A Biblical Case for Seeking Medical Attention
A lady e-mailed me last week and told me that her best friend is suffering from cancer. Her friend refuses any medical treatment, because she believes Jesus is the Great Physician who will heal her. Any effort to receive medical attention from physicians is seen as a lack of faith -- and doing the "human" way v.s. following God's way.
She asked me if I could give her some biblical support which would show her friend that seeking medical treatment is not a sin -- or against "God's way" of healing.
I had a few ideas -- but am wondering what you would have said.
She asked me if I could give her some biblical support which would show her friend that seeking medical treatment is not a sin -- or against "God's way" of healing.
I had a few ideas -- but am wondering what you would have said.
Hey Pastor Mark!
ReplyDeleteI've come accross this comment a couple of times as we have dealt with Lilly & her medical problems & have come to this conclusion:
Jesus may not heal her (and probably wont) for some reason that we don't know. If He did, we'd all be living in a perfect & healthy world. But, Jesus gives the doctors and medical professionals to have the knowledge and wisdom to treat the problem & possibly cure it.
Hopefully this lady will take the opportunity that God has given her to witness and show how strong her faith is to the doctors and medical professionals she could come in contact with.
~Katie Johnson
Luke was a physician, and a disciple.
ReplyDeleteWe are admonished in scripture to "anoint with oil" and oil was used in Bible times as a healing ointment.
Jesus is called "The Great Physician" which would seem to me to indicate that using a physician was an understood and accepted practice, and by calling Jesus "The Great Physician" it would also seem to me that using a physician is understood and acceptable.
I know many men who are called by God to the medical field, and why would God call them to a field in which he never intended to use them?
Kathryn Kuhlman was a faith healer.
ReplyDeleteKuhlman objected to the appellation "faith healer ." The only gift she claimed, if any at all was that of "faith" or "the word of knowledge" (1 Cor 12:8-9). She always referred to herself as an evangelist.
Apart from the well-documented healings, the most sensational phenomena associated with Kuhlman was "going under the power" (sometimes referred to as being "slain in the Spirit") as people fell when she prayed for them. This sometimes happened to dozens as a time and occasionally hundreds.
Kuhlman was an incessant worker and gave meticulous attention to every detail of her services; everything had to be first-class. conducting them herself, she was on her feet for four to five hours at a time. She was very dramatic in gesture and consciously deliberate in speech. She was a strikingly tall redhead and dressed elegantly.
Funny thing though.
Her strenuous schedule took its toll as she was diagnosed with a heart condition. She would battle the problem of an over sized heart for the next twenty years. Kathryn preached her last message in 1975 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Three weeks later, she lay dying at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma after open heart surgery. With Oral and Evelyn Roberts at her side, she was gone at age sixty eight.
She could help everyone but could not through faith help herself.
We pray "give us this day our daily bread" but, those of us that are able still go to work. It is not that Jesus could not put food directly on our table, however we are expected to do our part.
ReplyDeleteCould it be somewhat arrogant to expect a miracle when Jesus has already placed us in the country and time with the most advanced medical system known to man? I thank God for the very competent and skilled doctors he has given us here in the Hayward area.