Healthy living

Description

Each time I share the message of health and hope at a church, a conference or on a Christian television or radio program, I begin with this vision: “I see a day not long from now when every major mainstream media outlet proclaims this headline: Christians are the world’s healthiest people, with less heart disease, diabetes and obesity than the rest of the world and have a vibrant level of health. When this day comes, our churches will have to double or triple in size as people from near and far will beat down our doors to learn about the God we serve. In that day, we will truly be God’s city on a hill, a light in a dark world.”

More than 25 years ago, God spoke a very similar message to a young medical doctor named Rex Russell. Out of obedience to God’s call on his life, Dr. Russell wrote a landmark book called What the Bible Says About Healthy Living. Through this act of obedience, God has used Dr. Russell to deliver a message that has transformed the health and lives of thousands of people.

I met Dr. Russell about 8 years ago after picking up his book in my local Christian bookstore. Although the title of the book piqued my interest, I was expecting to find another version of the Genesis 1:29 vegetarian diet that many had written about previously, a diet that I had come to believe from my own personal experience to be incomplete and even unhealthy for many.What I found was a health book combining the best of biblical wisdom with modern-day science, a foundational health plan that was both timely and authentic, and, to date, the most complete and accurate book on biblical health that I have read.

Having recovered from an incurable illness by following a health plan with similar principles, I knew I had to meet the author. As I found myself standing in line, waiting to meet Dr. Russell, I was pleasantly surprised by his humble demeanor and great warmth. That day, after I shared my story of how God brought me from tragedy to triumph, Dr. Russell and his wife, Judy, told me-a 22-year-old health-food store stock boy-that God was going to use me to bring health to His people. Armed with that encouragement, I made a commitment to follow God’s call on my life to bring the Bible’s health message to the Church.

As I spent time with Dr. Russell and stood alongside him sharing in the message that God had given to him, I was amazed at the impact that What the Bible Says About Healthy Living was making in the lives of people. The three principles that are core to its message, Eat the Foods God Created for You, Don’t Alter God’s Design and Don’t Let Any Food or DrinkBecome Your God, have provided a healthy foundation for all who dare to take Dr. Russell’s challenge to follow the Bible’shealth plan. Through this book, Dr. Russell has made a difference in so many people’s lives-many of whom he’ll neversee on this side of heaven-and I proudly count myself as one of them.

Jordan S. Rubin Founder, Garden of Life
New York Times Best-selling Author, The Maker’s Diet and
The Great Physician’s Rx for Health and Wellness