More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - Defining Life and Death
Imagine being pronounced dead and yet finding your way back to life 45 minutes later. That's exactly what happened to Roy, whose astonishing revival in the morgue left an indelible mark on his surgeon, Dr. Robert Jackson. In this deeply emotional episode of "Devotions with Dr. Papa," we recount Roy's harrowing medical journey, from battling severe arthritis and coronary artery disease to surviving a near-death experience during surgery. Dr. Jackson shares how this miraculous event not only transformed Roy's life but also served as a powerful reminder of the responsibilities physicians carry. This story also serves as a poignant transition into a discussion on spiritual health, urging listeners to examine their own spiritual vitality with the same rigor they apply to their physical health.
From the habits that signify genuine spiritual life to the critical correlation between daily Bible reading and spiritual vitality, this episode dives deep into what it means to truly live a life of faith. Dr. Jackson brings in compelling statistics from the Barna Group and shares a heartfelt story from his mission trip to Romania, illustrating the stark difference between genuine prayer and rote recitations. Drawing from James 2, the message is clear: faith without works is dead. As the episode wraps up, you're invited to share this journey with others, spreading the word about "Devotions with Dr. Papa" and exploring additional resources through the Jackson Family Ministry. Join us for an episode that promises not just to inspire but to challenge your spiritual journey in profound ways.
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Grab your Bibles and gather around as we look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm sharing with you some stories from my medical practice that reveal biblical insights, and today I'd like to share with you a story that, if you've been a long-time listener, you may recall me sharing this story with you, maybe over a year ago. It involves a patient of mine whose name is Roy, and he doesn't mind me sharing his name because he likes for me to share his story. Roy came into my medical practice probably 15 years ago and when he first came in he was on a four-post walker because he had severe arthritis that affected multiple joints and he had a difficult time walking. In fact, he could hardly raise his head up to look me in the eye because the arthritis affected his neck and he could really only look down at the floor and I noticed that he was balding on the top of his head and he had a significant indentation on the top of his head that he acquired from a surgery to remove a benign tumor from his brain. Well, at the first visit he shared with me a lot about his medical history, and it took a long time because his medical history was very complicated, involving emphysema, coronary artery disease, severe arthritis, this history of a benign brain tumor. He also had a stroke, so some of his speech was difficult to understand. So this initial intake interview took a long time.
Speaker 2:Well, in the course of this initial intake interview he also told me that he'd had surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm and during the surgery he had a heart attack, a cardiac arrest, and he actually died on the operating table. Resuscitation attempts failed and he was declared dead on the operating table. The surgeons covered him with a sheet, did not even sew up his abdomen and he was taken to the morgue. 45 minutes later my patient, roy, woke up in the morgue. He lifted the sheet, he looked at his abdomen, which was open and starting to bleed, and he said out loud when did they stop sewing up patients' abdomens? Well, there was a medical student in the morgue with him with a clipboard. When he heard Roy speak out loud from underneath the sheet, he screamed like a 10-year-old girl in her first horror movie, dropped the clipboard and ran out of the morgue, leaving Roy all alone in the morgue, bleeding from his abdominal wound and gazing at his wide-open abdomen.
Speaker 2:Well, roy told me that in five minutes about a dozen doctors, nurses and technicians came running into the morgue and all he could see after that was the fluorescent lights in the hallway going by over his head, lickety-split as he was then carried back to the operating room, he said in about 10 minutes he was out. He was under anesthesia. The next surgery took about three hours as his abdominal wound was closed, blood clots were removed from his arms and legs and various other parts of his body and the surgery was completed. And then he spent a week in the intensive care unit and then, believe it or not, roy went home with his mother. Now, I had a hard time believing that story the first time I heard it. So the next time Roy came to see me, he brought his mother with him and I very delicately inquired of his mother about that story and she confirmed the truthfulness of the whole story and gave me additional details. So then I began to fully believe Roy's account of him having died on the operating room table and then resurrecting in the morgue. Roy eventually told me that he would go back to Greenville Hospital and stand outside the operating room periodically and wait for his primary surgeon, who was a resident at the time and was now a private surgeon operating in Greenville. He would see the surgeon come out, the surgeon would recognize Roy and they would have a reunion right there outside the operating room suite, and he and Roy would sometimes sit and talk and drink a cup of coffee together. And it was a sweet reunion for both of them because, as you can imagine, it was a horrendous event in the life of the surgeon and in the life of my patient, and they were both delighted that Roy had survived.
Speaker 2:Well, you can imagine that one of the official duties of a physician that he does not like is pronouncing death in a patient. So let me ask you a question how do you determine the death of a patient? Well, you have to look for a heartbeat and spontaneous respirations and spontaneous movement, and if all three of those are absent, then a physician can declare that patient to be officially deceased. In the days before stethoscopes, a physician would hold a mirror under the patient's nose and if there was no fogging of the mirror, then a physician would say this patient has no breath, no spontaneous respirations, and that was used in the process of pronouncing a patient officially dead, and hence the popular saying he doesn't have enough breath to fog a mirror.
Speaker 2:Now, all of this pertains to physical life, but let me ask you another question how do we determine spiritual life? Now, that's an important question, because pastors and Sunday school teachers and spiritual mentors often have a responsibility to determine spiritual life, or the lack thereof, in their parishioners, in their Sunday school class members and in those they have a responsibility to mentor spiritually. This is an essential question because, after all, paul said examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith, which means you and I have a responsibility to determine if we in fact possess spiritual life. And in reality, we can be easily deceived. Just like Roy's doctors were deceived about his physical demise, you and I can be easily deceived about our spiritual life or the lack thereof. So let's investigate this question. How do we determine spiritual life? Well, I think there are three tests, just like there are tests for physical death or physical life. There are also tests to determine spiritual life.
Speaker 2:First of all, people who are spiritually alive have a spiritual appetite. What do I mean by that? Well, in 1 Peter 2, verse 2, peter says that we should desire the sincere milk of the Word. People who are spiritually alive have an appetite for the Word of God. Jeremiah the prophet says appetite for the Word of God. Jeremiah the prophet says Thy words were found and I did eat them and they became for me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. You see, when people are spiritually alive, they have an appetite for the Word of God and they can't get enough of the Word of God. They want to read the Word every day, they want to consume the Word of God and they just can't get enough of reading God's Word.
Speaker 2:How do you determine if someone has spiritual life? Well, you look at their habits, and one of the habits of a sincere believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is the habit of reading God's Word and, more than that, memorizing God's Word and hiding God's Word in their heart. The Christian organization that does surveys of Christians is Barna. Barna is a Christian survey organization and Barna says that 80% of Protestants people who claim to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, do not read their Bible on a daily basis, which makes it understandable that so many so-called Christians do not seem to have much spiritual life about them. It makes you and me understand why so many so-called Christians are so spiritually impotent and powerless. The next thing I would submit to you is that Christians who have spiritual life also have spiritual breath, and by that I mean they talk to God. They have a meaningful prayer life.
Speaker 2:1 Thessalonians 5, 17, the writer there admonishes us to pray without ceasing. And in Colossians 4, 2, paul told the Colossians that they should be devoted to prayer, meaning that prayer would be something that they absolutely love to do. Now I'll tell you a story absolutely love to do. Now I'll tell you a story. When I was on a mission trip to Romania, the group that we were with hired 10 interpreters from Moscow. They were all women, they were all young women and they were all a part of the Russian Orthodox Church. And after the third day of a seven-day mission trip, every one of these interpreters came to a group of us there were about 30 or 40 of us in the group and they came to me and two other men and they sat us down and they said we have a serious question to ask you. And we said well, certainly.
Speaker 2:And they said where did you learn all of these prayers? And I was confused, we were a little bit bum-fuzzled by the question and we said well, what do you mean? And they said in our church back home, only the priest prays and they read their prayers from a prayer book authorized by the Russian Orthodox Church. And yet you, all of you, pray, everybody prays, not just a priest. And when you pray, you pray these long, very heartfelt, sincere prayers. And we want to know how did you memorize so many prayers? And your prayers are so long. We don't understand how you could memorize long. We don't understand how you could memorize such long prayers. And we all looked at each other and we began to laugh and we told them we don't memorize these prayers. These prayers are from our heart and we're talking to our heavenly father. Our prayers are just a conversation between us and our heavenly father. They're not memorized prayers.
Speaker 2:And these interpreters looked at each other and I'm honest when I tell you this, they did not comprehend, they did not understand. And you know why don't you? It's because they did not possess the life of God. They were not truly born again. They belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church, but they did not belong to Jesus Christ. They did not have the life of God in them and they didn't understand what it meant to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and be able to talk to a heavenly Father in the way that you and I talk to one another. And it was so sad and heartbreaking. And even after seven days of being with us, they still did not understand at the end of the week. You see, they did not have spiritual breath, they did not have spiritual hunger.
Speaker 2:In the New Testament we see the prayers of Paul, we see the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ, and their prayers indicated that there was spiritual life in them and this was a defining characteristic of Paul's life. It was a defining characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ's life. And you know, people who possess spiritual life, they breathe, they breathe prayer and they love to talk to the Heavenly Father. But people who are spiritually dead do not comprehend this part of our lives. And then, thirdly, people who possess spiritual life, they have movement. Dead people don't move. People who are spiritually alive, they have movement, and by that I mean they have spiritual activity.
Speaker 2:Now listen to what James had to say about that. In James, chapter 2, in verse 14, he said what use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? And then, in verse 17, he said Even so, faith if it has no works is dead, being by itself. In other words, he's saying talk is cheap. You need to put up or shut up. Your faith needs to demonstrate itself by spiritual activity, spiritual ministry. Now, james wasn't through. In verse 26, he says For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Speaker 2:You see, your physical body without the Spirit is physically dead and the doctor can declare that body to be physically dead. And the same way, a spiritual life that says I have faith, but it has no spiritual ministry is really dead. And the spiritual doctor can come along and look at that life that claims to have spiritual life and say no, no, no. That person is spiritually dead. And how do I know? Because it has no spiritual activity, no spiritual life.
Speaker 2:Now let me tell you a story. I was in the hospital when I was a resident and I'd been called to the bedside of a female patient in her late 70s who had just died and I had declared her to be physically dead. No breath, no heartbeat, no movement, no physical movement, and everybody had left, except for two custodians, two housekeepers, and they were tidying up the room. And I was sitting at the end of the bed writing on a chart it was a paper chart, before the days of electronic medical records and as I was writing, all of a sudden this patient who had died sat up in the bed. She raised her arms straight out, her eyes open, and all the air in her lungs exhaled with this loud moaning sound, almost like you would expect from a ghost in a movie. And then she froze in that position, with her arms straight out, her eyes open, her mouth open, and she froze in that position. Well, the two housekeepers screamed and immediately ran out of the room and this deceased 78-year-old woman frozen in that position just stared at me and I stared at her and of course it was a little nerve-wracking, to say the least. Now, what happened with this woman? Well, that's what we call a post-mortem spasm. The muscles in her body spasmed and she sat up right in the bed, her arms raised up, all the air in her lungs were expelled, her eyes opened and then she just froze in that position. Now it was quite startling and disquieting. So I quietly folded my papers and I scuttled out of the room and down the hall and I said I'm just leaving her to the morticians. Now did that woman have life in her physical body? No, it was just a post-mortem muscular muscular spasm. She had brief, momentary muscular movement, but she didn't have spiritual life, and it would have been easy to have been deceived by that brief, momentary muscular spasm into thinking that she had life in her body, but she did not.
Speaker 2:Now, christians are known for sacrificial deeds of kindness and goodness, ministering to the poor, to the sick, to prisoners, to social outcasts, and they're known for evangelism, for sharing the gospel. In Acts, chapter 1 and verse 8, jesus told his disciples that when the Spirit has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. You see, christians are known for starting charity, hospitals, orphanages, for fostering children that nobody else wants to take care of, for starting crisis pregnancy centers, for working with ex-convicts, for ministering to the mentally challenged. Jesus said to us in the Sermon on the Mount to let your good deeds be so known among men that they will see your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven.
Speaker 2:When I was involved with a church plant one time, we put a sign above the door of the sanctuary that said every member a minister and every member with a ministry. You see, we wanted every member of that church to get the salt out of the salt shaker and into the culture around us so that we could preserve and purify the culture with the ministries that every member of the church would have. So here's my question what's your ministry, believer? Are you getting the salt out of the salt shaker of your church and into the culture around you? Do you possess spiritual life that's demonstrated by actual spiritual activity, or are you being deceived? You see, I had a friend one time who used to pray all the time Lord don't let me be deceived. And when he used to pray that I would scratch my head and think what is he praying about?
Speaker 2:But the longer I've gone as a Christian, I understand that the enemy of our soul can deceive you and me into thinking that we have spiritual life when we really do not.
Speaker 2:So here's the challenge, brothers and sisters examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith.
Speaker 2:And sometimes we have to examine our children, our neighbor, our best friend, the folks in our Sunday school class to see whether they be in the faith. Because, you see, we have a responsibility to look out for the folks that are around us and ask the question do they possess spiritual life? Are they being deceived? Am I being deceived? Do you have a hunger for God's Word? Do you pray and have spiritual breath, and do you have spiritual movement, spiritual activity that demonstrates to the world around you that you really have spiritual life? Are you being deceived, or do you really have what it takes to prove to the world around you and to your own self that you have spiritual life? Well, you're listening to more to Devotions with Dr Papa and I'm your host, dr Robert Jackson, and I hope you enjoy what you hear and if you do, would you share it with a friend? Would you like or share, or even download it and let other people know about devotions with Dr Papa, and we'll be back again next week.
Speaker 1:In the meanwhile, may the Lord bless you real good. Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
