Do you ever wonder why there are so many people who live in fear? I mean almost a constant state of fear, a paralyzing fear. There are some who refuse to leave their homes, some who prepare extravagant bunkers and stock them with food, weapons and everything they will think they will need in case of war. There have been people driven to fear of walking into a school or a movie theater or running in a marathon because people have gone in and gunned down or bombed innocent people doing ordinary things. It seems like fear has taken more and more of a grip on our world especially in recent years. It seems like the more bad things we see in the news, the more widespread fear becomes. The thing that has really been upsetting to me is that we have allowed fear to keep us from being kind. We are afraid to help people we see in need because we are afraid they might hurt us or worse. So we look the other way when we see a homeless person on the street begging. We zoom on by when we see a car stranded on the side of the road. We pretend we don't see the scraggly looking guy counting his change at the coffee shop to see if he can buy a "medium" this time. A desperate looking woman hauling a suitcase down her poor neighborhood road on a cold winter day doesn't get a second thought.
God tells us over and over and over again in His word that we are not to fear! Yet we do. Why? Do we have so little faith in Him that we allow fear to overwhelm what He has done and can do? When Jesus called Peter out of the boat onto the water, Peter got right out and started to walk on the water, until he allowed his fear to overwhelm his faith, and then down he went (Ref Matthew 14). Many stories in the Bible remind us of those who had enough faith to not allow fear to overwhelm them. The only fear they had was the healthy fear of their God. Here are some reminders of those stories...
Abraham did not fear sacrificing his own son Isaac because of his faith and obedience (Ref: Genesis 22). David, who was small and weak, did not fear fighting a giant named Goliath because his faith was in God alone (Ref: 1 Samuel). Noah did not fear the mockery of the people for building the Ark that God asked him to build when there was no sign of rain (Ref: Genesis 5). Joseph did not fear when he was imprisoned in Egypt after being sold into slavery by his brothers (Ref: Genesis 37). Moses did not fear Pharaoh when he asked him over and over to let his people go, because he trusted God had a plan (Ref: Exodus 5-11). Paul did not fear being imprisoned and beaten for sharing his faith (Ref: Acts 16). Jesus did not fear death on a cross, taking on the sins of the world...because He KNEW He would be resurrected and He trusted His Father (Ref Mark 15).
I am learning that truly having faith in God leaves little room for fear. Allowing fear to keep us from doing all that God has planned for our lives, to keep us from being obedient to His will and His voice...it's the same as showing God and others that we really do not have the faith we claim to have. This is not to say that we shouldn't be smart and prudent. The Bible also warns us to be alert. It warns us that the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour (Ref 1 Peter 5). I also should note that there are those with mental illness who have anxiety and fears that are difficult to overcome. We should pray for those who are unable to choose faith over fear and they can and should seek professional counseling and sometimes medication to work through these very real issues. But most of us do have a choice. We can allow fear to keep us from being who we were created to be, or we can allow our faith to show the world that we are set apart to be God's Holy people. That we who follow Jesus do more than just bow down to a God that cannot be seen and cannot be heard. That our faith is so strong that we are willing to lay down our lives like so many before us have in order that more may be saved. That is what we are called to do. This is why a Jewish man named Saul so radically changed his life and spent the rest of it preaching about Jesus to as many people as he could without fear, despite all of the harm, oppression, imprisonment and eventual brutal death he faced in doing so. Most of us will never have to face the kind of persecution Paul and so many other Christ followers have had to face. Most of us only need to look into the eyes of a homeless man on the street, ask his name, give him a blanket or a meal, pray for him...or stop to help a stranded woman on the side of the road...or buy the man scrounging change together at the coffee shop a hot meal and a large coffee...or giving a desperate looking girl walking down the middle of the street with a suitcase in the cold a ride to a better life. Some may think we are crazy, putting ourselves in danger, thinking we are being selfish for putting ourselves or others in possible harms way. But Jesus says we are to treat our neighbors as ourselves. We are to pray for those who persecute us. That if someone slaps us on the cheek, we are to turn and offer them the other cheek. That we are NOT TO FEAR. Even David, before Jesus walked the earth, realized that if he could trust in God to keep His promises, then what could mere mortals do to him (Ref Psalm 56)? As Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Ref Phil 1:21 NIV). As I am learning to lay aside my fears and trust God, I'm realizing more and more what Paul meant by that statement. Living for Christ on this earth and following His example is what I want to do and if I die doing that, then I gain eternity with Him. So what do I have to lose? What do I have to fear? In the words of Martin Luther King Jr, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself."
Lord I thank you for opening my eyes over the past few weeks to see people in need and allowing me to put fear aside to help them in some small way. I know others have seen my actions as dangerous or crazy and some have seen them as ways to call attention to myself. I pray you will help to keep my eyes open, my heart humble, my attitude sincere. I pray that You will continue to show me the ways that You would use me to be Your hands and feet in my community. I pray that You would open the eyes of others, those who believe in You and those who do not. That You would show them that You are true to Your word, that You keep Your promises, that having faith in You alone means that they do not need to fear. I pray that You will show the world what it means to treat their neighbor as themselves by working in the hearts of one believer at a time and allowing others to see faith and light without fear in action. Thank You for working in me and helping me to overcome my own fears so that I may participate in Your restoration story. Thank You Jesus for showing me love and mercy and grace, leading by example so I can show those things to others. Amen.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Does God Heal???
This was the topic of the Alpha class at church last week. The question really was does God still heal today? We know that when Jesus walked the earth, He healed. There are several eye witness accounts in the Gospels of Jesus healing the sick, causing the blind to see, raising people from the dead (including Himself, of course). Just to refresh the memory of those who have already read the New Testament and to give those that haven't some really cool references, here's a couple of examples of Jesus' healing:
1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.[a] The night is coming, and then no one can work. 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing! John 9:1-7, NLT
25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” Mark 5:25-20, NLT
11 Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. 12 A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. 14 Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” 15 Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother. Luke 7:11-15, NLT
30 A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. Matthew 15:30, NLT
Ok so there's a lot of evidence that Jesus healed in the past, when he was living as a human. What about now? In the Alpha video we watched, we heard several testimonies from people of different backgrounds who say God has healed them...from addictions, from evil behavior, from illness. The healing they experienced changed their lives. Maybe you know someone who was healed and they swear it was God who healed them. Maybe you know someone who prayed for healing but did not receive healing. No one can understand God's ways for they are so much higher than our ways. But I believe He does still heal today, even with all of the illness, disease, death and destruction going on in the world. I know this not just because I believe in Jesus of the Bible. I know this, because I actually have experienced it myself. I have eluded to some emotional healing that I have experienced, which I have and it's been awesome, but hard to "prove" really in a tangible way. But, I have a story that I didn't realize maybe how powerful it was until after the Alpha class last week when the Pastor asked if any of us had been healed. I want to share it, because for one thing, it is awesome and amazing and for another thing, I believe it can bring hope to others (the 1 or 2 of you who read this blog, anyway).
About 7 1/2 years ago, I was towards the end of my 1st year of nursing school. I had experienced some right hip and low back pain and my doctor ordered a low back x-ray. On the x-ray, they saw something that didn't belong. She ordered an MRI to investigate further. I was told I had some type of tumor in my retro peritoneal cavity (this is an area that's outside the abdominal organs). I was told that I would need to have surgery to determine whether it was malignant or benign and then next steps. Not really part of the low back / right hip pain situation but something a little extra that needed to be dealt with. It's like when you bring your car in for an oil change and they tell you that you need something else done that will cost about a million dollars and take a week to fix. Anyway, I decided to wait until summer for the surgery because I couldn't miss out on nursing school. I was in pre-op and got my IV put in and was waiting for the surgeon to come in. At my initial office visit with her, she thought they would just look laproscopically (a few poke holes in my abdomen) and may not need to cut me open. However, after reviewing the MRI again prior to surgery, she came in to talk to me with a worried look on her face. My husband and a very good friend from school were with me and she told me that after reviewing the MRI, she realized that this was a much larger tumor than she initially thought. She referred to it as a "kickball" size. She consulted with another surgeon who agreed and she had asked this surgeon to accompany her in the operating room because this was going to be a much more complicated surgery now. She told me that they would give me an epidural in the OR to help with pain management afterwards because they were going to have to make a very large vertical incision down the middle of my abdomen. The only thing I was really concerned about was that I had to be healed in time for my 2nd year of nursing school and that if I was going to have that type of incision, I wouldn't be. Then I wouldn't be able to do clinicals and if I couldn't do clinicals then I couldn't finish nursing school (at least not as scheduled). The surgeon said they would poke the holes and insert the camera first to see what they were dealing with, then make the long incision so they could carefully remove the tumor. I just looked at her, tried to be calm and said "you gotta do what you gotta do." Then my friend, who is a Christian, laid her hand on my abdomen, closed her eyes, and prayed very seriously that this tumor would end up being just a small little nothing and that they wouldn't have to cut me open. I just remember looking at her and saying out loud, "girl, it is what it is, they saw it on the MRI." I was grateful that she prayed for me, but I didn't believe for one second that this kickball sized tumor would suddenly shrink and be nothing by the time they looked inside. I did believe in God back then but didn't believe in Jesus yet. I totally thought she was crazy for praying for that. I remember this like it was yesterday. Fast forward to the recovery room. I slowly start to wake up and am fully expecting to be in a lot of pain and have this huge incision and not be able to finish nursing school that year...and the nurse looked at me and realizing I was waking up, he said "you are not going to believe this." He told me that the surgeons went in to look with the camera, they saw a "baseball sized" tumor, one of the instruments poked it, and it burst - it was a cyst that they were able to vacuum out with their instruments and they never had to cut me open. He said that the surgeons looked at each other in amazement and literally high fived each other right there in the operating room. They could not believe what they saw!! I went for my 2 week follow up to see the surgeon and she walked in the room and says "how's my miracle patient?" She even gave me a picture of my baseball sized cyst.
I truly didn't get the enormity of this situation until a few years later when I had become a believer and I was standing in my kitchen and it hit me that my friends prayer...was exactly what happened. God healed me. She really believed what she was praying for. God heard. He healed. I was able to finish nursing school and about 2 months into that 2nd year, my husband lost his job. He was able to keep insurance through the extended and affordable COBRA program thanks to President Obama signing a bill for those who had been laid off that year. His insurance literally carried us through until I graduated, got a job and got health insurance through my work. It was meant to be for me to finish nursing school that year. God had a plan and a purpose. I'm in awe that the God that created the universe and everything in it would actually care so intimately about me that He would reduce this "kickball sized" tumor to a "baseball sized" cyst so that I could finish nursing school and do the job that I truly believe He ordained for me. So to answer the question "Does God Heal???" I say YES. I know that there are many people that He doesn't heal. And I know that it's so hard to understand that. I believe that we are all healed eventually, either on this side or on the other side. I believe that He is WITH us through all of the pain and suffering we endure on this side of eternity. I believe that we can lead others to Christ in the way we endure through the many trials that we are put through on this earth, not that we are enduring on our own, but through the healing power of God who dwells in us and is ALWAYS with us. He who Himself came to earth and suffered as we do so He truly understands what it's like. He doesn't want us to suffer, He doesn't like it when we are in pain or sick. His plan is total restoration and we are a part of that plan. I'm beyond blessed that I get to be a nurse so I can help to heal others and that I get to be part of His restoration plan.
Lord I thank you for the gift of healing. You heal hearts, minds, spirits and bodies. You heal in Your ways, in Your time and we don't always understand why or how or when. It is not our job to understand. It's our job to trust and to believe and to have faith in Your ultimate sovereignty. It is our job to show the world that we respond in a different way to suffering, death and destruction because our hope is in You and not in this life. We have an eternal perspective and we KNOW that we will live with YOU forever in harmony and in perfect peace, despite what this world throws our way. That belief is how we make it through. Thank you Jesus for showing us the way, the truth and the life. Amen.
1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.[a] The night is coming, and then no one can work. 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing! John 9:1-7, NLT
25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” Mark 5:25-20, NLT
11 Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. 12 A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. 14 Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” 15 Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother. Luke 7:11-15, NLT
30 A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. Matthew 15:30, NLT
Ok so there's a lot of evidence that Jesus healed in the past, when he was living as a human. What about now? In the Alpha video we watched, we heard several testimonies from people of different backgrounds who say God has healed them...from addictions, from evil behavior, from illness. The healing they experienced changed their lives. Maybe you know someone who was healed and they swear it was God who healed them. Maybe you know someone who prayed for healing but did not receive healing. No one can understand God's ways for they are so much higher than our ways. But I believe He does still heal today, even with all of the illness, disease, death and destruction going on in the world. I know this not just because I believe in Jesus of the Bible. I know this, because I actually have experienced it myself. I have eluded to some emotional healing that I have experienced, which I have and it's been awesome, but hard to "prove" really in a tangible way. But, I have a story that I didn't realize maybe how powerful it was until after the Alpha class last week when the Pastor asked if any of us had been healed. I want to share it, because for one thing, it is awesome and amazing and for another thing, I believe it can bring hope to others (the 1 or 2 of you who read this blog, anyway).
About 7 1/2 years ago, I was towards the end of my 1st year of nursing school. I had experienced some right hip and low back pain and my doctor ordered a low back x-ray. On the x-ray, they saw something that didn't belong. She ordered an MRI to investigate further. I was told I had some type of tumor in my retro peritoneal cavity (this is an area that's outside the abdominal organs). I was told that I would need to have surgery to determine whether it was malignant or benign and then next steps. Not really part of the low back / right hip pain situation but something a little extra that needed to be dealt with. It's like when you bring your car in for an oil change and they tell you that you need something else done that will cost about a million dollars and take a week to fix. Anyway, I decided to wait until summer for the surgery because I couldn't miss out on nursing school. I was in pre-op and got my IV put in and was waiting for the surgeon to come in. At my initial office visit with her, she thought they would just look laproscopically (a few poke holes in my abdomen) and may not need to cut me open. However, after reviewing the MRI again prior to surgery, she came in to talk to me with a worried look on her face. My husband and a very good friend from school were with me and she told me that after reviewing the MRI, she realized that this was a much larger tumor than she initially thought. She referred to it as a "kickball" size. She consulted with another surgeon who agreed and she had asked this surgeon to accompany her in the operating room because this was going to be a much more complicated surgery now. She told me that they would give me an epidural in the OR to help with pain management afterwards because they were going to have to make a very large vertical incision down the middle of my abdomen. The only thing I was really concerned about was that I had to be healed in time for my 2nd year of nursing school and that if I was going to have that type of incision, I wouldn't be. Then I wouldn't be able to do clinicals and if I couldn't do clinicals then I couldn't finish nursing school (at least not as scheduled). The surgeon said they would poke the holes and insert the camera first to see what they were dealing with, then make the long incision so they could carefully remove the tumor. I just looked at her, tried to be calm and said "you gotta do what you gotta do." Then my friend, who is a Christian, laid her hand on my abdomen, closed her eyes, and prayed very seriously that this tumor would end up being just a small little nothing and that they wouldn't have to cut me open. I just remember looking at her and saying out loud, "girl, it is what it is, they saw it on the MRI." I was grateful that she prayed for me, but I didn't believe for one second that this kickball sized tumor would suddenly shrink and be nothing by the time they looked inside. I did believe in God back then but didn't believe in Jesus yet. I totally thought she was crazy for praying for that. I remember this like it was yesterday. Fast forward to the recovery room. I slowly start to wake up and am fully expecting to be in a lot of pain and have this huge incision and not be able to finish nursing school that year...and the nurse looked at me and realizing I was waking up, he said "you are not going to believe this." He told me that the surgeons went in to look with the camera, they saw a "baseball sized" tumor, one of the instruments poked it, and it burst - it was a cyst that they were able to vacuum out with their instruments and they never had to cut me open. He said that the surgeons looked at each other in amazement and literally high fived each other right there in the operating room. They could not believe what they saw!! I went for my 2 week follow up to see the surgeon and she walked in the room and says "how's my miracle patient?" She even gave me a picture of my baseball sized cyst.
I truly didn't get the enormity of this situation until a few years later when I had become a believer and I was standing in my kitchen and it hit me that my friends prayer...was exactly what happened. God healed me. She really believed what she was praying for. God heard. He healed. I was able to finish nursing school and about 2 months into that 2nd year, my husband lost his job. He was able to keep insurance through the extended and affordable COBRA program thanks to President Obama signing a bill for those who had been laid off that year. His insurance literally carried us through until I graduated, got a job and got health insurance through my work. It was meant to be for me to finish nursing school that year. God had a plan and a purpose. I'm in awe that the God that created the universe and everything in it would actually care so intimately about me that He would reduce this "kickball sized" tumor to a "baseball sized" cyst so that I could finish nursing school and do the job that I truly believe He ordained for me. So to answer the question "Does God Heal???" I say YES. I know that there are many people that He doesn't heal. And I know that it's so hard to understand that. I believe that we are all healed eventually, either on this side or on the other side. I believe that He is WITH us through all of the pain and suffering we endure on this side of eternity. I believe that we can lead others to Christ in the way we endure through the many trials that we are put through on this earth, not that we are enduring on our own, but through the healing power of God who dwells in us and is ALWAYS with us. He who Himself came to earth and suffered as we do so He truly understands what it's like. He doesn't want us to suffer, He doesn't like it when we are in pain or sick. His plan is total restoration and we are a part of that plan. I'm beyond blessed that I get to be a nurse so I can help to heal others and that I get to be part of His restoration plan.
Lord I thank you for the gift of healing. You heal hearts, minds, spirits and bodies. You heal in Your ways, in Your time and we don't always understand why or how or when. It is not our job to understand. It's our job to trust and to believe and to have faith in Your ultimate sovereignty. It is our job to show the world that we respond in a different way to suffering, death and destruction because our hope is in You and not in this life. We have an eternal perspective and we KNOW that we will live with YOU forever in harmony and in perfect peace, despite what this world throws our way. That belief is how we make it through. Thank you Jesus for showing us the way, the truth and the life. Amen.
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