Amazing Love by the Newsboys on YouTube

The same ad appears in the current issue of Today’s Charlotte Woman magazine.

It’s so sad that this is par for the course in our society today.  Women especially are bombarded with messages like this advertisement.  Change your body and you’ll have a new self image. Looking like the women in ads like this will make you feel good about yourself and of your image as a woman. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Last night I had the privilege of leading a Bible study session for a group of 40 men involved in a transitional housing ministry that serves the poor and homeless.  My message to them was that God wants them to base their personal identity on who they are in Christ and not on the messages that they might receive from the “world.”

My message to you women who happen to read this post is the same.  God loves you. He sent his Son, Jesus, to die for your sins so that you might have a full life, now and for all eternity. If you have accepted Christ into your life, you now have right-standing with God.  Once you were separated from him (because of the original sins of Adam and Eve), and now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are reconnected with God and made right with him. Romans 5:12-17

In Romans 8:11-17, Paul reminds you that you are a child of God and in Ephesians 2:10 he tells you that you are his masterpiece, created to do good things that he has planned for you to do long ago.

I have a wife and a daughter who is a young adult.  They are both as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. That’s the way God sees them and the way that I see them. I hate it that they, and all other women in our society, have to battle with the messages that the world sends them. It tears me up that women have to contend with these messages.

Women, you don’t have to have a perfect body to feel good about your self image as these ads suggest.  If you’ll just believe that God loves you so much that he calls you his child and if you receive this love deep in your heart, your identity and your life can be changed forever. That’s what Romans 12:2 reminds us. You can be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

Women, I encourage you to place your heart and your soul in God’s hands and receive his great and powerful and transforming love through his Son, Jesus. Then, read and embrace the truths found in his guidebook for living – the Holy Bible.

That’s how you can truly refine your image!

Receive daily affirmations based on scripture through Twitter.

Read about my understanding of the connection between the Christian faith and wholeness.

An Inspiring Day

As I’ve pulled this together, all my senses have been engaged. I’ve been sipping on a few cups of great tasting coffee, listening to the trickling of the water in our small fountain, hearing the birds chirp, listening to a playlist of soft, instrumental Christian music on iTunes, feeling the warm spring air as it breezes through an open window, and seeing the bright sun shine on the trees and flowers in the back yard. It’s been quite an inspiring morning and early afternoon!

Understanding the Faith and Health Connection

This is, I believe, the essence of the faith and health connection:

God designed us in a marvelous way. Our nervous system, endocrine system and immune system are interconnected such that our beliefs, emotions and thinking patterns have a direct impact on our physical health.

Our emotions and thoughts related to life events and our relationships will be either health-enhancing or disease-enhancing.

We all inherited a sinful nature at birth. Apart from God, it’s our natural tendency to be selfish and rebellious. How we choose to react to life events and how we live in relationship with God, ourselves and others will have a significant effect on our health.

When we try to cope with the stressors of life and to meet our deepest needs apart from God and by our own resources it’s often in ways that are sinful and unhealthy. These self-sufficient and rebellious attitudes, thinking patterns and behaviors often become habits that have a negative impact on our emotional, spiritual and physical health.

Bitterness, resentment, anger, guilt, shame, insecurity, jealousy, low self worth, fear, worry and anxiety have to do with our relationship with God, others and ourselves.  These beliefs and emotions along with their associated spirit-mind-body interactions can have a negative impact on our health.

The repression of strong negative emotions as well as thinking about the respective painful memories can also have harmful effects on our physical health.

The addictive behaviors and personal habits that many of us have in an effort to escape from or cope with these uncomfortable relationship-related issues can also be harmful to our emotional and physical health.

God inspired the writers of the Bible to share his truths with us. By reading the Bible we can learn about God and how much he loves us.  The principles found in the Bible tell us how to have the full life that He desires for us.  Choosing to believe these principles and to live by them can create an environment that is favorable to good health.

Because God loves us, Jesus died for our sins so that we might have a full and eternal life. He came to free us from the self-sufficient and sinful nature that keeps us from experiencing flourishing relationships and a full life.

God’s greatest commandment is to love God and to love others as we love ourselves. (Mark 12:30-31)

God has given us free will.  We can choose whether or not to receive his love and fully live out his greatest commandment and apply the life-giving principles found in the Bible.

As we incorporate the truths of the Bible into our life, live in relationship with Jesus, and are dependent on God’s Holy Spirit, we can experience love, joy, peace, forgiveness and hope. Love and forgiveness can also be more easily and more fully extended to others and to ourselves. This will promote inner healing which favors health and wholeness and a full and abundant life.

God also enables us, with the power of his Holy Spirit, to live according to His principles and to make healthy lifestyle-related choices.

Improved health, in general, will better enable us to use the talents and gifts God has given us to serve others and to live out our life purpose.

As we acknowledge the role that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have played in our lives and enabled us to be healthy, God receives glory.

Questions to Reflect On:

Are their any relationships in your life that require healing? This includes your relationship with yourself and God as well as with other people.

Are their principles of the Christian faith that you’ve neglected and if practiced would lead to a more abundant life?

Have you experienced God’s love and forgiveness by accepting Jesus in your heart?

Selected Resources

1-Page Article – Understanding the Spirituality-Health Connection

A Faith and Health Connection Web Page  – The Connection

Web Site - Steps to Peace with God

Related Scripture

See the page on Beliefs of the Ministry

Perhaps I’ll begin to occasionally send along an inspirational song……  as a reminder of God’s love and to encourage you to stay close to him.

If you have any suggestions or favorites, I’d love to hear from you so that I can share them with others.

Have a terrific day!

“I pray that you … may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Paul in Ephesians 3:17-19



Direct link to Amazed video on YouTube

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he offered this.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul mind and strength, and love others as yourself.” (Mark 12:29-31) See also Matthew 19:18-19.

We can not love others in the manner God intends us to without loving ourselves in a God-honoring way. And, we are not able to sustain the types of habits God wants us to live by without this type of core, self-love that is received from God.

The love God wants us to have for ourselves is the agape-type love that God displayed for us when he sent his Son, Jesus, to die for our sins so that we might enjoy an eternal and abundant life.  This is an unselfish -  an unconditional type of love.

Many of us look to outward things and often resort to unhealthy often addictive behaviors in an effort to “feel good” about ourselves or to fill a very deep whole we have in our heart because we do not truly love ourselves. Some call this low self esteem.  I think that God would say it’s because there is a deep root of low agape love of one’s self.

God loves you. His love is so wide and deep that you cannot measure it. (Ephesians 3:18-19)  When a person accepts Jesus into her heart, God’s Holy Spirit begins to live in her. The more she turns her heart to God, believes in truths found in the Bible and surrenders herself to God, the greater the display of God’s love is present in her life.  One such “fruit” is love, including a godly self-love.

The more the measure of self love we have, through the work of God’s Spirit, the more we are able to love others as God commands us.  Additionally, the more love we have for ourselves, the more motivation and power we will have to make any desired behavior changes in our lives.

Maybe you desire to lose weight.  Maybe you want to become more physically active.  Or, perhaps you are challenged by an unhealthy addictive behavior that you’d like to stop.  Agape self-love can be instrumental in providing the motivation to start these change of habits and in receiving the determination and power to continue with the new lifestyle.

This type of genuine agape love of yourself is best received from the God who created you.  The best way I know to learn about God’s love is through spending time with him as I read the Bible and by praying to him in conjunction with that.

Questions to Ask Yourself (Consider commenting with your responses on this blog!)

Are you struggling with making behavior changes that have not been sustained?

Do you have a deep agape-type love of yourself that has been given to you by God?

Have you received the unconditional love that God has for you by accepting the love of his Son, Jesus

Resources Related to God’s Love

Article – Loving God… A Spiritual Exercise for a Healthier Life

Article – God Wants You Whole

Blog Post – Spirituality and Health: The Real Connection is Our Relationship With God

Website – All About God – God is Love

Training Materials – A workshop package to help share God’s love and his truths about the spirituality-health connection and equip others to make behavior changes.

Mike is doing well post surgery – praise God!  This morning, he and I talked about the road that he’ll have ahead of him over the next few months.  My prayer is that his next PSA test will be zero – an indication that there is no more cancer of that type – and that he will be spared the side effects of incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

Although none of us wants to go through really tough times and health challenges in our life, the fact is that life will brings us those types of challenges.   It’s neat to be able to come out the other side and to be able to support someone who is facing the same challenges that you’d experienced and weathered.

Over the year plus that I was in my battle, I posted many blog entries about prostate cancer so others might benefit.  If you’ve got a friend or you yourself have learned that you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, perhaps what I shared here over that year may be of help.  Mike told me today  that reading my posts were helpful for him.

I thought I’d also share again a short article I wrote about how my faith was an anchor in my battle with the cancer in hopes it might be encouraging to some.

Our life on this earth is short. Live yours to the fullest in a God-honoring way!

Tweeting for the glory of God

It’s Friday, May 8th, 2009 and I’m suggesting that on Fridays, Twitterers share the love of God and Jesus using the #FaithFriday hashtag.

#FollowFriday

If you use Twitter much at all, you’ll know that four months ago Micah Baldwin came up with the idea that twitterers might promote someone to follow. According to Micah, “The idea is to think of interesting people you already follow and recommend them to others.”  The idea caught on quickly and you can see the impact at this link.

The #FaithFriday Concept

I’m suggesting that followers of Christ use a similar strategy to love on others and to share the gospel on Fridays….. and that we call it FaithFriday and that we use the hashtag #FaithFriday.

I’d encourage you to use your imagination… link to a good site or a blog entry, an article, share an affirmation, a scripture… anything that shares the love of Christ with others and that brings glory to God.

There are millions of people in the world who are hurting, in pain, stressed to the max and lost.  They have no idea where they will spend eternity after they die.  They have no peace or joy.  On Fridays, we can use Twitter very intentionally to share the truth about our Savior and how people can find and experience the true Source of love, peace and joy.

A Few Scriptures to Share:

• “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus in John 3:16
  

• “I have come that they might have life and life to the full.” Jesus in John 10:10

• ” Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19

Customized Tiny URLs to Use in Your Tweets

I have created a few customized “shortened”  URLs with links to these respective URLs that you might consider copying and pasting into your tweets:

• http://tr.im/FaithFriday – to this blog post to help you share it with others so they can understand the concept.
• http://tiny.cc/GodLovesYou -  to The Message version of the verse John 3:16.
• http://tiny.cc/GODisLOVE – to the verses in 1 John 4:7-12 that reminds us that God is love.
• http://tiny.cc/FollowJesus -  to the verses in Matthew 4:18-20 where Jesus invites His disciples to follow Him.
• http://tr.im/YFaithFriday – to Psalm 96:1-4 that reminds us to praise God and share the Good News with others.

If you create another helpful and unique “short” URL using Tinyurl.com or Tr.im or another url-shortener for use on FaithFriday, I encourage you to send it along to me and I’ll post it here.

Your feedback is appreciated.

God bless!

Dale    @faithandhealth on Twitter

Helpful Posts:

Stress and Your Health – How a Personal Relationship With God Can Help

Understanding the Spirituality and Health Connection

Have you been sad because you’ve lost a loved one or a pet? Maybe you’re sad over a loss in your life now.

God understands… He gave His Son for you and for me.  Be reminded of this as you watch this short video.

If you have not experienced and accepted God’s deep love by believing in His son Jesus but are ready to have His peace and joy you can do that now. Follow this link.

To say that faith or spirituality or that practicing a religion will have an impact on your health is oversimplifying things.  In fact, it’s missing the point altogether.  The real point is getting to know God and His qualities and experiencing His love.  Let me explain.

Reading Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper, is reminding me why I have been doing what I’ve done for the last few years.  For me, my vocational life has been sharing about God’s nature with others, in writing and speaking, using the connection between faith and health as a vehicle.  Chapter six of Piper’s book is titled The Goal of Life- Gladly Making Others Glad in God.

Reflecting on many of my blog entries and articles I realize that I have not emphasized the value of the relationship with God as much as is warranted.  True, I have written an article recently titled, It’s About the Relationship and what I wrote about begins to get at the essence of the Christian faith and it’s impact on health… but I recognize I need to write and speak more frequently from this perspective.

In the Christian faith we get to know the one true God through believing in Jesus and accepting Him into our heart.  You see, when we accept Jesus into our heart, God’s Holy Spirit takes up residence in us.  We have God living inside us.  His Spirit enables us to understand Him better and better as we read the Bible more and more.  The more we recognize that we are in His presence, the more hope and power and strength we have for everyday living.  As we live more and more according to the principles found in His Word, the Bible, and as we understand his nature more and more, we slowly become more like Jesus.  This results in the fruits of the spirit addressed in Galatians 5: 22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

It is the intimate relationship with God accompanied with the resulting fruits of the Spirit that impact on us in such a way that will likely promote emotional and physical health.  It all flows from knowing God and experiencing His mighty love.  It’s being “glad in God” that promotes good health.  It’s being personally “glad in God” that motivates me to share this message with you.  Ultimately, this is what honors God and makes him happy … that people attribute their gladness to Him and His love.

All this said, I challenge you, as John Piper does in his book, to not waste your life.  If you’re experiencing the gladness that comes from knowing God and being in relationship with Him, share it with others!  On the other hand, if you are not experiencing His gladness, begin to get to know Him through His one and only Son, Jesus.  A good starting point is by reading the book of John.  Or, you could also read this invitation to accept Jesus in your heart.

Stumble It!

The New International version of 1 Timothy 2:6 says that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all men.” The Greek word for ransom is antilytron which means a purchase price for liberation from oppression. All of us have probably felt oppressed at some time or other in our lives. Life is hard and many of us have experienced circumstances that have resulted in us feeling burdened, abused or that we’ve been taken advantage of. If we keep this attitude over a period of time, it can’t help but affect our emotional, spiritual and physical health. How can we move past this oppressed state?

God has provided a way. He can free you from anything that keeps you from experiencing a flourishing and whole life. God loves you so much that He sent his son Jesus to die for all your past and future sins so that you can have an abundant and eternal life. This week’s scripture says, “For he (God) wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Jesus Christ. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.”

God’s done His part. Our part is to believe this deep in our heart. Then we have to claim this truth and get it into our spirit. The evil one, Satan, would like us to hold on to these past hurts and thoughts and keep this oppressed state of mind. This will keep us from feeling free. That’s not the way it has to be and it’s not what God wants.

Get to know God in a personal way, and His truth will set you free. John 8:32 says “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Once you are totally free from oppression, aspects of your emotional health will likely be positively affected.  This could bring about improvements in your physical health.

The choice is yours. Will you accept the total freedom and the abundant life that Jesus provides?