10:10 Wellness

God calls the fights

Three weeks before bro passed an analogy for his situation came to me - and it served me. 

What if we thought of that life struggle as a boxing match.  And God, as our all-knowing and all-loving creator, steps into the fight and says "you've suffered enough", and he calls the fight over.  And as soon as we step out of that ring, that fight, we're completely restored.

Until God calls the fight, I'm gonna stay in that corner and cheer for my fighter.  I'm gonna trust the judge, our merciful God, to know when it's time to quit.  Not until he steps in and separates my fighter from his opponent will I relent.  I believe in my fighter.  And I believe in my judge.  I want to beat our opponent.  And we have a crowd of witnesses cheering and praying that we beat that opponent.

We had moved to Roswell about a month earlier, and Jimmy was still receiving treatment directed by Emory Hospital.  Being the alternative cancer believer I am, I researched stage 4 treatment options and selected a "protocol" by a man named Bill Henderson to compliment Emory's deal.

God Wants You Well (Conclusion)

So we live in a fallen world, and people get sick.  But God wants us well.  There's a disconnect there.  Maybe we could say there's a battle.  Of course I want to be on God's team, but sometimes I can't help looking at the scoreboard and seeing that we're losing.

Here's where faith comes into play.  Faith is that mysterious component that separates believers from tire kickers.  It's the thing I struggle with most with my non-believing friends.  It's something I want so much for them but will never be able to offer; because faith doesn't come from me.  Faith comes from surrender.  It means I will believe and trust in something even if I can't see it with my eyes.

When we flip a light switch we demonstrate faith.  I don't really have a clue how electricity works, how it's delivered to my home, or how it illuminates the light bulb that enables me to see my keyboard right now.  But I know it works.  Any believer would describe their faith in the same way.

So when I look at the world's scoreboard, the one that's telling us that half of you reading this will get sick with cancer in your lifetime, it doesn't matter.  The game is already over.  God wins.  Of course you and I have to keep playing - meaning there's still time on the clock.  But I know through faith that we've already won.  It is finished.  Isn't that how Jesus put it just before he died on the cross?

Since there's still time on our clocks, and because there's still a lot of sick people, I'm gonna keeping fighting - fighting for life.  Abundant life at that!

Are you in?

God Wants You Well (part 6)

Andew Wommack, author of God Wants You Well, put it this way:  "The Lord used healing like a bell to get people's attention and to prove that he did have power on earth to forgive sins".  He used the paralyzed man on the mat to illustrate.

The story begins with a display of faith.  Jesus had come to a town, another one of those where the people flocked to see this celebrated preacher man.  He was preaching in a home that was so full of seekers that people were crowded around the doors and windows hoping to get a glimpse of Jesus. 

God Says You're a Fool?!

When you pamper, promote and protect the part of you that will only live seventy or eighty years and neglect the part of you that will live on in either heaven or hell, God says you're a fool.

Don't Be a Fool

God Wants You Well (part 5)

So near the end of his short life, Jesus spends about 3 years sharing all the truths about the Kingdom of God.  If you've never read these stories, you should - it's truly good reading.  I'm talking about the "gospels" which are those books in the New Testament of the Bible:  Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The story of Jesus' ministry reads better than any novel ever written.  Some may argue that it's not better, but no one can argue that any thing's been more read.  In the gospels we learn of how Jesus came to be and how God wants us to live.  Throughout these books we read of countless miracles he performed - most of which were healing sick people.

God Wants You Well (part 4)

The story of Adam and Eve demonstrates that we all have a "sin nature".  That simply means that if we're put in a situation and told not to do something, eventually you and I will do that thing.  The Bible describes and/or mandates what those don't things are.  As a Christian, it's my belief that God inspired people to articulate those things into written word so that we can now study and learn and practice them.  Just as a parent tells a child not to touch a hot stove, God tells us to avoid certain behavior for our own good.  And just as a child eventually touches that stove and gets burned, so we taste those forbidden fruits and suffer consequences.

So continuing past the story of Adam and Eve, we come to that part of the Bible where God gave us instructions and rules on how to live.  He (God that is) used Moses for this purpose.  That's how the 10 Commandments came about.  "Thou shalt not..." is how we often here them.  My Bible reads "you shall not..." as the thous come from the classic King James translation which btw was an amazing accomplishment since the Bible was only available in Latin or Greek at the time.

God Wants You Well (part 3)

OK, so I left off saying I would explain the universal Christian belief that "Jesus died for our sins".  I fully realize that this is like having a 6 year old explain quantum physics.  My only hope is that there're some 6 year olds that will read this.  And I'm going to make this explanation without any scripture quotation - cause I'm lazy.

First, we have to believe in God.  Why?  You just do.  To comprehend quantum physics you have to believe that atomic and subatomic particles exist - even though we can't see them.  "I can see them under a microscope" some may retort.  Whatever.  I'm not here to try and convince anyone that God exists.  It's my belief that it takes more faith to believe in a randomly formed earth and universe than in an intelligent designer - but I digress.

God Wants You Well (part 2)

Great news.  God hasn't struck me down for admitting that I'm less than sure about TV evangelical healings.  So I can expand on what I learned from God Wants You Well.  As I said I was expecting a book on Biblical habits that will make us healthy - not eating bottom feeders type material.  It had none of that.

Let me preface this discussion with an admission that I'm still very green in Bible study.  I like to believe and try to have a child-like faith - which can in some ways be naive.  Perhaps later I'll unpack that.  I don't plan to provide a book review here - I just want to share how this book changed my belief about healing - divine healing in this case.

God Wants You Well (part 1)

One of my favorite shopping destinations is Amazon (as in .com).  Never a fan of browsing a mall (I am a man, aren't I), I've found the Amazon site to be incredibly useful - for buying books that is.  Some reading purists would probably scoff at this shopping habit as opposed to a traditional book store or library experience.  My take is that in a matter of moments, I can find not only the book I'm looking for, but also, a number of related books that are also of interest.  And that's how I found the book God Wants You Well.

As a hobby, I like to explore and study health.  Some of my book recommendations reveal that.  As a Christian, I like to explore and study my faith.  To a lesser degree than the health topic, I also have some suggested reading on faith - but those books have a health hook in them.  I suppose I need to include other suggestions in the context of improving our spiritual health.  For now I'll leave that up to the God experts - I'm just a guy who loves Jesus and who loves to work out all the time.

The End Of The Innocence

I'm in Phoenix right now - a work related gig.  Being a couple hours behind (mountain time) it's natural that I wake early, like 5am.  What wasn't natural was that a Don Henley song was playing in my head when I woke.  Nothing against Don, but I've never been a fan, downloaded his music, or even watched a YouTube video.  So I had to follow this and discover what he was trying to say in this song.