Healing Virtues of the Soul: Faith

What kind of image do the words faith and healing conjure up?

If you are over 50 “faith healing” has a spooky, negative image. You might either imagine something like the late Katherine Kulhman who began her 60’s show: “I Believe… in Miracles”. Or it could be the lesser known but even more colorful 70’s healer Earnest Angley’s and his very effeminate shout: “Be Heal---ed”? For most of you, however, the more recent charlatanism of Benny Hinn comes to mind. In one of his “healing” crusades captured on YouTube, he uses his suit jacket to cause people to fall backward as they believe themselves into being “slain in the spirit.”

Today we are going to talk about “faith” as a healing virtue. But first we’ve got some dirty religious laundry to clean up. To understand how God’s healing power is released through faith, might mean we need to first become a bit skeptical, like the disciple Thomas did. As the German theologian Karl Rahner once declared, 90% of what people believe isn’t true. If he’s right, one of the greatest challenges to healing might mean we need to divide what is true about faith from what is fiction.

‘FAITH’ HEALING OR HEALING FAITH?

Several years ago, I taught a class on Christian Ethics for Gardner-Webb University. The class was mostly geared toward Nursing Students, giving them a general introduction in Christian ethics and then focusing upon the growing and fascinating field of medical ethics. During that class we got into many “hot button” medical, religious and political issues, such as abortion, assisted suicide, genetics and cloning.

If I were teaching that class now, I’m sure “government sponsored health-Care” would have our attention as it does our nation. But what I remember as most thought provoking in that class was none of these “hot” topics, but a little video about a Christian Science family being taken to court because they refused medical care for their child, who as a result, died unnecessarily. In the courts, the Christian Science parents argued that their own religious faith should be protected, since their “faith” was also their “science.” But the courts argued that what they called “science” was neither true “science” nor properly called faith, but was an irresponsible act that could only be named “parental neglect.” If the Christian Science parents had only done what most parents did---if they had accepted the healing powers in both science and in faith and had taken their child to the hospital, as well as prayed for him, then the child would not have died.

Most of us instinctively rely on both---the healing power of human medicine and the healing power of faith. If we have physical problems we take them to the medical doctor, and we still pray. If we have emotional hurts we can’t manage, we might take them to a trained therapist or counselor, but we still pray. And if we have spiritual hurts, sins or doubts, we can take them to our pastor or a trusted friend but we still pray. Instead of deciding for one against the other, most of us are “smart” enough to use both faith and science as a resource. We know that both are gifts from God and should not be pitted against each other, but can be supportive and complementary.

But sometimes, and for different reasons, we might neglect one or the other. When I worked as a Chaplain at Baptist Hospital in the 1980’s, I saw this first hand even among the most elite and educated. There was challenge to getting certain medical doctors, so sure and convinced in their own healing arts, to realize their own limits and to remember they were still only “practicing” medicine. In other words, you could apply the best skills and the best science, but this did not always guarantee healing. It was right at these very limits of science that the healing power of faith could be plainly observed, though other times, was invisible.

I’ll never forget how a doctor once called me the chaplain on call, telling me that he was working with a certain patient, could find nothing else wrong with him, but healing did not come as was to be expected. He asked me to talk with this fellow and see if I could find out anything. Upon several visits with the patient, I found him not only to be going through a medical crisis, but also was going through a major personal and religious crisis. As he began to open up and share, and as we daily prayed together about his fears, worries, and struggles, his countenance lifted and he became increasingly hopeful and encouraged. A few days later the doctor met me in the hall, informing me that he appreciated my visits with the patient, because signs of healing were now becoming evident. He even marveled about it. I marveled too. It wasn’t that I had any special power, but that during our time together this man’s faith was empowered within himself. I was only a channel, a helper, kind of like a spiritual mid-wife of sorts, who helped his own inner powers of faith to be released.

THE HEALING POWER OF FAITH

In a beginning theology class a professor gave an interesting final exam. The students did all they could to get ready, but nothing could have prepared them for the professor’s final test question which went something like this: A man was having trouble in his life and wanted strength to face it. But he found it impossible to pray to a God whom he could not see, so he asked a friend what to do. The friend advised him that if he could not envision an all powerful though invisible God, he should picture in his mind the most powerful thing he could think of. The man gave it a lot of thought, and the most powerful thing he could imagine was a Greyhound bus. So he knelt down and prayed to this Greyhound bus. And behold, he found insight and help for his trouble by praying to a Greyhound bus. After reading this strange story, the students were asked whether or not they thought praying to a Greyhound Bus could work.

It might disturb some to realize that faith has a healing power all on its own---even without having a certain prescribed religious attachment. But this is exactly what Jesus was pointing to when he acknowledged to many who were healed in his presence: “Let it be according to YOUR faith….(Matt. 8:13), “Go…Your faith has made you well?” (Mark 10:52) and “Great is your faith! Let it be done to as you wish” (Mark 15:28). God has placed the power of faith within us, as a free gift and as a power and potential for our healing. Are you tapping into this power?

How many of you recall several years ago how a school teacher came up with those “Airborne” tablets, which were zinc tablets that were supposed to ward off nasty colds? My wife Teresa was taking them and having me take them last year, thinking they worked wonders. But last year I told her how a new study from a prestigious lab had announced there was nothing to it. Zinc has really no effect on keeping colds away. But why did we feel better and even seem to avoid colds, while taking them?

The truth is this, one of the biggest healing boosts we can give our bodies is the belief of our own mind and Spirit that something will work. A mother’s kiss doesn’t have any real medically explained effect, but it can make a scraped knee instantly feel better to a crying child. Harvard Medical School's recent course on "Spirituality and Healing in Medicine" has been widely cited as touting the power of belief. Even the most skeptical admit that the power of belief accounts for no less than 30% of medicine's impact. Others put it as high as 90%. In another similar report, it has been proven that: "Regular churchgoers aged 65 to 74 are 46 percent less likely to die in that decade of life than those who do not attend regularly." (Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, July 1999). If you want to stay alive…stay in church! Does it sound like I’m preaching yet?

The online journal of The Scientific American tells a powerful true story about “a man whom his doctors referred to as “Mr. Wright”. He was “dying from cancer of the lymph nodes. Orange-size tumors had invaded his neck, groin, chest and abdomen, and his doctors had exhausted all available treatments. Nevertheless, Mr. Wright was confident that a new anticancer drug called Krebiozen would cure him Mr. Wright was bedridden and fighting for each breath when he received his first injection. But three days later he was cheerfully ambling around the unit, joking with the nurses. Mr. Wright’s tumors had shrunk by half, and after 10 more days of treatment he was discharged from the hospital. And yet the other patients in the hospital who had received Krebiozen showed no improvement.

Over the next two months, however, Mr. Wright became troubled by press reports questioning the efficacy of Krebiozen and suffered a relapse. His doctors decided to lie to him: an improved, doubly effective version of the drug was due to arrive the next day, they told him. Mr. Wright was ecstatic. The doctors then gave him an injection that contained not one molecule of the drug—and he improved even more than he had the last time. Soon he walked out of the hospital symptom-free. He remained healthy until two months later, when, after reading reports that exposed Krebiozen as worthless, he died within days. (This was first told in a 1957 report by psychologist Bruno Klopfer of the University of California, Los Angeles, entitled “Psychological Variables in Human Cancer.”

The proper scientific term for this is the placebo effect. This refers to the uplift a mind can have when a surge of power of faith uplifts your body and releases healing chemicals in your body. Less well-known, however, but just as prevalent is "the nocebo effect"--the power of negative thinking. Believing the worst case scenario, downed by depression, the mind/body connection plummets the body into an ever-grimmer state of ill health. The drag of your mind impedes your healing. This is called the nocebo response. You not only make yourself healthier with faith, but we must also realize we can make ourselves sick without it?

This nocebo response is illustrated by the case of a woman who had a non-serious heart condition as well as congestive heart failure that was completely under control with medication. During a routine visit to the hospital, she overheard a doctor telling someone she had T. S. She assumed that T.S. meant 'terminal situation' when it actually referred to tricuspid stenosis—a treatable heart value malfunction. However, the woman thought she was dying. While still in the hospital, she became more ill and died later that day despite the fact that she had nothing seriously wrong with her." (As cited in Howard Brody, "Mind Over Medicine," Psychology Today, 32 [July/August 2000], 60-67.)

It’s all in your head. Haven’t you seen this? Of course, everything isn’t in our head, but a lot of it is. “As you think in your heart, so are you and you become?” (Proverbs 23:7) Jesus reminded those stuck in the dietary legalism of their day what came out of their hearts meant much more than what they put into their mouths (See Matthew 15: 16-17). In one of his greatest statements, he told his disciples what “they believed in their hearts” would “come to pass” and that with “faith” they could even move mountains (Mark 11: 23). And you thought it was amazing when they invented remote controls. The most amazing discovery of personal human power is the power of mind over matter: most of what happens in life comes from what we want to believe and are willing to believe with our hearts. Everything starts with faith. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). While there is a limit to what we can believe to be true, there is little limit to what faith can make come true.

TRANSFORMING OUR OWN WORLD ‘BY FAITH’

But what does biblical faith mean and how can it help to heal hurting hearts---hearts that are still bogged down in shame, guilt, fear, and weakness? How can faith pick us up and put us on another road altogether, or as the writer of Hebrews suggested, how can faith make us “strangers” to the world that is around us, so we become faith-pilgrims, who “by faith” are headed toward a whole new world—toward the new the “city” of hope and promise, whose “architect and builder” is God (Hebrew 11:1-13).

There is a well known story about a pet delivery-truck traveling down the road. Every time the truck came to a stop light, the driver would get out of the truck and grab a two-by-four, then run to the back and start beating on the truck’s back doors. This went on for several miles, and nobody could figure out what he was doing. Finally a guy following behind him pulled alongside and had to ask, “What in the world are you doing?”

“This is only a two-ton truck,” the driver answered, “and I’m carrying four tons of canaries. I’ve got to keep two tons up in the air all the time. (Taken from John Baker’s book, “Life’s Healing Choices”, Howard Books, 2007, p. 71).

How many get stuck trying to get through life this way? We humans can do all kind of things---even some very crazy things---trying to keep all our hurts, hang-ups, and habits up in the air, so they don’t come crashing down around us. We can keep up a good front. We can put on a good face. But we know in our hearts that we are stuck. We might work hard, but are seldom satisfied with what we’ve done. We can drink too much or live for one party to the other, but feel emptier after each one, rather than feeling full and content. We might keep up a good front or put on a good face, but know we are stuck in our failures, problems and defeats. We can constantly “bang” on all the doors of opportunity around us, trying to make something happen or keep something worse from happening, but the one thing we fail to do, and need to do most, is simply open up the door of our hearts to the truth and to the source of real hope---letting go and having faith in God.

In our study of the healing virtues, we’ve spoken of the need to speak honestly about our weaknesses and to even to learn to “boast” about them in hope, because God’s power and our power also, is made perfect in our weaknesses rather than in our strengths. But moving beyond just having hope, to seeing God’s power can transform our weaknesses into strengths, demands we take a step of faith. We must decide within ourselves, with God’s help of course, to take the next step out of our own ‘comfort zone’ and daringly start the walk toward the whole new world God builds. As the writer of Hebrews describes, like Abraham we must be willing “by faith” to let go of what we know. For us, this “letting go” is much the same as it was for Abraham: letting go of our fears, letting go of our pride, letting go of our guilt and letting go of our worry and doubts, and then to stepping out to “set out, going but not knowing” exactly where we’ll end up.

We must take have this soul-healing “virtue” of faith, fully trusting in God’s grace power we have come to know by grace. God and his grace will show us the way, but in order to know we must decide to take a risk, step out, then go—even while we still don’t know. To take this step of faith, we must be willing to become strangers to the world we’ve have known and become pilgrims to the new world God wants to build for us. We won’t ever see this hope and healing take place, until we take, what can be called not just a “step”, but a “leap of faith.”

Hebrews gives us the greatest definition of biblical faith when it describes faith as both “the ‘assurance’ of things hoped for and the ‘conviction’ of things not seen. (Heb. 11:1). These these two words translated by the New Revised version, as opposed to the KJV’s “substance” and “evidence” give an even clearer picture how to take this step toward hope and healing. Let’s stop to briefly think on these words for a moment.

ASSURANCE: First of all, healing faith gives us the ‘assurance’ that God can help us in our weaknesses and hurts. Because we ‘rest assured’ of God’s help, we have a new “substance” in our lives. We can give our hearts and lives to God because, he has the power when we don’t. His power can even make strength out of our weaknesses. This gives us new possibilities and the make faith more possible---so possible that even the impossible can happen.

CONVICTION: When we rest in the assurance that God can help us, especially when we know we can’t help ourselves and when we find that God’s grace can transform our weaknesses, then we have spiritual “proof” or “evidence” which brings a whole new “conviction” to our hearts. Through God’s grace released into our hurting hearts, God not only proves to us his power to heal, but he gives us a “perfected” power we can’t give ourselves. Faith is to be so convinced of his power for healing, that we are ready to give whole hearts to God.

By faith we can take new steps, even leaps into the dark and the unknown, because we are assured and convinced of God’s help. With both assurance and conviction we walk forward by faith, and we can keep walking, so that by keeping The faith, we keep faith in life. With each step in faith we take, our hope turns into more healing and our healing fills us with more hope. But in order to have healing and to keep hope, we have to also need to do what we must do to keep faith—each and every day.

There is a story told about a man named Sven who was an immigrant from Sweden. Sven had to find work in his new country and landed a job painting stripes down the center of the highways. This was before there were machines to do this job. Sven went to work his first day and ended up painting two miles of an almost perfectly straight line down the center of the highway. Sven's “boss was never so pleased, for no one had ever before painted two miles of center stripe in one day. The next day out, Sven painted one mile of center stripe, which was still quite good, and his boss was well satisfied. But the next day Sven only painted half a mile of stripe, and the fourth day he painted just a quarter mile. Finally the boss decided he would have a talk with Sven because he was no longer satisfied with his work. The boss said to Sven, "Sven, you painted two miles on your first day and now you're down to a quarter mile. What's happened?" Sven answered, "Yell, you see each day my bucket get furder and furder away.” (From: EXPERIENCE THE POWER: MESSAGES ON 12 STEPS OF FAITH, JOHN TERRY, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1992).

We can’t stop going in circles or get out of the self-destructive cycles of despair and discouragement until we learn to walk both by faith and with faith. We must take our “bucket” of faith with us and draw from it daily because even though God won’t let go of us, we can let go of God and we can lose heart and hope, missing the healing he has for us. Our faith must be a constant and it must be our true priority, if we want what only God can give.

There is another story of an American tourist who paid a visit to the renowned Polish Rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. The tourist was astonished to see that the rabbi's home was but a simple, single room. Beside many books, the only furnishings were a table and bench. "Rabbi," asked the American, "where is all your furniture?" To which Chaim replied, "And where is yours?" "Mine?" asked the tourist with a puzzled tone. "I'm just a visitor here. I'm only passing through." "So am I," answered the rabbi, "So am I."

This is more like our struggle with faith today. It isn’t just that we “leave faith behind”, but that have so many other things that crowd it out of our lives---so that it isn’t there when we need it most. But while we fill our lives with many things, faith is the only furniture your soul needs for its journey. You can’t go one step forward, in hope or healing, without keeping your “faith bucket” near. And for heaven’s sake, don’t let your faith get crowded out by the many trivial pursuits that one day won’t matter at all. Leaving faith out of your life will only get you nowhere, just faster. One day when everything that is nailed down breaks loose, which may be sooner than any of us now thinks, what you believe in your heart will be all you have left. Since faith will ultimately be all you have left, why not let faith be the “tour guide” for your soul now?

What will it take to convince you that the constant and greatest need is to have faith and to keep faith? Faith is not just where everything ends, it is where everything---all hope and all healing—really begins. Where is your faith, right now? Do you have it with and in you, or are you just spinning around and around---beating the doors, trying to keep it all from crashing down. Do you to believe in yourself? Do you want healing for your life? Then answer this: Do you really have room in your heart what your soul hunger and hurts for most—faith in God? But don’t just listen to me, listen him, when he once told the hearts so overburdened with carrying everything, that they failed to carry the one thing they needed most: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." ^“Matthew 11:28-30.

Are you ready to let go and take hold of the hope, the healing, the power and the faith you already have in you, but you’ll never be able to get out of yourself alone? Until you put your faith in him and lay all of your burdens upon the only one strong enough to carry them, you not find faith, but only despair? Help and healing for our souls, requires faith. And the faith you need most, is a gift God has already given you. Jesus came ignite faith’s flaming fire within you! Can you feel the heat? Do feel the warmth? Will you have faith?

© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.

Healing Virtues of the Soul: Hope

Last week, we took a very intimate, “tell-all”, personal tour into a troubled soul. Paul wanted desperately to do what was right, but realized he couldn’t. No matter how hard he tries, no matter how much he has mastered the details of God’s laws, he still can’t be good enough to measure up and master himself. Paul expresses his own powerlessness by crying out in desperation: “O wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death?” (7:24).

Such a personal confrontation with our own struggle to “do right” is critical for healing our souls. Pay close attention. It is not Paul’s desire to do wrong that has finally brought him to his knees, but it is his desire to do right. He says in Romans 7:15: “For I do not do what I want….” There is no greater insight in the human soul than when we become self-aware---aware that we know what is right and what we should be doing, but also painfully aware of our inability to do it.

FROM BURDENS TO BOASTINGS

Left alone, these are depressing even defeating words. They can even be dangerous if this is all you are saying to yourself. That’s why we need to see not only the side of Paul who was struggling with his weaknesses, but we also need to see the Paul who has learned to “boast” in his weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12: 9). We need to see how he was able to move from being a person who was once hiding, denying, and running from his human weaknesses, who has become the person realizing, admitting and confronting his weaknesses and even “gladly” boasting about them.

Isn’t this an amazing turn of events? Paul has moved from being overburdened about his failures and weaknesses to boasting about them. Once he bragged about being a “Pharisee, the son of Pharisees,” a “Hebrew of the Hebrews” (Philippians 3:4, Acts 23: 6) to claiming even more proudly that he is now “the chief of sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15, KJV). What enabled such a radical change of perspective? Is this not a little ridiculous? I guess this sermon ought to be have a warning like some of those TV commercials which say, “This is done by professionals, don’t try this at home.” I don’t want to sound like a salesman or a commercial here either, but you and I can also have this kind of healing and “turn-around” perspective to heal our hearts. As a counselor often advises, we can learn to see our lives “as glasses half-full, instead of a glasses half-empty.”

If you read the rest of that verse in 2 Corinthians 12: 9, Paul tells us what changed his life so radically. Put the whole verse together: “So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” It is the “power of Christ” which now “dwells” in him that has given Paul a new way of seeing and dealing with the hurts and weaknesses in his life. Without this “new” power, who would dare boast about weaknesses?

To claim there is “power in Christ” is not anything new at church. But understanding “how” this power “dwells” in us to heal and help us might be something few of us have considered, unless that is, we too, like Paul, have actually struggled with our weaknesses or have been brave enough to confront and seek healing from them.

THE INDWELLING POWER

Let’s look more closely at how Paul describes he came not just to admit his weaknesses, but to boast in them. As we come to look at these first 10 verses of 2 Corinthians 12, you’ll begin to see how it goes against about everything we might we think about how we can gain personal power over our weaknesses and bring healing to our souls.

Something else important for us to grasp, is how passage fits into the scope of Paul’s entire second letter to the Corinthians. From the very opening words, Paul has been concerned about the hard realities of life and the need for healing and he begins with these words: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation” (or comfort, KJV: 2 Cor. 1:3). Paul goes on to speaks frankly to the church about the “affliction” (1:8) he faces and how he has “not lost heart” because it is “by God’s mercy” that he is engaged in “this ministry” (4:1). He is also encouraged to carry on because “It is God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6).

Please take note again, that it is by looking into the face of Jesus Paul is able to speak away his own illusion of power and gives some of the most beautiful healing words in the Bible in 2 Corinthians 4: 7ff. We need to see them as the proper introduction to what we are about to consider in chapter 12. Paul writes in language just too good to gloss over: 4:7 “But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies….” Paul is speaking about how Jesus’ own spiritual power has been made real in his life, not through his strengths and successes but through the many pains, struggles, failures weaknesses and even the “cross” he bears for and with Jesus. All these struggles are certainly hard for him, as they would be for anybody, but they are also redemptive.

This “redemptive” difference is the difference that we need to understand. In his struggle he is not only brought to face his weaknesses, but he is also brought closer to Jesus so that a new redeeming power is released in him. He even names this redeeming power “the life of Jesus being made visible in our mortal flesh” (4:11) so that now, even in the weakest moment, he writes: “….we do not lose heart“ even though the outer nature is wasting away, the inner nature is being renewed day by day” (4:16). Isn’t this what we all finally want out of our lives? Don’t we want to know that our souls are growing, developing, and even enlarging to new horizons in spite of the struggles, weaknesses and limits we have? Again, the biblical word for this is hopeful, healing “inner renewal” is redemption. Redemption was a financial word from the ancients which meant “to buy back”. The word implies that even in our losses, failures, limits or frustrations, God’s helps us to “buy” our lives back. As we take a close look at 2 Corinthians 12, I want to focus on “this extraordinary power (which) belongs to God and not to us” (4:7) which can help us “buy” our lives back from our own weaknesses.

Now, with this word of introduction, let’s get back to this very crazy “boasting” Paul is doing. Paul even says in chapter 11, he wants you to “bear with him in a little foolishness” (11:1). If you think him of fool for such boasting, then so be it, if it gets his point across, but he will tell you he’s no fool, he only sounds like one. 2 Corinthians 11:16-21). Thus, already before we get to chapther 12, Paul has prepared us for his foolish sounding words, when he says: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

Hold on, because as we get into chapter 12, it gets even stranger, as he begins with a story about “visions and revelations” which is even more foreign to our ears. Paul says he “knows a person who in Christ was caught up to the third heaven…” having a spiritual, “out of the body” experience. He also knows that this person, while in Paradise, “heard things no mortal is permitted to repeat.” Whatever kind of spiritual experience Paul is referring to, it is the kind some people still like to boast about, even right books about. One of the most popular books right now in the religious world, and a New York Times Bestseller, is a book by a Baptist Preacher entitled, “90 Minutes in Heaven.” I’ve read it, and many other people are reading it too. It’s an incredible story about a preacher who was injured in a terrible auto crash coming from a Texas meeting and was believed to be dead by paramedics, who had already covered him and were waiting on the coroner to come to pronounce him dead. After 90 minutes of waiting, another pastor came by who wondered what had happened and wanted to go up and pray over the body. “He’s dead, preacher,” the emergency worker’s declared, but if you want to pray, go ahead.”

After praying over the man, not realizing who the man was, the preacher moved from prayer to singing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” It was then that the believed-to-be-corpse started singing back. After they rushed him to the hospital and after a year-long recovery, the injured Baptist preacher retells us his vivid account of going to heaven, meeting relatives, and being sent back to tell people that there is indeed a heaven because he knows; he’s been there and back. (90 Minutes in Heaven, by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey, Revell Press, 2004, pp 21-44.)

Just the other day, I met someone who heard of the book and wanted to know more. After I told them a little bit about it, they immediately wanted to get it for friend who needed inspiration. This is the kind of “spiritual”, “out of body” experience many crave, and some boast about, perhaps rightly so. But now listen to what Paul goes on to say which is critical understanding what God can do for our spiritual healing in this world. “On behalf of such a person, I will boast”… (12:5), Paul says, then adds these surprising and hopeful words, “But on my behalf, I will not boast, except of my weaknesses.” While we may find great comfort in “heavenly revelations”, it is this very “earthly”, here-and-now, “indwelling” revelation that excites Paul. He wants to tell us of his inner healing experience—his “in-the-body” God experience. Paul could also speak of “heavenly revelations”, but the revelation he boasts about is the earthly revelation of healing that has come to him even right in the middle of his own weaknesses, here and now.

HOPE IN CHRIST’S POWER BRINGS HEALING NOW

Now take a closer how Paul identifies his weakness. It is a “thorn given to me in my flesh” given by “a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me to from being too elated” (12:7). Paul understands that this human weakness has come to keep him from being too proud, that is to keep him continuing to give in to the illusion of his own power, or as my mama used to say, to keep him from getting “up on his high horse.” Paul does not tell us exactly what this “thorn in his flesh” (or weakness) was but many have guessed it either to be his poor eyesight or a divorce he might have went through (all Pharisees are supposed to be married and we never hear him talk about his wife), or it was some other chronic ailment, or issue.

Whatever the weakness, what matters to us is that we know how Paul “asked the Lord three times to remove it” (12:8), but instead of removing it, the Lord gave this humbling, but also soul-healing and very spiritual answer: “My grace is sufficient for you, for (my) power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).

The solution for healing Paul’s physical weakness is the spiritual solution---not the physical solution. Instead of taking his weakness away from him, the Lord has given him hope that even though he is still weak and hurting, God’s grace will be sufficient. And even though God’s “grace is sufficient”, Paul is also given the additional hope that he will be gain power, not a power of illusion but a real, personal power which is “perfected” in him because of his weakness.

Can you begin to see why Paul is boasting about his weakness? If Paul had not struggled, how would he have known the sufficiency of God’s grace? If Paul had not suffered and realized his weaknesses, how could his own personal power been perfected without the illusion? The hope that Paul finds is a hope that comes to him, not in spite of his weaknesses, but through his weaknesses. Most importantly, it is a hope that comes from beyond his own weaknesses---that is, outside of himself. Listen to how Paul concludes the discussion: “….Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities, for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10).

Take that last most memorable word: “Whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Savor these very hopeful words, but don’t misunderstand them. He is not boasting that he is weak, nor glad that he has this struggle, but he is boasting that he doesn’t have this struggle alone or for nothing, but that he has it “for the sake of Christ.” Because he now suffers with and for Jesus, whose spirit now lives and dwells in him. In Christ, Paul has found hope and healing. And right here is perhaps the most important message for our own healing of our weaknesses. The healing and hope we all need and crave cannot finally come from within our own souls, but the hope of healing must come from beyond and from outside of us.

Think again about the healing spiritual conversion Paul experienced. Paul could not keep God’s law, though he wanted to. He found no hope within himself of ever being able to keep it. But now Paul has found a freeing, redeeming, and releasing hope because of God’s grace revealed in Jesus and God power of forgiveness released through him. The very same way Paul has received healing from his burden of the law, Paul has also been healed from his “thorn in the flesh”. His “thorn” was not removed from him, as the law wasn’t, but its power over him was. His constant, pressing, burdensome “need” to have his thorn removed and his inability to get on with his life in spite of this “thorn” has been conquered in his heart and he has gained a healing, spiritual power over it.

The healing virtue that has enabled Paul to cope with his weakness is to hope in God and God’s grace and forgiveness—no matter what weakness he faces. Through the indwelling presence and power of Jesus, Paul can get on with life and go on living even along with his weaknesses. He is still aware of them, and still has to deal with them, but he doesn’t have to struggle alone. In his weakest moments he can now give his struggle fully to God and leave it there, solely depending on God’s grace to carry him, when he can’t carry himself.

Here is the very healing power of hope we all need. Right in the middle of the most unexpected place, his weakest place, or his “broken place” Paul has found healing in Jesus. Through Jesus, the “law” is proven insufficient, but God’s grace is sufficient. In Jesus, the illusion of power no longer drives his soul, but Paul finds that real power is “made perfect in weakness“. In Jesus, Paul has discovered the most surprising truth of all: When he is weak, then he is strong.

You certainly don’t boast in your weakness without hope. If you’re in the water drowning, you don’t stop swimming and struggling, until you take the rescuers hand. To let go too soon is the most dangerous thing any of us could try to do. That is probably so why many don’t dare face their weaknesses or are afraid of them. They haven’t yet let hope flow through them. Hope is power to face your weaknesses head on---real power. This higher power, this overcoming and healing power, this “extraordinary power which is of God and not of us” is the very hope that has come to Paul, because he no longer trust in himself---in how strong he is, how smart he is, but he has finally learned through Jesus’ death and resurrection just how strong God is. Could this be the very healing discovery and the virtue of hope you need really need in your life right now?

FINDING HOPE AND SURRENDERING TO GOD

I don’t know if you know the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. I became familiar with this group in my first pastorate, when an alcoholic came to the church to find support and community. In getting to know him, I went to some AA meetings with him and some amazing spiritual healing principals being used in the group. Each and every person who stood up to speak in the meeting stood and boasted about their weakness. “Hello, I’m Jack, and I’m an alcoholic.” Then, the group would acknowledge him. “Hello, Jack!” What was even more surprising was to learn just how much like “church” this meeting was and how the major resources for their hope and healing were in Christian, spiritual, healing principals.

Alcoholics Anonymous was started in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, known to A.A. members as "Bill W." and "Dr. Bob." The Twelve Steps were originally written by Wilson and other early members of AA to codify the process that they felt had worked for them personally, because they were struggling with their weakness with alcohol. Later on, however, the Twelve Steps were modified slightly so that they would apply to problems, issues, addictions and human weaknesses other than alcoholism---even overcoming other temptations and sin itself. What is most important for us is to realize is how the 12 step process was based on the very same soul-healing virtues found in the Bible and found in the Christian faith.

One story in particular that is passed down from the founder Bill Wilson is how in doing his research for developing the steps that helped him, he wrote a letter to one of the great early psychiatrists, Carl Jung, who was student of Sigmund Freud. Jung’s expertise in dealing with matters of the soul made him very a respected doctor (more so than Freud in some places) and he gave some specific advice which enabled a friend of Bill W’s to overcome an alcohol addiction. It is believed that Jung’s advice gave shape to first two steps now used in AA. Listen how it unfolds in the letter written from Bill W. to thank Carl Jung for his advice given way back in the 1930’s:

“First of all, you frankly told him of his hopelessness, so far as any further medical or psychiatric treatment might be concerned. This candid and humble statement of yours was beyond doubt the first foundation stone upon which our Society has been built. Coming from you, one he so trusted and admired the impact on him was immense. When he then asked you if there was any other hope, you told him that there might be, provided he could become the subject of a spiritual or religious experience—in short, a genuine conversion. You pointed out how such an experience, if brought about, might re-motivate him when nothing else could. But you did caution, though, that while such experiences had sometimes brought recovery to alcoholics, they were, nevertheless, comparatively rare. You recommended that he place himself in a religious atmosphere and hope for the best.” [http://www.vineyardgreatlakes.com/kenscorner/step2.cfm).

What AA teaches at its very core is that there is utter hopelessness in the addiction to alcohol---there is no medical or psychiatric treatment and there is no medicine that can cure it---the only hope of hope is what can be called, in the most neutral terms a “higher power” which can be known only through a spiritual or a religious experience, which in turn, can only be realized in a “religious” atmosphere that is full of grace, faith, hope and love.

But how do we unlock this virtue of hope for healing in God’s grace in our souls?

What I must tell you is that this “unlocking” to healing and hope does not come where you might think it does. It does not come just in having hope, believing in hope, or in finding hope in yourself, nor does it come from finding some new avenue of hope, like discovering some new church, new religious fad, flavor, activity or even some new self-understanding or even some new understanding of God. Nope. What is most important to understand is that the hope Paul found was found, and the hope we all must find, is in the very God who has been here all along, even before Jesus---but Paul was missing him until he met Jesus on the Damacus road.

Finding the God is who is always there is the message Paul hammers home in his letter to the Romans. Paul spends a whole chapter (chapter 4) talking about Abraham, who “believed God” before there was a law, before there was a covenant, and before there was anything, any kind of work to do or boast about, except just believing God and trusting him, and letting God do all the calculating of what is righteous. Paul wants his readers to know is that the true God of Abraham is a God of healing grace from the very first, before anything else, especially before the law. Missing in all of his religious calculations and especially absent from his very intense legalism, was counting on the God of grace himself. Paul had been so overtaken by his own successes in the knowing the law and was so afraid of his own failures to follow it perfectly--- that he overlooked the very power and hope knowing and loving God could give him.

In short, as plain as the nose on his face---the great hopelessness in Paul’s life---was in thinking he knew everything, but he didn’t. The one thing he did not know was not a "thing" to know, but a living relationship to have with God in his heart. Listen again to these words of hope and maybe you too can feel God’s presence come near you in your own weaknesses---the very weakness you are struggling against and need healing from: “Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for (my, KJV) power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Corinthians 12:8-9).

Did you hear the emphasis…it is my grace….and my power as the KJV rightly emphasizes and is implicit. The thorn did not leave Paul, but it is because of the thorn and Paul's own spiritual need that the loving, healing, caring Jesus comes closer to him than ever. It is this very real and very forgiving presence of Jesus in Paul’s life and ours that makes the healing difference. (I once heard that a teacher at the school of pastoral care told a hospital chaplain in training: “You have a healing tool no doctor in this hospital has to give but that everyone needs the most: “Forgiveness.”)

You could picture the healing Jesus gives like a body healing itself even with a bullet inside. The bullet is still there, inoperable they say, but the body heals anyway and forgets the foreign object is there. The power to live with our weaknesses and our “thorns” is not some trick, gimmick, or even a new religious strategy, but the healing is in the very presence of the living, graceful, forgiving Lord Jesus who wants to abide and dwell in our very hearts and lives. Only when Paul surrenders to the healing presence of Jesus is God’s power made perfect in his weakness. Paul does not receive the healing power without the healing presence. We too, don’t receive the power of healing by just surrendering to our weaknesses, but only by surrendering both our weaknesses and most of all, surrendering ourselves to God. His forgiving, hopeful presence in us makes the healing difference.

I close with this story of the healing power of a hopeful presence. As an infantry company commander in Vietnam in 1967, Paul Stanley saw Viet Cong soldiers surrender many times. As they were placed in custody, marched away, and briefly interrogated, their body language and facial expressions always caught his attention. Most hung their heads in shame, staring at the ground, unwilling to look their captors in the eye. But some stood erect, staring defiantly at those around them, resisting any attempt by the Americans to control them. They had surrendered physically but not mentally.

On one occasion after the enemy had withdrawn, Stanley came upon several G.I.s surrounding a wounded Viet Cong. Shot through the lower leg, he was hostile and frightened, yet helpless. He threw mud and kicked with his one good leg when anyone came near him. When Paul joined the circle around the wounded enemy, one soldier asked him, "Sir what do we do? He's losing blood fast and needs medical attention." Stanley looked down at the struggling Viet Cong and saw the face of a 16 or 17 year old boy. He unbuckled his pistol belt and hand grenades so the boy could not grab them. Then, speaking gently, he moved toward him.

The young soldier stared fearfully at him as he knelt down but he allowed the American to slide his arms under him and pick him up. As Stanley walked with him toward a waiting helicopter, the wounded soldier began to cry and hold him tight. He kept looking at him and squeezing him tighter. They climbed into the helicopter and took off.

During the ride, the young captive sat on the floor, clinging to the Americans leg. Never having ridden in a helicopter, he looked out with panic as they gained altitude and flew over the trees. He fixed his eyes back on Stanley, who smiled reassuringly and put his hand on his shoulder.

After landing, Stanley picked him up and walked toward the medical tent. As they crossed the field, he felt the tenseness leave the young man's body and his tight grasp loosen. His eyes softened, and his head leaned against Stanley's chest. The fear and resistance were gone - he had finally surrendered. ( From a book of sermons by John Terry entitled: Experience the Power : Messages on the 12 Steps of Faith, published by CSS Publishing, 1992).

The God of grace and hope to whom we surrender is not our enemy. The God we surrender to heals and cares for every soul he conquers and takes captive, because this is who he is. Through the blood of Jesus Christ it is made plain that long before that, even as far back as Abraham, God wants to bless us and to be our friend. He can give our souls the healing we need. There are no exceptions to this new rule---His grace is always sufficient---always. His power is always made perfect in weakness---that is the weaker we are the stronger he is. Best of all, when we are weak, that is when we find out just how strong he is. Thus, finding the healing for our hurts of our lives is not in a method we learn, not a style we adopt, nor a process we try, but the true power of healing and hope comes when we stop denying, quite running, come out from hiding, and when we honestly and hopefully surrender our hearts to him and finally find rest in his arms. Have your surrendered?

© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.

Healing Virtues of the Soul: Honesty

In Italy, in the mid‐1990s, judges fined a 50‐year‐old Italian driver for dangerous driving after he handed the controls of his car over to God. A judge heard how the man let go of his steering wheel and cried, “God, I’m going to let you drive!” The man’s car ended up in the ditch. The story goes on to tell how the motorist’s lawyer mounted a rather ingenious defense. He maintained that the court had no jurisdiction, because this case constituted a “religious dilemma.” The prosecuting attorney, however, reminded the judge that ‘God is not a legally licensed and insured driver’ and has never passed an official driver’s test, so it was illegal for the man to turn over the steering wheel to the Almighty.’ The judge agreed and found the man guilty.

Let’s be honest. Unlike this guy, very few of us are actually interested in turning our lives completely over to God. To have God as our co-pilot is one thing, but letting God be “in the driver’s seat” is an entirely different matter. Unless, that is, of course, we have no other option. When the woman in the song says, “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” she’s desperate. She’s already lost control of her car and her life. She needs one more chance only because she doesn’t have a prayer.

When we realize we are in a storm of life, when we have destructive habit or addiction we can’t handle, or we think we’re dying, then we might consider putting ourselves in God’s hands. In 60’s Minutes recent Interview (Sunday August 16th, 2009) with the newly restored NFL Quarterback, MICHAEL VICK, the reporter asked him, when did you realize that you that what you were doing was wrong? His answer: “WHEN THEY CLOSED THE CELL DOOR in front of me!”

But isn’t there a better way? Could we find healing in turning over the control of our lives to God BEFORE WE’RE ABOUT TO HAVE A HEAD ON collision with reality? If we had a set of values, habits, or VIRTUES AVAILABLE WITHIN OUR HEARTS WHICH COULD SEND OUT LITTLE WARNING signals or REMINDERS OF CONSCIOUS we go off track? Some of us have had such DISPOSITIONS BUILT INTO OUR SOULS FROM CHILDHOOD which work much in the same way my word processing program has a BUILT-IN SPELL AND GRAMMAR CHECKER. The spell-check still needs my own input and doesn’t replace my need to stay alert, but it does work with me as A CONSTANT WATCHMAN for my spelling flaws. Don’t we all need such a watchman FOR OUR SOULS?

Most of us watched the news reports last week concerning the trial of Mocksville DENTIST, DR. KIRK TURNER. The court FOUND HIM NOT-GUILTY and we all may have some opinion about the verdict. What interests me is not simply what happened in the heat of anger, passion and rage, but what KIND OF THINGS DIDN’T HAPPEN LONG BEFORE that fateful argument and struggle that ended in tragedy and death. Especially when I observed Dr. Turner READING HIS BIBLE during the trial, I hurt for him, because he and his wife didn't have enough of its virtues in their hearts beforehand to steered them clear of that tragedy.

Most of us carry the VOICES OF OUR PARENTS, our elders, our friends and family in our heart who CONTINUE TO SPEAK to us and keep us upright. If we are faithful in our daily conversations with God, we stay ALERT TO GOD’S VOICE within through Scripture and Christian practice. Others of us depend on SOCIAL CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS, rules and even human or divine laws to guide and direct us. I want to also introduce to you virtues we can CULTIVATE IN OUR PERSONAL DISPOSITION and behavior. Making these virtues CONSTANT COMPANIONS can bring healing, GIVE SHAPE TO STRONG SOULS and keep us out of “heap of trouble.”

But first, I want to GIVE ONE BRIEF CLARIFICATION ABOUT HOW HEALING VIRTUES work within us. One thing Jesus had to constantly hammer into the minds of his disciples is that is it not what goes into a person stomach and into the sewer that corrupt, but WHAT COMES OUT OF A PERSON’S HEART. Mark 7: 20-23 gives these powerful words of warning: And he said, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." It seems a bit comical today to dare SUGGEST THAT EATING CERTAIN FOODS would make us good or bad. Yet, HOW MUCH BETTER ARE WE AT UNDERSTANDING that what we CONSTANTLY PUT INTO OUR HEARTS AND MINDS is WHAT WE EVENTUALLY GET OUT OF THEM? How much better are we at realizing that you DON’T ONE DAY SUDDENLY CHANGE your life with some MAGICAL PILLS or even some RELIGIOUS PATTERN or formula? Inner transformation to become a healthier, stronger person is something that REQUIRES MAJOR LIFESTYLE changes and developing CHARACTER, not just minor adjustments.

THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL AND POWER
Where we see Paul going in this passage from Romans 7, HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT WHERE HE HAS BEEN. We first encounter Paul as Saul in Acts 7, as one of the powerful Pharisees of Israel, overseeing the stoning of Stephen. Saul was one a very brilliant person, who had been GIVEN THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEEING THAT THE LAWS OF GOD WERE CARRIED OUT by his people, even to the very letter. There had to be a LOT OF IGNORANCE around, for a person to think they could be so SMART TO ENFORCE LAWS OF GOD. Don’t you think?

PAUL THOUGHT HE WAS THAT SMART. If you read about his pedigree before his conversion to Christianity, HIS LIST OF CREDENTIALS ARE QUITE IMPRESSIVE. He had all the degrees and accolades. He felt himself better than most. He was filled with ALL KINDS OF SELF-CONFIDENCE, saying, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:4ff.)

In his own minds eye, PAUL HAD HIS ACT TOGETHER. But right here is where the ILLUSION OF POWER RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD. It is those of us who have the resources, BEEN BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE, carry forth the traditions to the next generation, and who THINK WE HAVE STRENGTH AND POWER in life, who are AT THE GREATEST RISK for the grand illusion of power. Paul even alludes to this when he says in verse 13, “Did WHAT IS GOOD, THEN, BRING DEATH to me?” He answers quickly, “By no means! It was sin, working death in me…” But how SIN WORKED THROUGH THE VERY ILLUSION INSPIRED BY ALL THE GOOD and right things is a perfect example of the MOST DESTRUCTIVE ILLUSION in human nature.

We see the working of the “power” illusion all the WAY BACK TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN, when God gave Adam and Eve the very powerful choices of life or death, which were so twisted up in them they arrived at the very arrogant idea they could take their WORLD WITH NO RESTRICTIONS or boundaries at all, acting as if they were God. CAIN TOO, QUICKLY SEIZED HIS OWN MYTHICAL “RIGHT TO POWER” when he took the life of his brother, Abel, thinking he could make things right by his own hand. MOSES WAS OVERCOME with it too, when he took matters of justice into his own hands and murdered an abusive Egyptian. JACOB THOUGHT BY TAKING THE BLESSING and controlling his fate, he could DECEIVE HIS WAY THROUGH LIFE---until the joke was on him, when he woke up with Leah, but not Rachel. SAMSON IS THE POSTER BOY of all who think they have power. HE THOUGHT HIMSELF INVINCIBLE until he met a woman who showed him he wasn’t (If we’re married we’ve all met her). We all know too well from the politics of Old Testament what power did to most of the Kings of Israel, even invaded the cherished seat of King DAVID, WHO WAS SAID TO BE CLOSEST TO GOD’S HEART. But even at that place of most likely blessing we can recall that God never really wanted Israel to have a King in the first place exactly for this very reason---the illusion that power and control brings to the human heart.

One of the most recent news items not far away is the headlines concerning the Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, who left his wife and went off to South America, without giving notice to his office, so he could have an affair with his Argentine mistress. The governor’s wife, after the revelation, alluded to the grand illusion of power when she said in Vogue magazine: “Politicians (people in power) become disconnected from the way everyone else lives in the world (reality). I saw that from the very beginning. They’ll say they need something, and ten people want to give it to them. It’s an ego boost, and it’s easy to drink your own Kool-Aid (illusion). As a wife, you do your best to keep them grounded, but it’s a real challenge.” (From the Interview and article by Jonathan Becker, entitled, “Notes on a Scandal” found at http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/2009/08/jenny-sanford .)

Let me challenge you personally, even now, as we begin this series on the virtues of healing and health---to honestly and squarely face you own illusions of power and control over your own life head on. You aren’t a Bible character nor a Politian, but all of us struggle to realize our human boundaries and limits as a person, as a spouse, as a parent, as a Christian or as a leader, or simply as a someone with wealth or privilege?

Having such a destructive illusion of power is exactly what happened to a woman named “Claire” in David Semand’s book, Healing Grace. She wasn’t any kind of unique person, but like most of us, she believed she had the power to make everything turn out right in her life. She constantly worked at being better and doing more to control the outcome of things, even thinking she had to earn God’s love. But instead of getting better and better she became more and more frustrated and, eventually became so depressed, she tried to take her life. Listen to HOW CLAIRE DESCRIBED HER SITUATION to be like Samson in the Bible. “Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison.” (Judges 16:12). Claire said she felt just like that---as if she were in prison, strapped to a great grindstone, turning around and around, almost like a chained animal. She wrote: “I FELT AS IF I WAS CONSIGNED TO A TREADMILL. Whatever I tried took me in a vicious circle. Sometimes I could keep it under control, and run slowly. But usually I’d get going faster and faster, because I felt driven to keep up. That is, to feel I wasn’t doing enough. But I never was, and so never felt accepted or acceptable. I WAS TRAPPED AND COULDN’T FIND A WAY TO GET OFF. I got more and more worn out. I can understand why Samson ended up pulling the whole thing down. There didn’t seem to be a way out…..” (Healing Grace, by David Semands, p. 68, Victor Books, 1988.).

PAUL MUST HAVE ALSO FELT LIKE THIS in his attempts to perfectly follow and implement God’s laws? No wonder he finally cries out in our text: “O wretched man that I am---who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). This is utter honesty. PAUL HAS COME CLEAN AND ADMITTED his own self-destructive illusion of control and power. We are FORTUNATE TO HAVE SUCH A HONEST, TELL-ALL PASSAGE in our Bible. Opening up and making yourself transparent and most of all BEING HONEST with yourself and to God is the first and perhaps the greatest virtue of the human soul and the Christian life.

But HOW DOES THIS KIND OF HONESTY bring healing? Our mother’s taught us that “honesty is the best policy”, but AS ADULTS WE ALSO LEARN IT UNWISE to let others know your flaws or see you sweat. HOW DOES HONESTY WORK IN THE REAL WORLD? Well, hold on tight---how Paul breaks free from his own illusion of power and control might surprise you. Paul no longer wants to be known as a “Pharisee of the Pharisees,” but as the “chief of sinners.” How can that work?

TO BE STRONG YOU MUST FIRST BE WEAK
Since I’ve been talking about the bad news, let me tell you some good news beginning with this little farmer story.

A farmer who had experienced several bad years went to see the manager of his bank. “I’ve got some good news and bad news to tell you. Which do you want to hear first?” he asked.
“Why don’t you give me the bad news first and get it over with?” the banker replied.
“Okay. With the bad drought and inflation and all, I won’t be able to pay anything on my mortgage this year; either on principle or the interest.”
“Well, that’s pretty bad.”
“It get’s worse. I also won’t be able to pay anything on the loan for all that machinery I bought, nor on the principle or interest. “Wow, that is bad.”
“It’s worse than that. You remember I also borrowed to buy seeds and fertilizer and other supplies. Well, I can’t pay anything on that either---principle or interest.”
“That’s awlful---and that’s enough. Tell me what the good news is.”
“The good news,” replied the farmer with a smile, “is that I intend to keep on doing business with you.” (From Semands, Healing Grace, p. 108).

This is the good news of the gospel, which is WHY WE CAN BE HONEST AND OPEN WITH GOD, is that IN SPITE OF OUR MORAL BANKRUPTCY: God keeps wanting to do business with us. This is precisely WHAT PAUL has come to understand. Paul is READY TO GIVE UP ALL ILLUSIONS that he ever had in the ability to perfectly follow or implement God's laws. IS THIS SUCH A STRANGE DISCOVERY? By realizing we are not in complete control over our lives, that sin is at work even in our very best, and that we can't perfectly keep the law, but stand constantly in need of God’s grace---only in FACING and FACTORING OUR HUMAN WEAKNESS into the sum of our lives, are we too able to GAIN SPIRITUAL STRENGTH.

PAUL IS ON TO SOMETHING BIG, almost too big. He is on to something the world still has TROUBLE GRASPING and we still have trouble applying to our lives. I recall years ago, when the convention conflict took hold, the most disturbing factor was not the struggle over doctrine or the Bible, but the struggle for power. Some people really believed then, and still believe now, that they can take control of things (in religion or in our nation) and if we are biblical enough, if we are good enough, if we pray enough and if we do all the right things, then we can finally have enough power and control to determine a positive outcome. But I recall how someone has rightly said that the greatest joke we can ever tell God is our plans---whether they are good or bad. The illusion to power and control over life is right there in front of us all the time. It is visable and as plain as it can be, in how we practice religion, in our politic, just as it is in our own private lives when we try so hard to make everything turn out as we think it ought. We can gain certain kinds of power, we can reach for control, but it isn’t long until things are just as unmanageable or even more unmanageable than ever. As I heard preaching guru Kenneth Riddings once say when he was a young preacher he thought he could save the world, but he has noted that the now the world is just as lost or even more so, after all these years of trying to save it." This was his way of warning the young preachers he was teaching to beware of what illusions of power can do to their own souls.

JESUS HIMSELF, in whom the Scripture says ALL AUTHORITY OR POWER WAS GIVEN by the Father, also struggled against the illusion power gives. Right from the outset of his ministry, in the wilderness with the devil up until the Garden of Gethsemane, the DEVIL PRESSED THE ILLUSIONS OF POWER RIGHT UP TO HIS FACE. “If you are the son of God,” then do this, gain this and gain that, and then things will turn out right and you will be all you can be. When I rephrase the temptations of power like the common television commercials, paraded before our eyes every day, it sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?

But it is HERE IN THE OTHER GARDEN, THAT JESUS CORRECTS ADAM’S GREAT FAILURE. He falls down and ADMITS HIS OWN HONEST FEELINGS by saying “If it be possible, let this cup pass.” WHILE FACING HIS OWN HUMAN WEAKNESS, JESUS ALSO SHOWS US HIS OWN TRUE SPIRITUAL STRENGTH when he declared honestly and openly, before the whole world and before God, and even with the devil watching, that “his spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This admission of weakness sounds very close to Paul, when he said, “I can will what is right (spirit), but I can’t do it (flesh)!” (Romans 7:18). However, right here in his own human weakness, but with all spiritual strength in his soul, JESUS SPEAKS WHAT STILL MAKES THE DEMONS still tremble. JESUS SURRENDERS any and all illusions of human power and control of his own life INTO THE HANDS OF THE FATHER by saying, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

Aren’t these words symbolic of the GREATEST STRUGGLE AND NEED WITHIN ALL of us? Think of that FAMILY MOMENT WHEN THE FATHER HANDS OVER THE KEYS of his car to the son or daughter for the first time? What a loss of control and a shift of power. That is a rite of passage in most of our lives, but here AT THE CROSS WE FIND THE GREATEST RITE OF SPIRITUAL PASSAGE, when the healthiest human who ever lived GIVES THE KEYS OF HIS OWN HUMAN HEART BACK TO THE FATHER, by saying “Daddy, I’m giving the keys back, and I’m all yours”. This is what MUST FINALLY BE DONE FOR REDEMPTION TO HAPPEN, laying everything, all power and all control back into the hands of the Father. This is not weakness, this is strength. DO YOU HAVE THE REAL POWER TO LET GO OF THE ILLUSIONS YOU ARE LIVING and be that strong before God? Can you do that?

The truth is you will do that. SOMEDAY WE ALL MUST HAND THE KEYS OF OUR LIVES BACK to God the Father, and someday we will all admit WE ARE ULTIMATELY POWERLESS OVER OUR OWN DESTINY and future. Unfortunately, we DELAY OR DENY ADMITTING OUR OWN WEAKNESSES until we actually BECOME PHYSICALLY FEEBLE, weak and frail and have no other choice. INSTEAD OF SURRENDERING, even in that moment, we are like the girl in “Jesus Take the Wheel”, WE’RE JUST FALLING DOWN TO BEG FOR ONE MORE CHANCE, not really to surrender our heart and lives to God.

But, here’s my question for us today, repeated one more time, as we’ve come to face it in this text. IS THERE ANY VALUE IN THE VIRTUE---in SURRENDERING OURSELVES TO GOD NOW---in admitting our weaknesses now, and giving up our own illusions of power now---and in giving up our false sense of control now--- to the one truly has control? WHAT WE DO WITH OUR WEAKNESSES? We are trained by our culture to hide or deny our weaknesses, but IS THERE ANYTHING POSITIVE TO BE GAINED when we GO AGAINST THE MANTA of this world that says, “We are the master’s of our fate and the captains of our souls”. What happens when we need a master to master us? WE ALL HAVE FACED THE LOSS OF FINANCIAL control on this wild economic roller coaster ride lately, and we know how that felt and still feels? IT DOESN’T FEEL GOOD TO LOSE CONTROL. What kind of health, what new strength or healing results when grasp how vulnerable all can be?

VICTORY IN JESUS: NO CONDMENATION
Paul says, WHAT COMES TO US, when we surrender, when we admit our weakness, and when we face our inability to control our fate, IS VICTORY---victory in Christ Jesus. We know that song “Victory in Jesus,” but do we know the meaning behind it? Victory means that we must do what Paul did: WE must, as honestly confess to God our weaknesses and admit our powerlessness to save ourselves. Then we must hear these wonderful healing words from God: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free.” (Romans 8:1).

Do we see know HOW JESUS RESCUES US, freeing us from our own worst enemy---ourselves? In depth psychology, it is sometimes unwise to try to RESCUE a person dealing with problems because they are not willing to take responsibility for themselves. All the time I hear people say, that counselor didn’t help me, he or SHE DIDN’T GIVE ME THE ADVICE I PAID FOR, but they just let me talk and come up with my own answers. But if the counselor gives us answers, instead of letting us discover them, we are weakened rather than strengthened.

So, rescuing people is avoided in most counseling situations. But WHAT PAUL IS UP AGAINST IS A CRISIS, NOT A COUNSELING SITUATION. He’s at the end of his rope. He’s LIKE THOSE PEOPLE WHO WERE WASHED OUT TO SEA while watching the waves of Hurricane Bill on the ragged rocks at Bar Harbor, Maine. Paul has been thrown out into the treacherous waves of life and NEEDS A POWER HE CAN’T FIND WITHIN HIMSELF.

How we are rescued through Christ, STILL MEANS WE BEAR SOME RESPONSIBILITY in the rescue. For me this ONE PHRASE UNLOCKS THE REAL POWER we gain through God’s grace and forgiveness: Paul says, “the law of the Spirit of life “in Christ” Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

“In Christ” is one of Paul’s most important phrases. IT REFLECTED HIS OWN PERSONAL DISCOVERY OF HOW GOD WORKS HIS SALVATION and his strength into our lives. Learning to live “in Christ” is not receiving salvation in some magical, instantaneous moment, but it comes in learning to live under with a new master and in a new way—a “life in Christ.” If you’re struggling, at your wits end and desperate for change, let me ask you, ARE YOU REALLY WILLING TO LEARN AND LIVE A NEW KIND OF ‘LIFE--- in Jesus?’

Finally, we learn to live “life in Christ Jesus, as we NO LONGER TRUST IS WHAT WE CAN DO or can’t do, have or haven’t done, but we FULLY TRUST IN WHAT GOD HAS DONE IN CHRIST. Paul’s words of spiritual power come to the forefront when he comes to this wonderful discovery of living a new life in God's grace:“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

“And peace….” Look at this last word, it speaks volumes. This is a long way from the tension and struggle Paul expressed in chapter 7, when he was worried about how he was going to hold everything together himself---and by doing this, only making matters worse. NOW, PAUL HAS “LIFE AND PEACE”, because HIS FOCUS HAS RADICALLY CHANGED. His VICTORY WILL NEVER COME THROUGH THE FLESH, but through the Spirit.

Do you remember the name of James Robison? He was a popular revival preacher during the 70’s who preached in Statesville and all over the nation and was a favorite among Baptists, especially those Baptist who wanted to take control of everything so they could in their own way, ‘win the world for Christ.’ (Did Jesus say win the world, or did he say be a faithful witness to the world? I do think only God can change the world). Anyway, one day, James Robison suddenly quit his revival circuit preaching. He didn’t quite his ministry, but he left the wars for control in Baptist life and he reshaped his ministry and now has his own positive, uplifting, encouraging, Christian TV show about missions, ministry and letting the spirit control ones life. James had enough of the fight to control and winning the battle for the Bible, the battle for the nation, and the battle for control, and he decided to move into the “law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ that set (him) free from the life of sin and death”. He didn’t just surrender, but he surrendered to a new way to live and to set his mind and heart on the true things of the Spirit, not the things of the flesh. When he did this, I heard Robison once say, he saved his life. It was when he admitted to God and to all of us what he couldn’t do, that he found what he could do, and he also found the greatest spiritual peace and the release of God’s power in his life.

You don’t have to be preacher or become pentecostal. You can have peace and strength by surrendering to the "Spirit of life in Jesus." But before you can, the first healing virtue you must express is honesty. You must be honest to God about your struggle, about your weaknesses, about your own illusions of control and power. It is out of this honest admission, that healing begins. Will you be honest?

© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.