Is it wise to share “miracle cures” with ill people?

If you know someone with cancer,  Chris Brauns urges you to read this post from pastor David Wayne who is battling cancer.

I’ve tried to cut down on the cancer posts a bit.  Cancer tends to dominate your life once you have it and one way of not letting it not dominate your life is to talk about other things so I’ve been back on some of the other stuff lately.  But I came across a post from David Darlington over at In The Agora today that I needed to share.

David is also dealing with cancer and, like most everyone with cancer I suppose, is also dealing with a steady stream of friends offering miracle cures.  It would have taken me thousands of words to say what he said here succinctly.  He has given me permission to reprint this post so please read this and carefully consider his words if you know someone who has cancer or some other serious illness.

Greetings! I hope this letter finds you well. I’m dropping you a quick note today to express my appreciation for all you’ve done for me during my cancer trial this past year. Your love and support means more than I can express in words, and your actions have lifted me up in my time of need.

But if I may be so bold, there is has been one area where your assistance has been more of a distraction than an aid. I am speaking of your passing along of miracle cures and alternative therapies you’ve heard about or read on the internet. . .

The rest here.

HT: Chris Brauns

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Hope: What’s your GPS setting?

A prayer based on this verse: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:13)

“Father, help me to believe the command to set my hope on future grace is just as much a command to be obeyed as, “Do not lie, do not steal, and do not covet.” You are serious about where we set our hope. You’re so wise and caring. You know if we don’t intentionally and fully set our hope on your grace, we’ll set it somewhere else. On saviors that cannot save… on  people who are not God… on gospels that are not gospels… on idols that will ultimately utterly fail us.”

It will be worth your time to read the rest of Scotty Smith’s prayer here.

 

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Godliness

“Godliness is God-consciousness, an all-pervasive sense of God’s presence. It will mean that never do we think, or speak, or act, without the undergirding sense of God’s presence, of his judgement, of our relation to him and his relation to us, of our responsibility to him and dependence upon him.”

From the Collected Writings of John Murray (Banner of Truth, 1976–1982), 1:183 via Tony

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God’s faithfulness, prayer, and forgiveness

Psalm 106 contains one of the longest recorded confessions of sin anywhere in the Bible.  The writer is confessing sins which Israel had committed over a period of some 800 years. From the time of the Exodus to the time of their Exile, they exhibited unfaithfulness to their faithful God again and again and again.  As I taught on this psalm recently, I came away with five truths regarding God’s faithfulness, our prayers, and forgiveness as we apply this psalm to our lives.

God is faithful even when we are unfaithful.The lesson is that of Romans 3:3–4, where Paul asks, “What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?” He answers, “Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar.” God is faithful in spite of our unfaithfulness, and we had better be glad he is since his faithfulness is our sole hope

Never underestimate the power of intercessory prayer! James 5:16.  Here one man for the nation!  Lord, save us, forgive us, restore us!  Oh, that God would raise up intercesors in His church today―people who pray fervently on behalf of God’s people.

Intercessory prayer includes confession of sin! Confess sin as it is!  Don’t sugar coat your sin!  Name sin as sin!  View as lawlessness, transgression, rebellion,  a violation of God’s holiness.  “The way to cover our sin is to uncover it by confession.”  Richard Sibbes

Seek forgiveness as undeserved!  Remain humble as you approach God! God doesn’t owe us forgiveness!  Only granted because of his mercy and through the merit of Jesus Christ.

Praise God as Savior!   A forgiven life knows no limit to praising God! He who has been forgiven little loves little (Luke 7:47).  But he who has been forgiven much loves much!

 

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Help! I’m not a morning person

If you aren’t a morning person, these words from Justin Taylor might be helpful to you:

I am not a morning person. I don’t like early mornings, and early mornings don’t like me.

But here are a few things that have encouraged my heart lately, and perhaps will do the same to you. Remember that a good part of the Christian life, as Lloyd-Jones said, is learning how to preach to yourself more than listen to yourself.

1. Salvation draws near. This morning I am one day closer to seeing the Lord face-to-face, and closer to the day when all that is wrong and broken and rebellious will be made right and submissive. (“For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed”—Rom. 13:11).

2. God gives me new mercy. Every day I need God’s mercy, and when I awoke today there was a fresh supply of such necessary grace awaiting me. (“[God's] mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning”—Lam. 3:22-23).

3. God gives us all kindness. God has already shown and modeled kindness this morning to his people and to his enemies by causing the sun to rise and shine. (“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good”—Matt. 5:45).

4. My to-do list has only two things on it. My to-do list can feel overwhelming, but Jesus was able to summarize all 613 stipulations of the Sinai Covenant unto the size of a Post-It Note: “Love God with all that you are; love your neighbor as yourself.” Love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8, 10; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8). As Augustine put it, “Love, and do what you will.”

5. Anxiety is meant to be cast not carried. Any anxiety I feel about today is useless (to me) and offensive (to God). God knows that I awake with anxieties, needs, and burdens. But instead of being anxious God wants me to tell him what I need (Phil. 4:6). Because God cares for me he wants me to cast all those anxieties—those burdens—on him (1 Pet. 5:7; Ps. 55:22). God is happy to “supply every need [I have] according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19; Matt. 6:33). Anxiety, at the end of the day, is a pointless waste of time that costs me a lot and gains me nothing (Matt. 6:27).

6. Rejoicing in weakness. If I feel too weak today, that’s a very good place to be. That way the joy of the Lord can be my strength (Neh. 8:10). That way I can “serve by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 4:11). “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16). God’s grace is sufficient for me, since his power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong ” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

Ready for another day.

 

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What youth and age have in common

One of the sins of the nation of Israel, recorded by Moses during his years of leading them and also referenced in other Scripture, was the sin of discontentment.  Psalm 106:13-15 speaks of their “wanton craving in the wilderness and put God to the test.”

Discontentment is a sin we all must be on guard against for as writer Matthew Arnold has said well, “The only thing that has been lent to youth and age in common―discontent”

 

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