The following program
presents principles designed
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to promote good health
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and is not
intended to take the place
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of personalized
professional care.
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The opinions and ideas expressed
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are those of the speaker.
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Viewers are encouraged to
draw their own conclusions
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about the information presented.
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Remember the last particularly
moving worship experience
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that you had?
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Maybe it was the music
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or maybe it was
someone's testimony.
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Perhaps, it was
even an act of service
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that you did for someone else.
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Whatever it was,
that act of worship
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provided you with
physiologic benefits.
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Discovering how
worship benefits us physically
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is the topic of today's program.
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I'll be sharing ideas
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that you can use to
improve your health today,
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no matter where
you're starting from.
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The Ultimate
Prescription starts now.
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Thanks for joining us here today
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for the Ultimate Prescription,
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a program dedicated
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to helping us better understand
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God's design for our lives
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and experience better
health by following His plan.
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I'm your host Nick Evenson
here with Dr. James Marcum
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for another program on
which we'll be discussing
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how worship
benefits us physiologically.
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Dr. Marcum, explain
that a little bit to us?
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Yeah, well, let's do
some background first
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and that will help
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frame the importance of worship
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for our physiology,
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worship for our
life, worship forever.
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Okay.
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If you go back to the Bible,
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okay, the Bible's always
been about worshiping God.
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We were created
in the image of God.
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We were created to be with God
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and be in relationship with God.
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This is built into our
DNA, our genetic blueprint.
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Now we found out,
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and we've talked about
how we all have damaged genes.
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We all come to the
table with damage, okay?
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And that's just been, you know,
it's just the way things are
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because of our forefathers.
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You know, sin has damaged us.
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And we've also learned
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that's sort of
like our hard drive.
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But we've also added
things in our computer brain
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that can accelerate damage,
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that can maybe
help repair things.
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And we've talked about the
different lifestyle things,
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especially in preventing
in nutrition and brain health.
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We've talked a
little bit about that.
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We've talked through the
programs about nutrition,
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how that can help as well.
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We've actually worked on this
with the seven-week Bible study
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that we've developed
to help people understand
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that there's
biblical prescription,
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things that we can
do that God has given us
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to improve our health,
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to see when to
use modern medicine,
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to help us along this journey.
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Do you following me so far?
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Yeah. Okay.
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But it doesn't make sense to me
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if we don't plug into
the most important thing
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we were designed to do.
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We were designed to be
with God in relationship.
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We were designed to
worship God in relationship.
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So if we don't do that
and make that our priority,
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how's the rest of health,
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the temporary
physical health we have
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and the eternal spiritual health
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that we were designed for,
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how does that all work together?
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You know, it's kind
of hard to think about
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how your relationship with God,
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you know, without that,
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you're enduring
stress you don't need to,
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but when you think
about a spouse or a child,
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if you have a strained
relationship with them,
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you recognize that
it stresses you out,
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and there's
physical manifestations
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of that stress.
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So without...
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Yeah, that makes a lot of sense
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that without the
relationship with God,
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you're gonna endure
lots of unnecessary stress.
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Right.
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So that in
itself hurts us, okay?
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But that's way we
were designed to be.
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Yeah.
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But the way things are
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that the evil one
and there's an evil one
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wants control of our brain.
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And that's where
the battle is beginning.
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If the battle is in the brain
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and the battle
happens constantly,
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we're on this battle.
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But we have someone
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that's fought the battle
and won the battle for us
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that we want to recruit
to help us in this battle,
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to save us from our
weaknesses that we've inherited.
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Are you following me
so far? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
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We were designed for that,
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and God gave us that
plan for our physiology,
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both our short term
physical and long term.
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However, the enemy wants us
to worship things of the enemy.
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And the enemy wants us
to worship those things
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which doesn't
really help our physiology,
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doesn't really help our
brain, put stresses on us.
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When we worship
the wrong things,
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they're stressors.
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So we, by our choices,
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choose who we're
gonna worship constantly.
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Some people, you
know, throughout the world,
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they'd worship idols.
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You know, the idols of
old time might be the Baals
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and the
different things, you know.
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In Daniel's time, you sit
there and worship the thing
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that's built in the field.
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In Christ time,
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it might be you worship
some of the institutions
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rather than the true God.
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Well, nowadays, who knows
all the things that worship,
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maybe it's different things.
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Maybe some people
worship football, I don't know.
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Maybe see people
spend some time with
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so much with the internet.
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They worship the
internet or cell phones
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or what they can
do with their jobs.
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Well, there's
many different things
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we can worship.
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And as we worship, it
affects our physiology.
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It's our brain.
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Are you
following me so far? Yeah.
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And if we don't
have that intact,
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even if we do good things,
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like exercise,
and get enough rest
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and eat the right foods,
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if we do things
for the wrong reason,
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is it really a good thing?
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You see what I'm saying? Yeah.
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It's not so much what
we do, it's why we do it.
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That's right.
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So with that framework,
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that's why
worship, in my opinion,
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is such a key to
both the physical health
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in the short term
and eternal health.
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You follow me?
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And it's important
that we see the big picture.
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And sometimes,
we're so inundated
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by the stress of the world
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that we can't
see the big picture.
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Now, I believe we
have some case study
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that will help...
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In the Biblical
Prescription study videos,
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we have a clip from that video
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where you have a case
study of an actual patient
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that you worked with and
use biblical prescriptions.
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Let's take a look now
and see how that worked out.
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Tom was a
successful businessman, father,
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and husband.
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Unfortunately, one
day while Tom was at work,
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he felt as if an elephant
was sitting on his chest.
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Tom had never experienced
this sensation before.
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Well, he was smart
enough to seek help,
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and immediately he dialed 911
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and soon found
himself in the emergency room.
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In the emergency room,
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a myocardial infarction, a
heart attack was diagnosed.
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And eventually,
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he received a stent to
the right coronary artery.
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A heart attack in
his 30s, can you imagine?
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Well, this
literally left him petrified.
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From that point onward,
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every time anything felt
off in his chest, Tom panicked.
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He regularly saw doctors,
went to the emergency rooms
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and had extensive
testing on his heart.
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While he went
from doctor to doctor
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as his symptoms were real,
Tom definitely needed help.
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His psychologist
was doing everything
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in the cognitive therapy world,
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but it was not enough.
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His cardiologist and
internist repeated tests
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and offered reassurance,
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but it was not enough.
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He ate well, but
it was not enough.
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He exercise and
took time off from work,
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but still that was not enough.
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It may be hard
for you to believe,
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but worship healed Tom's pain.
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I know you might
not think of this,
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but worship is a
treatment, a gift.
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And worship is
different for each individual.
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I spent time teaching Tom
about the part of his brain
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called the
anterior cingulate cortex
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and the steps to take
when his symptoms occurred.
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Tom learned the difference
between the acute stress
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and chronic stress.
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As Tom grew and
learned about worship,
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this treatment was added
and changed his entire life.
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Tom never dreamed
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that worship would
be the key treatment
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for his symptoms.
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Tom had a real problem.
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Unfortunately, modern medicine
was not able to quantify,
00:08:40.58\00:08:44.59
label, or treat the problem.
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God's creation
is just too complex.
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And it's no surprise to me
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that worship is a
key aspect of health.
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You know, it's exciting
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to hear real life
stories from patients
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where these
biblical prescriptions
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made a huge
difference in their life.
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It makes it come alive.
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In our worship study,
the seven-week Bible study
00:09:05.97\00:09:09.51
where we focused on,
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you know, how to
move one step at a time,
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a lot of people use
this as a way to reach out
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to their friends and neighbors
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that might not
understand not only health,
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we assume people
understand these things,
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but many people do not.
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Like Tom, you know, it
took a lot of explaining,
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what we're doing
today, to help him understand
00:09:28.00\00:09:30.07
that we were
designed to worship God.
00:09:30.10\00:09:32.70
And when we don't do
that, that puts some stress
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and some amount of pain on us,
whether we recognize it or not.
00:09:35.64\00:09:40.08
And we reach for
things to help our pain.
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And there either gonna be things
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that help us or hurt
us, the inputs we put in.
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And those inputs
accelerate disease or not,
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or they can help
prevent this disease
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or aging or whatever
you want to solve it.
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Right.
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Well, I want to
introduce worship
00:09:57.43\00:10:00.56
as the key aspect
of healing in health
00:10:00.60\00:10:05.00
in not only helping
us in the short term,
00:10:05.03\00:10:07.84
but in the eternal.
00:10:07.87\00:10:09.20
And when we come
into a state of worship,
00:10:09.24\00:10:11.07
there's hope for today,
00:10:11.11\00:10:12.61
no matter what medical
condition we might have,
00:10:12.64\00:10:15.21
and there's a hope for eternity.
00:10:15.24\00:10:17.21
You know, whether we're healed
in the twinkling of an eye,
00:10:17.25\00:10:20.82
or whether we're healed
from a lifestyle change,
00:10:20.85\00:10:23.72
or whether we
use modern medicine
00:10:23.75\00:10:25.79
to slow down this
inevitable aging of our genes
00:10:25.82\00:10:28.42
that we're getting into.
00:10:28.46\00:10:30.43
That's an important
thing for our brains
00:10:30.46\00:10:32.36
and our body to wrap
around so we can have peace.
00:10:32.39\00:10:35.86
When Tom started
getting to this understanding,
00:10:35.90\00:10:39.57
he started to have
some peace with things,
00:10:39.60\00:10:42.10
his body started changing.
00:10:42.14\00:10:43.94
Then he understood
00:10:43.97\00:10:45.31
that there's
nothing that he could do.
00:10:45.34\00:10:47.21
He needed a
savior. He needed help.
00:10:47.24\00:10:50.11
And he needed the steps
that he could get there,
00:10:50.15\00:10:52.31
one step at a time.
00:10:52.35\00:10:54.12
And I think that
what we need next is,
00:10:54.15\00:10:56.32
we need to study worship.
00:10:56.35\00:10:57.69
We've had some,
00:10:57.72\00:10:59.05
the ability in
science now to quantitate it.
00:10:59.09\00:11:02.22
We've talked about how
we can look at the brain
00:11:02.26\00:11:04.33
through functional
MRIs, through CAT scans,
00:11:04.36\00:11:07.33
through EEGs,
00:11:07.36\00:11:09.60
through the piece
that a person might get.
00:11:09.63\00:11:12.83
Now we have ways to study
00:11:12.87\00:11:14.74
how different
types of biblical worship
00:11:14.77\00:11:17.34
can help the brain.
00:11:17.37\00:11:18.71
We have some
preliminary studies.
00:11:18.74\00:11:20.08
Yeah.
00:11:20.11\00:11:21.44
Like Andrew Newberg,
did you wanna comment here?
00:11:21.48\00:11:23.28
Oh, Andrew Newberg. Yeah.
00:11:23.31\00:11:24.65
Yeah. Let's pick that up.
00:11:24.68\00:11:26.01
Well, he wrote a book, right?
00:11:26.05\00:11:27.38
Yeah. I mean, he wrote a book.
00:11:27.42\00:11:28.75
And it's, you
know, how God changes,
00:11:28.78\00:11:30.72
you know, things in your brain.
00:11:30.75\00:11:32.29
And he's actually did
some studies of worship
00:11:32.32\00:11:34.42
and how the brain,
00:11:34.46\00:11:35.79
the anterior
cingulate cortex grew.
00:11:35.82\00:11:37.99
Others have done preliminary
on different types of worship.
00:11:38.03\00:11:41.33
So now as a ministry,
00:11:41.36\00:11:42.70
we want to try to get more data
00:11:42.73\00:11:45.47
because people want evidence.
00:11:45.50\00:11:46.84
We know that the Bible's true,
00:11:46.87\00:11:48.80
now we want to
give evidence to people
00:11:48.84\00:11:51.04
to even help them
understand this even more.
00:11:51.07\00:11:53.68
My question earlier is,
00:11:53.71\00:11:55.14
I was curious, was Tom already
00:11:55.18\00:11:57.61
a believer of sort,
00:11:57.65\00:11:58.98
or did it take
long process to get
00:11:59.01\00:12:01.48
and to consider
this as treatment?
00:12:01.52\00:12:03.08
Well, Tom was a believer,
00:12:03.12\00:12:06.12
but he didn't
have a relationship.
00:12:06.15\00:12:07.56
Okay.
00:12:07.59\00:12:08.92
You know, you can
believe something,
00:12:08.96\00:12:10.29
and you can understand doctrine,
00:12:10.33\00:12:12.03
and you can follow a culture
and not have a relationship,
00:12:12.06\00:12:16.03
a saving relationship.
00:12:16.06\00:12:17.40
Right.
00:12:17.43\00:12:18.77
That's what he didn't
quite have a grasp on.
00:12:18.80\00:12:21.14
And when God became
real and working in his life,
00:12:21.17\00:12:24.34
when he realized that,
00:12:24.37\00:12:25.71
you know, there's
nothing he can do,
00:12:25.74\00:12:27.21
he needed a savior.
00:12:27.24\00:12:28.58
And when he learned how to plug
00:12:28.61\00:12:29.94
into that
relationship in worship,
00:12:29.98\00:12:32.28
he started to see
physiologic changes
00:12:32.31\00:12:34.98
in his body, in his life.
00:12:35.02\00:12:37.25
You know, you look back
00:12:37.29\00:12:38.62
at some of the
stories in the Bible.
00:12:38.65\00:12:40.56
Stephen, you know, even
as he was getting stoned,
00:12:40.59\00:12:43.46
you know, he
thought of other people,
00:12:43.49\00:12:45.29
you know, even
during that moment.
00:12:45.33\00:12:47.13
So his worship
was able to turn down,
00:12:47.16\00:12:49.43
his closeness
with that relationship
00:12:49.46\00:12:51.07
was able to maybe turn
down some of the things
00:12:51.10\00:12:53.07
that was going on
elsewhere in his body.
00:12:53.10\00:12:55.74
So worship is a
very powerful way
00:12:55.77\00:12:58.44
that we can
change our physiology
00:12:58.47\00:13:00.64
and give us the power
00:13:00.68\00:13:02.01
to do things for
the right reasons
00:13:02.04\00:13:03.65
and get us back to the
way we were designed to be.
00:13:03.68\00:13:07.05
Well, we've got to
take a short break,
00:13:07.08\00:13:08.42
but there's lots
more to this discussion.
00:13:08.45\00:13:10.05
So stay tuned as the
Ultimate Prescription
00:13:10.09\00:13:11.85
returns in a moment.
00:13:11.89\00:13:13.22