– Arrival. It wasn’t that I spent half the ride crammed in the back of a 4 x 4. It wasn’t that the dirt roads were bumpy. It wasn’t even that one of our vans got stuck in the mud and had to be winched out. It was that departure had been delayed several hours […]
religion
Healing is not Your Job (Healing School 12)
God is sovereign. It’s one of the most comforting and most fearful aspects of our faith. It’s comforting for us to realize God’s will is going to get done, whether we succeed or fail. On the other hand, it’s discomforting to think that we can do everything we want or think we have to do, […]
Healing is Your Job (Healing School 11)
I must constantly remind myself that the tree of healing in my life grows in the soil of my understanding of God’s will, that he has put forth in his word his desire to heal me. Each day, the sapling must be watered by my confession – out loud – of the word of God. […]
Tend the Seed (Healing School 10)
I heard a thought-provoking sermon by Kris Vallotton recently regarding God’s promises and miracles. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12 He argues the reason that desire fulfilled is a tree of life is because the promise comes in the form of a seed–one which […]
One Day at a Time (Healing School 9)
I think uncertainty is a gift when dealing with God's promises of healing. If you had told Abraham the day after he received the promise from God that he would have to wait 25 years to see its fulfillment, he might have given up then and there. I probably would have as well. I think […]
Me & Joseph (Healing School 6)
One day, maybe even tomorrow, I will be healed and intermittent chronic pain will be simply a memory. Similarly, after a while, Joseph was able to serve as second command of Egypt. It’s a happy ending to the story. But I guarantee it was not an easy one to live. How he chose faith every […]
You are Three + the Democracy of Healing (Healing School 4)
(Click here to read the introduction to the series Healing School.) For you to approach the subject of healing, you need to know what you are healing. What … are you? You see, you were not exactly an original. When God made you, he was redesigning after a pattern. The pattern was none other than […]
Healing School: Let the Journey Begin
Many of you know that over the past decade I’ve struggled with intermittent chronic pain in many different areas of my body. I’m writing about this not because my symptoms are gone. It’s because I’m currently in the healing school of Jesus, and I want to invite you into my journey.
Jesus: Don’t Judge? (pt. 2)
Okay, maybe judgment isn’t such a bad word after all. What, then, could Jesus mean by His words in Matthew 7:1? Well, first, who is Jesus talking to in Matthew 7:1? Check the context. Four verses later, He addresses his audience as, “You hypocrite.” Now, I will be the first to admit that I and […]
Jesus: Don’t Judge? (pt. 1)
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matt. 7:1). These oft-quoted words remain a favorite of Generation X and millennials, but what do they really mean? The term “judging” is used by my generation with an almost universally negative connotation. “Don’t judge.” “Only God can judge me.” “Don’t judge me if you don’t […]
Jesus: Go Watch Some Birds?
My apartment smells like sweet potato fries with adobo and curry seasoning. The kitchen is half cleaned and hot. I walk outside to the cul-de-sac that rounds our apartment community. It’s unseasonably cool for a fall Georgia day with a glassy grey sky behind brown, bare tree limbs. I look into the tree and see […]