we need
to
be physically strong and full of
zest to help finish this Work!
But just as important, you need
to use this area of your life to build
character, not tear it down! Resolve not to compromise your conscience
in any of the basic keys which
would insure good health. Resolve that
by the way you conduct this area
of your life you will BUILD GOOD HEALTH --
AND GOOD CHARACTER.'
ASSIGNMENTS FOR
NEXT CLASS
1. "Are You Under the Law?" by Mr. Garner Ted
Armstrong, November 1967
PLAIN TRUTH.
2. "The New Testament Teaching on Law
and Grace"
Reprint #650.
3. "What Kind of Faith is Required
for Salvation?"
by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. (booklet)
4. "What Do You Mean
Salvation?" by Mr. Herbert
W. Armstrong. (booklet)
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