THOUGHTS FROM MY NOTEBOOK I PONDER ....
LONG LIFE by Glen Miller

I will be 86 years old on March 8, 2007. Why do I have exceptionally good health? Because I believe IT IS WRITTEN. I have never had a health problem except one of my own doing. I was raised on a dairy farm and we had two pitchers of milk on the table at each meal. I became a milkaholic. I drank approximately a gallon of milk a day and very little water. This caused my system to be unbalanced in calcium and I became a bladder stone maker and have had five major operations because of it, before a doctor told me that milk was the cause of my problem. He also told me that black pepper, which is ground up wood, is one of the major causes of kidney stones. I have never been a user of black pepper and have always loved vegetable and salads.

There was a circumstance that happened just after the Lord sold our publication business in 1965 (that’s another story). We used to listen to a radio program called, “The Church in the Vail”. The church was just a block off of Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood. The Pastor was Clem Davies. They had a Sunday afternoon service that we attended and the service was good. There was a small table in the lobby with a couple of books for a dollar each. Of course, Erma, had to stop and look at them. Somehow, she had no money in her purse and came to me for a dollar. I told her she did not need the book, but she insisted. It was and is, the best dollar we have ever spent. Why? And what does it have to do with my exceptionally good health? Everything. I attended North Central Bible School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for two years. I was Sunday School Superintendent of a fairly large denominational church for nine years and I had read the Bible four or five times and have several translations – but not until Erma convinced me to read this little book, that I told her she did not need, did I begin to understand that the statutes and ordinances of God are of the same importance as the Ten Commandments. You ask, as I did, what are the statues and ordinances? Let us look at some of them and see what they have to do with long life.

As I began to look for God’s statutes, one of the first verses I found, astonished me. Exodus, chapter fifteen, verse twenty-six. Now, don’t say that is Old Testament for Revelation, chapter twenty-two and verse nineteen says, “If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, (and this book of prophecy is from Genesis one to Revelation, chapter twenty-two, verse twenty-one), God shall take away his part out of the book of life.”

Verse twenty-six of chapter fifteen of Exodus says, “and said, (who said? God said) If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD THY GOD, and will do that which is right in HIS sight; and will give ear to HIS commandments, and keep all HIS statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD (Jehovah Rapha) that healeth thee.” WOW! In all my years I had never heard anyone preach or teach about statutes – what are they and where are they?? For God has just told Moses that if His people will keep them, they will live in good health. So, I began my study and search for God’s STATUTES that would bring health to my body – and I found that God has promised a minimum of seventy (70) years. Psalms ninety and verse ten, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if my reason of strength they be fourscore years.” Erma was eighty years and two months when the LORD took her. Proverbs chapter three and verses one and two says, “My son, forget not MY LAW; but let thine heart keep my COMMANDMENTS: For length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee.”

I found in Leviticus, chapter three and verse seventeen, the following statement. “It shall be a PERPETUAL STATUTE for your generations throughout ALL your dwellings, that ye eat neither FAT nor BLOOD.” Perpetual is forever, and that statute is in effect today. Leviticus, chapter ten and verses eight through eleven says, “And the LORD spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.” Proverbs chapter four and verses twenty through twenty-three says, “My son, attend to MY WORDS; incline thine ear unto MY sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart, For they are LIFE unto those that find them, and HEALTH to ALL their FLESH. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of LIFE.”

What are the clean and unclean? I found Leviticus chapter eleven tells us what is clean and that the unclean are an abomination to God, and verse one say, “And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, speak unto the children of Israel and say to them, and today (that is to you and me.) These are the beasts which you shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. You read the chapter and see what God says you can and cannot eat. Verse forty-six and forty-seven says, “This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth: To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.”

You have been taught that Peter’s vision cancelled God’s LAW of the clean and unclean. Peter’s vision was God’s grace. “For God so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten SON that whosoever believed in or on Him may be saved.” This vision represented people, God’s saving grace to all the heathen nations of the earth. You say, Paul said he could eat what? Unclean foods? No, meat that the blood had been offered to idols – when he prayed over it. Not that which God calls unclean. Why does God tell us not to eat certain animals that He says are unclean? Because they are the scavengers to clean the filth off of God’s earth, so we can live a healthy and long life for our good and His pleasure.

We do not eat mushrooms – they are a fungus and not seed bearing, grown in manure.  Leviticus chapter eighteen and verse twenty-nine through thirty, says, "For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. (Not reached your promised 70 years) Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God."

As soon as we saw God’s statutes and ordinances over forty years ago, we have tried to live by them. I do not want to argue or face an angry God. I believe this is one reason we have had good health and long life.

Deuteronomy chapter fourteen and verses two and three says, “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.”

Back to November/December 2006 Voices