God the Healer

“Lord, if you want to, you can heal me.” Jesus said, “I want to.”

“For I, the Lord, am your healer.”  Exodus 15:26

There are many possible explanations for why a person is healed: the natural defenses of the human body, and various types of treatments and medications.  Occasionally, doctors see a healing that science cannot explain. My mom was miraculously healed of a terminal heart condition in her ’50s. No medical explanation. Cardiologists were stumped. She lived thirty more years. God is the Great Physician; earthly physicians  are His instruments.  He has given them the knowledge to cure many illnesses, but I wonder how many doctors know how much they have been prayed for when they do their work.

God created the body, and He certainly knows how to repair it. Without God there would be no healing.  He identifies Himself  as our Healer and so He is. When healing happens, we get a glimpse of God’s power and His heart. It is His ultimate plan is to heal all creation. In heaven, all are healed in His presence because He is Life, and in Him there is no death.

SHEPHERD

Watching over little lambs

A SHEPHERD’S SONG OF PRAISE

By David, Jesse’s son

Just as I am a shepherd who watches over his sheep,
so also the LORD is my Shepherd
who cares for my every need.

For instance, when I am weary,
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
or when I feel stressed,
He leads me beside slow, soothing streams.
My time with Him renews me completely.
Like a sheep, I tend to wander off,
but He always steers me in the right way,
so that I may honor His Great Name.

Because the Lord is my Shepherd
I am never afraid.  Even if I were walking
through a dark valley in danger of imminent death,
I would fear no evil,
because You are with me.
It comforts me to know that,
like a shepherd armed with rod and staff,
You are fully able to protect me from any harm.

You prepare a feast for me, blessing me so openly
that my enemies look on with envy.
You pour the oil of gladness on my head,
welcoming me as a friend to your banquet.
The cup you offer me never runs dry.
In fact, it continuously overflows!

All this convinces me
that I will enjoy good things
every day of my life,
that I will always be secure in His love,
and that when this life is over
I will go to live in the house of the Lord
forever.

Amen.

–My translation, from my book, “A Harvest of Miracles.” Houston: Halcyon Press, 2009.

Jehovah Shammah: The Lord is present.

Wake up, O sleeper. He will give you light.

That moment when you “wake up” and realize that God has just answered a prayer or worked something out or blessed you in some specific way, and you had been clueless, maybe even annoyed that He had not done anything for you in recent memory. I had such a moment today. Jacob had such a moment: “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.'” Genesis 28:6

Moses Gets a Glimpse

“He lives in unapproachable light.”

“Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord,  the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth.”  Exodus 34:6

No man can see God and live. Moses got as much of a glimpse of God as God thought he could handle. He got a glimpse of His backside as He passed by  proclaiming who He is.  He is the Lord God The Master‑Creator, the Eternal “I am”.  He says, “I am compassionate. I am gracious. I am slow to anger. I am abounding in loving kindness and truth.” This is an authoritative description of God given by God Himself. These are “major qualities” in His character.

According to God, it takes a long time to bring Him to anger, but we seem to do a good  job of it because we are so persistent.  When God is angry with humanity, humanity deserves whatever He sends. On the other hand, He describes Himself as patient, compassionate, loving, and kind.  If these did not predominate in His character, we would be in some serious trouble. Thank God, “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).

Nothing is impossible for God… or even hard

“You say I’m going to have a baby next year? Bwahahahahahahahahahahah!”

“Why did Sarah laugh?” God asked, with an implied tone of surprise (Genesis 18:11‑12). He had just said the 90-year-old barren woman would have a baby within one year. His statement seemed so absurdly unthinkable that it provoked laughter…with a hint of scoffing.  Faced with a more plausible situation, Sarah might have boldly agreed that with God nothing  is impossible.

But when God got specific and promised far beyond her wildest dream, Sarah laughed.  The Lord and Sarah were light years apart in their view of the “possible.”  Thinking rationally, she moved away from faith to an extreme of expressed disbelief. God spoke His promise, knew He could perform it, and eventually did.  The Lord’s reaction to Sarah’s laughter gives us a glimpse of the divine Mind.  He views a problem, knows the solution, makes a promise, and performs it. He looks at us and asks, “Why did you doubt, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 14:31).

Words such as “difficult” and “impossible” are not in God’s vocabulary.  “Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).

Biological Engineer

Easy intructions for building a human being!

Lord, You created me and everything in me.

You assembled me in my mother’s womb.
I praise You because I am miraculously and astonishingly engineered.
All Your works are wondrous.
I can see that clearly just by considering my own body.
Even before I was conceived, You prepared the blueprint of me
and saw the chemicals for my DNA
while they were still scattered somewhere in the earth.

You foresaw all my days and inscribed them on Your Scroll
before a single one of them came to be.
The countless ways You think of me are meticulously detailed,
and how great is the sum total of all those ways!
If I tried to count them,
it would be like counting granules of sand on an endless beach.

You have also thoroughly planned my eternal destiny.
When I fall asleep for the last time,
I will wake up and live forever in Your glorious presence.

Selection from Psalm 139, my paraphrase.