Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Thanks Guys
There
are so many great places in the world where caring people help other
people. As we pause to give thanks this
November, it might be prudent for us to recall the love and sacrifice that are
behind so many ministries and institutions.
I am thankful for those people who have given their money, efforts, and
sometimes even their lives to establish hospitals, homeless shelters, food
banks, counseling centers, learning centers, and healing homes.
One
such New Englander was Dr. Charles Cullis.
He was born on March 7, 1833 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and "was the
first to come before the American public in this unique ministry. A man of deep
piety and clear thought, he found that prayer was a means of physical
quickening, not alone by its subjective influence, but that resting upon the
promises of God, a power for healing was being manifest in his ministry. Being
well-trained in the system of diagnosis, he was fully qualified to pronounce
the character of the disease with which his patients were afflicted. (http://healingandrevival.com/CullisMacKenzie.pdf)
In
1862 Cullis visited one of the Tuesday Meetings for the promotion of Holiness
started by Phoebe Palmer. Cullis began to search the scriptures and they came
alive for him in a new way... Cullis came into a conviction of personal
justification through Christ alone. He felt called out of the Law into the
grace of God. Depression lifted and a new life of peace, joy, and faith began.
One day Cullis was reading the Bible when the words "every man his
work" from Mark 13:34 jumped off the page at him. Cullis began to feel
that God was calling him to open a home for incurable consumptives as the
"work" God had for him.
The
house opened in 1864 to care for the hopeless, homeless, destitute and dying.
He soon added a second house and then two more. The sign over the door simply
said "Have Faith in God." Over the next several years Cullis added a
worker's home, a cancer home, a spinal home, an orphanage, a mission, a chapel,
a Faith Training College, and supported the Beacon Hill Church on Bowdoin
Street in Boston. The Willard Tract repository was also created for printed
gospel material. Cullis started two major regular publications... Faith was
stretched to the limits, over and over, as funds would dwindle to nothing, and
then God would miraculously provide. Cullis also supported holiness and
temperance works, often speaking at Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
Meetings. On top of that Cullis was on the Board of the Massachusetts
Homœopathic Medical Society, which would establish a New England Homœopathic
Hospital and eventually the New England Homœopathic College. This College is
now known as the Boston University School of Medicine." (healingandrevival.com/BioCCullis.htm)
Wow! What an amazing guy. The rest of America may not think of New
England as the Bible belt, but many great moves of God have taken place here
and many believers have expressed their faith by ministering to their fellow
man. Imagine what a difference it would
make for someone if you helped them find a place of healing. Many have gone before us doing just that -
thanks guys!
Friday, November 01, 2013
A Cure For Blindness
At
times it may seem like the world has gone mad and doesn't even know it. Headlines and popular entertainment venues
read like a horror story. Yet, when someone voices concern, they are often
considered prudish or hateful. How is it
that mankind can engage in rampant immorality and celebrate it as a "new
normal"? There appears to be an
epidemic of spiritual blindness.
Here
is an extreme example that makes my point. In 1990 serial killer and child
molester, Westley Alan Dodd, said this in open court: "I must be executed
before I have an opportunity to escape or kill someone within the prison. If I
do escape, I promise you I will kill prison guards if I have to and rape and
enjoy every minute of it." He went on to say that if he ever escaped from
jail, he would immediately go back to "killing and raping kids." How does someone become that cruel and hard? What causes their blindness, and what is the
cure?
The
Bible analyzes the problem like this: "Sin whispers to the wicked, deep
within their hearts. They have no fear of God at all. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how
wicked they really are. Everything they
say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do good. They lie awake at night, hatching sinful
plots. Their actions are never good. They make no attempt to turn from evil."
(Psalm 26:1-4 NLT)
The
root problem is that they are conceited and have no fear of God. That is, they
have no awe or respect for God. They are
blind to God's greatness and unaware of their weakness and foolishness. But their blindness is curable.
The
same Psalm describes the cure: "Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as
the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is
like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people
and animals alike, O LORD. How precious
is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your
wings." (Psalms 36:5-7 NLT) Please
notice that God is so loving and kind, he even loves animals. But people have such a special place in his
heart that he came and died for them. He
came to love mankind and to cure his spiritual blindness. The cure for this blindness
is God's love, when man responds to it in faith. Eyes are opened when people choose to believe
in a loving God, in the midst of a broken world.
If
we are to believe his testimony, Westley eventually discovered that love. In 1993 shortly before he was executed Dodd
said this: "I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no
peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord, and you will find
peace.” Westley may been spiritually
blind for most of his life, but if he really did come to know God, his eyes
were opened for eternity. There is a
cure for this kind of blindness and it starts when someone begins to humbly
seek God and open their heart to his amazing love.
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