LESSON
03:
Life in the Blood
1: Let us now, in our imagination, go traveling. The trip we are going to take is along the "River of Life." That is what we could call the Blood Stream within our bodies. This trip is a very long one. In fact, if we explored all the branches of this river, we would travel more than 69,000 miles (112,000 kilometers). That would be like going around the world three times.
2: The best place to start is the Heart. That is where the blood is pumped to all parts of the body. This is the homeport for all the little Blood Cells. These cells carry cargos that they keep changing. These blue cell-ships are carrying cargos of carbon dioxide. The heart will send them on to the lungs. In the lungs, the carbon dioxide is exchanged for life-giving oxygen. This changes the color of the cells. The cells must carry this new cargo to each of the tissues or body cells throughout the body.
3: After the cells leave the heart with their load of oxygen they pass by the Digestive System to pick up such things as fuel and repair parts to take to their respective ports of call, or in other words, to the cells which comprise different parts of the body. Each cell must pass through the great filter plant called the Kidneys, many times each day for a clean-up job. Otherwise they would soon become very polluted and you would be in bad trouble.
4: Do you know how long it takes the little cell-cargo ships to make a round trip from the time they come into your heart, go out to the lungs, return to the heart and then go out to the body, deliver the cargo and then return to the heart? As little as twenty seconds. "How can the blood move so fast?" You may ask. The great Artery, into which the heart pumps the blood as it returns to the body, is like a great roadway where the cars can travel very fast. When the cells leave your heart they are traveling at the rate of about 43 miles (70 kilometers) an hour.
5: Of course, as they get to smaller and smaller streams they slow down. Then they get to the very smallest streams, only one cell can go at a time. Here we see the cells bringing food, oxygen and repair materials to exchange for carbon dioxide and other waste material. This exchange takes about one second. Then the cells start their return to the heart and lungs.
6: The streams through which the blood leaves the heart are called "Arteries." The streams through which the blood comes back to the heart are called Veins. Maybe you have wondered why the blood in your hands and feet does not just stay there. Why does it go up hill? Part of the answer is in the fact that the walls of healthy arteries and veins can expand and contract, but they have no muscles.
7: The heart itself is such a strong muscles that it can force the blood throughout the whole body to keep moving twenty-four hours a day. The heart beats about 100,000 times a day.
8: Also, in your veins are a system of Valves, which keep the blood from going backward after each beat. Also, the veins are close to the muscles. They depend on your moving muscles to help the blood move. This is why your legs may ache if you have to stand still for a long time. People who stand a lot, or who wear clothing that restricts the flow of blood, sometimes develop what is known as varicose veins. The veins are unusually swollen. This also shows us why exercise is important.
9: After a meal, more blood is needed by the digestive organs to help digest the food. While exercising, more blood is needed by the muscles to give them strength and vigor. While studying or thinking very hard your brain needs more blood. So you can see it is not good to do heavy work or exercise right after a big meal. It is also not good to try to do heavy mental work right after a big meal. Either one interrupts digestion and results in poor general efficiency. Neither is it good to rest right after a meal. It is better to do some light work, so as to keep the blood moving in a normal way.
10: Some of you may have wondered about the meaning of the term, "Blood Pressure." Why does the doctor put a pressure cuff around you arm, make it tight, then put his stethoscope to his ears and listen? Well, he is measuring somewhat the health of your heart and your blood vessels, by finding out the amount of pressure in the arteries during the resting time between beats. If your heart is pumping properly and if your arteries are clean and elastic, the pressure should be somewhere between 110 and 130 at the time of the heart beat. During the time of rest, the pressure should be less than that. It should be around 65-85.
11: We hear a great deal about pollution these days. How sad when this happens to the river of blood flowing through our bodies. Since the arteries and veins themselves are made of living blood. They can be injured by not getting enough of the right kind of food, or by getting too much of the wrong kind.
When we eat foods that contain excess harmful fats and sugars, the excess is stored as fat, and a fatty substance begins to line the arteries. The result is hardening of the arteries. Of course, the heart has to push harder as the artery passage becomes smaller. This makes more work for the heart. When the artery becomes completely closed, we are in trouble
12: The organs served by these arteries suffers. If they are the arteries of the heart itself which becomes clogged, the result is a heart attack. If the arteries to the brain become clogged, a stroke occurs. Every day thousands of people die, prematurely from polluted, clogged bloodstreams. Many say "It is God's will." But instead, it is man's careless attitude toward his body and its proper care.
13: Here are some tips on how to keep your blood stream clean: Do not eat too much. The less fats and sugars of any kind you eat, the healthier you will be. Use oil in small amounts in cooking. Avoid the use of hard fat such as butter, and hydrogenised cooking fats. Avoid all animal fats. Do not use rich foods containing plenty of fat and sweet. Avoid the use of tobacco, tea, coffee, and alcohol. Get plenty of exercise in the fresh air, if possible.
14: Believe it or not, worry, anger, fear, anxiety, frustration, tension, and jealousy can also damage your heart and blood stream. So can remorse and feelings of guilt. Practice good mental habits and habits of life.
15: Follow good eating habits. Eat only at mealtime. Eat only enough for health. Eat building foods and avoid sugar and refined starch. Try to be a little under weight rather than over weight.
16: Get regular exercise. Trust in God. Think right thoughts. Do good to others. These habits will keep your blood in good condition. As your billions of cells are fed by the life-giving blood, your body will be healthy, because the life is in the blood.
17: THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD! (Lev. 17:11.) This was the great lesson that God wanted to teach Adam and Eve as they left their garden home. They would have to die, because by following Satan and believing him they had separated themselves from God, who only has life and who only can give life. Because God loved them greatly, He made a way whereby their sin could be passed on to another and thus be taken from them. Someone else would take their sin and would pay the penalty for sin. God did not reveal all of His plan to Adam and Eve at once. He told them a little of it, as children are taught little by little. In order to help them understand, He used things they could see.
18: God chose a lamb as the one thing which Adam and Eve knew, that could most nearly represent the one who, as their substitute, would carry their sin and pay its price. The wages of sin is death.
19: They were to confess their sins and put them on the lamb by laying their hands on its head. In symbol this transferred the sin from Adam and Eve to the Lamb. Then the lamb was slain by the one who had sinned. This showed that it was his sin that caused the death of the lamb. This also taught the great lesson that the life is in the blood, and only by giving His own life would the One who was represented by the lamb have the right to carry the sins of another.
20: Then the body of the lamb was laid upon an altar and God sent down fire from heaven and burned it up. This showed them that sin is a terrible thing which can only be destroyed by fire, and in the last days of this world's history God will destroy all sin by fire.
21: Through believing God's promise of a Saviour to come, who would pay the price of their sin for them leaving them free from the penalty of sin, Adam and Eve had the hope of being allowed to live once more in their beautiful garden home after all sin has been destroyed.
22: Not only Adam and Eve, but all their descendants can also have the hope of eternal life, through believing and accepting the Saviour represented by the lamb, the One who would give His own life in order to have the right to carry all the sins of everyone who would believe on Him.
Jesus is the Lamb that saves us from sin. He alone can forgive our sins and enable us to obey God.
"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.": 1 John 3:8. (John 8:44.)
"By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.":Romans 5:12.
"Whosoever committeth sin transqresseth also the law [of God]: for sin is the transgression of the law.": 1 John 3:4.
Although "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), yet in the Garden of Eden Satan gave two very significant lies that led our first parents into sin. (1) If you sin you will not and cannot die, and (2) if you sin you will rise to a greater position and knowledge, and will, yourself, become God. Satan has used these two basic lies to destroy millions since then. He is using them today.
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:16:17.
"And the serpent [Satan, speaking through a snake] said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.":Genesis 3: 4:5.
