AMEN 2010: Christ - Patient Restorer

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

Allen Lloyd

From Fractured to Whole

Before we begin this message, I'd like for you to bow with me as we pray.

Father in Heaven, we thank you that you have given us this great message of the Gospel and also the great message of health.

We know that you came to give us life and to give it more abundantly, but you also promised that when you left, after your resurrection, that you would send your Holy Spirit.

And we pray that each mind and each heart here today might be inclined to the full voice of your spirit.

And that also this voice might be inclined by your spirit to speak your words.

Our title of the entire series this weekend is CPR.

And actually CPR stands for, see if I can get my remote to work.

And of course when we teach CPR in hospitals and other clinics around the nation.

And often the basic life support training is put on by an organization most commonly called, Does anyone know?

Actually it's the Red Cross that often puts on those CPR training programs.

And of course, the Red Cross gets its name really from Christ, the patient restorer.

And so today, some of this might be review, because for some of you it might be basic life support training.

But all of us that are involved in hospital training have to go through this, at least every year or 2, as a review and pass even the CPR aspect of things before we can take the advanced cardiac life support training or the ACLS, et cetera.

And I've often wondered, you know, after working in the ICU for many years and running many codes, et cetera, why the hospital continues to insist that I get these basic certificates, but every time I go back, I realize that actually it does have some helpful components to it.

I'm pressing the same button that worked a little bit ago.

And I'd like to introduce a couple of studies from the medical literature.

And Whenever we're doing studies that span many decades, I'm very interested particularly in those.

But this was a study that said religious commitment may help prevent physical and mental illness and aid recovery from illness.

And as mentioned, it was a review of religion and health disease spanning 60 years.

And instead of Duke that's done a lot of these studies, this study was done at Georgetown University.

Surveys of the US population during the past 60 years have established that religion holds a central place in the lives of many Americans.

Ninety-five percent of Americans believe in God, And actually that may be more than what you think of, particularly in this part of the country.

But when you average the entire country, it is 95% that at least have a belief in God.

More than 50% of patients state that they pray on a daily basis.

What well, is there a backup button do you know Skip?

Again, you might not think that's the case for the Californians, and it is less than that, of course, in California, but still more than you might think.

75% of people want their physician to consider spiritual issues in relation to their care, and that's without any attempt at trying to even bridge that.

So just on a survey, 75% of patients state that they want their physician to consider spiritual issues in relation to their care, and 50% want their physician to pray with them.

And, again, that's without an introduction or a bridge.

Although I don't pray with every patient on every visit, I have yet in 21 years actually been refused to have a patient be prayed for at the time that I'm there in the visit.

And again, if I were to do it across the board, I'm sure I would be refused more than a time or 2.

But usually there's some talk in regards to the condition, regards, talk in regards to the spiritual aspect and how that's important, and also in regards to the studies, if someone seems to be a little more resistant or we don't think that they may be a religious.

And after that, I haven't had anyone refuse for me to pray for them.

I think I'm going to catch up after doing this about 3 times and go to the next 1.

Religious commitment has an effect on specific health concerns.

It protects against depression and suicide, substance abuse, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

Other researchers theorize that adherence to health-promoting behaviors, such as abstaining from alcohol, red meat, and tobacco, could partially explain the lower incidence of disease that have been observed among members of conservative religious groups.

And religious commitment can also give people greater peace, self-confidence, and purpose that could positively affect their health.

And the investigators add that actively religious people may cope better with illness by relying on their beliefs.

And of course, these are kind of in the discussion aspect of the study where they're theorizing in regards to why religious commitment does seem to positively affect health.

The study goes on and concludes that physicians can help religious people by encouraging them to pray more, to meditate, to attend worship, to follow religiously based morning practices, to seek forgiveness from others, and read holy literature.

In short, it would seem that many religious practices that patients find potentially meaningful might become resources for enhanced prevention, coping and recovery.

And so the journal or the archives of family medicine state in a primary care journal very clearly that the spiritual aspect and religion and particularly even particular religions where it favored the more conservative type of religions, definitely have a role to play in regards to the health of our patients.

Now as many of you know, I'm involved in depression recovery.

In our depression recovery program, we get people from all walks of life, and some that are not religious.

Most, I would say a good share of our patients that come to our depression recovery program haven't been to church in many years, and have wondered and have actually doubted whether God has any role to play in their life.

They think God has actually forgotten them or somehow neglected them.

And of course, that's why they feel like there is a depression.

But this study from Duke that has done a lot of the studies on religion and mental health shows that depressed patients with higher intrinsic religiosity scores have more rapid remissions than patients with lower scores.

And it also shows patients recovered from depression 70% sooner with every 10 point increase in the religiosity assessment score.

External religious activity had much less of an impact.

External religious activity means like doing the rosary or even just formal church attendance.

What I found, I was just practicing over 20 years in the Bible Belt, is not everyone that goes to church actually has a belief system.

Often they go there for business purposes and they'll be handing out their business card and letting them know about services that they can provide, etc., because it's a great meeting place.

And they might be going through the forms of religion, but not actually allowing it to affect their life.

In our depression recovery program, we show them what the PET scans look like.

It's now well established, 1 of the main characteristics of virtually all depressed individuals no matter what the underlying cause is a significant decrease in the frontal lobe's blood flow and activity.

This is an individual, and I probably don't have a laser pointer on here, and although I might try the center, see if that'll work.

But those are the same patient, 6 months apart.

1, obviously that patient was very depressed, And you can see how the metabolic activity of the brain is down in many areas.

But the biggest before and after difference is there at the top, at the frontal lobe of the brain.

And we now know from research that is done by Drevitz and others, that frontal lobe suppression occurs first and then the depression.

And if we really want to get complete recovery from depression, we have to actually reverse this and get frontal lobe circulation in place.

So our program, we're very overt about it, but because of this frontal lobe phenomena, we tell them, and quote from secular neurology textbooks, that spirituality, morality, and the will is centered there in the prefrontal cortex of the frontal lobe of the brain, and if we really want to get complete healing, we have to increase this area of circulation.

And so this is why we deal with, we have morning and evening worships and we have a spiritual connotation to the entire lifestyle program.

Now I remember 1 individual who was an atheist who came to our program.

And she came up to me after the introduction to this the first night and seeing the PET scans and says, you know, I understand that you're going to have a spiritual component of the program.

We tell them this ahead of time, too, so it doesn't spring it on them.

But I don't know if she missed that part or whatever, but she was a little concerned about this.

And she said, we also, for our depressed patients, unlike other lifestyle programs where we will have everything kind of optional for our depressed individuals.

If you make it optional, they just won't show up.

And so they really won't be able to get on the correct treatment program.

So we're knocking on their doors at 06:00 in the morning, we're getting them the light therapy, the exercise, all those sorts of things, and we recommend that they attend every presentation, and she says, I know what you recommended, but I'm an atheist, and you're going to have worships in the morning and in the evening.

I'm just thinking, would it be okay in my case to skip that?

And I just asked her a question, I said, well, how firm are you in your atheistic belief?

I don't think anyone's gonna convince me otherwise.

I said, well then you don't have anything to fear from attending the morning and evening worships.

I said, you know, I go to medical conventions where people that are devout atheists are teaching things about thoughts, like cognitive behavioral therapy.

And just because they're devout atheists doesn't mean that I don't attend their talk.

In fact, they'll even talk about their atheistic beliefs as part of the whole lecture and bring that up.

But there's still some truths that I can learn from atheists.

And what I would suggest that you do is go to those worships and see what you can find that you can resonate with and agree with and is truth to you and then take hold of it and run with that.

And she says, okay, I think I can do that.

Nebblett Family

Wholeness with God

I've asked my family to join me this morning for it is better to hear how this living experience that we want to share with you today works practically for everyone that is in the family.

As Elf-care practitioners, have you ever encountered individuals who have had dark experiences in their life?

What do you have to offer those who are stressed with everyday life?

Does your personal walk with God help you to provide encouragement for these hurting ones?

Are we filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can be a source of blessing to those that we have opportunity to care for?

Do we have a living experience with God that prepares us to go through our own trials?

A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.

To seek this should be our first work." That's Selected Messages, Volume 1, page 121.

You know, when someone is filled with the Holy Spirit, They immediately start having an influence.

When churches are revived, it is because some individual seeks earnestly for the blessing of God.

He hungers and thirsts after God and asks in faith and receives accordingly.

He goes to work in earnest and feeling his great dependence upon the Lord, souls are aroused to seek a like blessing and a season of refreshing falls on the hearts of men.

We want to share with you this morning how the blessing of that living connection with God produces godliness which is profitable unto all things, 1 Timothy 4, chapter 4, verse 8.

We want to encourage you that if you are not already doing this, that you start right now while you are here at the AMEN conference.

And if you are already doing this, that you go deeper in your experience.

It takes time and intentionality to nurture a deep, intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we live in an age where it seems that everyone is pressed for time.

Technology has provided us with more so-called time-saving devices than ever before in the history of mankind and yet It seems that we have never been more stressed.

Friends, this condition we believe is not by accident, but by design of an enemy of our souls who knows that busyness can easily lead to a lack of intimacy, resulting in stress, emptiness, and anxiety.

1 pastor states, we have become a body of people that looks more like a herd of cattle in a stampede than a flock of God by living by green pastures and living waters.

The Lord Jesus was the busiest person who ever walked the face of this earth.

The problem arises when Our busyness is not regularly interrupted by quiet seasons of solitude for communion with God and reflection that refresh the soul, that help recover our spiritual strength, that deepen our awareness of the presence of God in our lives and that reveal his will for us in the present.

So what does it take to escape this trap of modern life?

Well, we can tell you from personal experience that it takes determined and sometimes even painful ongoing effort.

Sometimes it calls for difficult decisions that may not be understood.

It requires that we take inventory on a regular basis of our lives and reevaluate our priorities.

It calls for a relentless commitment to please God rather than man and a willingness to abandon a myriad of good pursuits in favor of taking up those spirit-led pursuits.

It requires a daily deliberate interruption of our busyness to refresh our living connection with our master that we like Jesus will be able, enabled to discern God's plans for us each day.

Jesus did not consider every single pressing need before him as the father's mission for him.

He was intimately acquainted with the father and with his will for him each day, and he could be at peace with delaying his visit to Bethany, For instance, when Lazarus was deathly ill and Mary and Martha sent an urgent message to him.

What do we do when we encounter pressing needs or encounter opportunities that we feel compelled to take advantage of in the moment?

And a lady approached me to invite me to become a part of a support group for ladies that are engaged in caretaking of their aging parents.

I am not feeling especially in need of support because I have an extremely supportive family that helps me with this.

But because of our ongoing outreach efforts in our community, my first thought was this is another opportunity to connect with these women from our community on a personal level that I should not pass up.

The question needs to be placed before God.

Lord, is this, attending the support group meetings, 1 of your assignments for me?

Or is my life already so filled with the priorities that you have placed before me that this will cause me to neglect 1 of those?

It is in my quiet seasons with God that he has brought into sharp focus what his priorities, his highest priorities are for me in this season of life.

And they include first and foremost daily nurturing that relationship with my master.

Secondly, fulfilling my calling to be an excellent, loving, faithful, efficient wife and helper to my husband, who is able to create in our home a lovely, orderly, restful, peaceful, inviting place for him and for the rest of our family and for all those who enter our home.

Third, my third highest priority is to be a devoted mother and wise counselor to our 4 young people who happen to be still living at home.

God calls me to help shepherd them through this rich, exciting season of their lives that surely won't last very much longer.

A season that is full of opportunities for them of learning and change and decisions and growth.

Fourth, God has entrusted me the privilege of being a caretaker to my elderly mother with dementia, and I consider that a privilege.

And fifth, there's our family ministry and our ministry to others in our community and abroad.

We are engaged in outreach in our community including holding evenings of Bible study and fellowship and music and food in our home with discussions on practical Christianity and most recently We have introduced the health message.

God is blessing these efforts and people are coming, including 1 of our law enforcement officers who just before this last meeting that we had, he was at the gas station and overheard Edwin giving an invitation to someone else.

He pulled out his appointment book and said, when did you say that was going to happen?

And he wrote it in and he showed up at that next meeting.

We're excited with his children and his brother who is also a law enforcement officer in the next town over.

We're excited about what God has in store as we are building a relationship with people in our community with patients of Edwin's and friends and neighbors and sharing truth with them that is blessing their lives.

Now friends as I've listed all of these things that are God's priorities for me, I don't know if you've noticed but let me tell you if you haven't that these tasks that I have embraced as being part of my primary calling in my life and in the present largely consume my days.

I don't have time for many other things that I might enjoy, for sewing or even for attending weekly support group meetings without compromising the faithful fulfillment of the most important tasks that God has given me to perform.

Now, staying focused on these priorities requires that I regularly re-evaluate and make adjustments to my course to avoid distractions.

I do that in those quiet seasons when my ears are tuned to hear the voice of my master and my heart is fixed on pleasing him.

Are you tuning in to the voice of your Savior?

Are you slowing down enough, interrupting your busyness to take that time with Him?

Or are there so many good things on your agenda that they are crowding out some of God's most important appointments for you?

Like your time with him and your time with your family.

It is when we are thus living our lives, running to and fro, performing a thousand undeniably good tasks, that gross inconsistencies can show up in the life, such as you have 10 Bible studies going on every week and you have gained 15 souls to Christ.

You have won 15 souls to Christ in the past year, but you're estranged from your spouse.

There is tension between you, or you are alienated from your children.

My prayer is, friends, knowing that we have a room full of people here who are very earnest and very committed to Christ but who are very busy people.

My prayer for you this morning is that if you are not first and foremost engaged in this glorious pursuit of intimacy with God that you will take time today to reorder your priorities to make those quiet seasons with him on a daily basis a reality that you can be gifted with wisdom and discernment centered in his will making his agenda for you your highest priority.

Friends I want you to pause and ponder with me for a moment.

How precious is this Word of God that we are privileged to hold in our hands and even more privileged to take into our hearts.

We are told in Hebrews 4, verse 12, that the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.

As we take those seasons of quiet communion that my mother was talking about, consistently, on a daily basis, opening up the Word and praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our lives, our lives will literally be changed by the grace of God.

I want to read to you a quote from the book Education that says, The creative energy that called the world into existence is in the Word of God.

Every command is a promise, accepted by the will, received into the soul.

It brings with it the life of the infinite 1.

It transforms the nature and recreates the soul in the image of God.

This means that by taking this Bible, this precious word of God written to me and to you and spending time in it consistently, our lives will be changed and we will be empowered to change the lives of those around us by the grace of God.

You know it starts with a commitment to spend that time every single day and I know that our lives are busy.

There are many people who have claims on our time.

We're full of good things, we're wanting to do good things with our lives every single day.

I know that in my own experience, I found that that time with God can be eroded away little by little, that it can be hard to spend more than just a few minutes in the presence of God.

It can be hard to take time to be still before Him and really know Him as our Creator, as our Savior, as our Friend.

David DeRose

Holistic Medicine in the US - Passing Fad or Permanent Fixture?

Well, John, I can tell you this because you're my friend, but that was not a very memorable introduction.

In fact, if I had not said anything about it, probably none of you would have even remembered it.

But as we begin today, I've got to tell you about 1 of the more memorable introductions I've ever received.

It was some 12 years ago, I was speaking at the American Public Health Association's national meeting in Washington, D.C.

And we were presenting 1 of our first peer-reviewed papers from our work at the Lifestyle Center of America.

And as it came my time to speak, the moderator came up and he gave me truly an amazing introduction.

Because after he finished making some remarks about my background, He said, Dr.

DeRose is also affiliated with Loma Linda University.

At the time I was still working on my preventive medicine residency with Loma Linda and they actually contributed to some of the work we had done in that paper.

But I was not prepared for what would come next.

Some of you Loma Linda graduates no doubt know the kind of things you might hear in a session devoted to complementary and alternative medicine when Loma Linda was mentioned.

DeRose is also affiliated with Loma Linda University, but we will not hold that against him.

It was an amazing introduction, and an introduction to how some Adventists and how Seventh-day Adventists and how Loma Linda was regarded in some circles in the holistic medicine and complementary and alternative therapy field.

If that's a surprise to you, Hopefully it's not now.

And if you're thinking that's great, let's pray together.

Father in heaven, You've been reminding us already in this conference of who you are, of how you've commissioned a people to represent you, of how you've given us the health work to break down barriers and to point men and women to a sin-pardoning Savior.

Father, as we look at contemporary trends now in the world around us, we pray that you would guide my mind and guide our minds collectively, for only you know where you're taking each of us on that individual journey and that collective journey as health professionals and as supporting team members for this last and final work.

With that in mind, we look forward to what you are going to do.

All of this begs a very important question this morning.

Are Adventists, or at least Loma Linda-trained physicians and dentists, really antagonistic to holistic medicine?

I mean, that's what I was faced with because as I talked with this fellow after the meeting, it came out that his main connection with Seventh-day Adventists and with Loma Linda was through certain individuals at Loma Linda who were in the quack-busting field.

And he perceived Loma Linda to be anything but friendly to complementary and alternative therapies.

Is this a reputation that we should have?

I mean, some of us might say, well, that's great.

Let's look at what holistic medicine is as we try to evaluate, first of all, whether this is something that's just going to pass.

Or whether it's something we need to be concerned about and we need to very carefully look at our relationship to it.

Holistic medicine is a system of health care which fosters a cooperative relationship among all those involved, Leading toward optimal attainment of the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of health, it emphasizes the need to look at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, spiritual, and lifestyle variables.

It encompasses all stated modalities of diagnosis and treatment, including drugs and surgery, if no safe alternative exists.

Holistic medicine focuses on education and responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance and well-being.

Well, you read through that, you say, oh, that almost sounds like an Adventist medical or dental description, doesn't it?

Series

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

Holistic Medicine in the US - Passing Fad or Permanent Fixture?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Dental Track

The Unique Challenges of Sharing Christ in the Dental Office

46m

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

From Fractured to Whole

50m

AMEN 2010 Breakout Seminars

The Lost Element of Whole Person Care

1h

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

Why Media? Introducing the Life & Health Network

1h 1m

AMEN 2011 Breakout Seminars

Spiritual Mission and Medical Institutions

1h

Health & Family

Helping Hypertension, Healing Communities

1h 14m

Plenary

The 6th Competency: Systems-Based (Spiritual) Practice

53m

Breakout Session C

The Cutting Edge: Getting Back to Our Calling

1h

Medical Missionary Work & the Three Angels' Message

3. Medical Missionary Work: Principles & Concepts

1h

Mark Finley: Medical Evangelism

Medical Evangelism, Part 2

38m

AMEN 2010 Breakout Seminars

Why is the New England Journal of Medicine Publishing on Prayer?

1h

Sound Doctrine