John 1:11 He came to that which was his own.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Matthew 28:28 The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.
(Notes by Garnet Chaney)
I like to ask questions sometimes that you may not want to answer. Here is one of them:
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Are we health reformers? |
There is a negative connotation that has come to the term "Health Reformers". I think the devil has worked hard to turn a blessing into a curse.
My daughter had an allergy to milk. She had these infections, and we'd take her to the doctor. He wondered if he should do a surgery to open up the tubes in her ears.
He'd just come from a serminar where they studied about allergies. He wondered if my daughter might be having a problem with allergies. Before trying the surgery, we took her off all dairy products, and the problem cleared up.
Let me tell you more about this story.
We didn't live in a place with a wide variety of alternatives to milk. In our search for something else, we tried goats milk. Being good parents, I even drank a little goats milk. I gotta tell you, there is something between here and my palate, and it wouldn't let me drink a lot of goats milk. But it seemed to do ok in her diet, it didn't plug up her ears.
I got into a discussion with several people, did they think this was a good idea or a bad idea. They shared their opinions. But one lady said: "Well we shouldn't be drinking milk at all", and she walked angrily out of the room. She made the decision for me. I only wanted information, I didn't want to be told what to do.
Negativity comes into the health message when we use too many imperatives. When we answer questions people are not asking, volunteering your opinion when people don't want it, is a way negativity enters the health message.
"Well you need to lose a few pounds pastor." My response: "Really, I never would have guessed!"
It is exchanges like that which cause people to regard the health message negatively.
There is something you need to know: Not a single health reformer who lives 100% according to their rules! On occassion, they all try something that is not according to their rules. Or get up and say "I'm not going to the gym today."
I would like to see if today we can take a second look at our health message, and our emphasis on healthful living, and how it came to the Adventists. I will share some thoughts from Mark Finley, a world travelling representative of ministry. I listened to several of his lectures about how to restore the health message back to the blessing it was supposed to be in the first place. I won't have time to share everything, I would be here all day.
We've been sharing some of these messages at 9am in the morning each morning on Sabbath.
Let's look at the early context of health reform.
The early Advent believers in the 1850's were neither in better health, or have any more enlightened health practices, than the world around them. Many died from diptheria, consumption (known as tuberculous). Leaders of the movement had repeated boughts of disease.
One reason was working in the press. The presses were in the basement, where it was damp.
Joseph Bates was doing much better than the average. He drank no tea or coffee, ate a sparse vegetarian diet, and he spent a lot of time travelling. That was why he was so healthy.
Back then, doctors didn't know many of the things we know today: Germ theory was unknown. Surgery, anesthetics, x-rays, antibiotics, antihistamines, hopsitals, and even aspirin hadn't been invented yet. In fact, they believed that too much vitality caused disease. They thought they could break up disease by bleeding their patients, and prescribing certain drugs:
Would we call these things healthful today? We call them poisons! But they thought they would be a good way to drain the vitality. Some generations could even go to the barber for the bleeding, didn't even have to go to the doctor.
Many people ate very heavily spiced foods, large quantities, kept windows closed to avoid drafts, rarely bathed, underworked or underexcercised. Almost all failed to see that their way of life was a way of death.
Adventists never were in favor of liquor. By the 1850's they were conscious of the evils of tobacco. Not using tobacco was a very dissive issue. C Mervyn Maxwell talked of the "smoke and chew party" who advocated for the use of tobacco.
Understand that the advent movement was not yet a church. A lot of people argued we shouldn't become a church, and become a part of babylon. But under God's counsel, May 21, 1863 organized the general conference of adventists. That paved the way for the Lord to introduce practical issues of reform.
12 days later, June 5, 1863, Ellen white had a 45 minute "Health Reform Vision". This is one of the best examples of our blessings from her visions. It took her most of her life to write down all the information she got during that vision.
In this vision, she was warned against some practices. You may want to brace yourself:
Warned against:
Here are things she encourages:
Science just today is underlying and hilighting things she pointed out:
what we are talking about here is medical missionary work. The health message was given not just for you and me. I think that is how we've made it into a curse. "If I have to eat a vegetatian diet, so you do to." that's not what God intended! He wants us to discover the joys of healthy living.
God has helped us devleop programs at large schools, and health programs that can be given by laymen. As a pastor, in the early days I was asked to report how many home treatments I'd done!
December 25, 1865 - Ellen White received the "Health Institution Vision" - Ellen White warned against extreme health cures. Some things being proposed by adventists were extreme, and she was warned away from them.
1866 - Old house in battle creek was remodelled, and turned into our further health institution.
John Harvey Kellog came in to build the institute into the Battle Crek Medical and Surgical Sanitarium.
Other health insittutions in California: St. Helena, Glendale, Loma Linda "College of Medical Evangelism" now called "Loma Linda University".
Adventists are identified with health management, and we have a good name in this field.
When I was a young pastor, and we did ingathering, we ewnt at Christmas time to solicit contributions to our world mission work. One of the things
I liked was people would say "I've been saving all year, just a minute" and they'd bring a big fistful of money, and a story of how they had been
helped at one of our medical facilities.
Probably most of us are not medical professionals. It's wonderful to have health professionals in our congregation, but where do the rest of us fit in.
Do we have a personal responsibility to live a health life style? Maybe we're comforting ourselves that health is secondary to salvation.
AMEN - Adventist Medical Evangelism Network - These medical professionals are dedicated to making their profession into a ministry. They are trying to
find ways to use the medical advantages we have to bridge to the spiritual. the lectures given by Mark Finley to doctors, and dentists, and medical
students, and they are being lectured by a theologian. Many of the discoveries he shared are things that can be helpful to us all:
In 1857 john Henry Dunham was a very prosperous businessman in Europe. He was negotiating a sale for $100,000's that needed the signature of Napoleon III. Dunham tracked him down in the middle of a battle, and he watched the battle. the muskets and the cannon fire, smelled the sulfur in the air, and the dead. What amazed him the most was the wounded. He joined the volunteers in helping to bandage them. He was so traumatized, and went home and started the Red Cross. He caught the vision that there was more to life and health than self. To be a Christian is to concern yourself with the overall wellbeing of others. It is reaching out to meet the needs of humanity in the way that Jesus did.
Do you see why medical evangelism is more than we dare leave to the specialists?
In Matt 20:28, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve."
If you joined the SDA church to surround yourself with many people who would help to take care of you, you may be surprised. While it is the calling of Christians to minister to one another, you too are called to be a minister, not to be ministered to.
Jesus left heaven, where he was served by the hosts of heaven, to come down here and serve us. Jesus didn't sit in heaven and call down to us.
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Jesus always began where people were rather than where He was. |
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Christ meets the totality of need wherever He goes. |
Sometimes we think Jesus is concerned only about spirituality, but if you look at the first five chapters of John, we see a different picture. John 1:38, "The Word becaem flesh and made his dwelling among us."
He asked his disciples a question: "What do you want?"
John 2 - The story of Jesus first miracle, at the wedding in Canaan. In your opinion, was this is a high priority need? Was this a big deal? It's just a social thing.
But the hosts were keenly feeling a problem they needed a solution to. Jesus saw it as a high priority because it was a need they were feeling, Jesus met their social needs.
Medical evangelism is meeting the needs that people feel. When you are embarassed, and that is your need, Jesus said he would be there.
John 3 - Nicodemus - spiritual need
John 4 - Woman at the Well - emotional need.
| John 3 | John 4 |
|---|---|
| nicodemus | woman at the well |
| man | woman |
| jew | gentile |
| comes by night | comes by day |
| comes sekking jesus | stubmles on jesus |
More comparisons....
John 5 - Invalid, Bethesda
Refering someone to a specialist doesn't let us off the hook. We are right there with the person. If you go through life sending people away, you lose the God given opportunity to minister, to be a medical missionary.
If there was a horrible plague, and you knew a secret that could solve the problem, would you share it with the community?
Shouldn't we who are the recipients of a healthy way of living may bear an obligation to share some of that with the world around us?
I like to watch the building shows on TV. One is making wooden furniture.
There is the advertisement of a dad working on the pipes, and a little boy asks, "Dad can I help", and the dad "Says no this is an adult job." The boy is crestfallen, but then the dad says "Would you like to hold the flashlight for me?" The boy brightens up and helps his dad.
However, if you've ever been the dad in this picture, you know that every time you need the light, you have to remind the boy to give you light. It can be frustrating.
That is kind of how I feel about medical missionary evangelism. I feel like the little boy, with the light that wanders.
I need the doctors to bring me back from being distracted.
We have this health fair coming up. I don't really know what to do to help.
But I can invite my neighbor. "You can come and visit our health fair any time between 1 and 4. You'll enjoy this. There will be lectures, and seminars."
I'm back to pastor for a moment. The number one best thing you can do for any kind of outreach that this church ever does, participate. Hold your lamp. Be a part of it.
The community will come and visit. But they'll be even more blessed by our enthusiasm, by finding us there. We might not intimidate them like going to a doctor would. They will shake our hands, and we can be there for them, and do our part to help them with their health, and let them know that God cares about their health.
Pray with me, that God will lay on our hearts a burden for our friends, and won't allow us to just be observers, but will make us want to be part of the team.
"Dear Lord in Heaven, you are so marvelous, we appreciate your mercy and grace, and limitless blessings of life, health, and happiness, and wonderful hope of eternal life in Jesus. All you've done for us, our hearts just swell with gratitude that you are the King that you are. But pity us if we try to pocket it, and hoard it for ourselves. Take each one of us and help us to share the good news, help us to meet people like Jesus did. May we benefit from the growth of the experience, and may the way be prepared for your soon return. Take us and use us, I pray in Jesus name, Amen"
