Participants:
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP180116B
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00:01 Welcome back to "The Ultimate Prescription"
00:02 If you're just joining us, we're talking about 00:04 "worship," and more specifically "awesome sights" 00:06 as they can be a way they we can worship. 00:08 Dr. Marcum, you started talking about a study that you 00:11 read about "awesome sights," is that right? 00:12 Yeah, I read a study not too long from California. 00:15 It was the University of California, Berkley, that they 00:18 specifically measured the body's chemistry, the stress 00:22 chemistry on people that saw awesome sights, 00:25 and people that didn't see awesome sights. 00:27 And what kind of awesome sights are we talking about? 00:28 Oh, just things that were amazing - like a sunrise, 00:31 just things that... Waterfalls. 00:32 See a lot of the awesome sight has to depend 00:35 on the person. Sure - what's awesome to you. 00:37 Yeah, I've heard recently that someone said, 00:39 well, an awesome sight to them might be a beautiful castle 00:42 or a sunrise or for me, a walk on the beach. 00:45 But anyway, they created what they considered an awesome 00:48 sight and they measured inflammation 00:49 in the body which is a stress reactant. 00:52 They measured cytokines and they found that people 00:55 that saw awesome sights had less of those stress-releasing 00:58 substances - less stress, better DNA, less mutations, 01:03 less problems! 01:04 So just by having an awesome sight, that was 01:07 a treatment that they could apply to their body. 01:10 So lots of times we think about 01:12 Adam and Eve, the way they worshipped... 01:14 I'm sure they had loads of awesome sights. 01:17 You know, sometimes when I'm with an animal, 01:19 I appreciate that and I say, "Wow, that's an awesome 01:21 animal," and I look at my dogs. 01:24 You know my dogs, Max and Dap, they're the best 01:26 dogs ever and I just love those dogs and I see that God 01:30 created them for something special... 01:32 there's a love that's shared. 01:33 For me, when I see my dogs, that's an awesome sight too. 01:36 Now you might not agree with that - my wife probably 01:39 wouldn't agree with that, but, unfortunately, 01:42 they leave un-awesome sights in the house. 01:45 She does not like that. 01:47 But anyway, this study showed that awesome sights 01:50 were very important and as we think about different ways 01:53 we can incorporate worship into our lives... 01:55 you know, we develop a worship study; 01:57 we have daily worship; we have church; 01:59 we have singing; we have service. 02:01 The point I want to make is there are lots of resources, 02:03 hunt for them - find them, see what works for you. 02:06 Ask God to lead you into special times with Him, 02:10 and He will do that. 02:11 He'll help you find states of worship. 02:14 He'll help you understand how it's benefitting you. 02:16 So I guess we can say that observing an awesome sight 02:19 is worship in that when we see it, if it's a natural scene 02:23 or whatever, when we see it and we credit it to God's glory, 02:26 then that becomes worship. 02:27 Yes it does, and when we appreciate... you know, 02:29 for me sometimes, it's when I'm 02:31 looking at the body - I'm learning something new! 02:33 When I see the DNA and how everything fits together, 02:36 and how things turn on and off, or a new technology 02:38 that God has given us to help. 02:41 That's all amazing! 02:42 For instance, years ago we didn't have glasses; 02:45 we didn't have hearing aids; we didn't have pacemakers; 02:48 we didn't have a lot of things! 02:50 But God has allowed us to use this and we can use this 02:52 to keep our lives working better so we can find His 02:55 will in our life and sometimes our will might be spreading 02:58 the gospel directly; sometimes it might be 03:01 serving our fellow man or loving someone or raising a 03:04 child or reading a book. 03:05 There are many ways that God uses us through worship 03:08 to do His will. 03:10 No matter what it is, it might be a small role, 03:12 it might be a bigger role, but as we live daily, 03:15 one day at a time, we find that we grow in our faith; 03:18 we grow in our worship - that improves our physiology. 03:21 It gives us hope for today and hope for tomorrow. 03:24 That hope, itself - this healing belief 03:27 has chemical benefits as well. 03:29 We call that "healing beliefs, the placebo effect." 03:32 We get all of this - so it's all wrapped up in this. 03:35 I just find it very interesting. 03:37 Now recently, there was an awesome sight that 03:39 happened near where we live and you had given me some 03:43 good encouragement to go witness it, 03:45 and try and make a video of it. 03:47 So the total eclipse happened, and we were near 03:50 the path of totality actually, just 45 minutes up the 03:52 road from where we live. 03:54 There was the path of totality where you would 03:56 see a total solar eclipse. 03:58 And so, we took one of our cameras up there; 04:00 we didn't have quite the proper gear to film it 04:03 the best way possible, but we made do with what we had, 04:06 and we got a short video of the total eclipse... 04:08 So watch this and just have a listen to people's reaction 04:10 to the total solar eclipse... 04:14 Loud noise... WooHoo! Wow! Many people talking, laughing! 04:22 Clapping! WOW! THAT'S AMAZING! 04:27 Many people excited! Loud! Talking! 04:35 Well now, come back! It comes back! Much talking at same time. 04:41 People happy, clapping! Wow! Clapping! 04:47 Whistling! Look at it! 04:56 OH WOW! Yeah! 05:00 Now, I've seen eclipses before, 05:02 not a total solar eclipse like this, but I've seen 05:05 eclipses before and I knew it would be a cool experience. 05:08 But when it happened, I was a little bit overwhelmed... 05:11 it was much more of a powerful 05:13 experience than I thought it would be, just because 05:16 I don't know why - just God's creation and seeing it 05:19 there, it was just kind of overwhelming. 05:20 You could hear the crowd kind of reacted with awe. Yeah. 05:24 So I guess my question to you and my question for our 05:27 viewing audience who just saw this... 05:29 "Would you consider that an awesome sight?" 05:33 Yeah, absolutely! You bet! Okay. 05:35 "Would you consider that awesome sight... 05:38 could it be an act of worship?" Yeah. 05:41 I think when we credit and realize that God is the Creator, 05:44 and He's the One that has made this natural phenomenon, 05:47 you know, that people don't know how to explain... 05:49 Well, it's God's creation to show us, "Hey, look at 05:53 this, I made something neat for you." 05:54 And when we credit Him with it, 05:55 I think that's a great act of worship. 05:57 And do you think, when that happened, your physiology 06:00 changed? 06:01 I suppose so, yeah. 06:02 And for that moment of time, 06:05 did you feel a lot of stress in your body? No. 06:10 So there were chemical changes that happened. Yes 06:12 And just like the study measuring the cytokines 06:15 in those people, there's real chemistry that happens 06:19 in those awesome sights when we worship 06:21 and when we don't worship. 06:23 Now, there's also false worship out there, okay? 06:27 And you can have health benefits from other types 06:31 of worship and we see that quite a bit. 06:34 But I'm very concerned about who has control. 06:38 The battle is in our mind... who controls out mind? 06:42 Because we don't only want health benefits, you know, 06:46 like a lower blood pressure and these things... 06:48 We want eternal benefits and that's from living this 06:53 continual state of worship that walks with God in this. 06:57 So I think that was excellent footage, 06:59 I didn't get to see the total eclipse - I just saw 07:02 a part where I was at, but when I just saw this right then, 07:05 I had goose bumps. 07:08 There was a physiologic change in my body 07:10 when I saw that act of worship. 07:12 I'm saying, today, that when we find ways to worship, 07:16 and we do it consistently, when we feed out brains 07:20 with worship - when it grows the brain, 07:22 there's real physiology that changes. 07:25 It's a very important thing that we do and we have to 07:28 make it an important thing, because here we are 07:31 in front of the God of the universe - we want to do it 07:33 as well as we can - we want Him to train us 07:36 how to do it! That's right. 07:37 And we have to realize that worship has changed 07:40 throughout time. 07:41 It has changed by different age groups. 07:44 It's also changed in different cultures and we have to be 07:48 a little bit flexible about worship. 07:51 For instance, people in the jungles that don't have 07:54 access to everything we do or don't even read and write, 07:56 they might have different ways 07:58 that God reaches them in worship. Yeah. 08:00 Your generation, you know, how are they worshipping nowadays? 08:03 Yeah, it's different from the way my grandparents worshipped. 08:06 Right, it changes over time, you know. 08:09 For instance, I take care of some older people, okay... 08:13 and some of the ways... they can't go to church anymore. 08:15 They can't get out, they don't interact, 08:17 but one of the ways they worship is turning on 08:19 the television and they might see a program on 08:21 "Three Angels Broadcast" that brings them 08:23 into a state of worship. Right, yeah. 08:25 They might hear a song, so that 08:26 might be a way that God uses 08:28 that technology to bring worship to people. That's right. 08:31 Some people might not be able to read and write, 08:33 well God can reach them too. 08:35 You know, some people have all sorts of different ways to 08:38 worship and we have to realize that and try to incorporate 08:41 those in our lives based on asking God to help us. 08:44 Show us how to worship. 08:46 "Create in me a new heart." 08:48 And God, remember that text, "Come unto Me, 08:51 worship Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden," 08:54 the stress chemistry that is on our genetics that's causing 08:58 problems and I will give you, it's a gift, I will give you. 09:01 So as we come and ask Him, He is going to give us 09:05 this prescription - I think that's a remarkable thing. Yep. 09:08 You know, it's just about the relationship, 09:10 it's not about traditions. 09:11 Jesus taught us that when He came. Right! 09:13 It's not about your traditions, the ways of doing things. 09:14 It's about a relationship. 09:16 And we've got a short video now that we'd like to 09:18 share with you - that you can share with other people 09:20 that just drives the point home that it's all 09:21 about a relationship. 09:24 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 09:26 Our biblical prescription for life today is found in 09:29 Philippians 3:10, where it says that... 09:32 "I might know Him and the power of His resurrection." 09:36 Relationships - There have been numerous studies that show 09:39 how a relationship improves our physiology. 09:42 In fact, a Finnish study in the "European Journal 09:44 of Preventive Medicine" studied 14,000 couples, 09:47 and they showed decreased myocardial infarction rates. 09:51 Ruth Feldman, in Israel, found out that cuddling and hugging 09:54 increases Oxytocin and dopamine; 09:57 both valuable chemicals for our health. 10:00 Think about this... If human relationships improve our 10:03 physiology, what about our most important relationship... 10:06 a relationship with God made possible by Christ. 10:11 What a powerful prescription! 10:13 I want to invite you to give Christ a hug today! 10:17 I'm Dr. James Marcum and this is your 10:20 "Biblical Prescription for Life." 10:23 And if you would like more resources about 10:25 "Biblical Prescriptions" and things that you 10:26 can share with your friends and neighbors, 10:27 we have a free offer that we'd like to put out there. 10:30 It's our guide to restorative worship and that can be found at 10:33 BiblicalPrescriptions.com/ Worship 10:36 Feel free to print off as many copies of that as you like. 10:38 It's just one page - it's a simple introduction 10:41 to the idea of biblical prescriptions to help you 10:43 get started and understand how that can change your life. 10:46 And if you like what you see there, call 3ABN 10:49 and ask how you can acquire your copy of: 10:51 "Biblical Prescriptions for Life." 10:53 Maybe you can purchase enough to do a small group study 10:55 in your home with your friends and we think that would be an 10:58 excellent way to reach out and affect your neighbors 11:01 and your family for God's cause. 11:03 And if you have health questions, we always want to 11:05 hear your comments and your questions at: 11:07 HeartwiseMinistries.org 11:09 You'll find other resources there that we think 11:10 you will find quite valuable. 11:12 Thanks for joining us on today's program and we wish you 11:15 the best of health! 11:24 I want you to remember that eclipse today 11:27 as you live your life. 11:29 You might have some stresses that get to you... 11:31 It might be your brain is having some overcharge, 11:34 but just remember that eclipse and the way it made you feel... 11:37 that awesome sight! 11:39 And when you feel stress in your body, 11:42 I want you to think about the treatment of worship, 11:45 and the many ways that you might worship including 11:49 awesome sights, bible study, prayers, service, praise, 11:53 thanks - there are so many ways, I can't touch them all - music! 11:57 One of the ways we can worship is through prayer. 12:01 So let's bow our heads together... 12:04 Heavenly Father... Thank You for opening up our minds 12:08 and giving us awesome sights in many different ways 12:11 to worship You, Father. 12:13 Come into our hearts right now; be our Lord and Savior, 12:18 and help us to grow from this moment on, Father. 12:20 And help us to feel safe in Your love. 12:22 Thank You for hugging us and help us to hug You back 12:26 today is our humble prayer... Amen. 12:29 If you might want some more information about our 12:32 ministry, I want to encourage you to go to: 12:34 HeartwiseMinistries.org 12:37 We have lots of resources that will help you - not only with 12:40 your health but hopefully will help with your worship, 12:43 and we want to hear from you. 12:44 We pray for you and we want you to continue to pray for us. 12:48 If you have any questions, again go to our website, that's: 12:51 HeartwiseMinistries.org |
Revised 2019-04-02