Cancer, Christ, and Me

(This article was originally posted on October 8th 2011 on http://theprintedpulpit.wordpress.com/)


The last blog I wrote was about something that made Atheists sick.  Well, today I'm going to tell you about something that can make a Christian sick.  It's called Cancer and I was recently diagnosed with it.
I'm going to be updating the blog for over the coming weeks with reports, not as a journal, but rather as a witness and a testimony of what Jesus is doing in my life.  This is my story.

For several months prior I had been feeling odd.  I became nauseous at odd times, I had pains in my right side that would come and go, and around the beginning of September I had such terrible back pain I could barely stand to sit behind the desk at my job as a hotel clerk.

My older brother is a doctor, and he feared I had hurt my gallbladder. He told me if I broke a fever it could mean I had ruptured it.  Well, late night on Monday, September 19th, the fever came so my wife loaded me up and drove me to emergency room.

We were hopeful going in.  Joanie (my wife) read to me from Psalm 91, and we said a little prayer together before they came and took me to a room.  I was given several tests and waited patiently to hear from the doctor.  When he did come back, little was said of my gallbladder.  I had cancer; one mass of it had attached to my liver and another had attached to my pancreas.

Since then I’ve only spent two nights out of the hospital.  I’ve had surgery on my right lung due to a fluid build up that was caused by cancer cells and I’ve undergone a colonoscopy(as it turns out my colon is the source of my cancer problem).

I’m not writing today to complain or seek pity.  I’m writing because of a single feeling that came upon me that fateful Monday evening and has not left me since.  It’s a feeling of peace.  I have not shed one tear, lost one wink of sleep, or been scared even for a moment.  This is going to sound foolhardy to some, but I am not afraid because I have an assurance that is more than 2600 years old.



Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:4-5

Isaiah’s passionate description of the Messiah as the suffering servant and the power of his redemptive work is among the most memorable passages in the Bible, but it has taken on a whole new meaning for me because I know that I am healed in Christ, I know that God has taken my sorrows away, and I KNOW that there is a God in Heaven who inspired the Holy Scriptures and each one is a promise and prophesy given to us, his children.

This is what I want to share with you: not pain, sorrow, or ups and downs, but the joy and stability that God has given me in this time.  I’ll be writing more in the days and weeks to come, keeping you all appraised of my situation.

Thank you for reading and God Bless You All.  Amen.

A Scientific View Of Speaking In Tongues

I recently found a video on youtube that was posted way back in July of 2008. It’s a news report on a scientific study that revealed some interesting facts about the Christian practice of Speaking in Tongues. Whether you are for or against it, the findings of this study are definitely worth considering. Enjoy!

This video was first posted by youtube member RevKeithBarr. You can check out his youtube channel here for more videos on tongues, healing, and similar topics.

Can A Woman Preach?

A little more than a century ago, a woman was born just outside Concordia, Missouri.  In 1921 when she was only 14 years old, this same girl attended a revival, was overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and entered into the saving knowledge of the Jesus Christ.

She went on to work as an aid in her brother-in-law’s traveling ministry before establishing a similar ministry for herself, and finally settled in Denver in 1933 where she began the Denver Revival Tabernacle; a refuge of hope for those lost in misery during the Great Depression.

This woman was Kathryn Kuhlman and when she was only 26 years old she had already influenced hundreds if not thousands of people for the Lord through her preaching, her prayers, and her anointing.

There are many people today who are going to look at that story and smile.  Yes, it’s all very good.  Praise the Lord and thank God for preachers like her.  But those of you who do should consider first this passage from the same Bible that Kathryn taught from.

But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.  (1 Timothy 2; 12)

And here we have our problem.  As Christians we must accept that the Bible is the word of God.  That it is perfect in truth and perfect in harmony with itself.  If it is not, then our faith is a lie for its foundation is Jesus Christ and without the Holy Scriptures how can any man say ‘Thus said Jesus’ for the Bible is our record of what Jesus taught.

Some will say, we know him by the Holy Spirit, but without the Bible how can we know the Spirit of God, for that which we know of him comes from the word of God which is the Bible.

The Bible MUST agree with itself and with our faith if our faith is real and if it is not, then we who are Christians are nothing but those who pretend.  Therefore, let us examine what we know!

A woman named Kathryn Kuhlman preached the word of God and many people were saved.  A shallow Christian will think nothing of this, but to a mature Christian one baptized in the Holy Spirit and knowledgeable of the things of God and the ways of our enemy the Devil, this presents a very serious problem.

There is nothing, and I repeated NOTHING, so hard in the world as getting a sinner to accept Jesus Christ.  Satan will fight with everything he has in him to halt, distract, dissuade, discourage, or disenchant anyone and everyone from accepting Jesus Christ because once that step has been taken, he loses his power over that person and over their life.  Satan does not want that.  Every thought in his head, every passion in his heart is bent towards finding a way to keep people from reaching salvation.

No one can preach the gospel affectively unless God’s hand is on their ministry.  It is the power of Jesus Christ unto salvation acting through those who are faithful and steadfastly surrendered to him that will appeal to the lost and broken soul.  Man is a stubborn creature.  He will not surrender to your testimonies until you have surrendered to God’s will.

A further confirmation of her ability would arise in 1947, when she began to teach a study on the Holy Spirit.  Kathryn had received His Baptism upon her conversion, but the new understanding she gained from teaching on him unlocked a flow of miraculous healings.

This period in her life is perhaps the most famous, and the cases too many and varied to cover in any kind of depth.  But, to substantiate my argument that she did in fact possess a miraculous healing ability, I will call your attention to a single case, that of Mrs. Dolores Winders.

Mrs. Winders suffered from a condition known as pseudo arthritis.  At the age of 31 her bones were condition of a woman in her 70s.  She was forced to wear a full body cast and had no hope of living much longer.  She was a Christian and she had a revelation from God that if she attended one of Ms. Kuhlman’s meetings, he would tell her what preparations he would make for her 14 year old son after her death and what a preparation it was!  Nothing short of a miraculous healing that restored Dolores health and restored her son’s mother to him!

You can hear Delores’ personal testimony at this link:
http://www.deloreswinder.com/about_delores.html

Our faith, our very scriptures, are testimonies of such things and Mrs. Winders, who did not like or trust Kathryn Kuhlman when she reluctantly attended her meeting is now one of her strongest advocates.
So far we have established two things.

1.  Kathryn Kuhlman was called by God and operated in his will and power.  We have established this based on the anointing that God gave her which has been confirmed by witnesses.

 2.  Timothy, a Book of the Holy Bible, forbids women to preach the gospel, for as Paul wrote:  “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

This appears to be a conflict between these two thoughts, but there is a solution and I will be happy to present it, but not before we further examine Kathryn’s life at a time when she followed Paul’s commandment.

In 1937 a minister named Burroughs Waltrip came to preach at the Denver Revival Tabernacle.  Burroughs was married and had children, but he had abandoned them and was seeking a divorce.  During his two month stay at the Tabernacle he and Kathryn fell in love and as soon as his divorce was final, she married him.
Kathryn left her ministry in Denver where many hundreds were added to The Kingdom of God, to follow Burroughs to Iowa.  She worked with him but always did so in perfect subjection.  She never usurped his authority and often remained silent while he preached.

Burroughs Waltrip failed in Iowa.  He and Kathryn then traveled throughout the Midwest.  Occasionally she spoke with him, but often did not.  There were some who were saved through their ministry, but compared to the power and success that Kathryn had attained on her own it was nothing but a trickle in the face of what had been a great flowing river of salvation and blessing.

Eventually Kathryn realized that she had turned her back on her ministry in order to be an obedient wife.  She had ceased to serve God so that she could instead serve her husband.  After many years of marriage, she and Burroughs parted on good terms and went their separate ways.  She still loved him and he her, but God had to come first.

It took her two years of struggling, of harsh rejection and skepticism before she finally recovered what had been lost to her.  She was given a chance to speak at the Gospel Tabernacle in Franklin, Pennsylvania and remained there preaching for some time.  She began speaking on the radio during that time and finally made her way to Pittsburgh where she would build her ministry anew and it was at this time in her life that the miraculous healings that accompanied her came into full bloom.

So what have we learned?  That when she acted contrary to word of God her ministry bloomed and when she obeyed it, it withered?  If the word is to stand, how can she?

I will not lie to you, I struggled with this question for many years, and on my own I could not solve it.  It was not until I began to seek the Lord’s counsel on the matter that an answer was laid bare.

This same Apostle called Paul who wrote in 1 Timothy 2; 12: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” also wrote in Romans 9; 15-16:

For he (God)  saith to Moses, I will Have Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy, And I Will Have Compassion On Whom I Will Have Compassion.

So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

To add context to this passage, the Book of Romans is called Romans because it was written by Paul to the Church at Rome.  Paul greatly desired to go to the church at Rome and minister to them, but every time he tried he was waylaid.  Finally he wrote this book to lay out all Christian teaching that they might prosper.  Romans is the most comprehensive of Paul’s writings and is so thorough that is had been called the Constitution of the Christian Church.

In Chapter 9 Paul specifically deals with a question that had been vexing him.  The Jewish Law said that salvation was of the Jews.  They were forbidden to mingle with Gentiles (non Jews) and many believed that Gentiles would never be accepted by God and were fit only to serve as fuel for the fires of Hell.

And yet when Messiah finally came, the doctrine of Gentile salvation was given to his Apostles.  The Jewish people by and large had rejected the teachings of Jesus, but the Gentiles accepted it wholeheartedly.  In many areas the Gentile converts vastly outnumbered the Jewish Christians, and it was a weight on the soul of every Jew.  To accept that Gentiles had an equal place in salvation through Jesus Christ ran contrary to everything they had been taught.

To reconcile this, Paul looked for an answer in the scriptures he had been raised on, the cannon of the Old Testament, even as we look back to the New Testament today.  The bulk of verse 15 is a direct quote from Exodus 33; 19 which I have reprinted below.

And he (God) said, I will make all my goodness to pass before thee (Moses), and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

In Exodus 33, Moses came into the Tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and he talked with God as one man talks with another.  God asked many hard things of Moses.  Moses pleaded with God that if he and the nation of Israel with him, were to accomplish these tasks they could only do so if the presence of God went with them.  God agreed to Moses request in verse 17 of chapter 33, adding immediately after:

For thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

Following that, Moses pleaded with God to show him his face for he longed to look upon the Lord.  This led God to respond to him with verse 19 which I have already listed.  No man could look on the face of God and live, for so great was his glory, majesty, and power that a mortal man would die if he did.  So God passed before Moses but only allowed his servant to only see him from behind.  Even for Moses to see God from the back however was a compromise on the Lord’s part.

Moses loved God and was his friend, yet to look on the face of the Lord meant death.  The Jews had been promised salvation if they obeyed and no such provision was allowed for the Gentiles, yet because the Gentiles were willing and the Jews were not they were chosen of the Lord unto salvation.  Moses was already chosen by God before he asked to see his face and God allowed him to see his person in part because Moses was his friend.

God has laws, but he is still King!  Though no man could be saved before Christ spilt his blood at Calvary, God translated both Elijah and Enoch while they were still alive and brought them alive into Heaven to be with him.  Was this not in itself a compromise of his law?

You see dear Christians, God’s laws are not valid because they are laws but because they are God’s.  So God’s will is also just as sacred and valid as they are and it is well established in scripture that God’s will is an exception to his law.  Were God a tyrant, this would be bad news indeed but consider all the exceptions I have just named.

A group of people (the Gentiles) who were not to receive Salvation, received it because God had mercy on them.  Enoch and Elijah, prophets though they were and holy men of God, were still men and subject to sin.  According to the law, they could not pass into Heaven, so God made an exception and brought them up early for they pleased him above all men.  And Moses, who was a sinful man, was allowed to look upon the glory of Almighty God because the Lord loved him and wanted to do him a kindness.

All the exceptions God has ever made were not on his whims, but for our good!  Just as his law and his scriptures are for our good.  To deny there are exceptions to God’s word is to deny what is in his word nevertheless we must accept that God alone can make exceptions and he does so when and where he sees fit.  Such is the right of a King!

Consider again the words of Romans in this light:

For he  saith to Moses, I will Have Mercy On Whom I Will Have Mercy, And I Will Have Compassion On Whom I Will Have Compassion.

So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

In light of reconciling this difficult new doctrine of Gentile salvation, Paul looks to God’s kindness to Moses and sees in his present condition that God is likewise showing a kindness to Gentiles, that they who are not of Abraham’s earthly seed may yet become his Spiritual seed in light of the Salvation through Jesus Christ.

He then adds in verse 16 that it is not given to him who willeth (or him who desires very hard to be used for good) or him who runneth (or him who tries very hard under his own power to accomplish good) to have victory in the matters of Heaven and Hell, but rather it is given to those upon whom God showeth mercy.

If you are expecting me to proclaim that the passage in 1 Timothy is incorrect, then you are in for a bad shock.  1 Timothy is the word of God, spoken by Paul and recorded by his secretary and it is absolutely correct.  It is not the office of a woman to teach a man within the framework of the church.  The reasons for this are listed in 1 Timothy 2; 13-14.  HOWEVER there are exceptions to the rule when God decides to show mercy on those whom he will show mercy.

Consider now Kathryn Kulhman.  God showed her his mercy in that she was called to an office that was not her natural place.  Why did he do this?  You might as well ask why he chose the pagan King Cyrus to deliver Judah from the captivity of Babylon, or why he chose for our New Life in Christ Jesus to come from the death of his Son.  God’s ways are his own and his reasons are his own and he is a King and he does not have to answer to anyone.

The Calling is evident in every aspect of Ms. Kuhlman’s life and ministry.  To ignore it is to ignore the power of God.  I did not write this article for Ms. Kuhlman’s benefit or her justification, neither of which would have been necessary.  I did write it because she is not alone.  God and has and continues to call a number of gifted female teachers to minister to his flock and there are those (some out of ignorance, others out of spite) who rail against these servants based on the testament of 1 Timothy.

Let God be true and every man a liar the word declares, and by this I stand.  If a woman is called by God will she be condemned by the One who issued her commission?  God forbid it to be so!  There are some women who stand in places they should not be and if they do, they must be called down by the edict of 1 Timothy, but if a woman witnesses to man and he is saved, where is the evil?  If a woman teach the word and a congregation receives healing, where is the sin?  If a woman stands and proclaims the gospel effectively are we to believe that Satan is selling out his own purposes to disprove one verse of scripture?
God does call women sometimes.

Some of you are now asking, how can you tell if a woman is called of God?  When you see the sick healed, the mysteries of scripture made plain, prophesies given, the poor and dying cared for, when you see the works of Jesus Christ administered with such success that only God can provide, then you will know!  In light of the all this, consider again your question.  How can I tell if a woman is called of God?  Dear Christians, I would pose the question, how can you not?

God Bless You All.  Amen.

To learn more about Kathryn Kuhlman, her life and ministry you can visit this website:
http://kathrynkuhlman.com/

To learn more about Delores Winders, you can visit her website:  http://www.deloreswinder.com/

Examining A Measure Of Our Lack

I think sometimes Christians, even devote ones, become jaded to the scriptures.  We hear them over and over again until by way of familiarity we come to accept them without examining them or applying them to our lives.  Consider, if you will, this passage from John 8; 3-11:

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him (Jesus) a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.  Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 

I think often times as Christians we forget our purpose and our calling.  The Christian is not on earth to endure suffering, though that is part and parcel of our faith.  A Christian is not here to read his Bible, or to pray, or to go to Church though those practices help us even if they do not define us.  We are here for one purpose, to seek and to save the lost at the direction and leading of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, both through the edicts in his Holy Word and by the direction of the Holy Spirit.

This they said, tempting him ,that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.  So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her.

And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers?  Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.

The Jewish Leaders who brought this woman before Jesus claimed she should die by the Law of Moses, but why was the Law of Moses given?  Not to kill women or to tempt our Lord but to give direction to the children of Israel that they might become a blessing to themselves and to the world.  Was adultery wrong?  Yes!  Was this woman guilty?  Yes!  But Jesus was more interested in saving her, in giving her direction, than He was in condemning her.

Would that more Christians understood this basic truth!

As Christians we condemn sin, as we should.  The Bible states clearly that the wages of sin are death.  To continue in sin is to face eternal judgment.  What we fail to see is that this is the last thing God ever intended for us or our lost brothers and sisters.

When a Christian takes a stand against sin it is important to remember that we do so not to condemn actions, but to warn others of the terrible price that will one day be paid for wrongdoing.  The act of condemnation of sin should always be out of the desire to help the sinner first and anything else second!

Now some of you may be wondering how all this applies to your lives.  It honestly may not.  Many of you may be living exactly as God wills, but consider this.  I recently had lunch with a few friends and the subject of Reverend Jimmy Swaggart came up.  It was the opinion of one man present (and a just and Godly man he is) that Reverend Swaggart was not a fit minister.  For those of you who are too young to remember, Jimmy Swaggart was an evangelist who committed a sin, the same sin for which the adulteress was brought before Christ.  And once more, after being exposed and openly repenting of his sin, he was caught committing it again.  It has been a long time since that second violation and in that passage of days Brother Swaggart has proved himself to the Church a hundred times over, but the stain on his record is still present in the eyes of many.

But I ask you, have you ever heard the man preach?  I have, not in person, but even through impersonal means I have been blessed by every word I have ever heard him speak.  No man can say the things he says or stir the conviction in a man's soul as Reverend Swaggart does unless he is sent by God!

One asks, ‘But can God use such a man?’  He used a man who betrayed him three times to help build his Church.  He took another man who had been a killer of Christians, a murderer of the faithful, and turned him into such an evangelist that world has rarely seen his like.  The Bible records both these cases and in the selection of Peter and Paul as ministers we have no argument.  How can we?  They were two of the founding fathers of the Church, Holy Apostles, and servants of the Almighty God.  But they were also men and men sin.  It is an ugly truth.

Do not take this to mean that I am giving sin a pass.  In fact, I would say that the Church does not rail hard enough against the evil in our world, but I would say this if you will hear me.  Everyone reading this message is a sinner.  I am a sinner.  We have all sinned.  But you say, “My sin is not so bad.  I only fib a little here and there.  I don't steal and I've never killed anyone.”  Do you not know what the scriptures say?  These are the words of Christ:

But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement.

Matthew 5:22

If you have ever been angry with anyone who took too long digging for change in the checkout of a grocery line, in God's eyes, you have murdered that person in your heart!  If you have ever been angry riding behind another driver who wasn't going as fast as you liked, in God's eyes you have slain him!
It is a sobering thought.

You see most Christians are quick to judge because from their standpoint they think they’re doing pretty good.  It's the other person whose sin is too great, the other person who can never be redeemed.  The Bible warns us that with the same measure by which we judge others we shall be judged of God; for we were redeemed by Christ, who, when he lay dying on the cross turned his eyes to Heaven and cried, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do!"

Jesus Christ never sinned, Jesus Christ was perfect, and everything that he did was not about rules or religion, it was about our own good!  The next time you confront someone about their sin (And let me emphasize if you are a true Christian that's exactly what you must do) I urge you speak out of humility, rather than condemnation; speak out of love, rather than self righteous judgment.

It has been said to be a Christian is to be a hypocrite and that is not a lie.  We tell others not to sin and yet we sin ourselves.  It has also been said that the only difference between a Saint and a Sinner is that the Saint knows who to go to for forgiveness when he sins and there is truth in that also.

That does not give Christians a pass on sinning rather it should make us strive to sin less so that we may be good servants, even if we cannot be perfect servants.  A man who takes advantage of God's grace will soon find himself heartily immersed in the Lord's disfavor.  But to a man who is humble in spirit, who recognizes that he does sin, tries not to, and repents quickly when he fails; to a man or a woman who confronts other sinners out of concern for their souls rather than concern for the rule of Law, that person will find favor in the sight of God and that person may expect when he does sin that the Lord will speedily forgive and instantly restore him!