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CONNIE: Are you stuffed with the right stuff? How is it possible to know what’s the best diet when every day’s news brings conflicting reports about what’s good for you? Join us for a look at the Creator’s plan for healthy eating.

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko.

CONNIE: Welcome to week two in our series on 12 Simple Biblical Things You Can Do to Really Improve Your Life. As we begin a new year, we’re focusing on good counsel that can make life better for all of us.

LONNIE: And Connie, one of the words in our series title that I think is especially important is SIMPLE. We realize that most people today are too busy to fit a lot of radical changes into their schedules, so we’ve chosen to focus on small steps we can take that can yield big rewards.

CONNIE: There’s a lot of controversy these days centering around various diet plans. It seems like about half the country is on a weight-reduction diet of one sort or another most of the time. For a while the rage was high-carb, then it was low-fat, then it was low-carb. But despite all these various diet fads, Americans have—by-and-large—continued to grow larger. Is there a solution to be found in the Bible?

LONNIE: One man who has had tremendous success in helping people regain their health and get control of their waistlines is Dr. Hans Diehl of the Lifestyle Medicine Institute. We spoke with him recently about the simple plan he uses to help people, and how it’s related to the Bible.

CONNIE: Let’s listen to that interview now.

LONNIE: Dr. Hans Deal thank you for being here. You are a lifestyle interventionist. You’ve done heart research, and health research and you’re the president of Lifestyle Medical Institute.

HANS: CHIP stands for Coronary Health Improvement Project. It’s a program to help reverse many of our common Western diseases.

LONNIE: Everyone these days is concerned about health, from the Presidents office down on to the streets. There’s increased cots of health care and debates going on about bringing in medication from other countries and...What’s going on? Are there more diseases coming in or what’s happening? Well I think that the medications are really pushing as a cure all for everything. All aliments and diseases, people want or say they have the cure for, and that can be deceiving sometimes.

HANS: I think…Sometimes that medications get recognition because of good marketing and such, but there is actually much more disease around today that there was 20 years ago. So we are really facing some Western disease epidemic.

LONNIE: For every ill there’s a pill, but of course there is a big bill creating a big problem.

HANS: Well, there may noyt be a pill for every ill, but the idea of if I just get the right pill for the right ill than everything is going to be fine, is not, we need to become personally involved in our own health.

LONNIE: What are the psychological effects of this huge media blitz…you know the whole pill for every ill thing?

HANS: Well, we’re becoming over-medicated. We have people now that take from 10 to 28 pills a day. We really are confounded by these medications and there various effects. We really have got to become more conservative.

LONNIE: Obviously, it’s not just a genetic problem.

HANS: Well, when it comes to genetic problems, it takes generations to figure things out as far as what people really have. Today we have an epidemic of overweight people and it is expressing itself all over our society. This causes us to need larger shirts, larger gurney’s, we need larger seats on airplanes.

LONNIE: I understand that over the years we’ve extended the width of a chair from 16 inches to 23 inches.

HANS: Yeah, and the interesting thing is that for 70 years that 16 inch size has stayed in tact, but it has gone up 6 inches just in the last 25 years.

LONNIE: New meaning to the word bottom line.

HANS: yeah!

LONNIE: Give us some simple tips, what can we do?

HANS: Well, you know, Lonnie, in our society we are basically phasing out exercise and moving activities, so it becomes more important on what and how we eat.

LONNIE: What about going out to eat all of the time?

HANS: I would like to see a family sit around the table and have a home cooked meal at least once a day.

LONNIE: Final thoughts for us today.

HANS: We should stay away from the refined foods and sugars and such, and these are what cause the majority of the diseases. We need to eat more of the unrefined foods, vegetables, fruits, grains and so forth. We can get back to the basics if we just become aware of what we put into our bodies.

LONNIE: Dr. Hans Deal, thank you for you’re insight!!!

CONNIE: Hmm… some very good counsel there—and so simple. Getting back to basics—eating the way we were designed to eat. And it can actually reverse the effects of disease in our lives. That reminds me of a good old spiritual song that tells us, “There is a Balm in Gilead—to heal the sin-sick soul.” Let’s listen as Wintley Phipps brings us that song now.

“Balm in Gilead”, Wintley Phipps, from Favorite Spirituals CD.

CONNIE: Thanks to our good friend Whitley Phipps for that song—and here’s a reminder, if you want to know more about the music you hear on our broadcast, stop by our Internet home at VOP.COM. You’ll find music information and many other great resources there.

LONNIE: You know, Connie, this whole idea of finding a “balm in Gilead” fits right in with our theme today----it comes from Jeremiah 8:22, in which God asks, “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?” (NKJV).
This is a reference to the healing properties of a certain type of balsam oil that is still used today to help wounds heal more quickly, and even to treat snakebites.

CONNIE: So, as we look at the biblical principles that can bring physical healing in our lives, we’re at least metaphorically discovering the balm of Gilead and finding ways to reverse disease and bring healing.

LONNIE: That’s right, and there’s good, scientific evidence out there that backs up the claim that living a more biblical lifestyle can improve our health, bring healing, and give us longer lives. Dr. Jan [Yon] Kuzma, and Cecil Murphy have put this information in a very user-friendly format in their book Live 10 Healthy Years Longer.

CONNIE: And that just happens to be the book we’re offering to our listeners today. We’ll explain more about it later, but jot down this number right now: 1-800-872-0055. That’s the number you can call to receive a copy for your gift of just $10.00.

LONNIE: That’s only a dollar a year for the ten extra healthy years they’re offering! So, give us a call or drop us a line, we’ll be glad to send you a copy of the book, so stay tuned for further information.

CONNIE: And right now, stay tuned for Pastor Lonnie’s message, “The Right Stuff!”

The Right Stuff

In his 1979 bestseller, The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe chronicles the lives and loves of America’s first dream team—the seven men selected during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency to be the first Americans into space.

What was it that prepared these men for their role as America’s heroes? Was there some special ingredient in each one’s background that prepared him for the day when he would enter a tiny capsule perched atop a slender column full of enough explosives to blow a small city into oblivion and rocket into space?

If you’ve read the book or seen the movie based on it, you know that those seven men: Alan Shepherd, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, Donald Slayton, and Walter Schirra, came from vastly different backgrounds.

The recipe for each successful candidate had been different, but the end product in each case was a man with nerves of steel, the ability to undergo a multitude of physical tortures that were part of the qualification process, and finally the right stuff to become an American legend.

We’ve borrowed our program title today from Wolfe’s book about the space program, not because we’re looking for a recipe to prepare us for space travel. No, most of us would be satisfied with just a recipe for maintaining good health right here on earth.

When Michael Melvill piloted Spaceship One to apogee 60-some miles above the Mojave Desert in September, 2004, he became the first private astronaut in history—for the second time! (He’d done it before, back in June) But with his feet firmly back on terra firma later that morning, the 63-year-old test pilot responded to a newscaster’s question about his plans for the future—would he be going into space again—by saying “I’m getting too old for this!”—suggesting he was ready to retire from space flight.

Well, I think most of us will be quite pleased with ourselves if we reach retirement age still in good enough condition to pilot a rocket plane and bring it back to a safe landing.

The question is, is there a recipe that we can follow that will assure us of good health well into our retirement years?

And the answer is: Yes, and no.

Yes, of course there are certain things we can do to improve our chances of living a long life in good physical condition. We’ll be looking at a number of them in coming weeks, as part of our series on Simple Things we can do to Really Improve Our Lives.

Following these simple, biblical principles can give us a much better chance of staying healthy. They can’t ward off all chances of accident or disease, of course. But the principles I want to share with you are based on the Manufacturer’s Maintenance Manual—the little booklet that would have come in your glove box—if you’d been born with a glove box, that is.

That Manufacturer’s Manual is found in the Bible. It reveals not only how we were created, but how we should maintain our bodies, minds, and spirits for optimum performance.

Did you ever notice where God placed Adam and Eve when He first created them?

Well, of course you did—it was in the Garden of Eden. A place that conjures up all kinds of pictures of a beautiful landscape with rich green grass, strawberry plants and (thorn less) raspberry bushes, and trees bearing all kinds of fruit.

The first thing that becomes obvious in this story—in relation to getting the right stuff into our bodies—is that God didn’t intend Adam and Eve to get their food from the aisles of a supermarket.

Our first parents were placed in a garden where they could find fruits, nuts, berries, and grains to eat. Can’t you just picture God as He planned the layout of that fabulous place? Thinking of each of the needs of His children, and of what would taste good to them. He must have planted the garden and brought some of the fruits to perfect ripeness instantly, so they would be ready to be eaten at the peak of perfection as soon as Adam felt that first hunger pang. Of course others would ripen a few days later, assuring a constant supply of goodies with no preservatives added.

But notice something else in Genesis 2:15: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it (NRSV).

Adam and Eve weren’t going to just lie around, waiting for the apples and oranges and almonds to drop into their laps. No, they would have the chance to be actively involved in production of all of this “right stuff” that God had designed especially for their happiness and health. Because God had a whole program for them, that involved getting their exercise as well as the right food. We’ll talk more about the exercise part two weeks from today, when we explore what the Bible has to say about physical activity as part of God’s plan for us.

But today, let’s focus just on the recommended “right stuff” diet that God planned for Adam and Eve. Here’s how Genesis 1:29 describes that ideal diet: “God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food’ ” (NRSV).

Do you get the picture of what was on the menu there in Eden? Apples, oranges, bananas, mangos, berries, sunflower seeds, wheat, barley. Foods with all the right nutrients—vitamins, minerals, carbs, fats, and protein, to fuel the human machine and keep it running strong.

All fresh-picked, vine ripened, and brimming with the precise flavors designed to tempt the unsullied palates of our first parents.

No Twinkies, no Cheetos, not even a potato chip anywhere to be found. When Adam and Eve had Breakfast with the King of the Universe, there wasn’t a slice of bacon or cheese, or even a croissant in sight!

Flash forward a few centuries, and most of us don’t find our meals in the garden anymore—unless maybe it’s the Olive Garden.

And please don’t misunderstand. I realize that most people don’t have the privilege of living in a place where they can raise all of their own food year round. As we speak, the icy winds are blowing across the Saskatchewan soil of the little farm where I was born. Even the winter wheat is hunkered down, hiding under the snowdrifts, waiting for spring’s warm winds to revive it and nurture it to harvest. And believe me, there are no orange trees or banana plants on that old farmstead.

But God’s record of our origins sets out the ideal for us, and it can still point us to the types of foods and lifestyle that are best for us.

We may not have the privilege of picking fresh fruits from the tree today, but we can make wise choices at the supermarket—or perhaps better yet, the farmer’s market. And here’s a simple clue that many health educators will share, regarding how to make the best selections at the Safeway or Albertsons or Winn-Dixie: Stay out of the center aisles!

Stick with the outside edges, and you’ll be a lot safer, if you choose carefully from among the foods you find there. On the outer edges of the market you’ll find the fresh fruits and vegetables you were designed to eat. At the other end of the store, you’ll probably find lots of good, wholesome breads and other products made from whole, unrefined grains. You might want to skip past the butcher’s counter and partake sparingly of the items found in the dairy case if you want to stick as close to the diet God intended for us.

If you do take a trip through the center aisles, be on the alert for highly refined foods with big advertising budgets. If you see them, grip the handles of your shopping cart firmly, and walk on by! There were no billboards in Eden, no TV ads, and not even a Sunday paper crammed with coupons for empty-calorie foods.

I’ve talked with many successful health educators—Dr. Tim Arnott who provided health lectures for our satellite broadcasts both in America and Africa; Dr. Hans Diehl, whom we spoke with on the broadcast earlier today, and many others, and each of them can share testimonial after testimonial from people they have worked with who have benefited immensely from this simple shopping principle.

Pounds shed, cholesterol levels brought into balance, blood pressure lowered, diabetes brought to heel. All as a result of returning to a simpler, more natural diet fueled by the foods our Creator placed in Eden for Adam and Eve.

But wait, Pastor Melashenko, I hear someone saying. Are you saying God never intended us to eat anything except what can be grown in a garden? Didn’t He tell the Children of Israel to sacrifice animals and eat the flesh? Didn’t Jesus eat meat and fish? Didn’t God promise His people a land flowing with dairy products and honey?

And you know what? You’re absolutely right. After the flood, God allowed Noah and his descendants to begin to eat meat. But personally I believe it was part of an emergency rations plan for a world where there wouldn’t be enough fresh garden produce to sustain life for years to come. I don’t think it was God’s ideal plan for His children.

A few years ago, my wife and I bought a [used?] Mercedes Diesel car and we drove it for several years. And I’ve heard that in a pinch you can run a diesel engine on just about anything that will burn. You can pour used cooking oil from the deep fat fryer at McDonalds in the tank if you want, and the car will probably run.

But for how far?

I’m not sure.

And do you know what? I never had a real urge to find out—at least not enough to make me want to try it. I never put anything but the best diesel fuel in the car, because I wanted it to run the best it could, for the longest possible time without needing repairs.

And that’s why I’m pretty careful about what I put into my body, too. I’ve been a vegetarian for years, and it hasn’t harmed my health in the least. Yes, I’ll fall for an occasional bag of Cheetos, but I’ve found it’s really true what Dr. Arnott and others have told me: The best nutrition in the supermarket is to be found in those aisles where they bring in the original Manufacturer’s recommended fuel from the orchards and fields.

That’s the right stuff—the stuff that builds strong bodies, minds, and spirits. As we enter this New Year, let’s give some consideration to the fuel we put into our bodies, and to the Creator’s plan. Let’s let Him guide us to a better, more successful lifestyle through the Manufacturer’s Manual He’s given us—the Bible.