Last night 8 of the men from Christ Church went to the vicarage to pray for healing for our vicar. He has been off work for some time now, and although we meet to pray, he had asked for the laying on of hands and anointing. We took our lead from James 14:14-15. I really wanted to be able to do a "Peter and John" (see Acts 3), but I didn't have the faith.
Afterwards we all said that it was a new experience for us. A new experience for 8 men who represent the lay leadership of our church. They are readers, wardens, preachers, they lead home groups, they run Alpha courses, they drive the agenda of the church in many ways. I should say we are .....
For all of us it was a new experience. Hmm, I wonder if there is something for us to learn from this situation?
I thought back to John's blog, and his experience with anointing "Two Conversations, A Camera, & A Galleon Of Canola Oil." and "Four Odd, But Cool, Incidents". Encouraging.
I told Jo how little faith I had, and she said it only needs to be the size of a mustard seed.
How about half a mustard seed, or perhaps a quarter?
Of course the passage in James says much more about the process than just the two verses we took notice of. It starts with patience. Patience is turning to frustration and confusion, that's not what James says. It talks about confessing sins to each other - not something that we do in our tradition. So much for being Biblical.
Still we wait and we pray, and maybe we will learn through our desperation, maybe we might even grow as Christians.
Odd isn't it that the term of endearment our Lord used most often of His disciples was "O ye of little faith"?
ReplyDeleteIt's not our faith but our Lord who heals; and He does that at His own discretion... I think. This is all a mystery to me.
I am thankful for this blog to gave me much knowledge regarding my area of work. I also want to make some addition on this platform which must be in knowledge of people who really in need. Thanks.healer amsterdam
ReplyDelete