A Place Of Healing Chapter 4: "What Benefit Is There To My Pain?"

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A Place Of Healing Chapter 4: “What Benefit Is There To My Pain?”

Ray writes “Most of my viewers know that I was a ‘healing evangelist’ for more than thirty years, traveling in many parts of the world and all over the United States. So you might ask yourself ‘Why would Ray even want to share a chapter like this? Isn’t it totally contrary to what he believes about healing?’ My answer is absolutely not. In fact, I am more in sync with the thinking of Joni Eareckson Tada then with most “healing evangelists” of today.

“I absolutely know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 10:38). When He lived in Person for 33 1/2 years here on Earth, He healed and healed and healed. The book of Acts and other New Testament Bible passages show that the healings never stopped. But I also know there are the Christian Joni’s in this world who won’t be physically healed until they are in Heaven.

“Some would say Joni has no faith for healing, I would counter with the fact that Joni has more faith than nearly anyone else I have ever met. That’s why her books are so important. And that’s why I’m sharing this one now. Can there be any benefit to being in pain. Let Joni tell you as we share this book together.”

Joni Eareckson Tada is the founder and chief executive officer of Joni and Friends, an organization accelerating Christian outreach in the disability community. An acclaimed artist and advocate, Joni is also the author of nearly 50 books and a popular speaker around the world. Joni and her husband, Ken, lived in Southern California.

For a complete list of other books written by Joni Eareckson Tada or for more information about her greeting cards, which she paints by mouth, contact the website of the Joni and Friends International Disability Center at:

www.joniandfriends.org

Or you can write Johnny at:

P. O. Box 3333

Agoura Hills, CA 91376 USA

818– 707–5664

The mission of Joni and Friends is to communicate the gospel and equip Christ–honoring churches worldwide to evangelize and disciple people affected by disability. Premiere programs include Wheels for the World, Family Retreats, the Joni and Friends television series, and a radio outreach aired on over 1000 outlets across America. The Christian Institute on Disability at Joni and Friends partners with Christian universities and seminaries around the world to develop courses of study in disability ministry. Through a network of volunteers and JAF field teams, Joni and Friends is committed to accelerating Christian ministry into the disability community around the world. If you would like to learn how you can partner in this effort, write or phone Joni and Friends today.

Ray recommends all of Joni’s books.

A Place Of Healing Chapter 4: “What Benefit Is There To My Pain?”

A Place Of Healing Chapter 4: "What Benefit Is There To My Pain?"

Joni Eareckson Tada"s A Place of Healing Ch 1

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Joni Eareckson Tada’s A Place of Healing Ch 1 –Report From The Front Lines

If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes. – Corrie ten Boom

This is no time to write a book.

But I have to try.

It won’t be easy. It may not be wise. Nevertheless, if you are reading these words, it has been accomplished, and the book has been published. God be thanked!

So mark it here. I am taking on a task that in–the–no book writers wouldn’t attempt, and setting myself to complete an assignment that military historians would never dream of undertaking. I am writing in the midst of my experience, in the violence of a firefight, in the crush of circumstances, and in the vice grip of unrelenting pain. I am recording my combat- zone observations before the smoke is cleared, before the shells have stopped falling, before the guns have gone silent, before the long grass and wildflowers have grown over the scars of war.

And I am writing with greater urgency. My life is changing, and I want to speak to these issues of suffering in the believer’s life – and yes, to God’s undeniable healing power – while I still can. Incessant pain, as those who lived in its grip can attest, makes it very difficult to think, work, relate, plan, write, and – as I recently discovered – take on a public–speaking opportunity.

Not long ago I was invited to speak to a class at Biola University here in Los Angeles, California. I’d been asked to address Dr. Kathy McReynold’s class on “A Theology of Suffering and Disability,” a course designed by Biola and our Christian Institute on Disability here at the Joni and Friends international Disability Center. Dr. McReynolds had asked me to come and lecture her 65 students on how God redeems suffering. And some of those students, she had told me, had deeper questions than that.

The class met in one of those classrooms in the older part of campus that has no windows – and precious little ventilation. The professor had placed a fan near one of the doors, which I appreciated. Still, without windows and on a warm day in Southern California, the room immediately seemed hot and close

Joni Eareckson Tada’s A Place of Healing Ch 1 –Report From The Front Lines

 

 

Joni Eareckson Tada"s A Place of Healing Ch 1

Conflict With A Purpose Intro and Ch 1: 90 Days of God"s Goodness by Randy Alcorn

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Conflict With A Purpose Intro and Ch 1: 90 Days of God’s Goodness by Randy Alcorn


Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.… “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” —GENESIS 45:4–8; 50:20 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and the trouble the LORD had brought upon him.… The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. —J OB 42:10–12

While most of my books are Now, if I were to write a novel about lives without conflict, where characters get everything they want, where life marches on comfortably and no one ever loses anything, nobody would read it. Who likes a boring story? In fact, my central characters always face great conflict, turmoil, uncertainty, and suffering. Some die. That it makes for a far better story is my main reason for doing this. (We enjoy in fiction much that we do not enjoy in life.) So who am I to say that God shouldn’t write such things into his story, including my part? just literature, we repeatedly see that protection from conflict produces soft, spoiled, and selfish people, while enduring conflict is more likely to produce someone strong, capable, and caring.

If, in an interview with a character from one of my novels, you were to ask whether he’d like to be written out of the story, he would answer no. Nonexistence appeals to no one. Now ask him if he would like to suffer less, and he’ll answer yes.

Conflict With A Purpose Intro and Ch 1: 90 Days of God’s Goodness by Randy Alcorn

Conflict With A Purpose Intro and Ch 1: 90 Days of God"s Goodness by Randy Alcorn

Left Behind: Apollyon, Chapter 16

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Left Behind: Apollyon, Chapter 16


The judgment of God which includes a worldwide freeze continues. Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist, is quickly assembled a group of scientists to support his cockamamie story that this happened because of a star that broke loose from a supernova. All of the scientists lie except Israel’s most honored living personality, Chaim Rosenweig, who strongly praises Rabbi Tsion Ben Judah for warning the world of each judgment from God that would come, including this global freezing. He then gives the world Tsion’s Internet address which quickly increases Tsion’s viewers by many millions.

Rayford, Tsion, Chloe, Dr. Floyd, and Hattie Durham watch that press conference from the home where they are staying in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Later they watch Carpathia make an absolute fool of himself in front of the two witnesses at the Wailing Wall. He tries to bargain with the two witnesses and they humiliate him internationally. He vows they will soon be dead. Buck decides to fly home to America and Rayford asks Buck to stop in Greece for just a moment to encourage the Christian who hosted Chloe, Tsion, and Rayford. Ray picks the story up at this point.

Left Behind: Apollyon, Chapter 16

Left Behind: Apollyon, Chapter 16

How To Forgive Ourselves Totally Chapter 4 Guilt, Grief, Regret, And Repentance

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How To Forgive Ourselves Totally Chapter 4 Guilt, Grief, Regret, And Repentance


When Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus that His friend Lazarus was ill, they assumed that Jesus would stop what He was doing, come immediately to Bethany, and heal Lazarus. But he showed up four days after the funeral instead.

Mary and Martha were bewildered – and angry. When Jesus finally came to Bethany, they blame Him for their brother’s death, pointing their fingers at one of the time, saying, “If you had been here my brother would not have died” John 11:21, 32). Jesus had no pseudo-guilt for arriving when he did for arriving when He did. After all, His priority was the Father (John 5:19). Jesus listened and did not moralize them. He knew they were in grief. He wept with them (John 11:35).

When we are in grief it is good to cry. If Jesus could cry, so can you and I. Some people, especially men, are afraid or ashamed to cry. But it is good to do this; there is often healing in tears. God does not want us to feel guilty; this is why He provided a way to deal with any guilt of any kind. In any case, when we are in grief we don’t need to pretend we are not hurting. God completely understands. Furthermore, this is not necessarily a time for a “stiff upper lip”; it is rather a time to be broken and said – – truly a time to weep and mourn ( Ecclesiastes 3:4).

Could it be that you are in grief at this moment? Is it possible that this grief is mixed with a little guilt?

How To Forgive Ourselves Totally Chapter 4 Guilt, Grief, Regret, And Repentance

How To Forgive Ourselves Totally Chapter 4 Guilt, Grief, Regret, And Repentance

Judgment Day: Chs. 5&6 - The River, Over the Edge

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Judgment Day: Chs. 5&6 – The River, Over the Edge

Judd and Vicki have stolen Captain Blanca’s Jeep in an attempt to get away from him and the Global Police. Lionel has stayed with Captain Blanca to keep them off his friend’s trail. The captain still believes Lionel is working with him. Judd is driving the Jeep away from the captain now. Ray picks the story up at this point.

Judgment Day: Chs. 5&6 – The River, Over the Edge

Judgment Day: Chs. 5&6 - The River, Over the Edge

Take Time With God #93 – Suffering for Christ is worth it

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Take Time With God #93 – Suffering for Christ is worth it

Ray shares Colossians 1:24-29 where the apostle Paul is rejoicing in his suffering. Was Paul a masochist or was he trying to tell the Christians in Collasae something equally important for you and Ray?

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I ^[a]do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking ^[b]in Christ’s afflictions. ²⁵ Of this church I ^[c]was made a minister according to thestewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might ^[d]fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, ²⁶ that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His ^[e]saints, ²⁷ to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man^[f]with all wisdom, so that we may present every man ^[g]complete in Christ.²⁹ For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His ^[h]power, which^[i]mightily works within me.

Footnotes:

1. Colossians 1:24 Or representatively…fill up


2. Colossians 1:24 Lit of


3. Colossians 1:25 Lit became


4. Colossians 1:25 Lit make full the word of God


5. Colossians 1:26 Or holy ones


6. Colossians 1:28 Lit in


7. Colossians 1:28 Or perfect


8. Colossians 1:29 Lit working


9. Colossians 1:29 Lit in power

Take Time With God #93 – Suffering for Christ is worth it

Take Time With God #93 – Suffering for Christ is worth it

The Problem With Suffering And The Goodness Of God- Ravi Zacharias

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Imagine the assignment of speaking to the doctors, nurses, and patients at Johns Hopkins University, the foremost University in America for training in the medical field. That was Ravi Zacharias’s assignment. And the subject they gave him to speak on was “The Problem With Suffering And The Goodness Of God”. Only Ravi could answer the questions so profoundly and yet speak in a way that is so easily understandable.

Why does God allow nuclear warfare to wipe out innocent people? Why does He allow cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and a plethora of other dreadful life–debilitating and life-taking sicknesses? Why would He allow plagues that wipe out millions of people? Doesn’t God care?

Isn’t Christ wanting to stop all sickness and disease as He did while he was ministering on Earth? And why on Earth would he allow nuclear bombs and weapons of mass destruction? Why would He allow a horror filled final tribulation of seven years? Does our God really love us? Is he really a good God? Does God really love you? Watch Ravi speak and give you God’s answers for all these things and much much more. –Ray

The Problem With Suffering And The Goodness Of God

The Problem With Suffering And The Goodness Of God- Ravi Zacharias

Chapter 2 The Truth Twisters by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler

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I remember my confusion in high school when I’d start going with a girl and finding out about two weeks to a month later that I felt empty in the relationship. That’s how Jessica feels right now in The Truth Twisters. She’d like to break things off with Shawn, but he wants to buy her a ring and for both of them to commit themselves to each other. Like an old song, “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.” And now Shawn suddenly wants to go on the church’s teen mission trip to Africa, just so he can stay near Jessica. All the while the demon, Ratsbane, is licking his ugly lips and planning to do so many things to ruin their lives.

Chapter 2 The Truth Twisters by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler