On the day I met Mitch, I saw his Dad in street clothes, only once.
Already losing his battle with prostate cancer, Bill left the next morning for Lake Casitas, enjoying one last precious fishing trip with his sons. After that, as Mitch and I began to date, our times together included time with his Dad, huddled miserably in pajamas on his La-Z-Boy, and eventually on the hospice-provided bed which centerpieced the living room.
Bill liked me immediately, and I am certain he knew I would marry Mitch in time. He privately told Mitch’s Mom they didn’t need to worry about their youngest son any more.
I wish I could have known him better, but soon the pain grew too great for him to speak. And one day, encircled by his family and hearing words of reassurance and release, Bill slipped home.
In those six months while we watched his father die, Mitch began to teach me about our healing covenant in Christ.
My rock-solid, Scripture-loving background had taught me that God wills some sick and some well. His to choose, ours not to question why. He gives and takes away. For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. A little sunshine, a little rain. Kind of like yin and yang: we need some bad things just to keep balance in the universe and teach us important lessons.
When Mitch told me that Jesus’ death on the cross purchased unconditional healing for our sicknesses as well as undeserved forgiveness for our sins, I felt concerned. Could my good-looking boyfriend be mixed up with some kind of cult?
Of all the gifts my parents gave me, the greatest is an unquestioned allegiance to the infallible supremacy of the Word of God. If the Bible says the sky is blue, but mine is green, I get my eyes examined, then call the EPA to start a clean-up operation. Like the old office joke about the boss. Rule Number One: The Bible is always right. Rule Number Two: If the Bible appears to be wrong, see Rule Number One. That’s how I was raised.
So Mitch never argued with me. He just took me to the Word.
When I read, for the first time, Isaiah 53:4, with the correctly-translated Hebrew words – and its interpretive New Testament passage, Matthew 8:17, it blew me away:
Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, and our pains -- he hath carried them, And we -- we have esteemed him plagued, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Young’s Literal)
He fulfilled Isaiah's well-known sermon:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases. (The Message)
But what does that mean when your Dad is coughing blood into a pan? Who do we believe when the promises of Heaven face off against the ravages of hell’s visitation?
To Mitch, it didn’t seem to matter that his father’s suffering provided evidence to contradict God’s plan for healing. Every person who takes God at His Word experiences two realities: what we hear God say, and what we see happening in the world around us. Whichever reality we focus on becomes our filter to explain the other. As one preacher put it, "Even if no one ever got saved, the Gospel is still true."
We’re told the early disciples preached the Word with signs following. If you preach only what you see, you’ll get more of the same. And there He can do no mighty work, but only heal a few sick people.
To Bill, family is everything. He knew his most important job was complete, that of raising his kids. Knowing his family would be OK settled the greatest concern of his life. Once each person around the circle said aloud, "Dad, we release you. We’ll take care of Mom," Bill chose to leave his body within one minute after the last one spoke.
They say the heart has reasons that reason cannot comprehend. The closer we grow to the heart of God, the more we’ll catch His vision, and the more easily we’ll understand the reasons why things happen. Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what He is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
Already losing his battle with prostate cancer, Bill left the next morning for Lake Casitas, enjoying one last precious fishing trip with his sons. After that, as Mitch and I began to date, our times together included time with his Dad, huddled miserably in pajamas on his La-Z-Boy, and eventually on the hospice-provided bed which centerpieced the living room.
Bill liked me immediately, and I am certain he knew I would marry Mitch in time. He privately told Mitch’s Mom they didn’t need to worry about their youngest son any more.
I wish I could have known him better, but soon the pain grew too great for him to speak. And one day, encircled by his family and hearing words of reassurance and release, Bill slipped home.
In those six months while we watched his father die, Mitch began to teach me about our healing covenant in Christ.
My rock-solid, Scripture-loving background had taught me that God wills some sick and some well. His to choose, ours not to question why. He gives and takes away. For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. A little sunshine, a little rain. Kind of like yin and yang: we need some bad things just to keep balance in the universe and teach us important lessons.
When Mitch told me that Jesus’ death on the cross purchased unconditional healing for our sicknesses as well as undeserved forgiveness for our sins, I felt concerned. Could my good-looking boyfriend be mixed up with some kind of cult?
Of all the gifts my parents gave me, the greatest is an unquestioned allegiance to the infallible supremacy of the Word of God. If the Bible says the sky is blue, but mine is green, I get my eyes examined, then call the EPA to start a clean-up operation. Like the old office joke about the boss. Rule Number One: The Bible is always right. Rule Number Two: If the Bible appears to be wrong, see Rule Number One. That’s how I was raised.
So Mitch never argued with me. He just took me to the Word.
When I read, for the first time, Isaiah 53:4, with the correctly-translated Hebrew words – and its interpretive New Testament passage, Matthew 8:17, it blew me away:
Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, and our pains -- he hath carried them, And we -- we have esteemed him plagued, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Young’s Literal)
He fulfilled Isaiah's well-known sermon:
He took our illnesses,
He carried our diseases. (The Message)
But what does that mean when your Dad is coughing blood into a pan? Who do we believe when the promises of Heaven face off against the ravages of hell’s visitation?
To Mitch, it didn’t seem to matter that his father’s suffering provided evidence to contradict God’s plan for healing. Every person who takes God at His Word experiences two realities: what we hear God say, and what we see happening in the world around us. Whichever reality we focus on becomes our filter to explain the other. As one preacher put it, "Even if no one ever got saved, the Gospel is still true."
We’re told the early disciples preached the Word with signs following. If you preach only what you see, you’ll get more of the same. And there He can do no mighty work, but only heal a few sick people.
To Bill, family is everything. He knew his most important job was complete, that of raising his kids. Knowing his family would be OK settled the greatest concern of his life. Once each person around the circle said aloud, "Dad, we release you. We’ll take care of Mom," Bill chose to leave his body within one minute after the last one spoke.
They say the heart has reasons that reason cannot comprehend. The closer we grow to the heart of God, the more we’ll catch His vision, and the more easily we’ll understand the reasons why things happen. Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what He is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
--Blaise Pascal
3 comments:
So...I believe that God heals, I believe that we are to go to the elders for the laying on of hands, etc. I also believe that God allows things we do not understand. Paul asked to have his infirmity removed and God declined--at least in this life. Does He heal? Absolutely.
One night I was laying in my bed when I developed a migraine. A killer. A no-way-to-sleep horror. I lay there without medication available, and quickly realized that I could not bear this to continue much longer. As I prayed and asked God to take the headache, I heard him tell me to get an icepack and apply it to the base of my skull on the affected side. I complied, and within 10 minutes or less, the headache was gone and I was able to sleep.
Continuing the same discussion...what about when God chooses not to heal? What about chronic illness? What about my dad's diabetes? My fibromyalgia, PCOD, asthma, allergies, and the variety of birth defects I have? What concerns me among the God-heals-all is the reality that not all are healed, and it is not necessarily due to a lack of faith, unrepentent sin, poor choices on the person's part. Too often I have been beaten up by a crowd which would prefer it to be my fault rather than an allowance by God for reasons we may never know.
I hope you discuss this in future blogs.
Thanks for sharing, Kim. Great story about the icepack. I love it when God gives us practical wisdom.
Because this has been a topic which has hurt so many, I'm inclined to say less than more, but I may still say something which hurts you or someone else. My intent is to say what I hear our Father saying, and to say it in love. People are way more important than doctrine.
I do not believe your sicknesses to be your fault. To paraphrase the bumper sticker, Sickness Happens. And you have plenty of faith. If I ever speak of lack of faith, I’m likely to be putting that in the context of community lack of preaching on healing, resulting in a Mark 6:5 result, as quoted in this blog posting.
What about all the people who don’t get saved? Depending on your beliefs about predestination, you may or may not believe salvation is God’s will for all. Do you believe it’s God’s will for every believer to experience a victorious life of internal peace and freedom from fear?
Asking me to discuss this in future blogs is like waving a rawhide in Zydeco’s face. Count on it. And thanks again for being gutsy enough to put the questions right out there.
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