AMEN 2005: Reviving Medical Evangelism

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2005 Plenary Sessions

Mark Finley

Seeing Patients through Jesus’ Eyes, Part 1

Philip Samaan

The Groanings of the Spirit

Michael Duehrssen

Here Am I, Send Me

Seeing Patients through Jesus’ Eyes, Part 2

The Heart Cry of the Son

John Torquato

Back to the Future: Lessons Learned from Six years at Community Health Care of the Palouse

Allen Lloyd

Healing the Right Arm

Seeing Patients through Jesus’ Eyes, Part 3

Naren James

In the Footsteps of the Great Physician: My Journey to Medical Evangelism

Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to meet together as a group of physicians and residents and interns and medical students and dentists and dental students, spouses and friends.

We thank you for the great privilege and opportunity of walking in the footsteps of the great physician.

Teach us, dear Lord, to minister like he did to the patients that come in contact with us and to the people who we touch for your kingdom.

In the late 1950s, the American Medical Association was faced with a very, very unique problem.

They were confronted with a large challenge.

Their difficulty related to the controversy that swirled around the subject of medicine and religion.

The AMA didn't want to give the impression that they were promoting the cause of religion.

They did not want to cozy up to those Bible thumpers.

How could the AMA in the late 1950s deal with the growing body of evidence that medicine and religion were intimately linked and a proper understanding of religion was helpful.

For the first time, they established a Department of Medicine and Religion.

And that department grew in a few years to 48 states and 622 county and county medicine and religion committees.

Bernard Daniels, based in Denver, Colorado, made a remarkable statement.

Now the interesting thing about these 622 committees on religion and health established by AMA, the interesting thing about it is that they had clergymen and physicians on them.

The AMA fostered an integrated unity in the early 1960s between clergymen and religion and doctors.

They said, we feel that there needs to be a closer cooperation between the physician and the clergyman for the care of the whole person.î The committee feels that the spiritual component of every person is a very large factor in the problems relating to his state of health.

Now the truth is that 45 years later, that statement is more true today than it was 45 years ago.

There's a growing body of evidence in the scientific community in the relationship between health and spirituality.

There have been over 300 studies done on health and religion.

Spirituality today is an enormous feature in the area of health and health promotion and health focus.

For example, 1995, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center found that a major predictor for survival for heart surgery had to deal with religious faith.

The deeper a person's religious faith, according to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock studies, the more likely it was that they would survive heart surgery.

The less their religious faith, the less potential that they would survive heart surgery.

The National Institute on Aging study found that geriatric patients were physically more healthy and much less depressed if they had a positive spiritual experience.

The University of Minnesota, within the last few years, has established a Center for Health and Spirituality.

Mary Jo Kreitzer, who directs that, And she writes, spirituality and health are indissolubly linked.

Now she refers to Florence Nightingale in something that I certainly wasn't aware of until my recent studies and you may not be either.

You know, when we think about Florence Nightingale, we think about hospital management and how Florence Nightingale restructured hospital management.

We think about nursing, of course, and her great contribution to nursing.

But Florence Nightingale's largest treaty was on spirituality and health.

And she saw an indissoluble link between the spirituality of the patient and the health of the patient.

More and more major universities in America today have courses on spirituality and healing.

The Seventh-day Adventists no longer stand alone.

We are no longer a pioneer voice in the field.

In fact, in some instances, we may lag behind the general population and the general body of evidence that's occurring.

Seventh-day Adventists at times who are timid to discuss spirituality find themselves quite running and panting out of breath at times to catch up to a larger body of medical evidence.

Heyman of the University of Illinois adds his voice to the growing number of voices in this chorus of voices speaking about the importance of spirituality and health.

Heyman says, University of Illinois, a healthy human life is more than a struggle for survival.

It's essentially a search for human fulfillment and meaning related to ultimate concerns and commitments.

Despite Western man's religious doubts and the rise of skepticism, He has a growing hunger for a more spiritual outlook on life.

That's why he says at the University of Illinois we've introduced our course on spirituality and healing, because there is this gnawing hunger within.

Now the goal of a Christian physician is to lead his patient from illness to wellness, to enable that patient to pass from sickness to health, to enable them to pass from life to death.

This evening I want to share with you, as a physician and as a dentist, how to take a spiritual inventory.

You've been taught how to take a physical history, but we want to talk about spiritual inventory.

And I've developed a quartet of spiritual modalities for physicians that will enable you to take a spiritual diagnostic inventory so that your patient can pass from illness to wellness.

The true work of the Christian physician is to be a conduit so that through rational scientific law, through the 8 natural remedies, through the genius of modern science, and through spiritual principles, the physician's office becomes a passageway.

So I want you to think of yourself as 1 who guides the patient on a journey, on a passage if you please, from illness to wellness.

Now to help us understand this passageway, I use the word PASS as an acronym, P-A-S-S.

And we want to talk about the healing effects of a quartet of spiritual modalities and how this quartet can be introduced to the patient in your office, in the setting of the office.

First we'll talk about the healing effects of prayer.

Then we'll talk about the healing effects of prayer.

And we'll talk about prayer as a therapy.

Then we'll talk about the healing effects of a positive mental outlook and how to deal with that with the patient.

Then we'll talk about the healing effects of scripture.

So PASS, passing from illness to wellness, prayer, attitude, scriptures, and service for physicians in the context of their office.

We begin by looking at the healing effects of prayer.

Prayer is a vital therapy in the healing of disease.

I'd like you to take your Bible and go back to Philippians chapter 1.

We may not be able to explain all the rationale for intercessory prayer, but 1 thing is for certain.

Throughout scripture, you find the Apostles on their knees praying.

Paul is in a dark, damp dungeon in Rome and we find him praying for the church at Philippi.

Do you actually believe, Paul, that you can get on your knees and something significant is going to happen that wouldn't happen if you weren't praying?

Paul, Philippians chapter 1, verse 3 and 4.

I thank my God upon every request, every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making request for you with all joy." Verse 12 and onward.

Let's go down though and look at verse 8.

For God is my witness, I greatly long for you with the affection of Jesus Christ.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in the knowledge and all discernment.

Paul says, I'm on my knees praying for you.

Verse 12, I know that the things that have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.

Verse 19, for I know this will turn out for my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Now, There are 2 things fascinating about this passage.

First in Philippians 1 verse 3, Paul says, in Rome I'm on my knees praying for you.

I believe my prayers are going to ascend to heaven and that God will do something for you in Philippi that he wouldn't do if I didn't pray.

Then Paul says, I know that this, verse 19, imprisonment will turn out for my salvation, because not only am I praying for you, but you are praying for me.

Now, When I first read that passage, I was baffled by it.

Why does Paul say, I know that this imprisonment, this trial that I'm going through, this difficulty that I'm going through, this pain that I'm going through, this suffering that I'm going through.

And with quivering hand and trembling pen, with dimmed vision, with pain wracking his body, he wrote to Timothy from that same dungeon, the time of my departure, my death is at hand and I'm ready to be offered up like an offering to God.

Why does he say, I know that this imprisonment will turn out for my salvation?

Is he so insecure in his relationship with Jesus Christ that he has to pray at the end of his life, well, I hope this imprisonment, I know it's going to turn out for my salvation.

Did he not have the assurance of salvation?

Did he not know that Christ was living in his heart?

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Series

AMEN 2005 Plenary Sessions

Seeing Patients through Jesus’ Eyes, Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Healing Laboratory

4 - How to Sing Your Worries Away

55m

Balm of Gilead- Part 2

50m

Jesus Cares

48m

W.D. Frazee: Sun Set Series

Cost of Medical Missionary Work

51m

Plenary

Christ’s Method of Medical Evangelism- House Calls

45m

Maintaining Prayer Life When Busy

29m

Missions

A Divine Prescription

39m

So…What Would it Take?

3. To See Through God’s Eyes?

1h 8m

New Brain, New Body, Starting Over

40m

Plenary

At the Crossroads: The Cross, the Healthcare Crisis, and Power for Lasting Change

43m

Prepared For the Last Days: The Savior’s Method

48m

Medical Missionary Work, the Gospel in Practice

42m

Sound Doctrine