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ABC Prayer Crusade

Stop Worrying, Begin Living

Glenn Coon

1 - Conquering Worry and the Anatomy of Stress

I understand that the topic tonight has to do with the relationship between the body and the mind.

And surely that is the way we should introduce a series like this, isn't it?

Because we're talking about worry and how to stop worrying.

I've understood it in a small way as a layman in health, that there's a tremendous relationship between the body and the mind.

Would you spell that out for us a little more tonight?

Yes, well, the human brain is a very marvelous organism.

It weighs something like 45 to 50 ounces, yet it does so many varied functions for us.

It not only moves your muscles so you can put your hands where you want, pick up things, walk without thinking about it.

It also does a lot of other types of integrating functions.

It stores information so that you will be able to make decisions based on what you were presented with.

It runs a biochemical laboratory inside of your brain that samples the blood level of hormones and then the brain thereby adjusts the different glands of the body to just secrete the right amount of hormones for you.

Your brain also helps you in the decision making process.

Penfield during brain surgery would electrically stimulate different parts of the brain, and when he would stimulate a certain side of the brain, an individual would have a particular recollection of something out of the past.

The body-mind relationship is an inseparable entity.

I have people who tell me, well, I have chest pain, but perhaps it's in my mind.

They forget that the body and the mind are really a unit.

That when you're physically ill, you're going to feel emotionally depressed.

If you overwork and lose sleep, you're going to feel irritable.

If you have physical illness, you'll actually be emotionally unstable and irritable.

It's not uncommon for us in the coronary care unit to find people who, during the first few days of their event, when they're having a lot of chest pain after their heart attack, will actually become amnesic for that time period.

Some individuals have such a stressful episode in the coronary care unit that they actually, for a temporary time period, will become mentally ill or psychotic.

And this is something that's actually reversible.

Now you can go the other way around and say, well, how does the mind affect the body?

If you're emotionally tired, you're going to feel physically tired.

If you've put in a long, hard day doing desk work, you'll come home and feel physically tired.

When I get emotionally exhausted, I'm physically exhausted too.

And later on, in 1 of the other nights, we're going to talk about what you can do to correct that.

If an individual is under stress for prolonged periods of time, we know that there are recognizable changes that may occur in the body.

People who are acutely ill, such as people who have been burned in an auto accident or something, may develop ulcers just almost instantaneously.

Over a prolonged period of emotional stress, we know that individuals will develop ulcers.

People will also have problems with palpitations.

And this is particularly my area of interest, since my specialty is that that deals with the heart.

We know that if they admit normal people into the coronary care unit who have no known heart disease, but just do this as a test, they start having signs of irritability of the heart just by putting them in a stressful situation where they're in the coronary care unit.

We know that stress will oftentimes be a factor that may precipitate the actual event where a person has a heart attack.

I have more than once had an individual tell me that I can remember now that you mention it, that I've been under a lot of stress lately, and this may be the thing that actually precipitates the heart attack.

And of course, stress is recognized as 1 of the long-term events that may lead to the development of heart disease and eventually a heart attack.

There are, of course, other things such as headache and high blood pressure that are also related.

But stress, the mind, the body, all this is a very finely integrated system.

So we're going to show this week what they need to do physically as well as mentally to keep from stress, right?

And you know, I was interested also in your notes, as you were with us some years ago in a program something like this, as you were telling about the tremendous brain, the mechanism of the brain, and you're telling something about if a man, if it were possible for people to do an artificial brain that could accomplish what our brain does accomplish.

Well, of course, This estimate was made in the days prior to microcircuitry, but it was estimated that if you were to reproduce the brain, you'd have to house it in a building as large as the Empire State Building in New York.

And it would take all of the water flowing over Niagara Falls just to cool it, to keep it operational.

And then this brain wouldn't be able to decide whether or not it wanted pancakes or eggs for breakfast.

We're fearful and wonderfully made, aren't we?

My, we certainly appreciate that special counsel.

Now, then this week, we're going to be able to give people concrete suggestions of how they can relate the body to the mind and the mind to the body.

And you mentioned something about, you know, in a talk you gave when we were together before, something about some of the things that can actually produce physical effects, like I think you mentioned a lemon and would you share some of those?

Well, a long, some years ago, a doctor, Dr.

Pavlov in Russia, demonstrated that if he were to ring a bell every time he would feed dogs, the dogs would salivate and get ready to eat.

Eventually, he came to the place where he could ring the bell alone and the dog would salivate even though he didn't produce the food And anyone here tonight if you stop and think about it now and clear your mind of everything else If you were to picture in your mind a fresh yellow lemon, and now picture cutting this in half, and then taking half of this lemon and putting it up to your mouth and licking on that, venture to say, just about everyone here is salivating right now, including you.

We know that conditioning has a lot to do with what goes on with the human mechanism and there are individuals who condition themselves to always look on the dark side of any issue that they get involved in.

They can retrain themselves to look on the positive side of the issue, and that's what you've been very active in, and that's what's kept me very much interested in your work.

If you keep at it, You can teach yourself in the conditioning process to look on the bright side of the issue that you're facing.

They had a great big well, dry well, you know, and they put him out on retirement.

He fell down all 4 feet in that well and he was a pet.

They didn't want to kill him and yet they couldn't get him out so they decided to bury him alive and every time they shoveled the dirt in he was a little higher.

So instead of his looking at the problem, he walked right out.

So we don't have to be buried with our problems, right?

And You'll be with us again tomorrow night.

Thank you and now Don and Nancy I Wonder if you'd Sing 1 more of those beautiful songs.

Is this, would you tell us the number, the name of it, the title?

It's entitled, Cast your burden upon the Lord, He will sustain you.

He will not permit the righteous to be moved.

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Him.

Cast your burden upon the Lord, He will sustain you.

Oh, that is the beautiful promise of the Lord.

And friends, that brings us right to the subject of tonight.

I hold in my hand the most wonderful book in all the universe.

The Christian religion, the religion of the Bible, is the most beautiful religion known to this planet.

In this book, we have a promise that no matter what our past life has been, whether it's been vicious, whether we have destroyed our lives by vile habit, the maker of this book, the author of this book says, look, I'll give you a lily-white light.

And and if it's true, and it is, then no matter what situation we find ourselves as far as the past is concerned, we can say, wonderful, there's a page that's covered over my page, my crimson page, my vile page of the past, and I'm looked upon by the author of this book as though I'd never committed a sin in all my life.

2 - Peace, Stimulants and Stress

Our topic for this session is battling through hell for peace.

In every human life there are battles, there are Gethsemane's, there are deep days of frustration, of confusion, and anyone who denies it doesn't know life.

It was true with Abraham when he offered up Isaac.

He battled through an experience like hell for peace.

Jacob, found in Genesis 32, as he battled with his antagonist there in those night hours, battled through hell, but he found peace.

In the New Testament, we are told, fight the good fight of faith.

So the Christian warfare is really a battle.

It's whether we will believe what our Lord has done and does.

And so I would like to share with you this evening 1 text of Scripture which you can use the rest of your life.

It's a text of Scripture which has saved my, my life more than once.

It's found in Isaiah the 26th chapter and the third verse and this is what it says, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.

Those of you who are at the tables with the pencil and paper, you might like to write that down.

Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.

I found in my experience some 20, to begin with about 31 years ago, as I was going through a terrible Gethsemane experience.

All at once, as I was on my knees praying, and it seemed the darkness would never disappear.

It seemed like the morning would never come.

And as I was there, actually crying out in the blackness and the darkness and the pitchy darkness the Holy Spirit flashed this text in my mind.

It's not the 1 I've just quoted to you But it's 1 that shows how the 1 we've just quoted Should be used 2nd Corinthians 418.

It says while we look Not at the things that are seen But at the things that are not seen The things that are seen are temporal.

The things that are not seen are eternal.

And that is what Isaiah 26, verse 3 is all about.

It is to help us to block out of our mind the things that worry, the things that send us into a Gethsemane experience, the things that frustrate us and the things that confuse us to such a point that a person could actually lose his mentality in some cases.

So Isaiah 26, 3 and 2 Corinthians 4, 18, really they go together.

While we look, Not at the things that are seen You see the troubles the perplexities the things that cause us anguish But we look at the things that are not seen.

And I was on my knees there in that dark hour, and I said, Lord, does that mean that daylight will really come to my soul?

Well, I said, Lord, Every darkness is followed by light.

So, if you don't mind, hurry up and send me the light.

And the Lord was saying to me, get your mind off of these negatives.

At another time, as I was passing through a deep, dark death 7 day experience, a medical doctor friend of mine had just told me, and this was 23 years ago, he had just told me that I had cancer.

He had recommended that I give up my revival work.

And as I thought it over, and my wife and I talked about it and prayed about it.

Let's take the simplest diet that reason would indicate.

Let us get physical exercise so that oxygen, you see, can fill these tissues.

For they, I understand that cancer cells are largely devoid of oxygen.

I would eat the best diet I could obtain, but even at that, in the middle of the night I'd awaken and the word cancer Came to me.

It knocked down the door as it were of my thinking cancer You're gonna die of cancer There's no hope cancer and to be perfectly frank friends.

I was filled with fear and Then Isaiah chapter 26 verse 3 came to me.

Oh the Holy Spirit just just Revealed that to me.

It was silhouetted against the horizon of my thinking.

Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.

And I said, no Lord I'm going to stay my mind on you.

And I began at creation's dawn and I thought and I remembered how Psalm 32 verses 6 and 9 says, By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

And I said, Lord, your word was so powerful that by your word the universe came into existence.

Now, the reason I was talking about his word as I was looking to him was, I had already been teaching the power of God's promises, you see.

I'd explained to people that when Jesus speaks, his word is full of creative power.

So now it came back to me, is his word full of creative power or isn't it?

Is this word, the word of Christ, is it sufficient to take care of your problems or isn't it?

So I said, Lord, your word at creation's dawn was so powerful, you spoke this planet into existence.

By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

I said, Lord, by your word, you brought all the plagues on Egypt and you delivered your people in there and they passed through the Red Sea By your word the manna fell by your word The waters gushed out of the rock where they had no water by your word Lord.

What a Powerful word I was following the thought of Isaiah chapter 26 verse 3 you see then I went on down through the Old Testament I said Lord it was by your word That Jehoshaphat as recorded in 2nd Chronicles chapter 20.

It was by your word that tremendous victory came to the host of Judah when their enemies had gathered about them, the enemies like the sand of the sea.

And Jehoshaphat had said, Lord, we don't know what to do.

It's all found in 2 Chronicles, the 20th chapter, verse 12 now.

Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.

And as he followed the simple ABCs of prayer, claiming God's promises, they went out in simple faith, looking to the Lord, And the victory was absolute.

Then it went on and on and on through the Bible, came in the New Testament.

I said, Lord, there was that woman, that sick woman, who said, and it's recorded in Mark chapter 5.

She said, if I may but touch Christ's garment, I shall be whole.

The word that was made flesh and dwelt among us was so powerful that she just touched your garment.

The leper said, if thou willst thou canst make me clean.

That's Matthew, that's the eighth chapter, verses 1 and 2.

And you touched him and you said, I will be thou clean.

I said, Lord, Your word was more powerful than leprosy, and Lord, your word, your word is more powerful than the cancer that the doctor tells me I have.

And Lord, I am finding perfect peace because I know whom I believe.

I know the power of creation and Calvary love and creation power are combined in Jesus Christ for my good and friends after about an hour of fixing my mind on Christ as mentioned in Isaiah 26 3, I had perfect peace and went to sleep.

Now it's true that I had to repeat this many times.

I battled through hell as it were, But I came out with peace because you've said thou will keep him in perfect peace.

Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.

You see, it's a trust in him that counts.

I like the way my favorite author says, in the book Education, that beautiful book called Education, Page 297, it says, when the gaze is once fixed upon him, life finds its center.

My friends, when you and I begin to feel unbalanced, there's nothing that can balance us like looking to the Lord that balances the human life, who balances the human spirit, who balances the human body.

All you ends of the earth, Isaiah 45, 22.

3 - Squabbles and Emotional Quiet

It's a real joy this evening, friends, to introduce to you a dear friend of mine, Dr.

Clarence Carnahan, who is professor of psychiatry of the School of Medicine, Loma Linda University.

Carnahan, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us this evening.

It's a pleasure to be asked to be on your program.

We thought that would have some relevance for this type of meeting.

And how did you, Doctor, become interested to the extent you are in this phase of health?

My main clinical work at the university is involved with seeing people on the medical and surgical services of the hospital, people who have bonafide physical illnesses.

But it is felt that perhaps stress or tension has something to do either with initiating the illness or maintaining it or complicating it.

So I'm frequently called in to see these people.

And so these are people, for the most part, who have done very well, idealistic, try hard, work hard, but they haven't learned how to quiet this response down.

So I felt that there was a great need to teach people this, and for them to add this to the other skills that they already knew.

And by the way, I think the first time that I was introduced to you was a letter you wrote me, isn't that right?

I had for a long time been rather disillusioned with the aspect of looking at problems and hoping that digging around in problems became the solution to problems.

I couldn't quite buy that when I was introduced to your healing lab tapes and saw that you had a positive approach to problems, I felt these were useful to a number of patients that I saw.

I've used them some in my work for selected patients, and I've been impressed with the need for a solution-centered approach, whether this be in religion or in my work in working with people with physical and emotional problems.

That doesn't seem to fit a lot of the philosophy of men, of your peers, let me say, in the world.

It's refreshing to meet an individual who has this, what I would call a Bible-centered philosophy.

So you must be a Bible-believing Christian also.

I very much prize the schooling I've had and my Sabbath school teachers, my teachers in school as I've gone through Christian schools, and it, I think, is a wonderful basis for then believing and reaching solutions.

I only regret that too many times the negative part of it has been presented.

Particularly in some phases of religion, which I'm acquainted, I've heard a lot of people talk time of trouble, time of trouble, time of trouble, until they became troublemakers almost.

Plagues, plagues, well, anyhow, we don't have to deal with the plagues tonight, do we?

So I think that same approach can be applied to illness and feeling bad, whether this be physical or emotional or a combination of the 2.

Hopefully we can learn to look beyond this and feel as well as think hopeful things.

That sounds just like what I'm teaching too, from a biblical standpoint.

I think it was 2 years ago that we were hoping that we might have the privilege of having you with us in 1 of these Stop Worrying and Begin Living seminars.

By the way, now, when you start with a patient, let's say, here's a patient that has a stress situation.

How would you start with this individual?

And how would you carry on to get this person out of the stress into a more peaceful condition?

I believe in activity, and I believe in doing things, and I believe in a positive, active approach to living.

I think 1 of the curses of our present generation is what I'll call the TV passive approach to life, where people sit and they expect to be entertained by others or have someone bring them something.

This applies to their hopes for doctors, too.

They're supposed to go to the doctor, and the doctor's going to make them well, either through a prescription or telling them something magical.

So anyway, I start with an active approach.

I think people have to take personal responsibility For their own health and further on well-being Uh-huh doesn't mean they can't have help from others, but they have to learn to take some personal responsibility for it I stress activity.

In other words, it's pretty hard to rest unless a man has something to rest from, isn't it?

If people can be active and have the body in good condition, then they're more likely to be able to purposefully turn it down and rest it efficiently also.

What would be some of the areas in which you would recommend activity before we get into the rest phase?

Well, if I see people are doing sedentary type of work, the type of work where there's a lot of worry involved, how people do desk jobs or my fellow physicians, ministers, people who have a lot of burdens, but not much physical work connected with the way they earn their livelihood and the way they spend their time.

I firmly recommend an active exercise program.

Well, I personally believe in jogging and do it, practice it.

Some people may rather saw or chop wood or dig holes or something, but it needs to be some kind of structured exercise and programmed over a period of time and done regularly.

Now, after they've gotten this exercise, As you say, then you see if I have this right, then you go into the second phase of the relaxation program, is that right?

Right, then they can learn to do something like relaxation, and it has been called by numerous words, but I've chosen the word quietness, the quiet response.

It seems to have special meaning, as opposed to the tumult and the stress and the tension that we find ourselves in so often.

I don't mean the TM type, but after a man's exercise, would you say?

I think this can be done in many different ways.

I've gotten into it through teaching people through biofeedback, for instance, a quiet response by monitoring their body responses, say the muscle tightness, and showing them on a dial or with a tone exactly how tense they are and teaching them to quiet that down.

That's not the only way it can be done, though.

I think there's a real place here for Christian meditation also, where people can select a quiet passage, a passage that has meaning, hope, a positive approach, and allow them to initiate this quiet response also.

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Series

Stop Worrying, Begin Living

1 - Conquering Worry and the Anatomy of Stress

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

The Science of Thankfulness

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An Attitude of Gratitude

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The Brain and Body on Gratitude

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Encounters With Jesus

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Grateful

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Imagine a Healthy 100

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Morning Devotional: It's War Time

It’s Wartime - Part 3: Wartime Communication

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Ten Prayed One Praised

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