Titus 2 Men And Women

Several years ago I had the privilege of teaching a ladies Sunday School class each summer.  That particular group of ladies was an exceptional treat to teach.  Some were teachers, and some were faculty staff wives of a Baptist Bible College. The interaction was always enlightening and the fellowship sweet.

I know that God burdened my heart this week to pull this article from my file and I was not sure why.  As I began to type this on to my computer I knew that God wanted to remind me of a truth learned well.

There are often times many days between a person’s getting ill and that person’s entering Heaven’s gates.  Very soon Teddi Neevel and I will be presenting a study for enduring those days of personal illness or the illness of a loved one.  We will also offer helps for the caregivers of the ill, for ministering to the grieving, addressing a parent’s broken heart for their ill child, and more.

One particular week as I began to prepare a Sunday School lesson on one of the precious names of God, I prayed, read, wrote down verse after verse, and spent blocks of time considering what I had read and what I had experienced in my life.  I finally came to the conclusion that I had to omit the lesson from the series.  I felt that I just could not stand in front of a group of ladies and teach the name of God..........

Jehovah-rapha.

I had spent several days seeking the mind of the Lord.  Many times I asked God how I could teach this name...His name.  I reminded Him often that physicians consider me disabled and that I am constantly aware that He is my only strength and my only health.  I remember being in tears when I asked God,

"Lord, how can I teach these ladies that Your name Jehovah-rapha, means that You ALWAYS HEAL Your children?

As I read and re-read the verses I had written down, one verse of Scripture troubled me more than all of the others, Psalms 103:2,3 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth ALL thy diseases."  It didn’t take long for a part of me to begin questioning  the amount of truth in a statement made to me...of all people...by a former Baptist Pastor-- ours, "A Chrisian who is right with God is not sick." 

I thought, and sometimes I paced, for I knew without a doubt that God’s Word was true.  I also knew that God does heal His children for He had healed me of some specific medical problems and from the effects of a dysfunctional childhood.  But I also knew that I am not healthy.  When I was six years old, Bulbar Polio removed the word healthy from my first-person vocabulary and several illnesses and surgeries after that kept it omitted.  In recent years I have often given God some specific...very  specific requests concerning my future new body---the one that He has promised me in His Word when I get to Heaven.

Over and over for about three days I considered the phrase, "...who healeth all thy diseases" "...who healeth all thy diseases," ...who healeth ALL thy diseases" until the Holy Spirit, who absolutely promises to lead us and to guide us into ALL truth, put a thought and a verse in my heart.  The thought---God has promised to give each one of us a disease free body in Heaven!  The verse---Revelation 14:13,

"And I heard a new voice from heaven saying  unto me, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:

Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

My pastor at that time sometimes used a word that describes what I felt when the Lord answered my heart ---

PRAISEHALLEJUHA!!!  Yes, God does heal ALL, ALL our diseases!!!

I always realized that God had chosen to heal, and continues to heal, many of His children completely and sometimes instantly.  I finally understood that there is, not death, but an ultimate healing---the healing that God gave Paul.  God sustains His children in illness IF He and His Son Jesus Christ can be glorified.  (John 11:4, "...he (Jesus) said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.") God sustains in illness until it is His time to ultimately heal His children by promoting them to heaven---a perfect healing  in a perfect place where pain, sickness, tears, and suffering  do not exist!

As I finished preparing the lesson that had become such a precious blessing, I thought of several people who have gotten angry with the Lord for not answering their prayers for healing of their loved one or angry that God allowed their loved one to die.  But as I stood before the ladies and taught God’s name

Jehovah-rapha, I seemingly saw only one face among the many.  I saw a face whose green eyes were wet with tears and sweetly nodded her head "yes," to the faithfulness of the Lord.  Pat knew, for God had chosen to promote her husband to Heaven for an ultimate healing in a perfect place!

This is a difficult time in our family as we enter the seventh year of my son's battle with an inoperable brain tumor. Only God knows the number of his days left on earth. Typing this article was a special time of remembering Jehovah-rapha.  It has also been a time when God reminded me of the truth of II Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." I remembered this week what a ‘workman’ I had to be to seek long enough to find the answer to my question from scripture...book, chapter, and verse.

(I know that God burdened my heart this week to pull this article from my file and I was not sure why. As I began to type this in to my computer I knew that God wanted to remind me of a truth well learned. This is a difficult time in our family as we enter the nineth year of my son’s battle with an inoperable brain tumor. Only God knows the number of his days left on earth. Typing this article was a special time of remembering Jehovah-rapha. It has also been a time when God reminded me of the truth of II Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." I remembered this week what a ‘workman’ I had to be to seek long enough to find the answer to my question from scripture...book, chapter, and verse.

As we have experienced in our family, there are oftentimes many days and many valleys between a person’s getting ill and that person’s entering Heaven’s gates. Very soon Teddi Neevel and I will be presenting a study for enduring those days of personal illness or the illness of a loved one. We will also offer helps for the care givers of the ill , for ministering to the grieving, addressing a parents broken heart for their ill child, and more.)

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