Susan Sinclair shares this news: Jim and Erma Cudney were pleased to have unexpected company Saturday night, as their daughter, Cindy Winslow, called up a spur of the moment gospel music session with her brother, Craig Yeager, on electric guitar, Sue Brown on piano, Violet Lakey on violin, and Susan Sinclair on acoustic guitar. The following day after church, Cindy, Sue, Susan, and Craig joined with Mary Baumgardner and played music and made a joyful noise for the folks at the Heart of the Ozarks Healthcare in Ava. We appreciate the residents of the nursing home inviting us into their home and sharing in the experience of singing to our God who loves us so much.
My heart reaches out to those folks and their families who either live in, or have a loved one in a nursing home somewhere. It is not God’s will that any Christian be ill or diseased, just like it is not His will that any person be lost, which brings me to a point: Can we agree that it is God’s will that everyone is saved? II Peter 3:9 says: The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us–ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. John 3:16 says: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Yet, people die by the thousands every year not having accepted Jesus as their Lord. Is that God’s will? No! Scripture shows our God is a loving God and He wants every person to be saved, and at the same time – please grab on to this – scripture points out that Jesus bore our sickness, and carried our pain.
God wants us whole and healed, and Jesus has already provided the provision for us to receive healing, so why are so many Christians sick and diseased? The New Testament says that Jesus healed every person that asked Him for help and He does not change; scripture says about Him in Hebrew 13:8: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Jesus never, never placed sickness on a person – He healed the sick and forgave sins.
There are several reasons Christians get sickness and disease. Here are a few, but not all. One, when we sin it opens us up to attack by the devil. Two, we do not resist the devil’s attacks (James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.) Speaking words of death rather than words of life (or not agreeing with God’s word), and lastly, unbelief, can affect receiving healing. Unbelief is not the same as little faith and Jesus has a way to combat this problem today.
If we read further Jesus tells us how to overcome unbelief. He says in Matthew 17:21: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting? He was not talking about the unclean spirit going out by prayer and fasting, He was talking about the unbelief. Unbelief goes out by prayer and fasting. This may explain for many, one of the reasons scripture calls us to fast and pray – it is to rid us of unbelief so we may receive the healing of God. Until next time, God bless you and your loved ones.
Carol Boeddeker-Genet: It has been a rather quiet week at my place. I did enjoy a nice phone visit with neighbor, Bob Wagner. He has been a bit under the weather, so to speak. I saw the Dugan family for a few moments in town. It used to be that people visited in person and made the time to do so. However, it seems television, computers/internet, phones, making a living, etc. has become the way of life and taking up our time instead of communicating in person. In this day and age we don’t have to harness the horse, regardless the weather, to get around. Still, visiting just isn’t as it used to be and I am as guilty as the next person.
My son, Randy, and granddaughter, Regina, kept busy this week hauling hay, working some cattle, and etc. Regina bought another bottle calf so she now has a few calves to keep her busy feeding and barn cleaning. They had the sweet little bobtail cat spayed. Wish more people would do that! It is upsetting to me to see homeless animals. I’ve been putting Randy’s records together for tax filing. Times like that I wish I had a calculator that had paper strips to double check my work. This week I’ll tackle my own paperwork. It isn’t that much, but I do keep track of all expenditures on columnar pads so at the end of the year I know where the dollars went.
Rex stopped by for a visit a couple of times on his way home from work. On one visit he managed to get my printer working again. Any time I need computer/printer help it is Rex who comes to my rescue although, I often have to wait due to his work hours. Mickey Wharton and son got out here and repaired my dead refrigerator. Sad thing is that I had to throw away a lot of food that thawed in the freezer section. The morning I realized there was a problem Rex stopped in and took a large basket of food to put in their freezer for a couple of days.
May God bless you and keep you safely in His hands.
