“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed everyday. For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.” 2 Cor. 4:16-18
We enter a dimly lit room. All the windows are closed. In a corner is the silhouette of an individual sitting cross-legged on a chair. Hands resting upon a lap pillow. A deep, throaty cough cuts through the silence; followed by the ‘ping’ of spit landing in a tin dish. That must be him. The man we came to pray for.
Jesus heals.
Faith is like an insurance policy. It does not prevent accidents, but provides a secure foundation to face their consequences. Eddie Askew
About an hour earlier, during our breakfast, we had an unsuspected visitor. A gentleman entered the bamboo hut and sat down next to us on the rug. This was a man with a mission. A man of great faith. A man who you would want to have as a son. A son who wanted to see his dad healed at all costs – even if it meant asking ‘farong’ (Thai word for ‘foriegner’) to come to his house to pray for his dad. He knew what he wanted and went after it. He saw some light in the dark and gravitated towards it.
Jesus heals.
“We have drugs for people with diseases like leprosy [and have the technology to shrink a tumor]. But these drugs do not treat the main problem, the disease of being unwanted. That’s what my sisters hope to provide…Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. One need not be a doctor or a miracle worker to meet that need.” Mother Theresa
The family is from Burma. (see blog Ethnic and Religious Cleansing Happening TODAY!) Out of faith, the son has ‘stolen’ his dad from dying alone and unwanted. He has rescued him from living in a constant state of ‘dis-ease’ in Burma and safely brought him into Thailand. That is why all the windows of the house are closed. He is hiding from ‘them’.
Jesus heals.
You can view disease as a mechanical breakdown of bodily cells, or you can view it in a broader sense as
a state of
dis-ease involving body, mind, and soul. Philip Yancey in
The Jesus I Never Knew
A far set of windows is opened to let in light and air. We walk over to the dad in the dark corner of the room. As we come closer, the tumor comes into view. It consumes the entire left side of his neck. He coughs and spits again. We kneel around him. I reach out and lay my hand upon his knee. Others gently touch his shoulder, hands, arm…neck.
Jesus heals. Reach out and touch him.
Jesus knew that spiritual dis-ease has a more devastating effect than any mere physical ailment. Every healed person ultimately dies – then what? He had not come primarily to heal the world’s cells, but to heal its souls. Philip Yancey in
The Jesus I Never Knew
We prayed. We sang. He cried. He loves Jesus.
Jesus healed his soul that morning.
“That is why we live by believing and not seeing.” 2 Cor. 5:7
But the tumor remains…So does the persecution…Please pray for Burma…
“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down-we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.” 2 Cor. 5:1-5
