Tagged: healing

Caution: This post contains graphic descriptions of physical wounds and may be uncomfortable for some readers. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Matthew 4:23 We needed to turn him several times a day to avoid bedsores. Before the fire, bedsores were something unfamiliar to us, something that sounded repulsive and painful, like a blister, something that happened to my grandmother when she moved to a nursing home during my childhood. But then I had to tend one, just one, on my son’s heel, for almost a year. So deep it reached the bone, this bedsore became my arch enemy, determined to drill its way through the other… Read More

My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. Lamentations 3:17 To be bereft is to be deprived of or lacking something. In particular, it describes the sadness and loneliness accompanying the death or departure of someone dear. We who follow Jesus have the peace that surpasses all understanding available to us through Christ, indeed (see Philippians 4:6-7). But loss can blot out the truth; grief can loom between us and that marvelous, available power, for a time. Like a sudden blackout dashing us into complete darkness, unexpected tragedy and loss can temporarily blind us from the light.  The blindness may be artificial, it may be temporary, but it is real. May we have grace for ourselves and others in the family… Read More

You did it again! You went ahead of me. I thought I was a messenger, Sent to tell them about You.   But You had already come; Prepared hearts— Expectant, Hopeful.   He looked at me And said, I feel like I’ve met you before. Like I’ve known you a very long time.   As we read Your Words together, Spoke of mutual pain And the comfort You give, He remembered.   I felt this way in a dream once.   Silently awestruck— Weeping Tears of Joy, Listening as he described   How You came.   Dressed in white (Every story is the same!) You appeared, Laid Your hand upon the shoulder   Of a broken-hearted father.   Comfort Peace Healing Hope.   I woke… Read More

Helping others heal is a tender task. How many could be healed of heart wounds if we took the time to learn how to respond? Jesus invites us to be First Responders. Read Part One of this series by clicking here.  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool… Read More

To read Part One of this series, click here. After they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and anchored there. As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized Jesus (Mark 6:53-54). When the winds of the storm alter your course, you may be tempted to think you’ve failed. Not only does Jesus send us into storms, but He also allows storms to change our plans. To bring us to an entirely different destination than the one originally intended. In Mark 6, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to Bethsaida (see Mark 6:45). After an exhausting, terrifying night straining against the oars, Jesus came to them, walking on the raging sea. When they finally… Read More

He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us… He will raise us up… That we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth (from Hosea 6:1-3). When we finally were able to receive visitors, we tried to prepare them for the pain. Are you sure you want to come? It will be hard. A hospital intensive care burn unit is a terrifying place to spend days and nights. Pain is a constant, cruel, raging, loud companion. In the long parade of weeks we spent… Read More

for my fellow desperate Docents… you know who you are. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to… Read More

Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.Hosea 6:1 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.Job 5:18 I unwrapped the thick bandage slowly, carefully. As it unraveled deeper, closer to the wounds, I could see the blood, my child’s blood, staining the fabric, sticking. The familiar, tingling tunnel vision started and I took a deep breath. I could not faint this time.  Body, don’t betray me. I need to be strong.  I steadied my hands and got to work. You see, in the process of healing the deepest wounds, they must be tended daily. They must… Read More

For my only true Father in heaven on Father's Day God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.Genesis 1:27 We all have a Father, and we were made to look like Him. When we know who He is, we will know who we are. It was almost Halloween, and my mother asked me to climb up in the attic to find the plastic jack-o-lanterns we always toted around to collect candy. I was flattered by her request. I had never been trusted to go into the attic before. My sister and I had been severely warned never to go there for fear of stepping in the wrong spot and crashing through the… Read More

for Erick George Floyd, you were caught trying to buy a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, according to the news reports. As you placed that bill on the counter in hopes of getting one more drag from a cigarette you had no idea you stood on the razor-fine edge of a precipice, your life an inflection point for an entire nation. You had no clue you would soon ignite an honor outcry. I wonder if you’d known, if someone asked if you had it in you to change the world, what your answer would have been.  Not many of us think we have the power to change the world. World-changing, history-defining moments often happen in an unplanned instant to common people. Our… Read More