GETTING HEALED

I can remember decades ago as a new believer hearing a preacher say that no Bible character who served God died from disease. He went on to say that we could & should expect God to give us divine health. We just needed to believe Him for it. With my limited knowledge of Scripture at that time, I accepted what he said. In the intervening years I have learned a few things that make me question the accuracy & wisdom of what he said.

Have you ever heard stories about people who believed that God should heal them or their loved one, or even that He was obligated to do that? Then, if what they believed didn’t come to pass, they fell away or stopped believing that God can & does heal today?

As a Pentecostal, I believe in praying for the sick & have seen God heal people. But I also know that not everyone is healed in response to believing prayer.

This issue of why some are not healed is a hard one. It poses both a theological challenge & a pastoral one. People have talked a lot about it, & I’m certainly not going to solve it here. But I do want to offer an insight that can help us to get a little more understanding.

Hebrews 11 (the “Hall of Faith”) is a favorite chapter of many who believe that God intervenes miraculously in the lives of people who are facing impossible situations. The first part (verses 1-35a) list miracle after miracle that people of faith in the Living God experienced. But beginning with verse 35b it describes the “others” who didn’t experience miraculous deliverance.

Another theme of this chapter is that the Old Testament witnesses experienced what they did because of their commitment to the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan as it was being carried out in their generation. Verses 13 & 39-40 hint at the idea that they were in a process that would not be complete in their day. There was something futuristic in their faith that motivated them to persevere, whether or not they personally saw its fulfillment.

I believe this is a key to understanding faith.

Faith includes praying & expecting God to do a specific thing in a specific situation. But it doesn’t stop there. It also submits itself to God’s will. This is where God’s redemptive plan comes into play.

What will most open people’s eyes to the reality of the power of the Gospel? When they see a dynamic demonstration of God’s power & grace at work? Sometimes that’s what it takes.

Is it the joy & peace in the life of a believer who is going thru hell? Sometimes that’s what it takes.

How can we know the best way? Unless the Holy Spirit tells us, we cannot know. That’s why we must trust God’s judgment.

When we try to answer the question about healing in personal terms rather than from God’s redemptive perspective, we set ourselves up to be disappointed. 

When we try to answer based on what God wants to do to bring revelation to others of who He is & what He can do, we open ourselves to greater clarity of understanding. We have peace that the world can’t give. And we can persevere & truly walk by faith.

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?

We were reading John 4 the other day & we ran across something really special at the end of the chapter. A lot of times it gets missed because people know about Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman & ministry in her town. This nugget is only found in the last paragraph of the chapter. It’s the miraculous healing of the royal official’s son & the immediate results. You can read it in John 4:46-54. 

One of the blessings of ministering cross-culturally for many years is that it opens our eyes to a lot of things we might never otherwise have seen. One of those things is more of a collectivist view of self. What I mean by this is that Westerners tend to see ourselves (& also read Scripture) in the light of an individualistic view.

In many parts of the world, individuals get much more of their identity from a group such as family.

So, when we read Scripture, we tend to see it thru the lens of individualism. As a result, our biblical understanding is affected. Also, our ideas about how to live as disciples of Jesus & how to do ministry are affected.

Here’s the end of the story in John 4:

So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”; and he himself believed and his whole household (verse 53).

And his whole household.

Most of us know the verses like Acts 16:31 (Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household) & Joshua 24:15 (If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord).

The problem is that we don’t necessarily see anything there that as indicates a biblical value that should shape how we are to live for God & do service for Him.

Will the circle be unbroken? Hopefully not, either here or in heaven. An unbroken circle made up of family members who love & follow Christ in both time & eternity is precisely what Jesus gave His life to have.

JUDO

I really kind of envy kindergarten & lower elementary teachers because they get to use show & tell. That’s a very natural way of engaging students in the learning process. It’s especially effective because young children don’t even realize they are being taught. Since it employs their senses & motor skills, they naturally learn.

Where did show & tell come from? Although someone way back who was formulating theories about effective educational techniques may be credited with discovering it, that’s not where it originated. I believe God just let him or her in on a little secret.

I've never studied martial arts, but I understand a big part of the practical technique revolves around the idea that you use your opponent’s strengths against him. One of the ways is to exploit his physical strength & weight to your own advantage.

What does martial arts have to do with educational theory? Let me tell you:

“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” 

This is the Apostle Paul’s testimony in I Timothy 1:15-16.

You’re probably familiar with Paul’s history. As Saul, a Jewish religious leader, he was the guy who started out holding the garments of those who stoned to the first martyr for Christ, Stephen. He then graduated to being the guy who dragged Christians out of their homes or hiding places so that he could have them taken to stand trial. Many were stripped of their belongings & some were imprisoned or executed. Saul may have never committed adultery or robbery, but he was responsible for unimaginable suffering among his countrymen.

When Saul was brought to Christ his experience showed what kind of a transformation the grace of God can accomplish in a terrible person’s life. It wasn’t just so he could know, but so that the people around him could see it for themselves.

That’s God’s show & tell.

The darker his history, the greater claim the wrath of God had on him. But God’s grace & mercy were more than sufficient. The greater the debt, the greater the demonstration of God’s transforming work.

That’s God’s judo.

Don’t let the darkness in your past keep you from being a tangible demonstration to those around you of what the Living God can do. God does judo, so that He can have a show & tell – you.You're the show & tell that lets people know that God forgives & transforms lives, no matter how dark & corrupted.

NAKED IN THE PALACE

Maybe it’s a good thing that many followers of Jesus today use their cellphones for a lot of their Bible reading. I say that because it’s rare to see people who have the kind of reverence for Scripture that motivates them to treat a hard copy of the Bible with more respect & consideration than they do their cellphone. 

Or maybe I’m just too old school.

I was reading II Kings 22 today, the story of King Josiah. The 2 preceding kings, his father & grandfather, failed to follow God’s Word & lead their people in obedience to the covenant that God had brought them into. Remarkably, Josiah ordered a restoration of the Temple, which had over the last 2 generations been defiled & allowed to fall into disrepair & misuse.

When those in charge of repairs discovered a partial copy of the Law (very possibly the blessings & curses of Deuteronomy 28-30), they reported this to Josiah. “When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes” (vs 11). This behavior was an expression of sincere, desperate repentance. Josiah then sent representatives to a prophetess named Huldah to inquire further of the Lord. Ultimately, this led to national renewal & repentance that delayed God’s judgment for a little longer.

For a lot of reasons, we find it very easy to take the Bible for granted. A couple of other major problem today are general biblical illiteracy & intentional misuse of Scripture to advance a personal agenda.

The rediscovery of God’s Word in Josiah’s day led to a repentance that brought about national renewal. 

The Living God can do it again in our generation. A confrontation with His word thru the working of the Holy Spirit can bring us to a time of renewal & repentance. This can & must touch those around us & the generation that will follow us.

We don’t have to tear our clothes like Josiah did, but we do need to hear & respond to God’s Word as it convicts us.

FLIPPING

There’s a whole lot of flipping going on! I don't mean houses, or the bird.

You may be familiar with George Orwell’s book 1984. One of its big themes has to do with changing the meaning of words & phrases. This flipping of words & phrases, changing their historical & usually very obvious meaning, is a useful strategy for movements whose aim is to transform our culture. Doing this is intended to be part of the process of creating Utopia.

Let me share with you a few examples of how this has been done or is in the process of being done. 

Family: Traditionally, a family has been made up of a man & woman who have committed themselves to each other in marriage, & the children who come from that union. It seems now to mean just about any group of people who are in some way emotionally tied together.

Patriotism: This has always been characterized as a love of one’s country along with the traditions, values, symbols, & institutions that give the country its particular identity. Now it appears to mean the willingness to allow those traditions, values, symbols, & institutions to be torn down in the name of diversity.

Women’s health: If understood logically, this should refer to proper medical treatment for women. Now it is a euphemism for the supposed right of women to have their babies murdered in the womb. By the way, many of those babies would otherwise have grown up to be women. Go figure.

Voter suppression: The reasonable meaning of this is the placing & maintaining of legal or other barriers that would make it difficult or impossible for registered voters to participate in the electoral process. Most of the time it is used now, it is an emotional appeal to overlook voter & election fraud. Voter & election fraud actually disenfranchises legitimate voters.

Separating families: This has historically referred to circumstances where parents & their children have been physically split up due to various circumstances like divorce, a parent in the military or incarcerated, etc. Now it refers to the actions of law enforcement professionals fulfilling their responsibilities based on laws that have been on the books for longer than the current administration has existed.

I’m sure you can think of other examples, but these few will do.

What's my point? 

Let’s put it this way: Beware of & don't passively accept the efforts of the little social justice warriors around you who seek to be imitators of Orwell’s Big Brother.