five different attitudes toward healing…

now there are approximately five different attitudes toward healing.  there are a lot of different divisions about healing. 

1.  the sensationalist.  these are the guys you see on tv.  they come into town and hold giant meetings in large auditoriums, advertising miracles.  there’s bright lights, tv cameras rolling. often the healer is flamboyant.  he shouts at the people, slaps them on the head.  it is often a highly charged emotional atmosphere. 

i don’t see JESUS doing this.  HE did the exact opposite in his healing.  in all of JESUS’ healing HE took them aside from the crowd, where they are out of the glare of the public, talked with them on a one on one basis, healed them there and then it was reported to the crowd.  JESUS never manipulated people and never used them for show.  HE always cared about their needs more than HE did about making an impression on the crowds.  HE healed people quietly.

by the way, just because something is a miracle doesn’t mean it’s from GOD.  JESUS said in matthew 7, many will come in that day and say, “LORD, LORD didn’t we do many miracles in your name?”  JESUS will say, “i didn't even know you.”

2.  the confessionalists.   the confessionalists say that it is always GOD’s will for everybody to be healed.  this is the name it and claim it group.  sickness is a result of sin and all you need to do is claim your healing and GOD will heal.  if you’re not healed you lack faith.  the result of that is if there’s no healing there's an awful lot of guilt.  “maybe i just didn't believe enough.”  false doctrine always creates false guilt.  always. 

these confessionalists say it’s just the way you talk, you’ll get it.  i claim i have a cadillac and i get a cadillac.  the problem with this is, it makes GOD a genie.  all of a sudden GOD is serving me, my needs, my whims rather than me serving HIM.

what about the verse in i peter 5.19 (niv), those who suffer according to the will of GOD.  sometimes suffering is the will of GOD.

3.  dispensationalists.  the dispensationalists are those who say the gifts of healing were only for new testament times and they’re no longer around anymore.  don’t bother looking for those gifts.  it was great back in those days but they're not here. 

i have a problem with that view because hebrews 13.8 (niv) says, JESUS CHRIST is the same yesterday, today and forever.   i believe that HE is.

4.  rationalists.  these are the people who say it’s just all in your mind.  if you’re ill it’s because you think you’re ill.  just deny it and you’ll be ok.  this is the CHRISTian science cult among others.  just deny it’s happening and it will go away.

5.  i think james would be a realist.  this recognizes two facts.  one, the fact that GOD still does heal.  HE does heal but not everybody gets healed.  that is also a fact of life.  GOD does heal people today, but two, HE doesn't heal everybody.  i think life is an example of that.

just a thought from the front porch… 

four attitudes you need to be blessed...

james here in chapter one gives us some attitudes you need to be blessed by GOD’s word…

1.   be careful.  i must have a careful attitude.  james 1.19a (niv), be quick to listen... give it your full attention.

2.   be calm.  be calm if you’re going to receive GOD’s word and be blessed by it.  james 1.19b (niv), ... and slow to become angry ...  a relaxed attitude increases receptivity.

3.  be clean.  verse 21a (niv),  get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent. before you can plant the seed you need to do a little weeding.  the word filth that he says you’ve got to get rid of is actually the greek word that means “earwax”.  when you have a sin in your life it blocks your hearing.  it prevents GOD’s word from getting into your heart.  he says get rid of the evil, anything that we know that isn’t right in our lives.  GOD says, “lay aside all of the emotional garbage, the old habits, the junk in your life so that HIS' word can get through to you.”

how can we be clean?  by confession.  1 john 1.9 (niv), if we confess our sins, HE’s faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  the living bible says, get rid of all that’s wrong in your life, both inside and out.

4.  be compliant.  teachable, yielded, humble, willing to be changed.  he says verse 21b (niv), humbly accept the word of god planted in you.  don’t act like you know it all.  if you know it all, GOD’s word can’t get through to you.  pray, “GOD, do what you need to do in my life.”

just a thought from the front porch…  

we must be receptive, careful and calm to be blessed…

james, being his practical self, says i must receive GOD's word if i’m going to be blessed by it

james 1.21 niv), accept the word planted in you.  the word accept in greek is a hospitality term . which literally means “to welcome” -- come on in.  if we’re going to be blessed by the word of GOD, first we must welcome the word into our lives.  we must be receptive.

james gives an illustration.  he says it’s planted in you.  he gives the illustration of a garden and seed.  the bible, all through scripture, compares itself to seed.  jesus told the parable of the sower and said, “the word of GOD is a seed and it’s planted in our hearts.” 

how is it you can take two seeds that are exactly the same and plant them in two different locations and get two different crops in fruitfulness?  one soil is prepared and the other is not.  how is it that you can take two people and put them in the same service, with the same message, and one person gets blessed by it and the other person says he didn’t get anything out of it.  one heart was prepared and one wasn’t. james says we must receive the word of GOD with the right attitude.  he gives us some attitudes you need to be blessed by GOD’s word.  they are hearing-aides.

1.  be careful.  i must have a careful attitude.  james 1.19 (niv), be quick to listen... give it your full attention.  be alert.  don’t miss it.  ... slow to speak ...  when i’m talking, i’m not listening.  GOD gave us two ears and one mouth so we ought to listen twice as much as we talk.  many of our problems are caused because we’re quick to speak rather than being quick to listen. be careful in your attitude.  be ready.  be intent.  be ready to receive GOD’s word.  be careful. 

2.  be calm.  be calm if you’re going to receive GOD’s word and be blessed by it.  james 1.19b (niv), ... and slow to become angry ...  a relaxed attitude increases receptivity.  if you’re relaxed, people can communicate with you more.  we don’t hear much when we’re angry, upset, bitter, or resentful.  bitterness is a barrier, an emotional block that keeps us from hearing GOD’s word.  some may ask, ‘how come GOD never speaks to me?”  maybe you’ve got some resentment in your life you need to get rid of.  an article from reader's digest said when you listen it actually lowers your blood pressure. when you speak it raises your blood pressure.  james says be calm, be slow to anger.

what is your emotional state, normally, when you go to church on sunday morning?  do you go with a calm attitude?  in many homes on sunday morning it’s kind of hectic.  then we go at the last minute and expect GOD to speak to us.  what preparation? you need to be calm.  maybe you need to get up a little bit earlier. 

just a thought from the front porch…

break or make…

you choose to rejoice in the situation.  psalm 34.1 (nkjv), i will bless the LORD at all times.  HIS praise shall continually be in my mouth.  even when i don’t feel like it, even when things aren’t going right.

listen.  problems do not automatically produce blessings.  for some people, problems destroy them.  you will either be bitter or better.  the difference between bitter and better is the letter “i”.  i make the difference – my attitude.  problems break some people, make some people brittle, it's how you choose to respond.  choose to rejoice.

here, from strange and unusual events of 1982 from the encyclopedia yearbook:

brian hise had more than his share of bad luck in july.  his apartment in provo, utah became flooded from a broken pipe in the upstairs apartment.  the manager told him to go out and rent a water vacuum.  that’s when he discovered that his car had a flat tire.  he changed it and went inside again and called a friend for help.  from the electric shock he got from the phone, he inadvertently ripped the instrument from the wall.  before he could leave the apartment a second time a neighbor had to kick the door down because water damage had jammed it tight.  while all this was going on, someone stole hise’s car.  but it was almost out of gas so he found the car a few blocks away, but had to push it to a gas station where he filled the tank.  that evening hise attended a military ceremony at his university.  he injured himself severely when he somehow sat on his bayonet which had been tossed in the front seat of the car.  doctors were able to stitch up the wound but no one was able to resuscitate four of his canaries who were crushed to death from falling plaster.  after hise slipped on the wet carpet and badly injured his tailbone, he said he wondered if “GOD wanted me dead but kept missing.”

that’s what i call a good attitude!

Just a thought from the front porch…

how to handle your problems…

a good question now is how do i handle my problems  well james says in 1.2 (niv)  rejoice, rejoice. consider it pure joy whenever you face trials.

now don’t misunderstand what he is saying.  he’s not saying, “fake it.  put on a plastic smile, pretend to be polyanna.”  GOD never asks you to deny reality.  HE doesn’t mean some kind of psychological pump up based on nothing.

HE’s also not talking about masochism.  “good, i get to suffer!  i just love to suffer.  i feel so SPIRITual when i feel bad.”  HE’s not talking about having a martyr complex.  we don’t rejoice for the problem, we rejoice in the problem.  we don’t thank GOD for the situation.  why would i thank GOD for evil?  but i thank GOD in the situation.

one of the most misunderstood verses in the bible is 1 thessalonians 5.18 (nkjv), in everything give thanks; for this is the will of GOD in CHRIST JESUS for you.  if you really want to know the will of GOD in your life it’s simple.  in everything give thanks.  it does not say, “for everything give thanks.”  why would i thank GOD for giving me leukemia?  “thank you GOD for that accident…  thank you for that war…   thank you that i lost my father.”  no!  what kind of GOD do you think HE is?

it says, in everything give thanks.  why?  what it means is that we can thank GOD because we know that he can even take the bad in our lives and turn it around and bring good out of it.  i don’t care where your problems came from.  you may have caused them yourself or the devil may have caused them.  they may be problems that society has brought on you but it doesn’t really matter the source of your problem.  GOD can use them for your growth and HIS glory.

now what makes the difference?  it is your attitude.  it says, “consider it pure joy.”  look at the word consider, it means a deliberate look at.  it means to evaluate, to make up your mind once and for all.  while i’m living in the present, i look to the forward benefit of this problem.  consideration is a choice.  although i cannot control the circumstances that happened to me in life, i can control how i will respond to them.

victor frankl, the jewish psychologist who spent time in the nazi concentration camp in germany said, “they stripped me naked.  they took everything – my wedding ring, watch and i stood there naked and all of the sudden i realized at that moment that although they could take everything away from me – my wife, my family, my possessions – they couldn’t take away my freedom to choose how i was going to respond.”

just a thought from the front porch…  

your attitude and your understanding…

now when you read a letter you normally figure that the guy is going to warm up and ease into his subject.  he or she is going to have a few preliminaries, opening remarks, and then move into the message.  but james drops a bomb in verse 2.  he announces who he is and then in verse 2 (niv) he says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

how would you like a letter like that?  “this is a letter from me…do you have problems?  be happy.”  right out front.  bam.  do you have problems?  be happy.  and i’m sure your reaction would be like mine, “what in the world are you talking about?  there is no way i can be happy. you don’t know my situation.  you don’t know my problems.” but that is the way he starts.  but i like that.  he gets right to the point.

now the key is the phrase, found in verse 2 (niv), because you know.  consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

your attitude is determined by your understanding.  rejoicing is not just positive thinking but it is based on the facts of life and james tells us first of all that problems are inescapable.

scripture doesn’t say, “if you encounter problems consider it joy” but whenever you face trials – count on it, you are going to have problems.  if you don’t have problems, check your pulse.  it is a fact of life.

JESUS said, in the world you will have tribulation.  peter said, don't be surprised when you have problems.  count on it.  problems are not an elective in life.  they are a required course.  you don’t get out of them by saying you don’t want any problems.  nobody is immune to them.

scott peck’s book the road less traveled… the first sentence is “life is difficult.”  it is.  it is inevitable that you will have problems in life.

just a thought from the front porch…

a manual on maturity..

now james, a little book in the back of the bible is a manual on maturity.  to find out how to measure spiritual maturity we need to see what the bible says.  now the word “mature” in greek is the word “teleaos” – it’s translated mature, complete, perfect and james uses this word five times in five chapters.  james is a manual on how to be mature.  james gives us some marks of maturity.

one of them is a mature person is positive under pressure.  are you positive under pressure?

james 1.2-4 (msg), consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. you know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. so don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

how do you handle trials?  how do you handle problems?  the first test of maturity is how you react to problems.

do they blow you away?  do you get nervous, uptight, negative?  do you gripe and grumble?  how do you handle problems?

man alive pastor, that is none of your business?  and you are right, it is none of my business but it is CHRIST’s business if you call yourself a follower of CHRIST.

you see CHRISTianity is life.  it’s not religion, it’s a life.  it is not what you do in church on sunday it’s what you do on monday. 

JESUS said, I’ve come that you might have life.  life means problems and a part of life is solving problems and facing them with the right attitude. 

what is your natural attitude; your natural bent when things don’t go right and you’re irritated?  are you negative or positive?  are you basically a supportive person or are you a skeptical person?  is your life filled with gratitude or grumbling?  are you affirmative or are you angry most of the time?

james 1.12 (niv) says, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that GOD has promised to those who love HIM.   

you can be great in knowledge of the bible and be cantankerous as all get out!  are you positive under pressure?

just a thought from the front porch…

maturity isn’t…

i am 64 years old.  i would hope that i am mature but sometime i react in ways that aren’t mature.  for example when i’m at a stoplight and someone behind me honks.  i don’t handle that well. 

so what does it mean to be mature?  well a good place to start is what it isn’t and it isn’t age.  it has nothing to do with how long you have lived or how long you've been a CHRISTian. 

i’ve been a CHRISTian for 59 years.  there are still some areas in my CHRISTian life that i need to grow up in.  maturity has nothing to do with your age.  some kids have more of a handle on life than some adults.  some new CHRISTians know more about what it means to be a CHRISTian than some who have been CHRISTians it seems all of their life.  maturity is not age.

maturity is not appearance.  some people look so mature.  some people look so much more SPIRITual than the rest of us.  they look kind of dignified; they look like they’re holy.  but the fact is you can look real SPIRITual and not be SPIRITual at all.  it has nothing to do with appearance.

maturity has nothing to do with achievement, what you accomplish.  i sit and drink coffee with people who the world says are successful but i see them react to situations that annoy them and they look just like little kids.  they react in such an immature way.  you don’t have to be mature to make millions.

maturity has nothing to do with academics, how many degrees you have, how much education you have.  some people spend all of their time striving to educate their brain but they find that when they get that last degree, they still don’t know what life’s all about.  they still react to life, to others in an immature way.

no GOD says maturity is attitude.  attitude is what makes the difference.  it’s your character.  d.l. moody said,  “character is what you are in the dark.”  recognition is what people say about you, character is what GOD says about you.  GOD says it’s your attitude that determines whether you’re mature or not.  GOD wants you to grow up and have CHRIST-like attitudes.

just a thought from the front porch…

incorrect attitudes corrected…

i want to deal with something that is very prevalent. depression is the number one health problem in the world. it has been called the common cold of emotional illness. everybody gets depressed from time to time. some people are depressed all the time. even great CHRIStians, great saints get depressed. and the holidays are a prime time for depression.

now over in the old testament book of 1 kings in chapter 19 there is a story about the prophet elijah who was a great example of this.

you will see in this chapter that he was a prime candidate for depression. he was physically tired. he was emotionally exhausted. somebody had threatened his life. he was a prime candidate, an emotional fruit basket at this point. and in james 5.17 (niv) it says, elijah was a man just like us. he had the same problems we do. he had a problem with depression.

so why do we get ourselves in such an emotional mess? the answer is faulty thinking. misconceptions. your emotions are caused by your thoughts, by how you think and if you think in a negative way, you're going to feel in a negative way.

if you look at life from a negative viewpoint, you're going to get down. if you want to get rid of negative emotions, you have to change the way you think. that's why proverbs 23.7 (njv) says, as a man thinketh, so is he.

the only way you change your emotions is by changing the way you think and to overcome depression you've got to get incorrect attitudes, or incorrect ideas about life, corrected. that's why JESUS said in john 8.32 (niv), you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. if you look at things from the right point of view, you will not be depressed. you can be free from depression.

so why did elijah get depressed? he got depressed because he played some mental games that everyone of us play when we get depressed.

1 kings 19.3&4 (niv), elijah was afraid. he ran for his life... the result of it: he came to a broom tree, sat under it, prayed that he might die. what did he say? i have had enough. he said, “GOD, i'm fed up! i don't want to put up with it anymore. i'm wasting my life. i'm trying to be your servant but nobody's doing what's right. i'm fed up. there's no use trying. i'm giving up.”

so his first mistake is the same mistake we make when we get depressed. he focused on his feelings rather than the facts. that always happens when we're depressed. we focus on how we feel rather than reality

just a thought from the front porch…

i can be it all...

we are looking here on the porch at how to have less stress and the fact that you need to check your heart and some attitudes that you need to watch out for.

first of all watch out for the attitude of pride. that’s the attitude of “i can do it all.”

another hard issue is the issue of envy. that’s the attitude, “i can be it all.” proverbs 14.30 (niv) warns us about envy, a heart at peace gives life to the body but envy rots the bones. that’s quite a picture.

GOD has given all of us enough time to be the person HE’s made us to be. so we’re trying to be that person but then we notice another person who’s not us, who’s different than us and we like the person they are and so we think, “i’d like to have their talent as well as my talent.” so we try, in envy, to take their talent in too. then we notice a person who’s getting a lot of notice for what they’re doing. we envy that and think, “i’d like to be them too.” we try to take their thing into our lives as well as our thing. so pretty soon we’re trying to be not just ourselves but four or five or six people.

GOD has given us enough time to be the person HE’s made us to be and when i envy others and try to be others, inevitably it’s going to put too much weight and too much stress on my life.

if i want to reduce stress, i’ve got to patch that hole in my heart, the hole of envy.

just a thought from the front porch…

i can do it all…

if you’re going to have less stress, you have to check your schedule and your words but at some point you have to go a little bit deeper and check your heart. you have to ask the question, “why do all of our strategies for dealing with stress and lessening stress and getting rid of stress all the magazine articles written, all the books written lining shelves, why don’t they work?”

well it is because while practical strategies for dealing with stress are important, we also, at some point, have to get to the heart of the matter. that creates stress too.

proverbs 12.25 (niv), an anxious heart weighs a man down. there’s weight that comes with anxiety that’s in our heart. we take stress and we push it out, we get rid of it. we quit the job. we change our lifestyle. we move to a new place and then slowly but surely the stress creeps back into our lives.

why does that happen? because there are some holes in our heart that allows the stress to come creeping back in. how do i know it’s a hole in my heart and not just some practical problem that i need to deal with?

if you only have to deal with it once, it’s just practical. if you have to deal with it again and again, there’s a heart problem. if you overload your schedule one time and you learn the lesson and never do it again, it’s a practical lesson. we all make mistakes. but if you overload your schedule again and again and again and you tell yourself “i’m never going to do that again,” and yet you do it again, there’s something going on in your heart. you have to ask yourself why?

now there are some attitudes that you need to watch out for.

for one watch out for the attitude of pride. that’s the attitude of “i can do it all.” why do we keep over scheduling and over committing? i think it’s because we really believe we can do it all.

proverbs 16.18 (niv) is about this attitude of pride that we all struggle with, pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall. some of you experience the drama of that verse everyday of your life. you wake up and think, “i can do it all!” and at the end of the day you think, “why couldn’t i get it all done?” the pride of “i can do it!” the fall of “it didn’t get done.” to deal with stress you have to deal with this attitude.

it’s a great stress reliever to admit i may not get everything done on my to do list today. when you admit that, then you do the most important things first – things about your relationship with GOD and then your family and then the most important things in your job you focus on those priorities first because you realize, “i may not get it all done.” it is a great stress reliever to admit that you have limits.

just a thought from the front porch…

love in action...

the bible says, love is kind. as we go through, verse by verse, this great chapter on love – 1 corinthians 13 in verse 4b (niv) – the bible says that we need to be kind.

so what is kindness? kindness is love in action. we said earlier that love is not a feeling. it is something you do. it creates feelings. it produces feelings, enormous emotions. but love is not a feeling; it is an action. the bible says that love is kindness in action.

now JESUS once told a story of three men who are traveling on the road from jerusalem to jericho, which is a very notorious road, known for muggers and thieves and they all come upon a crime scene and each of these three men responds to the crime scene in a different way. JESUS says these three men represent your three choices in life. you’re going to go through life with one of three attitudes toward the people around you, particularly the people in pain.

the first attitude is the keep my distance attitude. luke 10.30-31 (tev) says this: there was a man going down from jerusalem to jericho when robbers attacked him, stripped him, beat him up and left him half dead. it so happened that a priest was going down that road. but when he saw the man he walked on by the other side.

he walked on by the other side. this is the lifestyle of avoidance, or keep my distance. don’t ever get close to people because they might ask you for help. don’t ever get close to people because you might be needed by them. keep all your relationships superficial. keep them shallow. keep people at an arm’s length because if you get close, you might get involved. and if you get involved you might get hurt.

this guy says, i'll just keep my distance and go on my business on the other side of the road.

in your relationships is that your attitude, you keep your distance? that is not love.

just a thought from the front porch…