Robert C. Bowman, M.D.
It is interesting to note that the Bible has always had some of the earliest public health recommendations on conditions and foods and behaviors....
Since the time of Luke, physicians have been servants of Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, as well as servants of mankind. Medicine in all but a few will humble the physician and make the physician realize what little influence that man has, compared to the Lord.
The following words I have found uplifting at a time when the medical profession is being pressured to compromise in nearly every quarter.
Physicians do have special permission to get to know their patients, their community, and their country. They must be servants, but not just of patients. They must serve as leaders. It is easy for some physicians to forget this as they focus on their careers or their intellect or teaching or their possessions. More than ever, the country needs local, state, and national leaders who understand people, especially people who face the greatest challenges day to day in our country.
I hope these words from Ravi Zacharias will encourage you to be bold in your faith and abide in the Lord:
When I am in the word, I am doing more of God’s bidding than when I am outside of the word of God. I am winging it on the basis of a gift and therefore to me the anchor and the mooring always has to be in His word. If a medical profession gets so caught up in the profession then the profession has superseded the call. When the day is done we will find out that it was the word that abided forever. So the man or woman in this kind of profession I say listen to Him and He speaks to you in His word. It gives you a more realistic perspective of who you are. The world can give you accolades or can cut you down and misplace you, but the word will always humble you without humiliating you and lift you up without overexalting you. It gives you a right perspective of who we are before God…
That is where the discipline comes in. I think the medical profession obviously needs a lot of discipline. I think what we will have to do is learn when to argue, how gently to argue, and when to back away. It is going to be an apologetic that is not just argued but is also seen. If the medical profession is called upon to pay a price today because of all we know about the intrinsic nature of human life, so be it. There will be the world that will stand up and call them blessed, just as decades go by and those that did not speak out against the holocaust are now being asked to apologize for it. The day may come where those who are speaking out for the unborn and the protection of the most little among us may have a world come to their side and say we owe an apology to them because we did not listen to them. God sent His son who ended up on a cross. Why are we asking for something less?
Ravi Zacharias 2/2001 Christian Medical and Dental Association cassette