the power of healing prayer.......................

     This past Sunday morning during service, a pastor friend of mine cheerfully shared a great testimony of God's grace and healing power in a difficult situation.  I believe that sharing the wonders of the Lord's ability to circumvent and supersede the pronouncements of doctors, psychologists, and other very learned and professional people, gives us hope and the possibility of having futures that others have declared dead.  Because HE is the God of resurrection, healing, and the supernatural. Yet, sadly in our world, and even in His own body the Church, we hold on more to the pronouncements of man than onto the declarations of God and His Word.

     The story actually began several years ago, when he needed an operation on his shoulder.  As part of the natural process of nurture and care during the recovery period, he had encountered a particular nurse.  She fit the visual imagery of what you would want in that noble profession.  She was full of cheer, caring, and gave off the radiance of nurture that just made you feel that you were going to get better, just by being in her very presence. 
     Knowing that this man was a pastor gave her the openness to share with him about how as a single mom of two home schooled children she would drive everyday 120 miles round trip to give her nursing job all she had to give.  Fortitude, and a strong spirit were words that easily come to mind as he heard her share the information about her life.  To top it all off, she shared how that it was her faith in Christ that she knew was the real source of her ability to overcome the situations that accumulated together would easily have waylayed many other people.
     It was during this session that she also disclosed that in spite of her current disposition, it was this morning that she learned that she had cancer.  The sheer weight of this foreboding bomb seemed to clear the atmosphere of all light, and warmth.  In the momentary void, both reassured each other that God was the God of the impossible.  That only He alone could work things together for good for those who loved Him and were called according to His purpose.  This they both knew wasn't some simple minded cheery way to put a spin on an awkward moment between two people just as a way of dismissing the weightiness of the burden. It was a declaration that even in the depths of darkness,  there is always a light of hope in Him.
     When the pastor got home, he told his wife about the emotional rollercoaster of his appointment.  She knew what to do about the situation.  They would pray for her.  And during the next session, she would lay hands on her and pray for her as a point of contact.  They would both do these steps of action, and allow God to do the rest.
     Time separated the appointments, and the nurse from their lives as the man's body healed.  Then just recently, this selfsame man had to go to the same hospital.  When he ran directly into a nurse whose face was covered with a large surgical mask.  Her eyes flashed recognition.  " Hello, do you remember me?" she said.  The pastor who sees many people in the course of life, tried to draw a connection with the cheery eyes.  " Not with that mask on your face!", he voiced with a smirky,light hearted grin.  She quickly removed it to reveal the happy face of the nurse who had cared for him a couple of years ago.  Both faces then lit up.  They exchanged pleasantries, and renewed the bond of their spirits again.
     The most joyous news that she had to share with him was that she had been cured of cancer.  God had healed her of the cancer that she had told him about.  She knew that she had been healed according to His word.  In the midst of all of lifes' problems she had been delivered from what the enemy thought would take her out as an obstacle just too big to overcome.  Yet, he didn't know that God had a different plan.  He placed a pastor and his praying wife on her path.  Right there, amidst a normal and routine of follow therapy examine. Only this time the patient was to become the nurse, who would help deliver the perscription and treatment of a different kind.
     God wants us to be healed.  Sometimes it is quickly, and sometimes it may take awhile, but whatever the way; give Him the glory for it when it comes.  And be sure to thank Him for it ahead of the delivery of the gift itself!

God Cares

     I want to share a story with you that contains both facts and faith.  It involves two separate incidents that occurred almost 30 years apart, yet are tied together with a knot of love and eternal hope.  Life always is good at throwing us curve balls, or even leading us down dead end roads.  But, there are also those times when God's presence shines upon us, and it all seems to make sense.  Even, in it's randomly disjointed patterns.  I think that this maybe one of those stories that let us take a peak at the grand scheme behind the great patchwork quilt of our lives.
     Answering a heavy knock at the door, and opening it only to see two uniformed police officers is not comforting to a little girl.  Then, comes the overhearing of the heart wrenching inevitability voiced through compassionate tones as the officers make their pronouncement.  They tell your mom that your brother has been fatally injured in a car wreck. 
     The world seems to slow and become a hollow place all around you.  The once festive Christmas holiday trappings that decorate your warm home lose their color, joy, and effect.  Life as you know it can change on a dime.

  You walk through the next few days as if on some kind of unreal conveyor belt.  Just going through the motions, while being hit at times by both the sharp pain of a broken heart, and the empty blackness of unending loss.  Christmas itself, is only days away.  The presents under the tree are still there, ready, waiting to disclose his last gifts of familial love and caring.  It will be one of those extremely few days in a life that will have to be  both endured and cherished.

     That year her brother had bought her a soccer ball.  She played with it all of the time.  So much so, that more than likely it became too much for her mom to handle.  Torn between letting her daughter keep this last treasure and her internal nagging fear that she may have an obsessive attachment to the toy.  It wouldn't be long before the ball simply disappeared.  Allowing time to make it more of a memory, instead of a sports item made of rubber, air, and love.
     I must make a point to stop us here.  So that you will know all of the facts before we begin our leap into the unknown.  First, I am not saying that the soccer ball magically disappeared.  It was more than likely human action that caused it to happen.  Secondly, my wife had told me once before about this story from her childhood long ago.  But, it was never something other than a fleeting story that she had shared from her past.
     Now, lets fast forward the timeline to a period about 30 years later, to a time quite unlike that of the one in the beginning of our tale.  It was when our church was immersed in the gentle, loving, moving of God's Holy Spirit presence upon the congregation as a whole.  It was to the uninitiated, a Holy Spirit revival.  A time where it seems that the very essence of Heaven touches Earth.  A period of weeks, and months, where hearts are changed, bodies are healed, and everything just seems to be right with the world.
     The only way to really relate to you what a revival is like is for you to have to experience it.  No amount of verbal articulation can describe what you see, hear, know, and feel.  Whatever your spiritual temperature is, you will be challenged, convicted, and yes maybe even offended.  But, hopefully when the Spirit moves you will have been changed, and the love of Christ will burn within in you more than it ever did before!  It is a spiritual thing, that's all I can say.
     It was during this move of God that I found myself on the floor.  Laid down gently by the overwhelming presence of God that left me too weak to stand.  In the past this has been called being "thunderstruck", but today it would be referred to as being " slain in the Spirit".  Whatever it may be called, it is a time where He seems to speak directly to our hearts with peace, love, power, affirmation, revelation and change.

     Here now is where faith will become your guide.  In this state, I sensed myself surrounded by white.  Bright, warm, comforting white light; yet it also had a sense of softness to it, dare I say fluffiness?  I also saw people motioning towards me.  I did not see detail, by that I mean everything was soft, not focused to crystal clarity.  I wouldn't say that I was, "in Heaven", as much as I was seeing a vision of heavenly things.
     Two of the people who stood together were my grandparents, Nana and Gran.  they were both Christians, so I assumed that they would be there waiting.  They smiled, and radiated warmth. The third person there I had never met.  He was tall, thin, young and standing just ahead of my grandparents.  At the end of his long lanky arms, pressed between his hip and his hand was a soccer ball.  He brought it up in one hand, holding it out to me, and seemed to say, " tell my sister that I am waiting to give her her present".
     Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, this young man was my wife's brother.  Emotion gripped my reposed body.  I found it hard to grasp and accept all that I was seeing, and how I was feeling.  My reaction pulling out of that state was one of profound tearful emotion.  I stumbled out of the sanctuary to find my wife, and somehow share with her this event.
     Moments later, I found her with an associate Pastors' wife.  Through tears, I shared my experience with her.  She knew something had happened to me, but exactly what she couldn't tell.  Yet, she treasured the comfort and reassurance I was able to share with her about her brother.
     Now, you may think that my tale is now all told, but I must share the most important feature, so that you may know the rest of the story.  You see when my wife's brother died in the car wreck it occurred in a secluded mountain canyon.  The officials said that he could have been there for up to 3 days, and was not killed instantly.
     He was by no means a Christian.  He had had a smattering of church upbringing.  He even had a short stint as an altar boy in the Lutheran church.  But, due to his current lifestyle and religious beliefs, it was assumed that he passed away being lost.
     Yet, we did have the knowledge that he had survived the sudden crash.  So there was some period of time, which could have been just enough for God to share Spirit to spirit, and remind him of what Jesus had done for him.  A glimmer of hope, no matter how small it may have been.
     What we do know, and can see, is that his death changed his family for generations after him.  For you see, in the weeks and months after the funeral, and that sad Christmas day; one by one his siblings all came to know Jesus as their saviour.  Whereas before church and faith were simply part of the of their cultural background as it is with most Americans.  Not living and real, just "church". 
     The first, the next eldest child of the family, went from being a drug using, rebellious young man to a sold out radical disciple of Jesus.  Then another brother, and finally my wife herself, all turning to Christ in the hope of salvation and eternal life.  Eventually, even his parents would be baptized for all of the children and grandchildren to watch.
     It wouldn't be long before the eldest was married to a similarly radical Christian girl.  They would in turn raise their family with that new found faith. My wife and I would round up the last tail end of marriages and our children the third generation to be open to the living Christ.
     So as our nephew just recently observed; Could his death have started the chain reaction that panned out over time?   Was there some kind of divine purpose?  Could the tragic loss of one so dear have been the door that gave three generations of family the opportunity to come into the Kingdom of God?  I don't have any of the answers to those questions.  those are for you to wrestle with in your own quiet times.  What I do know though is that God really, really does care for us in ways large and small much more than we think He does.
    

Signs of Our Times

     We live in uncertian times.  Wait, let me re-phrase that statement.  More accurately, we live in very uncertian times! The stock market gyrates like a top on steriods.  The Middle East is seemingly remaking itself geopolitically before our eyes.  Jobs, Pensions, Home Ownership, cannot be taken for granted anymore.  Peace, stability, and things being
"solid as a rock", seem to have lost their meaning in these times.  It just seems to go on, and on, and on.

     Now, let me throw some gasoline on the fire.  All over the internet we see, hear, and read about how we are now even approaching the end of days.  That the end is maybe coming sooner than we may think!  Actually that sounds like a rephrasing of a statement by St. Paul from the Book of Romans.  He said, " the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed". (Romans 13:11)  So, whether it be 2012, an asteriod, climate change ( formerly known as Global Warming), WWIII, economic armageddon, any and or all of which, could usher in extremely uncertian times;  we just seem to have an inner sense that mankind is living things out on a cosmic linear scale having a set appointment with destiny.
     Yet, within Paul's statement he paints a curious and reassuring twist on all of our doom and gloom.  Let's read it, again.  " The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation nearer", Stop there!  In the midst of what some may see as global demise, Paul sees hope!  He sees real hope and change, not just some cheap political gimic.  At a time when we least expect it, yet may have a gut level instinct that "something's up!", there it will be.  Our hope, the world's ONLY hope, Jesus.  Now, let's remember the world as it was from which Pauls words eminate.  He lived in the glory, depravity, and brutality of ancient Rome.  Yet, he preached hope and change.
     For the believer, the Second Coming of Jesus is the salvation of which he speaks.  It is salvation for the world and the material universe.  It may not be a bed of roses getting to that point.  But, He is coming back to reclaim all that was stolen from Him, and to seperate good from evil.  That is hope that you can believe in!  And, make no mistake about it, He is coming back.
     Jesus stated, referenced, and inferred; this policy position enough in His Word to call you to either accept it by faith as a future truth, or to make Him out to be a liar.  He leaves you no alternative.  He didn't want to have it any other way.
     Well, my original intent was to simply ask you, as I have recently been asking myself, still being cognizant of our times; Where is your heart at?  I mean your spiritual heart.  If, and I say If, we are "closer to (that day) than when we first believed", do you not think that that is a very valid question for all of us?  Would you be overcome with joyful anticipation if you knew His appearing was in say, 6 hours?  Or, would you be in regret and angst over the parting and loss of the pleasures, riches, and wonders of this earthly world?  Honestly, would you have a hard time seperating yourself from the entanglements of life on earth?  These may be hard questions, but I think that they are ones that we should be periodically be asking ourselves on a regualr basis.  Because He is coming back to reclaim what is rightfully His in the first place.
     I hope that you've been challenged, I have been challenged.  And with each passing day of our current era, my antenna perks up, to see if it could be tommorrow?  How's your antenna?  Is it out of tune and alittle rusty?  Or is it always ringing with joyful anticipation of that Day?

Little birdies singing in a tree, expose the heart inside of me....

     Sometimes I find that God is just too big for me to understand,or even comprehend.  I know Him.  Yet, then again I don't.  Does that make sense?
     Let me explain. I was quietly sitting on a bench in our yard.  It sits next to a row of small trees.  Hanging down from the limb of one of the leafy green branches is a long cylindrical bird feeder.  We enjoy watching our feathered friends come to eat,socialize, and chatter back and forth with one another.  It's almost like a Starbucks for the aviary set.
     Two beautiful bright yellow finches perched themselves on the sticks that protrude from various places on the feeder.  They immediately went about their business of eating. I was drawn to watch. Their yellow feathers so starkly contrasting with the verdant green of the leaves that framed them.  I was in a peaceful state of repose.
     Although I was in a tranquil state, my mind started to wander down an active trail of thought. I started to contemplate birds.  Yes, birds!  I began to mentally catalogue the various sizes, body types, feather color variations, shapes of beaks, etc., etc., of the birds that I had recall of from my personal observations.  Then, as my imagination really started to race, I could picture the Dodo, hawks, eagles, chickens, even ostriches.  Hopefully, you will see where I am going with all of this?
     In the theater of my mind, I was able to view only a small sliver of God's wondrous winged creation.  Inspired by just two chatty finches, gobbling black seeds of rye, I panned a scene of all of the different birds that I could possibly imagine.  Yet knowing ,that my brain could only recall or conjure up even a minuscule sample of the types that actually exist in our world.
     I was in awe, wonder, and deeply humbled.  "How could anyone not believe that in the face of such creative beauty, that there is no Creator?" I pondered.  Then, the scripture from Romans 1:20,21 came to me, " for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse".  The scripture seemed to gently wrap itself around the scene that I was beholding with my eyes and in my mind.  " For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and animals and birds and reptiles".  An alternative updated phrase might be..and exchanged the glory of God for government intervention, wealth, rugged individualism, humanism, socialism,evolution, the solutions from higher education, human achievement, etc.,etc., etc..  What an indictment!
     Little would I have known, how that by relaxing on a simple bench, enjoying the wonder of two birds; I would be humbled before God.  But I was.  This is not to say that nature doesn't always have this mystical magical effect of overwhelming the heart. Yet, we don't always have to encounter a brilliant scarlet sunset, or Grand Canyon moment to be bowled over by God.  All it takes is to treasure the moment that exists, usually right before our very eyes.  Staying humble, and being thankful.