I Did Not Know That
Reading Through the Whole Bible:
How it Heals us from the Inside Out
A Healthy Faith:
Below is written by two doctors:
S.I. McMillen, M.D. & David E. Stern, M.D.
New Age Health
Today many people reject formal religion but they are still spiritually curious. They shop for religion like they shop for a car. They don’t want a boring Buick; they want a faith Ferrari.
They will choose the color, the interior, and all the extras. They may select an idol of Buddha, a mantra from Krishna, a teaching from Jesus, a crystal from a Navaho, and any other spiritual option that may suit their fancy.
New Age religion, however, is nothing new. It’s as old as the Old Testament. Jeremiah lamented that “each one chooses his own path” (Jer. 8:6). He scolded Israel for mixing temple worship with household idols and for mixing pious prayer with mountaintop occultism.
Throughout the twentieth century, people were fascinated with mix-and-match religions. One writer describes 1910 London: “There was a widespread taste among intellectuals for esoteric religions and cults … psychic phenomena and sexual freedom… Many of the cults were ascribed to the East, but the leaders… often [called themselves] Christians.”
Today’s New Agers often add health awareness to the mix.
They tout herbs, vitamins, and cosmic health forces. New Ager Beverly Barré says, “Taking care of yourself is a religion.”s But does New Age religion really lead to better health? No.
Studies indicate that New Age beliefs may actually harm your health. Spiritual growth requires change, but New Agers invent a religion to make themselves feel good, not to change themselves. If they have unhealthy habits of envy, anger, or pride, their new religion simply justifies their vices. New Agers mold their faith to fit their lifestyles, but biblical Christians must mold their lifestyles to fit their faith. That means big changes— repentance, regeneration, and holiness.
Duke psychiatrist Redford Williams comments, “[People] who find religion useful but selectively shape their creed to fit their other interests, tend to be less mentally healthy.”
A Healthy Faith
What sort of faith constitutes the faith factor? One expert, Dr. Jeffrey Levin, has noted a reoccurring theme in the medical research. Avoiding traditional faith appears to be a risk factor for poor health. Those who benefit most from faith are, in his words, members of the more “behaviorally strict religions or denominations”10—what the press tends to lump together as
“fundamentalists.” Science seems to have rediscovered what the psalmist noted thousands of years ago, “The fear of the Lord prolongs life” (Prov. 10:27).
Faith Produces Hormones
Title of a 1910 paper by Sir William Osler, considered by many to be the greatest American physician ever
So should you attend a traditional church as a life-extension program? Probably not. You won’t benefit from merely visiting a health food store (or church). Merely buying vitamins or tithing) won’t help. Watching other folks take vitamins or worship) won’t help. Vitamins and faith won’t do you any good unless you use them yourself. One secular doctor goes so far as recommending that you “become a truly practicing (church member, practicing whatever is preached with all your heart.””
Why does faith produce health? Much of the benefit comes from the powerful chemical and hormonal changes that faith produces in our bodies.
What if you wake up in the morning and say, “I’m a cosmic evolutionary accident. Everyone around me is just an accident.
My whole life is just a series of accidents. I wonder what accident will happen to me today.” Your negative outlook will produce fear and doubt in your mind. That fear and doubt will release harmful chemicals from every organ in your body. Those chemicals will wear and tear on your body. When you go to bed that night, you will feel like one day has aged you one decade.
But what if you wake up and say, “Wow! God, thanks for making me your wonderful creation. What blessings will you shower on me today? How will you use me today to bless others?” Then you start your day with a half hour of Scripture reading and prayer.
That’s utilizing the faith factor. Your attitude of faith will invigorate your mind and energize your immune system. Every cell in your body will be bathed in soothing chemicals. Your white cells will scarf up invading bacteria. Your blood pressure will smoothly waltz through the day. Your brain cells will crackle with lightning-quick decisions. You will crawl into bed feeling a day younger and you will jump out of bed with the same energy tomorrow.
Do you want to go through life as a cosmic accident, in fear of some health-ruining calamity? Or do you want to go through life as God’s creation, with God’s creative energy invigorating your body and soul?
Source: None of These Diseases
Solutions
Stressed? Change the Subject
When you repeat matters in your mind or to a friend the best thing that can happen is more anxiety and more control. You can’t get rid of stress, but you can direct it.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
Moses and Medicine (Exodus - Joshua)
A word from S.I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M.D.:
Moses lived in Egypt while the Egyptian doctors were writing this medical text. Raised in the royal court, he “was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). No doubt, he knew and used the Egyptian remedies.
Moses had been steeped in these infection-spreading prac-tices. Who would expect Moses to make breakthroughs in epidemic prevention? Yet Moses recorded an unlikely promise to the ancient Hebrews:
If you give careful attention to the voice of the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.
Exodus 15:26
“None of these diseases!” What a promise! For centuries epidemics had killed thousands of Egyptians and Hebrews.
Ancient treatments rarely helped. Often the “cure” was worse than the disease. Yet here God made a fantastic promise-free-dom from diseases.
God then gave Moses many health rules, filling a whole section of the Bible. Would Moses have enough faith to record the divine innovations, even if they contradicted his royal postgraduate university training? If Moses had yielded to his natural tendency to add even a little of his “higher education,” the Bible would contain such prescriptions as “urine of a faithful wife” or “blood of a worm.” We might even expect him to prescribe the “latest” animal manure concoction. But the record is clear. Moses recorded hundreds of health regulations but not a single current medical misconception.
Thousands have died through the centuries, however, because doctors ignored the biblical rules. Finally, when doctors read and tried these guidelines, they quickly discovered how to prevent the spread of epidemics. Thus Moses could be called the father of modern infection control.
Even today we are still benefiting from God’s 3,500-year-old instructions.