healing

The Ordinary Life

In Acts 3, Peter and John were on their way to prayer. They were doing the ordinary stuff of life when the extraordinary happened: the healing of the lame man. They were not on their way to a healing crusade, so they brought the man with them (or gave him a flier hoping he wouldContinue reading “The Ordinary Life”

A story of healing. A friend’s daughter was facing heart trouble. She and her husband have two young children and she had been suffering some heart pains. Going to the doctor, the first round of examination found about 1/3 of her heart was seriously damaged. They immediately set up another round of tests to determineContinue reading “Healing”

The danger of presuming on God

In Luke 17 there is the story of the ten lepers healed by Jesus. Only one came back to give thanks. 11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loudContinue reading “The danger of presuming on God”

The Pressing IN of Faith

The gospel for reading this morning was Luke 8:40ff. There are two people pressing in: Jairus (for his daughter) and the woman with the bleeding problem. Both needed to press in hard. Jairus comes and gets Jesus, but when word comes that his daughter is dead, the common sense thing would be to forget aboutContinue reading “The Pressing IN of Faith”

Do You WANT to See or Not?

There are two stories of healing someone blind in Mark. In between those stories are three episodes where Jesus reveals to his disciples what will happen in a few days: He is going to Jerusalem. He will be handed over to the religious leaders to be put to death. He will rise up after threeContinue reading “Do You WANT to See or Not?”

My Name is Legion

2 As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out of the tombs. 3 This man lived among the tombs, and no one was ever strong enough to restrain him, even with a chain. 4 He had been secured many times with leg irons and chains,Continue reading “My Name is Legion”

Where Healing Dwells

Mark Chapter 2 has a series of stories that I think are summed up in Jesus’ little story of wineskins and new cloths: 21 “No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk cloth on old clothes; otherwise, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and makes a worse tear. 22 NoContinue reading “Where Healing Dwells”

Give Up Reputation for Lent

1 After a few days, Jesus went back to Capernaum, and people heard that he was at home. 2 So many gathered that there was no longer space, not even near the door. Jesus was speaking the word to them. 3 Some people arrived, and four of them were bringing to him a man whoContinue reading “Give Up Reputation for Lent”

The Healing Presence of Jesus

The Church should be about the healing presence of Jesus. My wife told me about a dream she had, and then I was reminded of two incredible stories in Acts. In Acts 5 it was Peter walking down a street and people could be healed by Peter’s shadow touching them. In Acts 19 it wasContinue reading “The Healing Presence of Jesus”