What happened? Coincidence? Chance? No. This is just one simple true-life anecdote that could be combined with hundreds more in which Christians have experienced God’s healing power in direct answer to prayer. Believers have experienced God’s amazing healing of cancer, disease, and other terminal illnesses. There is healing power in prayer. But it’s not just experiential evidence that proves this fact. It’s God’s Word.

What the Bible Says
James 5:14-15 tells us this: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”

The Problem:  Sickness
The passage makes it clear that one problem people face is sickness. Not much has changed in the 2,000 years since James wrote his letter. We still experience sickness, even though modern medicine has been able to mitigate many of the diseases and symptoms we experience.

The Solution: Prayer
The spiritual advice the Bible prescribes for sickness is prayer. First, the sick person calls for the leadership of the church. The leaders attend to the sick person. The action that they take here is very important. The main verb is to “pray over him.” The anointing with oil, an accompanying action, is a recognized symbolic act. Based on other New Testament symbolism, we understand that the anointing oil symbolizes the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18, Acts 10:38).

The Manner: Faith
Faith is an important component of prayer. Verse 15 tells us that “the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick.” Often, praying can degenerate into a mere wish list of what we want. Prayer is far more. Prayer is an act of faith in an all-powerful God. The prayer for healing is a prayer of faith.

The Result: Healing
What is the result of praying for the sick person’s healing? Answered prayer. The Bible states it in terms of a fact—“And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”

God does heal people. Prayer is the means. While we must not expect God to adhere to our desire that He heal every occasion of sickness that we experience, we must not neglect prayer altogether. The Bible commands it, and prayer does work.

There is no right or wrong answer to those questions. They are simply thought-provoking questions which Christian young people should think about from time to time. God urges believers to exemplify a certain kind of lifestyle. He doesn’t state it explicitly in terms of the kind of clothes that you wear or the type of music you listen to. He states it in terms of conformation vs. transformation. In Romans 12:2, it sounds like this:  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

When someone gives his or her life to Jesus, change immediately takes place. It is a change so powerful, so deep, that the Bible calls you a totally new person after becoming a true Christian (Ephesians 4:24). Becoming a believer affects the way we think (Phil 4:8), the way we talk (Ephesians 4:31-32) and the way we spend our time (Colossians 4:5). Everything changes.

Making Jesus a part of your life is simply a matter of following Him, obeying His Word, and depending upon His grace. No amount of effort, action, or following a set of rules will make you any better. Nonetheless, there are some practical ways that you can make Jesus part of your life.

1—Daily Bible Reading
A friend is someone you talk with, listen to, and have a conversation with. Is God your friend? If so, you ought to be listening to Him. The way to listen to God is through His Word. He wrote this powerful book, the Bible, and you can make Jesus part of your life by reading what He has to say in the Bible. Studying and meditating upon the Bible is one of the most powerful means to becoming more like Jesus in the way that you act, talk, and think.

2—Daily Prayer
Prayer is powerful. Prayer works. God speaks to us through the Bible, and He asks us to speak to Him in prayer. In fact, we are to be praying constantly (1 Thessalonians 1:2). Prayer is the God-given means of making requests, expressing our thanksgiving, and asking for help. Prayer is crucial. Don’t neglect it.

3—Regular Church Attendance
Church doesn’t make you a better person. Still, church attendance is an important way of life for the believer. By attending a Bible-teaching, God-honoring church, we are benefit from corporate worship, experience fellowship with other believers, and hear teaching from God’s Word. Attending church demonstrates that we love Jesus enough to spend some our time worshipping Him.

Jesus is not an optional add-on for the believer’s life. He is an integral component of everything we do. By incorporating these core practices in your life, you are making a statement to others, to yourself, and to Jesus Himself that He is important—He is part of your daily life.

Success in Haiti, says Christine, is different than success in the United States. Americans envision wealth, skyscrapers, and materialistic things, but the Haitians don’t need money, necessarily. They are run by corrupt leaders, and they need to be educated about proper nutrition. Christine also says that although the demographic reports say that people in Haiti are 80% Catholic, this is actually a Catholicism mixed with voodoo (a religion that is based on witchcraft).

Christine says that sometimes God does drastic things in order to get the attention of those who have strayed from Him. She says that the Haitians need a heart change that can only come from the Lord, because their entire mindset is ingrained in voodoo. She wants people to pray that missionaries would be sent who are willing to give the Haitians what they need and who will help in the Lord with love. She wants us to pray that God will open the heart of our nation to Haiti, because “the workers are few.” She also says that Haiti needs humble missionaries who do not have preconceived notions about what the Haitians need.

Christine says that God works in brokenness, and she hopes that the Haitians will be more open to Jesus after this disaster.

A recent news report from CBN by senior reporter George Thomas indicates that Christine’s hope is becoming reality. After telling the story of an 83-year-old Haitian woman who has been a voodoo priestess since she was 14, Thomas says that “the earthquake brought serious doubts about her religious practices,” and that she has made the decision to turn away from voodoo. She now regularly attends a Christian worship service. Pastor Camille, the one who took care of her after the earthquake struck, states, “‘So many people are accepting Christ…. Almost every day, right after the meetings some walk forward to proclaim their new faith.’”[1] So, we can see that this earthquake is not merely a horrendous disaster; it is a horrendous disaster that God, in His sovereignty, is using to bring newly humbled hearts into a loving relationship with Him.

While it seems as though a loving and just Father would do everything to prevent His children from enduring suffering, Jesus told His disciples during the Last Supper that they would have trouble. This is a message that has transcended the bounds of history through the pen of John, the disciple Jesus loved, and reached our eyes and ears. The message wouldn’t have made it this far if God didn’t want us to know and understand that we truly would endure trouble. But how can we take heart when tragedy strikes? Sometimes the grief simply seems insurmountable, and it causes us to doubt the love of God. Could it be that our doubt simply stems from a misunderstanding of God’s love and how He can use pain to make a difference in our lives?

The normal person would wonder, at this point, how pain can possibly be beneficial. When truly painful things happen, they are often completely beyond our control and miserably frustrating. It can sometimes be so bad that it causes us to feel as though life is no longer worth living. In the initial stages of grief over our pain, those of us who pray may ask God to either take away our affliction or take our lives. Those of us who don’t pray might languish for a long time before finding our solace in some earthly pleasure. This is a solace that, if we are honest with ourselves, is temporary because what we placed our hope in is temporary. As soon as this object is taken away, we are back to square one.

The apostle Paul is a wonderful example of this exact principle. This man had been through pain and frustration of a magnitude that many of us cannot imagine for the sake of the Gospel at the time he wrote 2 Corinthians. Not only that, but He had a “thorn in [his] flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment [him].” This man, like many of us, prayed that God would take away His affliction. And do you know what Christ said to Him? Christ, the loving and merciful Savior, said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Read 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10 to get the full story.

God allowed this to happen to Paul in order to keep him from becoming conceited. God brought Paul to the point of complete dependency on Him so that Paul wouldn’t think that he could do any of his ministry on his own, because frankly he couldn’t. Paul was called by God to minister to the Gentiles and served as a catalyst for the spread of the Gospel all over the world. This was not easy, and Paul needed to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit in order to endure it!

You see, if we are to serve God and fulfill His purpose for our lives, we must depend on Him for every ounce of strength. Pain brings us to our knees in order that we may have humility and realize that we can’t do this on our own, in dependency on other people, or in dependency on other things. The benefit that pain has to offer us is the opportunity to fall into God’s open arms, crying “Abba, Father!” He is there to bring comfort in the midst of our distress, and He wants to! He wants to have a relationship with you, and He is jealous for you. Let Him have your life, and you will never see your pain the same way again. You will have a loving and all-knowing Father to lead and guide you every step of the way. He holds the past, the present, and the future, and even if your pain feels as though it is needless, realize that He is big enough to use any circumstances, whether they are painful or not.

That sentence could win the “Most Obvious Statement of the Year” Award.  It’s obviously not so profound. Bear with me–I do have a point.

What does it mean?  As a young adult, modern society looks at you and lowers its expectations drastically.  After all, with the common perception of college students being what one finds on www.collegecandy.com (for ladies) or www.collegehumor.com (for men), why would anyone expect more?  Popular culture says you’ve got to engage in sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll to fit the stereotype.  Alex and Brett Harris, founders of www.therebelution.com, said in their book, Do Hard Things, that, “In today’s world, the ceiling for our youth is much closer to where the floor ought to be.”  We have become so numb, apathetic, and passive that we’re willing to allow popular culture to tell us how to live.  We allow ourselves to live through college as a four-year extension of high school, accepting little to no responsibility, only this time out from under our parents’ thumb.  Well, I’m proposing something new.

1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” This doesn’t exactly fit the images we’re flooded with every day, like “live life while you’re young” and “obey your thirst.”  Let’s take up this challenge. Let’s become examples of Christianity on our campuses. Let’s make people look at us twice.  Let’s change the stereotype. Let’s be the radicals. Let’s do the truly hard things.

I propose we become 412ers, young people taking up the reigns of leadership and igniting the world, changing the way people perceive us.  Start a Bible Study, begin tutoring other students, organize a mission trip, invite people to serve the community with you, start playing in your churches worship team, volunteer at the local homeless group, write a letter to the editor of your local paper, start a book club, listen to someone’s problems, the possibilities are endless! All you have to do is get up and do it. If youth around the nation can do this, we can change the definition of young adult.  Suddenly, it won’t be a bad thing.

Are you a 412er?

“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Awesome. Cool. Sick. Fun. Sweet. God. Song. Emotion. Whatever.

Now I ask you, what is awe? What composes the word ‘awesome’?

To remain academically honest, I looked up awesome. Here are some synonyms: amazing, appalling, breathtaking, ghostly, grand, hairy, imposing, majestic, solemn, uncanny, alarming, and astonishing.

Next I looked up simply awe, since my first answer was not satisfactory. This is what I got: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of God.

~(Thank You Dictionary.com)~

An overwhelming feeling of reverence, fear and admiration.

I present to you that our culture has taken the word awesome and degraded it. Do we ever recognize God’s awesomeness? Are we ever overwhelmed by his immense power? Are we ever overwhelmed with fear when we just begin to imagine what we deserve from such a powerful God? Are we ever truly in awe of His unyielding love?

God is an amazingly powerful God – He spoke the world into existence; and He’s omnipotent – all powerful. God is powerful. That speaks for itself. His power is so immense that He flooded the entire earth, it is so immense that He stopped time – held the sun in the sky – just so that the Israelites might have victory. He is so powerful, that when the Philistines so much as had the ark in their possession, disease broke out; so powerful, so holy, that the seventy Israelites that looked inside the ark when it came back died where they stood. So powerful, that he decimated Sodom and Gomorrah for their immorality. God is powerful; that much is clear.

Now think of what God could do with that power if He were not merciful, if He were to unleash His wrath on all of his deserving creation. All have fallen short of God’s glory, all have sinned, and all deserve death, deserve his wrath. That means that You and I are both at the mercy of that awesomely powerful God. We deserve His wrath, we deserve the worst kind of pain we could imagine, and worse. Just think of what happened to Christ. Okay, He suffered horrible things on earth. But that was nothing compared to God’s wrath. That was the wrath of Man. Imagine God’s wrath who is infinitely more powerful than we are. Imagine that and be filled with fear.

Finally, think of God’s love. His power is awesome, His wrath is awesome, but we yet live – why? It’s because God loves us. John 3:16 is a well quoted verse. It basically says that God sent His only Son to die by our hands, so that we may be with Him. God sent His Son, to suffer His awesome wrath, just so that we could be together with Him. Is that not awe inspiring love? So it’s not only the love that keeps us from suffering His wrath, but love beyond that; so that we can go to heaven and be with Him. Is that not amazing? Is that not awesome?

I submit that the main impediment for many agnostics is the problem of pain. Sometimes we, as human beings who are small and easily thrown by the winds and waves of life, simply have to ask the question, “Why?” “Why do I endure needless suffering day by day?” “Why did my loved one pass away so suddenly and unexpectedly?” “How many times and for how long do I have sit here and grieve loss and have my life interrupted by unnecessary pain that does nothing but impede my growth?” Aside from personal struggles, we may also ask, “Why would a god who is loving and merciful allow the pain and suffering that happens in the world today? After all, 15 million children die every year from starvation;[2] 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders annually;[3] not to mention the whole slew of natural disasters that continually takes place, inflicting massive amounts of death and injury on millions of innocent people. The mere existence of death in and of itself is cause for complaint. Wouldn’t an omnipotent God be able to prevent these things from happening? Wouldn’t a completely righteous God be just enough to do so?” These questions have the potential to lead one to the conclusion that either God isn’t really loving and merciful or He doesn’t exist altogether.

Because of the massive impact that these questions can have on a person’s faith, it is important for us to be sensitive to the importance of this issue. Some of us are strong like Job and can simply trust God’s sovereignty in any and every situation. That is a wonderful gift and an ability that should bring peace and joy to the lives of those who have it. But what of those who lack that ability? What becomes of their faith, and consequently, what becomes of them? It is important for those of us who are strong to not pass judgment on these people and to be empathetic and supportive of them in their time of pain and doubt. Sometimes they don’t need for us to accuse them of being faithless by questioning God, but they need us simply to love them and care for them to the best of our ability and by the strength and power of the Holy Spirit that is given to us. Then, when they are ready, we can embark on a beautiful journey with them of the discovery of God’s plan and purpose for their lives.

In the meantime, these people may want practical answers. Maybe you are enduring times of difficulty and pain and you are seeking answers to some of these questions for yourself. If so, know that you have no reason to be ashamed, but take heart in knowing that God will never leave you nor forsake you (Deut. 31:6) and he collects every single one of your tears in His own bottle and keeps them (Ps. 56:8). This God is a big God, bigger than all your pain and heartache. He cares for you, as is evidenced by the sacrifice of His son in order that your sins may be atoned for and you may have fellowship with Him (John 3:16). Be strong and take heart, and stay tuned for some more analyses of how pain could possibly play a positive role in your life and in the lives of others.

[2] http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

[3] http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html

There are a few reactions we may tend toward when confronted with this situation. Some of us, feeling awkward, may want to ignore the conversation. Others may have the opposite reaction and feel obligated to support her in every way, even if that means encouraging her in her decision to have the abortion. Those who feel strongly about the value of life may feel the urge to preach at her, leaving her with the feeling that there’s something wrong with her for even considering it.

In most cases, none of these reactions are advisable. What should you say, then? Well, here are a few suggestions that may help.

Things to keep in mind:
•    Your friend is going through a stressful event in her life—the last thing she needs is to be told how sinful she is for considering abortion.
•    Her world has likely been turned upside-down, and she probably cannot see past her current circumstances to the future consequences of her decision.
•    Even if she herself doesn’t want an abortion, she may be experiencing pressure from every side to have one—from her family, her significant other, her other friends and mentors. Even for someone who is strongly against abortion, this is enormous pressure!
•    Your friend is her own person with free will. No matter what you say or do, you cannot make her do the right thing.
•    Remember that dealing with a situation like this is a process, not a one-time event.

What you can do:
•    Pray—the most important action you can take in this situation is to pray (on your own and with her), not only for her comfort and wisdom, but also for your own discernment so that you can best help and minister to her in this difficult time.
•    Help her realize there is no need to rush her decision. This is a big decision that deserves much time put toward thought, counsel and prayer.
•    Be there for her—this doesn’t mean you have to support her decision to have an abortion, but you can still be there for her, caring for her emotional, and physical needs, etc.
•    Encourage her to acknowledge her beliefs in the value of life, in the value of her baby, in her own self-worth regardless of her circumstances. This will help her keep from making rash, emotional decisions she may later regret.
•    Help her develop a positive view of more desirable options: keeping the baby, or adoption.
•    Answer her questions—if she asks you questions, she may be struggling inside about her decision, truly wanting your opinion. Be gentile about how you handle her questions and be discerning; remember she is probably emotionally drained and doesn’t need another person to pummel her with their opinion.
•    Watch for red herrings—because she is going through a very stressful event in her life, she may be angry. If you detect this, don’t address the red herrings directly, but try to understand the real feelings and questions behind her words; this is where the real ministry will happen.
•    Talk through her greatest fears that contribute to her reasons for having an abortion. Then walk with her to find the right solutions to these fears.
•    Gently encourage her to do the right thing—this may be the hardest part, but aside from prayer, it is perhaps the most crucial. Try not to exasperate her, but until that point, make every effort to discourage the abortion.