The Celtic people speak of “thin places”, places where the distance between heaven and earth seems to disappear and the two worlds are able to touch one another

   Mother Tracy spoke:    “The Celtic people speak of “thin places,” places where the distance between heaven and earth seems to disappear and the two worlds are able to touch one another.

“The church teaches that the Eucharist and the other Sacraments are some of those thin places where, however briefly, we can touch heaven, but the church’s sacraments are by no means the only means by which we can touch heaven.  

“I’m sure that each of you could name other “thin places” in your lives where you feel the presence of God is particularly near to you.  

“And so as we commend Geoff to God, I pray that each of you would know the comfort of touching those thin places – places where you may be still and rest in God’s presence, where you may even feel Geoff’s presence with you. 

“And in touching those places, may you know in the depth of your souls the truth of the Gospel:    that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  

The above is a portion of  the  sermon given recently  by Mother Tracy at St John the Baptist Episcopal Church  in Aptos celebrating the life of Geoff  Nickel, son of Suzanne Krakover-Nickel.  About  200 people from the Aptos and Santa Cruz CA community attended the  memorial service for Geoff.

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Pill bottle re-cycle? Matthew 25 Ministries! Get your church to collect ?

 

pil bottle oneDo you take pills?

Matthew 25 Ministries wants your empty, clean, no label  pill bottles.

From there, your pill bottles will go throughout the world! Wow!

And, thank you!   Let us know if you’d like a Prayer for Your  Healing ….    let us know!

Prayers for healing, evening prayers at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church most week days at 5 to 5:30.  See you there!  Ask for a prayer!

DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Does your church want to participate?

What one California church did recently: 

St. John’s episcopal church in Chula Vista CA just sent 11 pounds of pill bottles to Matthew 25 Ministries.  The church  started their collection of pill bottles about 2 months ago.  Ted Owens is the contact person there:  Ted.Owens@yahoo.com

_________________________

Matthew 25 Ministries

11060 Kenwood Rd, Blue Ash, OH 45242

Phone information for  M25M:   513 793 6256

E-mail info for M25M:   breckinpaugh@m25m.org

 

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Flawed choices & weak leadership why St. John’s dissolves the Helpful Shop Board?

man chooses orangeChurch boards can be managed — and its  decisions shaped —  when limited choices are offered  in a highly  controlled setting.

Especially so  when there might be a church bully or two lurking in the background.

Recognize this scenario?   Many parents have engaged in this:    Ok  kids — do you want your bath before or after diner?

Similarly,  the board of   St. John the Baptist Episcopal  church  in Aptos, CA was told  to decide between two choices:     a) keep the Helpful Shop Board in place or b) immediately dissolve it? And you are  here until you decide yes or no.

Other choices were possible — such as   get more information from the Helpful Shop Board  before making the decision. You know, actually talk to the players. Mmmm.

The eleven member church board   had already been wrangling  for months with emails flying back and forth between meetings.  In effect, the board members do business between the official meetings.  That causes problems.

Those squabbles  would likely continue if  they choose to keep the Board in place. To immediately dissolve the Helpful Shop Board might seem like a tantalizing choice — maybe the problem would disappear and, ah,  just in time for the church to welcome its new Rector.

Know that scenario where the priest shows up unexpectedly and suddenly the Bible appears on the coffee table, a quick dust of the room,  and all the clutter gets shoved behind the couch. Clean up, clean up time ….

In the analogy above, the kids could have asked for different choices — a)  no bath or   b)  bath put off a day or two or c) a sponge bath of  just feet and hands.

What does the Helpful Shop Board say?  No one from the current leadership was asked.   Come speak to the St. John’s Board Vestry.     Why not ask the people who have done it for the last 10+  years   come and express their views?  Ask the Helpful Shop Board how the Vestry and they can  work together.  That did not occur.  

The decision to either dissolve or keep in place was held in a controlled setting — sitting in the sanctuary in  total privacy.  and everyone present  knew that the meeting would go on and on  until they took a vote. One person asked to table the decision but the votes were not there.   After three hours the board voted to dissolve the Helpful Shop Board  8 to 2 with one  person  abstaining. No unanimous decision there.

Having had a reportedly excellent ‘discernment’ process lead by an outside professional in choosing the next Rector  the church leadership could have asked episcopal  Bishop Mary  for the same person back to deal with this major, on-going, long term  squabble.  Nope.

The current leadership — soon to depart   interim priest Merritt Greenwod (April 2, 2017)  and wardens Bill Kell and Andrea Seitz — shaped the choices offered to the church  vestry board:   either continue as is or immediately dissolve the Helpful Shop Board.   After senior warden Bill Kell lead off,  Jon S   set the tone as he spoke first. Ah – the power of first impressions …

Some information about Jon S  It was Jon S on the St. John’s Bylaws  committee who — aided by interim priest Merritt Greenwood —  pushed for substantial changes to the 2014 church bylaws. The Vestry decided at their meeting in  November 2017 — just before elections in December — to accept the nomination committee’s recommendations. Jon  S was the chair of the nominating committee.

Unaware of the proposed new changes to the Bylaws, people seeking to be nominated  in Dec. 2016 followed the 2014 Bylaws which  were posted.  However, the ‘new’ Bylaws were used to determine who could be nominated to the Vestry.   Four months later – in March, 2017 — the proposed Bylaws  have just recently  been sent  to the Diocese for review.

One issue — which affected the Dec. 2016 elections —  is whether St. John’s episcopal church can require a documented  contribution to the operating fund of the church in order to run for Vestry.

Based on comments of some,    Jon S exerts substantial  behind the scene influence — meddling and  frequently bossy   —  as to how  church decisions are made. Some people describe him as a bully. Some describe him as terrific and that he makes great changes.  More than a handful of people say that for  several years Jon has sought to gain access and  control over the monies given out by   the Helpful Shop. Some say that he simply likes to ‘win’.   In his interactions with people, on occasion, Jon  can be literally   ‘in people’s faces’.

So what really happened at the meeting wherein the church vestry killed the Helpful Shop Board?

One narrative  of what  occurred at the closed  meeting  was written by junior  warden Andrea Seitz and published in a newsletter March 23, 2017.  This version by Ms.   Seitz  says zip — nothing — as to who authorized her to publish this  narrative.    [Should you Google  a job description for episcopal church  junior warden —  what’s published  is different from that of Clerk of the Vestry.]

The official  version concerning the demise of the Helpful Shop Board will eventually be published by the Clerk of the Vestry.  The Clerk  routinely sends  out a draft, gets back proposed changes and then  publishes.

______

Aptos Psychologist:  What say you?  Churches do hurt people.  Spiritual abuse does go on.  Some churches  kill their sheep one by one…. Good heavens!

________________

March 26, 2017 — Email  sent to  St. John’s membership:

Vestry Meeting, March 14, Summary by Andrea Seitz, Jr. Warden

“The Vestry is busy planning for Merritt’s departure and working toward a smooth entry for our new Rector, Mother Tracy. At our last meeting several actions were taken to assist with this goal.

First, we agreed to send the by-laws that have been worked on this year to the Chancellor’s Office for review. There are still areas that need to be worked on, which will be dealt with in June when Mother Tracy can be part of the discussion. Those deal with what qualifies as parish membership, what qualifies as voting membership of parish and who is qualified to run for Vestry position. If you would like to give input into these areas please come to the June meeting. (Ed. Note: June 13, 2017) You may also speak with me about your preferences.

Second, Don Zimmerman, representing the Personnel Committee presented a job description for the Helpful Shop manager. The job description was approved and the church office will have a copy if you would like to see it.

 We also increased the Administrative Assistant’s work hours to nineteen to allow her to go to the Post Office to check our new post office box twice a week. Helpful Shop Grants Award Brunch

Several Vestry members attended the Helpful Shop Grants Brunch ……

 Andrea Seitz continues:  While at the brunch it became apparent from some of the questions and comments directed at me that there is still information in the parish and community that is inconsistent with the actual purpose, process, and intent of the Vestry’s decision to dissolve the Helpful Shop Advisory Board (HSAB).

[Andrea Seitz writes]   I hope the following Information will clarify. The Discernment Process Used to Come to a Decision. The Vestry took the action after using a discernment process that has been part of St John’s decision making tool kit for decades and used recently by the Search Committee and the Vestry during the selection of our new Rector. For this issue, it began with prayer and then two questions were discussed. The first was “What are the reasons for leaving the Helpful Shop Board in place?” And the second was, “What are the reasons for dissolving the Helpful Shop Board.” This format was not one of debate or argument, instead each person took turns answering each question, one at a time, while everyone else listened carefully. The process continued until everyone had the chance to say everything they wished to say. It was very respectful and orderly.

At the conclusion, each Vestry member voted a secret ballot, and the decision of the whole Vestry was reported out….”  [Andrea continues]

In response to Andrea Seitz’s narrative, Win Fernald – in charge of the Search Committee for a new Rector — sent an email (in batches of 12) out to the entire church.

March 5, 2017:  Win S. does not want his Letter published on Monterey Bay Forum and — to respect his wishes —  his Letter has been deleted.

Win’s Letter started:   

Dear member of St. Johns ….

________________

Correction 4/1:  The Nominating Committee did not have a chair and consisted of  three members exiting the church Vestry (governing board). Jon S was chair of the Bylaws Committee.

___________________________

Addition:

On  Wed. April 5, 2017  there was a  brief exchange of words between  Win F. and  C. Jackson.   You agreed not to publish my letter Win F. said to C.  Jackson  as he brought  in a table for the Soup Supper setup.       No,  C.  Jackson responded  and said what she remembered.  Did you read my email to you?  inquired Jackson.   No,   replied  Win.

Ah, such is email!

A portion of what C. Jackson wrote to Win F. regarding prior  publication of  his Letter:

“Win,  I hope that  this helps — feel free to forward as you like.  In our 10+ minute phone conversation, you told me that you sent your letter by  email  (in groups of twelve)   to everyone in the church.   Surely you know that  anyone receiving  your email can hit the FORWARD button and off   your letter goes to  many more  additional people —  to  anyone on the Internet.    By   publishing in the manner you did,   your letter t became a public document.

[To Win] “In our  10+ minute phone conversation, you did not  explicitly  ask  or say don’t publish.      At one point,  I asked you if publication would be helpful and you  said that you did  not think so.   That’s not an agreement.   

[written to Win,]  Had you asked me,   I probably would have agreed. I really do want to be respectful of what people say. And respectful   of what   individuals  don’t want published.   Without going into the  why of it  —  I cannot readily ‘erase’ what is published on Monterey Bay Forum.       

[ written to Win] “Via  the church  email sent to the parish community,    junior warden Andrea  Seitz  wrote her narrative   in response to questions from the community  and the  church.     And, you wrote your letter  in response to Andrea.    Thus,  it made sense to me to publish both.  

 “ Surely, you and Bill Kell et al   understand   that the    “greater community”  is interested, involved and concerned  regarding the Helpful Shop, how it functions and how it’s doing.    In a real sense – and a  very important sense —  the  “greater  community” concerned about the Helpful Shop   is part of   “the family”  Bill Kell refers to.  So who is “family” and who is not ….?

 About this “family” Bill Kell refers to.  I too am part of  it.

Actually – “flock” is a better term than “family”.    There may be a black sheep or two  in a “family” —   not so in a “church flock”. Everyone in a  “flock” is a  legitimate member of the flock.  

Win — “Rather than you as intermediary, as part of the church “flock” Bill Kell and others   can get hold of me directly and easily.    I do listen.  And I  try to do the best I can to write honestly about actions that affect our local community  and our  church “flock”.    Which includes  writing about the demise of the Helpful Shop Board.    This may not be the answer you want, I hope  it  helps.Thanks —  Cameron Jackson [So far there’s been no response.]

take away

Take Away from the  above?  Conflict is normal. Listening and  talking back and forth are normal ways to address conflict.

Churches  mange conflict in a variety of ways – some helpful  and some not so helpful.

The ‘discernment’ process that St. John’s in Aptos, CA  used  to decide the fate of Helpful Shop Board is one wherein each member  was expected   to speak — one by one — as to what they think.  There was  no cross talk or  general discussion of what someone else said.

St. John’s ‘discernment’ re what to do with the Helpful Shop Board  –keep in place  as is or eliminate it — was  based on a series of monologues. Not a discussion.

Churches are a bulwark in America. Free and open discussion of issues are helpful in the long run.  Right? One hopes so.

Just don’t publish something  — anything — that someone might deem  negative or showing that there’s difficulties  in this particular  church seems to be the mantra at St. John’s.

The early Christian church was full of problems reading the epistles which Paul wrote  to the various churches. And when there were difficulties people got together and discussed issues.  Seems to me that’s still the better way to deal with conflict.  Use the tried and proven ways of 2000 years ago  to resolve conflict?  Sounds good to C. Jackson.  Agree?  Disagree?    written  by C. Jackson   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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healing: being in the presence of God

healing-as-silence-beofre-god

 

Practicing the Presence of God for Healing
An Alternative Way to Celebrate Christian Healing in a Public Format
By The Ven. Larry Mitchell
Text of his talk for the OSL Online Telephone Conference Call on May 18, 2014
What would happen if the only active role we played was to reassure the person that they are in God’s presence and that God knows their need and knows exactly what to do for them… then to invite them to rest in the presence of God and to allow the Spirit of Jesus to fill, to surround and to heal them?
A

In the very beginning of Genesis we are told that God’s Spirit or Presence moved across the face of the earth bringing into being the world and all living beings, and that God was happy with creation because it was just as God meant it to be, perfect, whole and without blemish.  It wasn’t very long however, before the story changed and things began to come apart as we read about evil, sin, sickness, and disease, destroying that which God created to be perfect.

The Bible however does not leave us without the hope of a solution to this human dilemma because at the beginning of John’s Gospel, which we could call the story of re-creation we are told that the “word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  God’s solution to bring creation back to the way it was meant to be was to send His Son, Jesus to become God’s presence in our midst as the word of life, and the Saviour and healer of the world. Genesis talks about creation and how humankind messed it up, and John gives God’s response by talking about re-creation and God’s solution to heal and restore it.   The story of recreation and renewal is rooted in and nourished by the fact that it is a result of God’s healing presence in our world.

The power of the healing presence of God is found in all of the healing stories.  As an example, in Mark 1:21-28, in the healing of the man with an unclean spirit the evil spirits recognized that when they were in Jesus’ presence they were also in the presence of Almighty God and that is why the evil spirit cried out, “What do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth, …I know who you are, the Holy One of God!”  At Jesus’ command the evil spirit threw the man down on the ground and then left him.  To prove that Jesus was sent to heal and restore us back to God’s original purpose in the healing stories one thing stands out and it is that in the presence of Jesus as in the presence of God evil, sickness, disease and sin cannot stand or remain because they are totally inconsistent with the will of God.  Healing consistently happened with Jesus because the presence of the living God dwelt within him and when evil, sickness, disease and sin met up with the presence of the living God in the life of Jesus they were conquered, defeated and destroyed.   Right from the very beginning of the Old Testament it is quite clear that creative and healing power flows in the presence of our creative and healing God and the New Testament is equally as clear in saying that that creativity and power resides in the life of Jesus and in the lives of those who are in Jesus.

The Bible continues to impart God’s healing message of love in the world today and the church is to proclaim it and to become an earthly vessel for God’s healing presence as it reaches out and tells the world that it is God’s will to heal and that God’s gift of healing comes to us in and through the presence of Jesus in our lives.  For Christians, the presence of Jesus stands at the centre of everything we do and is the message of everything we proclaim and the result of that proclamation is always renewal, restoration and healing.

Our OSL group just finished studying “Finding Hope and healing in the Bible” by Roy Lawrence.  In that book, in the framework of healing and the possession of healing gifts, Roy made the following comment:

“The scriptural centre point of the healing ministry does not lie in the possession of special gifts but in the practice of the presence of Christ.  ….Being a Christian involves ‘union with Christ’ – literally the experience of being ‘in Christ’ and the heart of the Christian healing ministry is union with the healing Christ.  We are called to be infected by his healing nature and then to pass on that infection to others.  It is a ministry for all Christians, irrespective of whether we may or may not have an individual ‘gift’.  It is the prime mission of the church within this sick world.  The New Testament stresses that the resources behind this mission must never be underestimated.  Indeed the transforming power of union with Christ is such that according to St. Paul it can be described as nothing less than ‘new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17)  Page 106

Roy’s comment: “The scriptural centre point of the healing ministry does not lie in the possession of special gifts but in the practice of the presence of Christ and being a Christian involves ‘union with Christ’” rang true to some thoughts that I had been having and had tried to work with during the last few healing services that I had been asked to conduct. Since healing is a natural result of standing in the presence of the living God I wondered what might happen if our public services of healing were designed in such a way as to concentrate not so much on the ministry of prayer but on the ministry of the presence of God as a living reality in people’s lives.  I thought of how I and others had experienced the power of the healing presence of God in Mike Endicott’s Celtic healing service and wondered if there might be a way of facilitating that same atmosphere in a public healing service.

I decided to see if it was possible to design a public healing service in such a way that people could more readily experience the living presence of our healing God and experience the healing that flows not so much from our prayers but from simply being in the presence of our awesome God.  To do this the focus for receiving healing would be to come in silence into the presence of God and to allow God’s healing to flow.  I wanted to see if we could develop a way to help people become totally dependent on God for their healing and not on the healing service or on the ministry of the prayer teams.  I stressed the fact that the function of the prayer team was not to minister healing but to help the person focus on the healing presence of Jesus in their lives.  The team’s major role was to introduce the person to Jesus and then to get out of the way and watch Jesus do his work.  To do this we needed to develop a different approach to the practice of public healing prayer then we had become accustomed to practicing it.  In my experience the normal routine for prayer ministry was that a person would come forward and meet with a prayer team who would ask the person to state their prayer concern and then the team would pray accordingly asking God’s healing touch upon the person especially in the specific area of their lives that was their immediate concern.  My experience with this was that the prayer team might focus more on the expressed problem rather than helping the person to focus on the fact that they were standing in the presence of the healer.  I wanted to see what would happen if the only active role we played was to reassure the person that they are in God’s presence and that God knows their need and knows exactly what to do for them, then to invite them to rest in the presence of God and to allow the Spirit of Jesus to fill, to surround and to heal them.

To do this the prayer ministers were instructed to wrap the person in a prayer shawl which would symbolize being wrapped in the presence of the living God and then as a sign of the presence of living God working in their lives to anoint and lay hands on them to give them a sense of being surrounded and immersed in God’s love. In order to help the supplicant focus on God presence in their lives the prayer ministers were to say nothing except to reassure the person of God’s love and will to heal them and then in silence to just allow the Lord to minister his healing grace as they silently lifted the person up into God’s healing presence.

There are many ways that the church uses to minister the healing power of Jesus and most of us have seen people healed, restored and forgiven and equally most of us have seen people leave a prayer session seemingly in the same way that they came.  We don’t know why some people are healed through prayer and why others are not.  But I have come to believe that in any healing situation the reality is that most of the work is done and God’s healing has begun when a person makes and acts upon their decision to come forward to receive healing prayer.   I see that decision as the ultimate act of faith in the person’s life.  This has led me to believe that when one comes forward for healing verbal prayers are really not necessary because one can be confident that God is already at work and healing has begun and that God’s will for that person will be completed as that person is immersed in God’s healing presence.  How and when it will be completed is not our prerogative but is in the hands of the healing Christ.

One of the things that I have learned as I am sure that you all have about healing ministry is that Christian healing depends not on me but on God.  Approaching a service of healing in this way helps me to keep the focus on God and not on the person or on myself as a prayer minister.  I find that so often in a prayer situation that as a healing minister I was becoming frustrated because I was beginning to feel that the person’s healing depended on me getting things right which is totally ridiculous because I am not the one who heals and thanks be to God it is not in my mandate or yours to be the healer.  That is the mandate of Jesus and will of God in and through the ministry of Jesus.

To see how this might work in the context of a public healing service, we needed to deal with the logistics of the service.  To do this, chairs were set around the altar facing the altar which is the focal point of the Eucharist through which we receive healing as we take part in the Holy Communion.  Those who came forward for healing were seated as a chair became vacant.  Two clergy were given the responsibility to anoint each supplicant and lay people to wrap the person in God’s love and presence. Each person that came forward to receive healing would sit in silence facing the altar.  They would then be wrapped in a prayer shawl, anointed with the oil of healing and hands would be laid upon them as they were bathed in God’s presence.

In order to help people focus on God’s presence we played some quiet meditative healing music in the background during the prayer time.  After a period of time a minister would lead the congregation on behalf of the supplicants in an appropriate prayer for their healing.  We reminded them before they came forward to know in their hearts that God heals and wants to heal them.  As they were seated around the altar we encouraged them to rest in the presence of our healing God and allow the Spirit of Jesus to flow into them and around them… healing and restoring them to health and wholeness.

The power of this type of healing ministry was that there was no need to use words to persuade God to do something that is in the very nature of God to do anyway.  Noticeably different at these services was that one could sense in a most powerful way the presence of Jesus permeating the whole church, and instead of a few people coming forward for prayer… at least 90 to 95 percent of the congregation came forward. They were lined up in the aisle.  Something beautiful was happening not only in the lives of those who came forward, but also in the lives of those who did not.

The success and the real purpose of the healing ministry is dependant not on the effectiveness of our prayers but on the effectiveness of our ability to bring a person into the healing presence of Jesus. The power of the healing ministry truly has to do with resting in God’s presence and our role as healing ministers is to bring the person into that presence, introduce them to Jesus and then to stand back to witness the miracle of Jesus doing the work of healing.  As healing ministers it is not important or necessary for us to know what the person wants or should want or what we think God might want for the person we are there to be for them the tangible presence of the intangible God.  The most helpful thing we can do as ministers of healing is to bring a person into the healing presence of Jesus, help them focus on the healing Christ and then stand with them in silence and awe allowing God to speak and minister to them his healing grace.   You see we don’t have to have all of the answers in fact we don’t have to have any answers accept that God loves us and wants us to be healed which is the core of the Gospel as the old familiar hymn states so simply, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…”  Therefore we don’t need to feel responsible for praying all the right words because our role is to become for that person a tangible earthly presence through which the intangible heavenly God can and will act.   I have come to believe that it is true that God’s healing happens as we immerse ourselves in the healing presence of Jesus.

The wonder and beauty of the healing ministry is never if God will heal us but always when God heals us and that is the good news that we have for the world. As you have the opportunity to bask in the healing presence of Jesus just focus your life, your mind and your spirit on him and as you are wrapped in a blanket of prayer and anointed with the oil of healing know that you are receiving God’s gift of healing in your life.  Remember that God is love and God loves you and God’s ultimate act of love for you is to heal you and make you whole.  That is the Gospel and is the message of the cross which stands at the centre of our faith.  To that we say “Praise be to God, Amen.”

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Healing: Does God through Jesus heal today? St. John’s in Aptos CA

pain-with-hand-on-areaCome on now!  Does God through Jesus  and the Holy Spirit actually heal?

Can someone – Jesus –  help your  aching back?   Do people actually  get healed today — like the healing that happened to Saul  healed of blindness  by a lay person?

Ananias -- a lay person heals Saul of blindness
Ananias — a lay person heals Saul of blindness                                         Acts 9:17

Does the laying on of hands with Christian pray help?  Find out ….

What’s this Holy Spirit stuff?

Fourth in a series of weekly  discussions ….

Michael DeArmond addresses those attending the six week  series  ‘Who do you say I am?’ held 2/1/2017 at St. John the Baptist in Aptos, CA.

Michael  tells  some of his spiritual journey.  And, he describes remarkable, immediate  physical healings which  he has witnessed. On himself  — through prayer and the  laying on of hands — and  the healing of  another.

Next meeting  is Wed. Feb. 8 from 7 PM- 8:30 PM.    A 15 minute Personal Story is  followed by time for individual reflection on portions of the Gospel of John. Groups of five at a table  share their thoughts.

Contact adbooks@aol.com for more information.

Joanne Peterson
Joanne Peterson

 

 

 

 

Joanne Peterson shares her story next week.

The Feb. 2 meeting started with readings from the Gospel of John including:  

John 3:1-21New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believesmay have eternal life in him.”[g]

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned,but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

 

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healing through laughter?

anatomy-of-an-illness-cover

How  did laughter and ascorbic acid (vitatimin C) heal a man severely ill — the connective tissues of his spine disintegrating and in severe pain.

This is the true story of Norman Cousins.  The book is available through Amazon for one cent.

The book is priceless as a story of hope, faith and the body’s ability to heal.  It’s a book for anyone facing or assisting someone with major health issues.

From Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins

Monerey Bay Forum

127 Jewell Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
United States (US)
Phone: 831 688 6002
Fax: 831 688 7717
Email: jaj48@aol.com
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Hey God, right now we’re on our smart phones for healing now, OK?

     Let’s do the long distance healing today  that Jesus did.         healing

Yes,  use smart phones  for long distance Christian  healing says Anglican priest William DeArteaga and others.

All Christian believers have some abilities for healing.   Let’s collectively do it  — and working together  heal others with God’s help.  See DeArteaga’s writings:

   http://anglicalpentecostal.blogspot.com/2015/10/church-of-redeemer-healing-workshop.html

From the writings of William DeArteaga:   “A brief report on a TERRIFIC healing conference I was privileged to lead. It took place on Sat. Oct. 24, 2015  at the Anglican Church of the Redeemer, in Camden, North Carolina.

It was an all day workshop stressing the authority of the Christian to bring healing prayer to the community and use healing as an evangelistic tool. You can see an outline of the course from the excellent webpage the church prepared for this conference HERE. Some marvelous healing took place of allergies, bad backs, and more serious conditions such as paralysis.

A particularly beautiful incident happened during one of the prayer exercises. I had talked about how the Gifts of the Spirit help in the healing ministry, and about how back in 1953, Agnes Sanford, the great pioneer of healing prayer, was exhausted from praying for others.

Agnes  met with two of here friends, who were also into the healing ministry and also exhausted from constant prayer. They asked for God’s guidance and got, “Pray for the Holy Ghost.” They did so, two on two, two on two, and two on two. They all received a wonderful fresh infilling of the Spirit and refreshment to their bodies.

(The incident is told in my new book Agnes Sanford and Her Companions: The Assault on Cessationism and the Coming of the Charismatic Renewal. You can get it at a discount HERE I am sorry the price is still high – I did not set it)

We did a similar exercise. In one of the groups doing the exercise a young woman, Hannah, began singing in tongues very beautifully as she laid hands on a woman who had multiple illnesses. When she finished she sang again in English – interpreting what she had just said in tongues. I talked to the lady with the infirmities afterwards, and she said that as Hannah sang in tongues she received in her mind the interpretation, the very same words that she then repeated in English.

This was thankfully caught on video, you can check it out HERE

We added several new exercise to the workshop. One was to practice long distance healing by calling someone who is ill over the smart phone (a land-line will work as well). In each group a person called was surrounded by four to six persons in support. It was marvelous. The folks at Redeemer said they would continue doing this as they met in various Bible studies, vestry meetings, etc. (Does this give you an idea?)

The next exercise was wonderfully funny. I have been concerned that many persons are too shy to come to a person in a public place, such as a Walmart, and offer healing prayer. For instance, as when we see someone grimacing in pain or sniffling from a cold. The exercise was to do a “skit” with one person in the group demonstrating some illness, and a person who had NEVER done such a public prayer offer healing prayer. Talk about funny! One person feigned having a heart attack and fell on the floor. The shy person immediately went into prayer and raised him from the dead! (I apologize I did not take a picture of this, I was laughing too hard!)

________________________

The above is written  by Anglican priest  William DeArteaga   http://anglicalpentecostal.blogspot.com/2015/10/church-of-redeemer-healing-workshop.html

________________________

Monerey Bay Forum

127 Jewell Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
United States (US)
Phone: 831 688 6002
Fax: 831 688 7717
Email: jaj48@aol.com

God heals today in so many ways.

 

 

 

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Strips us to our core

Holy role strips us to our core
Holy role strips us to our core

Are you a caregiver for someone with a chronic illness?  This is a holy role. It  strips us to our core.  We encounter our patience or lack of patience, our forgiveness and inability to forgive.  We face our family dynamics.  Why am I the caregiver for this person who sometimes is so hard to love?   

What stress are you experiencing?  It’s important to monitor your own stress.

 These questions are from the  Caregiver Resource Network.

It’s important to monitor how you are doing.

Yes/ No  — During this last week I have:  

  1.  Had trouble keeping my mind on what I was doing.
  2. Felt that I could not leave my relative/ care recipient alone.
  3. Had difficulty making decisions.
  4. Felt completely overwhelmed.
  5. Felt useless and unneeded.
  6. Felt lonely.
  7. Been upset that my relative/ care recipient has changed so much from his/her former self.
  8. Felt a loss of privacy and/ or private time.
  9. Been edgy or irritable.
  10. Had sleep disturbed because of caring for my relative/ care recipient.
  11. Had a crying spell(s).
  12. Felt strained between work and family responsibilities.
  13. Had back pain.
  14. Felt ill (headaches, stomach problems, or common cold).
  15. Been dissatisfied with the support my family has given me.
  16. Found my relative/care recipient’s living situation to be inconvenient or a barrier to care.

If you answered yes to 8 or more questions, chances are that you have a high level of distress.  If fewer than 8 probably you have a low degree of stress.  

What are some ways that you handle stress?  Some possibilities:

  1.  Deep breathing exercises.  Google for more information how.
  2. Exercise:  run, walk, keep moving best you can
  3. Massage.
  4. Explore the arts:  music, drawing, needle craft, painting
  5. Connect with others via support groups, church, synagogue
  6. Books.  Try Traveling Mercies by Ann Lamott
  7. Meditation and reading spiritual resources

Check around for local resources where you can get support as you carry out this holy role.

Ephesians3:16:  I pray that  out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

chronic illness defined
chronic illness defined
tools for chronic illness
tools for chronic illness
chronic illness list
chronic illness list
massage
massage helps many 
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