Eden Health

 PROVIDENTIAL OR COINCIDENCE?

                We had just transferred residence from Mindoro to Metro Manila.  My family’s stay in Mindoro had been a blessing to my children because they learned to eat natural foods like boiled bananas and sweet potatoes instead of cookies and candies.  They actually looked better physically although their skin is darker in color due to exposure to the sun.  While in Mindoro, they loved to go to the river and played in the water while I hand washed the clothes in the river.  It was in Mindoro that I had experienced to eat “Lanzones” and “Rambutan” for breakfast and I really enjoyed both since they ripened in the tree and were just freshly picked. This made them really sweet.

                Being in Metro Manila again meant looking for a job since my oldest child was ready to go to school.  Being a Nutritionist-Dietitian, I really wanted to work in the hospital as a dietitian.  So one day I decided to visit Manila Sanitarium and Hospital (the hospital’s name then) and went to talk with the Chief Dietitian of the hospital.  She happened to be one of my former teachers when I was studying and in fact, she was the person who encouraged me to major in foods and nutrition.  I told her that I was there to apply for a job and she said that my going to apply was very timely since someone was planning to leave.  So she directed me to the personnel department and I went there to fill up an application form.  The Chief Dietitian promised that she would take up my application with the hospital board and would call to inform me about the result.

 Before I shifted to this course of study (foods and nutrition), I was  taking a Bachelor’s Degree majoring in Medical Technology.  I was already in my clinical year (the last year of the course before graduation), when the head of the laboratory department of the hospital told me that they were waiting for me to graduate from medical technology because they wanted me to teach in the clinical division.  At that time, the news did not appeal to me.  I should have been glad that I was assured of a job after graduation but I did not want to teach not because I don’t like teaching but I dislike the paper work that go with it (making tests, checking tests and then computing grades based on the results).  This news actually pushed me to shift to foods and nutrition.  Because there was just a few students taking a course that majored in foods and nutrition at Philippine Union College (Adventist University of the Philippines, now), I figured that it would take me three or four more years before I would be able to finish my studies at that school.  So I transferred to Philippine Women’s University and took my Bachelors Degree in Foods and Nutrition there. I was able to finish in two and a half years.  It was after my graduation that we went to Mindoro.

                While waiting for an answer to my job application at Manila Sanitarium and Hospital, I decided to go visit my former teachers at Philippine Women’s University.  I saw my former teacher in clinical dietetics and was currently the assistant dean of the School (PINFST) at that time.  As soon as she saw me she informed me that they had been looking for me coz they have a job for me.  She asked me to fill up an application form for a teaching job in the university. Without hesitation I told her that I do not want to teach. She challenged me and said: “Do you think you are that good that if you applied you are assured you are going to get the job?”  Well, that kind of put me in my place and to pacify my former teacher, I filled up an application form but did not really intend to get the job. So what I did was to give a phone number to contact me that was in Pasay City when in fact I was living in Caloocan City.  It was the phone number of my nephew that lived in an apartment and I told him to just relay messages that were for me. 

                Every once or twice a month, my husband and I would go to Pasay City to visit relatives, and on those occasions, I would drop by Manila Sanitarium to get an update on my application.  At this time I had prayed to the Lord to guide me and lead me to the job that He wanted me to do.  In the times that I had visited MSH, nobody updated me regarding my job application in spite of the fact that I go to the dietary department of the hospital.

                In one of these visits to Pasay City, we went to the apartment where our nephew lived and we found that our uncle who lives in Mindoro was there for a visit.  The permanent residents of the apartment itself were not there because they all went to school.  Since we have not seen our uncle for some time, we spent time updating each other.  There was a lull in the conversation, and no one was talking, and at that moment, the phone suddenly rang.  Since I was sitting near it, I picked up the phone and answered it. To my surprise, the call was for me.  It was a call from Philippine Women’s University asking me to go there because they wanted some information from me.  So I went and supplied them with the information they needed.

                After a month, my husband and I went to Pasay City to visit relatives again. I passed by MSH and was able to talk with some of the staff at the dietary department. No one said anything to me regarding the job application I submitted to them.  So we proceeded to the apartment of our nephew again.   When we entered the apartment, no one of the residents were there and the only person that was in the apartment was our uncle from Mindoro, the same one we talked to before.  Again we were talking, then a lull in the conversation occurred, the phone rang, and surprisingly amazing, the phone call was for me again and they asked me to go to PWU. I was so amazed with the event that happened. It was an exact carbon copy of the event that happened a month ago. The call from PWU, was for me to go and sign a contract because I was accepted to teach there.  I went because the event that just happened then was I thought a sign from the Lord that He wanted me to teach at PWU.

                For weeks, the event that happened and which led me to accept the teaching job at PWU, had been always on my mind. The question that kept running in my mind over and over was:  Was the incident coincidence or was it providential.  For two events to happen exactly the same way was too much of a coincidence, as far as I was concerned.  Dear reader, if you were to judge, what would you think the event was? Was it Providential or was it a coincidence?

                A week after I signed a contract with Philippine Women’s University, I met one of the staff of the dietary department of the hospital and she told me that for weeks now they had been looking for me because I was accepted to work in the dietary department of the hospital as a dietitian.  This incident only confirmed that the Lord did not really want me to work in the hospital. He wanted me to work at Philippine Women’s University as a teacher — a job I was running away from.

                As I worked at PWU, teaching foods and nutrition subjects, other questions ran through my mind. I was asking myself why the Lord wanted me to teach at PWU, when I wanted to serve Him in our own denomination — our very own hospital MSH.  Years later, those questions of mine were answered.

The Symbol of the Covenant

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Gen. 9: 12, 13.

What compassion for erring man, to place the beautiful, variegated rainbow in the clouds, a token of the covenant of the great God with man! . . . It was His design that as the children of after generations should see the bow in the cloud, . . . their parents could explain to them the destruction of the old world by a flood, because the people gave themselves up to all manner of wickedness, and that the hands of the Most High had bended the bow, and placed it in the clouds, as a token that He would never bring again a flood of waters on the earth. This symbol in the clouds was to confirm the belief of all, and establish their confidence in God, for it was a token of divine mercy and goodness to man. . . .

A rainbow is represented in Heaven round about the throne, also above the head of Christ, as a symbol of God’s mercy encompassing the earth. When man by his great wickedness provokes the wrath of God, Christ, man’s intercessor, pleads for him, and points to the rainbow in the cloud, as evidence of God’s great mercy and compassion for erring man.

Angels rejoice as they gaze upon this precious token of God’s love to man. The world’s Redeemer looks upon it; for it was through His instrumentality that this bow was made to appear in the heavens, as a token or covenant of promise to man. God Himself looks upon the bow in the clouds, and remembers His everlasting covenant between Himself and man. . . . As we gaze upon the beautiful sight, we may be joyful in God, assured that He Himself is looking upon this token of His covenant, and that as He looks upon it He remembers the children of earth, to whom it was given. Their afflictions, perils, and trials are not hidden from Him. We may rejoice in hope, for the bow of God’s covenant is over us. He never will forget the children of His care.

From God’s Amazing Grace - Page 159

Perpetual and Unalterable

Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Jer. 50: 5.

A covenant is an agreement by which parties bind themselves and each other to the fulfillment of certain conditions. Thus the human agent enters into agreement with God to comply with the conditions specified in His Word. His conduct shows whether or not he respects these conditions.

Man gains everything by obeying the covenant- keeping God. God’s attributes are imparted to man, enabling him to exercise mercy and compassion. God’s covenant assures us of His unchangeable character. . . . We must know for ourselves what His requirements and our obligations are. The terms of God’s covenant are, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” These are the conditions of life. “This do,” Christ said, “and thou shalt live” (Luke 10: 27, 28).

The law of God was written with His own finger on tables of stone, thus showing that it could never be changed or abrogated. It is to be preserved through the eternal ages, immutable as the principles of His government. . . . Christ gave His life to make it possible for man to be restored to the image of God. It is the power of His grace that draws men together in obedience to the truth.

My brethren, bind up with the Lord God of hosts. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. . . . Troublous times are before us, but if we stand together in Christian fellowship, none striving for supremacy, God will work mightily for us. . . .

He knows our every necessity. He has all power. He can bestow upon His servants the measure of efficiency that their need demands. His infinite love and compassion never weary. With the majesty of omnipotence He unites the gentleness and care of a tender shepherd. We need have no fear that He will not fulfill His promises. He is eternal truth. Never will He change the covenant that He has made with those that love Him. His promises to His church stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.

From God’s Amazing Grace - Page 158

God’s Eternal Pledge

He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Ps. 105: 8.

God stands back of every promise He has made. With your Bibles in your hands, say: “I have done as Thou hast said. I present Thy promise, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’ (Matt. 7: 7).” . . .

The rainbow about the throne is an assurance that God is true; that in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We have sinned against Him and are undeserving of His favor; yet He Himself has put into our lips that most wonderful of pleas: “Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us” (Jer. 14: 21). He has pledged Himself to give heed to our cry when we come to Him confessing our unworthiness and sin. The honor of His throne is staked for the fulfillment of His word to us.

To everyone who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results. The Lord God is bound by an eternal pledge to supply power and grace to everyone who is sanctified through obedience to the truth.

Nehemiah pressed into the presence of the King of kings and won to his side a power that can turn hearts as rivers of waters are turned. [See Nehemiah 1 and 2.]

To pray as Nehemiah prayed in his hour of need is a resource at the command of the Christian under circumstances when other forms of prayer may be impossible. Toilers in the busy walks of life, crowded and almost overwhelmed with perplexity, can send up a petition to God for divine guidance. . . . In times of sudden difficulty or peril the heart may send up its cry for help to One who has pledged Himself to come to the aid of His faithful, believing ones whenever they call upon Him. In every circumstance, under every condition, the soul weighed down with grief and care, or fiercely assailed by temptation, may find assurance, support, and succor in the unfailing love and power of a covenant- keeping God.

From God’s Amazing Grace - Page 157

 THE SUMMER TRAGEDY (A Second Chance to Life)

                I Just finished grade four and I was on a summer vacation.  I went home to my hometown in the province of Pangasinan.  As a habit, I still went to the fields and the meadows alone and enjoyed nature, gathering those small flowers and making a bouquet out of it. I still loved to observe the butterflies flitting from one flower to the other and sometimes there would be a bee competing with the butterflies for the flowers.  I still loved to watch the dragonflies and an occasional grasshopper hopping among the plants. I observed though that there were lesser butterflies and dragonflies flying around in the meadows. I still loved the gentle breeze blowing on my face and through my long hair. At this time I have also learned to admire the tall lofty trees especially if they bore fruit that are good to eat. I still loved to gaze at the big blue sky and watch the shape-changing white clouds. I still loved to sit under the trees and meditate, talking to the Lord in my mind, appreciating nature around me and thanking Him for the peace and quiet I find alone in the meadows.

                One day during that summer vacation, I was playing alone and was getting red hibiscus flowers from a plant that was growing by a barbed wire fence. The fence was so old that it was really full of rust. While reaching for one flower I accidentally scratched my elbow in the rusty barbed wire fence and it bled a little. It was really an inch-long scratch but very shallow. I was playing with dust, too, and I wiped the blood from the scratch with my dirty hands. I was very young then and did not really think about rust and tetanus. To me it was a very small scratch that I did not tell anyone about it. The next day, the scratch looked red and pus formed around the scratch but still I did not tell my mom about it. In the afternoon of the next day, soldiers came for a bivouac in one of the woody hills near my home. To welcome these soldiers, some of the residents went to visit them. My grandmother went to welcome them and I tagged along because I was curious to know what bivouac was all about.  When we went home, I was not really feeling well. I was running a fever and I felt cold and tired so I went to one of the rooms in the upper floor of the house.  I felt so cold in spite of the summer heat, that I took a thick blanket and covered myself as I laid down on a mat on the floor.

 At this time my aunt wanted to learn how to drive and my dad consented to teach her. The car was ready and they were just waiting for the spare tire to come before they started. While they were waiting, they heard a loud scream coming from one of the rooms of the house and they came rushing up the stairs to find out what was happening. 

When I was lying down trying to get warm and trying to sleep, I felt my jaws were locking and could hardly open it, and I got so scared that when I had the chance to open it I screamed at the top of my voice. When they finally came to me, I told them I felt so weak and my jaws were locking, so they carried me downstairs and used the waiting car to rush me to the hospital in town. After the doctor examined me and found out about the scratch that I had on my elbow, he gave me an anti-tetanus shot and he said that if I was brought to the hospital just ten minutes later, I would have been a goner.  I stayed in the hospital for almost a week and while there, I was so grouchy because every sound made me nauseaus. The simple rustle of a plastic bag being opened made me want to throw up so I told everyone to get out of the room and leave me alone.  I could never forget about that summer when I almost died. To me it was a second chance to live and I am very grateful to the Lord that He spared my life.

As I looked back at that experience that summer, I couldn’t help but think:  Was the waiting car a coincidence, or was it providential?  Did the Lord inspire my aunt to ask my dad to teach her to drive so the car would be ready to take me to the hospital?  I guess I would never know the answer to that until I come face to face with the Lord and ask Him.  But at that time I did realize one thing—the Lord spared my life for a purpose.

The Covenant and the Sabbath

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever. Ex. 31: 16, 17.

When the Lord delivered His people Israel from Egypt and committed to them His law, He taught them that by the observance of the Sabbath they were to be distinguished from idolaters. . . .

As the Sabbath was the sign that distinguished Israel when they came out of Egypt to enter the earthly Canaan, so it is the sign that now distinguishes God’s people as they come out from the world to enter the heavenly rest. The Sabbath is a sign of a relationship existing between God and His people, a sign that they honor His law. It distinguishes between His loyal subjects and transgressors. . . . The Sabbath given to the world as the sign of God as the Creator is also the sign of Him as the Sanctifier. The power that created all things is the power that recreates the soul in His own likeness. To those who keep holy the Sabbath day it is the sign of sanctification. True sanctification is harmony with God, oneness with Him in character. It is received through obedience to those principles that are the transcript of His character. And the Sabbath is the sign of obedience. He who from the heart obeys the fourth commandment will obey the whole law. He is sanctified through obedience.

To us as to Israel the Sabbath is given “for a perpetual covenant.” To those who reverence His holy day the Sabbath is a sign that God recognizes them as His chosen people. It is a pledge that He will fulfill to them His covenant. Every soul who accepts the sign of God’s government places himself under the divine, everlasting covenant. He fastens himself to the golden chain of obedience, every link of which is a promise.

The fourth commandment alone of all the ten contains the seal of the great Lawgiver, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Those who obey this commandment take upon themselves His name, and all the blessings it involves are theirs.

The Sabbath has lost none of its meaning. It is still a sign between God and His people, and it will be so forever.

From God’s Amazing Grace - Page 156

The Blood of the Covenant

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Heb. 13: 20, 21.

To many it has been a mystery why so many sacrificial offerings were required in the old dispensation, why so many bleeding victims were led to the altar. But the great truth that was kept before men, and imprinted upon mind and heart, was this, “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9: 22). In every bleeding sacrifice was typified “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29).

Christ Himself was the originator of the Jewish system of worship, in which, by types and symbols, were shadowed forth spiritual and heavenly things. Many forgot the true significance of these offerings; and the great truth that through Christ alone there is forgiveness of sin, was lost to them. The multiplying of sacrificial offerings, the blood of bulls and goats, could not take away sin. . . .

A lesson was embodied in every sacrifice, impressed in every ceremony, solemnly preached by the priest in his holy office, and inculcated by God Himself– that through the blood of Christ alone is there forgiveness of sins.

Anciently believers were saved by the same Saviour as now, but it was a God veiled. They saw God’s mercy in figures. . . . Christ’s sacrifice is the glorious fulfillment of the whole Jewish economy. . . . When as a sinless offering Christ bowed His head and died, when by the Almighty’s unseen hand the veil of the temple was rent in twain, a new and living way was opened. All can now approach God through the merits of Christ. It is because the veil has been rent that men can draw nigh to God. They need not depend on priest or ceremonial sacrifice. Liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour.

The whole mind, the whole soul, the whole heart, and the whole strength are purchased by the blood of the Son of God.

From God’s Amazing Grace - Page 155

Christ the Mediator

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Heb. 9: 24.

The sin of Adam and Eve caused a fearful separation between God and man. And Christ steps in between fallen man and God, and says to man: “You may yet come to the Father; there is a plan devised through which God can be reconciled to man, and man to God; through a mediator you can approach God.” And now He stands to mediate for you. He is the great High Priest who is pleading in your behalf; and you are to come and present your case to the Father through Jesus Christ. Thus you can find access to God.

Christ Jesus is represented as continually standing at the altar, momentarily offering up the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is a minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made, but the atoning sacrifice through a mediator is essential because of the constant commission of sin. Jesus is officiating in the presence of God, offering up His shed blood, as it had been a lamb slain. . . .

The religious services, the prayers, the praise, the penitent confession of sin, ascend from true believers as incense to the heavenly sanctuary: but passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God. . . . All incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of the blood of Christ. He holds before the Father the censer of His own merits, in which there is no taint of earthly corruption. He gathers into this censer the prayers, the praise, and the confessions of His people, and with these He puts His own spotless righteousness. Then, perfumed with the merits of Christ’s propitiation, the incense comes up before God wholly and entirely acceptable. . . .

O, that all may see that everything in obedience, in penitence, in praise and thanksgiving must be placed upon the glowing fire of the righteousness of Christ.

From God’s Amazing Grace - Page 154

 AS A CHILD IN THE MIDST OF NATURE

                When I was still very young and was not yet going to school, I loved to be alone and go to the fields and meadows to look for the wild flowers and the butterflies, to observe the grasshoppers and the dragonflies. I loved playing with other children, too, but being alone especially in the midst of nature was a special treat for me. Nature fascinated me even when I was still very young.  It was fun looking for those small dainty flowers with different colors and their leaves of different sizes and shapes. The flowers were so small and dainty and their purple, white, yellow colors always made me admire them so much. I never understood why the small little things fascinated me more than the bigger things as far as nature was concerned.  I loved to gather these small flowers of different colors and create a bouquet out of it.  I would sit under the shade of a tree and look at the bouquet studying the different parts of the flowers and wonder why they differ from one another and yet they all look lovely. When I get tired of looking at the flowers, then I would stay where I was seated and look up the big, blue sky. As I gaze up the sky, I observe that there are scattered white clouds of different shapes. But unlike the flowers, the clouds change their shape every minute and it was fascinating to watch them change their shape.  I also loved to watch the butterflies flitting from one flower to the other and in my young mind I would think that these butterflies love to kiss and smell these flowers just like I do. Sometimes, I would see dragonflies and again I observe that they are of different sizes. Some are really huge, some are not so big and there were dragonflies that were so small that they resemble a needle and those specially fascinated me.  The colors of the dragonflies vary. Some were green with yellow splashes, some were red, some were blue and there were those who were orange in color. What I loved about the Dragonflies was the challenge of being able to catch one of them. While watching flowers and butterflies and catching dragonflies, I also enjoyed the breeze blowing through my long hair and these made me kind of sleepy. I could spend hours looking at nature alone and I would never get bored. I forget the time when I am in the midst of nature. In fact I forget to go home and eat until somebody comes looking for me and tell me to go home and eat.

                Being alone in the midst of nature made me stop and think how wonderful the world is and that I am very grateful that there was Someone who made it. Even as a young child, I learned to talk to the One who made the world in my mind and ask Him how He could make those very small flowers and how come everything comes in different colors, sizes and shape. I thanked Him for the peace and enjoyment I had in the midst of nature.

Sealed by Christ’s Atonement

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Eph. 1: 7.

Christ on the cross not only draws men to repentance toward God for the transgression of His law– for whom God pardons He first makes penitent– but Christ has satisfied Justice; He has proffered Himself as an atonement. His gushing blood, His broken body, satisfy the claims of the broken law, and thus He bridges the gulf which sin has made. He suffered in the flesh, that with His bruised and broken body He might cover the defenseless sinner. The victory gained at His death on Calvary broke forever the accusing power of Satan over the universe and silenced his charges that self- denial was impossible with God and therefore not essential in the human family.

Christ was without sin, else His life in human flesh and His death on the cross would have been of no more value in procuring grace for the sinner than the death of any other man. While He took upon Him humanity, it was a life taken into union with Deity. He could lay down His life as priest and also victim. . . . He offered Himself without spot to God.

The atonement of Christ sealed forever the everlasting covenant of grace. It was the fulfilling of every condition upon which God suspended the free communication of grace to the human family. Every barrier was then broken down which intercepted the freest exercise of grace, mercy, peace, and love to the most guilty of Adam’s race.

In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church— pleading for those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries, ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. Neither life nor death, height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus; not because we hold Him so firmly, but because He holds us so fast. If our salvation depended on our own efforts, we could not be saved; but it depends on the One who is behind all the promises. Our grasp on Him may seem feeble, but His love is that of an elder brother; so long as we maintain our union with Him, no one can pluck us out of His hand.

From God’s Amazing Grace - Page 153