Charisma Magazine

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is here once again, and the country widely considered the most scientifically advanced in the world is still searching for a cure for the disease.

In fact, women in developed countries like the United States tend to have higher rates of breast cancer because of diet and other factors, and conventional or orthodox treatment—chemotherapy, radiation and surgery—remains primitive because of the catastrophic effects it can have on patients.

The best and brightest in the medical community need to embrace a more holistic approach. This was never clearer to me than when I was a medical student. My late father, Dr. Ernesto Contreras Sr., was accepted as a keynote speaker at a World Congress on Cancer, subject to a peer review by oncologists at the famed Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

This Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people will tune in to the Emmy Awards. Viewers will wait eagerly to see their favorite actors and actresses dressed in their fancy best.

At some point during the show, a B-list actor will introduce a two-minute video reel of awards presented at an earlier ceremony for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

I’m often asked, “What is the one thing above all others that is a leader’s priority?” My answer has little to do with personal gifts or professional skill. But it is the thing that will become the foremost reason people will trust and follow you and the reason God will put His seal of approval on you. The one thing is integrity of heart.

Leaders with integrity of heart listen to the Holy Spirit’s whispers, yield to His slightest “pings” of conscience and submit to His goads of correction or direction. It is found and sustained by daily choices of a conscience that yields to, and a conscientiousness that abides in, this sobering and inescapable truth: Every moment, I am naked and exposed in front of Jesus (see Heb. 4:13).

That I should live my life “in front of Jesus” is the counsel my mother engraved upon my heart as a child. It was never used to condemn, but spoken to teach me to live self-confronted by that reality. It has never produced perfection in me, but it has provided life-long protection from self-will, presumptuous indulgence or presumed self-righteousness. To live your life in front of Jesus will keep you on the sure course unto life, the pure path of love and in the securing fold of truth.

Jack Hayford is founding pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California, and former president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

The best part of the Christian life, the one thing that is truly needful, is time spent with God.

If you were to ask me to name the most important principle of Christian living I've ever learned, I would answer you without hesitation. It is the secret of daily communion with God. That is, without question, the No. 1 priority of the Christian life. It is the key that opens every door.

Yet it is the one thing many Christians can't seem to find time for.

When you think about it, that's astonishing. No other group of people since Adam and Eve has had the opportunity to fellowship with God the way we can. The Creator and Ruler of the entire universe has made Himself available to meet with us as believers every day. He sent Jesus to the cross to shed His blood so that we could enter into the holy of holies and draw near to Him any time we desire.

God Himself has flung open to us the door of fellowship and said, "I'm here for you. Just draw near to Me and I'll draw near to you. Spend time with Me and I'll give you the wisdom you need. I'll strengthen you and equip you and help you in every area of your life."

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