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Meeting Pressing Physical Needs Opens the Door for Deeper Healing as Well

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You know that awkward moment when you’re stopped at a red light, and you can feel the presence right outside your window. You study the road in front of you, trying, unconvincingly, to look casual and nonchalant. Before, when you slowed down for this stop light, you saw the panhandler standing at the corner. You knew you were going to end up idling right next to him. You quickly think to yourself, What do I do? Do you smile and look away? Do you give him money? What are the chances it won’t go straight to the liquor store till? His sign says he has a family. Does he really? Will they see a cent of any money you give him? What about if you give him a gospel tract? Isn’t that really his greatest need: Jesus? I have often wrestled through these questions and settled on one of the actions above, but never with complete satisfaction that it was the best way to help or exactly what Jesus would have done. Usually, when Jesus was approached by the needy, disabled or downcast, He met their imme...
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The Heart That God Gave Me Has Matured Through My Time at School of Discipleship

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I have the privilege to be part of the team at Gospel for Asia that teaches School of Discipleship (SD) students how to share their faith. But it seems like it was just a little while ago that I was a student in the program going through those classes for the first time. When I was a School of Discipleship student I remember waking up each day and praying, “God, today I will interact with so many people that you love and sent your Son to save. Please use me to pour out your blessings on them. Please fill me with the blessings you want them to receive today and I will give them. Help me to love them well for your Name’s sake.” The habit of thinking about my day and the people that God wants to bless through me started back then, and it has drastically changed the way I go through my average day. Now, my life is much more about how I can bless others than it was before. When I read that God’s love had been poured out into my heart (see Romans 5), and that I was created for good works th...
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Pray With Us for Their Healing

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On Feb. 14, a day that should have been marked by the celebration of love, hundreds of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, fled the raging bullets of a 19-year-old gunman. Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School walk out of their school building after a shooting. (Photo courtesy of Christy, current student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.) For some, the deaths of 17 innocent people—14 of them high school students—on Valentine’s Day will become just another sad news story in the days to come. But for 17 families grieving in South Florida today, it is the end of a story of hope, love and the promise of a bright future. It is the beginning of a story of grief that may last a lifetime. This is a time for mourning—the first step in the process of healing. We may not be able to understand the depth of their pain, but however deep and dark it is, we can pray for their healing. At our morning prayer meeting the day aft...
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The Bride is Brawling … Again

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The wedding guests have gathered in great anticipation; the ceremony to be performed today has been long awaited. The orchestra begins to play an anthem, and the choir rises in proper precision. The bridegroom and his attendants gather in front of the chancel. One little saint, her flowered hat bobbing, leans to her companion and whispers, “Isn’t he handsome?” The response is agreement, “My yes. The handsomest.” One by one, the bridesmaids, heralds of the nuptials, begin to stride in measured patterns. Several flower girls sow rose petals upon the white, unmarked aisle cloth. The sound of the organ rises, a joyous announcement that the bride is coming. Everyone stands and strains to get a proper glimpse of the beauty—then a horrible gasp explodes from the congregation. This is a bride like no other. In she stumbles—something terrible has happened! One leg is twisted; she limps pronouncedly. The wedding garment is tattered and muddy; great rents in the dress leave her scarcely modest. B...
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Instead of Praying for My Body When it Hurts, I Will Pray for the Body

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When I was younger, I promised myself that I would never sit around and bore people about my increasing aches and pains. Now that I am older, I am naturally more empathetic to my age-set’s varying degrees of ills. Not that I make evidence of my own physical decline a subject for conversation, but ailments, aches and pains are part of the way our bodies remind us that there is an eventual life terminus in the offing. Such as this is, I am learning that ailments are a useful gift for the elderly (and for those of any age, actually) as a prod to intercede for the suffering church worldwide. How can this be? I confess that it is all too easy for me to forget to pray for those who are struggling physically. I confess that I am often negligent in my intercession for those who are ill. So at the risk of breaking my own vow not to bore others with discussions of personal physical ailments, let me nevertheless share about the wrestling match I had with my digestive system one whole night (and t...
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Billy Graham, Good and Faithful Servant (1918 – 2018)

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“I look forward to death with great anticipation, to meeting God face to face.”   —Billy Graham The Bible says that God will wipe away all tears in heaven. For the many who have wondered why there would ever be tears there, the answer may have come this morning when Billy Graham entered into God’s presence and heard the Lord say the words Dr. Graham had so often said that he longed to hear: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord” (Matthew 25:21). There had to be tears of joy flowing from Billy’s eyes. Tears that only the Lord God could wipe away. Early this morning, February 21, 2018, Dr. Billy Graham finished the course, having fought the good fight, having always kept the faith (see 2 Timothy 4:7). Graham will be remembered as “America’s Pastor,” an eponym bestowed upon him by President George H.W. Bush. The label was appropriate for a man whose spiritual advice was sought by 12 American presidents. When his integrity was questioned for be...
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How Love Responds to Leprosy

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“While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ He said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him. ” —Luke 5:12–13 (NIV) Some things about love and leprosy seem to be diametrically opposed. For several millennia, people with leprosy have been regarded as “unclean,” even in the Levitical law of the Old Testament (see Leviticus 13). Our natural response to anything characterized as unclean is to avoid it. Even more so, we naturally avoid that which is unsightly to our own eyes, whether it has been labeled “unclean” or not. If we are willing to be excruciatingly honest with ourselves, we must confess that association with disease, especially if it is disfiguring, is something that we naturally want to avoid and that we may go out of our way to avoid. This is u...
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