Anoiinting Oil to Heal the Sick

 

[1]

Psalm 119:143 Holman Christian Standard Bible

¹⁴³ Trouble and distress have overtaken me,
but Your commands are my delight.

 

In August of 2016 I took the Better Than 50 Club to see the San Bernardino County Museum in San Bernardino; I felt bad enough so that I sat down on a bench in the entryway and waited for the group to tour the museum. That is the last I remember. A day or two later Sylvia had me in the emergency room at the Parkview Hospital. It took them three weeks to diagnose my disease—West Nile Virus. That’s the same disease that killed my colleague Charles Teel in five days. Once they knew what it was, they sent me to a Rehab Hospital, where I stayed for another five weeks. While I was there, my memory started to return. My urologist, Edward Yun, came by to see me. “When you get out of here, you need to come by and see me. We’ll start you on prostate cancer treatment!” were his “comforting” words.

After he left, I lifted up my eyes to heaven and queried God, “Why didn’t You let me die with WNV?! Why did You save me for more cancer treatments?!”

The Bible[2] encourages us to have the brethren anoint and pray over us when we are sick. Adventists are loathe to use this anointing and treat it almost as the Catholics do the last rites. However, I determined to follow James’s advice, and several of the church elders made the effort and came over to the Arlington Gardens Care Center and, at my request, anointed and prayed over me. According to His promise[3] God has raised me up.

I realize that there are many occasions when the Spirit of God determines that the best thing to do for some people is to forgive their sins and lay them to rest until His Great Second Coming. As several dear saints have told me, “God must have something He still wants you to do!”

I encourage you, when you are sick, follow God’s command in James 5 and ask for anointing. Let’s give God a chance.

Lord, help us to use the healing advice you have given us in the Bible.

 

 

 

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[1] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/X21O5MfH33s/maxresdefault.jpg

[2] James 5:14 (Holman Christian Standard Bible) “Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over him after anointing him with olive oil in the name of the Lord.”

[3] James 5:15  “The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will restore him to health; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

God is iInfinity and Infinity is God

 

[1]

Psalm 147:5 New American Standard Bible

⁵ Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;
His understanding is infinite.

 

The NASB gives a marginal reading for [a] (the word “infinite”) as literally “innumerable.”

In 1968 I took a graduate course in Mathematics labeled Set Theory. There was a very astute Catholic nun in our class. We sort of gravitated to each other because we both openly identified ourselves as Christian. We often compared notes with each other and encouraged each other in the faith. One day our teacher talked about infinity. An obviously infinite set is the regular counting numbers[2] Z = {1, 2, 3, …}. This set Z is clearly infinite because there is no biggest number. [You can reason that if x is the biggest number in Z then clearly x + 1 is also n Z, so our assumption was false.]

Our teacher then reasoned that the set of all fractions Q of integers is also infinite because it contains the integers [{1/1, 2/1. 3/1, …} are all fractions.] He then proceeded to show that Q has no more numbers in it than Z. So, he called this kind of infinity countable or numerable. Then our teacher went on to show that the set of all real numbers R is infinite, but Cantor proved very ingeniously that R is not numerable. So, the infinity of R is a bigger infinity than that of Z. We call it uncountable or innumerable.

Realizing that there are at least two different infinities, one bigger than the other, the natural question is: “Are there more infinities, even bigger than the two we have discovered?” He went on to show that there are bigger and bigger infinities.

My nun friend and I walked out, both of our heads buzzing with this new concept we had talked about. Finally, she looked at me and stated, “I don’t care about all that. For me God is Infinity and Infinity is God! That’s all I need to know!”

Is God infinite for you? If so what kind of infinity is your God? How does this affect your concept of God?

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[1] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/egPANcJWOWs/maxresdefault.jpg

[2] We use Z because the word for counting numbers in German is Zahle. We use Q because the set of fractions can be described as the set of quotients of integers. And we use R for all numbers including numbers that are not quotients of integers, such as π, √2, √3, e, etc.

Double-Edged Sword

 

[1]

Hebrews 4:12-13 Contemporary English Version

¹² God's word is alive and powerful! It is sharper than any double-edged sword. His word can cut through our spirits and souls and through our joints and marrow, until it discovers the desires and thoughts of our hearts. ¹³ Nothing is hidden from God! He sees through everything, and we will have to tell him the truth.

 

We recently attended a Wycliffe Associates Summit here in California. They accentuated the transformation native speakers undergo when they read the Bible in their own language. The translators especially are changed because they have spent genuine time actually understanding God’s word and then expressing it in their own heart language.

Some of my fellow believers ask me if it wouldn’t be better to donate what I give for Bible translation to church evangelism instead. As we discovered in Tanzania many years ago, where people used an English or a Swahili version of the Bible to study for themselves. I heard them say, “But this is in the language of our oppressors.” Indeed, the English were the most recent rulers of Tanzania, and Swahili is a language created by the Arabs who used it in the slave trade. It can be difficult to learn about love and grace in a language normally associated with oppression.

But then, some argue, what if people misinterpret the meaning of the text? That is the same argument the Catholic Church made in order to restrict the use of Scripture throughout the Dark Ages. Some experts claim there are over 9,000 Christian denominations in the United States alone (over 33,000 worldwide). See what happens when each person is able to read the Bible and form his/her own opinion about the Truth of God?

God’s Word is alive! It is causing people to think about what message God has for them. It is the Holy Spirit’s duty to teach each person what he wants them to believe as well as what He wants them to do. It is only the active intervention of the Holy Spirit in our lives that prepares us for heaven, that applies God’s grace to the individual believer.

Just as God used human instruments to write His words contained in the Bible, God has given people the privilege for making His Word available to every to every nation, kindred, tongue and people[2] in their heart language.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us the opportunity to help spread Your Word to all of mankind. And Thank You also that it is not our assignment to police how Your Holy Spirit chooses to use this Word.

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[1] https://clipground.com/images/gods-words-clipart-3.png

[2] Revelation 14 :6 “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,”