Tag Archives: encouragement

The Interceding of the Great Physician

30 Monday Mar 2015

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Yesterday our pastor told about a man in our church family who went in to have an upper body x-ray, and for whatever reason, the x-ray camera was positioned lower than it should have been. Because of the error, an abdominal mass was found. There had been no symptoms of cancer in his body and except for the misalignment of the x-ray machine, the malignancy would have gone undetected.

The daughter of a close friend wasn’t even a year out from her first breast cancer surgery when she felt a lump under her arm while showering.  She had been closely monitored by several specialists yet she was the one who discovered a cancerous node. One physician told her he was amazed she could feel it.

The husband of another friend repeatedly had high PSA’s indicating the likelihood of prostate cancer.  There were several biopsies and none disclosed malignancy. Even so, he couldn’t let go of concern and decided to go to a cancer center for a more extensive biopsy. An aggressive form of cancer was found and had, in fact, escaped the walls of the prostate.

Two years ago I had surgery to remove a cancer from my face.  For more than a year I had been anxious about two tiny black spots below my eye. I had the area checked three times by two different dermatologists and told the spots were nothing to worry about.  Then a cosmetologist saw them and strongly urged me to get another opinion. I went to yet a third dermatologist who biopsied and diagnosed a melanoma, the worst of all skin cancers.

As I thought about these four different scenarios, it didn’t cause me to lose faith in physicians. Rather, I saw it as the sure evidence of God’s hand in the lives of His children. He took over where man was limited: He acted through an ill-positioned x-ray, guided a young woman’s hand, prompted a cosmetologist to speak out assertively, and kept concern gnawing until the right tests were completed.

The healing miracles of Jesus’ day were dramatic. The lame were made to walk, the blind to see, a woman bent over for 18 years made to stand erect, the dead were raised. There was no subtlety about any of those healings. Yet I would say to you the situations I’ve described are no less miracles.  Where highly skilled physicians missed disease, The Great Physician, Jesus, stepped in and called disease out.

Does this interceding happen every time? No, not as far as we can see. However, I do believe it happens far more times than we realize and certainly more times than we ever give God credit. It is never wrong to pray for the sudden miracle occurrences of Jesus’ day, but we should not fail to see His healings of today that only need a closer look.

Each person in this story had a good outcome and good prognosis. Jesus is never late.  To God be all glory!

My Word is LOVE

01 Thursday Jan 2015

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It’s spreading like a sudden fire in a dry forest. A one word focus for the New Year rather than a list of resolutions most of us never keep. My word of focus came without thinking twice. The word is “love.”

I choose “love” because the ones I have admired most are those who have loved best. They have understood the way of God’s love, that it is unconditional and abundant. They embrace it and let it spill onto others. They embody a joy and ease with life that tells me they know the secret to contented, purposeful living.

People who love well have an aura about them that speaks good will. They seem to move effortlessly through life, content with the simpler things, unhampered by the world’s bounty.  I see them as vessels filled with God’s love, ever ready to spill out onto the lonely, the heartbroken, the guilt-ridden, the insecure, the anxious, the frightened, the grieving, the young and the old. They truly care about all God’s creations and caring seems for them as natural as breathing.

They don’t hide behind busyness or judge anyone as being unworthy. These people have learned the joy of being fixed on God’s love and not the world about them. They don’t love for recognition or reward, but for the simple pleasure of caring.

So in 2015 my word of focus is “love.” I want to love more and better. And the best way I know to do that is to pitch my tent around the Book of Love in new ways. Read scriptures as if for the first time and think about how to implement what I am reading as an action of God’s love. It is one thing to know about God’s love and yet another to live that love. I want to do a lot more of the latter.

And we know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. –1 John 4:16 (NKJV)

Who I Really Am

14 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in God's love for us

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Ravi Zacharias says there are three of each of us: There is who the world thinks we are, who we think we are, and who Gods knows us to be.  I am so grateful for that last one—who God knows me to be.

One of the quickest ways for me to fall flat on my face is to state with all boldness and certainty I will never do a particular thing.  That thing might by to repeat a past mistake, it may be some way I’ve seen another fail, or it may be some wrong behavior I know can happen but cannot imagine myself ever doing.

As my life has unfolded, I’ve worked to keep my mouth tightly closed about the nevers of life, for I identify with Paul in Romans 7:18-19: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 

Throughout life, I have by nature been a survivor. I’ve worked hard and long hours to get whatever needed to be done, done. As an adult in my 40’s, I had to put my survivor skills into action and through that time, I came to believe I could do just about anything if I had to do it, and if there was enough fire burning inside me to get it done. I also learned that I was a perfectionist and it took a while to recognize that wasn’t a good thing but a very unhealthy way to go about life. However, it was the discipline of that trait that helped me move from survivor to one who accomplished well.

But none of that matters when it comes to living in the Lord’s strength. I can determine whatever I want to determine but if the Lord is not the one who guides and supplies, all will crumble about me. I hear Paul’s struggle with right and wrong and identify with his frustration and self-disappointment.

I have learned to do this: When someone else judges me, I ask myself who I am judging. When I hear about someone else’s mistake that I think I could never do, I say there but for the grace of God go I. When I do a wrong—or repeat one—I thank God that He knows me in a way that I do not even know myself and that is the me He loves.

God Is Always Faithful

15 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by in God's faithfulness

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And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also. Gen 48:11 RSV

I cannot help but think of how the years without Joseph must have been for Israel (first called Jacob). Joseph was the son of his beloved Rachel, the woman he loved from first sight. Joseph brought Israel more joy than any of his other children, and at a very young age this favored son was taken. How Israel must have grieved! How he must have said like many who have lost a child, if I could only see him one more time.

The ending to the story is a happy one for Israel for something he never dreamed of happens. His son Joseph is restored to him, along with Joseph’s children. What an inconceivable blessing for an old man who thought his son was dead.

Over my lifetime, I’ve come to see how like God this is. When God hears the longings of our hearts and responds, it seems to me the blessings are always greater than imagined. In the harshest of trials, I have learned to be confident. The end will come in God’s timing and with the end will be more blessing than I could ever know to ask.

In the toughest trial of my life, there were moments when I wondered if it would ever be over. But as tough as it was, I never stopped loving God or believing in Him. That trial kept me seeking God in every possible way and place, and that alone added good things to my life. When the trial was finally over, I could look back and see the rich and abundant blessings poured out on this unworthy person. I saw the crooks and turns, the hills and valleys, that brought me to a deeper faith. All that I had gone through brought me to a surer confidence in God. Blessings of abundance were poured out. Not because I deserved them, but because it is how God is, how He loves His children and rewards us when we diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

When we reflect on life experiences and see how involved God is in our lives, how can we not see His faithfulness and His love? He will never desert us; His word gives us that promise over and over.

And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. (Psalm 9:10 NIV)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39 ESV) 

How God Our Father Sees Us

26 Tuesday Nov 2013

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“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, NAS). This is what each one of us as God’s children will hear. As “heirs to the promise” (Galatians 3:29), we share in the blessings of Jesus.

This is a lot to digest, the part of God being well pleased with me. I look at my life and see miserable failure in living the God-life. But if I take another view, I see it isn’t about the me I know, but the one God knows.

Since God has forgotten our sins and removed them “as far as the east from the east” (Psalm 103:12), we stand only in the holiness of Jesus, the One we call Savior. God the Father sees us with clothes of salvation and righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) and we are beautiful in His sight. Though a lot to get our minds around, we look like Jesus. Standing in the Savior’s garment we radiate only good things, for He is only good. And that is all the Father sees. Imagine. All that grieves us about ourselves will not be a part of our final being. We will at last be revealed as the Father sees us. We will not be confused by the ploys of Satan. We will not walk with a rock of sin in our shoe. There will be no more guilt, no more shame and all because we did one thing: we chose to believe in Jesus (John 3:16).

Perhaps the amount of detail to our garment will be reflective of all we have done in Christ’s name. It won’t be a garment of fine fabric, buttons and trim, but a different kind altogether. Our new garment will be of the little one we loved, the old person aided, the sick we attended. It will be the orphanage we helped build, the missionary we supported, the joyful surprise we prepared for a weary sojourner. The meal we cooked, the child we taught about God, the witness we gave in darkness. The stranger we made welcome, the lonely one we sat with, the one in need we walked with.  The time we spent in worship, the songs of praise to God we lifted, the words of encouragement we spoke. The times we sought and followed wisdom, the moments we forgave, the unconditional love we extended.

Those acts in the Lord’s name will be the garment that cover us, for that is the righteousness of Jesus and that is what the Father has chosen to see when He looks on us in Spirit and not in flesh (Romans 8:27).

Praises be to the One who forgives and loves us. Praises be to the One who made a way possible for us. Glory to God, for Redeemer is His name!

jesus111

In the Presence of Jehovah

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in music in healing

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The song, In the Presence of Jehovah, was written by Damaris Carbaugh (lyrics) and Becky and Geron David (music). When I hear it, I feel as if I am being escorted into the very throne room of God; it touches something inside me in a supernatural way. The words express the simple truth, that we can find healing for whatever our need when we get alone with God.

I went through a very tough time some years back. One of the ways God restored health to my body and joy to my soul was through this song. A very dear friend and pastor’s wife sang it to me on a Sunday afternoon, touching directly the anguish I was feeling and from that moment on it became my anthem. I found an old tape by our church choir with “In the Presence of Jehovah” and played it over and over as I took long walks. It was like a release to pent-up anxiety and pain. One of our church soloists sang it with what seemed to me more frequency in a shorter period of time than usual. And I sang it to myself, letting the melody and words take the edge off the sharp, piercing pain I was experiencing. My entire being was calmed and soothed by this music with a solid truth.

Because God fashioned us, He knows what will minister to our particular need. Without question, He gave this song to the writers that it might tell of Him and His grace. God laid it on Susan’s heart to sing so that His love could flow through her to me. He gave it again through Dianne’s sweet angel voice. Even the supplying of recorded music by our church choir before it was “my” church choir was by God’s hand. Over and over He drew me into a sacred space with Him and tended to my brokenness. It was (and is) like feeling the embrace of the Almighty.

In the presence of Jehovah,

God Almighty,

Prince of Peace.

Troubles vanish,

hearts are mended,

in the presence of the King.

This is just the chorus. Follow this link http://youtu.be/ZgQX4lDzpWg to hear the very meaningful verses and the beauty of the music.

Faith versus Fear

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in faith

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It is in fear that faith is lost, confusion reigns and miracles are denied.

When we close the door on God’s abilities because our own are inadequate, we hamper not just His love but the fullness of it.  He would provide so much, but we keep refusing Him in our little faith.

David, the psalmist, declared the intention for those who revere God:  that He allows friendship “and reveals the secrets of His promises.”

We long to be included in such a friendship, but while it is available, we refuse the secrets, crying out instead that there is no logic – and so we deny the whispers of the One who would befriend us.

In self-induced pain, we toss and turn, we weep pitifully.  We say, “How could a loving God allow me to be so deceived?”  In fact, we should be thanking Him for the revelation and watching eagerly for its fulfillment.

Oswald Chambers writes, “We have to live in the gray day according to what we saw on the mount.”  When God reveals a certain matter to us, we should live in faith until it happens.  We should trust His whispers in friendship.  Surely we stop a lot of miracles with our reluctance to trust wonderfully in our God.

How carefully we tiptoe about, demonstrating more fear than faith, forgetting the power of our God.  His joy is in giving; His word declares that He is able.  “My purpose will be established . . . .  I have planned it; surely I will do it.”

But we must hold onto the knowledge that without faith it is impossible to please God.  When we refuse Him our faith, we fail to activate all that our Lord would do for us.  J. Oswald Sanders said that “when sight brings no helpful vision and comfortable emotions are largely absent, the prayer of faith finds its greatest opportunity.”

The words of Martin Luther enhanced such a statement when he wrote, “not the merits of my prayer but the certainty of Thy truth.”

Just how many miracles do we deny when we stare dead center into the face of our problems and not into the face of the Problem Solver instead?  If we would but lift our chins upward and rest them in the palm of His waiting hand, we would unleash all the glory and truth of heaven.

A Pot of Peas

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

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Fresh peas were on the stove and needing my attention: a little more water, some seasoning, a few gentle stirs. As I lifted the lid and tended them, I had a flashback of years gone by.

I saw my grandmother’s kitchen and remembered the constant aroma of good food. Food cooked with skill and love, food that never disappointed. How many times did I walk to my grandparents’ house after school and help myself to peas and cornbread from the oven? Before we were taught it was dangerous to leave food sitting out, food was commonly kept in the oven between the noon and night meals. Her peas were so delicious I didn’t bother with reheating, just filled a plate with room temperature field peas and helped myself to a piece of cornbread, and indulged. If I close my eyes and think really hard, I can still taste them.

Staring down at my boiling peas, I moved on to my mother’s kitchen and saw them there. There was a certain pot of cast iron with a yellow lid that she used for cooking peas. I thought about picking the peas, then shelling them from a huge white dishpan. What wasn’t for immediate use was processed for the freezer.

Some things cannot be reproduced by assembly line companies, and for me, field peas is one of them. So through my years of cooking for a family, there have always been fresh peas on my table or those of my own preserving. Are mine as good as my mother’s or grandmother’s? Close, but not as good as theirs.

Flashbacks are bittersweet. Things that will never be again can bring melancholy. Remembering times around a family table with parents and grandparents no longer living kind of puts an ache in the heart. It all happened so fast – losing them and growing this old. But if I can move past the sadness and be grateful for those who left me with this legacy, it gets better. I always, always loved to cook and I know it was because of the high standard set before me. I can honor Dulcie Spencer and Louise Spencer Luffman today by carrying on the tradition of preparing in my own kitchen the very best I can do, and never just “making do.”

Father, I give you thanks for these two women who taught me the art of cooking. May I never forget the time and love that went into every dish they put on the table. And, may I never fail to remember the other lesson they taught me about food: always share what you have.