A gracEmail subscriber recently learned that her husband has sexually molested their daughters for several years. He is now in the hands of criminal authorities. She has mixed feelings toward him -- of anger, betrayal and disgust but also of pity and even of love. She asks my help in "sorting this out." * * * I am sorry for the harm and pain that has visited you and your family. As for your husband, you will require time to process all the natural and legitimate feelings that you have regarding him. Don't feel any panic to rush or hurry that process. It will take time, maybe years. You can … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2012
WHEN GOD DOES NOT HEAL
A gracEmail subscriber knows a Christian lady who remains seriously ill although she prays continually for healing and has sought anointing with oil and prayer by a believing elder in the church. Does this lady's ongoing sickness mean that she lacks faith to be healed? * * * I believe that it is very harmful to blame someone's illness on a lack of faith. Such accusations misrepresent God, pervert faith and discredit prayer. Our faith is in God, not in any formula or theory or teaching. Faith involves a personal relationship between an individual and God who knows us intimately and who will … [Read more...]
TEMPORARY HEALING
"Bless the LORD," invites the Psalmist, "who heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:1-3). How grateful I am for God's healing at times in my own life -- notably after several years of troublesome respiratory disease that included asthma, sinus polyps and constant coughing. I give thanks every day for the divine mercy given, in that case, through a skilled surgeon who himself acknowledges God's hand in the result. I ask God daily to heal, to remit or even to retard what my neurologist has diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, primarily so I can teach, preach and write as many years as possible. I also … [Read more...]
FAITH OR FORMULAS
A gracEmail subscriber writes that his father suffers from cancer. Their local church is praying for healing, but "an outside source" has presented a list of Scriptures, to be read repeatedly each day, substituting the sick father's name in place of the person named in the Scriptures. The son asks whether this prescription is valid. * * * First, I am sorry that your father is ill, and I commend you for taking the matter to God our Healer and for trusting his sovereign love. As for the outside advice, I would need to know which Scriptures the advisor is prescribing. It certainly is … [Read more...]
GOD AND HUMAN SUFFERING (2)
At some point in life, we all encounter and experience suffering -- physical pain, emotional loss, the death of someone we love. During such times we inevitably ask, "Where is God? Does he cause this? Does he allow it? Why does he do either, if he loves me and could prevent this?" My friend and gracEmail subscriber John Mark Hicks has passed through these fires more than once, and has shared his story and some comforting truths about the subject in a profound book titled Yet Will I Trust Him: Understanding God in a Suffering World (Joplin, Mo.: College Press Publishing Co., paper, 338 pp. … [Read more...]
GOD AND HUMAN SUFFERING (1)
At some point in life, we all encounter and experience suffering -- physical pain, emotional loss, the death of someone we love. During such times we inevitably ask, "Where is God? Does he cause this? Does he allow it? Why does he do either, if he loves me and could prevent this?" My friend and gracEmail subscriber John Mark Hicks has passed through these fires more than once, and has shared his story and some comforting truths about the subject in a profound book titled Yet Will I Trust Him: Understanding God in a Suffering World (Joplin, Mo.: College Press Publishing Co., paper, 338 pp. … [Read more...]
WHY NOT ME?
We just received word that our dear friend Vicki Curtis has been diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. Vicki's husband Joe and I have been best buddies since we were in fourth grade nearly 50 years ago. I performed Joe and Vicki's wedding and we were near neighbors for 10 years when our children were born and into elementary school. Joe is a pastor of Seven Mile Post Road Church in Limestone County, Ala., my place of origin, where he and Vicki are known and loved for their Christian witness, godly enthusiasm and good works. Vicki and I visited by phone this weekend and discussed life, … [Read more...]
A SIMPLE ACT OF FAITH
I felt the warmth of their presence last Sunday morning [Feb. 1998] as they gathered round me and placed their hands on my body. I love and trust these elders of my local church, with whom I served for 13 years before rotating out this last term. "Edward, we anoint you with oil and claim God's promise of healing," the presider said, dipping his finger in oil and making a sign of the cross on my forehead. Each man then prayed aloud -- an attorney, a physician, a telecommunications engineer and others. Not presumptuously, but in faith. Simply asking, leaving the answer to God. This little … [Read more...]
AGENTS OF GOD’S HEALING
A gracEmail subscriber writes that during a private Bible study with a young couple, the young lady suddenly broke down in tears, stating she had been sexually molested by her stepfather from age four to 11. "Why would a loving, all-powerful God allow this to happen?" she asked. The questioner asks how I would answer her. * * * This young lady's situation highlights a fundamental moral problem for which there is no glib answer. Her story proves that we live in a fallen world in which God temporarily allows humans to exercise their sinful natures to do evil, often at the expense of other … [Read more...]
THE HEALING VISION
A gracEmail reader asks why God heals some people but not others, some instantly while others gradually, and some directly but others through the ministry of physicians, psychologists, naturalists, praying believers or a variety of other caregivers. * * * There are many questions for which we do not have clear answers. We do know that God is sovereign in these matters, that all healing is a gift of grace, and that we do not want to go lacking simply because we do not ask. We may therefore request God's healing with a powerful sense of expectancy, based on the atonement of Jesus Christ as … [Read more...]