David (00:00.44)
You know, when I talk to my Christian friends and they find out I'm into health and wellness from a biblical perspective, I often hear something like, yeah, I get it. We should be good stewards of our bodies. They may quote 1 Corinthians 6, 19. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have received as a gift from God and that you are not your own? So then honor God with your body. Although that's true,
Guilt is not the best source of motivation. My motivation for health and wellness is rooted in verses like John 10, 10, I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. Also, Ephesians 2, 10, we are his workmanship. Some translations use the word masterpieces created for good works that God created beforehand so that we might walk in them. And then of course, there's
1st Timothy 317, God wants us thoroughly equipped for every good work. Going through life in a compromised state of health can be a roadblock to us living the life God wants for us, the life He's planned for us. Let's talk about it.
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Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle podcast where I help you navigate natural health so you can stay out of the doctor's office, age gracefully, and live a more purpose-driven life. If you're a regular listener to the show, you may have noticed there's a slight change to my mission statement. I used to say in the opener, I want you to live life more abundantly, but I changed that up today to live a more purpose-driven life because
I think that's more to the point of why I do what I do on this podcast. When I take look around, I don't see a lot of people living out their purpose, dialed in on their callings, clearly understanding their assignments, and having the impact for the kingdom that God has planned for them. I'm recording this episode not long after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Now, I'm deeply moved.
by this tragedy. I believe Charlie Kirk was one of those people who was experiencing all of what I just mentioned. He was living the abundant life. He was walking in his purpose and having a major impact for the kingdom of God. Charlie used his knowledge of the Word of God and his love relationship with God to guide his actions and his political views, and he used truth and reason to persuade others to do the same.
In a similar fashion, I allow the Word of God and my relationship with Him to be my guide as to how I believe we should approach health and wellness. And this podcast and my book are the platforms I use to persuade others to adopt the same point of view. And I appreciate you listening. In a sense, Charlie Kirk and I are on the same team. Charlie used his organization, Turning Point, and live events to educate people.
I primarily use this podcast. So again, the mission of the show is to help you navigate natural health so you can stay out of the doctor's office, age gracefully, and live a more purpose-driven life. I believe one of the most succinct ways I can help you do just that is what I call the nine pillars of health. Many years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor taught me that although there's a lot of facets to flying an airplane,
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There's three primary skills that'll go a long way to keeping you safe. And those skills are, Aviate, Navigate, and Communicate. Aviate means, fly the plane. Keep the wings level, or as we say in the aviation circles, keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down. The next one is, Navigate. Know where you are and know where you're going. Be in control of the path that your plane is on.
And number three, communicate. Talk with air traffic control, maybe the flight service station in a light airplane. In the airline environment, it's the flight dispatcher that we communicate with. There might be other pilots on the frequency. And in the airline environment, there's other crew members to talk to. Although there's a lot more to flying an airplane than that, those three things will go a long way to maintaining your safety margin and staying alive.
and a long career while performing a potentially dangerous task. Those three skills have served me well in my 46 years of flying airplanes, all the way from learning to fly in little two-seat Cessnas to flying wide-body airliners internationally. Pursuing health and wellness is similar. We are three-part beings. We are a spirit, we have a mind, and we live in a body.
Although there's a lot to consider for each part of who and what we are, if we focus on three primary tasks or skills for each area, that'll serve our health building efforts well. We are a spirit, we have a mind, and we live in a body. So there's three parts to a human being and three focus areas for each part. Those make up the nine pillars of health. Explaining the nine pillars is the most
concise way I can sum up pursuing natural health God's way. Now I'm going to quickly go through them here and then we'll unpack each one of them in just a moment. The spiritual component of health is all about loving relationships. Love for God, love for others, and the love we have for ourselves. The mental-emotional component or the mind or the soul as the Bible refers to it is all about having an MVP mentality.
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We want to be skilled in mental toughness. We want to have victory over limiting beliefs. We want to practice emotional intelligence. For the body, the mnemonic I've created there is food, move and snooze, nutrition, exercise and sleep. Jesus was a master at cutting through the chase and getting to the bottom line. When Jesus was asked by one of the teachers of the law, what is the greatest commandment?
His reply was succinct and to the point, as it usually is. Matthew 22, 33 through 40 says this, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. Now there might be two commandments here, but there's three admonitions in these two commandments.
And these three admonitions make up the spiritual component of health. So the first three pillars of health are love for God, love for others, and love for ourselves. Health and wholeness starts in the spirit because a spirit connected to God is healthier and a healthy spirit will animate our minds in healthy ways and a healthy mind will animate our brains in healthy ways and the brain runs the body. See how it's all interconnected?
So our spiritual component of health is all about loving relationships, love for God, love for others, and the love we have for ourselves. We're wired to be in connected, loving relationships. That's where we thrive. Loneliness and social isolation lead to despair, depression, and even suicide. We saw this lived out in 2020 and 2021 when we were all quarantined.
Many people's health suffered as a result of being isolated from other human beings. The spiritual component of health starts with love for God. It's the first of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20 verse 3, You shall have no other gods before me. The second commandment is really an expansion of the first, have no idols. In verse 4, you should not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
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You should not worship them or serve them." When I was a new believer, I thought this passage meant that God was, he seemed to me to be a little insecure. Exodus chapter 20 verse 5 says, I the Lord your God am a jealous God. It seemed to me that God couldn't handle us worshiping something other than Him. Therefore, like an earthly king might do, he passed a decree
and insists that we all comply with his demands. Now I realize that my understanding of God was very immature and I got God's motivation all wrong. God is not jealous of us. He's jealous for us and he knows that we become like the object of our worship. God's desire is that we become more like him. He wants us to grow mature and get over our selfishness.
He wants us to be less concerned with ourselves and more concerned with the welfare of others. That's the way God's kingdom comes to earth. And there's plenty of evidence in medical literature supporting the idea that people that practice philanthropy and service to others experience better health outcomes. That's why God wants us to worship him and him alone, because it's for our benefit. I often say in the show,
When God gives us an admonition, when he tells us to do something, it's for our benefit. And if he tells us to avoid something, it's for our protection. There's never a time when those two things aren't true. Which leads us to pillar of health number two, which is love for others. Jesus tells us in John chapter 13 verse 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you.
that you also love one another. When Jesus knew that in a few hours he was going to the cross, the Bible says he wanted to show the disciples the full extent of his love. And he proceeded to take on the role of the lowliest servant of their time, and he got on his knees and he washed their feet. And then he told them to do the same for one another. This is absolutely astonishing. The creator of the universe
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took on the role of a lowly servant. What a lesson that is for us. In James chapter 1 verse 27, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and our Father is to visit orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself unstained by the world. Practicing love for others is behaving in a fashion that's in alignment with our God-given design and that always promotes health and wellness.
The third pillar of health is love for ourselves. Many people will read right past that last part of the second commandment where we are to love others as we love ourselves. We've got to ditch the self-deprecation. We have great value. The Bible teaches that the intrinsic value of a human being comes from God's act of creation and his relationship with humanity. That value
isn't based on what a person does or achieves, but is inherent because we're made in God's image and we're the objects of His love. Here are some key Bible verses that speak to the intrinsic value of a human being. Genesis 1.27, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, created him. Male and female, he created them. Genesis 1.27,
is the foundational verse for human value. It establishes that all people are created in the image of God, which gives them a unique dignity and worth that is distinct from the rest of creation. This image refers to qualities like reason, morality, and the capacity for relationships. Then we see in Psalm chapter 8 verses 4 and 5, what is mankind that you are mindful of them?
human beings that you care for them. You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. This passage expresses awe and humility in the fact that God, the creator of the universe, would care so deeply for humanity. The Bible emphasizes that each person is uniquely and intentionally created by God. Psalm 139 verses 13 and 14.
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And then, of course, I already mentioned Ephesians 2.10. The Bible also confirms human worth by showing how deeply
Intimately God knows and cares for each person. I love this verse Matthew chapter 10 verses 29 to 31 Jesus states are not two sparrows sold for a penny Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your father's care So don't be afraid you are worth much more than many sparrows Then there's Zechariah 2 8 for thus says the Lord of hosts
After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for He who touches you touches the apple of His eye." yeah, God has placed great value on each and every one of us. And His opinion of us doesn't shift like the wind. It's not dependent on what we do or don't do. Many of us feel condemnation from the enemy when we know we've come up short of God's standards. God would never
condemn us. God loves us and like any loving parent, He may discipline us, His Holy Spirit may convict us, but He never condemns. We've got to stop the self-deprecation. As we're about to see in the next three pillars, our self-talk matters. Many of us will say things to ourselves that we would never say to a good friend. Things like, I'm so stupid or I'm such a loser or
I'm always screwing things up. God doesn't look at us that way. God sees our potential as human beings and we shouldn't focus on our shortcomings, but our intrinsic value as human beings and start thinking, speaking and acting accordingly. Condemnation is from the enemy. It's not from God, which leads us into the mind or the mental emotional component of health. Our mind is the MVP.
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mental toughness, victory over limiting beliefs, and practicing emotional intelligence. So, pillar number four is mental toughness. We ought to be the masters of our thought lives. Genesis 4-7 is a clear passage of God's desire for us to be the masters of our thought lives. If you do well, will not your confidence be lifted up? If you do not do well,
Sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. Sin starts with evil desires that lead to impure thoughts that lead to sinful actions. We all know that when sin is full grown, it leads to death, James 1.15. Since God wants life for us, He tells us to be the masters of our thought lives. 2 Corinthians 10.5
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Why? Because God wants us to be good little obedient boys and girls? No. It's because He wants life for us. If God is for us, who could be against us? I often say in the show that when God tells us to do something and He gives us an admonition, it's for our
benefit when he tells us to avoid something it's for our protection. Now this understanding is foundational to understanding what the scriptures say about health and wellness or becoming more whole and fulfilling our God-given purpose. When we look at scriptures that way the Bible just becomes a plethora of useful information for health and wellness. Pillar number five is victory over limiting beliefs.
Now there are all kinds of limiting beliefs that can be roadblocks to our health and well-being. We may believe or say something like, well, that genetic weakness just runs in our family, or it's my fate to die at a young age. Beliefs like that can be serious roadblocks to our wellness. Whenever I talk about this subject, I like to talk about the three crucial questions. We would all do well to spend some time reflecting on these three foundational
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crucial questions. Question number one, do I want to be well? In John chapter five, when Jesus encountered the invalid at the Bethesda pool, he asked him, do you want to be well? Doesn't that seem like a strange question to you? I believe God wanted to awaken a desire within him. Now, the same is true for us. There can actually be reasons why someone may not want to be well.
Maybe they're getting sympathy that they craved as a child and never got. Or maybe there is a financial incentive and they're receiving some disability benefits because of their ailments. Do I want to be well is a question worth pondering. The next crucial question is, do I believe I can be well? How many times have you heard someone say that the doctors say there's no cure? Things like Crohn's disease or cancer.
know oncologists refuse to use the term cure. They prefer to use the word remission because they believe you cannot cure cancer. Yet we see people experiencing what the doctors call spontaneous healing anyway. If we're dealing with a serious health challenge, holding on to the belief that there is no cure can be a serious roadblock to healing. Can we simply use the power of positive thinking to make us well?
The answer to that is no, but it sure does help. The right thoughts and beliefs are part of the holistic approach to health. I cover this topic in more detail in my book, The Christian's Guide to Holistic Health. The third crucial question is, do I believe I deserve to be well? Now, we just mentioned that many people feel condemnation from the enemy. If that's the case, someone could feel that God is somehow
punishing them or that they deserve bad things to happen to them. None of that is true. God doesn't punish the ones he loves. He may discipline us, but he doesn't punish us for doing wrong things. God's desire for each and every one of us is that we reach our full potential as human beings. Why? As I just mentioned, so we can serve others effectively. Pillar number five is practice emotional intelligence.
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God's word has a lot to say on handling our emotions well. For instance, Ephesians 4.26, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. God wants us to take toxic emotions like anger, rage and bitterness and process them quickly and let them go. Otherwise they can become serious roadblocks to our health and wellness. Angry hostile language used on Twitter
has been shown to predict heart disease more effectively than traditional lifestyle factors like smoking, obesity, and sedentary lifestyle. I'll try to put a link in the show notes to the graph that plots that out. It's amazing. It's shocking, really. I'll put a link in the show notes so you can look at that graph. That's why God tells us, don't be an angry person. God is big on forgiveness. Why?
because he knows if we hold on to unforgiveness, it'll lead to toxic emotions like anger, rage, and bitterness. We don't call those toxic emotions for nothing. If we want to practice a godly, healthy lifestyle, we've got to process those negative emotions quickly. The Bible doesn't say we should never feel those emotions, but that we should process them. We should experience them, learn what we can from them, and then let them go.
If we care about our health, we can't afford to become emotionally constipated. Now I know that's a little crude, but it's an excellent metaphor. When we eat, we take in food, we chew on it, and we take it in even further by swallowing. Our digestive system goes to work extracting useful nutrients and then eliminating the waste. We should treat our toxic emotions the same way. We human beings, we will feel anger and even bitterness at times.
But we should use those strong emotions to help us learn what we can about the events in our lives, cope with those events better, and then let the toxic emotions go. That's our natural design. That's what God's Word teaches. Processing our emotions well is a vital part of a natural health lifestyle. That brings us to the body. Prereloat number seven is food or nutrition.
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I know there's a lot of conflicting information when it comes to nutrition. It's easy to get overwhelmed and just give up. But I'm going to give you a couple of tips that you can start implementing on your next meal. First, get away from processed foods. You know, every diet plan, whether it's vegetarianism, raw food vegans, paleo, Mediterranean, keto, or even carnivore, they can all roll out their success stories.
These eating plans have drastically different advice, but there's one thing they all have in common. They all get away from processed foods and they start eating food closer to its God-given natural form. When we do that, we naturally get away from seed oils and man-made chemicals. I've done other podcasts on seed oils. These highly processed so-called vegetable oils have been pushed down our throats for years, even decades.
Seed oils like soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, rice bran oil are all highly processed, toxic forms of food. And in fact, they're not really foods at all. When they were first invented, they were used for machinery lubrication. They didn't even consider them foods. Now, they're in almost all processed foods, and they're all highly toxic.
You can find them in almost any processed food in a package or a box, and especially in restaurants. If you want to learn more about the health hazards of seed oils, listen to episodes 141 and 142 in this show. Pillar number eight is movement or exercise. The important thing to remember here is our bodies were designed to move. In the last episode, I talked about spending more time outdoors doing activities like gardening,
walking or light hiking. Those are some very effective health building activities. We can also add to that strength training. But here's an important thing you should remember about strength training or resistance training. That is, as we age, we need to tone it down a little bit. We need to back off on the intensity. More is not always better. In fact, recent study has shown that if you're over 40, doing more than one hour of resistance training a week,
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can be counterproductive. I'll put a link to that article in show notes. Pillar number nine is sleep. We should think of sleep as a nutrient because it is. All kinds of important health building activities take place during our nighttime slumber. We're designed to sleep when it's dark and be alert and awake when it's light out. Now I go into great detail on what happens during sleep and how to get a better night's sleep in episodes number five and six on the show.
was long time ago, but you can go back into the archives of the show and listen to those episodes. Even though they're quite old, the information there is timeless. In fact, I would say that's true about every episode on the show. Whether it's me doing a solo episode or interviewing a guest, we always share timeless truths. So to summarize, here's the nine pillars again. The spiritual component of health is all about loving relationships. Love for God, love for others,
and love for ourselves. For the mental emotional component, we want to be our own MVP. We want to be more skilled in mental toughness. We want to have victory over limiting beliefs, and we want to practice emotional intelligence. The physical component of health or the body, we want food, move and snooze, nutrition, exercise and sleep. I hope you found this information useful. If you did,
I'd appreciate it if you would tell a friend about the show. know, health from a biblical perspective is really hard to come by. Most of what you hear out there is not rooted in timeless truths from the Bible, but that's what this show is all about. So I'll bet if you share the show with somebody, I'll bet they'll thank you for it and they'll appreciate it. That's it for now. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. Go out there and live abundantly. I'll talk with you next time. Be blessed.
