The Great Physician

Today I have a praise report!

My brother's mother-in-law was hospitalized last week with a sinus infection, pneumonia, and a stroke. Today she WALKS out of the hospital! Yes I said she is walking out of the hospital today.

Now who has ever heard of someone in their sixties, entering the hospital already taxing their body fighting pneumonia and a sinus infection, to see them WALK out of the hospital a week after having a stroke? I never have seen somebody beat those odds in grand fashion like that! Never!

How did this happen? A miracle of modern medicine maybe? NO! The healing hand of Jehovah-Rapha or Rophe (Hebrew name for the God who heals us)! All thanks, all praise, and all glory goes to our Creator who heard the cries of many on this woman's behalf.

She will tell you herself that she is getting a second lease on life and will not waste it. This stroke could have very easily killed her. God saw fit to spare her. Why? We don't know yet, but His purpose for her will be revealed in His time. This is a woman that walked with God at one point in her life,only to walk away from Him.

When we walk away from God, He will do WHATEVER it takes to get us back! He is more concerned with our end result, with the building of our character, and most of all with our relationship with Him. God will do anything it takes to have that relationship with you (remember: He sacrificed His own Son so we could be in fellowship with Him)!

What does the statement (WHATEVER) look like in action? In her case, her left side may not regain full motor function, but her life was spared so she could regain the fellowship with God she once had. He is not limited to just affecting our health. He may affect the health of those around us (kids, parents, spouse, etc), he may cause us to lose our job, it could be a car accident, an accidental pregnancy, a natural disaster, an act of violence, or ANYTHING else it takes to get our attention! If you walk away from Him because of some form of hidden sin (only from man, not from God), He will put the spotlight on that sin for you.

Now you may be thinking; would God really cause me to lose my job resulting in the loss of my home and many other possessions? Yes! Would God allow my daughter to have an accident on her jet ski and be hospitalized, never making a full recovery? Yes! Would God allow my mistress to become pregnant which would just rip my family apart? Yes! In all of these situations and many more like them, God is allowing something that looks bad to us as humans to happen. But in any one of these situations, the affected persons may need just that to get their attention, to bring them back into the right fellowship with God, or to get help with a problem or an addiction that they may have never otherwise allowed to be fixed. It may be a parent that is no longer setting that Godly example for their children and/ or spouse. It may be a person in ministry, that if they're not doing right by God, they may be destroying the very people they are charged with helping. It may be somebody that is carrying the "christian" banner and the devil's baby at the same time. He will remove whatever idol or "god" you put before Him. Check the ten commandments, He warned us already!

I have a devo that is dedicated to this subject. I will leave you with that, today. But remember, if you're not living the way God says you should, and you know it, repent today! If He has not brought judgement against you yet, thank Him heavily as you get your life back on track, but know this; if you continue walking away from the Lord, He WILL do whatever it takes to get you back.

None Before Me

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This is a rather familiar phrase, easily recognizable from the Ten Commandments. Most of our children have heard it and can give you a brief synopsis of its meaning. Yet how deep does that answer go?

In Ukraine (Summer 2008) I heard two ladies giving a testimony about their lives. These are two very godly women that had a story to share. Each one had a story very different from the other; yet the message that the Holy Spirit was giving me from the two was the same. One tells how her husband had a very successful job making more than enough money and how they lived very well. She knew God, just not very well. She had been babied in her early years by her dad and then her husband took over that position. She had full faith in her husband, his job and his relationship with Christ, but little regard for her own relationship. God decided to increase His efforts to draw her near; so in one evening, she lost her husband and his job. All the things that she had faith in disappeared instantly. She now had a husband that was incapacitated; his person, his job, and his faith were removed from her all in the span of a couple of hours. The result though, was that she did (eventually) gain that personal relationship with Christ that she needed to have all along the way. The whole time I was hearing her share this, the Holy Spirit kept saying there shall be no other gods before me. Fortunately they are both serving the Lord now in full time ministry.

The second lady shared the story of her life and how it was dominated for so many years by her mother. She had spent a lifetime worshipping her mother and having the kind of relationship with her mother that should have been focused on God the Father. As she would share the little bits of her faith with her mom that she could, she was met with laughter and ridicule. This would cause her faith to shrink and her relationship with God to suffer greatly. God had plans to use this woman to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. But before she could share with people her relationship with Christ and how they could have one, hers needed to grow exponentially. Unfortunately for her, because of her priorities being out of alignment, God took her mother. This was very difficult for her to swallow. Honestly, she spent more than a year being mad at God. With the drawing power of the Holy Spirit though, she did come into an incredible relationship with God. God was then able to use her to reach a lost world. She has an awesome burden for the lost and Christ-like love for children. Once again, as I heard her story unfold, the Holy Spirit kept reminding me that there shall be no other gods before me.

Now, what do you have in your life that is being that “god that is before God”? Do you have a souped up muscle car that you take to car shows that sometimes fall on Sundays? Do you play softball for teams that have you away from church on Sundays? Do you have a boat that you take fishing on Sundays because you can’t get out there on Saturdays, or worse yet, Saturday is just not enough. Do you take your little princess to pageants that happen to only fall on Sunday? Dog Shows? Sports of any type (played or watched)? Do you have anything that causes you to put your relationship with God in second place? When God gives us a command, He means it! When He says no other gods before me, when He says don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together…He means it! As He continues to draw you back to Him, He will remove whatever we put in His way. He does not do this to punish us, but because he is most concerned with our character and has our long term benefit in mind.

We must learn to prioritize.; God said to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, not keep it selfishly for ourselves!

He will do anything, removing any person, place or object of affection to have a deeper, more personal relationship with the people He created. We were created to worship the King and not our things!