There is much to be learned from the world of science about maintaining and improving our physical and mental wellbeing, but if we neglect to consider God’s counsel on these matters we are missing a major piece of the health puzzle.
I was initially a little perplexed by negative responses I received to comments I had written about there being sound biblical reasons for avoiding vaccinations. I had come to this conclusion a number of years ago, when I had occasion to present my case before a secular tribunal. At that time, the tribunal was willing to listen to and accept my faith-based position as a reasoned rationale for refusing vaccination. I have a binder full of documentation to support my understanding of scripture and this evidence was sufficient for these secular people to see the merit of my position. I do understand that other Christians hold variant views, based on their traditions and the lens through which they view the scriptures. But my understanding is based in part on the following 7 biblical principles that are being ignored when we put our confidence in vaccines. More
Injury or ill health produces pain. But pain is not the enemy; it is not a bad thing unless we ignore it. Today, I encouraged my husband to go and see the physiotherapist. Being the typical male he was planning to stoically “wait and see” and ignore his painful arm as much as possible. Yet, in seeking help from a skilled professional, he was given some helpful treatment, good instruction about the nature of the problem, and sound advice as to what he needs to do to remedy his “tennis elbow.”
Pain is our early warning system. Whether it is physical pain, mental anguish, or the emotional pain of anger, fear, doubt, or remorse. Pain has a purpose to alert us to the reality that all is not well. Yet in the age of the “quick fix” many view pain as the enemy that they try to eliminate at all costs. The initial folly in this “kill the pain” approach is that we are only treating the effect, the pain. The cause has not been unearthed and the problem is still there, but the person taking the painkiller is now no longer aware of it’s existence. Talk about willful blindness. More
Who do You Listen To?
I’ve been thinking a lot about listening this week, and how it impacts our health. It started with a particularly difficult couple of days with my students who were not listening. When asked why they would not listen to someone, I was a little surprised by their answers, as they really had little or no desire to listen to anyone but their peers or their entertainment idols. Then on the other hand I had a homestay student who adamantly believed that, “If it is written in a textbook it must be true,” and what made me laugh in incredulity was that even if you showed him two texts that disagreed he believed they both must be correct! How he managed those mental gymnastics I don’t know, but the cognitive dissonance was too much for me. It made me think about the bigger questions of, “Who should we listen to, and when, and why should we listen.” Jeff took up the theme in his message this week and talked about why we should listen to God.(sermon) Obviously, God tells us to listen to Him, because He loves us and has our best interests at heart and perhaps more importantly, He has the knowledge and experience to know what works! Therefore, His word should always be the first thing we listen to, and He provides a basic knowledge of many fundamental health principles if we are willing to listen. More
“As you sow, so shall you reap” is both a spiritual and a physical reality. Sow acorns you get oaks; this is a natural law that never changes. It is also a law of physics, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The universe as we understand it, works on the principle of cause and effect. So how can we believe we can overcome some health or spiritual challenge by living the same lifestyle and doing and thinking the same things that created the problems initially? Would it not be a little crazy to think that the solution is to continue the behaviour that causes our pain? No crazier, I suppose, than thinking we can sow acorns and harvest apples!
Of course, some of the seeds of illness were not sown by us. Others were responsible for the weed seeds in our lives and their health consequences. More
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life…Proverbs 6:23 ESV
When asked about the question of, “What is the greatest commandment?” Christ gave a two-pronged answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind… and the second is like it; love your neighbour as yourself.” This statement implies that our concern for others should be of the same magnitude and quality as our own self-love. How many people do you know who are caught up in negative self-defeating or self-destructive attitudes and actions? Scripture provides detailed instructions on how to love our neighbour in the Torah, such as supporting the blind, widows, and orphans, as well as encouraging everyone in the faith. But Christ also tells us that in order to truly love our neighbour we must love ourselves. This means that we must take action to care for our own physical, emotional, and spiritual needs so that we might be better able to care for the needs of others. Our well-being is important to our Maker. He wants us to set a good example to others, of what the life of a believer is all about. More
That It May Be Well With You
-scriptural teachings on healthy living
The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,
so, no more drinking from death-tainted wells!
Proverbs 13:14
I am not a health specialist, health practitioner, doctor, or medical researcher. Rather, I am a teacher and a writer who over the past four decades has had to search the scriptures and delve into modern research to deal with a variety of health issues – my own and others.
Our Creator admonishes each of us to study and seek for the answers to our questions and He assures us that those who seek will find, if we are looking to Him for the wisdom that will set us free. We must come to this search with the same attitude that David, the Psalmist, had when he spoke of his awe in understanding the human body and how ”fearfully and wonderfully” God formed us all. We must have this same wonder and respect for the miracle of life that our Maker has given us in order that “ It may be well with us.” More
Presently making the media rounds, Dr. Jacques Pepin’s newly published book entitled, The Origin of AIDS, tackles the question of how one of the modern world’s deadliest disease plagues took root and spread.
Having already killed approximately 32 million mostly young people with about another 30 million or so currently infected with the eventually fatal HIV virus that causes AIDS—no one seriously questions the importance of…