How to love your neighbor

When Jesus Christ preached on earth, the two greatest commandments were these:

Matthew 22:37-39

37And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38″This is the great and foremost commandment. 39″The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’…

Christianity doesn’t get easier than that once you understand the two great commandments.  How do you go about doing the second one? There are many examples in the gospels, including visiting the sick, looking after the widows, orphans and prisoners but to be honest, there is no easier way than look within your own family.

There is rarely any family who spreads their love equally among their kids.  My father’s father favored other sons other than him.  My husband’s mother has to protect the middle one just because he was a bit less bright than the other 5. My own family, just the two of us, my brother and I – oh dear, the injustices that my brother had to suffer just because I was the more hard working kid.  It scarred him for life!  Life! Start from your own family.  Towards the end of my life, I could only protect so much my middle one too.  While it’s fair to demand the same performance from all kids, it’s a totally different matter to withdraw love especially from one just because he doesn’t perform.  Start now.  Reform your whole approach to loving your family.  Love them all the same way.  Not just demanding performance.  Love!!!  Only then would the kid survive.

I have started rethinking about how many kids my kids should have as a suggestion and believe it or not, I have now changed my mind.  In the past, I always said two but now, I think one kid is plenty.  Have one kid and dote on him/her with all the love you could give.  With two, you have a comparison.  Just one is plenty.  Good luck to all of you who haven’t set up a family yet.  And if you have one already, make sure you love everyone equally starting right now.

 

[Book Review] Love, Medicine & Miracles by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.

The full title to this book is Love, Medicine & Miracles: Lessons learned about self-healing from a surgeon’s experience with exceptional patients.  Dr. Siegel admitted to becoming very depressed because the medical profession felt more and more like a mechanics shop and people continues to die quickly no matter how he tries to patch them up.  It has nothing to do with the skills of the surgeons but that hopelessness of patients often causes their demise sooner than they should especially when doctors always give estimates of the chance of success and survival rate.  The lower the rate, the faster the patient succumbs to the actualization of that predicatment.  It is absolutely true.  The medical profession usually only tabulate statistics on those who went through with the treatment and not those who are stubborn and walk away from treatment and becomes an outlier.  Siegel is not proposing that we all walk away from treatment.  He believes positive thinking or faith are equally important as the success of a treatment.  Nothing new there but it’s revealing to see a doctor agonize over patient’s psychology.  The book itself doesn’t have a lot of miracles and not a lot of God in it.  So if you want more of that, you need to look elsewhere.  I don’t really care for the parts about dream or drawing interpretation or guided imagery.  But considering out of 21 books I was given to read on patients and cancer care, this one is readable.

[Book Review] Kathryn Kuhlman by Benny Hinn

This is a thin book that has Benny Hinn as author but most of the book are excerpts of Kathryn Kuhlman’s ministry from Kuhlman’s own books. Benny Hinn did write about his own experience in Toronto when he attended Kuhlman’s ministry healing service for the first time but that portion is also found in Benny Hinn’s Good Morning, Holy Spirit.   In this book though, Benny Hinn clarified that he had never met Kathryn Kuhlman in private and therefore, his anointing was not directly from her.  Nevertheless, he was very affected by Kuhlman’s personal knowledge and reliance of the Holy Spirit and that was how he too started once he started inviting the Holy Spirit to guide his life.

[Book Review] How To See In The Spirit by Michael R. Van Vlymen

This book, How To See In The Spirit: A Practical Guide On Engaging The Spirit Realm, is exactly as what the title said.  Unlike The Veil by Blake E. Healy telling us what the spirit realm looks like, this one literally gives you steps on how to go about calming yourself down, brush away all the noise around us and listen to God’s voice.  It describes journaling, santification, prayer, exercise your senses and waiting on God.  A very thorough manual.  Having read all these books, I have decided it is not really paramount that I see in the spirit realm.  It is good to know what’s around us.  I am happy just to evangelize and lay hands on people and pray for them.

Give thanks

These two weeks I have consistently met homeless people, strangers in the street, and new patients all diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and the recurrent thread in our life is that we are all grateful for every day that we are still alive.  When I ask them what to pray for them, the first thing is not necessarily the total healing of their bodies, but that their families be able to walk with them spiritually and emotionally, or that their financial circumstances would just be a bit more stabilized while they ride through this storm of their life.  And then, they ask for removal of this incurable disease.

I believe the acknowledgement that cancer is incurable has already prepared the fellow patients and therefore spiritual and emotional health come to the forefront.  Very often, God has already touched their soul and strengthened them as they go through this trial while their family is still lagging behind.

Chris Gore, the director of the healing ministry, in Bethel Church, Redding, wrote in his book, Walking in the Supernatural, about giving thanks for every little things the Lord gives us and here’s a wonderful illustration.

At one of his conference, he called up a man in the audience in the front and gave him 1 cent and asked him if he is thankful to the Lord. He said he was and he thanked the Lord for it. Then Chris gave the man a $10 note, a 1000 times increase.  “And now?” Chris asked.  The man was very thankful and praised the Lord again. The director said you have to be constantly thankful for every small thing because the Lord will bless your gratefulness. Unknown to the director, the man was in dire need of $50,000 and that day, he went back to the parents-in-law house for lunch. The in-laws were trying to sell the house for a whole year and the market was down and no one was buying but at lunch time that day, suddenly, the realtor walked in with a prospective client and the client put a deposit down on the spot to buy the house. The in-laws previously have promised their son-in-law that if they ever sold their house, they would give him $50,000. The man ran back to the conference to report what happened with being grateful for 1 cent.

When we give praise to the Lord for every single breath in the morning, He will hear us and bless us.  For every improvement we feel on our bodily, emotional and spiritual state, thank Him for the progress and we will see more coming.  Do not focus on what He hasn’t done yet.  Negativity never works. Focus on what He has blessed you with already.  For my fellow cancer patients, when I pray for them, I ask also for the small improvements they want to see immediately: a return of the taste bud that has been traumatized by chemotheraphy, agility in fingers that has been numbed by neuropathy so they could play the keyboard again, an opening up of the throat so they could swallow pills without difficulty and sing praises again.  Those are the areas I pray for first, and then the rest.  Healing comes in many forms: miracles which are instantaneous and you see immediately, evident mostly in conditions like a bad back, a hurt joint, arthritis, asthma, stomach pain and etc; healing which could be longer term and takes time; and emotional/spiritual healing with or without physical healing to follow.  Kathryn Kuhlman, the evangelist in the 60’s and 70’s who healed thousands just by talking about the goodness of Jesus in her healing services said that it is God’s sovereign right to heal.  She doesn’t know how He does it and she doesn’t need to.  It’s all God.  And we need to appreciate all that He does for us no matter how minute the improvement is.

Don Moen’s song  Give Thanks echoes this need for gratitude nicely.

 

[Book Review] The World Is Not Ours To Save by Tyler Wigg-Stevenson

I picked up this book because I have an up and coming son who is interested in politics and I needed to find out how he should blend politics with Christianity.  The full title of the book is The World Is Not Ours To Save: Finding The Freedom To Do Good.  The author was recruited to an antil-nuclear weapons organization and in his first organized event, some San Franciscan extremists decided to protest in the buff and he had to quickly escort his boss away from the venue.  A couple more failures later on, he realized the limit to social activism.  Countries intent on building nuclear weapons would not stop just because a few dozen people went naked in the street.  Their self-interest will continue no matter how you protest.

One day, God said to him, ” The world is not yours, not to save, or to damn. Only serve the one whose it is.”  It was such a revelation !  Examine right now the social causes that you embrace, that you indoctrinate your kids with, and how much striving can you do to change the world.  Sure, be a good citizen and vote when you need to.  But if you entered the striving to be a hero to right a wrong, then you got the wrong focus. The underlying message of the gostpel – the good news – is that God is love.  We have to love our neighbor.

The author illustrated the epitomy of the love of Jesus Christ in a Palestinian family in Israeli land.  Their farm land was disputed by the Israelis and the family was constantly harrassed by Israeli government in terms of police searches, the cut off of utilities.  Nevertheless, the owner of the farm extended hospitality to whoever came to do the harassing, offered them tea and a seat and conversation.  In the end, the soldiers leave apologizing for the inconvenience caused.  That is the love of Jesus taht we should work towards.

The book has other examples including Coventry, Hiroshima victims and more.  The Book of Micah is especially referenced.

[Book Review] Spiritual Warfare by Dr. Karl I. Payne

I picked up this book, Spiritual Warfare: Christians, Demonization, and Deliverance  from my bible institute library and it’s exactly what I have been looking for these months.  Most book on spiritual warfare is scriptural quotations and say that it’s real and that’s about it but this book goes to the extent of how to interrogate the demonic forces and literally cast them out to the pit, something that I believe every Christian should be knowledgeable of.  Many Christians are worried that if they take on the demonic forces, they would be afflicted even more.  The truth is that our Lord Jesus Christ has already defeated the devil at the cross and we know the ending for them from the Book of Revelations is that they would be the losers.  In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is nothing to be afraid about.  I urge everyone to read this and be brave.

Do you know that even Chrisitans could be oppressed and demonized?  The least bit of habitual sin allows these forces an opening/a foothold and once they latch on, oppression starts.  I was taken aback to read that ancestral and generational sin affects you.  Say for instance your parents have rebelled and proclaimed that God is dead or perhaps any sin that they dwelled in, their sin will affect you and your children.  Don’t take this subject lightly!

It is dangerous to cast the evil spirits out of a non-Christian without that person accepting Christ at once.  Once the house is cleaned, the demons come back with a vengeance because he is not filled with the Holy Spirit or any authority at all to prevent reoccupation.

Throughout the book, the author gave examples of how he detected demonic forces at work in the people who were brought to him for help.  For instance, sexual immorality itself is caused by demonic forces.  One young adult was reluctant to give up his lifestyle of sexual immorality even though by mouth, he went through the motions of asking for forgiveness from Jesus Christ.  He couldn fool neither the devil nor God.  The devil was rebuking the intercessor when he still hung around and the intercessor asked what ground he had to remain in the patient and it was all because of the patient’s reluctance to change.

Prayer intercessors, church leaders, parents, read this book!  It is not scary at all.  It’s educational and equip you with the knowledge of how to discern spirits.  And always read the offensive and defensive psalms to clear the air.  Read psalm 27, 35, 83.

 

A love song for heaven

My best friend, Denise, passed away the week I was traveling and I never got to say goodbye to her.  I was heartbroken that she left so soon despite the Lord having touched her and held her pain back from cancer.  But she got her wish.  She passed her 62nd birthday.  On the long 5 hour drive home, I was teary, but also more determined than ever before to lay hands on every cancer patient that I meet and pray for them.  For the last two hours of the drive, I couldn’t stop humming the song, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Diana Ross.  Ever since a young age, I loved this song for its high crescendo and lyrics.  Unlike the song, I Will Follow Him by Little  Peggy March which also describes a love where  “There isn’t an ocean too deep, A mountain so high it can keep me away”, but totally a song just for my husband, I believe Diana Ross’ song was written for God and me.  When I was young, I always wondered if there is a love that

Ain’t no mountain high enough
Ain’t no valley low enough
Ain’t no river wide enough
To keep me from you.

That day as I drove back, I understood finally.  I am coming after you, God.  I’m not going to stop until I see you face to face and get everything I could from you, to save these poor suffering fellow souls down here on earth. It’s unnecessarily that we are sick.  It’s unnecessary that we die of cancer.  It’s unnecessary that we spend eternity elsewhere other than heaven.  I am coming after you to get all the gifts, all the strength and all the stamina I could to bring as many as I could to you.  It hurts.  It really hurts, to see my friends all dying off like flies one by one afflicted with cancer, 6 within the last 6 months.

I read from a book that a musician once had a heavenly experience and he heard one of his songs being sung in heaven.  He asked why his song was up there and the answer was that heaven gave it to him in the first place.  And while this song might be a secular love song, the love described between Jesus and his bride (the church, the followers, believers) is a two way street and is exactly how I feel.  I would not be surprised to hear this song when I get to heaven.

So I encourage everyone to find your own love song between you and God and sing it often, make it your own.  Don’t worry if the artist has been in drugs, has a doubtful lifestyle and fall badly.  Look at the Old Testament and see how even King David, King Solomon, Gideon fell, not to mention Samson.  But in between, their one time faith and obedience were noteworthy.  And none of us is a fallen case until the last breath.  God is very patient.  He waits patiently for everyone to ask for his forgiveness and rejoin him, even a murderer on death row.

[Book Review] The Veil by Blake K. Healy

This book was recommended by Praying Medic and Bill and Beni Johnson at the Bethel Church, Redding.  I wanted to explore the spirit realm and how does one deal with demonic forces but this book focused on what Healy could see since he was a little kid, that everyone of us has an angel unless we are afflicted by a bad spirit when we are in agreement with the lies it spews.  Only a chapter or two is a bit more graphic but the rest of the book is extremely uplifting.  It is reassuring to know that prophesies given to us has to relate back to our relationship with God and relationship to his people or it is not from God.  In one experience at a conference, the author could feel the immense love that Jesus has for everyone of us that it could even burst him.  While I started off this book with the hope of learning how to see in the spiritual realm, at the end of the book, I don’t need to anymore.  All I care is that God loves us so intensely that nothing matters.  Demons are not that influential and not worth our time.  Just call out the name of Jesus and work on what is most important, “Love our neighbor.”  This is a must read book for those curious about the types of angels there are and what they do, but more, to understand how Jesus, by his sacrifice, has linked us back to our Heavenly Father already and you have access to him more so than you realize.  You’ll get a lot closer to God even more after reading this book.

[Book Review] Street Healer’s Guide: Revised Edition by Luke T. Jones

Luke T. Jones studied at the Bethel School of Supernatural Discipleship and has a facebook page where he posts word of knowledge whereby upon reading the condition that you are in i.e. pain in lower back, lymph nodes swelling, cataract and etc., your faith alone will spur you to believe that you are going to be healed that moment and it works.  I have read his page and got rid of swelling and pain underarm and every since then, every time I prayed on it again, it would disappear.

This book is available in Kindle version and Jones tells us how he does it.  Fascinating read.  You get to understand the etiquette of street healing, how to introduce yourself and how you always want the person to experience the love of Jesus.

Edit: May 27, 2014: Luke T. Jones has deactivated his facebook page for the moment while he focuses on writing his screenplay.  But he promises to be back.  So stay tuned to his Twitter account.