Musings of a Medical Missionary

I re-found this blogpost from our friends working in the Ukraine. What do you think?
Spirituality and Medicine
11 Apr

I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1
Everyday medical professionals come face to face with the fact that we live in a fallen world. Everyday broken patients arrive in our clinics and hospitals looking for answers to their medical problems and hoping for healing. As the providers of care they turn to us saying “Please help me.” As Christian caregivers, does the service we offer differ in any way from that offered by the best secular caregiver?

Christian providers should provide the very best physical care but at the same time add a spiritual dimension. But what does it mean to be spiritual? I am reading a book by Paul Tripp entitled A Broken-Down House, Living Productively in a World Gone Bad that provides some insight.

Too often we associate spirituality with our external behavior, church attendance and participating in other ministry activities. If this is what Christianity is, how does this differ from any other religion?
Tripp defines Christian spiritually as nothing less than “a deep devotion to Christ, the fruit of which is a lifestyle of daily worship of him and active service in his kingdom.” As a result every aspect of our lives and medical work should demonstrate devotion to God and a self-sacrificing love of others.

The best way to recognize true Christian spirituality may be to look at how a false spirituality points us away from Christ. Tripp discusses five common ways in which counterfeit spirituality goes
wrong:

”First, it mistakes commitment to Christianity for commitment to Christ. I can serve and enjoy the externals of Christianity more than I serve and enjoy Christ. An example of this was the parable of the
Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee was a religious man and was in the temple praying, but his prayer was not an act of relationship with and submission to God.”

“Second, it mistakes bible knowledge for biblical wisdom. Knowledge and foolishness can live together, even though it seems they shouldn’t. Wisdom is something deeper than intellectual comprehension. Wisdom is something you live. You don’t show wisdom by demonstrating what you know. You reveal wisdom by the way you think, desire, choose, act, react, speak, and respond to the situations and relationships around you.”

“Third, it mistakes commitment to a system of theology and rules for Christian maturity. It is dangerous to define Christian maturity by how biblically literate and theologically knowledgeable a person has
become or to reduce it to how well we keep the rules. This kind of spirituality God vehemently rejected in the Old Testament, Isaiah 29:13. The grace of Christ has been given to transform me at the
level of the deepest, most profound motives, thoughts, desires, purposes, perspectives and cravings of our hearts.”

“Fourth, it mistakes doing new “religious” things for a heart of obedience to Christ. Is my participation in church activities an act of willing obedience or simply a system of penance and self-atonement
to ease my conscience about the fact that I really do live as if my life belongs to me? We should be participants in the ongoing celebration of God’s grace, and servants who make willing sacrifices
daily for the sake of God’s kingdom.”

“Fifth, it mistakes participation in ministry opportunities for a Christ-like lifestyle. It is good and proper for the local church to design, organize, and schedule various ministries for the body of Christ. But the call of Christ for me is to offer every aspect of my life to him for his service, not just those my church emphasizes. We should not think of our lives as separate from ministry, nor are we to think of ministry as separate from our lives. Therefore, we should see every aspect of life and particularly our work as our ministry.”

Thank you, Paul Tripp, for helping us to understand what true spirituality is in order that we may reflect a truly Christ-centered, grace-driven, God-glorifying, heart-satisfying righteousness to a physically dying, spiritually dead world coming into our offices daily. Our patients have desperate needs. May God use us to offer a living hope to our patients every day.

For further reflection read Romans 12:1-2; Luke 18:9-14; Isaiah 1 and 29.

Winter

I finally did something today about my seasonally-induced, sloth-like inactivity and took advantage of a little weather-window by venturing out into the park. After the storms of these past few weeks I found these majestic trees looking rather leafless, even lifeless – just standing there, waiting. Sometimes I know how they feel, but – “…those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”  Now that’s a promise to hang on to!

▶ Waiting Here For You – YouTube http://

▶ Waiting Here For You – YouTube http://ow.ly/qClYi

What’s in ‘The Look’?

It’s the time of year when short skirts and skimpy tops are the norm. Some of us love this time of year – and some of us hate ourselves because of it! Tim Challies in his recent blog addresses this issue. Well worth a read by all who want to see more victory in this area – http://www.challies.com/articles/whats-in-the-look

No going back!

I came across this in the One Mission Society (OMS) newsletter:

Selwyn Hughes, writing under the title: “No going back,” said that it takes determination to follow Jesus. He’d learned that tough issues face those who decide to come over on to the side of Jesus Christ. “Discipleship demands determination, courage, conviction and ‘stickability.’” Over a lifetime, Hughes had realised that when we are able to believe without seeing, trust without needing to know all the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores,’ have an unshakeable confidence in whatever God says simply because it is He Who says it, then we are on the way to real discipleship. “It calls for courage, determination and perseverance to be a disciple of the living God.” It was with similar qualities in mind that another wrote that the world stands aside to let anyone pass, who knows where he or she is going. In a sea of mediocrity, just knowing what you want to do and making an effort to pursue it, distinguishes you from almost everybody else. May that be true of you and me!

No Truth without Love, no Love without Truth!

Al Mohler has blogged recently on the above – he calls it the Church’s greatest challenge – the issue of homosexuality.

I would love to print his whole blog here but for the sake of space here is a little ‘soundbite’ –

“Outside the walls of the church, homosexuals are waiting to see if the Christian church has anything more to say, after we declare that homosexuality is a sin.”

Follow this link to read all that Al says – http://www.albertmohler.com/2013/05/30/no-truth-without-love-no-love-without-truth-the-churchs-great-challenge/

Wise words from Conrad

My friend Conrad Lampan – a revivalist now living and ministering in USA recently posted this:

A move of God that won’t inconvenience anybody is the ultimate oxymoron. That God would speak universes into existence and not cause a stir in our hearts when He talks to us is not possible. That God would call a people to Him, give them new life, endue them with power from on high, make heaven available to them and then expect nothing more from them than sitting in church on Sunday morning for one hour and a half makes no sense, shows no purpose, and calls to question even the existence of such God.

The CoMission:

The CoMission: ‘Be my witnesses’
The promise: ‘The Holy Spirit’
The strategy: ‘They all joined together constantly in prayer.’ (Acts 1:14)
via Pete Greig – 24/7 prayer.

New Wave vision

New Wave vision

A friend sent me this today – It’s from a vision given to Andy Page at the World Prayer Assembly in Jakarta, last year, reflecting ‘The New Wave’ and Habakkuk 2:14 ‘For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’ It was then beautifully illustrated by an artist.

A brief explanation of the vision was of the power and promise of the new wave… Revelation 5, but also the Haggai 2:6 – a shaking of the nations… and an immensity of proportions that blows the mind and imagination…the story within the story is the people are focused on the surfers… what to them are big waves…. but God is doing something MUCH MUCH bigger.

In the foreground is a white sandy beach with a preacher standing on a podium with arm outstretched pointing to the distance. He is surrounded by a crowd of people listening to his message. Behind him is the sea with waves rolling in, and on the waves are surfers riding into shore. Behind the waves is the world all stretched out, but then…behind the continents is the most enormous swirling wave that starts in the bottom left and rises up over the images mentioned and hovers over the whole scene. In this wave is a shofar, angels of fire, candle stick, (menorah) and the centre of the wave is the Lion of Judah and slightly off to His right is the lamb.

It’s an image I think everyone will want to take time to meditate on…..

Mercy

This morning during our prayertime we looked briefly at Psalm 145 – verses 8 and 9 of this wonderful hymn tell us that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. He is good to all and has compassion on all that He has made. In some translations compassion is translated mercy – the Lord is merciful to all. The Amplified version goes further and describes God as abounding in mercy.
We, His church, His family here on earth, are called to represent Him to a world that doesn’t know Him. To do this effectively it goes without saying that we are to be loving, merciful and aboundingly compassionate towards all that he has made (again the Amplified says – to the entirety of things created). What a challenge – to be merciful!
In his book Prayer Evangelism, Ed Silvoso states that mercy is the key to reaching the lost because its tangible nature is something unbelievers can understand better, faster and easier than they can comprehend the concept of grace.
He illustrates this by mentioning a peculiar set of circumstances that took place in the late 1990’s. The National Association of Women (NOW) was one of the most liberal and anti-Christian organisations in Washington DC with a vehement opposition to anything committed Christians stood for. At the time of the Promise Keepers meetings when over a million men were meeting to pray in the capital, the then NOW president gave scathing interviews to the media expressing her disgust and opposition to it.

However, when Mother Teresa spoke at a NOW meeting, she received a standing ovation and excellent reviews in the media. She preached exactly the same message that the church-going Christians preach every day – what was the difference? Ed suggests that it is because Mother Teresa’s message was clothed in mercy. She spoke against a backdrop of merciful acts towards people outside her fold. He points out that much of what church leaders say, although making theological sense, does not register with the lost sheep. If we were to speak and act towards the lost sheep with the same love, acceptance and comfort we give to those already in the fold, the lost would readily and hungrily accept our embrace.
What a challenge to the church of today – to extend unconditional love and mercy to those in the community around us!

Further food for thought – where is the most Godless place in the UK? http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/blog/news/2013/02/07/where-is-the-most-godless-place-in-the-uk/