Healed of a swelling Week 31, 2015

I have experienced God’s miraculous healing before. Yes I use the word miraculous responsibly for I am a nurse of many years. Firstly over 10 years ago I suddenly developed a painful condition on my right hand. I wanted to tie a scarf when I just felt a sharp pain at the back of the hand close to the wrist. The pain continued for some days before I now noticed a small swelling there. It looked like a small ganglion. I know the ganglion often is surgically removed and tends to recur. I wanted none of that. Instead I would rub the swelling and speak to it telling it it had no place in my body. Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. I assure you that whoever tells this hill to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him Mk 11:22-23(GNB)  I cannot tell the exact day it left my hand; I just noticed after a while that it was no longer there; and as you can see it is not there even as I bend my fist forward for you to examine.

That was over 10 years ago; a more recent experience was 3 years ago. I was on after noon duty and had gone to market in the morning. About 11am I noticed some people running around, away from some security personnel. It seemed to me the governor or some other dignitary was in the area. I simply moved away to avoid them. In the bid to do so my feet entered into the gutter and I hurt my ankle. The pain increased as I walked on with it. When I resumed duty it was quite swollen and I could hardly move. My patients and colleagues pitied me when they saw it. I reported the incident and was given pain killers (non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs) and a bandage to loosely apply on it. The natural history of that would be 3-5 days of a swollen ankle needing to fully rested before recovery. Dear friend, I pray that you are doing well in every way and that you are healthy, just as your soul is healthy 3Jn 1:2(ISV).That night I put my feet up and made a prayer like this to God: “Please send your angels to perform your operation on my leg that I will be whole in the morning”. And this is the confidence that we have in him: if we ask for anything according to his will, he listens to us. And if we know that he listens to our requests, we can be sure that we have what we ask him for 1Jn 5:14-15(ISV).  When I woke up the swelling and pain had disappeared. My patients were amazed to see me the following day at work. None really expected me back to work so fast.

Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock.  Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? Or would you give him a snake when he asks for a fish? Mat 7:7-10(GNB) 

Edna is a nurse at Federal Medical Centre Umuahia

It shall find you Week 30, 2015

One of the most sobering thoughts I know is found in Num 32:23(KJV): But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. Please take note that it is not “may find you out” or “can find you out”, but “your sin will find you out”. Make no mistake about that.

No matter how well we hide them; sins inevitably find us out. In the news is the story of a man in his 70’s. Having had decades of acclaim as a comedian he is faced with accusations of sexual harassment; and he has admitted in a previous court case his failings. Honour is stripped, shows are cancelled. What of the previous world number 1? The world was his stage; at least until serial mistress keeping was discovered. Now he has plummeted from heights, unable so far even to re-enter his game as before. Do we cross the oceans to DSK, shall we tell of several banking scandals rocking FIFA and the banking industry? The examples are too numerous to exhaust. Sin is more than an event; it is a seed whose harvest is certain: we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires. Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my dear friends! Jas 1:14-16(GNB).  The amazing thing is not the overwhelming evidence that sin has consequences but the overwhelming evidence that multitudes continue to be deceived to sin nonetheless; woefully thinking “I’ll handle it”.

There is the argument that some get away with it in this life, they are never exposed publicly. They retain their honour and respect by society... What a pity, to retain honour in society and be rejected by God! Was not this the error of Saul? Seeking honour before men whilst unrepentant of sin? "I've sinned," Saul said. "But please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel…”1Sam 15:30(ISV).  God forbid the very thought. Yet be sure no one escapes being found out by sin as it is written: The sins of some people are obvious, leading them to judgment. The sins of others follow them there 1Tim 5:24(ISV)  Have thoughts of craftily sinning been presented to your mind? Has the enemy whispered “Think of the pleasure you will enjoy. No one will ever know!” to you? Believe it not; it is a lie. In every life, in all the world, be sure your sin shall find you out. Therefore if next the evil one passes imaginations of sinning without ever being caught let you mind also dwell on how you will face the consequences of the sin. What a fearful place the judgement seat of God for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness and reveal the motives of our hearts. Then each person will receive his praise from God1Cor 4:5(ISV) 

Since we have these as certainty brethren, what shall we do? You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you Prov 28:13(GNB).Let us humble ourselves and confess before our maker seeking His mercy through Jesus.

Until the final day week 29, 2015

I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven Acts 1:1-2 (NIV). Until the day He was taken up. He was doing and teaching and He died. Yet He did not stop. The pain and shame did not cause Him to stop. And then He rose again; yet the victory from the resurrection did not make Him stop and rest from doing and teaching right up till the final moment of being taken up.  Joash sought the Lord and served him wholeheartedly, until his mentor Jehoiada died. After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. They abandoned the temple of the Lord... 2 Chron 24:17-18(NIV). When far from your mentors, “discipler”, or watcher because of transfer, Youth Service or their death do you begin to listen to other things, or do you remain steadfast? God commended the steadfastness of the Rechabites years after their father’s death despite the prophet urging them to change. Jer35:4-14

Uzziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (2Chron26:4). But when he prospered greatly and was strong and famous he left. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God 2 Chron 26:16(NIV).  Will wealth and fame knock you off?  Gideon did so well until the Midianites were subdued. Thereafter a gold ephod ensnared him. Gideon made the gold into an ephod ... and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. Jgs 8:27(NIV). After your “life mission” is done will you still be doing and teaching? Solomon loved the Lord and walked in His ways until his old age. He had completed the temple asked of him by his father. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. 1 Kgs 11:4, 6(NIV)  When you have married, when you have borne children and they have all grown up and married in the faith will that be the opportunity to say “I can leave God and strict holiness now. I have completed my mission in life”? Not so with Enoch: after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Gen 5:22-23(NIV). Beloved you must be wise; we must be as the wise servant. The wise servant is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Mt 24:46(NIV) “So doing”: that phrase is in the present continuous tense. Living the life and doing the job right up to the call-up of the Lord. When the Lord comes for you as he appears in the sky, or he sends for you by the cold hands of death will you (will I) be found so doing? Right up to the moment? Like Paul we shall testify the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Tim 4:6-8(NIV)  “My flesh is tired of pleasing God, but on my knees I’ll stay. I want to be a pleasing child until that final day” Keith Green

To do and to teach Week 28, 2015

That is the order in scripture. To do then teach; not the other way around.

“Are you really sure about that?”

Yes of course. Have you not noticed Act 1:1(KJV) says: The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach?

“You this KJV enthusiast! Are you sure it is like that in other versions?”

Definitely. Have a look yourself. I have looked up 14 different translations of the bible and all of them put it that way. It is the order in scripture.

“Well I can agree it is the order for Acts1:1...”

And for Jesus.

“Well, yes. I now see it is the order in Acts1:1; but not in all scripture surely.”

Ah, have you noticed Ezr 7:10(KJV) also reads: Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments? And the order is so in over 14 translations not just KJV.

“I trust you. I’m sure it says that.”  

Yes. In fact for every successful minister of the word this is the order. Notice the promise in 1Tim 4:16(ISV): Pay close attention to your life and your teaching. Persevere in these things, because if you do so, you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. The order of the lifestyle coming before the teaching is clearly seen here as well. It was Paul’s admonition to the Ephesian leadership in Acts 20:28(KJV): Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

“I see. How then would you explain Act 7:22(KJV)?  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. I assure you other translations also have it in that reverse order – words before deeds. Was Moses not a successful minister then?”

You think this represents a deviation from the order, or disproves what I am telling you? By no means! This is a commentary made by Steven under the unction of the Holy Spirit on the life and ministry of Moses. It is the wisdom of Egypt to reverse the order, not the pattern of the Spirit. Might I say to you that at that time of Moses’ life and ministry - at 40 years of age he missed it - not only did he rely on the arm of flesh in striking with his fists (God saved them from Egypt without any human being lifting a sword or fighting a war), he also had to flee for 40 years before God called him at the burning bush. It was then he was successful. I believe this reverse order probably gives insight to the life of Moses at that time, and why he failed then. Instead of disproving the message of doing before teaching I believe it actually strengthens it.

“Well I have nothing more to say then.”

Bless you. Let us live by this order whether as ministers or lay people. But there is much more to this...