Healing by Immersion in God’s Word

I. Humility, God’s Word, and the Jordan River

 

As Naaman took dip one in Jordan’s river,

Humbling himself wholly before Christ,

God’s word began to penetrate his skin cells

And struck him as a bit of good advice.

 

First taste of faith. Step out and take a break now.

Dry off. Relax. Into your chariot climb.

Then see your servants’ arms crossed, feet a-tapping.

They’re right, of course. Let’s try it one more time.

 

Dip two: Submerge the body head to toe, guy.

Come up again with goosebumps. That was wild!

Could be Elisha’s word is truly working.

And yet the change appears to be quite mild.

 

But on the third dip, how the water tried him,

A burning flame to tame his leprous skin!

“Oh, what have I gotten myself into?”

Asked Naaman with his face full of chagrin.

 

II. Let’s God’s Word Go Deep

 

Set aside your own agenda, dear commander, and obey.

Immerse yourself within it. There’s healing in this Word.

It must sink deep within you to remove the icy berg.

 

It is the berg of unbelief. We see it on the surface.

It’s floating on your skin. To shame you is its purpose.

Beneath it lies a mountain that can tumble the Titanic.

Only the Man of perfect faith can tread on that Atlantic.

 

Your berg of doubt would block the faith that God seeks to impart.

You must let Him dissolve the rock of pride that’s in your heart.

One dip is not enough to penetrate such stubborn soil.

You can’t get rid of it with fervent sweat or fearful toil.

 

No river of Damascus can remove your ingrown sin,

But bathing in the flow of God’s good news gives peace within.

Transgression may rise up, but much more does God’s grace abound,

With drastic change that places your feet back on solid ground.

 

You do not need a man to wave his hand over the spot.

Just take the word, believe it, exercise the faith you’ve got

By soaking in the scriptures. Drink His truth in, undiluted,

For which no earthly medicine can well be substituted.

 

Behold the stones that testify to Christ’s amazing power

To make God’s flood of judgment part that you might now cross over,

receiving sweet for bitter, mercy streams to end all strife,

For all who do believe in Him have passed from death to life.

 

 

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A Lump For a Bump: Hezekiah’s Pain

Hezekiah had an oily bump, the kind they call a boil,

But he wouldn’t let the boil throw him in turmoil.

He heard the mean Assyrian king who kept on threatening

To take his people from the land, a woeful song to sing.

 

Sennacherib was the king’s name and he played a cruel game.

He said, “I’ll cart you to my country where the fruit’s the same

As what you eat in your land.” But Judah’s king did not a agree.

He knew that God was greater and refused to bow the knee.

 

The evil message that he heard was obviously a trick,

Though knowing that did not keep Hezekiah from getting sick.

The king, he had a boil you see, and it was quite a bump.

To nuke that horrible mean bump He had to have a lump

 

Of something greater than the poison ringing in his ear,

For the enemy’s toxic words were more than he could stand to hear.

They threw doubt on him. Then Isaiah told him he would die.

The prophet’s ominous prediction caused the king to cry.

 

He didn’t cry for medicine, but God sent it to him.

To get that medicine did not require a holy hymn.

To nuke the bump, he didn’t have to have some special oil,

Nor did he have to sweat like Adam, toiling in the soil.

 

He simply looked to God to meet his need and fry the bump,

After which came the prophetic word, the sign and then the lump

Of figs that came straight from a tree God never had to curse

But which contained a medicine whose power could reverse

 

The bitter sickness that had caused the man such loathsome pain.

Reminds me of the fruit of righteousness, which brings great gain.

Such righteousness is something we do not sweat to obtain,

 

“But freely come and buy! Without money you may eat

From the tree of life that makes the foulest water sweet.

The foulest hurts you’ve suffered it has power to defeat.

 

Scripture references: Isaiah chapters 37, 38, and 55; Exodus 15:23-26; Galatians 3:13

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comic Books, Like Bibles, Can Act as Portals

Comic books, like Bibles, can act as portals, transporting readers to a supernatural realm. That is a main theme in my book Speed of Sight, a Superhero Adventure. It is about an ordinary boy who reads a special comic book. This comic acts as a portal, transporting him to places he’s never been before and opening up his mind to the supernatural.

Like the Bible, this special brand of comic book inspires faith and gives hope to the broken-hearted. It enables the hero to see beyond his circumstances into a different, more powerful reality. As his home life falls apart, he sees the comic in his hand. It shines light on the evil forces that wish to ruin his life and shows him how to deal with them. After reading this comic, he finds himself sealed in a transparent pod which takes him on a trip through outer space.

Like Philip from the book of Acts, he gets “translated” from one place to another – in this case, it involves another realm. The comic acts as a catalyst, providing the faith fuel the hero needs on his journey.

While in this other realm, the hero meets the one who wrote the special comic books. This man, like Christ, is the author and finisher of the hero’s faith. With one touch  of  his pen,  this Christ figure empowers the hero with supernatural abilities. These supernatural abilities enable him to defeat bullies and save lives.

Such abilities, in a broad sense, represent spiritual gifts. The ability to see things others can’t, for example, may correlate to words of knowledge, wisdom, or discernment. The ability to move at super speeds is like a supernatural form of transportation. Again, I think of Philip, or perhaps Enoch the Old Testament saint.  He was the one who walked with God. Then suddenly one day he disappeared.

It was a miracle.

Miracles come from connecting with God and believing what He says.

As Daniel 11:32 declares, “Those who know their God will be strong and do exploits.”

Or, to quote Jesus, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on me, the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” (John 14:12)

Such Bible words build faith and open portals to the supernatural. Inspired comic books, which enable us to picture those words, can do the same. That’s what Speed of Sight is all about. Feel free to check it out. If you like it, take the time to give it a thoughtful review.

After all, it’s all about that portal, the connection that enables us to transcend time and space in order to connect us with the supernatural.

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Making a Few Necessary Changes

Okay, so I’m sure at least a few people have noticed that I’ve made some changes to my website. I’m not doing it to confuse anyone, but after all, it is an author website. After doing some needed research, I realized that some things were missing with this website – essential items that help people to contact me and buy my book. (No pressure to purchase, but it’s nice to have the information at your fingertips for immediate and/or future reference).

Yes, I’ll admit, I feel the pressure to make sales. (Too few reviews sound like bad news. I wouldn’t want to blow a fuse). But that’s not the reason I write. I write because I have a message to share and I can’t type it fast enough, and then I have to think about “Is anybody reading it?”

I know. What does that bird have to do with anything? I wish it would stop peering over my shoulder already.

ARRRGH! I’m a writer. I just want to write. I have another book to finish but marketing is a distraction. It’s like the carrots in the pot roast that refuse to cook all the way through, but the meat has been done for three hours. Even the potatoes are tired of waiting for them to cook. Anyhow, I think you get my drift. I’ve made some major renovations to this site over the last few months – renovations that in some ways correspond with renovations in my life. As some children prepare to move overseas (I will miss my grandson!) others come back home.

They’re here and then they’re there. They like to travel everywhere. My rhymes almost sound like a Doctor Seuss book. I used to wonder about his last name; sounds like the Hebrew word for horse.

Doctor Horse. Good name for him. I can see the toothy grin. Reminds me of Mr. Ed the talking horse. Remember him? If so, you’ve probably been around a while – long enough to go through numerous changes.

Like my website. I’ve been writing more articles for authors and for readers too. But my main message hasn’t changed a bit. To me it’s all about the miracles and healing Jesus still performs. He’s just the same today as He was two thousand years ago.  That’s what the Christian fiction stories I write are really about – children walking in the power of the Spirit, taking His inspired comic books at face value and using them to take incredible adventures.

These heroes are like people who read the Bible and do what it says without wavering.

They’ve had it with the Snore Bore. They won’t listen to his dead weights, and – well, I think you get the picture. They trust God to help them make those needed changes in their lives, even though some things can be so frustrating – like figuring out where all those widgets go and how and why and – Anyhow, change can be good. Now if I could only figure out where my villain ran off to…

 

 

Deborah and the Foreshadowing

Deborah was a prophetess looked to for guidance during the oppressive rule of Jabin king of Canaan. The book of Judges chapter 4 tells the story. Jabin was a “jab-bin’” sort of guy.

“Jab, jab, jab. Ow, ow, ow.” “Get your rotten chariot off my foot!” Oh, for a ditch in which to pitch his iron war machines!

The tyrant was mean and well armed. But Deborah was wise. She received strategy straight from God detailing how to beat him. She shared her battle plans with a man named Barak, telling him exactly where to go and what to do.

“God says He’ll hand the jab-bin’ guy’s Army General Sisera over to you. So, go to it and do it!”

Barak hesitated. “That Sisera guy is no sissy,” he must have thought. So, he told Deborah, “I’ll only go if you go with me.” Was Barak acting like a sissy by insisting she support him?

“Sure, I’ll go with you,” Deborah said. “But because you’re being weird about it, it won’t be for your glory. God will hand Sisera over to a woman.”

The men in this story are nothing without the women. But that’s how it has been from the beginning.

“It’s not good for man to be alone,” the LORD had said when he made Adam, the first man (see Genesis 2:18). “I will make a helper for him.” How was Eve to help him? Well, God had given Adam a job to do, tending to the garden of Eden. He warned Adam not to eat from the knowledge of good and evil, but the serpent deceived Eve, who in turn led Adam into temptation. Could he have resisted the forbidden fruit she offered to him?

Obviously, he should have, but he didn’t. The result was tragic: a life of grueling toil for men; hard child-rearing for women (raising them is ten times harder than giving birth); and a lifetime of slavery to sin. For they had both sinned against God and “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 3:23). However, Adam is the one who passed sin down to all of us  (Romans 5:19). Through his offense, death reigned (Romans 5:17).

Yet God did not look to fallen man to solve this problem, for it is not man but the devil who had the power of death. Adam was simply the one who handed it to him, after he listened to his wife who helped lead him into temptation. Satan had used a serpent to deceive Eve, who gave her husband bad advice. The Apostle John in Revelation 12:9 describes the devil or Satan as the old serpent who deceives the whole world.  

Deborah encouraged Barak to do the right thing and “resist the devil” if you will. The devil in this case was working through Jabin and Sisera to keep God’s people in bondage. Deborah was not deceived but believed what God had spoken to her. She knew that God had called a man to battle this devil. He wasn’t strong enough to do it by himself, however. The job required a woman’s touch.

Jael, a woman Sisera trusted, helped lure this devil to his doom. He was deceived into believing that she had his best at heart. But while her enemy was sleeping, she took a nail and crushed his head, thus bringing deliverance to the people. By way of a metaphor, she parallels the virgin Mary, who helped fulfill God’s promise given in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee (the serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed (Jesus); he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” The Hebrew word for “bruise,” which some translate as “crush,” carries with it the idea of breaking or overwhelming. Satan bruised Jesus’ “heel” upon a cross, but Jesus crushed Satan’s head.

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:14