I stupidly lost another post, sigh. Thanks for praying. I will retype the post tomorrow. I am hoping you have a blessed night.
Heather

This made me laugh.

The Lost Dr. Seuss Book: I Love My Job

I love my job, I love the pay.
I love it more and more each day.
I love my boss; he/she is the best.
I love his boss and all the rest.

I love my office and its location.
I hate to have to go on vacation.
I love my furniture, drab and gray,
And the paper that piles up every day.

I love my chair in my padded cell.
There’s nothing else I love so well.
I love to work among my peers.
I love their leers and jeers and sneers.

I love my computer and its software;
I hug it often though it don’t care.
I love each program and every file,
I try to understand once in a while.

I’m happy to be here, I am, I am;
I’m the happiest slave of my Uncle Sam.
I love this work; I love these chores.
I love the meetings with deadly bores.

I love my job-I’ll say it again.
I even love these friendly men,
These men who’ve come to visit today
In lovely white coats to take me away.

********************************************************************

Right now I could use a few laughs and a lot of prayers.

Heather

Vickie and Ed Gabler taught Friday’s Bible study. They are a dynamic team teaching pair.

Vickie chose the images of Jesus in First Century Jewish Wedding Customs because this is the month of June and the time of many weddings.

She said that God had many names for his people, not all flattering. Names like dumb sheep, foolish, vipers, but he also had wonderful names for us: sons and daughters; joint heirs in Christ; beloved; child; and the Bride of the Lamb.

Who is the Bride of Christ, the Jewish believers and the Church are the Bride of Christ. The Jewish people would be familiar with the customs so these parables and examples would speak volumes to them.

John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

After the bride and groom were espoused, the groom would go and prepare the house for the bride (usually took one year), and then he would return to pick her up. Imagine in 2000 years how our house will look when Jesus comes for us.

When a Jewish man wanted to marry a particular woman, the groom’s father would come and talk with the father of the potential bride. They would discuss the price for the bride, the conditions of the union, and then the two men would seal the agreement with a toast of wine. Then the potential bride and the hopeful groom would enter the room. He would propose to her, and if she accepted, he gave her a gift in the presence of two witnesses. The gift was usually a ring, and he would say, “Behold you are consecrated unto me with this ring according to the laws of Moses and Israel.”

Then there would be arrangements made concerning the marriage, a written contract that listed the time, place, and size of the wedding, and the dowry and terms for the marriage were all written out. This is called a “Ketubah” and the bride kept this contract in her possession until the consummation of the marriage.  This first part of the two-part ceremony was concluded with a toast of a glass of wine. The ceremony was called the “Shiddukhin” or engagement. And the Bride and groom were now in the status of espousal or betrothal. They were as committed to each other as two married people, but would not live together as a married couple until the “Huppah” ceremony. But the betrothal was considered so binding that the only way to break it was a bill of divorcement.

The groom would depart, after assuring his bride that he would build a home and return to complete the marriage ceremony. It usually took a year to prepare the new home which was an addition onto his own father’s house.

We too have a marriage contract, a Ketubah – we call it the Bible, and it details all the conditions of our marriage to the Lamb, and assures us that our Lord is preparing a place for us. It will be some place, because He has taken 2000 years to prepare it. Not only that, but given the earth is but a type and shadow of Heaven, it will be very spectacular.

The bride was to remain true to her groom, and prepare herself and her trousseau. She waited ready for his return, which would be indicated by a shout for the wedding party. The wedding usually took place at night, and when members of the wedding spotted the moving torches of the groom’s approach a shout went up, “The bridegroom is coming.”. The bride would drop everything, get in her wedding dress, and complete her final preparations for the marriage.

The groom did not enter the bride’s house, the bride came out to meet him. They accompanied the wedding party to the grooms home for the marriage ceremony. After the public ceremony, the bride and groom went into the bridal chamber to be intimate for the first time. Then the groom came out and said, “Our marriage is consummated.” The wedding party would begin a festive, seven day celebration – if it was the first marriage of a virgin girl. They couple stayed in seclusion for the 7 days, then they came out and joined the wedding feast with the guests.

Ephesians 1:4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame for Him in love.”

The wedding price was settled by God before He even created the world. God is the Father of the groom, and since Jesus is the creative person of the Godhead, He stands in as the father of the bride.  This love was not an afterthought of God, because Jesus is referred to as Rev. 13:8  ”the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

We must realize that God loved us so very much, that the bridal price was costly, the Blood of his Son, Jesus.  1 Cor. 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in you body and in your spirit which are God’s.

The proposal of salvation, Jesus gave us is for all mankind. When we say “Yes” to His proposal, we are His betrothed, and we are secured by the Holy Spirit which protects His purchased bride until Jesus comes. Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of all our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

To read more about the Kinsman Redeemer you may want to read the book of Ruth, which describes it fully.

The Bible is our Ketubah. Jeremiah 31:31-33 Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD, I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

The night before the crucifixion Jesus drank a last cup of wine with his disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” Luke 20:21 and Matthew 26:29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.

Oh how we are waiting for that glorious day. The communion that we take, rather than taking it with glum faces, should be a celebration of that glorious betrothal that we have of Jesus and a reminder that He will come and share the wedding cup with us.

1 Thes. 4:16-18  This passage is part of the description of the rapture, but notice how the Lord comes, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

When Jesus comes as a shout, we must be prepared – the parable of the virgins and their lamps and many other parables of Jesus talk about being prepared for we will not know the time when He will come. Just like the bride did not know the time when her groom would come for her, so she lived in a constant state of preparation.

We are going to be in a seven day marriage celebration with the Lord (Chapter 5 of Revelation the Lamb takes the scroll and breaks the seals) the Bride is in heaven worshipping God for the week (during that time, the tribulation will be occurring on earth which is Revelation 6-19 which culminates with the Marriage supper of the Lamb in Heaven.) Revelation 19:7-9 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb” Then after the marriage supper, they will go forth on white horses, to reclaim the earth for the Millennial reign.

The Jewish wedding is a perfect picture of Jesus’ love for the believers.

Hope you enjoyed this teaching. Tomorrow I will share what Dr. Ed spoke about Genesis, and tied that into the marriage as well.

Heather

More pictures from the fashion shoot.

Edward really, really liked that sheepskin jacket.

The photographer’s assistant was adjusting Christopher’s outfit. You can now get a close up of what he called Cramer’s pants (from Seinfeld).

Here was the full crew in action. The boys stood and posed for close to two hours, no complaints. You can imagine how their dad, the photographer’s son, now knows what they will tolerate.

Here is the photographer taking serious photos of Katherine.

Jim finally got these pictures on to this computer. The boys came home and found out that one of their teachers spotted their shoot, and someone from our church spotted it as well. They are quite popular. If it comes out in a magazine, I will let you know. Bible study was awesome today, a study of the Jewish Wedding traditions and how they relate to Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb, and some more on Adam and Eve. I will try to get these up this weekend for you.

Hoping you have an awesome weekend.

Heather

Boo, Hiss, lost a whole post that I typed, will try to reproduce some of it. Suggestion, before spell checking save post in private, then spell check.  I got one of those nasty Xanga bugs when I subjected my entry to spell check.

Today is Friday and Bible study. Don’t know who will be teaching today because Pastor Don’s middle son is getting married, and all our pastors, and some of our regular teachers are attending the wedding out of town. But I know Pastor Don will have selected a good teacher.

I am so proud of Christopher. He earned a leadership award from Clarkson University, and an academic award for Biology. The school changed the high school academic award system this year, and in each subject matter, science, math, history, etc. only 12 children were selected to be honored in the entire high school grades 9-11. While this makes it a great honor for the children selected, unfortunately others are not selected. Had they used the old system Edward would have also received academic awards, and he sure could have used that encouragement. It is hard enough to be the middle child without the added competition of grades. sigh.

Am still reading Peterson’s book and enjoying it. Besides that I am resuming the online study through Lifeway of Beth Moore’s Living Beyond Yourself. If you live somewhere where Beth Moore studies are not being offered, and have decent computer access, for a nominal amount of money you can take these courses online. They offer the pages to print out, the Beth Moore movies, and a community where you can talk with others taking the study. Also, Bible study tools. I often use those as I read or listen to teachings so I can quickly look up words.

Currently in my Bible reading I am back in Genesis, Genesis 6-7 to be precise. Comparing past notes, teachings from Chuck Colson and Jon Courson, Commentaries, Pastor Don, and my own thoughts I am again seeking to find Jesus in each of the parts. One cool thought – Noah means rest. And in Chapter 7 the invitation into the ark was “Come” so you have “Come unto me and I will give you rest.” hmmmm where have I heard that before.

Now here is a combination of my thoughts and other’s thoughts about where Jesus is when you think about Noah.

*rest
*Grace
*God planned for salvation of the remnant – began in Genesis 3:17
*perfect in generations
* walked with God
*onerous work to do (120 years to build ark/cross)
*died for self (Imagine as Bill Cosby said, what the neighbors would say)
*saved his house (8 survivors in Ark, the House of Israel and all believers)
*food provided
*obedient
*did not lose any under his care
*altar
*sons blessed
*everlasting covenant given

Ark as a type of Jesus
*divinely provided
*design provided in advance (Even before Genesis 1:1)
*made of wood – cross made of wood
*death of tree
*invited to come unto ark/Jesus
*only one door
*door in side of ark/Jesus pierced in side

Can you imagine Noah’s persistence and his hand’s on preaching. Building an ark in an environment where there was no rain (possibly), and the neighbors wondering what the crazy man was doing. I am certain he talked about repenting, and no one repented. Also, before he had children, Noah built the ark to provide for His family.

Our God is so awesome. I still would have liked to have been on the road to Emmaus to hear how Jesus opened up the scriptures to those disciples on the road. I am hoping that there is a sort of spiritual videotape of that discussion in Heaven.

Have a blessed day!

Heather

Tonight I go back to the school to watch my oldest get his academic awards. Katherine got five yesterday, and one to come. Spanish, Social studies,  Music, Technology, and English. She will get band later on because her teacher did not submit the forms in time. To get an academic award the Grade Point average in the subject must be 95. The two subjects she did not get them in are advanced placement classes and her grades are still in the 90′s.

Today is my husband’s day of humor. He forwarded this in an email to me, some of the definitions are so funny. Enjoy.

ANNUAL NEOLOGISM CONTEST
 
The  Washington Post published the winning submissions to its yearly
contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common
words.  And the winners are:
 
 
1. Coffee (n.), the  person upon whom one coughs.
 
2. Flabbergasted (adj.),  appalled over how much weight you have gained.
 
3. Abdicate  (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
 
4.  Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
 
5.  Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
 
6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
 
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
 
8.  Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
 
9. Flatulence (n.)  emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run
over by a steamroller.
 
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
 
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
 
12.  Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
 
13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
 
14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
 
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when  you die, your soul flies
up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
 
16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish
men   

I have to tell you that I love my husband and his sense of humor. Today a remarkable series of emails has been discovered! One that I never dreamed that I would see. My niece, Becky is up visiting her mom (Jim’s sister) and dad. She brought her dog, Buzz, and has greatly desired to take Buzz to a beach to see the ocean. Did I say, SHE LOVES HER DOG. Well, she succeeded and, since that visit to the beach, the two dogs have been corresponding. Since Jim understands Rocky speak, he is typing for Rocky.

Thought you might like to see the dogs’ eye view of life:

Dear Rocky, the Wonder Dog,

 

It was WONDERful to hear from you.  Sorry about the poop; but, caterpillars happen.  In Iowa we don’t have caterpillars, we have ladybugs–they stink too.  My alpha took me to the ocean today.  I am surprised your humans have not taken you, perhaps it is because they do not appreciate the wonder of cold, rainy, beaches at 5am.  I am sending you some photos taken early this morning that I have called “The Adventures of Beach Buzz.”  Please note that the gentleman wrapped in a blanket is my grandpaw and not an illegal alien, though, between you and me, he DOES seem to be another species…  My Becky is already taken and there is simply no more room in my bed.  I do have an expensive guest bed though, which, if you are interested in visiting, is very available.  I will mark the route for you tomorrow.   My humans send regards to your humans.

 

Your Cuz,

The Buzz

 

 

 

Dear Buzz,

 

I just brought Rocky, The Wonder Dog, in for the night. He has not read your thoughtful e-mail yet, but I did give Rocky, The Wonder Dog, a synopsis of it. I also told him that you included some great pictures (at the top of this e-mail) of a wet, cold, and rainy Jones Beach at 5 am this morning. It must have been fun to roll in the wet sand. Rocky, The Wonder Dog, asked me to take some interesting pictures of him to send back to you. He wants them to look really good. Rocky, The Wonder Dog, says that everyone around here has become very fashion conscious lately, since Rocky, The Wonder Dog’s brothers, Christopher and Edward, were recently photographed for a British fashion magazine. No kidding! Hey, would a dog lie to another dog! Well, again, thanks for your reply and I’m sure that Rocky, The Wonder Dog will get back to you, some day. Have a safe trip back to Iowa. Say hello to Becky for me.

 

Jim, The Dog Whisperer

 

 

 

That is all for now, I will keep you up to date on any further correspondence between Buzz and Rocky. Sorry, Jim has to put a picture of Rocky up, they are on the other computer.

 

Heather

 

 

The ceremony was awesome last night, I had tears in my eyes because I know how hard he worked, and what was really cool is a lot of his primary friends were also honored. I am proud of the hard work that he has done. Tonight is academic awards for my daughter, and then tomorrow for Christopher, the academic awards. Those are so exacting, the grade average has to be 98 or better in the subject to get them. I wish the standards were a bit less because my middle son is so close to getting them but misses by a few decimal points.

For those of you who read a pevious post of mine regarding my daughter and her self-image. My husband and I are now praying and working at building this up for it is not based at all in reality. Thought you might want to see a picture of her. This was taken this fall when she was helping to plant some plants along a local river to help the ecology. She really is pretty, not at all ugly like she feels she is.

Eat This Book is excellent. Just so you know, right now my devotional readings are in Genesis, and I have much to share about  that too. Too many thoughts, it is fun.

Peterson talks about Genesis, so I thought I would start with this quote, page 3 “The opening page of the Christian text for living, the Bible, tells us that the entire cosmos and every living creature in it are brought into being by words. St. John selects the term “Word” to account, first and last, for what is most characteristic about Jesus, the person at the revealed and revealing center of the Christian Story.”

One thing that crossed my mind reading this, is that I was thinking about Ruach, breath, breathing. In order to speak, you breath, in order to speak forth the Word of God, you breath. Any word that comes out of our mouth requires breath, and I was realizing that if it was edifying words – it is God’s spirit speaking forth, if it isn’t edifying, if it is against the truth, then it is another, false, lying spirit speaking forth. We need to be so careful about what spirit is coming forth out of our mouths.

Peterson talks about meditating on the scripture and says that the word gives an image of a dog chewing on a bone, burying it, digging it up and chewing on it again – ruminating. so on page 4, Peterson talks about the kind of words used in the Bible, how they are different from ordinary communication. “These are words intended, whether confrontationally or obliquely, to get inside us, to deal with our souls, to form a life that is congruent with the world that God has created, the salvation that he has enacted, and the community that he has gathered. Such writing anticipates and counts on a certain kind of reading, a dog-with-a-bone kind of reading.”

He then goes on and uses a term that I love, HOLINESS OF WORDS. How incredible that God’s words are so holy. Peterson mentions lectio divina, spiritual reading for the study of the word. I don’t know much about that type of reading. For me, my joy is in looking up the original meanings of the words and seeing how much is hidden in simple statements. Or looking at where Christ is. I haven’t tried a contrived sort of reading, although sometimes a word or passage will keep going through my mind. Have any of you had any experience with lectio divina reading of the word?

What is funny is that years ago when I studied the Tarot, I was taught that by looking at the cards and studying them, a  person could be in prison and if they could read the cards right, they would be able to know what is going on outside in the world, even if they had no outside contact. Peterson makes a similar claim with the Bible. Given many of the occult things I studied are stolen from Godly truths, I can see that perhaps the tarot cards also stole that idea from them. Oh how deceptive the evil one is!

Peterson talks about during the war an author, Karl Barth, started studying the Bible in depth, he wrote commentaries, and in his writing in an out-of-the-way village, he spoke of the culture-changing realities in his commentary that was going on in the world. Page 5-6 “It was the first in a procession of books that in the years to come would convince many Christians that the Bible was giving a truer, more accurate account of what was going on in their seemingly unraveling world than what their politicians and journalists were telling them. At the same time Barth determined to recover the capacity of Christians to read the book receptively in its original, transformative character. Barth brought the Bible out of the academic mothballs in which it had been stored for so long for so many. He demonstrated how presently alive it is and how different it is from books that can be “handled”–dissected and analyzed and then used for whatever we want them for. He showed clearly and persuasively, that this “different” kind of writing (revelatory and intimate instead of informational and impersonal) must be met by a different kind of reading (receptive and leisurely instead of standoffish and efficient).

Barth in one of his books borrowed a story from Walker Percy’s The Message in the Bottle, where a bunch of men and women were in a warehouse and considered that to be their whole world, the doors were closed permanently and the windows so dirty there was no way to look  out. Some kids clean a patch of window and look out, come back and tell of a world so different from their warehouse, they see people looking up, so they look up and see the ceiling of the warehouse, but the people on the outside see the sky and things going on in the sky. The adults dismiss the comments of the kids as fanciful because this is not their present reality.

Page 7 “What would happen, though, if one day one of those kids cut a door out of the warehouse, coaxed his friends out, and discovered the immense sky above them and the grand horizons beyond them? That is what happens, writes Barth, when we open the bible–we enter the totally unfamiliar world of God, a world of creation and salvation stretching endlessly above and beyond us. Life in the warehouse never prepared us for anything like this.”

What an incredible description this is. I have to tell you, that the more I read and study the Word, the more in awe I am of what incredible depth of understanding there is. I think of how we look at the world with our human eyes and see many things, if we take that and use a magnifying glass, we see so much more. Add a microscope to that and we can see things invisible to our human eyes. An electron microscope, etc. it just gets progressively and progressively more interesting and complex, yet so simple.

In reading Genesis, I realize that every principle ever mentioned in the Bible is contained in this book, that it holds together scientifically, and that Jesus is there from the first verse of Chapter one. I had one thought that kind of shoots the evolutionist’s theory out of the ballpark. When God created the world, who said he had to create a tree with one annual ring to grow succeeding ones. Couldn’t our wonderfully creative, inventive, and interesting creator create the world in an instant, with many stages of development. He could have created seedlings, fully grown trees, layers in the earth that give an impression of ages. He could create a unified whole that is so complex instantly.

Heather

Am starting a new book that looks to be interesting, see above. Here is  a quote from the preface.

     “What I want to say, countering the devil, is that in order to read the Scriptures adequately and accurately, it is necessary at the same time to live them. Not to live them as a prerequisite to reading them, and not to live them in consequence of reading them, but to live them as we read them, the living and reading reciprocal, body language and spoken word, the back-and-forthness assimilating the reading to the living, the living to the reading. Reading the Scriptures is not an activity discrete from living the gospel but one integral to it. It means letting Another have a say in everything we are saying and doing. It is as easy as that. And as hard.”

Well the author is a bit verbose, but what he is saying is so important, that is to read the Bible is good, but to read and respond to what the Bible is saying to you is far more important that mere reading. The Bible is a way that God can dialogue with us.

Funny thing, this author is the author of the Message Bible, and it seems that he saved his verboseness for this book, not sure what the chapters will be like.

Beth Moore once gave a demonstration of how she reads the Bible in her daily talks with God, and she will read a passage like “Love the Lord with all your heart,” and then stop and ask God to help her love Him with all her heart, to take away those things that prevent this from happening, etc…

I think God really enjoys when we tarry with His word. When I was still a pagan I remember reading the Bible like a novel. The theory was that I was going to read it once from Genesis to Revelation. I did that and some things stuck, the second reading was equally as rapid and other things stuck. After a few more readings of the Bible I started to take more time, not rushing the reading, so what if the read the Bible in a year plan took three years, as long as I was daily in the Word. I now love spending time trying to find all that God has for me to learn in whatever part of the Bible I am. And the cool thing, just like the disciples on the road to Emmaus found out, Jesus is in every chapter and verse of the Bible. That is awesome.

Have a blessed day. I am still trying to get to your sites, and spend a bit of time there. It has been hectic times. But fun too. My two sons were spotted at a Boy Scout yard sale, and someone took their picture for an article on scouts, and this weekend we got a call that a photographer wanted them, and a couple other boys for a fashion shoot for clothes for a men’s magazine. We went to the try out where they had one snapshot of them, then were invited back for the photo shoot. If their pictures appear in the magazine I will let you know, they also snapped a roll of pictures of my daughter. This woman specializes in children’s pictures. We were there and watched our sons posing by a tree in clothes that probably cost more than their entire wardrobe combined. My one son was laughing saying that he was wearing Cramer’s pants (Seinfeld), but my other son took a liking to the sheepskin jacket. They had fun, and we had fun watching them. Of course their father, who is the son of a photographer, now knows how much they will tolerate in posing and picture taking. May change the picture taking in our family for the future, oh help. But they had fun and I suspect it was a great ego building experience to realize that someone thought them so photogenic. My daughter has some self-image problems, she feels ugly and fat (thanks to her “friends” comments) and I am actually hoping that this photographer calls her. What I like is that the family was invited to be there to watch, albeit at a distance, so we were not a distraction. But the boys look good!.

Here is a picture of the people who were doing the photo shoot, the photographer’s assistant is the one in red. The photographer is the woman to the left of the guy in the blue shirt.. My boys are back there by the tree.

Never a dull moment in our household. Today my oldest, the one on the left gets inducted into National Honor Society. I am so proud of his hard work.

Heather

It is funny how the Holy Spirit will make sure He underscores a point that He wants you to understand. In my personal reading, the Bible passages I am studying, and Friday’s Bible study taught by Pastor Don all focused on the same issue, the way faith works.

Here is Pastor Don’s Friday Bible study 6/2/06

People are selfish, self-centered, arrogant, they want what they want when they want it. The last person we blame when things go wrong is ourselves. We look for a scapegoat.

Pastor Don asked us what made Jesus target the one person at the pool of Bethesda (which means house of mercy), there were hundreds of sick people there and only one came away healed. Jesus asked him a question, “Do you want to be made well?” Why would Jesus ask that question? He needs the cooperation of the person, their faith, in order to effect a healing.

Remember the son who was the demoniac, and Jesus asked the father if he believed, and the father answered, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” The man was at a point of positive neutral. And that was pretty good given that the disciples had tried to heal the boy and failed, yet the man was able to believe that it was possible for Jesus to do what the disciples were not able to do. Jesus was not able to perform many miracles in his hometown because people could not believe that a carpenter’s son could do any great thing.

Some people in the Church lack knowledge, and a little bit of faith can be a dangerous thing. We have to look at the covenant relationships when we pray over someone.

DISCIPLESHIP NOTEBOOK (This was not part of Pastor Don’s Friday Bible study, but it helps to explain what is meant by the above statement, and it comes from the textbook he wrote for us). P 144-145

 ”I remember one night at Bible study there was a young couple, young believers in the Lord. They had a daughter who possibly had severe allergies to wasp and bee stings. This particular night we had been teaching on healing and that the Power of God is always present to heal when the Word of God is being preached and taught. On this night, the level of Faith was quite high in the meeting.
     The little Girl was stung on the arm by a wasp. She came up screaming and crying to the mother as we all looked and saw that her arm had already swollen at a rapid rate, covering an area of three by three inches, and was already changing colors. The mother and the father took a position of panic, of course, knowing that allergic reactions can be life threatening.
     Knowing that the Power of God was available to heal, I waited on the Holy Spirit. As fear and panic sought to grip the room, I quietly prayed and waited to see if Faith would come alive. After a few minutes of panic and getting the car keys and getting ready to run out, the mother looked up at me and said, “Wait a minute, we could pray, couldn’t we?” I looked and smiled at her with a gentle reassurance.
     I silenced the rest of the room, and I sent for the father. I had the father and the mother holding their little baby, and I instructed them to believe their God, and to lay their hands on the wound, and to command that this poison be of non-effect, and that the swelling go down. The mother’s spirit exploded into prayer, with conviction and power. I also encouraged the rest of the believers to believe along with us and to go into a prayer mode, and those that could pray in the Holy Spirit, I told everyone to believe, or if doubting to move to neutral, and just praise God.
   We need to realize that an atmosphere of Faith creates Faith, and an atmosphere of doubt creates doubt. We’d see many more miracles in the USA if we could get rid of the “show me” “TV show” and “Spectator Sport” attitudes. Remember Mark 6:5, Jesus could do no mighty work in his own home town due to unbelief. Let people know they have a part to play in the Presence of God. What a joy to minister where Satan has not planted tares of doubt, intellectualism and fear.
    As the room filled with spiritual Tongues of the saints building themselves up, and as the mother’s Faith and the father’s Faith rose, the little girl became very, very calm. As I watched her eyes search about the room, she fixed her eyes upon her mother and then looked upon her father, and she realized they were serious and truly believed that no harm was going to come to her. And amazingly, the daughter closed her eyes and came into agreement with the Faith of the parents. The swelling and pain were gone in a few minutes, and the girl ran off to play, healed.
     The room was then filled with praise and joy, and I tell you, these two people are now prayer warriors who will confront the devil whenever he rears his ugly head. I also note that the Holy Spirit gave me proper guidance at the time needed. I could have taken the little girl into my arms, I could have assumed the take-charge-kind’a-guy personality, stomped off with the child into an outer room, and gone and sought the Lord in prayer, and commanded satan and jumped up and down and I would have been in great error. The Holy Spirit was leading to demonstrate to the whole group, and especially to the parents, their authority to build their faith.
     We have to be concerned also about who gets the credit. In a situation like that if I had stormed off and prayed alone and the child was healed, then I would have a room full of people that would have possibly been impressed with me, not necessarily believing God.” (END OF DISCIPLESHIP NOTEBOOK ENTRY)

 In the above example it is important to realize that the Covenant relationship runs from the parent over the child. When Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant, the Centurion was in a position of power over the servant, a position of responsibility. In the Old Testament, often a servant would choose to stay with a master and present his ear at the door, and become part of the household for as long as the master lives. The master then has the responsibility to take care of the servant and his family.

Acts 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

It is ignorance to assume that someone oppressed of the devil has the covenant right as to whether that spirit is dismissed or not. Illness is the work of the devil and demonic presence, and some people give satan the covenant permission to be beaten up by satan.

Adam and Eve broke covenant with God with their disobedience, and allowed satan the right to run amok on the earth. Even Jesus did not dispute satan’s claim to be lord of the earth during the temptation. Until Jesus returns to rule and reign, satan will affect those on the earth. We have a choice whom we covenant with, Jesus or satan.

The Holy Spirit asks us, “Do you want to be made whole.” Pastor Don commented that many who come up in the prayer line actually do not want to be healed. In some cases, welfare would be lost if a person is healed, some come up because their friends force them to come up, but they are not in agreement with healing, others have grown accustomed to the problem and situation and hold onto the problem as if it were a friend.

In every situation that Jesus healed a person, He made sure that they were in agreement with the healing. He asked Blind Bartemaeus what he wanted Jesus to do. Jesus did not assume that he was calling out to be healed of blindness, could be that there would have been something else that Bartemaeus wanted healing from. Jesus did not force healing on anyone who did not want to be healed. When Jesus looked at Bartemaeus, he saw all the infirmities that he had, and Jesus asked him, which do you want healing for.

You can be blind and go to heaven. Jesus was more concerned with the condition of a person’s soul and spirit.

Life is complicated, what we see on the external of a person isn’t all that is to be seen. We don’t know all the particulars of why a person is facing what they are facing. It is important to hook up with a person’s faith. If we try to push a person beyond what their faith is able to believe we set them up for failure and no one is blessed. It is better to see what a person can believe for, and pray with them at that level. For some it could be complete healing, for others it could be that the doctor can cure them or a pill can cure them.

The blood of Jesus, repenting and cleansing of  sin can heal a person.

2 Cor. 5:19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed us to the word of reconciliation.”

2 Corinthians  6.  There is a covenant of health, if I break all the health rules of eating, rest, doing what God recommends, then I am making a covenant with disease. The Power of God will show up when I repent of the covenant I have broken and desire reconciliation.

When God does not seem to heal, when healing doesn’t work for someone who feels that they are following the Bible, living a good life, but they can’t quite get healed, they tend to change the Bible teaching to suit limited understanding. They think, I am a good Christian, I can’t get healed, others aren’t being healed, so therefore the healings and miracles that the apostles and Jesus did are not for this age.

We create a theology of excuse, a theology of blame. These theologies are a cop out, the truth is that people did not have enough faith. Repentance means 180 degree turn around.

God is not like Central Hudson (our electric company). He doesn’t waste good energy on bad circuits. God will sometimes refuse to listen to false promises, will not respond to lack of faith. (Heather’s note – this is a loving act of God, whose sole concern is to grow us in faith and relationship with Him, sometimes not being healed is what will force a person to really evaluate their life and relationship with God, and they will come out of the situation healed in more than just the external symptoms, but healed deep within).

Job’s healing came, not when he was claiming his righteous innocence, but when he claimed, “I know my redeemer lives..” Then God had Job pray and sacrifice for his friends for misrepresenting God to Job. We cannot second guess God’s reasons for the circumstances in our lives or in other’s lives. We have to trust God’s Word, even when a person’s situation does not seem to change.

2 Corinthians 6:1 “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”

God is expecting you to do what He says you can do. Most people’s faith stops at salvation. But salvation is not just the saving of our immortal souls, but it also implies deliverance, healing, wellness, not just a soul going to heaven. God wants us free and living full lives until we are satisfied. Ps. 90 and 91, we are to live until we are satisfied. And God wants us to live in the fullness of His salvation, living from glory to glory, faith to faith.

I mentioned to Pastor Don that sometimes my prayer life suffers (less now than before, but I still find myself doing this) because when I pray to God for a situation I have in my mind the path that I feel God should take to accomplish what I am praying with. I have the whole roadmap in my mind, and when God doesn’t seem to be following the order I have in my mind, then I felt that He wasn’t working in my life. The truth is that God hears our prayers, and does things in the way that is most beneficial for us, that we have to trust that God will hear and answer. But the external circumstances may remain the same until the healing is done first deep within.

Pastor Don had us write in our bibles: MY EXPECTATIONS CAUSE MY DISAPPOINTMENTS.

Hopes are different from expectations. We are to hope, and expect that God will move, but God is sovereign and will move in the way that He knows is best and with His timing. (Heather’s note, sometimes God seems to me to take so long to move, but He knows what is best).

There is also a distinction between will and expectations. God wants us to walk in His will which may be far different from our expectations.

Saved or unsaved – we are all facing the destruction that satan has done on the earth, the health conditions and the effects of a fallen world. But the believer has something that the unsaved do not have, we have God on our side and a hope.

Matthew 14:22-33 This is the story of Jesus walking on the water, and the disciples see Him walking on the sea, and are troubled, thinking it is a ghost. , starting at verse 27 “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid,” And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat the wind ceased. then those who were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

There is the obvious point of this story about faith, taking one’s eyes off of Jesus and sinking, those who stayed in the boat, etc. but there is another aspect to this story that Pastor Don covered.

There is the first one, the question, who are you? Are you a Ghost? Are you the Son of God? To answer this question, Peter put out a simple test. “If you are the Son of God, command me to come to You on the water.” Well, Jesus answered that test and commanded Peter. Peter at that point could have said, ok, you commanded me, you are the son of God. The second one is, notice that Peter said, “IF” it is that if that is also a lack of faith, given that Peter had seen so many miracles that Christ had done.

Peter could have asked Jesus to prove that He was the son of God by laying out any fleece, it didn’t have to be walk on water, could have been any other request.

The Lord will prove to you that He loves you, even if you are failing in faith, he will save you. No matter how much you mess up in your life, the Lord will show himself strong, He will be there IMMEDIATELY when you cry out to Him. His goal is to grow our faith.

Heather’s note, I struggle with faith at times, there are some areas I have strong faith in, other areas my faith is weak. I know that my situation is dependent on what I am believing for, and I am learning more and more how much I can trust God. When I look at my life, I see situations that God needs to grow me in, other areas where I haven’t put my whole will in line with God. But in those areas that I finally understand what God is wanting me to know and learn, I have seen rapid progress. We are works in progress. I know that I am easy to come away from a lesson like this condemned, but that is not what is meant to happen. God, when He teaches me, sometimes the truth hurts, but it is a hurt with healing in mind. God would never scratch open a wound unless He was prepared to heal it. God scratched open a few wounds with this lesson for me, I have to trust that healing will come from this.

Hoping you have a blessed day.
Heather