Category: Blog Posts (Page 89 of 91)

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Who sinned?

As He (Jesus) passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”

Jesus answered, “{It was} neither {that} this man sinned, nor his parents; but {it was}so that the works of God might be displayed in him.(John 9:1-3 NAS)

Recently I was listening to a teaching concerning divine healing which caused me to be so grateful for the Biblical instruction that I have received over the years. Before I go any further, let me say that I believe that Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He is our Savior, Lord, Healer and Baptizer in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are instructed to pray to the Father in His Name for help in every time of need. All things are possible to those who believe in Him! He has healed me and my loved ones numerous times and I rejoice every time and in every way He demonstrates His love to anyone in this way!

My concern today is only that we should be careful not to misrepresent the Lord in our efforts to inspire others to believe and pray to experience His healing power. Recently I have been exposed to evidence that certain errors are misrepresenting the Lord today.

Many people are being told that any disease or sickness they are suffering is directly related to some specific secret sin or negative heart condition they possess. When people are not healed by the healing ministry, the blame is often placed on the sick person. Since they believe it is always God’s will to heal everyone, they assume the fault must be in us.

Some are even taken into a psychotherapy session in which they try to uncover the root of the sickness in the individuals heart. The Scripture is used as a diagnostic tool in the following way: I was told that since Proverbs 14:30 states that “envy rots the bones,” a person with a Osteoporosis must be harboring envy.

My response was that all believers need to know the freedom that comes from full surrender to Him, whether they are sick in body or not. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation from every visible or hidden sin! Yes, there are known connections between our mental and emotional state, and our physical health. But Jesus Himself proved that it is wrong to assume that sickness is always the result of someone’s personal sin!

Consider James 5:14-16:
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.(NAS)

IF he has committed sins…

Jesus did not say that the blind man and his parents never, ever sinned. He simply stated that his blindness was not due to their sin. I think this would apply to James also. If a person was sick due to any unconfessed sin, that would be forgiven as the Lord restored his physical health.

In the New Testament, I cannot find many of the methods and techniques used today which frankly resemble the practices of the cults more than Biblical faith. Jesus and his disciples healed people under all kinds of circumstances. Some had great faith, others just desperation. One common denominator was their cries for help. The other, and most important, was the compassion in the Heart of Jesus!

All of us, whether young and healthy, or old and ailing, all of us need God’s grace and mercy. What a relief to know that we can place our full trust and confidence in Him for every need, whether physical, mental, emotional, relational, or financial! Our past, present and future are all in His generous, capable and loving hands!

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Some years back I read a book by DeVern Fromke entitled, “The Ultimate Intention.” One of the main insights I gained from it was how easily humans can turn just about every good thing into a negative when it becomes all about us.

It is a matter of perspective. Just as medieval scientists under the Ptolemaic system believed that the earth was in the center, with all the stars, planets as well as the moon revolving around it, we tend to see everything from the perspective of how it serves or benefits us personally.

The earlier view was later proven false by Galileo, and its challenger Copernicus was vindicated. This was a major paradigm shift for the scientific world, but the truth has made possible many advancements in the world of science and technology, and has impacted our daily lives as well.

What does all this have to do with the Prosperity Gospel?

Jesus Christ has come into the world in order that we might have Life in its highest sense — more abundant life and fullness of joy! He demonstrated the Life of God as one that is focussed on others. God so loved the world that He gave…..The depths of the gift of His Son on the Cross are so great as to have cosmic implications! Who can fully comprehend it?

This life as Jesus presented it is one of self-surrender to the infinite love and grace of God. The whole weight of self-centeredness is lifted from the one who is “born from above,” and the focus turns to our loving, wise, giving and all-powerful God, Who is Himself focused upon others. We learn from Him how to lift up the lives of our fellow human beings.

In Luke 9:23-25, Jesus said: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?”

The greatest danger I see in the way the Prosperity Gospel is often preached is that it so easily becomes man-centered. As we previously mentioned, there is always the risk that we will make everything about us. Even the message of Salvation through faith in Christ has too often become contaminated to the point that for some it is no more than a “fire insurance policy.”

God wants us all to live life to the fullest, as He originally intended. Sin and selfishness has gotten in the way of that. Are we then to turn His remedy, the Cross of Christ into a formula for gaining the whole world, and losing our very soul? Our we to promote a return to the old paradigm of self-centeredness and selfishness, and laying up for ourselves material treasures that ultimately fail?

The beauty of this surrender of self to Christ is that He is so much more capable of looking out for our well being than we are. He is worthy of our trust, and we can rest in that knowledge, with a peace that surpasses all understanding!

Paul wrote: in Philippians 3:13-14:

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

The freedom of this single-minded pursuit of Christ contributed to His leaving one of the greatest legacies of Christian history.

What kind of legacy will this generation leave to the next?