HEALTH & HEALING

Health & Healing

‘You will surely say this proverb to Me, “Physician, heal yourself!”’ Jesus said those words to members of a synagogue after He had read them the following from Isaiah, ‘The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD’ Luke 4:18-19.

Your health! Mckenzie's in the Vale of Leven

It’s all very well if Jesus is able to heal others, but is He able to heal Himself? They mocked Him as He hung on the cross, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God’ Luke 23:35b. The message from the people is clear: What real use is a healer who cannot heal himself or a saviour who cannot save himself?

‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’ is a proverb that springs to mind. In other words, what real use is it to be healed of cancer only to die of something else? Cancer survivors are ecstatic when given the ‘all clear’ after a couple or so years. But for healing to be lasting it must be injected with salvation. Healing is only the signpost. Salvation is the destination. Who in the trenches of war would rather have a picture of their loved one instead of the reality the picture depicts?

That healing and salvation are related can be seen in the following words of Jesus, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance’ Luke 5:31-32. Sinners need a saviour as the sick need a physician. One way to cope with a life-threatening illness is simply to ignore it. But it will get you in the end! One way to cope with sin is simply to ignore it. But it too will get you in the end! Indeed, sickness and sin are related. To be sure, your own particular sins may not be that which brought on your sickness, but sickness is one of the clear symptoms of sin. Sickness and the pandemic of death that all humans ultimately experience are the result of sin.

God formed Adam the father of all humanity from clay. The batch of clay (humanity) became marred when Adam rebelled against God (Genesis 2:7; 3:17-19; Jeremiah 18:4; Romans 9:21). Like cracked bricks, there is something wrong with each of us. What David says applies to us all, ‘Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me’ Psalm 51:5. However, he also says, ‘For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb … My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth’ Psalm 139:13,15.

God could have destroyed all mankind in the fire, but instead has chosen to heal and to save it! In the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come’ (Matthew 6:10a). ‘And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them’ Matthew 4:23-24. Jesus said to Pilate, ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ John 18:36a. His kingdom is not about maiming and murder, sin and sickness, disease and death. Rather His kingdom is health and healing – as attested to by His miracles! As sickness is a reminder of the judgment to come, so healing is a picture of Christ kingdom to come.

Have you come to Jesus for healing and salvation, or just for the healing without the salvation – like nine of the ten lepers? (Luke 17:12-19). Jesus says, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life’ Luke 5:24. Death is the result of sin. The cure for the soul is in knowing that, even though you may die, you have passed from death to life! As Jesus said to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though He may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ John 11:25-26. How can Jesus be so sure of these things? Well, consider again the words, ‘Physician, heal thyself!’ Jesus said, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up … He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said’ John 2:19b,21-22. Only Jesus has power over sickness and death. Therefore only Jesus qualifies as Saviour! Physician, heal us!

A DOG, A BIRD, AND A DONKEY

Excerpted from my hardback From Mason To Minister by Nordskog Publishing Inc. - 

A Dog, a Bird, and a Donkey

I’ll never forget the dog we had when I was growing up. His name was Diamond. He was about the size of a Labrador with a black-and-white, medium-length hair coat. I suppose he was a Labrador/Border collie cross. He was called Diamond on account of a big white diamond formation on the back of his neck. He loved chasing seagulls and would start barking in the air at the mere mention of the word “seagulls”!

In his younger days, he was swift enough to give the rabbits on the hill at the back of Tullichewan in the Vale of Leven a run for their money. I was not impressed with Diamond the time he caught a baby rabbit and had it half eaten by the time I arrived on the scene! Otherwise our regular hill-walking together was great. Every young boy needs a dog!

The strange thing about Diamond was that at one point he had at least  three or four groups of people who thought they had some claim to him, viz., the Ewarts on whose farm on the east  side of Balloch Diamond had been born, Lynn’s Boatyard on the east ern shore of the River Leven at Balloch, a family at the front of Tullichewan, and my family who lived up the back of Tullichewan. Diamond would often go “walkabout” and could be found at various times lodging at any one of these places. Eventually we were accepted as the rightful “owners” of Diamond. However, this didn’t stop Diamond from wandering, eventually mostly between our place and Lynn’s Boatyard. “Bath time” for Diamond was a swim in the Leven. Like most, if not all dogs, Diamond had a penchant for rolling in smelly dead things. This made it hard sometimes to welcome him home from his travels!

Diamond got along famously with Jock, the young jackdaw I had found one summer’s day while going strawberry picking at Sir Patrick Telfer-Smollet’s orchard at his Cameron House estate. Jock was very friendly and all the kids in my class at Levenvale Primary School were suitably impressed by his antics when I was allowed to bring him in one day for Show and Tell. Jock the jackdaw just loved bright shiny objects. This led to a problem. My youngest sister, Mhairi, was about to be born. The big fear was that Jock would peck Mhairi’s eyes as she lay in her pram. Taking a 10-year-old’s jackdaw from him is like removing one of his limbs! But Jock the jackdaw had to go. There was a nice couple who lived in Caldarvan, a stop on the old and disused railway line to Stirling. Caldarvan is a fair few miles from Tullichewan. I was told I could visit whenever I wanted. I wanted to visit every day. I did manage the trip a few times, walking the many miles alone along the old line through the beautiful countryside. I can still hear the bees buzzing, and I can still taste the juicy raspberries, goose-gogs, and the green ground leaves we called “sourocks” that I found and ate along the way. These all served to keep me filled and happy on the trip.

I can’t say I remember ever finding the couple at home whenever I arrived unannounced at their place. Jock was never anywhere in sight either. However, the couple did own a donkey, so my long walks weren’t a total waste of time. I fancied myself as a bit of a cowboy. The donkey was my trusty steed. Only once did the donkey ever do anything more than stand in one spot with me astride his back. One day he decided that he would make a bolt for his wooden stall. As he dashed into his stall, I raised my arms and was left dangling from the crossbeam above the entrance. For some reason, the donkey was most  annoyed with me and let his displeasure be known with the usual donkey bronchial and asthmatic hee-hawing.

As the weeks and months went by, it was eventually communicated to me that Jock the jackdaw had gone missing and was presumed dead. I remember looking out my parents’ bedroom window toward Caldarvan and praying to God with tears - many tears! - for Him to send Jock back to me. Jock never returned. So I fell out with God, and, like a spoiled child holding his breath because he didn’t get his own way, remained in a huff with Him.

POLITICS & RELIGION

Politics & Religion

As in Scotland and Canada, so in Australia: a general rule of thumb is that politics and religion should be avoided in general conversation lest an argument ensue! What is a minister (whether political or religious) supposed to do? These are two of my favourite subjects! In the Christian-influenced West politics focuses mainly on State affairs and religion focuses mainly on Church affairs. Some refer to this as the ‘separation of Church and State’ by which term is meant that Church and State are sovereign spheres and operate as such.

Church and State are but two aspects of any one nation, i.e., one nation under God. These apply both tables of God’s Moral Law, but each in their respective sphere. The first four of the Ten Commandments focus on love for God and the last six deal with love for neighbour. Thus the summary of God’s Law is: Love God and your neighbour as yourself.

The nation that works best is one in which the Church and State are kept distinct but not separate. A nation is a family. It is also a political and a religious entity. It is one as the Triune God is one and it is many as God, the Triune God, is many. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct (not separate), so the spheres of Family, Church, and State are distinct (not separate). As in the Trinity, each sphere compliments and penetrates the others.

There are aspects of God’s Law that specifically apply to each of these three spheres, e.g., in the sphere of the Family it can be seen that the 5^th, Honour thy father and thy mother, and the 7^th, Thou shalt not commit adultery, have special application. In the sphere of the Church, e.g., the 2^nd, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, the 3^rd, Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain, and the 4^th, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, have particular application. And in the sphere of the State, e.g., the 6^th, Thou shalt not kill, the 8^th, Thou shalt not steal, and the 9^th, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, have direct application. However, if a nation is to remain united (i.e., one as God is one), then it would do well in each sphere to encourage the keeping of the 1^st, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, and the 10^th, Thou shalt not covet.

To be sure, no one is saved by their keeping God’s Moral Law. Jesus Christ is our only Saviour. However, about nations Scripture says, ‘The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God’ Psalm 9:17; ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’ Proverbs 14:34. It is the role of the State to reward good (righteousness) and punish evil (sin/crime). Whereas the Church holds keys, the State bears the sword. The former opens and closes Heaven to the nation’s citizens by the proclamation of the Gospel and the latter rewards good and punishes evil by upholding and enforcing the law.

Consider the 4^th Commandment as an example of where the Commandments overlap at a national level. The State could ensure that its citizens are given opportunity to have quality family time as well as time to gather as the Church to worship God, simply by applying and enforcing Sunday as the national day of rest. Of course, essential services would need to remain open, fire, police, ambulance, hospitals, not to mention the cows needing to be milked and the chickens fed etc. Duties of necessity and mercy still need to be performed.

The 10^th Commandment clearly demonstrates the need for the distinction between Church and State under God. The mere thought of the State trying to enforce this Commandment conjures up images of ‘thought police’ as  illustrated by the present ‘Political Correctness’ movement’s stifling ‘free speech.’ This happens when a State forgets or rejects its Christian mandate. The Reformation, to lesser and greater extents, set the law-abiding citizens of Western nations free from interference from Church and State. Citizens of nations that turn their back on God’s Law and Gospel are destined to return to the type bondage the pre-Reformation people experienced.

A nation has many aspects, three of which are Family, Church, and State. The Church has many aspects, three of which are the governing bodies of the board of elders (or Session), Presbytery, and Assembly. The State has many aspects, three of which are local government, state government, federal government. The more these spheres, Family, Church, and State, work in harmony with God’s Law as their basis, the greater the freedom for that nation’s citizens. For then everyone learns and knows the difference between good and evil, because each sphere is operating from the same manual. And when everyone knows the difference between good and evil, then the Church can do its job more effectively, pointing sinners to the only Saviour of sinners, Jesus Christ. By far the most obedient citizens in any God-honouring nation are those that have been reconciled to God in Christ.

If we are to honour God at a national as well as an individual level we will need to think nationally and talk more about politics and religion, not less! ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you’ Matthew 28:19-20.

ACCENTS

ACCENTS

I was just wondering to myself the other day about Etonian accents, and how people attend Oxford or Cambridge for a couple of years or so and come away with a Boris Johnson accent. (Johnson was born in New York City.) I’ve been in Australia for nearly twenty nine years and still can’t do anything that even remotely resembles an Aussie accent!

Like Donald Trump with his Queens' accent, I too have never shed the accent I developed during my formative years. However, unlike The Donald, I use two ways of speaking: one for public and the other for private. The other day I had to undergo an intrusive procedure at an X-ray clinic. I was very nervous. Upon seeing my obvious distress and hearing my accent, the specialist asked what part of Scotland I was from. Later, he asked me what part of Canada I was from!

Talking to my wife on my office phone she always knows whether I have company or not by whether I'm using my public or private accent. However, it's great visiting Scotland where I get to use my private accent in public! 

Accents are in the ear of the beholder! Our accent betrays our history and ethnicity to the hearer. It is appointed unto man once to speak. Then comes the judgment! Do I sound like a snob or a yob? Only the hearer gets to judge. What are the listeners’ presuppositions? For example, I find Etonian and such-like English accents very irritating. The Bronx accent is grating, as is the Brooklyn accent particularly exhibited by Bernie Sanders. Indeed, New York accents are not the most pleasant ones.

Strange as it may seem, though both New Yorkers, I find Donald Trump’s accent less irritating than Bernie Sanders’s. Therefore, judging accents must also have to do with actual words being communicated. Is the speaker trying to sound tough? Sophisticated? Educated? Do they sound condescending, like folk with an Etonian accent? This brings us into the ear of the beholder.

Stereotyping people on account of their accent is what we’re talking about. Are all New Yorker and New Jersians obnoxious loudmouths? Are all Australians uncouth? Are all Texans slow and dim-witted? Those who live in Britain view accents through the prism of the British class system: working class, middle class, upper class etc. Australians are very egalitarian when it comes to accents. They dispute minor nuances, (such as whether castle should be pronounced cossel or casel), but love oversea accents.

Before leaving Canada to live in Australia I asked a workmate if his accent was Australian. Turns out he was a Cockney. However, to my ears the Cockney and Australian accents were very much the same, that was until I settled in Australia. A stranger asked my wife and I a question on the street one day. My wife answered him. All I heard was something like ENSEEBONKIS. I wasn’t sure what language he was speaking. Afrikaans? Turns out he was an Aussie guy asking where the “ANZ bank is”. Well done wife! Then I began noticing that the New Zeelander accent was starting to sound quite different to the Australian! Prior to all of this, when I had first moved to Canada from Scotland, I thought all North American accents sounded the same. As time went by, I became very much aware of clear differences, north, south, east, and west. Therefore, accents definitely are in the ear of the beholder!

But meanwhile back to Donald Trump. To quote the English bard, “Clothes maketh the man.” Turns out that Shakespeare actually wrote, “For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” Same difference though. Take The Donald. He wears a suit. We expect people who wear suits to speak as if they were educated lawyers. He doesn’t sound at all like that. So, we must do a double take with The Donald. He sounds the same no matter where he is, whether on the golf course or at Buckingham Palace. What a gift! I thought speaking to others was all about knowing your audience. But President Trump has put paid to that theory! So, all you Australian Labor Party people. You don’t need to need to make sure that you have your hard hats on for TV soundbites. Just talk to us as you would normally do. Same for American Democrats from the north when they’re in the south. You don’t have to say “Y’all” all the time. You can identify with others just by being yourself while operating in the realm of your own accent. The Donald proves this!

To this day Scotland is plagued by men all tartan and tweed speaking Etonian English while in Scotland! One would expect a kilt clad man in Scotland to sound Scottish not English, but one digresses, doesn’t one? Quite!

When she was little, one of my three Canadian daughters used to try to impersonate a Scottish accent by saying, “Aye ock the noo!” I think it’s supposed to be, “Och aye the noo!” But close is good enough in throwing horseshoes, hand-grenades, and Scottish accents!

Regardless of your accent, surely the bottom line is this: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”