Halloween, Hezekiah, and Healing

We had a GREAT first Halloween with Luke this weekend! He was a chicken, and of course he was adorable! We stayed at home until 6:30 handing out the 10 pounds of candy I had bought! Our neighborhood is a trick-o-treater's dream. We have tons of kids that come by. Everyone is out on their front porch having a good time and enjoying the fun of it all. After we had almost given all the candy away, we headed to a small gathering some of our friends were having-- a pot of chili, 8 adorable kids, and more trick-or-treating! Even though Luke didn't actually collect any candy, he still had fun watching all the other kids. It was crazy to think that next year he will be able to walk up to the doors all by himself and that he will more than likely LOVE candy by then-- at least if he takes after me!

I was on the praise team yesterday, too-- all three services. Hm-m-m-m--- a coincidence that it was Halloween?! Were they trying to tell me something?! It is so easy to be spoiled by singing with my ZOE folk, and it is sometimes hard to fully appreciate singing with other praise team formations, but the group we had yesterday was really good, and the services went really well. So-- it was a LONG day, but a good one.

The sermon was another lesson out of Isaiah-- chapter 38, Hezekiah's prayer. Hezekiah was dying, he cried out to God, and He extended his life by 15 more years. Rubel had such an amazing sermon about why God chooses to heal some, yet others he doesn't.

He made one of the BEST analogies I have ever heard along those lines. He said that if we never experienced any heartache or pain, we would be so arrogant-- our hearts would be completely cold toward God-- we would think we were God. It is out of those painful times that we are reminded of just how much we need Him, and we are most receptive to reestablishing our relationship with Him.
To illustrate this point, he reminded us that the only place it never "rains" and where there is continual sun is a DESERT-- a dried-up wasteland. That is how we would be spiritually, too, if we always got the "happy ending." We would have no "roots."

The topic was particularly relevant also, because Rubel announced publicly for the first time that his wife Myra has breast cancer. Rumors had been flying for weeks-- Myra is a private person and only a handful of people were told initially. They did not catch the cancer early. She had surgery 6 weeks ago and has begun chemotherapy which will be followed by radiation. My mom also had breast cancer a few years back, and although she is doing fine now, it is still a tough place to be in.

It was a great sermon--- very powerful. You can hear it at http://www.rubelshelly.com/content.asp?ListSG=316 or read it at http://www.rubelshelly.com/content.asp?CID=18632

Excerpt from Rubel's sermon (Isaiah 38) :

When people who know the Lord get sick or face a life crisis of any sort, we do what Hezekiah did. We pray. Sometimes we pray like pagans and barter with God. “God, if you will do this or that,” we beg, “then I will stop what I’ve been doing and start doing something else!” Pagan prayer – and much that passes for Christian, I fear – is like a giant roulette wheel at a gambling casino. You want to get well. Or you are desperate to pay bills. Or you are scared you are going to die. So you wish hard, close your eyes, and spin the wheel. If you are lucky, you get what you want!

Authentic prayers of faith are different. We go to the Lord and do what is normal and right. We ask his help. We throw ourselves on his mercy. But we do so with the caveat, “Not my will, but yours, be done!” That is terribly risky, for we sometimes discover that God doesn’t want the things we want. Sometimes he prefers that we learn to be content with what we have than to have all our cares banished. So Christians pray for health, deliverance, and long life; we more often remain ill, continue to struggle, and eventually all go to the grave. That isn’t injustice. It isn’t failure on God’s part. It is faith lived in the real world. When we get a Hezekiah-deliverance answer to our prayers, our duty is to tell of God’s faithfulness to our children and to sing his praise in the key of gratitude; when we get a Jesus-in-Gethsemane answer, our duty is to bear witness of God’s Easter-faithfulness to our children and to sing his praise in the key of hope.

God hears and responds to the prayers of his people. “But how can you say that God ‘hears’ and ‘responds to’ our prayers if you admit that we don’t always get the deliverance for which we pray?” someone objects. “Suffering is always a bad thing!” The only real answer I can give that question is in the form of an illustration rather than an explanation.

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him . . . (Hebrews 5:7-9)

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I feel so amazingly blessed to be able to sit at his feet each week and listen to his take on Scripture. I love being a part of the Family of God at Woodmont Hills!