Vital Signs: Monitoring Your Spiritual Health

By Harley Ihm

Vital Signs: How to Monitor Your Spiritual Health turns to the passage in Johns gospel in which Jesus prays to His Father, asking that His followers know unity with one another in their love for God. Author Harley Ihm finds in this prayer for unity the inspiration for uncovering five vital signs that indicate ones spiritual health. He describes the signs that point to the spiritual vitality of ones heart, vision, mind, body, and community.

Vital Signs devotes a chapter to each of these five signs of spiritual vitality, drawing upon key biblical passages, theological insights from the traditions of the church, and reflective observations rooted in contemporary events. Accompanying the discussion of the five vital signs are eleven steps for creating a plan for spiritual health. These supplementary guides are suitable for either individual or group use. They take the books insights as the starting points for developing plans to enable one to work out an approach for cultivating and maintaining spiritual health.

No matter where you find yourself in your spiritual journey, Vital Signs: How to Monitor Your Spiritual Health can provide you with a refreshing look at the hope and promise of true health that flows from Jesuss prayer and desires for His people. By taking stock of your vital signs, you can understand more clearly your current spiritual health and then make and carry out a plan for improving your spiritual fitness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781491790755

Harley Ihm

Harley Ihm is a senior minister in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has taught and developed courses in theology and communications for Colorado Christian University. He lives with his wife, Dr. Dana Ihm, in Pueblo, Colorado.

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Copyright © 2016 Harley Ihm.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-9074-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9075-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906422

iUniverse rev. date: 07/29/2016

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Vital Sign 1 A Healthy Heart: The EKG Test

Vital Sign 2 Excellent Eyesight: The Eye Exam

Vital Sign 3 Sound Mental Health: The Rorschach Test

Vital Sign 4 Peak Physical Condition: The Strength Test

Vital Sign 5 Strong Social Health: The Fellowship Test

Conclusion

Jesus’s Design for Church Study Guides

Health Plan 1: Evaluate Your Agape Love

Health Plan 2: A Strategy for Achieving Agape Love

Health Plan 3: A Biblical Evaluation Tool for Measuring Our Similarity to Christ

Health Plan 4: A Training Plan for Bringing Beauty to the Bride of Christ

Health Plan 5: Resolving Conflict to Promote Spiritual Health

Health Plan 6: A Plan for Developing a Servant’s Heart

Health Plan 7: Checking Your Doctrine

Health Plan 8: Create a Partnership with Your Church Leadership

Health Plan 9: Determining Your Vision for Agape Love

Health Plan 10: Checking True Love

Health Plan 11: Practical Evaluations

Bibliography

Notes

Preface

An apprentice longed to spend his life pursuing the specific art that he loved and longed to master and perfect. He studied for many years under a true master of the art he cherished. The apprentice diligently applied himself to learning from this one master throughout his life, and his work grew to look more and more like his master’s. People could identify the master by examining the apprentice’s brushstroke and use of color and the character of his work. Eventually, the apprentice’s skills mirrored the talents of his master.

That is the learning process experienced by the painter, the sculptor, and the physician, and it’s true of any skill obtained through time and careful attention to the master teacher. Knowledge of that truth can help us understand Jesus’s prayer, which provides us with the vital signs of Christians and of the church.

As I sought out the ultimate spiritual health, the following questions flooded my mind. Am I guilty of depicting the church, the body of Christ, as my own image and likeness? Have I chosen to ignore the checkups that promote health? Do I wait to see illness appear before I check my vital signs? Have I neglected the ongoing monitoring of my spiritual health? Can I be a true disciple of my Lord Jesus and yet reveal an image of Christ’s body that does not reflect His lifework and passion? Can I travel on my spiritual journey without monitoring my spiritual vital signs? I pray these questions will flood our minds as we continue on this journey together.

The church was designed to be filled with people whose lives are masterful re-creations of our Lord’s magnificent style. Our canvas should be growing ever richer with the Lord’s infinite spiritual colors. The more we look like our Lord Jesus, the more closely we can follow His chart for optimal health. The more we are like Jesus, the better our spiritual vital signs will be. The reality of the church being Jesus’s body is dependent upon these simple yet complex truths.

I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church in the days of the Latin Mass. I was an altar boy and spent my Saturdays in catechism, mostly getting into trouble with nuns who did not like disruption in class. I was definitely a class clown. Entertaining the crowd was critical to my integrity. Unfortunately, that was not a quality designed for Saturday-morning catechism.

Looking back, I realize that I had what some might call an inherited faith that had been passed down through the generations. We went to Mass and said our prayers faithfully, but we did not read the Bible. My faith was based on obedience to my parents rather than on obedience to scripture. Faith was part of our family tradition, and there was no negotiation. My family’s faith was not open to debate or question. Still, I am grateful that a tremendous fear of God was instilled in me during those formative years. Unfortunately, I did not develop a reason for my faith. I had no true knowledge of my Creator. I simply believed because I was told to believe.

After high school, my faith was reduced to nightly prayers, just in case this God I’d grown up with was real. My training had convinced me that I did not want to make this great power angry if He really did exist. Not until I experienced tragedy and severe trials in my life—due to my lack of a spiritual compass—did I begin a personal search to discover whether there was a reason for my faith. I needed to know whether the church held any hope.

During this time, I was told about a simple Christianity that set its focus on Christ’s truth in the scriptures. Later, a young minister studied Christian evidence with me and a few friends. Suddenly, I developed a root system that grounded my faith, and a newfound spiritual health arose within me. My life exploded with excitement.

In 1981, I enrolled at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri, where I studied Here I Stand, a book about Martin Luther’s life, and discovered the concept of sola scriptura. When the movie Luther, starring Richard Burton, was shown in class, my faith was challenged, and I declared, I want to be like that. I want to be used by God to stand on scripture alone. I want to be faithful with the rest of my life. I don’t want to be faithful to a church group. I want to be faithful to the body of my Jesus, to His holy Word. Suddenly I saw a strong pulse develop within my faith. I sought to discover the path to a faith that could compete in an iron man competition and complete the race. I was hungry for real spiritual health.

I was told that I had to take a course on the Restoration movement that had shaped our churches. It was a mandatory class in the degree program, and I grew irate at the idea that the college would shape my mind around one group’s history. I did not care what we believed. My heart’s desire was to live sola scriptura, by scripture alone. How dare they try to force me into their theological mold! Of course, I had no choice, if I wanted to graduate from that college.

Reluctantly I went to the class, where I was introduced to the Stone-Campbell movement on the American frontier. When all those denominational preachers were out riding the circuit, they turned into the Martin Luthers of their day. The more they read the Bible, the more they heard this call, the more they experienced an internal, spiritual demand to return to sola scriptura. The once prodigal sons found themselves even more excited, as they realized that God continually raises up His servants to challenge the direction of the church. Again I said, I want to be like that! That is my life’s calling! Lord, help me walk to Your heartbeat, filled with only Your desires and nothing less!

I was blessed to preach with this passion and follow my convictions for more than fifteen years. Then my wife was offered a position at Dallas Christian College as the head of the music department. We moved to Dallas, where I was a supply preacher for a year. At the end of the year, I was blessed to be able to teach at the college.

In 2000, a minister friend, Willy Bolden, asked me to preach at the These Are They Community Church, an African American church in inner-city Dallas. My sermon was titled Just Be Jesus, and I defined the very essence—the DNA—of the church Jesus had created with His life and death. I declared that the church needed to get back to understanding and living the simplicity of Jesus’s body. I said, "If we truly want to be the church, then what we need to focus on is simply this: just be Jesus."

There was a sudden outburst from the auditorium. A man called out, Wait a minute—tell me more. I want to hear more about that! An excitement grew as I gave the message, maybe more in myself than in the congregation, but something was happening. The audience fueled that fire, and it blazed within me.

That sermon planted a mission in my life—never to relent in calling people back to Jesus’s plan for the true church. That journey led me to pursue a doctor of theology degree, focusing my dissertation on taking a new look at the body of Christ through Jesus’s fervent prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel. I saw that Jesus’s prayer reveals spiritual vital signs for the church and especially for my own walk in Christ. This book is my heart’s passion to share this plan for analyzing our spiritual health. How can we not have a burning desire to constantly monitor our spiritual vital signs?

In Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Andreas J. Köstenberger points out,

It was not uncommon for farewell discourses to conclude with a prayer (Jub. 22:28–30; Sir. 51:1–13; cf. Jub. 1:19–21; 4 Ezra 8:19b–36) … Jesus’ final prayer culminates John’s portrayal of Jesus as the one sent from the Father who, after completing his mission, will soon return to the one who sent him (cf. Isa. 55:10–11).¹

It is easy to miss the point that Jesus’s prayer was a farewell prayer. When someone knows this is the last heartfelt communication with someone you love, it rises from the very depths of your heart and soul. Jesus is pouring out this prayer with passion and purpose.

Sadly, the spiritual health that Jesus prayed for, the spiritual health of our Lord’s body on earth, has been ignored throughout the centuries. By making a thorough analysis of this prayer, I want us to see the prescription that can lead us back to Jesus’s true mission for His body on earth. Our Lord’s deepest prayer explains the purpose of His mission for the Father, His mission for the apostles, and His mission for the church, the living body of Christ until He returns. Jesus longs for His body, which is made up of many parts, to be healthy and working together in harmony.

I wrote this book on our Lord’s Farewell Prayer, also known as the High Priestly Prayer, to provide the vital signs for the church that our Lord Jesus laid out before His heavenly Father in John’s record. Hopefully, this first-person analysis with insights and applications will help us better understand the vital signs that guide us to experience health within Jesus’s body.

It is my deepest prayer that this book will ignite, rekindle, or invigorate a fire within each of us to loudly, boldly, and passionately live out the faith given to us in the Holy Scripture. I truly believe that nothing is more exciting to our faith than a fresh call to simple Christianity through spiritual examination. This spiritual checkup can purify us of the needless traditions and petty issues that often attach themselves like diseases and rob the true body of Christ of its beauty and power.

Introduction

For several weeks in a row, I received notices that it was time for my yearly physical examination. My primary care physician did not want me to neglect this checkup. She realized that preventative medicine is a wise practice. I can honestly say that my stubbornness led me to keep ignoring the notices. I went to a specialist whenever a problem occurred, but I simply did not make time for preventative medicine, which is definitely something that should not be ignored. If my primary care doctor sees a red flag among my vital signs, she may be able to head off an illness before it goes to the next level of severity.

Monitoring my vital signs could very well save my life. Why would anyone be so foolish as to ignore a simple checkup? It is even more important to have a regular spiritual examination to determine our eternal health. Each Christian is part of the church, the body of Christ until our Lord returns. We are the organs and vessels that make up the body of our Lord on earth until He returns. It is critical that we carefully monitor the vital signs within each of us who make up the church. How do we approach such a monumental task? How do we keep His body healthy? Is there a spiritual wellness examination that we can undergo?

Christ’s passionate prayer, recorded by the apostle John, contains the spiritual examination and reveals the vital signs that God has set in place. The church is a bit of a paradox. It has a complex mission to complete Jesus’s work on earth. But it issues a simple call to us to imitate Jesus, to be ambassadors on His behalf until He returns. Examining and monitoring the vital signs is valuable to planting, building, growing, and restoring this combination of the complex and the simple—Jesus’s body on earth. Every part of the body needs to be analyzed. That begins with each of us getting a checkup to determine our spiritual health.

This book focuses on the vital signs for spiritual health that are found in the prayer Jesus lifted to heaven just before He went to the Garden of Gethsemane. This prayer was followed by Jesus’s final prayer for the cup of suffering to be taken away if it were the Father’s will. Jesus’s prayer in John 17 gives the Lord’s details for spiritual health to all who believe in Him.

Using a checklist of vital signs, we will explore the depth of Jesus’s relationship to the Father and the Father’s purpose in sending His only Son to build the church. We will analyze the work the apostles did on the Father and the Son’s behalf by laying the foundation and building the church. Then we will explore the importance of understanding Jesus’s prayer and the apostles’ teachings as all who believe await His return for the Final Judgment. Finally, we will investigate whether the body of Christ has failed or succeeded to remain healthy throughout its history.

My prayer is that through this analysis we discover the vital signs and the necessary processes to keep the true church of Christ in excellent spiritual health.

Vital Sign 1

A Healthy Heart: The EKG Test

A prominent athlete was being interviewed on television. She revealed that she was no longer able to compete. She had always been competitive throughout her life. One day, while practicing, she experienced serious pains and immediately went to the doctor. When her vital signs were taken, the doctor discovered the athlete had arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat.

Our bodies have natural pacemakers, built inside us by God, that regulate our heartbeats for optimal health. If that signal is disrupted, then we may experience problems that cripple