Study Helps - Lesson 9

Lesson 9 *August 20–26

Lord of Our Body Temples

Memory Text: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Sabbath Afternoon

2 Corinthians 6:16 NKJV 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."

1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

Sunday

All Things Were Made by Him (John 1:1-3).

John 1:1-2 NKJV 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:3 NKJV 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

John 1:4 NKJV 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Colossians 1:16-17 NIV 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:16-17 NKJV 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

John 1:1-4 NKJV 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Mark 4:41 NIV 41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

Mark 4:41 NKJV 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!"

Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV 26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Monday

Redeemed

Acts 20:28 NKJV 28 "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Galatians 3:13 NKJV 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),

Galatians 4:4-5 NKJV 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Colossians 1:14 NKJV 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:12 NKJV 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

1 Peter 1:18-19 NKJV 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Daniel 2:44 NKJV 44 "And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Tuesday

The Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Deuteronomy 21:20 NKJV 20 "And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

Proverbs 20:1 NKJV 1 Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Proverbs 20:25 NKJV 25 It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy, And afterward to reconsider his vows.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV 31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Wednesday

Do All to the Glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV 31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

Revelation 21:4 NKJV 4 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Revelation 21:14 NKJV 14 Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Exodus 15:26 NKJV 26 and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you."

Jeremiah 30:17 NKJV 17 For I will restore health to you And heal you of your wounds,' says the LORD, 'Because they called you an outcast saying: "This is Zion; No one seeks her."'

Mark 5:25-34 NKJV 25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." 29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?" 31 But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" 32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."

3 John 1:2 NKJV 2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 369

A Revival in Health Reform Obedience to Physical Law Since the laws of nature are the laws of God, it is plainly our duty to give these laws careful study. We should study their requirements in regard to our own bodies and conform to them. Ignorance in these things is sin. {6T 369.1}

"Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" "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." 1 Corinthians 6:15, 19, 20. Our bodies are Christ's purchased property, and we are not at liberty to do with them as we please. Man has done this. He has treated his body as if its laws had no penalty. Through perverted appetite its organs and powers have become enfeebled, diseased, and crippled. And these results which Satan has brought about by his own specious temptations he uses to taunt God with. He presents before God the human body that Christ has purchased as His property, and what an unsightly representation of his Maker man is! Because man has sinned against his body and has corrupted his ways, God is dishonored. {6T 369.2}

When men and women are truly converted, they will conscientiously regard the laws of life that God has established in their being, thus seeking to avoid physical, mental, and moral feebleness. Obedience to these laws must be made a matter of personal duty. We ourselves must suffer the ills of violated law. We must answer to God for our habits and practices. Therefore the question (p. 370) for us is not, "What will the world say?" but, "How shall I, claiming to be a Christian, treat the habitation God has given me? Shall I work for my highest temporal and spiritual good by keeping my body as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or shall I sacrifice myself to the world's ideas and practices?" {6T 369.3}

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV 31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Thursday

Shalom!

Genesis 29:6 NKJV 6 So he said to them, "Is he well?" And they said, "He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep."

Jeremiah 29:7 NKJV 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

Genesis 43:28 NKJV 28 And they answered, "Your servant our father is in good health; he is still alive." And they bowed their heads down and prostrated themselves.

Psalms 38:3 NKJV 3 There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, Nor any health in my bones Because of my sin.

Psalms 119:165 NKJV 165 Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble.

Proverbs 3:2 NKJV 2 For length of days and long life And peace they will add to you.

Isaiah 48:22 NKJV 22 "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

Jeremiah 33:6 NKJV 6 'Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

Friday

Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 137

Reform, continual reform, must be kept before the people, and by our example we must enforce our teaching. True religion and the laws of health go hand in hand. It is impossible to work for the salvation of men and women without presenting to them the need of breaking away from sinful gratifications, which destroy the health, debase the soul, and prevent divine truth from impressing the mind. Men and women must be taught to take a careful view of every habit and every practice, and at once put away those things that cause an unhealthy condition of the body and thus cast a dark shadow over the mind. God desires His light bearers ever to keep a high standard before them. By precept and example they must hold their perfect standard high above Satan's false standard, which, if followed, will lead to misery, degradation, disease, and death for both body and soul. Let those who have obtained a knowledge of how to eat and drink and dress so as to preserve health impart this knowledge to others. Let the poor have the gospel of health preached unto them from a practical point of view, that they may know how to care properly for the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. {7T 137.1}

Ellen G. White, Education, p. 99-100

Chap. 10 - God in Nature Upon all created things is seen the impress of the Deity. Nature testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe, cannot but recognize the working of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A mysterious life pervades all nature--a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze, that wings the flight of the swallow and feeds the young ravens which cry, that brings the bud to blossom and the flower to fruit. {Ed 99.1}

The same power that upholds nature, is working also in man. The same great laws that guide alike the star and the atom control human life. The laws that govern the heart's action, regulating the flow of the current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the objects of His creation the condition is the same--a life sustained by receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the Creator's (p. 100) will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one's self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin. {Ed 99.2}

To him who learns thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes illuminated; the world is a lesson book, life a school. The unity of man with nature and with God, the universal dominion of law, the results of transgression, cannot fail of impressing the mind and molding the character. {Ed 100.1}

These are lessons that our children need to learn. To the little child, not yet capable of learning from the printed page or of being introduced to the routine of the schoolroom, nature presents an unfailing source of instruction and delight. The heart not yet hardened by contact with evil is quick to recognize the Presence that pervades all created things. The ear as yet undulled by the world's clamor is attentive to the Voice that speaks through nature's utterances. And for those of older years, needing continually its silent reminders of the spiritual and eternal, nature's teaching will be no less a source of pleasure and of instruction. As the dwellers in Eden learned from nature's pages, as Moses discerned God's handwriting on the Arabian plains and mountains, and the child Jesus on the hillsides of Nazareth, so the children of today may learn of Him. The unseen is illustrated by the seen. On everything upon the earth, from the loftiest tree of the forest to the lichen that clings to the rock, from the boundless ocean to the tiniest shell on the shore, they may behold the image and superscription of God. {Ed 100.2}

So far as possible, let the child from his earliest years be placed where this wonderful lesson book shall be open (p. 101) before him. Let him behold the glorious scenes painted by the great Master Artist upon the shifting canvas of the heavens, let him become acquainted with the wonders of earth and sea, let him watch the unfolding mysteries of the changing seasons, and, in all His works, learn of the Creator. {Ed 100.3}

Ellen G. White, Health Reformer, October 1866

October 1, 1866 Parents Their Own Physicians. No woman should become a mother unless she is capable of being physician to her offspring. How can mothers turn over their tender children to the care of a strange physician, for him to dose them with drugs, the true nature of which she has no knowledge. Such a course is a sin in the sight of Heaven. Ignorance is no excuse for parents. Why do not those who take such responsibilities, educate themselves? They should read and investigate with a prayerful heart, until they can understand the wants of their children, and watch with jealous care, least these little sunbeams, which are given them to lighten their pathway, be shrouded in darkness by disease and death. No stranger's hand should be trusted to perform those services for her dear ones, which a mother's affection alone can understand. Parents and children should educate themselves in all that concerns their life and health. When children understand the science of human life, then, and not till then, are they prepared to attend to the sciences as taught in the common schools. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 1}

Parents have frequently told me that they knew nothing of the nature of disease, and were their children sick, they should not know what to do for them,--that they had always trusted to a physician. Mothers ought to know what to do in any common case of sickness of their children. It is a sin for them not to know. Who should better understand the wants of a sick child than its parents, especially the mother? And yet parents plead ignorance, and if their dear children are slightly indisposed, they do not know what to do, and send for the doctor, who deals out his concentrated poisons with a lavish hand. These lessen the child's hold on life, and if they do not actually cause its death, they obstruct nature's efforts, and break down some part of her fine machinery, which can never be repaired, and the victim is a sufferer as long as life lasts. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 2}

In nine cases out of ten, the indisposition of children can be traced to some indulgence of the perverted appetites. Perhaps it is an exposure to cold, want of fresh air, irregularity in eating, or improper clothing; and all the parents need do, is to remove the cause, and secure for their children a period of quiet and rest, and abstain for a short period from food. An agreeable bath, of a proper temperature, will remove impurities from the skin, and then unpleasant symptoms may soon disappear; and all of this, too, without poisonous drugs, or having a doctor's fee to pay. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 3}

Many parents, rather than to take the trouble to thoroughly investigate the cause of their children's indisposition, turn them over to the doctor, and administer anything he may choose to prescribe. If the anxious parent ventures to make an inquiry in regard to the drug, she is told it is "perfectly harmless;" that if it does them no special good, "it will not injure them." Concentrated poisons are dealt out, the names of which are concealed in some technical terms, which the parents know nothing of; and because of their inexcusable ignorance, the lives of their children are sacrificed, and the parents too frequently charge their afflictions to Providence. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 4}

In such cases perhaps, if nature had been left to herself, she would have recovered the abuse the system had suffered, but she was not allowed the privilege. A poisonous drug is introduced into the system, binding down the efforts of nature, until she is compelled to give up the struggle. Do the parents then see their folly, and awake and investigate for themselves, feeling that their children are too dear to be trusted in a stranger's hands to receive any mixture he may please to deal out? No, they seem blinded, and infatuated; habits and customs, like iron bands, gird them about, and they make no effort to break them. If other loved ones are made sick by the wrong course pursued toward them, the doctor is again sent for to deal out his miserable drugs, which have so long cursed the human family and filled our graveyards, and the little life-forces left, are crushed out, and death closes the scene. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 5}

I have known instances where two or three in the same family have died, one after another, and yet the same physician was summoned to attend them all. I had not a doubt but that careful nursing, letting alone drugs entirely, with a little moral courage and firmness, used by the parents to restrict the diet of their children, would have saved them. There never can be a better condition of things, until parents understand the obligations resting upon them to bring up their children healthfully. It is impossible to conform to the present customs of society and do this. There is need of reform. Parents should live more for their children, and not so much for visitors. It should not be their study how to furnish a luxurious table to please the appetites of visitors. By so doing, they tempt their children to eat things which will prove injurious to health, and which will encourage and strengthen the animal appetites, and have a direct influence to weaken and debase the higher faculties. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 6}

Children, judging of the course pursued by their parents, take it for granted that the highest object in life, and that which yields the greatest amount of happiness, is to be able to prepare a table spread with luxurious food. They are taught that we "live to eat," instead of "eating to live." The time devoted in studying how to prepare food in a manner to suit the perverted appetite, is worse than lost. Such knowledge is a curse to parents and children; for they are only learning the most successful way to tear down and debase the physical, mental, and moral faculties, by gluttony. Then, as a natural result, comes sickness, and next the doctor and poisonous drugs. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 7}

It is thus that the human family are successfully destroying themselves, and deteriorating the race, and then they lay the result of their sinful course to a "mysterious Providence." Time, strength and money, are devoted to the unworthy object of keeping pace with fashionable customs of society, and the health of the body and soul is sacrificed to this end. Yet those who are guilty in this respect, will tell you they do not understand how to take care of themselves or their children, when sick. How much better would it be for parents and children, if the time and means that are devoted to preparing food to suit the depraved appetite, were occupied in acquiring a knowledge of their physical being, and in learning how to take care of their own bodies, and in teaching their children the same. Children should be taught, by precept and example, that God did not design that we should live merely for present gratification, but for our ultimate good. God has formed laws which govern our constitutions, and these laws which he has placed in our being, are divine, and for every transgression there is affixed a penalty, which must sooner or later be realized. The majority of diseases which the human family have been, and still are suffering under, they have created by ignorance of their own organic laws. They seem indifferent in regard to the matter of health, and work perseveringly to tear themselves to pieces, and when broken down, and debilitated in body and mind send for the doctor and drug themselves to death. E. G. W. {HR, October 1, 1866 par. 8}

Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 347-348

Transgression of physical law is transgression of the moral law; for God is as truly the author of physical laws as He is the author of the moral law. His law is written (p. 348) with His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every faculty, which has been entrusted to man. And every misuse of any part of our organism is a violation of that law. {COL 347.1}

All should have an intelligent knowledge of the human frame that they may keep their bodies in the condition necessary to do the work of the Lord. The physical life is to be carefully preserved and developed that through humanity the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. The relation of the physical organism to the spiritual life is one of the most important branches of education. It should receive careful attention in the home and in the school. All need to become acquainted with their physical structure and the laws that control natural life. He who remains in willing ignorance of the laws of his physical being and who violates them through ignorance is sinning against God. All should place themselves in the best possible relation to life and health. Our habits should be brought under the control of a mind that is itself under the control of God. {COL 348.1}

"Know ye not," says the apostle Paul, "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." 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. {COL 348.2}

Strength

We are to love God, not only with all the heart, mind, and soul, but with all the strength. This covers the full, intelligent use of the physical powers. {COL 348.3}

Ellen G. White, Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 17