63 Sermon Illustrations on Health

Neglected. Whoever by work, pleasure, sorrow, or by any other cause, is regularly diminishing his sleep, is destroying his life. A man may hold out for a time; but Nature keeps close accounts, and no man can dodge her settlements. We have seen impoverished railroads that could not keep the track in order, nor spare the engines to be thoroughly repaired; every year, track and equipment deteriorated; by and by comes a crash; and the road is in a heap of confusion and destruction. So it is with men. Beecher.

See ASSIMILATION.

ABSTAINERS LIVE LONG

An interesting investigation was conducted by the _Associated Prohibition Press_ in April, 1909, as to the causes of death in the city of Chicago of all men who had reached the age of sixty years and over, and whose death was reported during that month. Every death reported in Chicago during this month of April was carefully investigated for the purpose of securing an accurate memorandum of the age, nationality, and cause of death.

Out of 155 men concerning whose deaths this data was obtained, it was found that 73 had been total abstainers, 75 moderate drinkers, and 4 were said to be heavy drinkers. The age ranged from 60 to 92 years.

On the basis of the facts secured in this investigation, the drinking men, by their use of alcoholic poison, shortened their lives nearly four years.

In the aggregate, therefore, by means of its subtle poison, alcoholic liquor helped to deprive these 79 victims of a total of more than 334 years of active life which their abstaining contemporaries had lived to enjoy.--“American Prohibition Yearbook.”

The railroad has compelled us all to live fast. The pace of the locomotive kills. Everywhere we see among our people an alarming increase of serious diseases. People become anxious, irritable, nervous and hurried. Something snaps, and the end comes quickly. As an evidence that this intensity of experience is harmful, we may notice the rapidly shortening hours of labor, the increase of holidays, the lengthening of vacations, and the disposition among the city people to spend more and more time in the country during the summer. All these are defenses against the wear and tear of city life--why? Because people and things can be moved so fast that all business moves faster and faster, and for such a killing pace we must have the relief of more rest and longer vacations. The railroad has in all these directions changed our social and business life so that we lead wholly different lives from all the men who have gone before. On the other hand, it has been of very great mental benefit. It is said that insanity was at one time very common among farmers. The dulness and stupidity of their lives drove them into mental collapse. The railroad now brings the town to the farm, the city paper comes to the rural fireside, and trips to town are cheap and easy. The appalling monotony of country life is quickened by the rush of the train through the quiet valleys and life seems more worth living, because more interesting. Balancing one thing against another we must conclude that there is a gain in all this.--CHARLES BARNARD, _The Chautauquan_.

Senator Chauncey M. Depew, entertained at a dinner on the occasion of his seventy-sixth birthday, said:

Fifty-four years in public and semipublic life and upon the platform all over this country and in Europe for all sorts of objects in every department of human interest have given me a larger acquaintance than almost anybody living. The sum of observation and experience growing out of this opportunity is that granted normal conditions, no hereditary troubles, and barring accidents and plagues, the man who dies before seventy commits suicide. Mourning the loss of friends has led me to study the causes of their earlier departure. It could invariably be traced to intemperance in the broadest sense of that word; intemperance in eating, in drinking, in the gratification of desires, in work, and in irregularity of hours, crowning it all with unnecessary worry.--New York _Times_.

See IMPROVED CONDITIONS.

LONGEVITY, RECIPES FOR

A complete list of infallible prescriptions for the prolongation of human life would fill a voluminous book, and would include some decidedly curious specifics. “To what do you ascribe your hale old age?” the Emperor Augustus asked a centenarian whom he found wrestling in the palestra and bandying jokes with the young athletes. “_Intus mulso, foris oleo_,” said the old fellow. “Oil for the skin and mead (water and honey) for the inner man.” Cardanus suggests that old age might be indefinitely postponed by a semifluid diet warmed (like mother’s milk) to the exact temperature of the human system; and Voltaire accuses his rival Maupertuis of having hoped to attain a similar result by varnishing his hide with a sort of resinous paint (_un poix resineux_) that would prevent the vital strength from evaporating by exhalation. Robert Burton recommends “oil of unaphar and dormouse fat”; Paracelsus rectified spirits of alcohol; Horace, olives and marshmallows. Dr. Zimmerman, the medical adviser of Frederick the Great, sums up the “Art of Longevity” in the following words: “Temperate habits, outdoor exercise, and steady industry, sweetened by occasional festivals.”(Text.)--FELIX OSWALD, _Bedford’s Magazine_.

Sermon in Philippians series. Positive mental attitude. Phil. 4:8-9

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AS YOU THINK, SO YOU ARE

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I. We are what we think.

A. Mental attitude is single most important factor in health.

B. The downward and upward spirals.

II. Eight qualities of positive thinking:

III. Thought control.

A. Think about such things.

B. No one can do it perfectly.

C. Everyone can discipline their mind. Romans 12:2

IV. What are your minimum standards?

A. Integrity even when it is costly.

B. Concern for virtue is not limited to Christians.

1) Society as a whole recognizes a drift.

2) God has given all of us a core of values.

V. Just do it.

A. Positive thinking should end in actions.

B. A result, not a basis.

C. Ask God to renew your mind, help your thought-life.

Altruism has health benefits. Univ. of Michigan's Survey Research Center studied 2700 people and concluded being with other people significantly increased life expectancy, especially among men. Death rate was two and a half times higher for those who did not have close social relationships.

Univ. of Calif. at Berkeley study of 7000 people found that single loners who shunned community organizations have more than twice the death rate of others. True regardless of race, income, exercise or other life-style factors.

Reasons it works: Hans Selye says warmth other people return to you for your good deeds protects you from stress. Good deeds may also benefit immune system. Harvard study by psychologist David McClelland showed students a film of Mother Teresa, the embodiment of altruism, working among Calcutta's sick and poor. Analyses of students' saliva revealed an increase in immunoglobulin A, an antibody that can help combat respiratory infections. (May not hold up under further study.)

Risk of heart disease is dramatically affected by your attitude toward other people. Type A personalities, "angry heart" people, are at higher risk for heart disease. Hostility is most important factor - high hostility levels correlates with blocked coronary arteries. People who do not listen well have higher blood pressure.

Heart patients tend to isolate themselves, so one form of therapy is to have them do altruistic acts for others.

#249

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Americans are addicted to health. Michael Ignatieff in “Modern Dying” in The New Republic deplores the reduction of the idea of the human good to the glow of physical well-being. There is an “ideology of health.” It is related to the idea that we are the master of our fates, and illness is due to bad thinking. The conquest of so much disease makes illness seem a moral failing. Death seems to be unjust.

Ignatieff recommends “an ethic of ironic struggle” – not too much struggle, and an acceptance of biological fate. “He does not mean that you must go gently quiet into that good night … but do not rage against the dying of the light because no amount of maintenance can prevent the dying.” Health should be nurtured but not hoarded.

#592 [see #593/titles]

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Five questions that reveal our spiritual health.

1. Whom am I really trying to please?

2. What needs am I trying to meet? Insecurities that I'm pampering?

3. With whom/what am I competing?

4. What rewards am I seeking?

5. What guilt or shame might I be covering?

Health was actually one of the things that helped the church grow. How?

Picture this: you're in a city of the first century AD Roman world. Except for a few buildings in public commons or wealthy houses and spas, there were no sewers -- unless you counted the narrow mud walks they considered roadways. There were no flush toilets. No refrigerators to keep food fresh. No plastic wraps to keep dust off the food. Soap, at least as we would recognize it today, wasn't available. Dead animals (including the human kind) were an everyday thing, leaving a ripe odor in the air most of the time. Intestinal worms were common. Water was kept in large jars or barrels which did not move, keeping the water stagnant so that, at normal temperatures, germs would breed in it. If you've been in any of the shack cities around the major cities of Latin America, it's all too familiar -- but you couldn't tame it with modern medicine or modern packaging, for those did not exist. Plagues were common, sometimes killing as much as one-fifth of a city's population.

Now, drop into that scene the kind of Christianity that we see in Acts or in Paul's letters, or in some of the pagan Roman accounts of the Christians of their day. Watch Christians turning over their income into a common pot to share for those who need it. Christians nursing people's infections and sores. Christians seeing to it that people were fed. Christians refusing to engage in social behaviors that made the health problems much worse. Christians who cared enough to bother doing the little things that would make for a cleaner, healthier place. Christians whose faith made them care enough to be responsible citizens in a putrid environment. The early Christians' caring didn't make them immune from plague and disease (though their exposure to the germs of others may have made them more resistant, long-term). They didn't pretend that it was so. They just didn't let it defeat them. No one else could say that.

What does this mean? The ancients who lived in the cities knew that their world was horrible, and even more so when they saw these Christians give them little glimpses of something much better. Thus, the supportive caring of the Christians became something people wanted to have. It could mean extra years onto their life, less disfigurement, and just feeling better all around. Most importantly, the caring was a consistent match to their message: a message of hope, of a strange sort of victory that even the sword could not achieve.

Health was certainly not the only thing Christianity had going for it. Not even close. But remember that it was in the cities where Christianity first took hold. It was a big part of the reason Christianity grew. Perhaps the same thing can be true today.

Prison Fellowship mourns the loss of our friend, Dr. David Larson, who died unexpectedly last week. Dr. Larson's name will be familiar to BreakPoint listeners, especially those who've attended our conferences: Larson conducted groundbreaking research proving that religious commitment can help people live longer, healthier lives.

That's a finding that's in direct contrast to what Larson heard during his training in psychiatry. In fact, one of his professors, knowing Larson viewed religion to be a potentially helpful factor in patients' lives, urged him to give up psychiatry. "For psychiatric patients," he said, "religion can only be harmful."

The psychiatrist was stating the conventional wisdom handed down from Sigmund Freud, who viewed religion as "a universal obsessional neurosis."

But Larson refused to be deterred. As he continued his research, he noticed a surprising pattern: The published data showed that religion, far from causing harm, actually helped protect against both mental and physical disease.

For example, studies have shown that older adults who frequently attend religious services may have healthier immune systems. Heart patients with strong religious beliefs are much more likely to survive surgery. Church-going folks also have lower blood pressure, even when risky behavior like smoking is factored in. Most dramatic of all, the simple act of attending church each week is linked with reducing risk of earlier death by about twenty-five percent.

Religious commitment also protects people from addictions and mental disorders. Consider: Alcohol abuse is highest among those with little or no religious commitment. Studies have found an inverse correlation between religious commitment and drug abuse in youth. The non-religious are also much more likely to suffer from depression and to commit suicide.

The standard view that associates religion with psychological problems does have one small kernel of truth. Larson found that people who believe in Christianity but don't practice it do experience greater stress. People who believe in God but who neglect church attendance and Bible-reading, who are divorced or abuse alcohol, show higher levels of anxiety than the general population.

In short, the inconsistent Christian suffers greater stress than the consistent atheist.

Dr. Larson's scientific data provide a wonderful tool for apologetics. Christians believe that God created humans to have communion with Him, and to live according to His laws. If we live contrary to God's plan, the research shows that we pay a steep price in stress, depression, family conflict, and even physical illness.

It's a sad irony that Dr. Larson himself was taken from us at a relatively young age. We grieve for his family and for the kingdom, but we remember that no one knows God's timing or his divine purposes. And I can only pray that others will pick up the cause of the psychiatrist who proved Freud wrong.

If you call BreakPoint, we'll send you an essay written by Dr. Larson that will help you make arguments to friends if they repeat that old canard that religion is harmful.

Paul wrote that while bodily training is of some value, we should train ourselves in godliness, for godliness holds promise both for the present life and also for the life to come.

For further reading and information:

Call toll-free 1-800-995-8777 to receive Dr. Larson's essay, "Patient Spiritual Distress a Risk for Dying Sooner," free of charge.

Visit the International Center for the Integration of Health and Spirituality.

Paul C. Vitz, PSYCHOLOGY AS RELIGION: THE CULT OF SELF-WORSHIP (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994

David B. Larson, Michael E. McCullough, and Harold George Koenig, HANDBOOK OF RELIGION AND HEALTH (Oxford University Press, 2000).

"Analysis of Studies Shows that Religious Involvement May Be a Factor in Living a Long Life," American Psychological Association, 4 June 2000.

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Copyright © 2002 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. 'BreakPoint with Chuck Colson' is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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Eula Weaver left the hospital following a severe heart attack at 77. “The doctor told her, “Mrs. Weaver, you have two ways you can go. You can go to bed and let somebody feed you with a spoon. Or you can go home, get out of bed, and walk.”

Eula went home to walk. But it wasn’t easy. Sometimes when she walked only fifty feet her leg muscles would cramp, and she would have to be carried home. It took grit and a change in diet to bring success to her exercise program. All her life Eula had eaten just about what she wanted to, mainly fatty meats and fried foods. Now she ate fruits, whole cereals, green salads, and vegetables.

Beginning with one block a day, she increased her walk during the first six months to seven blocks, three times a day. By the end of eighteen months she was running a quarter of a mile a day. When the neighbors saw Eula in jogging clothes, hobbling along, they thought she was losing her mind.

“At first,” Eula said, “I couldn’t jog half a block before I’d be clean out of breath. Then I’d have to drag myself home and rest. But I kept jogging every day and following my diet, and before long I got so I could jog a mile.”

Within two years Mrs. Weaver was getting up at five-thirty every morning to trot several blocks to a high school and jog a mile around the track. If she couldn’t get to the track, she rode the stationary bicycle in her bedroom as far as twenty miles, often reading the newspaper while she pedaled.

When Eula was 85 she was invited to run in the Senior Olympics. A gold medal awarded to her in that race.

________

Source: CLIMBING JACOB’S LADDER, by Jeanne Larson & Ruth McLin, Copyright 1979 by Review and Herald Publishing Association

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #9989]

Finally, a Study for Me - A reflection on laziness, fitness, and God.

"One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind." (Ecclesiastes 4:6, NASB)

THE WASHINGTON TIMES recently ran an article describing a new study published by Peter Axt of the Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Germany. In ON THE JOY OF LAZINESS, Axt claims that "aimless sloth" is the key to long life. Can you believe it? A German publishing a study showing that laziness leads to long life. Even if he becomes a national hero in France, he’ll be a pariah in his own country.

I haven’t seen the study myself, but the newspaper reports I’ve read don’t give me much confidence in Axt’s research. THE TIMES OF LONDON implied that Axt’s data was outdated and even unconventional. Still, the study, whatever its merits, offers an amusing diagnosis of our culture’s desperate attempts to achieve immortality.

AN AMUSING FALLACY

I know I would have cited this study when I was growing up. As a kid I yearned for deliverance from my life of indentured servitude. I suffered through thousands of hours of farm work before and after school. I baled hay on hundred-degree days. I chased loose cattle at 3:00 a.m. And then there was the manure. Had I had this study back then, things would have been different.

Me: "But, dad, research shows that getting out of bed this early is harmful to my long-term life prospects."

My father: "My boot is going to be very harmful to your short-term life prospects."

Okay, so it wouldn’t have changed a thing. No research could overcome the invitation to work extended by my father’s boot. I suspect that citing this study won’t get me out of work at the office either.

CULT OF CONTROL

In addition to providing fun seed material for my work-avoidance daydreaming, ON THE JOY OF LAZINESS also deals a clever-and much-needed-blow to the fitness-obsessed culture of the West. If your goal is long life, says Axt, why work so hard? You can achieve your goal so much more easily. Laziness, of course, presents its own problems for our physical and spiritual health, but Axt’s proposition does reveal the way our culture has perverted a proper understanding of health and fitness.

The pseudo-reasoning behind this popular perversion is as follows: If we are physically fit, we will be healthier; if we are healthier, we will live longer and have more time to do more things. There’s nothing really wrong with this, but now add the medical community’s nags over health and fitness. Study after study instructs us to eat this but not that, do this and not that (and then another study comes along to contradict the latest findings). Case in point is a Danish study released last year that seems to refute Axt’s research by showing that joggers tend to live, on average, seven years longer than non-joggers. So, the medical volley continues. We hardly know whom to believe but we follow blindly nonetheless. Either way, right living is reduced to little more than following the proper health and fitness guidelines-whichever they are.

Combine your preferred guidelines with the inescapable media-induced emphasis on looks and beauty and a clear picture emerges of just how obsessive these goals of health and fitness have become. We have built a cult of celebrity and our gods are such impossibly fit actresses as Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Love-Hewitt. Paper-thin Kate Moss is an internationally recognized model. The male movie and TV gods are all young, buff, and attractive. It’s the old “Charles Atlas ad” on a colossal scale. Endless youth and the perfect body have become our ultimate ends.

No one is arguing against being healthy and fit. But making fitness our primary goal leads to a cult of self that ignores the cultivation of mind and soul that give life meaning. Many in the West-including many Christians-elevate fitness to a form of godliness. But this is to fall into a trap of presuming that a longer life is necessarily a better life. We make fitness into a form of salvation.

Health is not so much our god as it is the path we travel to become our own gods. Our obsession with health, fitness, and youth reflects the modernist striving to shape nature to our desires. It is only one part of our larger attempt to gain control of our lifespan, a human exercise rooted in our innate fear of death. We perform stem-cell research so that we will never get diseased or grow old. We look to cloning so that we can live forever. And we’ll encourage legalized euthanasia so that we can avoid the inconveniences of old age in case the cures don’t arrive in time.

DIAGNOSIS AND CURE

While ON THE JOY OF LAZINESS diagnoses problems in the modernist goal of a better life through fitness, its proffered advice is certainly no cure. After all, Axt did set out to prove that laziness leads to longer (and presumably therefore better) life. As with the obsession with fitness, this type of applied laziness is an attempt to shape the world according to our desires; it just goes about the task in a different way.

The Christian faith stands in contrast to these extremes. The Christian’s goal (as was the case with many other human civilizations) is not so much to live long as it is to live well. For us, living well is bound to our first call to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If our faith affects all aspects of life, it directs wise stewardship of the gifts of the bodies that God has given us. We are not to neglect our bodies, but our care of them can by no means replace the cultivation of our spirit. If you are in doubt about your priorities, compare the time you spend exercising to that spent fostering your spiritual growth.

My own heritage has tainted my view of intentional exercise and fitness. I grew up in a good German farm family in Wisconsin where I was insulated from the temptation of health and fitness not achieved through daily work. Wisconsin is a wonderful place populated by people of Northern and Eastern European descent who gargle beer before bed and eat such delicacies as buttered cheese. My life still tends toward Axt’s model of laziness rather than the tension and stress that is more common for Washington, D.C. While there is value to both exercise and proper amounts of rest both, if perverted, can take us away from our higher purpose.

I recently saw myself in a mirror and wished it had been one of those warped funhouse mirrors. I’ve become like the Mississippi, swollen and overflowing my belt. I’m also getting married soon and I suspect my new wife will not allow me to use ON THE JOY OF LAZINESS as a defense against exercising. There’s a month to go. I guess it’s time to start moving again.

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Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

"Smoking kills. And if you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."

-- Brooke Shields

"The president has kept all of the promises he intended to keep."

-- Clinton aide George Stephanopolous speaking on "Larry King Live"

"The police are not here to create disorder. They're here to preserve disorder."

-- Former Chicago mayor Daley during the infamous 1968 convention

"If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all."

-- Forestry expert Ronald Reagan

"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."

-- Former Australian cabinet minister Keppel Enderbery

"It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago."

-- Former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle

"The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people that make them unsafe."

-- Former Philadelphia Mayor and Police Chief Frank Rizzo

"The internet is a great way to get on the net."

-- Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole

"It is bad luck to be superstitious."

-- Andrew Mathis

"It's like an Alcatraz around my neck."

-- Boston mayor Menino on the shortage of city parking spaces

"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."

-- Former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle

"They're multipurpose. Not only do they put the clips on, but they take them OFF."

-- Pratt & Whitney spokesperson explaining why the company charged the

Air Force nearly $1,000 for an ordinary pair of pliers

"We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees."

-- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."

-- Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents

"When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results."

-- Former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge

"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."

-- Former French President Charles de Gaulle

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it."

-- A congressional candidate in Texas

"Things are more like they are now than they ever were before."

-- Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"A billion here, a billion there - sooner or later it adds up to real money."

-- Everett Dirksen

"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."

-- John Wayne

"Half this game is ninety percent mental."

-- Yogi Berra

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. it's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

-- Former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle

"Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind."

-- General William Westmoreland, during the war in Viet Nam

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

-- Former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle at a fundraising event for the

United Negro College Fund. He was attempting to quote the line "a mind

is a terrible thing to waste."

"If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut

right out from under your feet."

-- Former British foreign minister Ernest Bevin

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."

-- Former U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle

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Some football examples [Holwick]:

“Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl.”

-- Bill Peterson, football coach

“You guys line up alphabetically by height.”

-- Bill Peterson

“I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl.”

-- Joe Jacoby of the Redskins

“To win, I'd run over Joe's mom, too.”

-- Matt Millen of the Raiders

“Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”

-- Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann

LONDON (AP) - Research aimed at finding a treatment for the human form of mad cow disease is showing promise and could lead to a drug within about five years, a British scientist said Wednesday.

The fatal illness, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, occurs when normal proteins found in the brain, known as prions, change shape and prompt healthy prions to do the same. When enough prions have done so, they deposit a plaque on the brain and surround the mark with spongy holes, killing the victim.

Scientists believe people get it by eating beef infected with a similar disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. So far, 102 people in Britain, three in France, one in Ireland and one in Hong Kong have died from the disease.

British researchers reported at the World Congress of Neurology in London that they are working with the pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, to screen hundreds of thousands of chemicals for one that could prevent the healthy prions from changing shape when they come across their rogue counterparts.

"The work we've been doing with Glaxo has been very encouraging," said Dr. John Collinge, director of the prion unit at Imperial College School of Medicine in London. "We think it's possible, although one can't make any promises, that in the next five years we may be able to produce something that blocks prion replication and provides a treatment for this disease."

Collinge's group has found the brain is capable of getting rid of the unhealthy prions, if there aren't too many of them. If scientists can stop the conversion of normal proteins, the brain should be able to eliminate the rest, he said.

Collinge said there is evidence of several strains of the unhealthy protein, which raises the possibility of it becoming resistant to drugs.

He said recent research also indicates the prion protein itself does not appear to be toxic to the brain and that a byproduct created when it changes shape is more likely to be to blame.

Therefore, he said, the aim is to find drugs that will help the healthy prions stay normal.

"It's very encouraging, but, of course, we'd need to have a diagnostic test first" so the disease can be identified in its early stages, said Robert Will, head of Britain's national Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease surveillance unit.

Currently, the only way to confirm infection with variant CJD is by examining brain or tonsil tissue after death.

Recently, brain scans have been shown to pick up the damage, but it would probably be too late to do anything about it by then, experts say.

Collinge also reported progress with a potential tonsil biopsy test. He tested the tonsils of 28 people suspected of having variant CJD. Thirteen tested positive and the malady was confirmed in all 13 by subsequent examination of brain tissue. The test came up negative on 15 people, and post-mortem brain analysis confirmed none of those people had the disease.

Collinge said the test could allow a diagnosis of probable variant CJD.

The disease concentrates in the brain, but has also been found in the tonsils, spleen, lymph nodes, spinal cord, the retina of the eye and the rectum. It has not been detected in blood.

"If it is present in blood it's less than 1 in 50,000th of the concentration that it is in the brain," Collinge said.

Will said one of the most promising developments in the quest for a blood test is that Swiss scientists have devised a method to rapidly multiply a tiny amount of the bad prion in a test tube. Such amplification made its concentration high enough to be theoretically detectable with standard tests.

Scientists don't know how many people have been infected with the disease. They estimate that anywhere between a few hundred to 100,000 people could eventually be struck.

One of the main problems is scientists don't know how long the incubation period is.

"We shouldn't be surprised at all if the (average) incubation period is more than 30 years. We are looking at the beginning of the epidemic, not the end," Collinge said.

So far, the number of cases is doubling every three years, Will said.

On the Net:

The UK Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit,

http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk

Over the past century, the average life expectancy of people in the U.S. has improved dramatically, increasing by more than 30 years. Experts attribute an estimated 25 years of this gain to advances in public health. The top 10 achievements, according to the editors of MMWR, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are:

1. Vaccination

2. Motor-vehicle safety

3. Safer workplaces

4. Control of infectious diseases

5. Decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke

6. Safer and healthier foods

7. Healthier mothers and babies

8. Family planning

9. Fluoridation of drinking water

10. Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard

[As a former actuary, the 30-year improvement seemed high to me, but a review of the symposium proceedings “The Future of Life Expectancy” of March 10-11, 1980, published by the Society of Actuaries, shows an average life expectance at birth in 1920 in the U.S. as 54.1 and in 1977 of 73.2; so the figure is reasonable. However, I do not believe there is any data supporting the above list as the chief reasons. Vaccination, for example, was first carried out in 1798 by Dr. Jenner. — RGH]

Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self- control. Against such things there is no law.”

After a lengthy conversation with Valerie regarding her increasing weight and overall decline in health, I began to process some of the motivations and requirements for a Christian to live a healthy, Christ-honoring lifestyle.

It seems that a deeper motivation for good health should exist for believers. As Christ-followers, we are given the mission of sharing the Good News of Jesus with a lost world. While this requires spiritual, mental and emotional readiness, it also requires physical readiness. To be fully ready to go about our mission we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul's encouragement to the Galatians to live lives full of the characteristics of the Spirit of God is a good measure not only for our spiritual and relational health but also our physical health.

Let's look at how three of these qualities directly impact the choices we make for good health:

LOVE. In Mark 12:31 Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, love your neighbor to the level that you love and respect yourself. This is not a proud, arrogant, self-focused love, but an appreciation for the gift God gave you in your body. God specifically constructed the body He gave you with all its uniqueness. Your body is a ministry tool that God works through. God doesn't just love your soul; He loves your body as well. We are more motivated to properly care for what we love and respect. When you love and care for yourself, you are also better equipped to love and care for others.

PATIENCE. In our fast pace and instant society, we expect improvements in our health to happen quickly. Thus, the weight loss industry is approximately a $41 billion industry with more “magic cures” for weight loss popping up every day. The bottom line is, weight gain occurred over a period of time and weight loss will also. It took my friend, Nancy, two years to safely lose 120 pounds. Nancy's secret was to patiently make the best food and exercise choices every day. Do what you know is right and the results will take care of themselves, whether it's weight loss, lowering cholesterol or improving physical strength.

SELF-CONTROL. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Self-control is the fruit of the Spirit that allows you to say “No” to foods that are not beneficial to your body, to eat foods that will improve your health, to stop eating when you are full, to go for a walk even when you really don't want to, to go to the doctor for an annual checkup, to properly manage your stress, to avoid “quick-fix” weight-loss gimmicks, and to follow your doctor's recommendations for better health. Self-control also is called discipline and both are painful at times but the long-term rewards are worth the short-term discomfort.

I'm convinced that Satan is slowly eroding the impact of Christians on our world by keeping many of us sick, unhealthy, tired and apathetic. If Satan can just reduce our effectiveness in the world through our ministry and missions, then he can better advance his agenda. To turn this tide we must be aware of all the tactics Satan uses and prepare ourselves by being continually filled with the Spirit and allowing the fruit of that filling to flow into every area of our lives including our health.

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Branda Polk is a certified fitness instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach in Memphis, Tennessee.

Psalm 21:7 Live Like a King — « Leader information shown in this fashion »

For the king trusts in the LORD, And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. (NKJV)

A. this is a psalm about the king, by the king — David

1. so, some of it cannot literally be applied to us « – the crown »

2. but, David didn’t start life as King, but as the youngest son, whose chores were caring for the sheep

3. yet a Christian can echo much of what David experienced

4. after all Jesus Christ “… has made us kings and priests to His God and Father …” (Revelation 1:6)

B. and in these words are some measures of spiritual health

1. Verse 1, blessing of joy in the Lord « — your time with God in His word and in prayer »

2. Verse 2, delight in God’s salvation « — contemplating this should be a source of much rejoicing »

3. Verse 3, experience of answered prayer « — meeting needs and desires that become daily more in tune with God’s »

4. Verse 4, a fullness of life

a. « O.T. relates to length of days; »

b. « N. T. relates to depth and breadth of life … Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10) »

5. Verse 5, the honours to be found in salvation

a. « the inestimable privilege of being children of God »

b. « the glory that will come with His appearing »

6. Verse 6, eternal blessing and gladness

C. so where do we find the source of all these — see verse 7 «

1. in our own self-efforts? No! … nor in our righteous deeds

2. it comes with trust, the O. T. expression of faith

3. the object of trust is God; it’s basis is His mercy

4. and from such you cannot be moved — this is assurance »

The manner in which husbands and wives argue over such hot-button topics such as money, in-laws, and children, may be a factor in their risk of developing coronary atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries of the heart.

In a study of 150 couples, mostly in their 60s, researchers found that women who behaved in a hostile manner during marital disputes were more likely to have atherosclerosis, especially if their husbands were also hostile.

In men, hostility -- their own or their wives -- was not related to atherosclerosis. However, men who behaved in a dominating or controlling manner -- or whose wives behaved in that way -- were more likely to have clogged coronary arteries.

This study supports a “small but growing body of research that suggests that beyond the health benefits of being married, marital quality seems to make a difference in heart health,” Dr. Timothy Smith, a psychologist from the University of Utah noted in an interview with Reuters Health.

“Conflicts are an unavoidable part of being in any meaningful relationship,” Smith said, “but the way we conduct them is important not only for our relationship health and emotional well-being but maybe even for our physical health as well.”

Smith's team took a “behavioral snapshot” of married couples by bringing them into the lab and having them discuss a topic that is a source of conflict or disagreement for them. “We assumed that the couple's behavior during the discussion would reflect their long-term pattern of behavior,” Smith explained, “although a marital spat in front of researchers likely is a muted version of what goes on at home,” he acknowledged.

The videotaped disputes were given a score indicating the extent to which each participant was friendly versus hostile, and submissive versus dominant or controlling.

The researchers related these scores to the level of coronary artery calcification -- a measure of plaque buildup in the arteries supplying blood to the heart, seen on a CT scan.

According to Smith, who presented the study findings Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society, wives who were more hostile during the discussion had more calcium deposits in the coronary arteries, placing them at increased risk for a heart attack. “This was particularly true for women whose husbands were also hostile so that pattern of reciprocated hostility was associated with atherosclerosis for women,” Smith said.

For husbands, displays of dominance or control by themselves or their wives were most related to atherosclerosis.

“The only group of men that had very little atherosclerosis were those where both they and their wives were able to talk about a disagreement without being controlling at all,” Smith said. “So the absence of a power play in the conversation seemed to be heart protective for men,” he concluded.

*

Introduction: Out of the ashes of a vegetation deposit that has long lain dormant comes the beauty of growing crops, green fields and woods. Out of the rubble of a blighted urban area rise the beautiful buildings of a modern city. These help us to grasp, in a measure, the meaning of the expression in Isaiah, “beauty for ashes” (61:3). It is God’s promise to his people, and it is realized through Jesus Christ both here and hereafter. We find all our spiritual blessings in him, for he is “altogether lovely.” He promises:

1. The beauty of forgiveness for the ashes of a bad record. When we realize our frailty, weakness, vileness and nothingness, we cry out, “We are but dust and ashes.” Yet when we repent, God gives us beauty for ashes. Sin has marred God’s image in mortal man, and has brought us to the ash heap. But when we look to him who says he will “beautify the meek with salvation,” when we become aware of the forgiveness of our sins and our acceptance “in the beloved,” then we rejoice because we have received beauty for ashes.

2. The beauty of spiritual health for the ashes of physical weakness. While it is true that genuine health will not be universal among God’s people until we enter the eternal world where the inhabitants will never know sickness, it is also true that it is our privilege to have the life of our Lord manifested here and now in our mortal flesh. God is the healer of disease (Psalm 103:3). He sent Jesus Christ to counteract the work of the devil. His purpose for us is well indicated in 3 John 2: “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” He also comforts us with the assurance that his Grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9).

3. The beauty of holiness For the ashes of self-effort. Jesus Christ purifies our hearts by faith, and gives us the beauty of his imputed and imparted righteousness. He is “made unto us sanctification.” He gives strength for weakness, joy for sorrow, sweet for bitter, love for fear, sunshine for shadow, beauty for ashes. He clothes the humble with the garments of salvation (Isaiah 61:10).

4. The beauty of life for the ashes of death. Here is the great promise of resurrection that fills us with joy at Easter. When the graves give up their dead at the call of death’s mighty Conqueror, there will be brought to ultimate fulfilment the word of the Lord to Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me … to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning … “ (61:1,3).

Conclusion: In 2 Peter we are told that the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were turned into ashes (2:6), will be repeated for a corrupt earth (3:10,12). Yet here again the promise of “beauty for ashes” is repeated, for we “look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (3:13).

These then are God’s beautiful gifts: forgiveness, spiritual health, holiness and life, all of them received and realized through Jesus Christ. To them he adds the blessedness of a future with Christ, in the beauty of all eternity.

Taking an aspirin every day may help prevent heart disease and stroke but, for a middle-aged man, it is nearly as risky as driving a car or working as a firefighter, researchers said on Tuesday.

While people are poor at assessing true risks, they are often willing to take on those risks in exchange for the benefits -- which can include simply having fun, said Joshua Cohen and Peter Neumann of Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Writing in the journal Health Affairs, they said federal regulators must take the true risks into account, and balance them against the benefits, when deciding whether to approve or withdraw drugs.

People are bad at estimating risk, the researchers said.

“In general, they tend to overestimate the probability of small and especially dreaded risks while underestimating the probability of large risks,” Cohen and Neumann wrote.

They calculated the risks of various voluntary actions, starting with deaths associated with taking drugs. “We included selected drugs for which we could develop a reasonable annual mortality risk estimate,” they wrote. For 50-year-old men, taking an aspirin every day to prevent heart disease and stroke carries a risk of 10.4 deaths per 100,000 men per year over and above their overall death risk. Using Vioxx for arthritis pain carried a risk of 76 deaths per 100,000 people per year. Merck and Co withdrew Vioxx in September 2004 after it was shown to double the risk of heart attack and stroke.

CUTTING TREES RISKY

As for job-related deaths, the riskiest profession was being a tree-feller, with 55 deaths per year or a risk of 357 deaths per 100,000 people a year.

Firefighters have a risk of 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people per year, compared to 3.9 for all occupations and 0.4 for office workers.

Being a truck driver is risker than being a firefighter, with 44.8 deaths per 100,000 people per year.

Bicycling is more dangerous than skiing, the researchers found -- bicyclists face a death rate of 2.1 per 100,000 people a year, compared to 0.49 for skiers.

Swimming has a death risk of 0.88 per 100,000 people a year but climbing mountains in the Himalayas carries a 13,000 per 100,000 climbers per year risk.

Traveling by commercial airliner carries a risk of 0.03 deaths per 100 million miles or 0.15 deaths per 100,000 people a year.

Car and light truck travel has a 0.7 fatality risk per 100 million miles or 11 per 100,000 people per year, compared to 450 for motorcycle travel and 1.3 for using a cell phone while driving.

Politicians come and go, fashions evolve and the culture shifts with alarming frequency. One thing remains constant, though.

Americans pray. A lot.

Ninety percent have a spiritual interlude with God every day, according to a study released Thursday by Brandeis University. Half pray several times a day, in fact.

“Most prayer writers imagine a God who is accessible, listening, and a source of emotional and psychological support, who at least sometimes answers back,” said Wendy Cadge, a sociologist who directed the research.

The experience is intensely personal, with eight out of 10 beginning their prayers with a familiar greeting, like “Dear Lord” or “Hello Jesus.”

Three quarters pray for themselves , families and friends - with about a quarter praying for themselves alone. We pray for the big stuff, like health and employment. And we pray for the small stuff, too, like a good parking spot, or finding lost car keys. We ask God to guard loved ones who are airborne, or watch over children left alone for a spell.

Ms. Cadge and her colleagues based their findings on a very direct source - 683 prayers gleaned from four journals handwritten by hundreds of hopeful, grateful or worried patients and visitors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. The volumes had been placed near the main lobby over the years and are part of a collection of 40 books; hospital chaplains routinely have set out a blank book every two months since the 1990s.

The pages are filled with the often straightforward thanksgivings and petitions of the passing public:

“Dear Jesus, thanks for staying by my side. I love you,” one person wrote.

“Dear Lord: I leave it in your hands,” noted another.

A third simply declared, “Love U.”

Most of the prayers were improvised and followed similar patterns, the researchers found. Twenty-eight percent were requests of God, 28 percent were prayers to both thank God and ask for help, while another 22 percent were thank yous.

“Prayer writers also tend to frame their prayers broadly,” Ms. Cadge said, adding that the prayers helped people reflect on and “reframe” difficult events in the context of their own beliefs.

Two-thirds of hospitals associated with academic institutions offer similar “prayer books” for their visitors, she said, though most hospital administrators caution the public to use only first names or initials to protect patient privacy.

“If researchers studying religion and health take seriously even the possibility that prayer may influence health, they need to learn more about what people pray for, how they pray, and what they hope will result from their prayers,” Ms. Cadge said.

Indeed, other research has revealed a link between better health and the spiritual life.

A 2006 University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study that analyzed actuarial death rates found that weekly worship service attendance could add up to three years to a person’s life.

Prayer is the most commonly used “alternative medicine,” according to a survey of more than 31,000 adults released by the National Institutes of Health in 2004 - more popular than acupuncture, chiropractic, yoga and vitamins. According to the agency, prayer is considered a “mind-body therapy.”

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Copyright 2008 The Washington Times, LLC

People who experience high levels of despair have a 20 percent greater occurrence of atherosclerosis than people who live with hope. That’s the “same magnitude of increased risk that one sees in comparing a pack-a-day smoker to a non-smoker,” according to the Journal of the American Heart Association.

In other words, with hope we can be 20 percent less likely to suffer from narrowing of the arteries caused by plaque buildup on interior blood vessel walls (atherosclerosis).

But hope in what?

Proverbs tells us that, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones” (17:22). So, what do we do when the dark storm clouds roll in? And what about our final appointment with death?

Will a sunny smile keep death at bay? No! If our hope can’t see us through our darkest days, and through the valley of the shadow of death, it is not true hope.

The disciples of Jesus Christ went through a period of despair. But their hope returned when the condition that caused their despair was reversed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Let’s see why the resurrection is the only foundation for a life of hope today.

The death of hope

Imagine what the disciples felt the evening after Jesus was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb.

Several women went to the tomb the next morning to anoint Jesus’ body. But the tomb was empty. An angel told them Jesus had risen from the dead. They ran back to tell the disciples. Peter and John raced to the tomb and, indeed, it was empty. After discovering the empty tomb, they were still terribly discouraged and confused.

What did it mean? “For as yet they did not know the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead” (John 10:9-10). Then the disciples went home. All their hopes for the future had been focused on the Savior. When He died, the disciples’ dreams died.

The rebirth of hope

Only one thing brought life to the disciples’ hopeless hearts -- meeting and communing personally with the risen Savior.

Three days after the crucifixion, two disciples were walking dejectedly from Emmaus to Jerusalem when a stranger joined them. Breaking bread together later, they recognized Him -- Jesus was alive! They raced back to Jerusalem to tell the others.

As the disciples listened to the two tell about seeing Jesus near Emmaus, He appeared in their midst. They thought He was a ghost! (Luke 24:37). As Jesus kept appearing to the disciples, their hope was rekindled and seeds were planted in their hearts for the future (John 21:1-25).

When the future comes alive again, you know hope has been reborn. Within a few more days, the disciples received marching orders from Jesus for world evangelism. They received the Holy Spirit and boldly took a stand against the authorities who had crucified their Lord.

Religion can’t give the hope mankind needs, but the resurrection of the living Savior can.

The life of hope

After seeing the mighty Allies on D-Day, the world gained hope that the war would soon end. When Christ came out of the grave, the war against death was over. When fear of death is gone, the Christian needn’t fear anything. And when fear is banished, hope is set free to embrace the future fearlessly.

Jesus defeated the temptations of Satan. So can we if we are in Him (Matthew 4:1-11). When Christ died, was buried, and resurrected, so were we (Romans 6). The resurrection is the pivotal event of the Christian faith: “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

If Jesus were still in His borrowed tomb, we’d be helpless and hopeless. But because of His resurrection, we have hope today and every day.

When someone asks you for “a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15), tell them Jesus conquered the grave and promised that you will as well. Tell them that hope helps keep you alive.

Health and heaven -- two resurrection-based reasons for having hope!

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David Jeremiah is pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif., and founder and host of “Turning Point for God.” For more information on Turning Point, visit www.DavidJeremiah.org.

“I remember thinking, I am eating myself to death and I can’t stop it. I remember saying, ‘I give up. I’m not even going to try anymore.’ I really felt hopeless, and that hopelessness was very dark,” Kimberly Bensen reveals.

Kimberly weighed in at almost 350 pounds, and she was miserable.

“My back hurt all the time. My knees hurt all the time. It was uncomfortable sleeping. I couldn’t buckle up in a car; the seatbelt didn’t go all the way over. And it was just unsafe and unhealthy all the way around,” she says.

But she kept her sense of humor.

“I was going to this restaurant that was in Boston,” she explains, “and I sat down on a bench and the arm of the bench broke when I leaned against it. That wasn’t the first that something like that had happened to me.”

Kimberly wasn’t always overweight. Looking back, she remembers how it all began.

“In high school I kind of fluctuated at 10 or 15 pounds over and over again. I would go up and down, and then the spread grew to, like, 30. Then I got down for my wedding, and after my wedding, the weight started increasing more and more. I got over 200. So I’ve been pretty much over 200 for the first 10 years of my marriage and over 300 for the second,” says Kimberly.

Kimberly’s husband, Mark, loved and encouraged his wife despite her excessive weight.

“My husband is the most wonderful man on earth. God gave him to me,” she says. “He told me I was beautiful when I was 350 pounds. He’s always loved me. He supported me. I mean, he hurt for me because he knew I was hurting. He was concerned for my health. He held me when I cried about how I looked and felt. But he always told me I was beautiful.”

“My prayer for her was that somehow she could be free from the burden,” says Mark. “It was a huge burden in a literal sense and a figurative sense. It was a huge burden.”

One day an amazing thing happened, and it wasn’t at a weight loss clinic. It was at Kimberly’s church in Trumble, Connecticut.

“I still remember I was sitting in church and Pastor Dave was talking about the fact that the Israelites craved meat more than God. I remember going, Who can love meat, food, more than God? Think about it — God, food. There’s no comparison. Then I just sat there and said, That’s me. Where’s my time and my focus and my enjoyment? That’s when I first realized that I had put food above God. I was able to say that to myself.”

She continued her struggle with weight, but on October 1, 2001, Kimberly thought about that sermon. She prayed that God would change her heart and that He once again would be number one in her life.

“I finally said, ‘God, You know I love food more than You. I’m sorry. I really am. But You can change that, God. I can’t change that, but You can change my heart. O God, please. Change my heart, please. I beg You.’ I was praying and I really felt a stirring in my soul. I don’t know what to call it. I really felt a difference in my life.”

Just days later, at 347 pounds, Kimberly joined Weight Watchers with a friend. Then step by step, within two years Kimberly lost an astonishing 212 pounds. And she has kept it off!

Kimberly Bensen nowSays Kimberly, “I think I have unending energy. I’m up early with the two little guys, and I stay up late with the two older guys. It’s wonderful not to feel exhausted all day.”

In one of her favorite pictures, Kim stands in a pair of her “old pants” with two of her children.

“Those pants, my daughter is in one leg — she’s my oldest, and my youngest is in the middle, and I’m in the other leg. I remember buying those pants with my mom. I had outgrown all plus-size stores. I was past a 4x,” says Kimberly.

Says Mark, “She’s filled with more joy than I have ever seen. She has always been a happy, upbeat, positive person. The energy she’s got to go with it now wears me out. I can’t keep up with her.”

Kimberly thanks God daily for her new lease on life. She wants to share her story with others.

“I feel like the guy in Luke when he was healed and he went around town shouting what Christ had done for him. That’s how I feel. I just want to give hope to people who’ve lost theirs,” she says.

At the moment, we’re having a national brouhaha over health care. Perhaps it’s a good time to put the matter of health in biblical perspective.

Consider these 10 facets of the biblical witness:

1. Doctoring is biblical. Jesus honored the medical profession by calling Himself the Great Physician and by inspiring a doctor, Luke, to write much of the New Testament (Luke and Acts). Illness is real and there are physical resources for dealing with it.

2. God has graciously placed medical resources in nature. Proverbs 31:6 and 1 Timothy 5:23 speak, respectively, of alcohol as sedative and palliative. These passages anticipate a range of medications available for such purposes, from anesthesia to antibiotics (e.g., aspirin from willow bark and penicillin from mold).

3. Healing was a sign of Jesus’ power and compassion. The Gospels are full of healing accounts, from blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:51-52 to the centurion’s servant in Matthew 8:2-3. And the prophets continually pressed their hearers to care for genuine victims of circumstance and oppression. Following His example and infused by His Spirit, Christians have been at the forefront of the healing arts throughout church history.

4. Primary responsibility lies with the individual and the family. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10, Paul says, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat,” and in 1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” By extension, basic coverage for life’s essentials begins at home, and we should not burden others unless we can’t help it.

5. We are to be stewards of our health. In this connection, 1 Corinthians 6 teaches that our bodies should be regarded as temples of the Holy Spirit; Proverbs 23:2 tells us to “put a knife to our throats” if we tend toward gluttony. Though genes and physical circumstances have much to do with our health, much of it is still under our control.

6. The Bible commends prayer for the sick. James 5 directs those who are ailing to call on the church for intercession. And yes, miracles can happen.

7. Worry is a sin. While careful stewardship of our bodies is our responsibility, anxiety over potential lapses and shortfalls in care should not cripple us. Jesus reminds us of provision for “birds of the air” and “lilies of the field” in Matthew 6, and asks, rhetorically in Luke 12, who can add a day to his life by worry. Furthermore, Paul posts the antidote to anxiety in Philippians 4: prayer saturated with thanksgiving.

8. We’re all dying. This has been the case since Adam’s fall, in Genesis 3, where God said that Adam and his offspring would return “to the dust.” In that sense, medicine is fighting a losing battle, and to presume to eliminate all maladies would be to emulate King Canute, who parked his throne on the seashore and then commanded the tide not to invade his land.

9. There is no substitute for truth. Regarding health care, the economics are complex, the discourse heated, the public policy ramifications enormous and the politics incendiary. The “father of lies” (John 8:44) loves to sow confusion in the midst of the conversation.

10. Those in Christ will inherit eternal health. As it says of the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.” This is the real, extended health care plan.

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This column first appeared at the blog of BibleMesh, a website that teaches the Bible as a unified story pointing to Christ (online at www.biblemesh.com/blog).