GOD’S ABIDING PRESENCE

 

John 14:16 (NIV)
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--

               Sunday, June 8, is Pentecost Sunday. It is the Sunday that the Church remembers and celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all believers. It reminds us of that powerful day, recorded in Acts 2.

Acts 2:1-4 (NIV)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

               It was on that day that God fulfilled Jesus’ promise to send another Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit. From that day on, the believers were empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel to the entire world. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (NIV)

               For many believers, this is much more a historical event then a present reality. When I was growing up in church, we rarely spoke about the Holy Spirit. Our focus was on what Jesus did for us on the cross. That is essential, but it is only a part of the story. For us to become the transformed, new creations promised in the Bible, we need the abiding presence of God in our lives; we need the Holy Spirit.

               Paul makes it clear that if we do not have the Spirit living in us, we are not a part of the Body of Christ. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Romans 8:9 (NIV) The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is the affirmation, the guarantee of God’s saving, redeeming, and transforming work in our lives.  And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 (NIV)

               The role of the Holy Spirit is to guide us through life. He leads us into truth and guards us against falsehood. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13 (NIV) He will shape our character and reshape us into the image of Christ. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

               The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in every believer’s life. He speaks to us at the deepest levels of our soul. He guides us in the paths of righteousness. He guards us from the influence of the Evil One. But we have a part to play in this. We must listen to the Holy Spirit. He is not going to overpower our will. He gives us the information we need to make wise decisions. He also gives us the power and the courage to follow through when we choose to listen to His voice. We can resist His influence, but that always leads us in the wrong direction.

               For us to grow and mature in our faith, we need the Holy Spirit. We need to recognize His presence. We need to tune into His voice. We need to follow Him in obedience.

               This Sunday, June 8, is Pentecost Sunday. Let it remind us that we have been empowered by the Spirit to be Christ’s ambassadors in our world.

Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

 

 

A SEARCHLIGHT OR A MIRROR

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

               As followers of Jesus, we revere the Bible as God’s Word. We see it as our guide for life and for holiness. The Bible makes us aware of our sinful state and offers to us the amazing gift of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ. The Bible plays a central role in the life of every believer.

               Having established the authority of the Bible, it raises the question, is the Bible a searchlight or a mirror? For many people, the Bible is viewed as a searchlight. It is used to “shine the light of truth” into other people’s lives. The Bible is often shined on other people to expose their sin and their misdeeds. It becomes a weapon to be used to condemn the world and justify the saints. We have to ask, is that really the best way to use the Bible?

               I want to suggest that the Bible is not a searchlight but a mirror. God intends for us to see ourselves in the pages of His Word. As we study the Bible we begin to see our own sinfulness. We see all the ways that we fall short of God’s glory. It also helps us to see that, through faith in Christ, we are redeemed and children of God. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul invites us to take a long look in the mirror. The focus is not on exposing other people’s faults, but taking an honest look at ourselves.

               The Bible is meant to teach us about God, about ourselves, and about God’s design for His world. It is filled with wisdom and instructions about how to live a godly life in an ungodly world. In many ways, it is a training manual for godly living. But it is more than that.

               The Bible is meant to awaken us to our sinfulness. We all have spiritual and emotional blind spots in our lives. The Bible makes us aware of these and calls us to change the direction of our lives. Paul highlights this aspect of God’s Word in Romans 7.

Romans 7:7 (NIV)
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

               Paul’s point was that he was ignorant of his failure until the Word of God opened his eyes to see it. The same is true for us. We are all ignorant of our sinfulness. We take certain aspects of our character and life as just being normal. That is until we see the reality in the Bible.

               Once our eyes have been opened, the Bible then takes us one step further. The Bible is meant to correct the shortcomings of our life. The Bible’s primary purpose is not to condemn, but to redeem. What would you think of a doctor who accurately diagnosed cancer in your body and then failed to offer you treatment? God, in His grace, does not want to leave us in our sin. Instead, He wants to redeem us and bring us back into a genuine relationship with Him. His goal is to remove us from the kingdom of darkness and invite us into the kingdom of light.  ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14 (NIV)

               But the Bible is not done with us yet. The last goal of the Bible is to train us for God’s service. Someone has said, God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. God’s ultimate goal is for us to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Once we become a child of God, through faith in Jesus, He begins the work of reshaping our lives. The goal is for us to be fully equipped to be and do what God desires.

               If we see the Bible as a searchlight, it becomes a weapon that we use against others. But if we see the Bible as a mirror, it becomes an instrument in God’s hands to change and transform our lives. The Bible is a powerful tool. Used in the right way, it is redemptive and energizing. Used in the wrong way, it become destructive and divisive.

2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

 

DILUTED OR FULL STRENGTH

 

1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV)
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

               I have been reading The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton. It is a challenging read and sometimes a little confusing. In one chapter he talks about the development of the idea of “the gods” in history. He makes the point that even as the idea of multiple gods spread, there remained in the background the idea that there was one ultimate God who was the source of all the rest. The idea of multiple gods was a dilution of the concept of one God.

               His point was that the more we expand the number of gods, the less we have of God. It is the difference between experiencing something at full strength vs a diluted strength. In our secular world today, we want to continue to expand and add onto the idea of being spiritual. What was once a fairly pure concept has become a diluted solution that only has a faint taste of the real thing. In essence, the more “gods” we add to the equation, the less of God we experience.

               One of the reasons for this is that experiencing God at full strength is so overwhelming. When the people of Isreal encountered God at Mt. Sinai they pulled back. They told Moses to go and speak with God on their behalf because it was just too much for them. I think the same is true today. People would rather have a diluted version of God than to encounter Him full strength. It is just too much.

               The Bible invites us to encounter God at full strength. Rather than moderate the commands of God, it gives us a clear, undiluted picture of what God requires. This often makes us uncomfortable. Especially today, we are reluctant to take God’s Word at face value. Instead, we want to nuance it, to make it more palatable for today’s sensibilities. But in doing so, we move farther away from God, not closer.

               I am not suggesting that we go back to a legalistic approach to faith, where everything is about keeping a set of rules. What I am suggesting is that we need to get back to the very basic reality that there is one God who is supreme and has the right to rule and reign in our world.

               At the very heart of genuine faith is the concept of one God. It was the foundation of all faith. It is stated clearly in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Jesus affirmed this reality and applied it to the way we live our lives. "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."  Mark 12:29-31 (NIV) Knowing and believing that there is only one God who deserves our praise ands service shapes the way we are to interact with one another.

               Many people today want to camp on the second half of Jesus’ words. They have made love for others the top priority. At the same time, they want to deny the first half of this statement. Genuine love for others is born out of a genuine love for God. When we take God out of the equation, we dilute what it means to love one another. We get to redefine and nuance it to mean whatever we want it to mean. We can excuse all kind of behavior by appealing to love. What we end up with is a watered-down version of love that has lost most of its real meaning.

               God has set a high standard for us to live by. It makes us uncomfortable at times and we often chaff under it. But God is offering us a full-strength encounter with Him. As Jesus put it, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 (NIV)

               We are in the habit of diluting things to make them easier for us to handle. But what we lose in the process is genuine effectiveness. It is just like diluting a medication to make it more palatable, but sacrificing its healing effects. We live in a world that has pulled away from a full-strength encounter with God. We have tried to substitute many diluted versions of “the gods” to make it easier for us. In essence, we want to shape God to our own wants and wishes. In the end, we lose God all together.

               If we want the healing, restoring power of God in our lives, we need to encounter Him full-strength. No diluted version will do.

              

IS OUR FOCUS WRONG?

 

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

               There are so many things that grab our focus. It is easy for us to get caught up in whatever the current crisis or cause of the day is. I received a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post once that said, “I’m for whatever is the current hot issue.” There are so many things that are clamoring for our attention that we can easily lose focus on what is most important.

               There has been a trend in the church in general to adjust our message to speak to whatever is the current hot topic. In our effort to be relevant, we have placed some important things on the back burner. We still think they are important but we don’t give them much attention. One of those things is Heaven.

               When I was growing up in church, I heard much about heaven. Most people, whether they were a committed believer or not, thought about heaven. People were concerned about what happened to them after they died. They wanted some assurance that death was not the end of their story. Those that were cynical quipped that many believers were so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good. The real truth is that when we forget about heaven, we lose our perspective on earth as well. Most people today think very little about heave, if at all. It is not even on their radar screen. They are so focused on today that they have lost sight of eternity.

               C.S. Lewis has pointed out that a person’s hope in heaven is a great motivator for how they live their daily lives. He made the point that those in history who did the most for this present world were those who thought most of the next.

               In my devotions today, I came across this quote from Lewis that puts things into perspective.

“It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: Aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

               It is clear from scripture that a vivid hope is heaven was the motivation for the heroic efforts of the early Christians. They understood that what a person does with his life here on earth has eternal consequences. They were willing to make great sacrifices for others because they knew that God would reward them in heaven.

               Today, we are caught up in seeking temporary rewards while we pay little attention to eternal ones. We are caught up in focusing on making this a better place to live instead of preparing better people for eternity. It is like redecorating a sinking ship rather than assuring that everyone has a life preserver.

               This is not to say that we are to ignore the issues of our day. Instead, we are to view the issues of today through the lens of eternity. It is always right to seek justice and show mercy, but not as an end in themselves. We are to seek the best for others so that they might see the light of Christ and turn toward him. All of our efforts will come to nothing if they are only for today. It is only as we place our efforts in the context of eternity that they will last. We don’t just want better people living in a better world, we want redeemed people headed for a better eternity.

               If I may refer to C.S. Lewis again, the way we live our lives each day is shaping the person we will be for all of eternity. We are either drawing closer to Christ and becoming more like him or we are drawing further away from Christ. We are either becoming glorious, eternal beings or hideous, demonic ones. Our eternal path is set now, in this life, in this world.

               We need to care for this world, not just to preserve it for future generations, but because it is God’s creation and we have been given the responsibility to steward it wisely. We need to care for other people, not just to make their life better here on earth, but because they were created in God’s image, to be in relationship with Him for all of eternity. Living our best life on earth is God’s will for us. Keeping our eyes focused on heaven is the motivation that keeps us moving in the right direction.

Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

 

A HUMBLE REFLECTION

 

Luke 12:48b (NIV)
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

               My level of anxiety and concern has risen to new levels. Each day, as I look at the current news, my heart sinks farther. As a country and as a society we have lost our moorings and we are drifting into dangerous territory.

               I had the privilege of traveling to Ukraine sixteen times, encouraging the church there and sharing the love of Jesus with the Ukrainian people. The war in Ukraine has been a genuine heart break for me and many others. Recent events have caused me to despair over the course we are taking in regards to Ukraine and its people.

               In my daily devotions, I have been working my way through Jeremiah. Each day, as I read, I can see the parallels between the people of Israel and Judah and our own nation. We are guilty of worshipping false gods, of rejecting God’s moral and ethical law, and of seeking our benefit over the benefit of others. As a church in America, we have become complacent and complicit. It is time for some honest and humble reflection.

               I am not one who casts stones at the church in America. We have had many failures, but we also have many genuinely committed believers who are quietly, faithfully living out their faith. Bashing “the church” is not helpful or constructive. But honestly taking stock of where we are and where we need to go is essential. Our hope is not in a particular political system or party, but in the truth and the power of the Gospel. The church has always been its weakest when it has closely aligned itself with those in political power. It has been its strongest when it has lived out its faith in practical ways, independent of political affiliation.

               The people of Isreal and Judah, in the days of Jeremiah, went through the outward actions of their religion, but their hearts were not in the right place. They assumed that as long as they kept up the façade of following God they would be blessed. That was not the way God saw it. In one place God made this statement: they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. There are many in our country who are giving lip service to God, but their hearts are far from Him.

               When Solomon was dedicating the Temple in Jerusalem, God made a promise to him.

2 Chronicles 7:11-16 (NIV)
 When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

               We no longer worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, but we still worship at God’s Temple, His church. Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV) How we live our daily lives is a reflection of our commitment to God. We honor God’s temple when we live according to his word. We dishonor God’s temple when we give in to the ways of the world. And so, just as God gave Solomon a pathway for renewal for his nation, so God has given us a pathway to renewal for our nation. If we will honestly repent of our own failures and seek Him with sincere hearts, He will heal own land.

               We have been blessed to live in a country that has allowed God’s church to flourish. We have taken this privilege for granted. We have allowed ourselves to but caught up in political squabbles and combatting ideologies. Instead of taking our cues from God’s word, we have listened too much to loud, political voices. Following God’s word will not make us popular or powerful in people’s eyes, but it will make us right in God’s eyes.

               There is a path open to us of grace, compassion, and mercy. It is not the path of compromise with sin nor is it the path of legalistic self-righteousness. It is the path that Jesus walked. He never condoned sin, yet offered grace to the sinner. He called for justice, but also offered mercy. Is it possible for us to find this path again?

               We, as a nation and as a church, have been given much. Because God has entrusted us with much, He also requires much from us. As a nation and as a church we have the responsibility to steward what God has given us for His glory and for the benefit of others. Turning inward and focusing only on our needs and wants is not a part of God’s plan for us.

               Each of us needs to begin by humbling ourselves before God, asking for His forgiveness, and asking for wisdom and discernment to navigate the journey before us. Then we need to pray that God would humble our leaders and give them wisdom and discernment to lead us in the way God would have us to go.

Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 

 

IS IT REASONABLE TO BELIEVE IN GOD?

 

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

               As a part of my daily devotions, I have been reading Reasonable Faith by William Craig. In addition to this, I have been leading a class on Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God. Both of these books take an in-depth look at the reasonableness of belief in God.

               While Keller begins with the objections of people that he has encountered in New York City, Craig tackles the philosophical foundations of belief and unbelief. In his chapter, The Absurdity of Life Without God, he carefully examines the current philosophies that lead people away from belief in God. He highlights three significant concepts that define what it is like to live without God.

               The first concept is that of the meaning of life. Current philosophical thinking says that life is basically meaningless. Our universe and consequently humanity, were created by a series of unguided random events. Philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sarte have concluded that because our world is a random accident then life itself is meaningless. If there is not immortality and no God behind our world then our lives have no ultimate meaning. We live our life-span and then disappear. This leads us to relativism which means that there is no right or wrong in the world. None of our actions have any ultimate meaning, therefore there is no real point to life. Taken to its logical conclusion, this can only lead to despair.

               But even Sarte struggled to find meaning in life. He chose to create his own meaning. But this self-made meaning is an illusion, because we are just pretending that a meaningless universe has meaning because I said so. In addition, my meaning is uniquely mine and your meaning is uniquely yours. If our two meanings clash there is not reconciliation. What self-made meaning does is trap us in our own small selfish world.

               Ultimate meaning must come from outside of ourselves to be real. It must conform to some standard that is universal. Believing in immortality and the existence of God fills this gap. If God is the creator of our world and has offered to us life after death, then He has infused meaning into our world.

               The second concept is that of the value of life. If indeed our world is just a collection of random, unguided events, then there is no value in life. Both Camus and Bertrand Russell promote the absurdity of life, yet strive to hold onto the value of love and brotherhood.  Russel admits that he believes that life is absurd and meaningless yet he cannot live with the idea that ethical values are simply a matter of personal choice. Society cannot survive without some shared set of ethical standards. But these standards become arbitrary and ultimately meaningless in a vacuum. They must come from somewhere and be supported by something outside of the system.

               Most people are appalled at the horrors of our world; of man’s inhumanity to man. They cry out for justice and fair play. Yet, they deny any absolute standard that can produce these things. This produces a major conflict in people’s lives. On what basis do they claim that people have value if there is not ultimate standard for morality? If there is no God and no immorality then the evil acts of people like Hitler will go unpunished and all the personal sacrifices that people have made will go unrewarded.

               The Bible teaches us that our value comes from God and not from some arbitrary value system. God has created us in his image to reflect his glory in the world. He has created us to live forever with him. Our value does not waver from culture to culture or philosophy to philosophy. Ultimately God will reward those who have lived according to his standards and he will punish those who have violated them. Evil will be dealt with and good will be rewarded.

               The third concept is that of purpose in life. From an atheistic point of view, the purpose in life is existence. It is to make the most out of life as possible while you can. This means maximizing your pleasure and happiness. But in the end, a person’s life has no ultimate purpose. It does not matter if a person ever existed. Any purpose that a person had dies with them and disappears. This attitude does not lead to love and compassion but to self-interest and self-fulfillment. If life ultimately has no value and no meaning then it has no purpose either. When people come to this conclusion it also leads to despair. It is well documented that a person who lives wholly for themselves actually destroys the happiness they so aggressively seek.

               If God does exist and has a plan for humanity, as the Bible teaches, then life has a transcendent purpose. It frees people to love and sacrifice for others. It fosters connections between people that go far beyond happiness.

               Many who want to deny the existence of God turn to some God-substitute to fill the gap. Francis Crick in his book, The Origin of the Genetic Code, personifies Nature, with a capital “N”. He attributes the qualities normally given to God to Nature instead. This is very common at street level. It is not uncommon to hear people who reject the idea of God refer for Mother Nature as a particular force that has some influence in their life. Carl Sagan has done the same thing with the “Cosmos”. Though these men profess not to believe in God, they smuggle in a God-substitute because they cannot bear to live in a universe in which everything is the chance result of impersonal forces.

               I know I have done an imperfect job of explaining this complex and highly significant debate. But I hope I have caused you to explore this further on your own. The bottom line is that taken to its logical conclusion, living as if God does not exist leads to absurdity. Living with God at the center of your life replaces absurdity with hope, purpose, meaning, and reality.

               Le me suggest a few books for further exploration.

1. The Reason for God by Tim Keller

2. Making Sense of God by Tim Keller

3. Reasonable Faith by William Craig

4. The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel

               Taking God out of the equation of life literally takes away the foundation that humanity has stood upon for 1000’s of years. The question is, are we better off without God in the equation?

Romans 1:18-20 (NIV)
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

 

 

THE POWER OF TOUCH

 

Matthew 8:2-3 (NIV)
A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

               During my devotions today this passage of scripture was referenced. What stood out to me was the fact that Jesus reached out and touched the untouchable. In Jesus’ day, no one would touch a leper. People with leprosy were considered unclean. They had to keep their distance from other people, calling out “unclean” to warn people away. The fact that Jesus disregarded this mandate and actually touched the leper is amazing!

               In many ways, we have lost the positive power of touch in our world. Because of the unfortunate, misuse of touch, we have recoiled from touch (almost) altogether. We shield our children from the touch of non-family members and even some extended family. We are reluctant to extend touch to others unless we already have a strong connection with them. There are good reasons for this. Touch has been abused and used in inappropriate ways to manipulate and take advantage of others. As a consequence, we have become suspicious of all touch. After a certain age, hugging a child is frowned upon. It is not uncommon for people of the same gender to give an appropriate hug, but hugging between genders is less common, and in some cases prohibited. We are afraid that our physical touch with another person may be misinterpreted.

               What we have lost in the process is a sense of appropriate intimacy between people. I don’t mean intimacy is a sexual sense, but in the sense of closeness and caring. Years ago, I came across a short video which depicted an elderly woman sitting alone in a chair. As the camera rotated around her, we hear her unspoken thoughts. “For years no one has touched me in a meaningful way. And no one calls me by name anymore.” I was convicted and challenged by that short video. It reminded me of how important physical touch is to our well-being.

               Jesus was not afraid to extend physical touch to hurting people. I’m sure that not all the people Jesus touched were physically ill. As a case in point, we read in Mark 10:13-16 that Jesus invited children into his presence, took them into his arms, and blessed them. Jesus understood and modeled the power of touch. His touch brought both physical and emotional healing into people’s lives.

               As followers of Christ, we can extend that same healing power to those around us. It has been medically proven that patients who experience physical touch from their doctor and nurses heal much more quickly. We have all experienced the healing power of touch when we have gone through some crisis in our lives. Often an arm around a shoulder is far more comforting than any number of nice words.

               Appropriate touch invites another person into our lives. It opens the door for a connection that most people are longing for. It expresses love and caring in a way that words do not. We are often at a loss for what to say in a time of crisis, but a hand on the shoulder or an embrace can speak for us.        

               Too often we separate our spiritual well-being from the physical world around us. Our faith becomes intellectual but not practical. The Bible challenges us to put feet to our faith. We are instructed to reach out and touch others in a variety of ways. It may mean sharing our resources with them or just spending time with them. We cannot genuinely care for one another at a distance. To care means to get close; to literally touch one another’s lives. If we always keep people at arm’s length, we will always be lonely and disconnected from them.

Galatians 6:2 (NIV)
Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.