Jehovah Rapha: The God Who Heals

We hear Jesus called by many names Prince of Peace, Son of God and Son of Man, the Messiah, Jeshua, Savior, Rabbi, Teacher, Prophet. God is also called by many different names especially in the Old Testament Hebrew language: El Shaddai (God Almighty), Abba (Father), Yahweh, and Jehovah to name a few ( I encourage you to look them up along with their meanings) they all reflect different parts and attributes of His character. This week, we are going to reflect and ponder upon one very particular name Jehovah Rapha, Healer  or “The God who Heals” and Jesus Christ, the Son is often referred to as “The Great Physician”. This week we will take a look at a few instances in the New Testament when Jesus healed the so-called incurable diseases that doctors could not solve or fix.

Here is a list of the healing and curing that Jesus did recorded in the New Testament Gospels:

• Jesus touched and healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a high fever (Mark 1:30-31).
• Jesus healed the Roman Soldier (centurion’s) servant who was very sick (Matthew 8:5-13).
• Jesus healed the paralytic and made him walk (Matthew 9:1-8).
• Jesus healed an outcast “unclean” leper (Mark 1:40-45)
• Jesus cured a woman of an issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48).
• Jesus healed a paralyzed man at the pool called Bethesda (John 5:1-9).
• Jesus loosened/fixed the tongue of a man who could not speak since birth (Matthew 9:32-33).
• Jesus restored a withered, crippled hand (Matthew 12:10-13).
• Jesus cured a man born deaf and mute (Mark 7:31-37).
• Jesus healed a woman from Canaan (Matthew 15:22-28).
• Jesus healed a woman who had been afflicted with serious debilitating pain for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17).
• Jesus cured a man of “dropsy”/dangerous swelling and infection(Luke 14:1-4).
• Jesus cleansed and healed ten lepers of their contagious disease that left them outcastsof society.  (Luke 17:11-19).
• Several instances he healed many (at least 4) people born blind! John 9:1-38, Mark 8:22-26, Matthew 9:27-31.
• Jesus restored and fixed the ear of the high priest’s servant that Peter cut off! (Luke 22:50-51).
• We often think of healing as curing illnesses and diseases, or better yet fixing what is wrong Jesus also healed people plagued and tormented by demons (Mark 1:23-28, Matthew 12:22, Matthew 17:14-21)
• Jesus also raised more than Lazarus from the dead: Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead (Luke 7:11-18).Jesus raised the ruler’s daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18-26).Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-46).Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 24:5-6).

What ails, torments or plagues you today? Whether it is healing of a sickness in your body from the cold/flu or something as long term as cancer or organ failure, a disease with no known reasons or cures, constant pain or aches throughout your physical body. Or an affliction or heaviness in your mind and spirit that has crushed your heart beyond restoration or so you think…the Jesus I know can make the impossible possible and cure the incurable. When all resources and doctors and earthly research for answers had been exhausted, hope came in the form of Jesus. Yes, He was able to physically touch those around Him and heal them, but what about us today? He can’t lay hands on us, but that’s what disciples are called to do. As followers we are called to continue His work not our own but through the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray for each other in times of illness and affliction. What kind of miracle and healing touch do you need today?

My prayer for you today: Dear Lord, thank You for making me fearfully and wonderfully made in Your image. You created my body, and You never ever fiber and cell of how I function and live. You are the Life Giver. You are the Creator. You alone are the Great Physician that has all the answers to the mysteries of all that ails Your children. Lord, help me to make choices and decisions that take care of my temple, the body the houses my soul and where you dwell in my heart. Protect my body, guard and cleanse my heart and mind of anything toxic, hurtful or negative and not healthy. Heal my broken spirit. In Your all powerful name. Amen

With full faith in miracles, Heather H. Carnley

Resurrection Power, Death to Life

Have you ever prayed for a miracle and felt like it didn’t happen the way you wanted it to? Even when you’ve seen amazing miracles happen in the exact way for others. That’s probably how Mary and Martha felt. The two sisters and their dear brother Lazarus were very close friends of Jesus and the disciples. In fact this Mary is the same one who anointed Jesus’s feet with very expensive perfume and wept tears of worship on his feet. They knew what Jesus could do, what He taught and most importantly they knew and loved Him. The Son of God, surely He could easily heal and restore health to their gravely ill brother Lazarus. However when Jesus heard about it in the next town over, He had been teaching and preaching to another crowd. He was taking care of His Father’s business, on assignment. It wasn’t as if Mary, Martha and Lazarus weren’t important, they already had accepted and received Jesus as the Messiah. He was teaching those who had not heard about the Kingdom of Heaven, the Gospel. Their miracle was coming, but Jesus had a particular timing for a reason, the reason being so that God the Father could be glorified in it all. If Jesus would’ve came earlier He could’ve just easily healed Lazarus’ sickness and that would be all there was to it. Many people had seen Him heal the sick before. But what He was going to do was far greater than any doctor could ever do. He would raise the dead back to life! He waited. He did it purposefully so they would all believe that God sent Him! Mary, Martha and everyone else said He was too late, he was already gone! 

Scriptures:

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

John 11:38‭-‬44 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.11.38-44.NIV

Have you ever felt that way before? Like it was too late for a change, the chance of a miracle had come and gone, the hope and dream was well past dead? Lazarus had been dead and buried for four days! When we feel like it’s over, it’s done- He is always on time! You may have given up, when you’re miracle is on it’s way! And yet sometimes we have to understand that our miracle is not always about us, Lazarus’ didn’t get healed right away, but he was restored! His miracle was a testimony to others witnessing what had happened. Our prayers for healing of the sick loved ones may not always be answered on this side of Heaven. Jesus made sure that God the Father in heaven was glorified through this miracle. A little known fact is that this was one of the last miracles Jesus performed, after that they sought out to arrest Him! He was foreshadowing what was to come the Resurrection of His own life after the crucifixion that would take place. Jesus said in John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25‭-‬26 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.11.25-26.NIV

The greatest miracle yet was still to come!

What “dead” dreams and “hope is gone” in your life need to be resurrected? On the flip side, what things do you need to let go of? Scripture says we die daily to our sin nature and live in the hope that Christ Jesus gives us. We, too, will live eternally with Jesus when we go to Heaven. But you have to accept the gift first. 

Stay hopeful, your miracle may be late to you but He’s always on time! 

With hope, Heather Carnley

“The ‘Big’ Truth about Body Image & The ‘Skinny’ on Body Shaming”by Heather H.

“The ‘Big’ Truth about Body Image & The ‘Skinny’ on Body Shaming”

Let’s be honest here, we see it all over the media and in society’s portrayals on so-called beauty and what a “perfect body” looks like. For many years, celebrities and everyday people have been called ugly, cruel names such as “fat”, or “obese” for not being the “ideal size”. For many years as well, modeling agencies have had a standard of what they look for in a model, the taller the better and the skinnier the better. We’ve heard horror stories about anorexia and bulimia. The truth is those are not just statistics and stories, but they are real people…real women (and even men!) who struggle with body image. The truth is that we all know that not everyone is created and built the same. Some of us are a 5’8 slender build (like myself) with long legs, long arms, big hands with long graceful fingers, but huge feet that are nearly impossible to find shoes that fit that are actually cute! Or the struggles of finding jeans that don’t make you look like you’re expecting a flood!

Some of us are a 5’2 rounder build with a little more “junk in the trunk” or a bit more curves, shorter legs, and dainty small feet, a nice voluptuous figure. But there’s some who are in the middle…maybe a little taller or shorter, some maybe a little more “blessed in the chest” than others, or you feel like you’re still waiting to hit puberty when all your friends are buying their first real bra. Let’s face the real honest truth ladies, no matter what age you are 13, 22, or 45 we compare our bodies to others whether the bodies of our peers and girlfriends or the airbrushed bodies in magazines and ads. However, calling yourself “fat” or someone else “big-boned” or “obese” is not the answer. Neither is calling someone “scrawny”, or “too skinny”, and “bony”, both are just as hurtful. All name-calling is hurtful.

The “body shaming” trend in media and the rise against body shaming is everywhere! The truth is you should NEVER been ashamed of the body God handcrafted that is home to your soul. I had always gotten picked on for being so skinny, I can’t count how many times I’ve been told “Girl you should eat a cheeseburger or somethin!”, “Girl, you’re gonna blow away with the wind!”, or the most annoying “When are you gonna gain some weight?” I dealt with it, there were days it made me mad, and there were days I thought I may have some kind of problem, some people thought I had an eating disorder. (which I never did). They say “stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”, that’s one of the biggest lies on the face of the earth. According to anad.org (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) “Bulimia nervosa is characterized by recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food (e.g., binge-eating), and feeling a lack of control over the eating. This binge-eating is followed by a type of behavior that compensates for the binge, such as purging (e.g., vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or diuretics), fasting and/or excessive exercise.” and anorexia is a little bit different, “Anorexia nervosa is characterized by emaciation, a relentless pursuit of thinness and unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight, a distortion of body image and intense fear of gaining weight, a lack of menstruation among girls and women, and extremely disturbed eating behavior. Some people with anorexia lose weight by dieting and exercising excessively; others lose weight by self-induced vomiting, or misusing laxatives, diuretics or enemas.” Both of these disorders give a human being a distorted false view of their own body, thinking that their “fat” when in reality everyone else can see that they are wasting away. If you or someone you know maybe struggling with an eating disorder there are listed symptoms, warning signs and resources to find help on anad.org.

Obesity, on the other hand is defined as “Obesity is a complex disorder involving an excessive amount of body fat. Obesity isn’t just a cosmetic concern. It increases your risk of diseases and health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Being extremely obese means you are especially likely to have health problems related to your weight.” according to the MayoClinic.org. On the flip side of things, for many years ladies on the “heavier” side have been ridiculed mercilessy for their size as well! This is NOT okay people! The classic lines of “Oh she’s got a pretty face, but she’s a bit on the heavy side”, or being told they need to lose weight. Weight gain has been struggle for many women, whether they used to be slim and fit in figure, and may have gained weight after giving birth to beautiful children! Never be ashamed of stretchmarks or any type of scar, they tell a story and make you who you are!

However, the bottom line everything comes down is…YOUR HEALTH! Whether you are a size 2 or a size 14, it doesn’t matter about shape and size; it matters how your body feels inside! As I mentioned your body is a home for your soul. C.S. Lewis once said, “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have bodies.” Your body is a temple where Jesus Christ lives in YOU! Do you want a junky, messy living room for the Lord and Savior of your life to dwell in? I sure don’t! Now, don’t get me wrong…I love my sweets and have a lil bit of habit BUT I actually love fruits and veggies, juice and plenty of water! It’s okay to balance out your little junk foods every once in a while with a healthy dose of clean eating! I’ve taken small steps such as cutting back on sodas, drinking lots of water and juice as well! There are many healthy recipes on Pinterest and many other websites! It’s really a proactive effort. In all reality though, nothing beats good ole fashion exercise (of any kind, just be active!) and well balanced eating habits.I want to leave you with these simple truths: 1) Body Shaming is NOT okay, don’t be jealous of someone smaller or bigger than you. 2) A healthy lifestyle is important, we glorify and honor God with our bodies (plus don’t you wanna feel better?!) 3) YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!! It’s time to let your outside match your inside! Your beautiful soul shines through to your outer appearance! You are made in His image! Your are a princess daughter, who walks in confidence! Psalm 139:14 says “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” He crafted every cell and fiber of your body together! Here’s to all you beautiful ladies out there, don’t let a number on a scale or size on a tag define you, let your Maker and your hard work at a healthy life define you!

With love your sister in Christ,
Heather