Death Row

“As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.” (Pro. 26:2).

There are eight laws to obey in order to have healthy blood and vibrant health.

Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power—these are the true remedies. Ministry of Healing, p. 127.

Fresh air.     Air, air, the precious boon of heaven, which all may have, will bless you with its invigorating influence, if you will not refuse it entrance. Welcome it, cultivate a love for it, and it will prove a precious soother of the nerves. Air must be in constant circulation to be kept pure. The influence of pure, fresh air is to cause the blood to circulate healthfully through the system. It refreshes the body and tends to render it strong and healthy, while at the same time its influence is decidedly felt upon the mind, imparting a degree of composure and serenity. It excites the appetite, and renders the digestion of food more perfect, and induces sound and sweet sleep. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 702.

In pleasant weather the sick in no case should be deprived of a full supply of fresh air. Their rooms may not always be so constructed as to allow the windows or doors open in their rooms, without the draught coming directly upon them, and exposing them to take cold. In such cases windows and doors should be opened in an adjoining room, and thus let the fresh air enter the room occupied by the sick. Fresh air will prove more beneficial to the sick than medicine, and is far more essential to them than their food. They will do better, and recover sooner, deprived of food, than of fresh air.  Selected Messages. Vol. 2, p. 455.

Sunlight.     If you would have your homes sweet and inviting, make them bright with air and sunshine. Remove your heavy curtains, open the windows, throw back the blinds, and enjoy the rich sunlight, even if it be at the expense of the colors of your carpets. The precious sunlight may fade your carpets, but it will give a healthful color to the cheeks of your children. If you have God’s presence and possess earnest, loving hearts, a humble home, made bright with air and sunlight, and cheerful with the welcome of unselfish hospitality, will be to your family and to the weary traveler a heaven below. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 527.

Abstinence.     As our first parents lost Eden through the indulgence of appetite, our only hope of regaining Eden is through the firm denial of appetite and passion. Abstemiousness in diet, and control of all the passions, will preserve the intellect and give mental and moral vigor, enabling men to bring all their propensities under the control of the higher powers, and to discern between right and wrong, the sacred and the common. All who have a true sense of the sacrifice made by Christ in leaving His home in heaven to come to this world that He might by His own life show man how to resist temptation, will cheerfully deny self and choose to be partakers with Christ of his sufferings.  Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 59.

Rest.     Sleep is worth far more before than after midnight. Two hours’ good sleep before twelve o’clock is worth more than four hours after twelve o’clock.  Manuscript Releases, vol. 2, p. 224.

The importance of regularity in the time for eating and sleeping should not be overlooked. Since the work of building up the body takes place during the hours of rest, it is essential, especially in youth, that sleep should be regular and abundant. It is needful to take care of the body and to study its needs and preserve it from unnecessary exposure. It is a sin to be ignorant of how to care for the wants of this habitation God has given us. Especially should brain workers begin to be soothed and not in any way excited as they draw nigh their hours for sleep. Let the blood be attracted from the brain by some kind of exercise, if need be. Let not the brain be taxed even to read, and, of course, not to put forth literary effort. You shall, Marian and Fannie, have one or two hours, as will best please you, in the daytime, and you will not feel so starved for intellectual food that you will partake of it in the night hours. God designed that the night shall be given to sleep. Daughters of God, p. 177.

In the building of houses it is especially important to secure thorough ventilation and plenty of sunlight. Let there be a current of air and an abundance of light in every room in the house. Sleeping rooms should be so arranged as to have a free circulation of air day and night. No room is fit to be occupied as a sleeping room unless it can be thrown open daily to the air and sunshine. In most countries bedrooms need to be supplied with conveniences for heating, that they may be thoroughly warmed and dried in cold or wet weather.  Ministry of Healing, p. 274.

Exercise.     There is no exercise that can take the place of walking. By it the circulation of the blood is greatly improved. . . . Walking, in all cases where it is possible, is the best remedy for diseased bodies, because in this exercise all of the organs of the body are brought into use.

 Morning exercise, in walking in the free, invigorating air of heaven, or cultivating flowers, small fruits, and vegetables, is necessary to a healthful circulation of the blood. It is the surest safeguard against colds, coughs, congestions of the brain and lungs, inflammation of the liver, the kidneys, and the lungs, and a hundred other diseases. Healthful Living, p. 129,130.

Proper diet.     Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator. These foods, prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, are the most healthful and nourishing. They impart a strength, a power of endurance, and a vigor of intellect, that are not afforded by a more complex and stimulating diet.  Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 81.

Pure Water.     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. 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.  Ministry of Healing, p. 237.

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. Healthful Living, p. 187.

Trust in divine power.   “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.… Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (Heb. 4:9,11).

The rest here spoken of is the rest of grace, obtained by following the prescription, Labor diligently. Those who learn of Jesus His meekness and lowliness find rest in the experience of practicing His lessons. It is not in indolence, in selfish ease and pleasure-seeking, that rest is obtained. Those who are unwilling to give the Lord faithful, earnest, loving service will not find spiritual rest in this life or in the life to come. Only from earnest labor comes peace and joy in the Holy Spirit—happiness on earth and glory hereafter.

Let us therefore labor. Speak often words that will be a strength and an inspiration to those who hear. We are altogether too indifferent in regard to one another. We forget that our fellow laborers are often in need of words of hope and cheer. When one is in trouble, call upon him and speak comforting words to him. This is true friendship. SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 928.

“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.

And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.” (Psa. 37:3-8).

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” (Jer. 17:5-8).

“And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.” (Isa. 30:18).

“Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.”

“O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in Thee.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on Thee.” (Psa. 25:5,20,21).

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” (Psa. 27:13,14).

Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power. These are the 8 laws to excellent health and abundant life.

But I know a lot of people on death row. They don’t look like criminals, but that’s what they are. They are all murderers. They murder God’s children. Yet, they can come and go in society; they partake in all of the liberties that this great nation has to offer. How do they get away with this travesty? The injustice is amazing. But, their day is coming. As Moses admonished, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Num. 32:23).

These are murderers of potential candidates of the kingdom; they murder the saints! That is, the murderers are themselves the victims. They kill their own bodies; they murder themselves by the defiling things they put in their mouths, by the aerobic exercise which they dismiss as unnecessary or too hard to do, by the sleep which they rob from their bodies and brains. They also murder themselves by avoiding the precious morning hours with the Lord and in His written word, so they can’t trust Him implicitly. Then, stress builds up, cancers appear, and they “go the way of all the earth.” (1Ki. 2:2).

So death row for these convicts is not a metaphor, but a literal reality. “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1Cor. 6:19-20). They are adversaries to God’s temples. So, there they sit on death row, out of shape, weak and sickly, physically distressed, and mentally exhausted and depressed.

Their day of reckoning hasteth greatly. They go laughing and celebrating the lawlessness which their god gives them—all the way to the pit. As they get older and sicker and increasingly pained, they see their mentors in life, in whom they have followed religiously, get a sudden illness or disease, and grow weak and die—all because he or she wouldn’t deny self. It was socially acceptable to spend day after day, week after week, year after year indulging self, and these death row convicts had no power to break from the lifestyle of their deadly community. They thought, How could so many people be wrong? Everyone was breaking those health laws. Society’s and the church’s leaders were good people, trustworthy people. How could these mentors lead them astray? But their Bible has been clear, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” (Isa. 2:22).
“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” (Prov. 3:7,8).

As each mentor dies they hear the thoughts from deep down inside their conscience, “Soon I’ll to be the one to die!” Over the years of obesity and physical self-abuse and degeneration that voice nags louder and louder. They can continue to laugh it off and pretend they’re going to heaven, because—as they think—God would never hurt a flea; but the scripture testimony unmistakably contradicts that human philosophy. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” (1Cor. 3:17). At each death of friend and family, the Spirit of God keeps pleading louder and louder, “You’re next!” “You’re next!”

“And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.” (1Pet. 1:17,18).

These death row inmates play around like my neighbor did, who lived across the street. Jim was a thief and a drug dealer, and he finally got cancer. I tried to encourage him to reconsider the love of God, but my words were all mysteriously laughed off. Satan had trained Jim to ridicule God. We were the fool for believing the Bible, its gospel and laws. He, the prisoner of death row, was the wise man.

The day before he died he threw a big party to honor the gods of alcohol and Crack and Marijuana. He shook his fist at God as the last morphine shot dulled the tornado-like destruction and agony of the cancer ravaging his body, and he went to sleep for the last time. And that ended the 50-some year saga of this man. He didn’t even get to live out his threescore years and ten. He laughed at his life of injustices, had no care for God’s authority, and had no thought of Judgment day.

The Creator of Jim’s intricate body, with its marvel of interlocking systems that give him life and happiness, received no glory or gratitude for all of his Creator’s wonderful beneficence. His strong frame, muscles and tendons and nerves, the human mind, the impulses and emotions and the conscience, the ability to analyze and to think and to do, the capacity to love and have pleasure, all of this and so much more gave my neighbor no cause to reconcile with his Maker and to thank Him for His marvelous gifts.

But, millions do the same thing—even millions who flock to the churches. They flaunt their large church clothes as a sign of God’s prosperity and then have no shame to profess Jesus to the world.

“Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.

And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;

Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.” (Jer. 7:9-15).

They eat and drink the foods of the idolatrous nations of the Bible. “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” (Phil. 3:18-19). They partake of food that has God’s severest prohibition, and they pay no heed to their wanton misrepresenting of His appearance before unbelievers, breaking the third commandment. “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” (Ex. 20:7).

“Many therefore of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Doth this offend you?...

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him.

And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father.

From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” (Jn. 6:60,61,63-66).

These death row inmates, who transgress the health laws of Jehovah, are as verily sitting on their long bench as the drug abuser and hedonist are, awaiting their end. They shift closer to the end on their long bench, as others ahead of them end their life early, to the dishonor of God. Like a caterpillar that moves his undulating body as he walks, so does this long line of death row prisoners, as it were mindlessly, stand up and shift over again and again, in long, ever moving oscillations toward their demise. And each wave of the death row oscillations reminds all the residents of the most recent execution, and the word silently haunts them each time, “I’m next!”

Yet, they continue to abuse their temples. “Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.” (1Cor. 15:32). And likewise, they continue to stand up and shift over in long ever rolling oscillations, awaiting God’s destruction. No hope for the future; only death at the end of the bench that gets ever closer.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23).

There is a way to escape death row. But, the promise has a condition that multitudes turn down. That condition forms the very strait gate and very narrow way which leads to life, “and few there be that find it.” (Matt. 7:14). That condition is to accept into the heart God’s fearful warnings and be humbled by them, and then to fall completely on Him and be broken. Their will and heart must break. Will they heed the warning and be humbled, repent and accept the promised new life when divine power cooperates with the humbled human heart and will?

“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil;

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isa. 1:16-20).

“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deut. 30:15-20).

“Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1Pet. 5:8).

Friend, a roaring lion is chasing every one of us. Our angels cry, “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee…lest thou be consumed.” (Gen. 19:17). Let’s walk very briskly; let’s even run if we can. Let’s abstain from the fatty and sweet food and beverages. Let’s be no more a death row prisoner. Jesus came to “heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives.” (Luk. 4:18). “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1Pet. 1:18,19).

Jesus will reconcile us to His laws and give us the power to obey if we come to Him and His high standards. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:29,30).

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isa. 40:30,31).

“They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.” (Isa. 49:23).