Tag Archives: healing

January 17, 2013 · 7:57 AM

Wrongfully Arrested

My wife told me a joke last week that got me to thinking. There was a lady who was in a hurry to get where she was going. She was tailgating people and weaving in and out of traffic. She was riding the bumper of a truck when the light turned yellow. Instead of speeding through it, the truck stopped. She was furious! She started banging her steering wheel, screaming and making hand gestures that showed she was upset.

About that time, there was a knock on her window. She hadn’t noticed the police lights behind her. He arrested her and took her to jail. About an hour later, they came and got her out of jail to release her. While they were processing her, the arresting cop was there. He said, “Im sorry, ma’am for arresting you. When I saw how you were driving and acting and then read your bumper stickers that said, ‘WWJD, Follow me to Sunday School, My boss is a Jewish carpenter and God is my co-pilot’ I assumed you had stolen the car.”

Now that’s funny, but it’s also true of how most of us act. We advertise Christianity to everyone around us through bumper stickers, the Bible we carry, the tracts we leave laying around and telling others that we’re believers. But what about our actions? I’ve always heard it said that actions speak louder than words. How do we act when we think no one is looking? How do we respond when nothing goes our way? What do we do when we are hit with one trial after another?

I know we’re still human and we will respond like that lady did from time to time. I know have been guilty on several occasions. What message does that send when we behave that way? We are called to be different. To live different, to act different and to respond differently than others. When we tell others we are Christians, it feels like they’re waiting on us to mess up. Guess what, you will at some point. Why? Because we’re still human and have that nature in us. It’s what we do after we mess up that makes the difference.

I wonder how the lady in the joke responded after she left the station. Did she remove the bumper stickers from her car? Did she repent and ask God to give her the strength to be a better witness? I know that’s what I would have done in that situation. I would have gone crawling to God, begging for His forgiveness and looking for ways to be a better light in this dark place. That’s the beauty of Christianity. That’s the unfathomable thing about God’s grace. That’s what gives me hope.

We all mess up. We all deny Christ with our lives at times. The witness to others is that even when I royally mess up, I can find mercy, grace and forgiveness in Christ. While others may not forget what I did, God can. No one can live a completely righteous life, but we can live a life dominated by God’s grace and make that our witness. People know you can’t be perfect, but they want to know they can be forgiven. They want to know if there is enough grace for what they’ve done. There is.

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January 14, 2013 · 8:09 AM

Busses, Borders and Bombs

I love to tell the story of my bus ride from Cairo to Tel Aviv. I arrived in downtown Cairo early in the morning to catch my bus. This would be my second trip to Israel and this time I was taking friends with me. As we got on the outskirts of town, we met up with about 20 other busses and headed as a caravan through the Sinai peninsula. As soon as we arrived at the border, we had to walk through customs and then meet an Israeli bus on the other side to go the rest of the way.

After standing in line for a long time to get through customs, we walked out the door, through about 10 yards of what I call “no man’s land”, walked through a gate and then we were officially in Israel. There were about 20 busses on the other side waiting. All we had to do was find our bus and then the adventure would continue. The problem was we couldn’t find our bus.

All of the busses left and there were about 30 of us standing around. To say we weren’t happy would be an understatement. I was looking bad for having organized the trip. Finally, after a long 10 minutes, we see a bus come speeding up. The driver and his helper apologized and quickly loaded our belongings. When we got going, they apologized again and explained that things had happened that prevented them from arriving on time.

As the young lady took our tickets, she recognized me from my previous trip. I remembered her name and we began chatting. She asked where we were staying in Tel Aviv and what our plans were. I told her where we were staying and explained that since there had been a bus bomb in Jerusalem the day before, we planned on starting in Tel Aviv and would work our way to Jerusalem later in the week. She said where we were staying was on the way to the bus terminal and she’d be happy to drop us off at a shopping area near it.

As we made our way into Tel Aviv, the music on the radio stopped and the news came on. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I could understand the urgency in the reporters voice and the sirens coming through his microphone. I looked into the big mirror that bus drivers have and could see tears rolling down his face. I looked over and saw my friend. She was crying too. After a couple of minutes, I said, “Segal, is that from yesterday’s bombing?” She shook her head no. She then said, “We’re going to have to drop you off at the bus station instead of that shopping plaza.”

I said, “No problem. That’s what we had planned anyway. We’re good.” She then looked me in the eye and said, “You don’t understand. I have to drop you off at the bus station because someone just blew themselves up in the shopping plaza where we were going to drop you. They had a backpack full of explosives and pellets that shot out and killed many people.” It hit me that if that bus had been on time, we would have been standing in that shopping plaza at the time of the explosion. I then prayed, thanked God for protection and asked for forgiveness for complaining.

We may not always understand why things are preventing us from getting somewhere on time. We may never know why it seems like no matter how hard we try to do something it doesn’t work. What I’ve learned is that God is in control and I should be patient. God is either keeping me from something that is happening or is using me to prevent someone else from being somewhere at a certain time.

Whether it’s physically going somewhere or wanting something to happen in our lives, it’s easy to get impatient. We want things to happen in our timing and rarely want to wait for His timing. I’m not someone who likes to be patient, but I’m learning to. When God plants a dream in you, calls you to something or has made a promise to you have patience. He is working things together to line things up for His timing not yours. Philippians 1:6 says, “And I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue His work until it is finished.”

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January 10, 2013 · 7:25 AM

Hope for Your Dream

I have been thinking a lot about Joseph, the son of Jacob. I have committed to do a study on him to see what I can glean from his life. We know how his father gave him a coat of many colors and how his brothers despised him, but I want to know who he really was and how we can apply things from his life to ours. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more posts about him soon. His story is found in Genesis 37-45.

Today, I want to focus on him in prison. Many years had passed since God had given him a dream that his family would bow down to him. I can imagine Joseph sitting in that prison wondering about that dream. I wonder if he wished he had never told his brothers about the dream God gave him. After he told them, they threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery where he was falsely accused and now sitting in a prison to rot.

I think a lot of us are at that point right now. God birthed a dream in you and you began to share it. You then noticed that when you shared it, things in your life began to fall apart. When things in our lives fall apart, we begin to seclude ourselves. We pull back from others. It may be because you don’t want them to catch your bad luck, because you want to protect them from anything bad coming your way or you could just be embarrassed from everything that’s happening.

When we seclude ourselves, we build walls. When we build walls, we find ourselves in prison like Joseph. You may not be in a physical prison like he was, but you are still secluded and alone making you feel like you’re in prison. It’s easy to sit in that prison and think that the dream is dead. It is not! Just like a seed planted in the earth grows dormant so that it can grow, the dream God placed in you may be dormant before it can grow.

I personally know the pain of thinking that a dream is dead due to circumstances. God’s promises are not bound by the circumstances in your life. He is not unaware of what you are facing today. You cannot let your circumstances dictate that the dream is dead. If God has planted it, He will grow it no matter where you are or what you’re going through. His Word never returns void. It’s in the depths of our prisons that our dreams can grow. In those dark places where we think there is no life, God is there cultivating you and that dream.

It often takes us getting to the end of our rope before the dream comes back alive so that we will always know that the dream was realized not by our own strength or doing, but by God alone. He is the one who gave it to you and He is the one who will fulfill it. You, like Joseph, are simply being put into position for the realization of your dream. If Joseph had never been in prison, no one would have known he could interpret the Pharaoh’s dream and his family would have been lost.

If you’re in that dark prison today, don’t despair. Keep hope with you. Know that God is putting you into position so that dream can be realized. God is working in your life through the good and the bad to bring about what He promised. He works all things together for your good. You are not alone. You are not forgotten in your prison. You have a God who sees you, loves you and is working for your good. Continue to trust Him and be patient.

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January 9, 2013 · 6:53 AM

Forgiveness

How do you forgive the unforgivable? How do you come to the place where you can forgive someone for the ultimate betrayal? When you’ve trusted someone with everything and they stab you in the back as they take it all away, it’s hard to come to that place. It’s even more difficult when you have daily reminders. It’s like someone is just twisting the knife in you. The pain becomes unbearable. Not understanding why just makes it more difficult.

For me, I’ve had to let go of that last question to come to a place of forgiveness. The question of why will eat you up like a cancer. It causes you to hold on to the pain, the depression and it keeps the wounds open. I tried to drown my pain. I tried to run from it too. I did anything and everything I could to find a way to get rid of the constant reminders. I eventually covered up the wound and just pretended that it didn’t exist.

If I could forget it happened, I could numb the pain. If I could pretend it was a bad dream, somehow it would make me forget. Over time, that seemed to work. It sat there though dormant waiting in the dark. I would never be able to forget or make the scars go away though. It wasn’t until I confronted the pain, the hurt and the scars that I found forgiveness.

I heard Dave Roever speak about a year ago. His body is riddled with physical scars from having a phosphorous grenade blow up by his head as he was throwing it. His words pierced me. He said, “Don’t hide your scars. In them lies healing for you and for others.” Could it be that by hiding the scars and withholding forgiveness I was preventing myself and others from healing? I now know he was right. By looking at what happened and uncovering the layers of things I used to cover up the pain, I was able to find forgiveness.

Jesus gave the best example of forgiveness as He was on the cross. He was able to look the men in the eye who beat Him, mocked Him and betrayed Him. He was able to find forgiveness while the nails were still in His hands. He was able to find peace while the blood was pouring out of His body and say, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.” He was able to see the whole plan of what was happening. You and I aren’t afforded that luxury.

It took years to see the plan and the reasons why. The betrayal in my life knocked me completely off the path I was on and put me on another one. It changed my outlook, the way I think and ultimately who I am. If it hadn’t been for that one act, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Being able to have that perspective this far away is what helped me find forgiveness. I know that what happened, while it hurt deeply and still does, was a course correction that God used to get me where He wanted me.

If they were the tool that God used to get me here, how can I withhold forgiveness? When I withhold forgiveness, I can’t be who I am supposed to be. It will keep me in a prison of pain and bitterness and I will miss what God has for me. I knew the day would come when I would have to forgive because Jesus also said, “If you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Were the sins committed against me any worse than my sins against God? No. He found a way to forgive me, I have to find a way to forgive others.

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December 13, 2012 · 8:12 AM

Lenses that Lable

I have to confess I have a problem. When I look at people, I see them through a lens that places a label on them. When I first see someone, the first thing that comes to my mind is what I think they are. I may think, “Smoker. Muslim. Homosexual. Thug. Diva. Punk.” There are numerous things that can come to mind when I see someone. This morning, I was challenged to see them as Jesus sees them. “Soul”. Each one is a soul that is either lost or found.

By placing my own labels on people, I covered up who they really are. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this, but that doesn’t make it right. As I drove by each car this morning, I looked at the driver and began to look past the label my mind wanted to place on them. I focused on their soul. The moment I did, a compassion for them welled up inside of me.

When we label people, we are really building up walls so we don’t have to get involved. We use them to create excuses why we shouldn’t or couldn’t be Jesus to them. Over time, we end up forgetting why we are here. It is to be salt and light. I often read in Scripture where Jesus is approached by someone or a large crowd gathers around Him and the verse will almost always say, “And He had compassion on them.”

Compassion is what compels us to do something for someone else. Jesus’ ministry wasn’t about taking up a larger offering or getting more people to follow Him. It was about seeing the lost, having compassion on them and then doing something about it. His heart broke for the people He saw. I believe it still breaks today with as many lost people as there are.

Brandon Heath wrote a song a couple of years ago called “Give Me Your Eyes”. In it he says, “Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity…I’ve been there a million times. A couple of million eyes just moving past me by. I swear I never thought that I was wrong.” They are challenging lyrics that is a prayer all of us should have. We pass people every day who need compassion. Who need Christ.

So what do we do about it? Should we give up because there are so many? Should we sit back and do nothing because we are outnumbered? No! It only takes a little salt to flavor an entire meal. It only takes a little light to make darkness leave. As individuals, we have an ability to affect so many with what little we have. We have to get past the lenses on our eyes that see labels to where we see souls. We have to see them as God sees them. Only then can we have the compassion necessary to do what we were called to do: Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.

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December 11, 2012 · 7:56 AM

God is With You

I think it’s important to stop and remember what we are celebrating this time of year. People can argue that Christmas is commercialized, that some of the traditions have pagan roots or that Jesus wasn’t born in December. Honestly, what we are celebrating now, should be celebrated all through the year. God wrapped Himself in flesh and lived among us. The prophet Isaiah said He would be called Emmanuel which is God with us.

I’ve always loved the meaning of that name. God is with us. It’s present tense. It’s not He was with us or He will be with us. He is with us! There are times we all face where we feel alone. We feel the world is against us. Our friends are scarce. Our troubles are compounded. Our stress is through the roof. Our bills are too many and too high. We feel abandoned and are afraid. How we feel and what circumstances look like don’t change the fact that God is with us.

I’ve always heard it said that you plus God equals a majority. It’s important to remember that when you’re overwhelmed or feel alone. You have the Creator of the universe standing beside you, fighting for you and working things out for your good. When I look back at the hardest times in my life, I can see now that He was working things for my good. I had to go through the fires and the difficult times to be who I am now and to get where I am. It never feels like it during the struggle though.

When we’re surrounded by the storm and the waves are crashing into us and we feel like we’re sinking, He is with us. He isn’t panicking like we are. He knows that things are under control even when they appear not to be. The disciples found themselves in this same situation. They were on a boat in the middle of a fierce storm and they were taking on water. They were terrified until they remember Emmanuel. God is with us. They woke Jesus up and He calmed the storm.

Maybe that’s you today. You find yourself in the middle of a storm. Your mind is occupied by all the “what if’s”. You feel as though your life is sinking. Nothing is going as planned. If that’s the case, remember there is no storm He can’t calm. There is nothing that life can throw at you that He can’t turn into good for you. Even if you can’t see it, have faith. It’s now that you need to remember Emmanuel. God is with YOU. And if God is for you, who can be against you? In all things, we are more than conquerors through Him.

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December 6, 2012 · 9:11 AM

A World Changing Prayer

Have you ever prayed a prayer that changed the course of your life? I have. I was in church earlier this year. The service was closing and the guest preacher was praying for people in the altar area. I didn’t feel a need to go forward, so I prayed where I was sitting. I simply said, “God, I’m ready when you are. Use my life for your purpose. I’m tired of running. Amen.” As soon as I said “amen” the preacher spoke what God had already revealed to me and then asked for that person to come to the front.

Less than a year later, things in my life are still changing. I see every day things that are lining up to put me where He promised He would take me. It’s overwhelming sometimes when I sit and think of everything that has happened since that prayer and is happening right now. One of the first things berthed out of that prayer was this blog. More than anything, this blog is an act of obedience to God. Obedience is an act of worship to God and shows Him you are able to be faithful.

I was thinking this morning of others who have had life changing prayers. I imagine David out in a pasture watching sheep, singing psalms to God and just saying, “God, I’ll be who you want me to be and do what you want me to do. Even if it is watching these sheep for the rest of my life.” He became king. I can see Mary thrilled with her engagement to Joseph and praying, “Do with my life what you will, Lord. I am your servant.” She became the mother of Jesus.

What God looks for is a heart that is willing to obey Him whether He makes you a king in His kingdom or a caretaker. We all want to be great in His kingdom, but He said the least would be the greatest. Doing what He calls you to do is what makes you great in His eyes. Peter was told to feed His sheep. Seems menial, but He was faithful in it and became the head of the church. Greatness is not achieved by doing great things. It is achieved by doing the little things you are called to do when you’re called to do them.

Many of us want to change the world, but I’ve found is that being obedient often changes the world of one person. That one person then changes the world of someone else and the ripple effect takes over. Do you know who Albert McMakin is? He is the guy who was obedient and invited Billy Graham to a revival where he became a Christian. Since that time, Billy has lead over 3 million people to Christ and numerous other ministries have been launched where countless have been helped.

It all started with a small act of obedience and a person who said, “God, I want to do what you want me to do.” That small act of obedience for Albert has been world changing. What is it that God is asking you to be obedient to? Have you prayed and offered God a life of obedience? If not, I encourage you to do so. It will change the course of your life and be world changing.

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December 3, 2012 · 8:07 AM

Liaisons for the Lost

If you knew someone famous and your friends knew it, would you give in to their pleas for you to introduce them? Most of us probably wouldn’t. We don’t want to jeopardize our friendship with the famous person in order to satisfy our friend’s desire. I wonder how many of us fail to introduce our friends to Jesus. We won’t introduce them for the opposite reason though. We don’t want to jeopardize our friendship with them instead of being concerned with our relationship with Jesus.

In Mark chapter two, four friends take another friend to see Jesus. When they arrive, the place where Jesus is speaking is full. There are so many people that they are spilling out into the street and these four guys can’t even get near the door. They are desperate for their friend who is paralyzed to see Jesus. They take him up to the roof of the place where Jesus was speaking and then start digging until they’ve created a hole big enough to lower their friend through.

When Jesus sees the faith of the friends, He speaks to the man who was lowered down and forgives his sins. Jesus was more concerned about healing him spiritually than he was physically. I don’t even know if is friends were thinking he needed a spiritual healing. I’m sure they were just looking for a physical healing. A physical healing is pointless without a spiritual healing first though. A physical healing is temporary, but a spiritual healing is eternal.

A friend of mine spoke to me yesterday about being a liaison for Jesus. When he mentioned it, I though of this story. These men were liaisons and made sure their friend was placed In front of Jesus. They didn’t care what else was going on, what Jesus was doing or whose house they were tearing the roof off of. They just knew that their friend needed help and Jesus was the one who could heal.

Each of us have people in our lives that need to be taken to Jesus for healing whether it’s physical, spiritual or both. What are we doing about it? Are we just mentioning our friend in passing? Do we get to the door, see it’s full and go back home? Or do we find a way to get on a roof, dig through all the layers of things that separate us from Jesus and make a way to get in front of Him? It was always those people who got more than they hoped for.

The woman with the issue of blood couldn’t get to Jesus. She wasn’t big enough or strong enough to push through the crowd to get to Him. Instead she got on her hands and knees and crawled through the dirt and muck so that she could at least touch the hem of His garment. Where’s that kind of tenacity in our prayer lives today? Where’s that kind of determination to see people healed and forgiven? I know I need to have more of it. I think when we get that kind of fire in us, we’ll start to make the difference we were called to make.

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November 15, 2012 · 8:52 AM

Doers not Planners

A couple of years ago I was sitting in a board room with my peers, my district manager, the regional director and president. We were having to defend our results for the quarter and show projections for the next quarter. One of my peers was talking about what his results would be for the next quarter when the president noticed a huge gap between what he just produced and what he was going to produce. She asked him, “What are you doing to get those numbers changed that much?” He quickly answered back, “We’re going to…” and then she interrupted him.

She said, “I didn’t ask what you are going to do. I asked what are you doing.” He again said, “Like I said, we’re going to…” Again she stopped him. She looked at him, but the message was to all of us. She said, “I don’t want to know what you are going to do. I want to know what you are doing right now. If you were going to get those kind of results, you wouldn’t wait to do it. You’d be doing it right now!” I don’t think I’ll ever forget that meeting. Partly because I was next up to deliver my results and also because of the message.

As Christians we often talk about what we’re going to do for the Kingdom, but we rarely get to it. Life gets in the way. Schedules get packed. Traffic jams slow us down. Kids have games and practices we have to go to. Things just happen and keep us from doing what Christians should do. They keep us from helping widows, orphans and even our neighbors. They prevent us from stopping to help a stranger on the side of the road. It’s not that we don’t want to, it’s that we haven’t made it a priority.

All of us are good at saying what we will do, but few of us are good at doing it. I’m guilty of this myself. I make plans to do things, but often the execution gets lost in other priorities. Each day I pray and ask God to open my eyes to see that need in someone else. I ask Him to help me to be His hands and feet to someone. I also ask that He would speak through me to someone. At the end of the day, I often ask myself, “Did I help anyone today or was it all about me?”

In the book of James, the first chapter tells us that we are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Most of us are good at going to church and hearing the message. Most of us can’t remember that message on Monday though. We do what James warned us about. We let it go in one ear and out of the other. God called us to action. To do things for Him. To be present in our generation and not stagnant. It doesn’t have to be great or big or world changing. Doing something small for someone else could be great or big or world changing for them.

If enough of us start making an impact on just one person’s life a day, the Church could rise to be who she was called to be. She could be effective in this broken down world. She could get the results that she was forecasted to make. It’s not going to be done by one of us. It will be accomplished by all of us. What is something you can do today to be the hands and feet of Jesus? Who is someone in your path today that needs an encouraging word? Don’t plan on doing it tomorrow. Do it today!

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November 12, 2012 · 7:29 AM

Jesus is for the Weak

When Jesus was ministering on this earth, the religious scholars and leaders of His day were confused by His ministry. They wondered why He didn’t cater to the rich? Why would He hang out with the poor and the worst of sinners? It was opposite of what they were doing and people followed Him more than them. It angered them that He was able to draw such huge crowds. They followed Him to see what He was doing and often were the ones asking questions of Him.

One day they approached the disciples while He was doing just such a thing. In Mark 2:16, they asked the disciples, “Why does He eat with such scum? (NLT)” Jesus knew what they had asked and responded, “Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick. (AMP)” Jesus came to help the weak not the strong. The strong can defend themselves. Maybe that’s why in Psalm 72:12 it says, “He will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.”

In our world of mega churches, I often wonder what is the goal of our churches? Are we trying to grow numbers so we can get larger offerings to do more things? Are we so caught up in a numbers game that we are forgetting our call is to help the weak? Have we forgotten James 1:27 that says true religion is “to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need (AMP)”? True religion isn’t pandering to the rich and powerful. It isn’t having the largest church. It is caring for the weak.

Jesus was and is for the weak. He is for those who have no defender. He is for those who have no voice or someone to speak for them. He came into this world to show us that our lives should make a difference in those less fortunate than ourselves. We should do what we can with what we have to defend orphans, to care for widows, to provide for the poor and to give water to those who thirst. I always think of the scene in “Schindler’s List” when he breaks down and says, “I could have given more. I could have sold this car. I could have…”

I don’t want to get to Heaven one day with a list of “could have’s”. I want to show up broken, bruised, beat up and scarred by what I did to help and defend those whom I was called to defend. I want to hear Jesus say, “Well done. You followed my example of defending and helping the weak.” Today, this blog is putting that into action. It is sponsoring a tee at a golf tournament raising money for CoreLuv International. Their dream is to bring hope to orphans, through Jesus Christ, by partnering with communities and orphanages around the world to provide 6 basic needs: clean water, food, education, healthcare, job skills and a loving environment to call home.

Jesus is for the weak. Are you? If you don’t know where to begin, donating to people who are already making a difference is a great place to start. I recommend donating or buying merchandise from CoreLuv International. I personally know the ministers who head it up. They are making a difference in the lives of children in Haiti and around the world. You can to by simply partnering with them.

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