The King 'Great Goodness' Part 1 Mahasilava Jataka (Eng. & Chi.).pptx
Dealing with sickness in christian community
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2. Jas 5:13-20 (14) Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. (15) Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. (16) Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
3. Jas 5:13-20 (17) Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! (18) Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops. (19) My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, (20) you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
4. Components for dealing with sickness Elders Prayer Faith Oil Confession Forgiveness Correction
5. Elders Mature believers called by God to be overseers. Represent the whole church Discernment
6. Prayer Prayer our main strategy Prayer is for everybody Prayer is effective Prayer brings God glory
7. Faith Faith not Ritual Faith in the absence of healing Faith in the Unseen
8. Oil Medicine Spiritual Mar 6:13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them. Healing is spiritual and physical
9. Confession and Forgiveness The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much Sin can lead to sickness Sin can hinder prayer Sin can be forgiven
Doctors of the time were not very well educated, were often superstitious and had few effective cures. Oil was commonly used as a cure for all sorts of ailments, people often received messages or were rubbed in oil as treatment. They hardly left home without their oil, remember the story of the good Samaritan.
(15) Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. (16) Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Some times we think of accountability in these terms: A mother was taking a nap while her eight-year-old son was playing in the living room. While the boy was playing, a van crashed through the picture window. The boy was surprised, but unhurt. The mother, of course, raced into the living room and screamed out the name of her son. Now the boy was afraid. “But mom-honest I didn’t do it!” he replied. Lewis Smedes writes in Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve, "If we say that monsters (people who do terrible evil) are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have…they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last word."
Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it. From a distance, each looks like every other horse. But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing. Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing.If nearby and listening, you will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her halter is a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is, so he can follow her. As you stand and watch these two friends, you’ll see how she is always checking on him, and that he will listen for her bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not lead him astray. When she returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, she stops occasionally and looks back, making sure her friend isn’t too far behind to hear the bell. Like the owner of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges. He gives us somebody else."The body of Christ, especially in well-functioning, small, intimate groups, is the most healing body in the world; yet we do not treat it as such. We wouldn’t think of relating to a medical doctor with the same reserve as we have in the healing body of Christ. Would we say to a doctor, "I have this unspoken illness?" Of course not! But we often use this term, unspoken request, in sharing our needs with the body. Would we try to deceive a doctor into thinking our hurt is nonexistent or in a different place than it actually is? Of course not! Would we say, "I am here for a friend - examine me and diagnose him?" Of course not! Yet we treat the church with such distrust and fear. We choose to hide."