Mountain Man,
Hello, getting back to your original question, I just wanted to caution you.
For about the past 6 years events have led me to just eat whatever I wanted to thinking well tomorrow I will change.
Now I realize the foolishness of doing that and hopefully not too late. Now I understand why Ellen White kept saying that if we dont take care of ourselves, each time we do that, we are drawing upon our "emergency stash" so to speak.
Kind of like money in the bank... you make yourself a savings account by practicing right health habits, and each time you dont do that and you abuse your body in any way, later on, when you least expect it, you might have an injury or something else, and your body will desperately need all the forces you have stored up for such an emergency. But if you neglected to take care of yourself, then you will find your body to be bankrupt of that extra stored up energy you need to get you over the emergency.
This is what I am experiencing now. I absolutely regret not taking care of myself better. And if God tells us not to do something, we need to take it absolutely seriously, not only for our own body's good but also because anything we do to our body effects our minds and our ability to be spiritually perceptive.
Especially if you are a Pastor, I believe from what I have read, that you are doubly responsible to keep your mind and body in the very best condition possible so that you can have clear spiritual perception, since you are responsible for influencing others toward or away from obtaining eternal life.
If I were you I would think twice about what the guy said to you and dont allow it to offend you, but allow it to bring this to your attention, no matter how the guy said it... God may be trying to help you, and through you, others who you will influence.
Think of this, if you eat ice cream 3 times a month, and sister white says milk and sugar together have an even worse effect than meat does... that adds up to 1 tenth of your life that you are doing this to yourself. every 10 days. Thats alot. You are using up your emergency fund withot realizing it but some day you will reap what you have sown.
Meaning this as a friend, Bro, take it from one who has experienced this.
The Signs of the Times, March 2, 1882, paragraph 8
Article Title: Daniel a Temperance Reformer
Those who, like Daniel, refuse to defile themselves, will reap the reward of their temperate habits. With their greater physical stamina and increased power of endurance, they have a bank of deposit upon which to draw in case of emergency.
Counsels on Health, page 42, paragraph 2
Chapter Title: Essentials to Health
Adherence to a Simple Diet
If ever there was a time when the diet should be of the most simple kind, it is now. Meat should not be placed before our children. Its influence is to excite and strengthen the lower passions and has a tendency to deaden the moral powers. Grains and fruits prepared free from grease, and in as natural a condition as possible, should be the food for the tables of all who claim to be preparing for translation to heaven. The less feverish the diet, the more easily can the passions be controlled. Gratification of taste should not be consulted irrespective of physical, intellectual, or moral health.
Indulgence of the baser passions will lead very many to shut their eyes to the light; for they fear that they will see sins which they are unwilling to forsake. All may see if they will. If they choose darkness rather than light, their criminality will be none the less. Why do not men and women read and become intelligent upon these things, which so decidedly affect their physical, intellectual, and moral strength?-- Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 352 (1869).
What have such gained? Perhaps they have been able to keep the principal good, and add to it. But on the other hand, what have they lost? Their capital of health, which is invaluable to the poor as well as the rich, has been steadily diminishing. The mother and the children have made repeated drafts upon their fund of health and strength, thinking that such an extravagant expenditure would never exhaust their capital, until they are surprised at last to find their vigor of life exhausted. They have nothing left to draw upon in case of emergency. The sweetness and happiness of life are embittered by racking pains and sleepless nights. Both physical and mental vigor are gone. The husband and father who, for the sake of gain, made the unwise arrangement of his business, it may be with the full sanction of the wife and mother, may, as the result, bury the mother and one or more of the children. Health and life were sacrificed for the love of money. (Read 1 Timothy 6:10.)-- Testimonies for the Church, vol, 1, p. 478 (1865).
