Posts Tagged ‘Faith’
Notre Dame
My nurse practitioner is a Catholic Christian who has expanded her options by embracing Buddhism after multiple vacations to Thailand, where she fell in love with elephants. When the church at Notre Dame burned, she was heartbroken, as was I. Today I asked her if she had ever been to Notre Dame and seen the Crown of Thorns that was kept there. She had not, but then showed me a picture of St. Anthony she carried with her, and then drifted to her admiration of St. Francis. She said. “I’ve always wanted to walk where St. Francis walked.”
Read MoreBelieving God
“He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” (Mark 4:40, NIV 1984).
I settled into a chair in the hotel lounge away from the crowd so that I might catch up on my email, with some real anxiety over the news that email was bringing me. Earlier in our mission I had prayed that each of us might be ready for God’s work of interruption. Just so, an Albanian medical student saw me sitting there alone and asked, “Are you busy?” As he sat down, he reflected on an earlier talk I had given and asked, “Which level of happiness are you experiencing?” As we talked, I asked him about his own faith experience. He described, “I am a Christian. My mother is a Christian who believes. My father is a Christian who does not believe. I am more like my father.”
Read MoreChristian Doctor’s Digest – July 2019
In this month’s podcast, Dr. David Stevens is joined by Dr. Tyler VanderWeele to talk about the link between religious upbringing and health. Next, Senior Vice President Gene Rudd interviews Dr. Ron Bryce about his book Fingerprint of God. Finally, listen and learn more about Dr. Bill Griffin, CMDA’s new Dental Director.
Read MoreA Deeper Faith
“…For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11, ESV).
Read More“I Chose to Believe”
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer…” (Philippians 4:6, NASB).
Paul married a girl I grew up with. They worked in Christian ministry together, and then he developed cancer and died. While he was living with cancer, Paul sent out an update to friends and supporters. Within that update he wrote, “A few weeks after finishing my radiation treatments a friend asked me what I had come to know about God through my ordeal. I had been wrestling with many thoughts that very day, and I realized that everything came down to one thing: I had to either believe God’s Word, the Bible, or not. I chose to believe. As a result, I understood in a new way that God is really sovereign and in control of my life and I am not.”
Read MoreI Still Need the Cross
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:15-16, NIV 1984).
Read MoreAsking
He had a Santa Claus beard but little hair on top. I told him, “You know, you are one of the few over 60 who has been cured of their acute leukemia.”
“Yes, I know,” he said.
“I hope you are telling folks how God has blessed you. “
“I am,” he said. “One thing I tell folks a lot is about the day my wife came in one early morning and saw the sunrise coming into the hospital. I had been having an uncontrolled fever for 10 days. She looked at the sun and prayed to God, ‘Dear God, burn it out.’ That morning after she left, I felt a deep burning inside. I fell off to sleep, harder than I had been sleeping in a long time. About 10:30 I woke up, and I was hungry, and my fever was gone and never returned.”
Read MoreRushing Waters
I awoke Monday morning planning within the week to teach a Bible study on our personal testimony for Christ. As I stood in front of the mirror, shaving, I realized what a poor witness for Christ I have been, at least in words. So, for the entire week, when I was with my patients, I intentionally listened for the Holy Spirit, asking Him that I might bring up the name of Jesus at least once. Though God has used me for personal witness in the past, He did not this week in words that I could recognize, or else, I chose not to hear Him.
Read MoreBenchmarks in the Battle
Early this year Dr. Andre Van Mol found himself transitioning from 23 years of solo family practice to employment by a big company, which is enough change for any season. Then came the request to help small teams fight big bills in his state capital of Sacramento, California.
Read MoreWearing the Cross
I am not an overtly religious person. I prefer to enter quiet conversations that lead to discussions of our Savior. I don’t like wearing my faith on a lapel…until recently. We were attending a CMDA event in Raleigh-Durham when Dr. Craig Fowler handed out gold crosses. I looked to see if he was wearing one and he was. He challenged us to put them on our own lapels. It now rests each day on the left lapel of my white coat and I am impressed that it has more likely changed me than affected the folks around me.
Read MoreThe Only Way
We were seated in a closed circle, mostly Albanian students, a few followers of Christ and many who were not. We had been discussing healing and the nature of healing by God. The conversation was sporadic. And then a red headed medical student turned to my daughter, a nurse, and said to her, “You Americans don’t understand. You grew up with Christianity and became Christians because your families were Christian. We in Albania had no religion; it was illegal for over 50 years. Now, everywhere we look, we have someone telling us that theirs is the only way to God. Who are we to believe? I would rather just believe in God and not divide everyone by different labels of religion.”
Read MoreChristian Doctor’s Digest – November 2016
Ben Mast shares from his book Second Forgetting, the Power of the Gospel During Alzheimer’s about helping caregivers find hope during this most difficult time. Chuck Thompson expounds on his book Presence & Truth about Christian counseling concepts to help us deal with others. Albert Mohler concludes the discussion of his book The Conviction to Lead on leadership principles.
Read MoreChristian Doctor’s Digest – April 2015
Outreach to those around us for the Kingdom. Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, shares from his book Storm about churches having a better outreach into their communities. Nabeel Qureshi, MD discusses the Interface with God & Science and how to incorporate that into our witness to Muslim colleagues.
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