5/23/09
by Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman
Faith to be Healed
Periodically, during this walk in “the way,” one must “examine oneself” Galatians 6:4, in order to determine if one yet retains the “faith to be healed.”Acts 14:8-10.
The crippled man in Lystra leaped to his feet and walked, after Paul commanded him to “Stand up straight on your feet.”Acts 14:10.
Beset, buffeted, burdened and afflicted by the cares, demands and duties of this world? Though diseased and injured, do we retain the faith that we can still be healed through Christ? “Or do we look for another?” Matthew 11:3.
Certain preachers have treated this subject with great aplomb. http://www.jimfeeney.org/faithtobehealed.html
I have come to wonder, however, how does one, “a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked,”Acts 14:8, acquire the “faith to be healed?”What process enabled this?
Before David tested his mettle against Goliath, he had already vanquished a lion and a bear. 1 Sam.17:36. So, he had self-confidence: faith in himself, and faith in God, already. But, what precedents, what experiences gave self-confidence: faith in himself or in God, to the congenital cripple? The scripture says “This man heard Paul speaking.”Acts 14:9. And at Paul’s command, “he sprang up and began walking.”Acts 14:10.
Brooding over this subject, I have come to the following conclusions.
First, one must hear about Jesus. This awakens, then strengthens, one’s hope. Second, one must hear from Jesus. That is, receive his “still small voice”1 Kings 19:12, into one’s heart, the domicile of faith. Third, the faithful heart produces obedience. “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.“ 1 Sam. 15:22. These three steps form the foundation of one’s faith to be healed.
Thus, one woman, with an issue of blood, Luke 8:44, touched the hem of Jesus’garment. And she was healed, as were many other persons who did likewise. Matthew 14:36. In another instance, a lame man picked up his bed and walked, pursuant to Jesus’ command. Luke 5:8-9.
“Since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,”Romans 10:17, healing the deaf and dumb man, who was brought by others to Him to touch and to heal, is among the most remarkable of Jesus’miracles. Mark 7:32-37. Jesus took him aside from the multitude , and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said unto him “Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway, his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plain.”Mark 7:33-35.
I, too, am “astonished beyond measure … “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” Mark 7:37.
In another example a Canaanite woman’s faith in Jesus was sufficient to heal her sick daughter. In one of the most compelling of Biblical colloquies, the following exchange took place: Matt. 15:22-,28:
“And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed. Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us. Then Jesus said to the woman, I was sent only to help God's lost sheep--the people of Israel. But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, Lord, help me! He replied, It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."But she said, Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Dear woman, Jesus said to her, your faith is great. Your request is granted. And her daughter was instantly healed.
One’s faith can facilitate another’s healing, not just one’s own.
If Jesus can open a deaf man’s ears, surely he can open mine. If he can enable speech by one whose tongue is impaired, surely he can do the same for me. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”Romans 10:10.
Too often, our “deafness” is recurring, and our “muteness”returns. At such times, God’s grace and mercy takes over. “I was found by those who did not seek me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me.” Isaiah 65:1.
This same “grace and mercy”which brought the deaf and dumb man to Jesus in the first place, also leads us back to that healing place, “the place where thy honor dwelleth.”Psalm 28:6. “Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit said the Lord. “ Zechariah 4:6.
Amen.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
"Broke-ology" by Nathan Louis Jackson
Dear Mr. Robert Trussell--
Beauty is truly within the eye of the beholder, just as poignancy is selectively sensate.
Your review of the K. C. Repertory Theatre's production of "Broke-ology,"-- KC Kansas' playwright, Nathan Louis Jackson's, "chef d'oeuvre,"-- though technically compliant with prevailing norms, misses the point, by reason thereof.
When I experienced the play during past Saturday's matinee, I was one of only a handful of African Americans among an otherwise packed house.
The universal power of the play's overarching theme cut through the audience like an electric knife. The standing ovation at the end was as much cathartic as it was celebratory.
What your review (KC Star, 3/2/2010, p.D2) misses is a four letter word, "love." This play was all about love. The love. Between man and wife, father and sons, people and heritage. Broke, yes. But, "Joie de vrie," notwithstanding. While you may have used the word, "love," in your article, I did not feel any love emanating from your review.
"Feel" is the leitmotif of "Broke-ology," Mr. Trussell. Feel what? The "montage of a dream deferred," to quote Kansas' poet, Langston Hughes. The house, itself, which was supposed to be "temporary." The energetic and pretty young wife's premature death, and her unfulfilled longings expressed even beyond the grave. The peremptory pregnancy of the stay-at-home son's girlfriend. The unrequited and threatened realization of the college-trained son's ambitions. The encroaching and terminal illness of dad, heightened by his sense of failure and obligation to his deceased wife whose love and spirit he covets. The feeling that all of them are trapped, or "stuck" in a nightmarish goo, dissembling life.
The neat solution? Medically induced suicide. Death was one of Shakespeare's favorite devices and his ghosts are iconic.
The play is every bit as powerful as Lorraine Hansberry's classic "Raisin in the Sun," spiritually and symbolically. Or "Was it just my imagination, running away with me?" The streaming tears in my eyes, and others', said otherwise.
Respectfully,
Larry D. Coleman Esq.
Beauty is truly within the eye of the beholder, just as poignancy is selectively sensate.
Your review of the K. C. Repertory Theatre's production of "Broke-ology,"-- KC Kansas' playwright, Nathan Louis Jackson's, "chef d'oeuvre,"-- though technically compliant with prevailing norms, misses the point, by reason thereof.
When I experienced the play during past Saturday's matinee, I was one of only a handful of African Americans among an otherwise packed house.
The universal power of the play's overarching theme cut through the audience like an electric knife. The standing ovation at the end was as much cathartic as it was celebratory.
What your review (KC Star, 3/2/2010, p.D2) misses is a four letter word, "love." This play was all about love. The love. Between man and wife, father and sons, people and heritage. Broke, yes. But, "Joie de vrie," notwithstanding. While you may have used the word, "love," in your article, I did not feel any love emanating from your review.
"Feel" is the leitmotif of "Broke-ology," Mr. Trussell. Feel what? The "montage of a dream deferred," to quote Kansas' poet, Langston Hughes. The house, itself, which was supposed to be "temporary." The energetic and pretty young wife's premature death, and her unfulfilled longings expressed even beyond the grave. The peremptory pregnancy of the stay-at-home son's girlfriend. The unrequited and threatened realization of the college-trained son's ambitions. The encroaching and terminal illness of dad, heightened by his sense of failure and obligation to his deceased wife whose love and spirit he covets. The feeling that all of them are trapped, or "stuck" in a nightmarish goo, dissembling life.
The neat solution? Medically induced suicide. Death was one of Shakespeare's favorite devices and his ghosts are iconic.
The play is every bit as powerful as Lorraine Hansberry's classic "Raisin in the Sun," spiritually and symbolically. Or "Was it just my imagination, running away with me?" The streaming tears in my eyes, and others', said otherwise.
Respectfully,
Larry D. Coleman Esq.
Monday, March 1, 2010
“EQUALITY OF GOD”
Sunday, February 14, 2010
“EQUALITY OF GOD”
By rev. dr. larry Delano coleman
Does God have favorites? Or, is God equal in his dispensations?
Ecclesiastes 9:2 says:
All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Put another way, God is no respecter of persons. Acts 10:34 states, “Then Peter said, "Now I understand that God doesn't play favorites.”
Deuteronomy 10:17 is even more explicit:
"For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.”
Notwithstanding these explicit teachings, certain men persists in insisting that their conduct on earth--indeed, their mere genealogy-- entitles them to divine favor denied to others. Jesus disabuses these “already saved” folks of such narcissistic notions:
Matthew 5: 44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. “
Ezekiel 18:4 addresses this precise question. “Behold all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.”
Elsewhere in Ezekiel 18, we find:
25 Yet ye say, The way of the LORD is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? 26 When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. 27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. 28 Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 29 Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the LORD is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?”
God is the perfection of equality, its absolute epitome.
Favorites? Unthinkable? Unfathomable. Incompatible with the existence of God. Indeed, nullified by the existence of God.
“To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?" asks the Holy One.” Isaiah. 40:25.
Although we are on the earth rotating at approximately 1,000 miles per hour, we don’t feel it. Although the earth is orbiting around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour, we don’t feel that either. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970401c.html
Our solar system, in turn, is orbiting around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, at 568,000 miles per hour, which itself is orbiting at untold speeds. And our planet is 28,000 light years from the center of our galaxy. http://www.worldculturepictorial.com/blog/content/solar-system-moving-100000-mph-faster-thought-15-speed-increase-translates-doubling-mass-mil
Of course, light itself is traveling at 186,000 miles per second, or 299,792,458 metres per second,[1][2] often approximated as 300,000 kilometres per second.
. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
Our God can’t help, but be equal! His immutable laws establish equality.
“EQUALITY OF GOD”
By rev. dr. larry Delano coleman
Does God have favorites? Or, is God equal in his dispensations?
Ecclesiastes 9:2 says:
All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Put another way, God is no respecter of persons. Acts 10:34 states, “Then Peter said, "Now I understand that God doesn't play favorites.”
Deuteronomy 10:17 is even more explicit:
"For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.”
Notwithstanding these explicit teachings, certain men persists in insisting that their conduct on earth--indeed, their mere genealogy-- entitles them to divine favor denied to others. Jesus disabuses these “already saved” folks of such narcissistic notions:
Matthew 5: 44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. “
Ezekiel 18:4 addresses this precise question. “Behold all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.”
Elsewhere in Ezekiel 18, we find:
25 Yet ye say, The way of the LORD is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? 26 When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. 27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. 28 Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 29 Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the LORD is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?”
God is the perfection of equality, its absolute epitome.
Favorites? Unthinkable? Unfathomable. Incompatible with the existence of God. Indeed, nullified by the existence of God.
“To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?" asks the Holy One.” Isaiah. 40:25.
Although we are on the earth rotating at approximately 1,000 miles per hour, we don’t feel it. Although the earth is orbiting around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour, we don’t feel that either. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970401c.html
Our solar system, in turn, is orbiting around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, at 568,000 miles per hour, which itself is orbiting at untold speeds. And our planet is 28,000 light years from the center of our galaxy. http://www.worldculturepictorial.com/blog/content/solar-system-moving-100000-mph-faster-thought-15-speed-increase-translates-doubling-mass-mil
Of course, light itself is traveling at 186,000 miles per second, or 299,792,458 metres per second,[1][2] often approximated as 300,000 kilometres per second.
. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
Our God can’t help, but be equal! His immutable laws establish equality.
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