just a thought… – Page 12

Michael Guglielmucci’s Healer

I wept openly when I read the e-mail statement issued by the pastor of the Australian mega-church Planetshakers regarding one of their own, singer/songwriter Michael Guglielmucci :

“Michael Guglielmucci has informed us that he does not suffer from cancer, was never diagnosed with cancer, and has never suffered from the disease. This admission has come as a great shock to everyone including his wife and family who had no knowledge of the matter. We know this will shock and hurt many of you and we offer you our support and prayers… We are all saddened by this revelation and our prayers are with the Guglielmucci family.”

I wept for the family and friends of Michael Guglielmucci who have been subjected to the lie that their loved one was fighting for his life after having been diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. They stood beside him, agonizing & pouring out their hearts in prayer for healing even as he crafted the now famous Hillsong melody Healer that is identified with this fabricated illness.

I wept for all those who have suffered and died with cancer as well as for those who are currently battling this insidious disease. The image of a man of God proclaiming in song…while wearing oxygen and dependent upon a cane to walk…that God is his healer mocks those who genuinely suffer.

I wept for the church of Jesus Christ that will most certainly face increased persecution and cynicism at the revelation that another “church giant” has fallen. The world laughs and scorns each time the Body of Christ receives a black eye. They’ll no doubt use this reprehensible incident to point to the fraud that so often plagues “Christianity”. And they will be justified.

I weep for the lost who stand in desperate need of the HEALER while questioning the veracity of the One who truly Heals. This world is sick and its inhabitants stand on the threshold of eternal death. God tells us that He is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. It is only by His grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we will ever be whole though certainly not in this fallen world, not in a life lived in this flesh. But to those who repent, there is hope and true healing.

Finally I weep for the “believers” who have born witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ but who lead lives of apathy, believing their own lies that it’s acceptable to be lukewarm in the faith. As hurtful as Michael’s behavior was and is, he is no different than any other believer who hears the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and marginalizes it. We will all be judged for the sins committed in our bodies and everything that is hidden will be revealed. A just God will deal harshly with ALL who lead others astray.

The good news is that God’s message is not altered by those entangled in deception…and that is ALL of us. Hypocrisy is nothing new. There have been false leaders before, there will be again. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is unshakable and unstoppable. The moral infirmity of the writer of Healer does not diminish the power of the lyrics. Our Healer still walks with us through fire and heals our disease. He continues to calm the raging storms of our lives. He holds our world in His hands. He remains our portion. And He is more than enough for a sick and dying world. God IS the Healer. He IS ALL.

You can view the song HEALER performed live at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JLbjqcG4OT4

Look upon the faces of the worshipers as they proclaim the truth in one chorus “Nothing is impossible for You” and believe that God is still the Healer of the sickness of sin in all mankind.

Confessions of a “Survivor” Flunky

Get me some crow. I’m ready to eat it.

I consider myself a pretty tough woman. So when friends sneered at me as I talked about my plans to go camping all by my lonesome, I took it in stride & whispered internally “I’ll show you”. I know how to commune with nature…heck, I’ve gone a whole weekend without hair gel & make-up, how hard can this camping thing be? Have tent, will camp, right? But after 3 days of roughing it I was prepared to rescind my indignation at being mocked and I willingly admit defeat. So what was it that finally did me in? Pick your poison…the ground was too hard, too rocky, too wet from the rains; the sleeping bag was not warm enough; the spiders crawling on my face in the dark creeped me out. No, I’ll tell you what it was. Stanley. That’s what I named the massive creature I encountered outside my tent just as dark was setting in last night. I heard the noise of something stirring outside and poked my head out to face this beast. It was almost too dark out to snap a decent photo. Nonetheless, I found my camera phone & shot a pic off to my favorite big game hunter with the inquiry, “WHAT IS IT & do I need to be afraid?” Fully expecting his reply to be “Breakfast”, I waited patiently for the response. I later learned that Stanley is an elk and probably harmless if I leave him alone. But the news came too late. Fear, once it is activated in a person, is difficult to assuage. Even my weapon of choice brought little comfort. Yes, it’s true, I was “packin”. Still, the damage was done.

I found a charming cottage at Dripping Springs Inn and dubbed it my new retreat. It felt like heaven to wash off 2 layers of topsoil from my flesh & to shampoo my hair with something other than a can of Coors. My apologies to Wet Wipes but they will never be a suitable replacement for 10 solid minutes of hot steaming water pouring out of a showerhead. After burning my smelly clothes…I’m KIDDING….and a nice long soak in the hot tub out on my back deck, I tucked myself into a four poster log bed with lots of pillows and quilts. I left the back door ajar just enough to hear the river a few yards away singing to me. Strangely though, the lyrics ringing in my head were those to “I Enjoy Being a Girl!” Clearly, I was more than ready to reclaim my femininity. Despite this I am irked that it was a fear issue that drove me to it.

What is it about things that go “bump in the night” that set us on edge? I HATE being afraid, don’t you? I try so hard to come across like I’m tough & can manage on my own. But it’s simply not true…I need someone who’s got my back. Fortunately for me, that someone is Jesus. This journey of faith is trying at times…the enemy throws things into our camp to frighten us. Beasts like loneliness, temptations, health problems, financial burdens assail our confidence. Hideous creatures such as sin, fear, and death rear their ugly heads and shake us to the core. Even when we are armed with the weapons of spiritual warfare, it is easy to fall prey to an insidious giant appearing the size of Long’s Peak in our camp.

So what are we to do? On a drive through Rocky Mountain National Park today, listening to a friend’s CD these lyrics jumped out at me… “Anybody gonna move this mountain? Anybody gonna change this scene?…” One look at the gargantuan Rocky Mountains all around me, I was so stunned at the imagery of God’s Word being revealed in my heart, I had to pull the car over. Jesus told us what it takes to move the mountains in our lives. “If you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain ‘move from here to over there’ and it shall be removed. Nothing shall be impossible to you.” Matthew 7:20

Obviously, it is not “more faith” that we need in times of trial or testing. The point that Jesus is making is that we need only a tiny bit of faith in a Great & Mighty God. Take a look at these pictures from my hikes of the past several days and meditate on what Christ was saying…Nothing shall be impossible. Ask yourself, “What are the mountains in my life that need to be moved?” Once you’ve identified your mountains, in faith tell them where to go…

Oh yeah, as for the crow? I’ll take mine with a little ketchup, please.

listen up

“I’m sensitive about my ears.” Just so you know, I said this long before Barack Obama did. I actually quit wearing my long hair in a ponytail over 2 decades ago because of a chemistry professor who came into class every morning, greeted me with “Good morning, Dumbo!” and proceeded to hang his lab coat on my protruding ear!

Have you ever been in a situation where your ears just stop hearing what is all around you? Even the biggest of ears, yes like mine, can grow dull to a sound that we become accustomed to over time. I live in a Colorado Springs neighborhood adjacent to the US Air Force Academy…been here five years. Small engine planes take off and land all throughout the day but at some point in the last 5 years I quit hearing them. My ears grew used to the noise and I must have simply blocked it out. Yet all day this past Monday while sitting in my home office I noticed the strangest sound coming from the Academy…airplanes…taking off & landing, circling near my house. All week long the noise persisted. Why now? What has changed?

Sunday night when I returned home from our skydiving adventure, the roar of the prop plane was still screaming in my brain. It took several hours for the pressure of the dive to release and my ears to start “popping”. On Monday morning I awoke with a new sensitivity…to airplane noise. The roar had been so deafening the day before, that my former “immunity” to the sound of aircraft overhead had vanished.

That same phenomenon can happen to our spiritual ears as well. We hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit but when we don’t obey, our ears grow dull {Matthew 13:15; Acts 28:27}, we begin to lose the ability to discern what we are being told. Eventually, if we ignore the sounds long enough we stop hearing God’s voice altogether. {Mark 8:18} If we’re fortunate, God will give us a sonic boom to bring us back to our senses. Sadly, it happens this way often…God whispers only so long and if He starts to lose our attention, He calls His own back with a loud shout. The shout may come in the form of financial difficulties, a bad report from the physician, divorce papers on the kitchen table, a runaway teen. Count your blessings that our Lord loves us enough to shout at us. But wouldn’t we be so much better off if we would simply listen and obey in the first place rather than provoking God to raise His voice at us? Don’t misunderstand me, harkening to God’s voice & walking in obedience doesn’t exempt us from the aforementioned difficulties…the rain falls on the just and the unjust {Matthew 5:45}…but if we truly listen we can avoid the consequences of the sin of disobedience. Too, we will know the voice that calls us out of this present darkness and in obedience to His calling we find rest and peace.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear…” {Matthew 11:15, 13:9; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8, 14:35} “Moreover, he said unto me, Son of man, all the words that I shall speak, unto thee receive in thine heart and hear with thine ears.” {Ezekiel 3:10}