I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God … is calling us.
—Philippians 3:13-14

God is the God of new beginnings. In Scripture we find the word “beginning” mentioned more than 100 times. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, is known as the “book of beginnings.” And the first verse of that book reads, “In the beginning.” Think God is trying to tell us something?

Unfortunately, most humans are unskilled at the art of navigating new beginnings. We get stuck in the past or frozen in the present. However, it’s a fact that things in our lives change, and nothing on earth remains the same.

Therefore, we must become accomplished at dealing with seasons when God inaugurates change in our lives. Walking with God is always progressive.

New beginnings stretch us. They move us out of our comfort zones—away from the familiar and into the unknown. Most of us don’t enjoy the process, but it’s a necessary part of the Christian experience.

Beginnings always necessitate closings. You must let go of the old to embrace the new. So life becomes a succession of closings and beginnings.

Closure is an important practice for those who want to experience new beginnings. The word “closure” means “to bring to an end, to resolve an issue and move beyond it.” Often it involves mental and spiritual anguish. At times, it’s a determined act of faith and faith alone.

That’s because many of us are stuck in the past—mired down by what “coulda” or “shoulda” happened.

Maybe you still remember the stinging words of a close friend. Perhaps you’re angry at a close relative. Consequently, you never seem to move to a new beginning.

What’s the answer? The closure that comes from forgiveness.

It’s not always easy to extend forgiveness to those who have hurt you, but forgiveness is not optional. It is the key to the door of new beginnings.

If there is someone you need to forgive, release that person now. Let go of any negative emotions and see what God releases into your life.

Many new experiences await you this year. Revelation 21:5 says, “And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!'”

We serve the God of new beginnings, and He wants to write a new chapter in your life. This could be your year to shine.

John Chasteen is the assistant dean of Southwestern Christian University Graduate School in Bethany, Oklahoma. He writes a weekly blog at .

Many people in this country have never heard of T.L. Osborn yet he has preached to untold millions in other countries. Today this humble evangelist is leaving us a legacy of faith.
In an age dominated by mass media, lightning-quick computer technology and society’s unquenchable need for information, it’s unfathomable that hundreds of thousands of people could gather in a single location without attracting international attention.

But that’s exactly what has happened for 53 years when evangelist T.L. Osborn and his wife, Daisy, who died in 1995, held open-field crusades in developing countries, drawing an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people to each event. All told, millions of lives have been directly changed by Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Osborn International in the last 58 years.

Besides preaching at the crusades, Osborn prays for the masses—without laying hands on anyone—and subsequently sees countless miracles take place. Some of the more astounding occurrences have included the instantaneous healing of leprosy, blindness and crippled legs, and deliverance from demon possession. On more than one occasion, the Osborns witnessed uneven limbs growing out to the proper length.

Osborn is also one of the first charismatic ministers to distribute bulk amounts of translated evangelical literature. The most common practice has been to give a set of six Osborn-penned books to all crusade attendees who will accept the gift. As many as 70,000 copies of each title have been printed per outreach event, and one instance required an astonishing 56 tons to be shipped.

Osborn and his family have conducted their ministry with no fanfare, no attempt to conform to the personality-driven culture of the American church, and little regard for their own personal safety or comfort.

“That’s where we’ve chosen to seed our lives and I’m happy about it,” Osborn says during a rare interview granted to Charisma. “I live happy. I live happy to go again, help them again.

“Travel is awful, but when I think it’s awful, I think of Paul. Paul did it. Paul rode on a donkey or on a camel or on a boat, and he didn’t gripe. I won’t gripe. I just keep going.”

How It All Began

Randomly ask 100 native Oklahomans where the town of Skedee is, and at least 99 of them say they never heard of the place. In fact, it’s conceivable that only the 100 or so people who live there and a few census takers actually know that the small landmass in Pawnee County exists.

But in 1923, this nondescript farming community produced a child who would quite literally change the world. Tommy Lee Osborn was the seventh and youngest son in a family of 13 kids. Ironically, his father was also a seventh son.

“That’s supposed to mean something,” he jokes.

Turns out, it did mean something.

Osborn’s father was a nonpracticing traditional Baptist, but T.L. attended a Pentecostal church, where he played piano and accordion. A neighboring evangelist heard him play and asked if he would join him in his national travels. At that time, Osborn’s brothers all had left home and he was the only son still there to help his 60-year-old father on the potato farm.

Osborn admits that he was reluctant, even a little scared, to ask his father for permission to leave Skedee and hit the road. That fateful day while sorting potatoes in the cellar, he was greatly surprised when his father said yes.

About two years into his travels, Osborn found himself at a revival in California. By the time the event ended, he knew he wouldn’t be going back to the farm. He had caught a glimpse of the evangelist’s daughter, and it was love at first sight.

A year later, in 1942, the teenagers were married—T.L. was 18 and Daisy 17. Not long after, they took on the pastorate in Portland, Oregon, for the Pentecostal Church of God of America. But after hearing a female missionary from India speak at their church, they immediately felt a tug toward international outreach.

The pull was so strong that the Osborns devised a five-year plan to evangelize India. Their church organization helped them raise the sponsorship money to go, but just 10 months in, they ran into an unexpected wall.

“We couldn’t convince the Hindus and the Muslims about Jesus, about the Bible,” Osborn says. “But they were very kind to us and the Indians love to talk about religion.”

T.L. and Daisy were unfamiliar with the competing philosophies and had no convincing arguments that could sway the people. In fact, on many occasions those they attempted to evangelize tried to convert the Osborns to their faiths. This apparent failure left the couple “brokenhearted and ashamed” on their return to the United States.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to go back to where people believe in the Bible,'” Osborn recalls telling himself. “‘You can’t do anything with people who don’t believe in the Bible.’ I didn’t know that [the Bible] could be proven because I didn’t know about miracles.”

Eight Hours With the King

Not long after coming home, the Osborns became aware of the miracle-working evangelists ministering in the U.S. at the time. Although Aimee Semple McPherson had passed away in 1944, her reputation greatly influenced their desire to see miracles in their own services.

“That was the big thing that happened to us in India,” Osborn says. “We realized that without the miraculous, we couldn’t prove what we believed. I hadn’t thought of that before India. So we were going to find somebody that performed miracles.”

The search started in 1947 with Smith Wigglesworth, but as they planned to go to one of his meetings, the legendary preacher died. Later that year, they attempted to meet with Charles Price, but before they had a chance to attend a tent revival, he also passed away.

The distraught couple then learned that Price’s post had been handed to Hattie Hammond, known at the time as the greatest female preacher in the Assemblies of God. She was also known for the remarkable miracles that took place in her meetings. It was the Osborns’ meeting with Hammond that marked a significant turning point in their ministry.

Hammond encouraged them to look at their trip to India not as a failure but as their first glimpse into the massive harvest of souls that God had called them to reach. She also left T.L. with this curious admonition: “If you ever see Jesus, you’ll never be the same.”

It didn’t take long for him to understand what her words meant.

“The next morning at 6 o’clock, Jesus Christ walked in our room,” Osborn vividly remembers. “I saw Him like I see you. He didn’t walk on the floor. He walked on the air. I’ll never forget it.

“And I laid there. It was like I was dead. I couldn’t move a finger or a toe. I finally laid on my face on the floor until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. It changed my life. I was totally, totally bathed in a new life. That’s the best way to describe it.”

For Osborn, it was his first of four distinct revelations of Christ. The second came when he encountered the ministry of Gordon Lindsay, a Kentucky native who founded Christ for the Nations.

“I was dumbfounded when I saw him preach in a simple way, and when he made an invitation to accept Christ, lots of people came,” Osborn says. “Then, when he prayed for the sick, they were instantly healed.

“It shocked me. It profoundly affected me, and it seemed to me like a thousand voices swirled over my head saying: ‘You can do that. That’s what Jesus did. That’s the way Peter did it. That’s the way Paul did it. That proves the Bible is true today. You can do that.'”

Osborn’s third revelation came after he followed what he believed to be a divinely inspired unction to read the Gospels as if he had never read them before. Both he and Daisy poured through the Scriptures and began to see Jesus in His Word.

“This is the pledge we made,” Osborn says. “Whatever Jesus said He would do, we would expect Him to do it. Whatever He told us to do, we would do it.”

After making this commitment, the Osborns decided to host a healing service. They put ads in the paper and promoted the event on radio broadcasts.

That night the church in Portland was packed. Many were saved, and people began lining up to receive healing.

“It worked,” Osborn says. “We prayed for them and they were healed, and I had the fourth vision. I discovered Jesus in me. When that happened, Daisy and I said: ‘Now we can go back to India. Now we can convince them.'”

But this time, they couldn’t get funding from the church organization. They had to mortgage their car, sell some furniture and go only as far as their money would take them. The first stop was Jamaica, where in 13 weeks they saw 135 deaf-mutes healed, 90 blind people receive their sight and hundreds of crippled people walk away on their own two legs.

From Jamaica, they traveled to South America and then to Java and Japan. Ultimately, they landed back in India. Since those days, Osborn or others in his family have traveled to more than 90 countries.

Sowing Good Seed

When Daisy passed away in 1995, it seemed fitting to engrave this defining phrase on her tombstone: “The seed is the Word of God. The field is the world.”

That’s because sowing the Word has been foundational in the Osborns’ ministry—both orally and through evangelical literature. Sam Osborn, T.L.’s nephew and the ministry’s international general manager, helps oversee many of the programs that facilitate translation, printing and distribution of the Osborns’ books.

“The printed word is very important to [T.L.],” he says. “You can tickle people’s ears with the spoken word for a little while, but it doesn’t have the staying power it does when it goes through the eye gate as well. To preach and deliver the Word and then leave books for them to study has made a lasting impact.”

Ask someone at Osborn International what that impact looks like in raw numbers, and even an educated guess will be hard to come by. What they can tell you is that T.L., Daisy and their daughter, LaDonna, have collectively had their books translated into more languages than most evangelical organizations have.

“The real engine that generates our will to go—[my will] at my age to keep going—is our faith in the seed of the Word of God,” T.L. says. “That sounds so ho-hum in America, but that is the touchstone of everything about a successful gospel ministry. … And that’s the reason for the books.”

LaDonna Osborn, vice president and CEO of her father’s ministry, says that one of the unseen results of the sowing is the way it influences indigenous missionaries and preachers. She once traveled to the remote region of India known as Mizoram, where the preacher who extended the invitation got his start in the ministry after reading T.L.’s testimony 40 years before.

People in Russia, Poland and other astern European countries sometimes show the Osborns handwritten copies of their books that they use to minister to the lost. T.L. has never directly mentored other would-be world evangelists.

Yet throughout his years in ministerial service countless pastors, teachers, missionaries and even major world evangelists have been birthed from his far-reaching influence—men such as David Yonggi Cho, Reinhard Bonnke, R.W. Schambach and Sunday Adelaja.

“These are like the grandchildren [of his ministry],” LaDonna says.

The Final Frontier

When T.L. was born in 1923, commercial radio was in its fledgling stages, full-scale network television broadcasting in the U.S. was still 23 years off in the future, and the personal computer was more than 50 years away from mass production.

Though widely available today, these modes of communication have seldom been used in the Osborns’ ministry. Daisy briefly hosted a radio program, and the couple once published a magazine that has long since been replaced by a newsletter used to communicate with financial partners. T.L. makes token television appearances but has never produced his own program.

The Internet, on the other hand, is one technological advance the Osborns have fully embraced. Supporters can keep track of the ministry at , where they can also download a series of e-books. This has given the ministry access into countries such as China.

Osborn remains hopeful that he will one day be able to take advantage of opportunities to minister in these difficult places.

“I would like to go to the Muslim countries,” he says. “I would like to go to Arabia and talk to the governments. And this is what I would like to say to them: ‘Gentlemen, can you explain to me why you believe so much in Jesus?’

“And they would say, ‘No, we don’t.’ And I would say: ‘You do and I’ll prove it. You know if you would give us freedom to preach Jesus you would have no Muslims left. You believe Jesus is greater than Muhammad.

‘You use your laws, your parliament, your guns and your tanks to keep Jesus out. Is He that great?’ I’d like to go to China and say the same thing.”

At 83 years old, Osborn laughs at the idea of retirement. He admits that his body will eventually keep him from traveling extensively, but at that point he plans to tackle a significant writing project. Osborn has already compiled a thick stack of notes based on what he deems are the most important elements of a successful ministry.

Like the rest of his life’s work, the time-tested concepts he writes about may not be embraced by the American church. Osborn has never felt fully comfortable sharing his message in his own homeland due to a disconnect between modernized, Western culture and developing Third World nations.

He can only pray that his fellow citizens will—in some shape or form—follow the example he has inconspicuously set for nearly six decades.

“I want American Christians to share what they have with other people and with the world,” he says, “because the world is really poor, really hurting, really neglected, really in trouble—and we have the answer.”

Carrying the Torch

Today, T.L. Osborn’s daughter, LaDonna, continues her father’s evangelistic legacy.

LaDonna Osborn can’t remember for sure how old she was. She thinks she was 11 or 12. But what she does recall is praying a very specific prayer—a prayer in which she asked God to allow her to see her parents, T.L. and Daisy Osborn, the same way that God saw them.

“I can’t explain why a kid would have such a thought, but my entire life I have been so grateful for that perspective,” she says. “I’ve been thankful to be able to see them with spiritual eyes.”

Osborn, who was raised on the mission field from the age of 9 months, says she accepted Christ when she was 7 and first felt called into the ministry as a 9-year-old. She preached her first sermon in Ghana when she was only 10. But her work as a traveling world evangelist didn’t come until much later.

When Pat Lovern joined the staff at Osborn International more than 40 years ago, Osborn was 17 years old, married and expecting her first child. Lovern recalls watching her work in every facet of the ministry, mostly on the administrative side, for nearly two decades.

But Lovern says that back then Osborn was very timid and avoided public speaking.

“To see her today stand before crowds of thousands of people is a miracle,” she says. “God really did a miracle in her.”

Lovern wasn’t the only one shocked to see such a radical change in the Osborns’ daughter.

“[My father] was as surprised as anyone,” LaDonna says. “Neither of my parents put pressure on me. They never presumed what God’s full plan was for my life.”

Osborn worked in her parents’ ministry offices until she was 39. That’s when “a distinct encounter with the Lord” thrust her into a more public ministry. She now travels separately from her father for the most part and has made groundbreaking trips to such places as Mizoram, a remote region in India populated by the “untouchables”; Kenya, where she made history by ordaining 100 native women into the ministry; and China, where she has held underground meetings.

In addition to traveling, Osborn serves as the vice president and CEO for Osborn International. She founded International Gospel Center Fellowship of Churches and Ministries (IGCFCM), for which she oversees 61 ministries and more than 600 churches in 20 countries. She is also the founder and president of Women’s International Network (WIN).

At the same time that Osborn is a part of her father’s legacy, she is also creating one of her own. Her older son, Tommy O’Dell, and his wife, Elisabeth, are the founders of Frontier Evangelism and have spent the last 25 years ministering in more than 50 nations. Tommy’s sons, Tommy Lee and Jesse, act as full-time evangelists with their father.

Osborn’s younger son, Donald O’Dell, and his wife, Carina, have spent 15 years traveling internationally through World Harvest. Her older daughter, LaVona Thomas, is involved in local church ministry, and her younger daughter, Danessa Dolan, serves as her administrative assistant. Osborn’s husband, Cory Nickerson, serves as the finance manager for Osborn International.

With 14 of her 16 grandchildren still working on their educations, there’s no telling what impact the Osborn family will ultimately have on the global stage. But LaDonna is too busy doing God’s work to keep track of how many family members are carrying the torch.

“I don’t know that you plan a legacy,” she says. “You just look back and see, ‘Oh, there is one.’ I see it and then look forward.”

We can be heard if we think first and act with the right motives.
We’ve all experienced it—watching a television program that was crude, contained profanity, and was inappropriate for families, and we got upset or offended. When confronted with ever-increasing amounts of base or coarse programming on network television, many people respond with a letter to network executives.

Respected organizations such as the American Family Association and the Parents Television Council provide their supporters with templates of postcards or e-mails to send to networks, complaining about specific issues. The strategy is to orchestrate thousands of letters or e-mails, hoping to make a bigger impression.

But do network executives actually read our letters? Do they care what we think about TV programming?

I’ve always known that someone at the network is reading the letters, but I have great doubts about a group’s ability to make an impact when TV executives receive thousands of the same preprinted postcard or e-mail supplied by ministries.

So I asked Dean Batali, writer and producer of That ’70s Show. Here’s what he had to say:

“Mass mailings and e-mails based on templates do almost nothing. I once had a network executive tell me they just roll their eyes and ignore them.” (A “nuisance” is how they were described.)
So I asked him about letters written by individuals. How many of those does it take to make an impact? His answer was short: “One.”

He said: “They take personal letters very seriously. The fact that a person took the time to craft a polite letter and then put it in an envelope and get a stamp—it speaks volumes more than a preprinted postcard or mass e-mail. Personally written e-mails do have some effect, but not as much as mailed letters.”

He also mentioned that networks tend to discount audience response in certain regions of the country. A letter from the South objecting to certain things on TV is expected. But the same letter from New York or Seattle or San Diego makes them do a double take—it breaks their preconceived notions about who lives where and what their values are.

So I asked him how we could create a campaign that would make a difference.
“What would be most effective is for 10 or 12 people from all over the nation to actually send letters about the same issue or show at or around the same time, but not exactly on the same day,” he said.

“This would present a nationwide concern. Also, the letters should go to the writers and the network presidents, as well as the people in standards and practices.”

And he reminded me that anytime we write a letter or send an e-mail, it has to be polite and articulate. We should never, ever say anything such as, “I will never watch this show again,” because then the producers will say, why bother changing anything?

In many cases, when it comes to trying to change network TV, the Christian community has done more harm than good, and we’ve actually marginalized ourselves with our methods. But the truth is, we can make ourselves heard if we think first and act with the right motives.

Pride is usually the root of most moral failures.
Most people had never heard of Ted Haggard when I sat down with him at a restaurant in Colorado Springs in 1993 to conduct one of his first interviews with the Christian media. He talked about his many nights of prayer near Pikes Peak. He shared that witches had left animal parts on his doorstep. He told how he “prayer walked” a segment of property near his church and claimed it for God—and how it was later purchased to be the headquarters for Focus on the Family.

When I wrote a cover story about Ted for Charisma I made a new friend, and I even considered going to work for him. His gregarious personality, his refreshing commitment to teamwork rather than the one-man-show, and his passion for prayer and evangelism made me want to pull up roots and move to the Rockies.

I almost became a Ted Haggard groupie. And who wouldn’t want to follow him? He is funny, open about his personal struggles and eager to connect leaders in the church who don’t see eye to eye. He became a role model and a standard-bearer.

I wasn’t surprised when Ted’s New Life Church began to experience explosive growth. With that growth came more media exposure—and soon Ted was the poster child for American evangelicals. His boyish grin appeared in major newspapers and he often was asked to provide the obligatory Christian response on news programs. Most of us were relieved that someone with such an honest, nonreligious style could be our spokesman.

But we all gasped collectively in November when Ted admitted that he’d been involved with a male prostitute in Denver. It seemed like a bad dream when he abruptly left his pastoral position and resigned from his post at the National Association of Evangelicals. For me, the reality didn’t hit until he told his church, “I am a liar and a deceiver.”

Boom. Just like that, another hero had fallen.

Ironically, it was Ted who gave me hope that American church leaders could become relevant to their culture. Ted also taught me valuable lessons about integrity and personal accountability. That’s why it was so devastating that this man had such a humiliating moral failure in front of a hostile audience.

Sin doesn’t make sense, so we’ll probably never completely understand why these tragedies happen. But I’ve nailed down three things we must remember as we assess this situation:

1. Ted deserves our long-time support. Leaders of New Life Church have already removed him from his pastoral role—a disciplinary action that he and his wife, Gayle, supported. Proper biblical discipline was applied, swiftly and with dignity. What the Haggard family needs now are our prayers for full recovery.

2. We must guard ourselves from the snare of pride. The Ted Haggard I knew in 1993 didn’t care if anyone noticed the work he was doing. But after 10 years passed, he found himself in some heady situations, including conference calls with the White House and appearances on TV talk shows. Could you stay humble with those kinds of opportunities?

After televangelist Jim Bakker fell into adultery and went to prison for his financial misdeeds, he admitted that his big mistake was pride. It is usually the root of most moral failures. When we fall into pride, the grace to resist temptation wanes.

3. We must address homosexuality head-on. When news of Haggard’s sin hit the fan, the gay community went ballistic over the apparent hypocrisy of churchgoers who publicly oppose homosexuality while they participate in it secretly. Homosexual activists want us to change our message to say that some people are born gay and are entitled to enjoy gay sex with God’s approval.

We can’t rewrite the Bible. Neither can we simply condemn homosexuality without giving a skeptical world proof that God’s grace can overcome any sinful behavior. Although Ted Haggard fell from that grace, he has placed his life in the hands of the One who can repair his brokenness. Hopefully his eventual testimony of restoration will help many others do the same.

When your value is firmly rooted in Christ, you are free from the agony of comparisons.
As we begin a new year, I want to remind you of something I consider to be important to your well-being: You are no surprise to God. He knew what He was getting when He chose you, just as He knew what He was getting when He chose me.

The Bible says, “He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4, The Amplified Bible).

God already knew our weaknesses, every flaw we would have, every time we would fail, and He still said, “I want you.” Ephesians 1:5 declares He foreordained us to be adopted as His own children. God is our daddy! With Him on our side things are bound to work out all right in the end.

We need to refrain from comparing ourselves to anyone else, because God doesn’t want us to be frustrated and feel unworthy of the blessings He so desires to give us.

Comparing our lives with other people’s lives is unfair—to them and to us. We can look at others and wonder why we don’t look as they look, know what they know, own what they own or do what they do. But it’s interesting to note that Satan never points out what they don’t have, only what they do have that we don’t have.

God, on the other hand, never reminds us how far we have to go. He always reminds us how far we have come, how well we are doing, how precious we are in His sight and how much He loves us.

I spent many unhappy days comparing myself with other people. Why couldn’t I just cast my care on God like my husband, Dave? Why couldn’t I be sweet, merciful and submissive like my pastor’s wife?

Why couldn’t I sew like my neighbor? Why couldn’t I have a faster-working metabolism so I could eat more and not gain weight? Why? Why? Why?
God never answered me except with the same answer He gave Peter when he compared himself with John. Jesus had told Peter that he was going to enter a time of suffering. Jesus was speaking of the kind of death Peter would die and thereby glorify God (see John 21:18-22).

Peter’s initial response was to ask what was going to happen to John. Jesus promptly said: “If I want him to stay (survive, live) until I come, what is that to you? [What concern is it of yours?] You follow Me!” (v. 22). It sounds to me as though Jesus was politely telling Peter to mind his own business and not to worry about John.

The Lord has an individual plan for each of us, and often we can’t understand what He is doing or why He is doing it. We look at others as the standard for what should happen to us, but God has a unique standard for each person. That we all have a different set of fingerprints is proof enough we are not to compete with one another.

It isn’t fair to compare ourselves with others. It says to God, “I want to limit You to this and nothing else.” What if God ends up giving you something far greater than anyone you know? Galatians 6:4 says to do “something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison” with our neighbors. In other words our goal should be to be the very best we can be.

When your value as an individual is firmly rooted in Christ, you are free from the agony of comparisons and competition. That kind of freedom releases joy, and joy is the result of being thankful for every single thing that you have, counting yourself blessed just to be alive and to know Jesus as your Lord.

God wants you to know that His hand is upon you, that His angels are watching over you, that His Holy Spirit is in you and with you to help you in everything you do.

These Christian health experts offer even MORE tips for you to achieve maximum health.

As Christians, we tend to be clued in to the need to exercise our faith. We pray, we read our Bibles, we meditate on the Word, we go to church. In recent years, researchers have showed how important these activities are to developing and maintaining health. In fact, as the statistics quoted below show, a vibrant faith-life is one of the most important keys to a healthy existence.

But it’s not the only one—and that truth is slowly beginning to dawn on believers as Christian medical professionals stress more and more vigorously the importance of caring for the body as well as the spirit and soul. The focus on physical fitness that has increased since the turn of the century is a trend that was inspired not by an ingenious marketing strategist but by God Himself. He wants us to live long, healthy lives so that we can change the world for Him.

If you’ve been nurturing your spiritual side but neglecting the
physical, here are seven keys to getting and staying in top shape:

Live a Life of Faith
James P. Gills, M.D.

Clinical evidence and formal research studies published in a variety of medical journals prove the positive influence of religious faith on health and healing. This includes the beneficial effects of fellowship and worship attendance at a church, private religious activities such as daily devotional prayer, and intercessory prayer (individuals praying for the healing of other persons). So positive are these effects that health practitioners are finding faith difficult to ignore.

On the other hand, statistics reported on give numerous negative indications for people who do not attend church or profess a faith in God:

You don’t have to live with constant sickness. If you follow God’s principles of diet and health, abundant life can be yours.
The Bible tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and that we are to glorify God in them as well as in our spirits (see 1 Cor. 6:19-20). But many Christians don’t look as if they are following this scriptural mandate.

Rather than being fit and beautiful places for God to dwell, as a physical temple would be, their bodies are overweight, out of shape and diseased. As a result, they are hindered from accomplishing all God has for them to do, and many times their lives are cut short by disease.

My goal is to change this picture by showing believers how they can become strong, healthy, disease-resistant, younger-looking, and more energetic and have improved mental clarity. It is not difficult to develop a consistently healthy lifestyle and to be set free once and for all from poor health, bad habits and disease. All you need is some basic information about your body and how it works, and an understanding of the seven pillars of health.

Pillar 1: Water

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.”
Isaiah 55:1

I start our study of the seven pillars of health with water because it is the most foundational aspect of health. Water is the single most important nutrient for our bodies because it is involved in every bodily function. You can live five to seven weeks without food, but the average adult can last no more than five days without water.

In my medical practice I see people all the time whose bodies are starved for clean, pure water and are dehydrated to some degree. They often suffer from headaches, back pain, arthritis, skin problems, digestion problems and other ailments. When they take my advice and start drinking water, these symptoms usually go away.

If it sounds like a miracle cure, that’s because it is! God created us to rely on water for our very lives.

I treat every patient I see in my practice first with water. Most of my patients get better when they simply drink as much water as their body is asking for. Drinking sufficient amounts of the right kind of water (such as filtered water or pure spring water bottled in glass or bioplastic containers) will do more to improve your health than anything else you can do.

How much is enough? To determine how much water your body needs, take your body weight (in pounds) and divide it by two. That’s how many ounces of water you need every day.

But you don’t have to consume it all in liquid form. Simply by eating lots of fruits and vegetables—as you should—you will get about a quart or more a day.
Here’s a typical timetable for healthy water consumption:

Start with an 8-ounce glass half an hour before breakfast. If you usually have juice, coffee or tea with breakfast, you don’t have to eliminate them.

But limit coffee to one or two cups a day if you can, as caffeinated beverages tend to steal water from your body. Organic green tea and organic black tea have only a small amount of caffeine, 30 and 50 milligrams per 8-ounce serving, respectively. So you can have a few glasses a day, though not late in the evening because it may interfere with your sleep.

A couple hours after breakfast drink another 8-ounce to 16-ounce glass of water. Near lunchtime, repeat your breakfast schedule. If your goal is to lose weight, try drinking 16 to 24 ounces of water before your largest meal to give yourself a “full” feeling and lessen your appetite.

Two hours after lunch have another 8-ounce to 16-ounce glass of water. Then 30 minutes before your evening meal drink your next glass.

Finally, two hours after dinner have another 8-ounce glass and another before bedtime, unless you have a hiatal hernia, reflux disease or an enlarged prostate. In those cases, do not drink anything after dinner.

Pillar 2: Sleep and Rest

“He gives His beloved sleep.”
Psalm 127:2

Every night while you sleep, your body goes into a type of repair mode to regenerate and rejuvenate. Your immune system recharges. Your major organs are restored. Old cells are replaced with new ones. Your mind relaxes and orders its thoughts, creating a healthy mental and emotional state.

But just as many Americans live in a state of unrecognized dehydration, many also live on the brink of mental and physical collapse because of lack of sleep. The No. 1 complaint I hear from patients who come into my office is, “I’m tired.” They slump forward in their chairs, peering at me from under the weight of fatigue.

This is not the way our bodies or minds were made to operate. God gave us a promise of deep, restorative sleep.

Psalm 127:2 says, “He grants sleep to those he loves” (NIV). To those who are tired, He says, “‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest'” (Matt. 11:28). Sleep and rest are important because of what they do for your health.

Before we can tell the rest of society how to live, we must clean up our own acts.
Our cover story on Dr. Don Colbert’s seven pillars of health should be enough to make each of us set some goals in 2007. After all, what could be more simple than drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, taking a good multivitamin, getting regular exercise and implementing the other commonsense suggestions to improve your health that Colbert recommends?

Take it from one who has tried these principles: They work. I enjoy good health partly because years ago I incorporated them into my lifestyle.

But it’s always good to take a refresher course because improving one’s health is an ongoing process. What better time to do that than the first of the year after all the Christmas parties? I encourage you to include health goals on your list of New Year’s resolutions.

In addition to setting individual goals, I believe it’s time for leaders in the body of Christ to set goals for the Christian community. Here are a few:

1. Get rid of the fat. It’s well-known that Christians are among the most unhealthy groups in American culture. Maybe that’s the result of too many fried chicken dinners and pie-and-cake social events. But instead of praying for God to heal the sicknesses caused by our unhealthy lifestyle choices, let’s stay healthy to begin with. Reading Colbert’s new book, The Seven Pillars of Health, and participating in the related DVD series is a place to start.

2. Make a difference in the culture. 2007 promises to be a difficult year: The war on terror continues. Iran is developing nuclear capabilities that threaten Israel. Some are saying that the world is in a state similar to that which it was in in 1935.

In the United States, the shift in power caused by the recent elections demands that we not remain silent. It’s time for us to make our voices heard. It’s time to begin strategizing for the important 2008 elections if we are to get the right people elected.

And we must continue to stand with Israel. One way to be involved is to join John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel () and to plan on being in Washington, D.C., July 16-18 to lobby Congress on behalf of the Jewish nation.

3. Cooperate as Christians. One of the things I noticed in 2006 due to my involvement in two races for the U.S. Senate was the apathy in the body of Christ.
Even when they had the opportunity to support strong candidates who share our convictions, many Christians took a hands-off attitude as if there is something sinful about cooperating in a political campaign. Numerous other groups vote as a bloc when their self-interest is at stake; why not Christians?

4. Clean up our act. The recent scandal involving Ted Haggard should give all of us pause. Here was a man who was articulate and seemed to be making a difference at the highest level. But he fell because by his own admission he had secret sin going back to his teen years.

Before we can tell the rest of society how to live, we must clean up our own acts. That means each of us must remove the secret sin from our lives. Accountability helps, but often it is just a way to keep our secret sin from rearing its ugly head rather than dealing with it. Counselors and deliverance ministers can help both leaders and ordinary followers deal with the sin that so easily besets.

There are many other goals I could list, but I’d like to know what you think. So go to my blog () and comment on the goals I’ve suggested, or post your own list and let’s get a dialogue going with other Christians.

One personal goal I have is to grow Charisma’s circulation to 300,000 paid subscribers by the end of the year. You can help by renewing your own subscription when it comes due and urging friends to subscribe by telling them how much you benefit each month from reading Charisma. Better yet, order them each a gift subscription online at and encourage them to add reading Charisma to their list of goals for 2007!

No request is too large for God, but let’s first let Him know how grateful we are to Him.
January is a very important time for all of us in the body of Christ. My family, all the members of Without Walls International Church and I recognize the first month as a holy month.

Although many people think of it as a post-Christmas kind of month, we use the time to reaffirm, refresh and recommit ourselves to the Lord. After all, doesn’t it make sense to start off the new year by giving credit where it’s due, to Him who is the firstborn over all creation (see Col. 1:15)?

People groups and cultures all over the world celebrate their own new year in a variety of ways for a reason. It’s as if we all instinctively know that a new season means a new beginning for each of us.

In the body of Christ, we need to take it further than another list of resolutions and promises to ourselves. We know that without our awesome Creator, absolutely none of those lists will mean anything.

So before we start writing them, we need to turn to our wondrous God and say: “Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. It’s all about You this month because I want to start this year off right!”

After praying this way, we need to follow through. We need to start every day with a special prayer of dedication and thankfulness to our Lord.

We need to remember every morning, first thing, to ask God to bless us as we begin sowing seeds for those things we want to accomplish and believe Him for.

I encourage you to recognize Him daily in a new and special way and offer up your best, knowing that He gives only His best in return.

In my family and throughout our congregation in Tampa, Florida, January is a time of prayer, fasting and giving our best.

The entire month is devoted to re-examining the Word in fresh ways and looking for opportunities to reignite our own spiritual callings and anointing. It’s a time of making God the center and focus of all we do during this first month of the year.

For most of us, it also means recommitting on a daily basis to put God back in the driver’s seat of our lives as we embark on confronting some of the challenges we face. Some of those challenges are as old as we are. That’s OK. The fact that it’s a new year doesn’t mean we aren’t going to be dealing with some of the same old stuff.

But if we got caught up, dragged down, or just plain bowled over by it while trying to handle it alone last year, now is the time to give it back to God—turning to Him first, praising Him and remembering that He’s going to be the One to guide us through it.

Want to be blessed this year in your finances? Put God first! Crave better communication in your relationships? Put God first! Need to improve your health and wellness or quit a bad habit? Put God first!

No request is too small or too large for our God, but let’s first let Him know how grateful we are to Him.

In making the main thing the main thing, we’ll also be blessed with the gift of closer communion with our Lord. In the flurry and hustle of the holidays, a season that should be dedicated to the joy of the Lord, we are often left tired, depleted of energy, and not as close to God as we want to be.

Taking the month of January to settle down and concentrate on the main thing—God—is like taking a vacation from everything else. It’s like a refreshing, monthlong spa in the Holy Spirit.

My Turn

In the midst of the Ted Haggard scandal, I have yet to hear one Christian leader say that this has caused him to deal with his own deepest struggles. It is as if Christian leaders are riding around on their own bicycles without helmets. When one falls and cracks his skull open, they all rush alongside him, get him to the hospital, comfort his family and take over his ministry responsibilities. But none of them goes out and buys helmets.

If any Christian man says to himself, “This could never happen to me,” may he live happily ever after. Haggard’s sin may not be your own, but every one of us is a small step away from destruction without the grace of God and the presence of honest and caring brothers.

The sad truth is that the only men who are accountable are the ones who want to be. Now, at least, Ted Haggard wants to be. Do you?
Gordon Dalbey
Santa Barbara, California

The Changing Face of Christian TV

I have always wanted to know how the founders of Daystar Television got their start in Christian media (“Wired to Reach the World” by Marcia Davis-Seale, November). It’s amazing to see God work in the lives of two people who had a heart to do something for God.

It’s good to know not all television programming is bad. The story of Marcus and Joni Lamb has inspired me, since I hope to one day own a small radio or television station. Thanks for sharing their story. I’m a media television host, and now I want to develop a business plan.
L. Robinson
Albany, New York

I’m an older person who has been so blessed by some of the Christian programming on television. I can remember the early days when there were no Christian stations and very little Christ-centered programming.

Back in those days spirituality was so dry. Thank God for pioneers such as Paul and Jan Crouch, who have given their blood, sweat and tears to get the gospel message out.
Dorothy Jordan
Ashland, Alabama

J. Lee Grady’s editorial criticizing Christian television was condescending (Fire in My Bones, November). Many people would agree with his observations, but most of these people are part of the boomer generation. They are younger and from the United States—and they are a small group if you consider the worldwide impact of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).

Even though I would like to see changes, I acknowledge that you get what you pay for. If older people are the ones paying for TBN, then their church culture will be reflected on that network.

I’ve been watching TBN for the last several years since the Lord helped me deal with some of my perceptions. I can see how Paul Crouch Jr. and Matt Crouch are fighting huge giants in order to initiate change.

Have you ever watched newer TBN programs such as Travel the Road or those on JCTV? Have you ever seen some of the Praise the Lord programs featuring Matt and Laurie Crouch having a roundtable discussion with known, contemporary prophets and pastors? It is excellent programming.
Cynthia Landry
Houston, Texas

I have been reading Charisma for years, and I was shocked by J. Lee Grady’s criticism of Christian television. He has used his position to divide the body of Christ. He made some insulting comments about Christian TV.

Many believers—including many who are under 75—not only watch but also are strengthened and edified by these programs. We are grateful you made favorable comments about Marcus and Joni Lamb of Daystar, but you owe the rest of the ministers on TV an apology.
Ron Beltz
Delta, Ohio

Lee Grady said what many of us have been thinking for a long time. Christian television in many ways has become a historical relic. It’s out of touch with believers and unbelievers who desperately need an effective witness of Christ. This is extremely tragic because television is still perfectly positioned to reach into homes to bring the dose of hope that everyone yearns for.
Peter Schulze
Van, Texas

I share your indignation about the current state of Christian television. The huckstering of “Jesus junk” and constant appeals for money by those who propose abundant prosperity has lowered the integrity of broadcasters who are called to spread the gospel.
Vernon B. Mayhall
San Andreas, California

I too am appalled by the weirdness, greediness and worldliness of much of so-called Christian TV programming. The applause is phony and the sets look as if they are out of Las Vegas. And the preachers work audiences into a lather of emotion. Those are just a few of my least favorite things about Christian TV. Where did we go wrong in our theology?
Tim Schultz
Leetonia, Ohio

We are truly “lost in La-La Land,” as Grady suggests, when it comes to Christian TV. I just saw Donald Trump on one Christian talk show. He and the host were talking about the thing they seem to love the most: money and how to get it.
I praise God that the people in my church have stopped giving to the schlockmeisters and instead have started giving to ministries through the church. We are seeing growth and changed lives.
Rev. Dan Jarvis
Lovell, Wyoming

As manager of one of the few remaining independent Christian television stations in the United States, I concur with much of what Lee Grady and Phil Cooke said about Christian TV (“The Future of Christian Television” by Phil Cooke, Ph.D.; November). However, I do tire of criticism that is absent of concrete ideas. Here’s one: We should broadcast a nightly, half-hour sportscast.

Our staff reporters cover 50 local high schools and colleges. This platform allows us to periodically insert testimonies of athletes or stories that show what God is doing through young people. It’s great community involvement, and it’s unique not only to Christian TV but to secular TV as well.
Kevin Bowers, President
WTLW-TV
Lima, Ohio

I feel embarrassed when Christians are portrayed on TV as greedy, flamboyant and shallow. I have no desire to watch these programs. There’s too much self-promotion and self-exaltation on the airwaves.

I hope the programmers and producers will get it. If they understood this, then we would see a difference in the future.
Sandy Bonzelaar
Holland, Michigan

I detest prosperity preaching whether it comes from the pulpit, on television, in a five-day seminar or from a neighborhood pastor. The preacher always says that the more you give to his or her ministry, the more your prayers will be answered.
I also hate it when the minister tells the people in the congregation how much to give. Prosperity preachers often spend their entire sermon on taking the offering.
Bill Valentine
Lakeland, Florida

The House-Church Debate Continues

Regarding your recent articles about house churches (“God Is Out of the Box” by Ken Walker, June), I’m a firm believer in what the Bible says. It warns us not to forsake the gathering together of the believers (see Heb. 10:25).

But I also realize that Jesus directed most of His ministry to a group of one to 120 people, and therefore we must also follow His example. And when King David was fighting his battles, God told him to do three different things, and all of them were successful.
Richard Boll
Atlanta, Georgia

I agree strongly that those who advocate only home churches are misinterpreting Acts 2:46, which says that early Christians met “house to house.” It says they also met in the temple to hear Peter, John and the rest of the apostles, and they also went house to house to break bread and to be held accountable.

In many ways, the church followed the so-called “Jethro model,” which had a strong leader such as Moses at the top with various levels of leadership beneath. They ended up with leaders of 10, just like in a house meeting. So everyone was accountable.
Bob Chang
Chula Vista, California

Who is this “spiritual authority” that home-churched people are trying to avoid? I’ve spent 15 years in foreign missions, including outreach in Muslim villages. I’ve seen evangelistic outreach sharply curtailed by cutting funds to support extravagant buildings. My tithes will no longer go to support huge salaries.
Donald Johnson
Holden, Massachusetts

I am a strong advocate of the church going outside the four walls to both be the church and do ministry, but not at the expense of gathering corporately for fellowship and worship. A major problem with China’s house churches is that some leaders are untrained, and they teach unbiblical practices as a result. In many instances, they have hurt the cause of Christ more than they have helped it in China.
Allan Isaac
St. Christopher, Nevis