More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - God is not Mocked
Ever wondered what happens when people dismiss critical advice, both medical and spiritual? On this episode of "More Than Medicine," we promise eye-opening lessons from Dr. Robert Jackson's profound experiences. Hear the heart-wrenching stories of a pastor who refused a colonoscopy, a businessman who succumbed to painkiller addiction, and a young alcoholic who scoffed at spiritual guidance. Each tale serves as a powerful reminder that ignoring wisdom, whether from a doctor or spiritual counselor, often leads to dire consequences.
Transitioning from cautionary tales to uplifting resources, we delve into the impactful works offered by the Jackson Family Ministry. Discover the themes behind Dr. Jackson's influential books like "The Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Life" and "Laughter Silvered Wings." Learn how these resources can equip believers and enhance your spiritual journey. Don’t miss the opportunity to visit the Jackson Family Ministry website and social media platforms for more insights and to schedule speaking engagements. Tune in for a blend of medical insights, spiritual wisdom, and ministry promotion designed to bless and inform your life.
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
https://bobslone.com/home/podcast-production/
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, gather around and let us look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm continuing in a series of lessons regarding biblical insights that I have gained from relationships with my patients. Today's lesson is entitled God is not mocked, which comes from a scripture reference in Galatians, chapter 6, where Paul told the Galatian Christians Do not be deceived, god is not mocked. Whoever sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but whoever sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life and peace. This is Galatians, chapter 6. Well, I just spent about 15 minutes explaining to one of my patients dietary changes and exercise changes that he needed to make in his life to manage his blood pressure, his diabetes and his obesity. I'd written two prescriptions for him, one for his blood pressure and one for his diabetes, and when I finished he looked at me and he said, doc, is that your best advice? And I said yes, sir, that's my best advice. And then he said how much would you charge me for your second best advice? Well, we both laughed, but I didn't think it was really all that funny, because I knew this patient never followed my advice. In fact, I knew that he never changed his eating habits, he never exercised, and I also knew that he never got these prescriptions filled. In fact I kind of wondered why he ever came to see me. I think he only came because his wife made him come twice a year.
Speaker 2:Many of my patients disregard my best advice. They disregard my advice about losing weight, about exercising. They have no intention of taking the prescriptions that I write for them. And then, when I recommend that they undergo cancer screening, they just politely decline and it's often to their regret. Years later, for example, I had a pastor patient who had five children and he reported to me that he had bowel irregularities and some blood in his stool. I recommended that he obtain a colonoscopy and he said I need to pray about that. And I said, pastor, there's some things you don't need to pray about. Well, this preacher, two years later was in the grave at age 45 from metastatic colon cancer. You see, there are people who just disregard my best advice and, as you know, I also dispense not just medication but spiritual advice.
Speaker 2:And one of my patients was a businessman. He had become addicted to painkillers, to opiates. He and I discussed this multiple times in my medical office. He would come to me and he would request prescriptions for painkillers. I knew he was addicted and I would decline and he would be frustrated. But he would leave frustrated because I wasn't going to contribute to his delinquency. I recommended Narcotics Anonymous and drug rehab. But he was embarrassed and he was afraid he would lose his job if he spent 30 days in a rehab facility. He was spending a thousand dollars a day buying and selling narcotics on the street. This was despite running a business. I shared the gospel with him several times but he did not respond. Ultimately he was busted in an undercover operation. He lost his job, he lost his reputation, he went to jail and his wife divorced him while he was in jail. In advance I had warned him do not be deceived. And I said to him your sin will find you out.
Speaker 2:Well, I got a phone call one Monday afternoon late before I left my office and it was a missionary couple friends of mine, who had been missionaries in northern Africa, and they begged me to talk to their son, who had an appointment with me the next day. Their son had become an alcoholic with me. The next day their son had become an alcoholic in his early 20s. They had talked to him until they were blue in the face and he would not listen to them. So the next day their son came to see me for a trivial matter I think it was an upper respiratory infection and so we took care of his reason for being there.
Speaker 2:And before he left me I looked at him and I asked him. I said do you have tell me a little bit about your spiritual life? And he looked at me and honestly said Doc, I don't really have much of a spiritual life, which I already knew in advance. And then I said well, do you know what it means to be born again? And then he stared at me with that deer in the headlights, look. And I realized that, even though he was the son of an evangelist and that no doubt he had heard his father preach about being born again many times in his early life, he didn't have a clue, he didn't have any understanding of what it meant to be born again. This young man was spiritually dead. So I began to explain to him the whole story about Jesus and Nicodemus and how Jesus said to Nicodemus you must be born again. Well, as I was going along, I realized that he had sunk down in his chair and he was covering his face with his arm. And then, all of a sudden, I realized that he was laughing at me.
Speaker 2:Now I have to admit, I have drug abusers who get mad at me because I won't give them the narcotics that they want. I sometimes have patients who leave frustrated because I'm unable to find an appropriate diagnosis for their issue. But honestly, I've never had a patient laugh at me in the middle of a gospel presentation discussing eternal realities such as the holiness of God and their personal sin and the certainty of judgment and the love of God expressed on the cross of Calvary. But he was actually laughing at me, a 20-year-old boy laughing at a 50-year-old man who was sharing the gospel with him. Well, I closed the chart and dismissed him and I was wounded in my heart. And I was not wounded for me, I was wounded for his eternal, never-dying soul. Two weeks later my nurses brought me his obituary. He had been killed in an alcohol-related motor vehicle accident and, as you would understand, his God-loving missionary parents could not be consoled.
Speaker 2:Don't be deceived, god is not mocked. This young man wasn't mocking me, I was only the messenger. He was mocking the most holy God, the king of the universe, who is not to be trifled with. I used to have a doctor friend with whom I prayed every day during my medical residency. He would pray just about every day, saying Lord, don't let me be deceived. I thought it a little bit odd at the time, but over the course of my life I have been deceived by my own fleshly desires. I've been deceived by evil men and by the enemy of my soul, who is Satan. They don't look so smug because I know the same thing has happened to you. Most men are deceived most often by their own foolish fleshly desires.
Speaker 2:Scripture warns us that if we invest in the flesh, we will reap dividends from that investment. If we sow to the flesh, we will, from the flesh, reap corruption. That investment in the flesh, that which we reap from the flesh, is called corruption, disappointment, divorce or even death. In the of james. James tells us in james 1, verse 14. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Well, there you go again, that warning not to be deceived by the flesh, which gives birth to sin and then brings forth death. Death is the ultimate corruption. To lay in the grave and be eaten by worms is the ultimate corruption. All of us die a physical death because of sin. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, both the physical death and the spiritual death.
Speaker 2:There are many types of life investment that are seemingly noble but have nothing to do with the kingdom of God. But you and I must realize that the kingdom, it's not the doing of the deed, it's the motivation. Really, it's what's in your heart. For example, are you teaching school simply to make money, or are you teaching school to the glory of God, compelled by the love of Christ and filled with Holy Spirit? If that is true, your investment is in the kingdom of God and you are sowing to the Spirit. If that is true, your investment is in the kingdom of God and you are sowing to the Spirit. The same is true of truck drivers and musicians and tree surgeons and doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs. It doesn't matter what your vocation is. What motivates you is the question. Are you investing to the Spirit, are you sowing to the Spirit or are you sowing to the flesh?
Speaker 2:I read a book many years ago by Walter Hendricks entitled Disciples Are Made, not Born. In the beginning of the book he tells a story about a young man who was recruited heavily right after his college graduation by import-export business down in Louisiana, and their business was importing bananas from South America. They spent an entire weekend recruiting this young man. They showed him their ships in the shipyard, they showed him their dockyard, they showed him all their warehouses, they showed him all of the systems that they used and then on a Sunday evening they sat him down and they shared with him a very lucrative contract. And at the conclusion of the meeting on a Sunday evening after the entire weekend of showing him their operation, one of the chief executive officers said young man, if you sign this contract, we expect you to give your life in exchange for our bananas. And when he heard that, the young man stood up and politely declined and told them emphatically that he could not sign the contract. They were immediately amazed and he explained to them that he was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said there was no way that he could give his life in exchange for bananas. And he went on to give his life in exchange for making disciples and being a soul winner. And he was involved for many, many years in the Navigator organization, which is an organization that makes disciples of college students and men and women in the military.
Speaker 2:And you see, brothers and sisters, all of us invest our lives in something. Do you invest or sow to the flesh, or do you invest or sow to the spirit? Do you invest your life in that which nets for you eternal dividends? Paul said to live is Christ and to die is gain. Jim Elliot famously said I don't want you to wake up at the end of your life and realize that your ladder was leaning against the wrong wall, that you've sowed your seed in the wrong garden, that you've invested in the wrong kingdom, that you've laughed up your sleeve at the true king. Jesus deserves a fiery, passionate love. He deserves a wholehearted devotion and total obedience. Jesus deserves genuine worship. Anything less is mocking. Do not be deceived, god is not mocked. Whoever sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but whoever sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life and peace.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you like what you hear, I encourage you to like, follow or share, or even download. Tell your friends about Devotions with Dr Papa. I also encourage you to pay attention to the books that we offer on our website. The first one is my first book. The Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Life. My second book is the Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Seed Planting Equipping Believers for Evangelism. The third book is the Family Doctor Speaks Turkey Tales and Bible Truths. And the last one, which is still selling quite well, is my father's biography on Laughter Silvered Wings. These books can be obtained from our website, jackson Family Ministry, or from Courier Publishing. The first book can be obtained from Zulon Press, and all of these are available on Amazon. I thank you kindly for listening. May the Lord bless you. Real good.
Speaker 1: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.
