The Hem of His Garment

I was asked to layread yesterday. The passage that I was asked to read was Matthew 14:32-36. The passage read immediately before that was Luke 8:43-48. The passage in Luke talks about the woman with the issue of blood that was healed because she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. Some people may need to be reminded that it wasn’t the HEM of the garment, it was the HIM in the garment. In any case, the passage in Matthew talks about other people, many other people, touching the hem of His garment and being healed. I have read that passage many times before, but it never occurred to me until yesterday that there were lots of other people crowding Jesus as he went His way in Luke 8, but only the one woman got healed. Many people in Matthew 14 got healed. Why the disparity? Because of faith. The woman in Luke 8 believed that she would be healed. Those around her may have believed that Jesus could heal them, but they didn’t act on their faith. The people in Matthew 14 had the same kind of faith that she had.

In 2 Kings 5, there is a story of a man named Naaman, who was a Syrian with leprosy. Naaman’s wife had a Hebrew servant girl who told them that, in Samaria (capital of Israel) there was a prophet of God who could heal Naaman. Naaman went to the King of Syria, who encouraged him to go, and gave him a number of valuables with which to buy Naaman’s healing. When Naaman got to Elisha, the man of God would not take anything for the healing, but told him to go dip himself seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman went away angry, and talked about the rivers in Damascus that were, in his eyes at least, better than Jordan. One of his servants implored him, and reminded him that had come all this way to seek a healing, because Naaman believed that this man could heal him. If the prophet had told him to bring a hundred Philistine scalps, or perform some act of great courage, wouldn’t Naaman have done that? But, because the man of God said, wash, and be clean, you’re going to go back to Damascus with your leprosy? So Naaman turned his chariot around, and went back to the Jordan River, and dipped himself seven times, and was healed.

I bring up the story of Naaman to illustrate the difference between having a belief and acting on faith. They are very closely related, but they are not the same. Hebrews 11 is full of reminders of men of faith, and each time, it tells us what each of those people did that shows us the faith that they had. Naaman went to Samaria believing that he could be healed, but he had to take action on that faith before he was healed. The woman with the issue of blood acted on her faith, and she was healed. The people around her believed, but they didn’t take action. James 2:17 says, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” Let’s be honest about it, you can’t show somebody what you believe until you act on that belief. You can say, “Well, God knows my heart,” and He does, but, in all honesty, do you want Him to know that you believe, but you aren’t willing to act on what you believe?

Spiritual Gifts

Last night when I got home, I noticed that most of my neighbors had their “curbies” out by the street, reminding me that today is trash day. Which also reminded me that I needed to take out the trash. Last night the weather wasn’t very good, though, so I wheeled my curbie out to the curb before I went in the house, knowing that I wasn’t going to want to come back outside. I went ahead and bagged up my trash, and left it sit by the door, so that I could drop the trash in the curbie on my way to work this morning. I got up this morning, got ready for work, grabbed my stuff, grabbed the trash on the way out the door, and my curbie was gone. After a little research, I discovered that someone had wheeled my curbie back up to the house. Obviously, they thought it was stupid to have an empty curbie down by the street. I can’t blame them too much (although I kind of wonder who was looking in my curbie to start with—but I don’t really feel like my privacy was invaded, so I’m not too worried about it). Clearly, they were trying to help. It occurs to me that not everyone has the gift of helps.
Apostle Paul wrote about spiritual gifts on several different occasions. In 1 Corinthians 12:28, he lists gifts of healings, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues.
I think we all understand the concept of gifts of healings. Do they still exist? I believe that they do, but they are not nearly as common as they used to be. They certainly don’t seem to be nearly as prevalent in this day of modern medicine. I have heard of faith healers, of course, but I tend to believe that most of them are really just taking money from people that are either desperate or gullible or both.
The gift of helps is more common. Some people just find themselves helping other people. Most of the time, there doesn’t seem to be anything at all supernatural about it; they are just doing whatever they can to make things better for those around them. There are also a lot of people that try to help other people, and their intentions are good, but, in the long run, they really aren’t much help. That’s really how you can tell the difference.
The gift of governments? That’s a gift? It must be, the Bible says so. Unfortunately, those people almost never actually get involved in politics. Seriously, though, some people have a natural talent for organizing things, for making sure things get done.
The gift of diversities of tongues. That’s a really rare gift. It would really come in handy for someone doing missionary work, to be able to hold a conversation in a language that one has never studied, but, like I said, that’s really rare. There are some people that put a lot of stock in speaking in tongues as part of worship. I don’t think that’s what it’s about. Two chapters later, in 1 Corinthians 14:22, Paul says that tongues are a sign, not to them that believe, but to then that believe not. In the very next verse, though, he turns around and says that if all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? If you stop and think about it, though, if somebody comes to visit on a Sunday morning, and one person is praising God in Russian, another in Greek, and another in Farsi, and so on, and our visitor doesn’t know or understand any of these languages, what is he going to think? What would you think, if you went to church and a whole bunch of people that you don’t know are speaking languages that you don’t know? Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t at least be tempted to call for the whitecoats to come and take these people away. On the other hand, though, what if you are praying and seeking God, and you’ve been praying and seeking God, and it just doesn’t seem like you are getting anywhere. Are my prayers even getting past the ceiling? If you haven’t been there, just wait, it happens to the best of us. So you’re praying and seeking God, and getting discouraged, and the thought comes to your mind, “Is God listening? Is God even real?” but you keep praying and seeking anyway, and at some point you break through, you know it, you feel, it, but there are some lingering doubts, and then you start speaking in a language that you don’t understand. You know what you’re saying, because the words are forming from your thoughts, but the words don’t make sense, even to you. Doesn’t that erase any doubt that you had? Don't you know, at that point, that it has to be God? That’s what tongues is about; it’s for those times when we, in the body of Christ, have unbelief.
Paul also told us in 1 Corinthians 14:12 that spiritual gifts are for the edifying of the church—the body of Christ. That applies to all spiritual gifts, not just the ones I have listed here.

Naaman

I started to mention Naaman the leper on Thursday, when the subject at hand was water, and we got into the rite for recovering a leper, but I realized that the story of Naaman would have taken up a lot of space, and not contributed that much more to my point. However, yesterday, my pastor preached the story of Naaman, so, now I will blog about Naaman. If you haven't read Thursday's post yet, though, you might want to read that before you read the rest of this.

Naaman was a general with the Syrian army who also happened to have leprosy. He was also married (with kids? the Bible doesn't say), and his wife had a Hebrew slave girl. I have to believe that Naaman was a benevolent master (for more than one reason). The girl (what was her name? the Bible doesn't tell us that either, even though she is very important to the story)told him that, in Israel, the man of God could heal the leprosy. Naaman, being an important man in the Syrian military, gained audience with the king, and asked permission to go to Israel to try to be healed. The king, who would have liked to have had this general healed, gave permission, and Naaman went to Israel. Naaman first went directly to the king of Israel. The king believed that this was a trick, and bemoaned the 'fact' that the Syrians were trying to pick a fight. Elisha the prophet sent a messenger to the palace, and told the king to send Naaman to see Elisha. The king, afraid that he was going to have a war on his hands if Naaman was not healed, sent Naaman to Elisha. Elisha then had his servant, Gehazi, tell Naaman to dip himself seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman was, at first, upset. I can imagine the thoughts running through his head: "What? we don't have any good rivers in Syria? There's something special about the Jordan river, I had to come all the way to Israel to take a bath? Are you suggesting that I am a leper simply because I don't wash enough?" But one of his servants said, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith unto thee, 'Wash, and be clean?'" So Naaman relented, and went and dipped himself in the river Jordan, according to the words of the prophet. Now, he went under once, and came up still a leper. He went under a second time, and came up still a leper. After he obeyed completely, and dipped himself the seventh time, then he came up clean. So then Naaman went back to the house of Elisha, and tried to give him presents for the healing. Elisha told Naaman that God had healed him, and that he should be grateful to God, and wouldn't accept any gifts. Gehazi, meanwhile, is thinking, "What? Are you crazy? He's got all this stuff that he brought specifically for this healing, and you won't take any of it?" So Gehazi snuck off, and ran and met Naaman's chariot before he had gotten very far, and told Naaman that Elisha had some unexpected guests, and could he just get a little something for them? Naaman was only too happy to give Gehazi whatever he wanted (which, to be honest, was still only a fraction of what Naaman had expected to pay for his healing), and wished Gehazi and Elisha well, and went on his way. When Gehazi returned to Elisha (after hiding the stuff), Elisha asked him where he went. Gehazi didn't think Elisha had even noticed him being gone, and replied, "Thy servant went no whither" (I didn't go anywhere). And Elisha told Gehazi exactly where he had gone, and what he had done, and then told him that Naaman's leprosy was now Gehazi's. Gehazi looked, and he was leprous.

Now, I mentioned that Naaman was a benevolent master. The Hebrew girl might have told her master about the greatness of God even if she didn't like him, but the one servant called Naaman, "My father." I have heard some people say that that servant was Naaman's son, but I don't think so. I know that sometimes slave owners have taken advantage of their female slaves and wind up with little ones, but they generally either brought those children up as slaves, and never acknowledged that those slaves were their own children, or they brought them up as their own children, and not as slaves. It seems to me that this servant was basically using shorthand: He was saying, "Master, you know that I love you and respect you as my own father..."

I think that it is very telling that Naaman went to the king of Israel and the king didn't have a clue what to do. A lot of times we get into situations, and we may pray about the situation, we may believe that God has the answer, but we try to work it out on our own anyway.

When the man of God told Naaman what he needed to do, at first Naaman didn't like it; but, when he realized that what he had been asked to do was simple (maybe a little weird, but easy to do), he went and did it. Once his obedience was complete, then he was healed, but it wasn't a question of, well, I'll dip myself three times, and then be about half healed, and that will be good enough. Okay, I admit it, that's kind of stupid: Why would anyone settle for being half healed of leprosy? But so many times God gives us something to do, and we either do it half way, or we do it half-heartedly, and then we wonder why we don't get the reward. If you were washing cars for a living, and only washed half of each car that came through, would you expect a whole paycheck? Keep it up, and you won't get a paycheck at all...

Naaman can be forgiven for thinking that the gift of God can be bought with money. God owns everything, he doesn't need money-but churches have expenses, and God has given parishioners to churches, and he's given jobs to those parishioners, and he blesses those that pay their tithes...

Gehazi, on the other hand, tried to turn a profit just because he was present when a miracle took place. To be honest, out of all the people in the story, Gehazi is the one that I can identify with the most. I probably would have fallen for that. Naaman's got all this stuff that he wants to give away, and you won't take it because you didn't do anything... Can't I at least have some of it? Yeah, I know I don't deserve any of it; I didn't do anything either, but he wants to give it away... But, you know, God has so much for me that I already don't deserve.

Does God Really Answer Prayer?

The big news this past week was the death of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of Billy Graham. I just recently heard an interesting quote from her. She said, “If God answered every prayer of mine, I would have married the wrong man seven times.”

I was taught in Sunday School as a kid that God answers every prayer, but sometimes the answer is 'No' and sometimes the answer is 'Not now.' We colored a picture of a traffic light with the green light marked 'Yes,' the yellow light marked 'Wait,' and the red light marked 'No.'

In the movie, "Bruce Almighty," Jim Carey's character is given God's powers for part of Buffalo. This includes hearing and answering prayers. Bruce finds out quickly that there are a lot of people in Buffalo that pray an awful lot. Still being somewhat self-centered, he worries that "this is going to suck up my whole life!" so he simply answers everyone's prayers, "Yes." Soon there is rioting in the streets. And with good reason. (By the way, I avoided seeing this movie for a long time, because it seems to me that Hollywood makes enough fun of religion, and because I think Jim Carey has a bad tendency to go way overboard with his characters.)

There is a quote going around something to the effect that you must be gullible if you believe that God answers prayers, even though he only answers .001% of yours, and the rest of the time, 'it just wasn't God's will.' I think that it's easy to scoff at such things, when you are predominantly looking at quantity, rather than quality. I will admit that most of my prayers are of the "Please let that light stay green until I get through it" variety. And most of those, the answer is a resounding, "No!" Big deal. It's easy for me to look at situations like that and say, "Well, that just wasn't God's will." It's harder, when a loved one is severely sick or injured and one prays for a healing, and the person dies anyway. At the same time, this world would be really overcrowded if God only let people die that nobody was praying for. On the other hand, it's really exhilarating when the doctors have done all they can do, and the church joins together and prays, and that person walks out of the hospital. Granted, that's generally not what happens, but when it does happen, it becomes hard to deny that God answers prayer.

We have a man in our church who, several years ago, had heart problems. His doctor got him on the list for a heart transplant, but it looked like it was going to take awhile. The doctor tried not to talk about what his chances were, but it was pretty clear that the doctor didn't think that he was going to live long enough to get a new heart. We prayed for him as a church. After his next examination, the doctor took him off the transplant list. He said his heart was fine.

I've been healed, myself. I don't really talk about it, because it's kind of silly. To be honest, I was being kind of stupid. But, anyway, here it is: I grew up a very nervous individual. I learned to direct my nervous energy into things that were socially acceptable; things that most people wouldn't find annoying. One of my nervous habits was chewing on the insides of my cheeks. By the time I finally made my personal commitment to follow Christ, I had a line of scar tissue down the insides of both cheeks. One day, I accidentally took a chuck out of my right cheek, about the size of a dime. I suppose I could have gone to the doctor about it, but I was afraid that He was going to pull together the edges of the hole and stitch it up, leaving me with a deformed cheek. Of course, I knew I couldn't just put a band-aid on it. So I prayed about it. The next morning, I woke up with a mouth full of blood. So I prayed some more. And the next morning, I woke up with a mouthful of blood. So I prayed even more. And the next morning, I woke up feeling that something was different. It didn't register right away, but there was no blood in my mouth. When I did realize that I wasn't bleeding, I checked the inside of my right cheek. It was perfectly smooth. Not only was there no hole, but all the scar tissue was gone. I actually tried to convince myself, at the time, that I had not been healed, that I had just healed. After all, it's been three days. But there was a hole there the night before, and it wasn't there that morning. And that wouldn't explain the scar tissue being gone either. It occurred to me that the scar tissue has had years to heal, so I checked my left cheek. The scar tissue was still there on that side of my mouth. Now I know I've been healed. I prayed a little bit more, just telling God that I felt stupid with scar tissue on one side of my mouth. A few days later, the scar tissue on the left side of my mouth disappeared.

So, okay, it's kind of a silly story, it's not nearly as impressive as the guy waiting for the heart transplant that suddenly didn't need it anymore, but this happened to me. How can I doubt that God answers prayer (even if the answer to most of my prayers is "No.")?