Principles & Practice of Health Ministry
Chapter 4
Raising the Dead
Who are the clients and patients who come to health ministry programs for help with their health problems? They are often seen as people who formed unhealthy lifestyles at an early age. We also often see them as people who are trapped in a harmful environment. Often, there has been trauma or even abuse as a child or as an adult. Others simply never learned the right way to live. Every person who comes to a health ministry program presents a special challenge and unique educational opportunities.
I have found it helpful in my health ministry to apply the Biblical diagnosis to those who come for help. The correct diagnosis is that they are, DEAD, DEVILISH, DISOBEDIENT, and DEPRAVED. This is not my particular prejudice, for the diagnosis is made by the Bible.
Those who come to health ministry programs are not just uneducated, sick, trapped, or addicted -- they are DEAD. The Bible says that they are “dead in trespasses and sins." Grasping this fundamental truth about human nature makes all the difference in the approach we take in trying to help a person.
Education is thought to be the key to behavior change. A person can unlearn bad behaviors and through education learn new healthful behaviors. Education consists in enlightening a person as to the harmful effects of current behaviors and sharing the scientific evidence that a change in behavior will result in better health. Unfortunately, education is totally worthless if a person is DEAD. A person who is dead will have to be brought to life before education will be effective.
Setting a good example is thought to be important in helping people change. If they can see that you are living the right way and you are healthy and happy, they will be more likely to copy your good example and be motivated to live right. Setting a good example is totally irrelevant if the person you are trying to help is DEAD.
Likewise, encouragement doesn’t help the dead. We like to coach those who are struggling with a bad habit. We say, “Keep it up,” “You can make it,” and “Hang in there.” Unfortunately, encouragement doesn’t help those who are DEAD.
In desperate cases we remove a person from a toxic environment and place them where they can be retrained, far away from the negative influences at home or work. Lifestyle Centers were designed for this purpose. But a new environment will not help those who are DEAD.
So, education, example, encouragement and environment are not useful tools in trying to reform people who are DEAD.
The Bible further adds to the diagnosis of death the fact that people are controlled by the devil, “walking…according to the prince of the power of the air." Transforming the life of a person controlled by the devil is an impossible accomplishment by human effort alone. You may make positive changes for a while, but if the devil is in control of your life, the prospect for permanent change in behavior is bleak. The Bible says that those with a harmful lifestyle are “walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.” This is the devil. People with bad habits cannot control themselves because their lives are directed by the devil.
The Bible also diagnoses people as “the sons of disobedience.” People cannot do what they are told to do. They disobey the laws of health. They disobey common sense. They disobey their doctor’s advice. They disobey their spouse’s advice or their parent's advice.
The people who come to a health ministry program may look like washed, well clothed, and decent people, but the Bible says that they are depraved. The text above says, “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
Depraved people follow the “desires of the flesh.” They cannot say no to food. They cannot say no to cigarettes. They cannot say no to alcohol. They are trapped -- slaves to their perverted and depraved desires.
The solution to the problem is provided in the next verses in Ephesians:
God can make all things right once again. Not because we are worthy but because of His great mercy and because of His great love for us. God makes us alive with Christ. We can not save ourselves by our own efforts. Christ has the power to recreate us with the ability to do what is right through the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
This is the heart of traditional (gospel) evangelism, and it should be the heart of true health ministry, as well. Jesus saves us from our sins. Jesus saves us from our bad eating habits. Jesus saves us from tobacco and alcohol. We are cheating the public out of the most wonderful news regarding their bad habits and their chronic lifestyle-related diseases if we keep this good news from them.
If we see the people who come to a health ministry programs or if we see any of our non-converted relatives, friends, neighbors, and co-workers as being DEAD, it will help us realize the critical importance of introducing them to Christ who can raise the dead and give them new life.
I have found it helpful in my health ministry to apply the Biblical diagnosis to those who come for help. The correct diagnosis is that they are, DEAD, DEVILISH, DISOBEDIENT, and DEPRAVED. This is not my particular prejudice, for the diagnosis is made by the Bible.
- And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan), the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath (depraved), just as the others. Ephesians 2:1-3 (NKJV)
Those who come to health ministry programs are not just uneducated, sick, trapped, or addicted -- they are DEAD. The Bible says that they are “dead in trespasses and sins." Grasping this fundamental truth about human nature makes all the difference in the approach we take in trying to help a person.
Education is thought to be the key to behavior change. A person can unlearn bad behaviors and through education learn new healthful behaviors. Education consists in enlightening a person as to the harmful effects of current behaviors and sharing the scientific evidence that a change in behavior will result in better health. Unfortunately, education is totally worthless if a person is DEAD. A person who is dead will have to be brought to life before education will be effective.
Setting a good example is thought to be important in helping people change. If they can see that you are living the right way and you are healthy and happy, they will be more likely to copy your good example and be motivated to live right. Setting a good example is totally irrelevant if the person you are trying to help is DEAD.
Likewise, encouragement doesn’t help the dead. We like to coach those who are struggling with a bad habit. We say, “Keep it up,” “You can make it,” and “Hang in there.” Unfortunately, encouragement doesn’t help those who are DEAD.
In desperate cases we remove a person from a toxic environment and place them where they can be retrained, far away from the negative influences at home or work. Lifestyle Centers were designed for this purpose. But a new environment will not help those who are DEAD.
So, education, example, encouragement and environment are not useful tools in trying to reform people who are DEAD.
The Bible further adds to the diagnosis of death the fact that people are controlled by the devil, “walking…according to the prince of the power of the air." Transforming the life of a person controlled by the devil is an impossible accomplishment by human effort alone. You may make positive changes for a while, but if the devil is in control of your life, the prospect for permanent change in behavior is bleak. The Bible says that those with a harmful lifestyle are “walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.” This is the devil. People with bad habits cannot control themselves because their lives are directed by the devil.
The Bible also diagnoses people as “the sons of disobedience.” People cannot do what they are told to do. They disobey the laws of health. They disobey common sense. They disobey their doctor’s advice. They disobey their spouse’s advice or their parent's advice.
The people who come to a health ministry program may look like washed, well clothed, and decent people, but the Bible says that they are depraved. The text above says, “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
Depraved people follow the “desires of the flesh.” They cannot say no to food. They cannot say no to cigarettes. They cannot say no to alcohol. They are trapped -- slaves to their perverted and depraved desires.
The solution to the problem is provided in the next verses in Ephesians:
- "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10
God can make all things right once again. Not because we are worthy but because of His great mercy and because of His great love for us. God makes us alive with Christ. We can not save ourselves by our own efforts. Christ has the power to recreate us with the ability to do what is right through the faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
This is the heart of traditional (gospel) evangelism, and it should be the heart of true health ministry, as well. Jesus saves us from our sins. Jesus saves us from our bad eating habits. Jesus saves us from tobacco and alcohol. We are cheating the public out of the most wonderful news regarding their bad habits and their chronic lifestyle-related diseases if we keep this good news from them.
If we see the people who come to a health ministry programs or if we see any of our non-converted relatives, friends, neighbors, and co-workers as being DEAD, it will help us realize the critical importance of introducing them to Christ who can raise the dead and give them new life.
- "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10