Stone Kingdom Fellowship Report, Part 1
This past weekend I was making my monthly circuit to teach and meet with our Tennessee and Atlanta area fellowship groups. In both groups, we always have a time for members to share what the Lord has been doing in/through/for them—that is to say, testimonies and praise reports.
As is the case everywhere, our people are laboring under the curses of disobedience to God’s law (see Deuteronomy 28 et al. Yes, I know Jesus “redeemed us from the curse of the law,” but people still get hurt, contract diseases and die, don’t they? To believe that Christ’s atoning death means we can disobey with impunity is a false doctrine that has permeated the church—but alas, this is not the forum for a full-blown dissertation on the law.) Thus we find illness and disease everywhere: cancer, diabetes, heart problems, etc.
In our fellowships, we pray diligently and sincerely for healing. Sometimes the illness turns out to be fatal. Does this cause us to believe that God has not heard our prayers? No, of course not. Christians realize that there is a time appointed (predestinated) for each of us to go to our rest, and only the Father knows that time appointed. Thus, we always couch our prayers in terms of “Thy will be done.”
But sometimes, we are thrilled when Father works a miraculous healing in answer to our prayers. Last month, we prayed for Linda’s brother, Bruce, who had been diagnosed with a mass in his pancreas. From all appearances, it was pancreatic cancer, which is a particularly rapid-spreading and almost always fatal form of the big “C”—usually a three to four-month life expectancy.
You can imagine the “hallelujahs” erupting from our Atlanta fellowship last Sunday when Linda reported that a follow-up exam showed no sign of any mass in Bruce’s pancreas! Praise ye the Lord Yahweh!