I have blind spots – and I’m not talking about the one when I’m driving.
I have parts of me that I am not aware of.
Quirks.
Issues.
Struggles.
Sometimes when I see one of these blind spots it startles me and I wonder how I didn’t notice it.
Sometimes I try to deny that there is actually something in that spot.
God, through directly speaking to me or through other people, generally tells me that there is something there.
God wants to expose harmful blind spots in my life and heal them.
God wants to expose harmful blind spots in your life and heal them.
Will you let Him?
Will you open yourself up to see if there’s something that needs to be dealt with that you’re unaware of?
Will you trust Him to heal it?
Because I’ll bet you this…
He wants to.
Like the things I have in my life that God has been and is bringing into the light and saying, “Dustin, this is something that we need to take care of.” I believe that we all have areas that God wants to restore. Here’s an example using me. Friday night while talking to someone very close to me who I trust a lot, I said something that hinted at a blind spot in my life. The person I was talking to totally called me out on it and didn’t let me back track and brush it off as nothing. After we talked a little bit and I prayed and asked God what that was about, He brought up memories from my life in which this blind spot formed. I then proceeded to give that issue to God and choose to no longer hold onto it, but let Him take it from me.
It’s amazing in times like that when you can really feel and see the work that God is doing in you. It’s not always fun or easy, but God never said it would be. However He did promise that it would be worth it.
I have blind spots. But hopefully, I have fewer than I did last week.
So, I’m a bad blog owner and didn’t deliver to put this post up on Friday like I said I would. To compensate for this, I would like to extend the offer of a free hug from me to you next time I see you if you so chose to accept this offer.
Now to the good stuff…
This is part three of the paper I wrote this fall about inner healing. You can read part I here and part II here. Now for part III: healing in the early church.
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After Jesus was taken up into heaven and his disciples remained on earth, the Holy Spirit came upon them in power in an event known as the Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). From there the disciples were filled with the power from God to continue the work Jesus had started. The apostle Peter healed a crippled beggar and witnesses were amazed by what they saw (Acts 3:1-10). As more and more people began to accept and believe what Christ had said, people were being brought out into the street in the hope that Peter’s shadow would fall upon some of them as he walked by and they would be healed (Acts 5:12).
After Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament, accepted Christ, he began doing the same works that the other apostles had been doing.
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her (Acts 16:16-18)
The apostles and those the apostles ministered to were seeing first hand the miraculous works that those who believe and follow the words and teachings of Jesus are capable of. In fact, healing was such a big part of the early church that in the book of James, it was written that healing is something that we are supposed to do. It says, “Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14). This passage makes it seem that healing should be a very common part of what the Church is all about because everyone could use healing to some extent or another from evil oppressions and influences.
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This is the shortest excerpt of the series and we’ll hit the home stretch next week with part IV. Again, check back next Friday (I’ll actually put it up on Friday this time) for part IV of this series where we’ll look at the fall off and resurgence of healing in the Church.
Instead of going through an internal deliberation of whether or not to do a Christmas post, I’m just going to do it. So here it is.
I hope that, whoever you are, wherever you are, you have an merry Christmas and that the true meaning of this holiday would not be forgotten in all of the presents and food (and stress) that comes with this holiday. This day is about remembering that the ultimate gift that came in the form of a baby. And how that baby was God in human form. He was God with us. Emmanuel. And like any true gift: it’s free, but it must be accepted.
Some of you might remember my post about the first letter I got from Epesu, my Compassion child in Uganda. Over the weekend, I got another letter from him and I thought I’d share it with you.
This letter included an updated picture of him and his family. He’s such an adorable little boy. His birthday was last month, so when I sent in my contribution, I included some extra money to be used to buy him a gift for his birthday. The money was used to buy him a goat and he’s very excited about. You can see in the picture above that he’s holding the goat’s leg like one would hold hands with a person. The letter goes into detail about how excited he is about the goat.
Because he’s only four and reading and writing skills for four year olds are limited, he isn’t actually the one writing the letter, although his personality comes across in the words that are written. My favorite part of the letter reads, “Joshua Epesu says that he had never owned a goat in his lifetime but he thanks God that he has received a goat from you, moreover the goat is very beautiful and I like it, says Joshua.” My heart smiles when I read this because I read this and see a four year-old boy. Not a child in a village on the other side of the world, but I just see a four year-old boy. I’m so thankful that God told me to sponsor him because it has been a blessing in my life to just be a part of his.
This letter was literally an early Christmas present for me.
Dustin
p.s. The reason I’m posting updates about my sponsorship with Compassion is because this is a part of my life that I take joy in and I want to share this with those who read this blog. It is also to show and tell of my experience with child sponsorship in the hope that it will inspire others to sponsor a child. If you would like to sponsor a child through Compassion, go here.
The Kairos Retreat this past weekend was incredible. It was at North Star Bible Camp just outside of Willow, Alaska and it was one of the most beautiful three winter days I can recall seeing up here since I moved here in 2003. God really did some big things in my life as well as in the lives of others who were there and it was truly an amazing 3 days.
For me personally, I had a prayer ministry session with two amazing women and in that time God really gave some clarity to a situation that I was literally heartbroken over. It was actually kind of funny, (not funny-haha, but funny-interesting), because as I was getting ready for the prayer session, I had imagined how it would go and what God would say. But, like always, God had something else in mind which was a ton better than what I was thinking would happen. By the end of the session I felt much better about what God was doing and wanting me to do.
That was the biggest moment of the retreat for me, but there were several other people who had incredible moments of vulnerability with themselves, with God, and with the others there. There were testimonies of people realizing that they were believing a lie that they were a failure and unloved. There were testimonies of people beginning a relationship with Christ after knowing about Him. All in all it was an amazing three days of bonding and developing our relationships with our Saviour.
I’m at a retreat all weekend and I’ll be back blogging again on Monday. Until then, here are a couple blogs that I read that you should read too, if you’re not already.
Stuff Christians Like – Chances are, if you know me, you know my fondness for this blog and the sidesplitting humor that this writer is able to produce so easily. If you read this blog, you’ll never look at communion the same way again. Among other things.
Flowerdust.net – Anne Jackson is a blogger and the author of a book I’m waiting to officially be released called Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic.
Check these out, both provide very good pieces of writing in two very different ways.
Here’s part two my the weekly series I’m doing containing excerpts of the paper I wrote on inner healing. Last week looked at our need for healing and how it goes back to the beginning with Adam and Eve. This week, we look at Jesus’ ministry and how healing played a large role in what he did during his time on Earth.
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“A significant portion of His [Jesus’] ministry was that of setting people free from the bondage to evil spirits” (Long, Shay, White, & Willcox, 1999, p.228). In the Christian faith, evil spirits are fallen angels that instead of aligning themselves with and serving under God, they align and serve under Satan and continuously wage war on the kingdom of God and those who follow Him. When Jesus was on earth, he decided, out of his love and compassion for humanity, that it was time for these spirits that had been oppressing and afflicting people to be cast out and sent away. To do this, one must first understand a little bit about what an evil spirit, or demon, is and does. Since evil spirits are bodiless beings, they desperately want to attach themselves to something with a body that they can then influence and gain some level of control over. Jesus describes a journey of an evil spirit by saying:
When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.” When it arrives, it finds the house swept and clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go and live there. And the final condition of the man is worse than the first (Luke 11:24-26).
That story Jesus tells paints a clear picture of how desperate evil spirits are to have a place to inhabit and they tremble at the thought of being homeless (Long et al. 1999). The idea of evil spirits desiring a resting is well demonstrated in the gospel of Mark where Jesus is casting out an evil spirit. It says:
Then Jesus asked him [the evil spirit], “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area (Mark 5:9-10).
The words spoken by the spirit show their fear of being without a place to inhabit.
Because Jesus was compassionate towards people and wanted to see them set free, he was willing to travel around to heal and free those who were afflicted. He would do this even when some of the religious leaders of the day protested. The gospel of Matthew states, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14). What it doesn’t say is that Jesus felt obligated to heal them; it says that he had compassion on them. Jesus possessed the heart of God the Father and wanted desperately to see people, his people, set free from what was holding them down. The compassion, love, and mercy Jesus showed towards those he was around was so great that he healed people much to the chagrin of the religious leaders. On the Sabbath, when Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he healed a crippled woman (Luke 13:10-13) and because he had healed her on the Sabbath and the religious leaders considered that to be work, which wasn’t allowed, they criticized him. But Jesus quickly rebuked them. “His willingness to violate the tradition of his religious authorities shows the strength of his compassion for the sick…” (MacNutt, 2006, p.73). Jesus’ healing ministry can be summed up with just a few words. He healed because he loved, and this was an important part of Jesus’ mission on earth.
During Jesus’ time on earth he also bestowed upon his followers the power to heal and drive out demons. “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness (Matthew 10:1). Jesus never intended to be the only one to go about healing the sick. His plan all along was to disciple and to teach his followers so they could be a part of the work that he was doing. But authority over demons doesn’t just mean praying a simple prayer and the demon will leave. To cast out a demon one must be using the power and authority of God to fully do what Jesus was intending them to do. MacNutt (2006) says, “We notice at once this is not merely a technique He taught his followers about how to pray for the sick: God’s power has to back up the prayer or it will not work (p. 70). In other words, a prayer is just words if the power of God isn’t behind it. And when performing a healing or deliverance, the power of God must be present with what is being prayed for any real healing to take place.
The way believers were to have the power of God to back them up in their prayers was for Jesus to send the Holy Spirit to be forever present and among those who believe and follow Jesus. “In Jesus’ famous Last Discourse (see John 13-17), we find that His main promise was to send the Holy Spirit to His disciples – and to us (MacNutt, 2006, p.73). This was the promise that Jesus gave to his disciples as he left them and was taken up into heaven. It was a promise that they would be able to continue with the work he started and fulfill the commission he had given them to go to the ends of the earth proclaiming the good news and healing the sick.
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You can read part on of this series by clicking here.
Several months ago, on the old, old, blog, I did a brief post talking about my fondness over the song Healer, written by Mike Guglielmucci and how I believed that that was a song that God really had his hand on and that was really becoming an anthem for the Church.
The story behind the song is that Mike was diagnosed with cancer and wrote that song, in pretty much one session, about how he believes God is his healer and his faith in God in such a hard time. The song was recorded on a Planetshakers album and Guglielmucci even led the song himself on the live Hillsong album, This is Our God, where he had an oxygen tube in his nose and the tank onstage with him during the song.
Since that time, however, there has been a development that has been brought into the light. Apparently, Guglielmucci wasn’t and has never been sick with cancer and actually came up with the cancer story to cover up a pornography addiction that he was battling. Now, I loved this song. I fell in love with the lyrics, the melody, and the story right away when I first learned about this song. I thought that this was an incredibly powerful song, with amazing lyrics, written by a broken man, that really captured what worship is. But with the news of Guglielmucci making up the cancer, and he was trying to cover up a pornography addiction, I think that… this is an incredibly powerful song, with amazing lyrics, written by a broken man, that really captures what worship is.
But not everyone shares this same opinion now that the real story has been revealed. I’ve read blogs, seen videos and read newspaper articles that talk about how they’re outraged and that the song loses all credibility and how it should never be used again and how it should be stricken from the record books and how if they’re ever in a worship service where that song is played they won’t be able to worship because all they’ll be thinking about is the lie that that song was promoted on.
I believe though, that if you’re unable to focus on God during worship because you’re so wrapped up with this story, then that’s your problem. Healer is a great song – it was written by a sinful and broken man. Name one song or hymn that we sing that was written by a sinless and perfect person?
Maybe I feel the way I do about this story because I can understand some of what Guglielmucci has gone through with his pornography addiction, as I’ve shared before about my struggles with porn. Maybe I feel this way because I’m naive. But just because the song wasn’t written based on the story we thought it was doesn’t mean that it isn’t accurate. God can heal cancer. God can heal pornography addictions. Nothing is impossible.
And if you feel like you have been hurt by Guglielmucci’s actions, forgive him. I know God already has; and if the Creator of the universe can forgive something, who are we to hold onto it?
Dustin
p.s. Here’s the video of him doing the song for the Hillsong recording.
Psalm 13 is not one of those feel-good-Psalms that you read when you’re having a great day and are loving life. It’s one of those psalms you read when you’re in a valley. A desert. A storm. This Psalm that David wrote is really calling out God and saying, “Where did you go!? What happened!? Why have you left me naked to fend for myself when my enemies are all around me!? Why have you let me feel this pain that I’m feeling!? Why…”
This is a feeling that I’m pretty sure that everyone has felt in their relationship with Christ, and if you haven’t felt this way yet, there’s a good chance that you will. I’ve felt this way for the last couple days and I’ve really been questioning why God would do something to, in a sense, take something away from me that I needed and not provide something else to fill that need. Last night it came down to me just venting to God and listing out what I’m feeling and why I feel that way. I went to the Psalms to find something that would resonate with what I’m feeling and came to Psalms 13 and 22. (Psalm 22 is the one that starts out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). And as I was reading these Psalms through the tears, the thing I noticed was how quick of a change the Psalm goes from a broken heart that is crying out, to a heart that is full of hope and trusting in who God is. Here’s Psalm 13:
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Did you see that? There were four verses of David crying out in a very raw and real way, and then in verse 5 he turns around and says, “But I trust in your unfailing love…” It’s so hard for me to comprehend how much it takes to be able to say that and truly mean it. To be in the midst of a violent storm and still have your eyes fixed on God instead of the chaos around you is much easier said than done. But I think that if we’re able to do that, if I’m able to do that, we’d see that our ginormous troubles are microscopic compared to who God is. That’s not to say that our troubles and needs aren’t real; it’s saying that God is big enough to cast our cares on and he’s big enough to provide for them. Now, saying that you still trust in God when you’re going through a storm does not negate the pain that you’re going through. What it does though, is say that in the midst of the pain that God is still God.
Jesus said in Luke 12:
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Our needs our real. God knows this. And just like it says in the passage from Luke, God provides for the birds, and we are so much more important to Him than birds! In a storm, I think it’s important to still have our eyes on God and trust that he will provide for us like He promised.
In less than two months I will be on a plane, (well, hopefully I’ll be on three separate planes if everything goes according to plan), on my way to Thailand to help with child care for a missionary retreat held in southern Thailand. On February 11, the team I’m traveling with will go from Alaska in February
to Thailand
I can’t even put into words how excited I am to go out in this way and serve in another country and see what God is doing in a different part of the world, and to also see what God is going to do in my life and the lives of those on the team going. God has just opened doors over the last year to stretch and teach me more about himself and life; and I believe that this is part of that teaching as He has just opened the door for me to be able to go on this trip.
Get ready to see more posts about the Thailand trip as it draws near and my excitement for it continuously spills over to the blog.
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