Healing is one of the most important things you can learn about in life. Why? At some point in your life, you or someone very close to you is going to need it. You or someone very close to you will be sick, and the options given you by the medical community will not be good ones. They may have nothing for you but means to prolong your life without giving you quality of life. You may have to take medications that have side effects as bad as the original condition.

I have learned that you don’t want to wait until you are diagnosed with something serious before you learn about this. That would be like going off to war without ever having gone to boot camp.

Healing for some people is like winning the lottery, but for most people it is like fighting off somebody who is trying to break into your house.

But beyond all this, healing will teach you more about God than you will probably ever learn otherwise. When you pray for other people and other things, you are not the only person who is involved in the outcome. So the first mountains you want to move are the ones in your own life and body. As you see these move, you will gain confidence to move others.

Healing might be the first place in which you will see miracles from God. God will seem more real to you, and you will become more aware of His love when you see Him work on your behalf.

In 1996, I was diagnosed with stage 3, mixed cell, non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I refused all medical treatment and have not received any medical treatment since then for that. It was quite an experience, and I have written a book, called The Importance of Healing, that tells about it as well as just about everything else I have learned about healing from the Bible and life.

I am not trying to sell you a book here. I am trying to save your life. Or least give you an understanding of God and the Bible which is usually sadly missing today. I have started posting chapters from the book and will continue to do so.

You can get the book at amazon.com or other book sites on the internet.

I also have two other websites where I have posted my writings: poligion1.blogspot.com has my articles on politics, culture, and public life and LarrysBibleStudies.blogspot.com has my other articles on the Bible. And I have started to make videos on youtube.

If you want to contact me, email is best: lacraig1@sbcglobal.net

Thank you.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

How Much Does God Expect?



How Much Does God Expect?  Mark 5:25
  
   Mark 5:25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.  5:26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.  5:27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 5:28 for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."  5:29 Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.  5:30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"  5:31 And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, 'Who touched me?'"  5:32 He looked all around to see who had done it.  5:33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in  fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the  whole truth.  5:34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." 
                                                                                                NRSV

            When we pray for something, there is an immediate question that comes to mind.  What does God expect from us in the meantime, while our prayer is being considered and before the answer is made known to us? 
            Should we start running around and doing everything we can to help God do what we ask?  If we pray for a mountain to be moved, should we quickly grab a shovel and a bucket and start digging? 
            This is the common wisdom.  If we don’t do all that we can to bring about the desired answer, we think we are lazy and we are just commanding God to do our will instead of seeking to do His will. 
            But I am having a hard time finding this in the Bible.  This lady in the story from Mark is a case in point.  She spent all she had on doctors.  For twelve years. 
            Did she do all that she could have?  Who ever can say that they have done that?  Isn’t there always something more that we can do? 
            Is the Bible commending her for her actions?  Is she being held up as an example for all of us to follow? 
            Actually, I don’t think so.  I think the Bible is going out of its way to make a contrast of a life without Jesus and a life with Jesus.  She came to Jesus, and her longstanding problem was solved immediately. 
            Are all longstanding problems solved immediately when we come to Jesus today?  It doesn’t seem so.
            On the one hand, we wish we lived back then, when we could see Jesus physically and feel the touch of His garment.  The problem with that, of course, is that when Jesus is in Jerusalem, he is not in Chicago. 

            But Jesus said that it was better for us that He goes away.  
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