AMEN 2010: Christ - Patient Restorer

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2010 Breakout Seminars

Louis Torres

Short Patient Contacts with Lasting Impacts - Part 1

Roby Angelina Sherman

Useful Complementary Remedies - Part 1

Chester Clark

Restoring Dental Patients to Optimum Health

Brian Schwartz

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

Short Patient Contacts with Lasting Impacts - Part 2

Useful Complementary Remedies - Part 2

Short Patient Contacts with Lasting Impacts - Part 3

Tim Howe

Changing Behavior in the Clinic Setting

David Otis

Maximizing the Silent Messengers in Your Office

Wendell Heidinger

The Lost Element of Whole Person Care

Carlos Moretta

The Role of the Health Care Provider in Disaster Relief

Tim Riesenberger

Whole Person Care in the Emergency Room

Tim Arnott

Marijuana: “Herb for the Service of Man”?

I'm Timothy Arnot from Paradise, California.

So I'm in private practice, family medicine.

And we're going to spend a few moments this afternoon talking about marijuana.

I must say that it was quite a shock when I was asked to present on marijuana.

It's not exactly the topic that I would have expected that the AMEN leadership would want someone to talk about.

And in fact, when I first got word that this was something they wanted me to do, I was quite taken back.

Wondered if I was in the right organization.

And 1 of the things that I've learned is that the leadership of A-men are very spiritual people and deeply devoted to God and very much in tune with Him.

So it's been a journey, but I have come to that conclusion through this journey.

And I wanna start out this afternoon by telling a story.

It's a story that only an infinite God could put together.

It's a story about a patient named Love, a drug called marijuana, children who want very much to have their own dog, and a physician who wants very much to get back into lifestyle medicine.

And how a God of love could put all of that together into 1 package is the story.

So the story starts probably about 9 months ago.

I had a patient by the name of Love, who came to me, quite frankly, because she wanted to get her driver's license back.

She had been treating it with what do you think?

Both she and her husband, I don't think he had a chronic pain, but they were both involved in medical marijuana.

And in the process of using marijuana, she had had a complication that I had never heard about.

And so she went to a neurologist in town, 1 that is noted for taking people's license away.

And maybe that was a good thing, actually.

And so her license was taken away, And she came to me, I learned later, to get that license back.

But in the process of talking with her, we came to the conclusion that probably it was in her best interest if she gave up her favorite new medication, marijuana.

And just before I arrived, just before I came and left the office this week, I have to tell you that she just got her license back and no longer using medical marijuana.

I didn't think much of that visit, but it was interesting.

At that visit, her husband came along, And he brought the family dog into the office.

You understand this is family medicine that we practice.

And so he happened to have a Portuguese water dog of some fame, I guess.

And my children just happened to be in the office when he came, he and his wife.

And so they were playing with this dog and enjoying this dog and deepening their interest in getting their own dog while I was trying to take care of this patient.

And I'll have to back up and tell you that ever since I left the Lifestyle Center of America, I've been wanting to do something.

I actually thought I was going to paradise to do that very thing, start a lifestyle center in the old Feather River Hospital sanitarium, which was an actual sanitarium, complete with organic gardening and hydrotherapy and no drug medications many years ago.

And so my dream was to take it right back to where it started.

The rural health clinic was about to move out as we arrived, and they have moved out.

But it never quite transpired the way I had expected.

They went the direction of outpatient lifestyle medicine and are doing a good job with that.

But my heart was in inpatient lifestyle medicine.

And so I had been praying about that, because if you've done lifestyle medicine and you're back in allopathic medicine, well, you are, what do you think?

And so Several days after these individuals had presented to the office, we got a call.

Love, who was calling to tell us that she thought she knew where we could get a family dog.

And so she told us about this place up in Magalia, just above Paradise.

And so that afternoon, my wife and I set out on a journey to find some dogs, some pets for my children.

Now, If you've been to Magalia, it's kind of a little bit of a backward community.

There's a lot of rough people up there, and I was expecting kind of an old dilapidated trailer and maybe kind of a scary situation.

But as we found our way off the main road and wound up the dirt road there, we suddenly found ourselves in front of a most incredible facility.

The first thing I saw or thought when I saw this was, wow, this would make a perfect, What do you think?

And so we got out, we went up to the door, And sure enough, there were some dogs hanging around the front door.

And apparently what had happened was the lady that lived there, about 2 dogs, stray dogs, had wandered up and presented themselves at her front porch.

And so she being a very kind lady didn't want to send the pound after them.

Love, at the church, where they both were members, that she had these dogs.

Love, when she heard that, thought of my children and called our office and said, there's an opportunity here, take advantage of it.

Well, I have to tell you that we didn't move forward with the dogs, But we did move forward with touring this facility, because we decided that something bigger than the dogs was happening here.

Now, I will say that the children did get their dog, so don't be too concerned about that.

And it was a whole lot more expensive than it would have been to take those 2 dogs home.

But anyway, that's neither here nor there.

It does illustrate the point, though, that God is interested in our children.

And he has structured this story in such a way that they are included.

And in fact, if it wasn't their interest in a dog, we would have never found this place, or it would have been a whole lot different.

And I'll just say a few things about it, but I have always wanted to play the pipe organ and never really got a chance.

If you don't learn your musical instrument in college, you're definitely not gonna learn it in medical school, or residency, or practice.

Well, this facility, this house, this home, about 10, 000 square feet in all, was built around a pipe organ.

And the center of the home is actually a beautiful, you might say wood lecture area with full screen.

But it has a beautiful hand constructed pipe organ right there.

And the gentleman that built this place also built the pipe organ and plays it by ear.

And he played that pipe organ for us, played the doxology.

And then he played another song, which just happened to be my favorite, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness." And I'll tell you, it was quite a moving experience to see God at work meeting many needs all at once.

And so we have continued to pursue this dream.

It's not in the bag yet, but we have moved forward.

And I hope by this time next year, we will be able to report to you that we are starting to begin in earnest a small rural lifestyle center in a facility that only God could have put together.

And it would never have happened if it hadn't been for marijuana.

Now I have to tell you, marijuana is not something that's been on my radar screen.

I don't think about it, but God is thinking about it.

And if you want to know what his thoughts are, I believe we have a precedent for his thoughts in the book Ministry of Healing in a chapter called, what do you think it's called?

I don't know if you've ever read the chapter, Liquor Traffic and Prohibition.

But there are some pretty strong statements in there.

And As I have talked to people who have used marijuana, as I treated this lady who was using marijuana, as I have studied about marijuana, I've discovered that most people are not using marijuana, and probably never will.

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Series

AMEN 2010 Breakout Seminars

Marijuana: “Herb for the Service of Man”?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Track 2 & 3 Seminars

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The Whole Enchilada

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Religious Liberty

Adventists, Politics and the Final Crisis

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Religious Liberty Teetering on the Edge

02 Are Adventists Wrong about Revelation 13?

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The Few

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I Can’t Breathe? 8/46, 360

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Religious Liberty

A Breach in the Wall? The Separation of Church and State Today

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Women's Ordination Symposium

8- The Present Relevance of 1 Timothy

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New Year Results

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Leaping Compromise

Leaping Compromise- Part 1

1h 8m

Sound Doctrine