Pastor Kurt from Harvest Downtown sharpened our iron with grace this morning. He pointed us to the four-fold logo
and exhorted us to Preach the Pitcher. This is code for “why doesn’t anyone preach on healing anymore since it is, in fact, one of the four symbols of the Alliance?”
Pastor Kurt is always anything but condemning, and quickly pointed out his own tendency to grab for Vitamin I (ibuprofen) when he feels something coming on – and his own frustrations when that doesn’t cut it.
He compared our tendency to reach for medicine, doctors – then finally God (sometimes when no medical hope is left), to a story told of another culture where a missionary, visiting a home, noticed an impressive line-up of gods on a shelf. His host explained, "If this one doesn’t answer my prayer I pray to this one, if that god doesn’t answer I pray to the next one, then if none of them answer I pray to this one (pointing to a little status of Jesus) and he ALWAYS answers!"
Most of us respond, "So why not get smart and pray to Jesus first?" and Kurt countered with “Why not pray for healing FIRST while you’re grabbing that ibuprofen?”
A great reminder.
In our home, we’ve taught our children to pray over every bump and scratch, just to get us all in the habit. We even pray over the animals! But lately we’ve slackened off - due in part to exactly the frustration Kurt described.
I needed to be told this today. Thanks, Kurt, and keep bringing in the Harvest!
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