Purifying Our Thoughts

 Purifying Our Thoughts

 “Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” 2 Corinthians 4:10 NLT

 In my journey through this season of Lent, I felt led to reframe my viewpoint of suffering - to see my pain, problems, failures and weaknesses as opportunities to identify with Christ in his death so that his life can be seen through me. Pain, problems, failures and weaknesses become suffering when we see them as burdens to be overcomed or endured. When our primary goal in life is to seek happiness and success, they are mountains to climb rather than training sessions to teach us the secret of living the abundant life with the grace of God. Pain, problems and failures in life draw us closer to God and lead us to hunger and thirst for the Holy Spirit. They are times to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to transform our minds and to purify our hearts. When we do so, we have God’s promise of peace that is beyond all human understanding and joy unspeakable.

The prophet Isaiah warned the Jews of the danger of religiosity - of going through rituals to obey rules instead of cultivating a relationship with God:

“And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.” Isaiah 29:13 NLT

Jesus warned the Jews of the hypocrisy of superficial worship and man made traditions. It is so important to recognize and be aware of the evil that is in our hearts:

“It is what comes from inside that defiles you.  For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,  adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.  All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:20‭-‬23 NLT

When we share in the death of Christ on the cross through our suffering we have God’s invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace:

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16 NLT

The story of the gentile woman who begged Jesus to cast the demon from her daughter shows us the importance of a faith of a humble heart that is in tune with God’s compassionate love. In the face of Jesus’ apparent rejection of her plea for healing, she replied:

“That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.” Mark 7:28 NLT

Instead of being put off by what appears to be God’s favoritism, the gentile woman recognized her need for God’s grace and received what she did not deserve. So in times of trials and suffering, when we feel that our prayers are not unanswered, we need to examine our thoughts about God. We are to remember that God is our Heavenly Father - He is always with us in our struggles and we are not alone.

Without a submissive and obedient heart, we are spiritually deaf. Jesus knows all about human nature and what is in each person’s heart (John 2:24‭-‬25 NLT). When our hearts are a fertile soil, Jesus will open our ears to hear His voice more clearly like the deaf man in Mark 7:3-35:

 “Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” Mark 7:34 NLT

 In this year’s devotional for Lent, Rev Roland Chia makes the following observation:

“A person whose ears are open is not deaf to the still small voice of the Almighty. His ears are not blocked with the gunk and wax of worldly pursuits, spiritual indifference and carnal distractions that the divine whisper is no longer audible to him.

The person whose ears are open is always attentive to the word of God. He is always receptive to the commands of his Lord. He is always attuned to the Spirit and sensitive to His promptings and guidance.”

As Christians we are chosen to share in the death of Jesus - to die to our egos so that we will not be tempted to boast of what God has done for us which may only make others feel envious or deprived. Instead, like recovering alcoholics in the Alcoholics Anonymous program, we will testify of our struggles and problems and our total dependence on the grace of God. We will share, not how we have found God, but how God found us in our times of suffering and comforted us as His beloved.

A world in darkness and full of suffering needs to hear “the voices of those who trust God despite unanswered prayers.” Lent is a time to purify our thoughts and hearts so that others may see the life of Christ in us and be encouraged and empowered to overcome suffering and death as we lift up the cross of Christ. 

The Seed Of Grace

 The Seed Of Grace

 “Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.  Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.” John 12:23‭-‬25 NLT

The COVID 19 pandemic has dramatically revealed our need to learn how to live in a VUCA world - a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We need a “negative capability” defined by John Keats as “the ability to accept uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Brene Brown noted that we are in a spiritual crisis when our belief that’s there is something greater than ourselves, something rooted in love and compassion, is broken. The problems in our  modern society - hate, the dehumanization of others, the tolerance of bullshit, the profusion of fake news, the politicization of the pandemic and the commercialization of medical care are but symptoms of the loss of faith in a loving God.

We need to wake up from the illusion and futility of living a materialistic lifestyle - everything we are chasing to be successful in life is meaningless. We need to die to a lifestyle formed by a caterpillar mindset if we want to live a life with the mindset of a butterfly. We need to die to self in order to be spiritually fruitful in our living and in our dying. We are living in a world of spiritual poverty and in need of Grace - God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense - the power beyond ourselves to empower us to love one another and to bring God’s kingdom on earth.

We need to reframe our understanding of spirituality. Rabbi Yerachmiel described spirituality as simply paying attention to what God is doing in our daily lives:

“Spirituality is being present to what is happening around and within you. Spirituality is living in the world with compassion and justice. Spirituality is making the world a little better for having being born into it. Spirituality is meeting God in the ordinariness of our everyday lives.”

Genuine spirituality, according to Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchman, looks outside the self and beyond the immediate and the subjective and not at its nose nor in a mirror. It is the very looking beyond ourselves that we are taken away from the self-centeredness that is the human trap. Lent is a time to recapture our childlike sense of awe and wonder by receiving the seed of God’s grace into our hearts:

 “The Lord hath promised good to me,
  His word my hope secures;
  He will my shield and portion be
  As long as life endures.”

The past few weeks of Lent had been a time to prepare my heart to be the fertile soil to receive the seed of grace. Passiontide is a time to transform our EGOs from Edging God Out to Embracing God Only by following Christ to the cross and to die to our egos so that we can experience the truth:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 NKJV

The subject of death is taboo to many which is most unfortunate. The dying have taught me the truth that to live well we need to learn how to die well. The most important message of Easter is that Jesus has conquered death to set us free from the fear of death. Lent is the perfect time to learn how to die well so that we can live well. We are called to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be seen in our lives:

“Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10‭-‬12 NLT

The fifth week of Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide leading to the events of the Holy Week of Easter. It is a time to reflect on the mystery of the Cross - confronting and embracing death - so that we can live our lives in such a way that our deaths will be fruitful. It is a time to give the broken pieces of our lives - the heartache of losing a job, pain from broken relationships, suffering from a serious illness - to God, and trusting that He will turn our brokenness into a kintsugi pottery of golden repair. And all our brokenness together are turned into a beautiful mosaic story of God’s restorative love.

We need to search our hearts for the weaknesses and imperfections which we hide from ourselves. We do not have to be perfect to be a child of God. Lent is a season for letting go of our weaknesses and imperfections, our addiction to control and our hidden resentments. It is not a time of trying to be perfect but a time to become aware of our imperfections and our need for God’s grace. It is the time for the seed of grace to bloom into a garden of love in our hearts as we journey with Christ to the Cross.

SDG

 

Resting & Remembering

 Resting & Remembering

“Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.” Mark 6:31 NLT

After the twelve disciples returned from their ministry of preaching, healing and deliverance in the villages, Jesus knew that they needed to go to a quiet place to rest. However, they could not do so as large crowds were following them wherever they went. And Jesus, filled with the power of compassion, attended to the needs of the huge crowd. After doing so, Jesus went up into the hills to spend time in solitude and prayer in order to recharge his spiritual energies.

Spending time in contemplative prayer is a totally different experience from being in the wilderness. In the wilderness of our problems and struggles we are tempted to turn stones into bread through prayer. But we see in the example of Jesus that the times of contemplative prayer in solitude and prayer are to recharge the power of God’s love in us. For we are not to live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4)

God’s power of love is available to us but the weeds of sin and evil are blockages to the flow of God’s power of love in and through us. After a time of solitude and contemplative prayer, Jesus demonstrated the power of God by walking on water and stilling the storm.  The disciples were terrified as they thought he was a ghost. This story is to open our eyes to the truth that when our hearts are hardened we will not be able to see the power of God at work in our lives (Mark 6:47-52).

Our hearts are hardened when we forget the mercies and wonders of God. We forget our spiritual I.D. - our identity as the children of God and our destiny to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. With hardened hearts we will see miracles only from the human perspective of having our problems solved instead of letting the miracles draw us into contemplative prayer to hunger and thirst for God’s presence. It is so easy to forget about God and to turn away from God when times are good. This was what Moses warned the Jews:

“The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, be careful not to forget the Lord , who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.” Deuteronomy 6:10‭-‬13 NLT

When we think we know about the ways of God, our “knowing”  can get in the way of what we truly need to know about God’s ways. Meditating on the scriptures is to feed our souls so that we will not just fill our minds with knowledge but to fill our hearts with the wisdom of “not knowing” - of not letting our knowledge, our “knowing” blind us to the wisdom of God.

It is not just memorizing scripture verses - it is paying attention to what God wants to say to us through scripture. Then the bible will not be an idol but will be God’s Living Word when we see how God is working in our lives. Meditating on the scriptures is a time to rest in God and to remember His Providence, Presence and Power. If one verse of scripture becomes real in our lives each week, we will have lived out 52 verses in a year. Our years in the autumn and winter season of life will then be an adventure rather than a nightmare as we live out one verse a week, 52 verses a year, 520 verses in 10 years and 1040 verses in 20 years!

The fourth week of Lent is the heart of Lent as we prepare for the seed of God’s love to bear fruit in the fertile soil of our hearts. Let us learn to feed on God’s Word so that it will become a Living Word in us.

SDG

Spiritus Contra Spiritum

 Spiritus Contra Spiritum

“Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.  But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.  When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.” Matthew 13:24‭-‬26 NLT

In the gospel of Matthew, the parable of the Sower is followed by the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. The parable of the Sower is to teach us the need to change our hearts from being the path, the stony ground and thorny ground to a fertile ground. Changing my heart to a fertile ground is not something I can achieve - it is the heart transplant that God does when I turn to Him in repentance and receive the gospel. But I was led to read what I had journaled in 1986 from a Upper Room devotional which drew my attention to God’s mysterious ways:

“God often works outside the plans and preparations we make. God does not depend upon the seeds we plant. And God does not send beauty only in those places where it is expected.”

The parable of the Wheat and the Weeds brought to mind a truth that Carl Jung had espoused: “Spiritus contra spiritum.” In Latin, spiritus means both alcoholic beverages, i.e. spirits, and the highest religious experience. With this simple phrase, Carl Jung helped Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholic Anonymous to understand how the A.A. program which involves spiritual development and a spiritual awakening works as a treatment for addiction.

The Twelve Steps program of the Alcoholic Anonymous has been aptly described as “The Spirituality of Imperfection.” In the A.A. meetings, stories of the miracle of the surrender to a higher power are shared by the alcoholics in recovery. And as those who are seeking healing from their addiction listened to these stories, they are encouraged to turn to a power higher themselves as they hit rock bottom in their lives.

Spiritual awakening and spiritual development is God’s cure for our sinful hearts just as it is for alcoholic addiction. The good news is that God’s  power is greatest when we are weak. We are not to boast about our wisdom, power or riches but about our relationship with God:

“This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord , have spoken!” Jeremiah 9:23‭-‬24 NLT

To be a faithful follower of Christ is not to be perfect but to be aware of our infinite need for God’s grace for we will always be imperfectly perfect in our mortal flesh -  in our strengths and successes lies our weaknesses and our failures. In 2020, the Catholic world was rocked by the sex scandal of Jean Vanier and in 2021 the faith of Protestants was shattered by the revelation of the  sexual misconduct of Ravi Zacharias. Their failings are but a grim revelation that there is a dark side in the souls of each and every human being. Through the children’s stories I can see the Peter Pan as well as a Captain Hook, the Luke Skywalker as well as a Darth Vader in me. Likewise, the stories in the bible reveals the Cain and an Abel,  the Judas and a Peter that are deep within my soul.

Even Abraham, a hero of  faith in the Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions, had his fair share of our human failures and weakness. He obeyed God’s call to go to the Promised Land but found himself facing famine instead. So he decided to go to Egypt and lied to Pharaoh that his wife Sarah was his sister to save his own skin. God had promised to make him a father of many nations and he tried to fulfill God’s promise to him through Hagar when he found that Sarah was infertile. Abraham’s story teaches us that faith is not about proving our faithfulness but to live out the faithfulness of God in the storms of life.

To follow Christ is not trying to be perfect through the  imitation of Christ but through the identification with Christ by dying on the cross with him so that we can experience the truth - “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20).

To follow Christ is to become a wounded healer and not a self righteous do-gooder. The church is a hospital for sinners and not a museum of saints. The church is the fertile soil for the seed of God’s love to grow. The reality is that there will be the weeds of false teachings and false prophets that distort the gospel of victory over suffering and death into the prosperity gospel of health and wealth. In the parable of the wheat and weeds, the farmer advised his workers not to pull out the weeds:

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do.  Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’” Matthew 13:29‭-‬30 NLT

And so at the end of each day, I can let the Holy Spirit sort out the weeds and the wheat by spending time in contemplative prayer - to open my heart and mind to the Holy Spirit. In this season of Lent, I am challenged, not to imitate Christ, but to identify with Christ so that I can accept God’s gracious invitation to come before His throne of grace:

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16 NLT

Lent is a time to come to our senses like the prodigal son and to embark on the spiritual adventure to journey home to our Heavenly Father where a heavenly banquet is awaiting us.

SDG

 

Miracles of Healing

 Miracles of Healing

“So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God. And they cast out many demons and healed many sick people, anointing them with olive oil.” Mark 6:12-‬13 NLT

In our small group reflection on Mark Chapter 6:1-29, we saw how Jesus sent out his twelve disciples to call the people to turn back to God in repentance with the ministry of deliverance and healing. As I was clearing my bookshelves recently, I found the booklet, Any Miracle God Wants To Give, written by Danny Morris in 1974. He shared how he had not been faithful in interpreting the healing ministry:

“Jesus healed, the disciples healed, and (according to my understanding) the Holy Spirit gives in this day the power to heal. The church as I have known it has not been as faithful as it might have been in interpreting the healing ministry. Nor have I!”

Danny Morris shared the five miracles of healing that he learned from Dr. J.C. Pheeters. I had been inspired by his insights but had not been faithful in sharing them. Firstly, there is the miracle of the instant cure which most people are fascinated with. Years ago, a mother came to see me with her toddler son who had put a bead into his nostril. After trying unsuccessfully to remove it, I told the mother that we need to send him to hospital. She decided to pray and to my utter surprise, the bead dropped out as I was writing the referral letter!

Secondly, there is the miracle of God’s undertaking. This is the manifestation of the natural healing capacities of the body for we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). We give doctors the credit for the cure and forget that it is God who heals - the doctor only collects the bill!

Thirdly, there is the miracle of God’s guidance to a remedy. A biblical example is found in 2 Kings 20:3 when King Hezekiah was dying and the prophet Isaiah was led to make a poultice of figs to cure the king’s boil. This is a miracle that I have seen many times in my medical career as the Lord led me to prescribe the right medications for my patients time and time again. So often we make our decisions and then commit them to God in prayer instead of seeking God in prayer before we make our decisions. In so doing we miss the opportunity to experience the wonder of God’s guidance and providence in our daily lives.

Fourthly, there is the miracle of the sufficiency of God’s grace. Again, I have witnessed how God’s amazing grace is made perfect in times of great suffering as I cared for patients dying from cancer. Although they were not cured, their lives and deaths reflected the truth that God’s power is greatest in our weakness when they experienced the joy of the fellowship of suffering with Christ and the resurrection power of Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:10-11).

Finally, there is the miracle of the triumphant crossing from death to eternal life. Although death is an enemy, Jesus has won for us the victory over death and has transformed it into the miracle of the triumphant crossing -  our resurrection from death. The miracle of tears of sorrow turning into tears of joy in the face of death is one that  I have seen countless times in the hospice ministry and especially in the past few months, in the deaths of an aunt, a couple of friends and a few patients.

Death may be the end of our personal story but it is only the beginning of God’s story of love when our deaths bear fruit in the lives of those we leave behind. There are also spiritual lessons to be learnt from even tragic and apparently meaningless deaths. The story of the senseless and horrific execution of John the Baptist opened my eyes to the hell that King Herod was in. He was a slave to his pride that was founded on the fickle praise of men and he had to face the torment of guilt of executing a prophet of God because of his unthinking promise to his daughter. It was a reminder to me of the danger of pride and the folly of seeking men’s praise.

The miracles of healing are the wheat we harvest when our heart is fertile soil. Miracles are not supernatural events but are the normal spiritual experiences of life in the kingdom of God. The weeds are our sins and the evil that keep us from experiencing the miracles of God:

"The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word,  but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.” Mark 4:18‭-‬19 NLT

The  weeds represent the battle for our faith, our minds and our wills in the spiritual dimension of life:

“For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” 1 John 2:16 NLT

Healing, and not suffering, is the will of God. But it is the condition of our hearts that are the blockages to the current of God’s healing power. Jesus found that his healing powers were limited in his hometown because of pride and prejudice:

“Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.” And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them.” (Mark 6:3-5 NLT).

We need to be careful that we are not distracted by the miracles of healing. Satan tempts us to test God by seeking miracles instead of resting in God and making God our refuge and fortress. It is only when we live in the shelter of the Most High and rest in the shadow of the Almighty and declaring that the Lord alone is our refuge and place of safety that we will find angels protecting us wherever we go (Psalm 91). Unfortunately, we spend more time on social media which encourages the growth of the weeds of pride, greed and lust instead of taking time to rest in God in contemplative prayer. We test God and treat Him as an ATM for miracles. Jesus invites us to go to God as our loving Heavenly Father so that our faith will be revealed in the miracles that God is doing in our lives.

Jesus sent out the twelve disciples to preach the gospel of repentance and to demonstrate the power of the gospel through their healing and deliverance ministry. When we are living in the embrace of God’s love, we will not seek miracles for we will be living a life of miracles. May our eyes be opened not only to the miracles of healing but the miracle of God’s loving Presence in our daily lives as we surrender our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit through the disciplines of prayer and meditation.

 

The Battle Within

 The Battle Within

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 NLT

In this 3^rd week of Lent, I am reminded of the battle that is within all of us - of the weeds of anger and gluttony that are choking the wheat of forgiveness and self control in us. This is the metaphor of the thorny ground in the parable of the Sower. There is a battle for our mind and the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness reveals how Satan can even use God’s Word to tempt us to seek personal glory instead of glorifying God:

“Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’ ” Matthew 4:5‭-‬6 NLT

But Jesus used God’s Word from Deuteronomy 6:16 as the Sword of the Spirit to counter the temptation:

“The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’ ” Matthew 4:7 NLT

It is so important not just to read and understand the bible with our human thinking but to meditate on the scriptural truths in the bible so that our lives will be changed and transformed when God’s written Word become the Living Word in us.  The stories in the bible are to draw our attention to the reality of spiritual warfare:

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12 NLT

The bad news is that we cannot win the battle against evil but the good news is that the battle belongs to God and that Jesus has already won the war. Jesus died and rose from the dead to give us the Holy Spirit to purify our hearts and to fertilize our hearts with the 8 “Be-attitudes” of the Kingdom of Heaven - the be-attitude of poverty, the be-attitude of mourning, the be-attitude of meekness, the be-attitude of spiritual hunger and thirst, the be-attitude of a merciful spirit, the be-attitude of purity of heart, the be-attitude of a peacemaker and the be-attitude of the persecuted.

Jesus guides us as our Shepherd of Love to live out the Lord’s prayer so that we can bear the 9 fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.

The season of Lent draws our attention to the reality of the 7 deadly sins. However, we have the promise of the 8 Beatitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven. So let us walk by the Spirit so that we can bear the 9 fruits of the Spirit to overcome the 7 deadly sins and our guilts and fears.

 

The Healing Touch Of God

 The Healing Touch Of God

“A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.” Mark 5:25-‬26 NLT

The woman with the bleeding disorder brings to mind the rising costs of medical care as well as one of the dilemmas of modern medicine - doctors can keep patients from the jaws of death but at the expense of much financial loss, pain and suffering. But the healing touch of God is free - all that is needed is to be connected with the power of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ. The story of the healing of the woman with the bleeding disorder gives us a picture of the power of God’s love flowing like electricity. Jesus was the perfect conduit of God’s healing love and he felt power draining away from him when he was touched by the woman. But God’s healing grace is blocked when our hearts are stony.

In the face of the COVID 19 pandemic, the world is in dire need for healing and deliverance from fear and the sins of pride, envy and greed. Like the woman with the bleeding disorder, we need the healing touch of Jesus Christ. The COVID 19 virus has exposed the fears, greed and the spiritual bankruptcy of our political, economic and social systems. At the same time, it has revealed the kindness, goodness, courage and love of the many individuals caring for the sick and dying.

The COVID 19 pandemic has shown us how economic factors can affect adversely policies with regard to health matters and vice versa. In the gospel of Mark it was recorded that before Jesus healed the woman with the bleeding disorder, he had delivered the man possessed by demons in the region of Gerasenes by sending the demons into a large herd of about 2000 pigs. Like the people in Gerasenes, we may reject God’s grace if it requires a change in our lifestyles and if financial considerations are our top priority.

After healing the woman, Jesus went on to raise Jairus daughter from the dead. This miracle teaches us two spiritual truths, Firstly, Jesus did not come to turn sinners into instant saints. He came to raise the spiritually dead to eternal life. The ways of the world leads from life to death but Jesus leads us from death to life. Instead of turning stones to bread, Jesus became our Living Bread and Living Water to satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst for eternal life. Jesus came that we may live the abundant life in the kingdom of God.

Secondly, the miracle of raising Jairus daughter from physical death demonstrated the power Jesus has over death and Jesus himself rose from the dead after his crucifixion. This transforms the ritual of  baptism from a religious act of repentance into a spiritual event to signify the death of our old self - our “worm” like existence that is controlled by sin. It marks our transformation into the life of a “caterpillar” with the hope of new life in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ:

“For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.” Colossians 2:12 NLT

After being a doctor for 50 years, I have seen many patients who are cured of their physical illnesses but are not healed of their inner emotional and spiritual pain. But over the past thirty years, caring for the dying have shown me what true healing is - many who were not cured of their physical illnesses had experienced emotional healing of their pain, sorrow and wounds in the past and the spiritual healing of a restored relationship with God. 

Far from being a depressive ministry, caring for the dying has been the lived experience of God’s presence that turns tears of sorrow into tears of joy. In the midst of pain and suffering, God’s wonderful promise comes to life:

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” Psalms 56:8 NLT

It is a miracle when God turns our tears of pain into tears of joy washing away our spiritual cataracts to see the amazing grace of God’s S.O.S. (Story of Salvation). It was therefore such a wonderful privilege to companion the dying and to suffer vicariously with them.

Contemplative prayer or meditation is another way to experience the miracle of transforming our minds. In silence we learn to die to our self and to A.C.T. on the negative thoughts, feelings and actions of our stony hearts that keep us from the healing touch of God - Acknowledge them, Commit them to Christ, and Trust God to use them. Like the caterpillar being transformed in the chrysalis or pupa stage of growth, our spirits are being renewed in the face of death:

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Corinthians 4:16‭-‬18 NLT

The dichotomy between physical cure and spiritual healing blinds us to the truth that true healing involves the whole person and involves the restoration of our relationship with God. When our hearts and minds have been touched by God’s healing love, we will see that everything in life is a miracle. To quote Albert Einstein:

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” 

In this season of Lent, let us prepare ourselves, not to be a miracle seeker nor a miracle worker but to live a life of miracles as a wounded healer in the kingdom of God here and now.

Caterpillar Or Worm?

 Caterpillar Or Worm?

 “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:1-‬3 NLT

Lent is an exciting time when we see it as a time for us to accept God’s invitation to have a deeper and closer relationship with Him. It is not a time to win favour with God through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and giving. It is a time to grow in our identity as the beloved children of God. The good news is that Jesus died and rose from the dead not to make bad people good but to raise the spiritually dead and make them alive in Christ. Jesus came to change us from being worms who are destined for death into caterpillars who will become spiritual butterflies with eternal life.

We are all infected by a more serious virus than the COVID 19 virus  - the virus of sin. Our hearts are hardened by the sins of pride and envy and the good news that we have been raised to a new life in Christ cannot take root in our hearts. In the second week of Lent, I am led to reflect on the stony soil in the parable of the Sower. The seed sown in a stony soil  grew quickly but rapidly wilted under the sun as it did not have deep roots. Jesus told the parable to warn the people of the need to grow deep roots of faith to face the storms of life.

We may listen and even respond eagerly to God’s messages but unless the stony soil in our hearts is changed, God’s Word will wither and we remain worms instead of becoming caterpillars. We will see ourselves like Bildad the Shuhite:

 “In comparison, people are maggots; we mortals are mere worms.” Job 25:6, NLT

Without deep roots, our faith in God’s love is easily swept away by temptations, trials and tribulations. Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread in the wilderness. Likewise we are tempted to seek God for blessings of health, healing and wealth instead of cultivating a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. We want God to get rid of our problems or to cure our illnesses instead of seeking the grace of God to overcome our problems and heal our souls.

How we listen to God’s Word reflect the condition of our heart. When our heart is stony, we will be like worms who have no hope of any transformation. We may respond to God’s Word with self justification instead of repentance. When our hearts are hardened, we will not turn to God for healing:

“Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.” Isaiah 6:10 NLT

It is only when our heart is good soil that we will feed on God’s Word like caterpillars feeding on leaves. The chrysalis stage represents the tough times of our lives which are our times of transformation. Temptations, trials and tribulations become a time to die to self and the beginning of our transformation into butterflies in the chrysalis or pupa stage. Instead of asking God to change our circumstances, we will pray for God to open our eyes to see the opportunities in such times for us to be changed. And it is in such times that we will experience the miracles of healing.

Lent is a time for us to prepare our hearts for the time in the chrysalis - to strengthen our faith and to deepen our relationship with our Heavenly Father as we wait for the Holy Spirit to transform us into God’s new creation. When we are caterpillars, spiritual disciplines will  not be onerous - we will hunger and thirst for them so that we can enter into the chrysalis stage and look forwards to our transformation into the butterfly stage. Then we will be able to understand the truth that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT

There is a worm and a caterpillar in each one of us. In this season of Lent, let us starve the worm by confessing our pride and envy and feed the caterpillar in prayer and meditation on the Word of God. Let us focus on the realities of heaven - for Christ has raised us to a new life with him.