Today my
mom, sister and I were out shopping. A man was highlighted to my mom so she
asked him if he was in pain. Come to find out the man had bad sciatica pain(
and a lot of other problems). My mom asked if we could pray for him. He and his
wife both said they believed in healing and that they had been pastors. We were
also in a Christian book store, standing by the bibles and worship music was
playing. We thought that you couldn't ask for anymore! This will be easy then!
We
prayed and asked him to check it out and his pain went down! But immediately
the couple said that they believe that sometimes God chooses to not to heal
people for the purpose of teaching the afflicted and others around them.
They then continued to preach their warped belief of God. But wait there is
more! The man said that in a few years everything would be ok because Medicare
would kick in and everything would be ok and he would be "fixed".
The
three of us just stood there…the man felt God take away some pain, but decided
to believe that God had given him the pain and that in a few years Medicare was
going to heal him. Wow.
This
belief is common in the church. The church believes that our loving God would
hand out sickness and pain. And what puzzles me is that the church defends this
belief! They say "Well Paul had a thorn in the flesh so that must
mean it was from God." I'm sorry, but would please go read your
bible? If you took the time you would see that the "thorn" was not
from God but the devil (2 Corinthians 12:7).
Even so
the church wants to say that that one verse trumps what Jesus did on the cross.
I was under the impression that Jesus paid for everything on the cross once in
for all. He defeated death. Sickness and pain is slow death. So why
would one verse from the bible cancel out all that Jesus did on earth and the
cross? Why would you even follow the belief system that states that
God punishes people with pain and sickness in order to teach you something?
Another
thing the church has done is say that their pain/sickness has been given to
them so that they can have a ministry. Ok if that was the way it went, why
didn’t Jesus have pain and sickness all the time? Think about it.
Why
would a unbeliever want to join a belief that says God puts cancer on those he
loves? Just to simply "teach" them a lesson?
"If you believe that God wants you to be in pain so He
can teach you a lesson, then you have a twisted and warped view of God. Just
saying it how it is."- J.M. Schiele
God
is love. He has always been a God of love. There is no evil in Him. He is a
father who loves His children.
My heart
hurts for people who believe this. As Christians we hold the answer to
all sickness and pain. That is Jesus. He lives inside of us! There is
hope for every single person. His life paid the price so we could live a full
healthy life.
Whatsoever
Think.