VCNP Leadership Monthly for October, 2007
Brian's Corner
Greetings!This month has been full of lots of excitement and challenges. We had an incredible Family Fun Day and Water Baptism at Glendale Community College on Labor Day. There were fifty-nine people who were baptized! We continue to move closer to starting our building project. We are now waiting for the City to approve our plans and give us permits so that we can begin the building process. This month I have written an article comparing healings and miracles that I would like to share with you. My prayer is that it would help you better understand the biblical meaning of healing and miracles. More than that, I pray that God would move more in healing and miracles in our church! Enjoy the article and keep up the good work serving in ministry. Know that your work makes a huge difference for the Kingdom of God! Love Brian Does Every Healing or Miracle Happen in an Instant?As you know, we are a Church that believes in healing. We pray for the sick on a regular basis. We believe the Bible clearly tells all Christians to do that. Sometimes as we pray for people and they are not instantly healed, we begin to think that God did not or is not healing them. It could be influences from our fast food, drive through, instant news, fast-paced culture that expects instant results. When we don’t see instant results, sometimes we think nothing happened. From a biblical perspective, this is very far from the truth. The writers of the New Testament used several different words to describe healing in the Bible. Healing can be described as a process or an instant event. For example, in Acts 28:7-8, Luke writes that when Paul prayed for Publius’ father, he was instantaneously healed. Others heard of the miracle and came looking for an instant miracle of their own. As the text continues (in Acts 28:9), we are told that the other people the Apostle Paul prayed for were “getting cured.” The writer actually used a different word for this healing than he had used in the previous verses. The Greek word for “getting cured” is “therapeuō.” “Therapeuō,” in this context, literally means “to serve, to cure, to care for the sick, or to treat the sick.” When Jesus healed (“therapeuō”) someone, a miracle was usually instantaneous (Mt. 4:23, 9:35, and others). In Acts 28, however, the context does not seem to suggest that healing happened instantly for everyone who came (especially when considering the contrast of “therapeuō” and the instant healing of Publius’ father). Some scholars even think that people were healed through Luke’s medical knowledge as a physician. Whether it happened immediately or gradually, the text does tell us that they were healed! Other Greek words used for “healing” in the New Testament have to do with “being made well” by supernatural means. Someone could be supernaturally “made well” instantly or over time. We encounter both types of miracles in the gospels. In Matthew 8:14-15, Peter’s mother-in-law had a fever. When Jesus prayed for her, the fever was instantly gone. At another point, Jesus prayed for a man who was blind near Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26). Mark tells us that Jesus prayed, asked the man what he saw, and was told that the man saw men as trees. Jesus prayed again and this time we are told that the man’s sight was fully restored. That is the way it oftentimes works with us as well. We may pray for someone who has a broken bone of some kind to be healed. Maybe the bone doesn’t “heal” instantly, but it mends in 3 weeks when “naturally” it should have taken 6 weeks. That is still healing! We could pray for someone who has a cold. After praying for them, they get better in 4 days rather than in 7 days. That’s the way healing is in the Bible. It is literally a super-natural acceleration of the natural. More often than not, as we read through stories of miracles and healings in the Bible we see instant miracles happening. Most of Jesus’ miracles (with the exception of Mk. 8:22-26) happened instantly. Typically, the text tells us that the power of God (Greek “dunamis”) has come into the present, bringing an instant miracle (see Mt. 9:28). One example of a “miracle” I heard about happened in the Vineyard. There was a person who had a big toe that was missing. Some people prayed for a new toe to grow - - and it grew! That is not something natural. It is a distinct breakthrough that clearly goes beyond the natural. Another example of a “miracle” was a blind woman in England who some Vineyard people prayed for. She had no optic nerve in her eye, but her blindness was supernaturally healed - - even though she still had no optic nerve in her eye! Another example of a “miracle” was a lady we prayed for who had Cerebral Palsy. One of the things she couldn’t do was speak very well because her tongue was too short. She was born that way. A few of us prayed for her, and her tongue grew! She could speak much better after that! She wasn’t “healed” of her Cerebral Palsy, but she could speak much better. Thora and I prayed for a blind man one time a number of years ago. After about 10 minutes he could see shapes and colors. We continued praying for him for another 30-40 minutes and he could see progressively better. When we were finished, he could see all the way across the room. That was a miracle! We love to see miracles! We love to see instantaneous healings! But, we also love to see people “getting cured.” When people get cured, that’s still healing! A miracle has still happened. We believe it is just as valid to pray for someone one hundred times as it is to pray for them one time. Why? Because sometimes healing takes place miraculously - - as a one moment event! But oftentimes, healing only happens over a period of time. And unfortunately, sometimes healing doesn’t happen at all. That’s part of the “ebb and flow” of the Kingdom of God. It’s part of the “Already versus the Not Yet” of the Kingdom of God. Our responsibility is to pray for the sick - - not judge or validate the process by what we think the timing ought to be! I want you to remember that healing always comes from God and not us! That’s one of the reasons why Paul prayed before he laid hands on Publius’ father. Paul knew where healing came from. One of the problems we have in our society - - especially in the Christian media - - is we are presented with “healings” almost entirely framed in the context of the sensational. The only “healings” we hear about are instantaneous and dramatic healings. And we’ve seen some of those here at the Vineyard. We’ve seen broken bones instantly healed. We’ve seen blind eyes opened. We’ve seen legs lengthen. We’ve seen addictions immediately broken off of people, etc. But, sometimes healing happens only after years of prayer. The truth is, many more people are healed and could be healed through more prayer. Some of us may have lost some of our ability to heal the sick because we’ve invalidated people “getting cured” or given up on praying multiple times. Certain Christian leaders and church groups have even made doctrines out of miraculous healings. They say things like, “You can only pray once for someone or you don’t have any faith.” Or, “You just need to claim your healing.” Those kinds of things are not Biblical. Remember, even Jesus prayed twice for the same person (Mark 8:22-26)! I’m just as excited when someone gets healed in 2 weeks, when it should have taken 6 weeks, as I am when it happens all at once. Either way, it is still a healing! I don’t want us to allow a pursuit of instant miracles to overshadow more gradual healings - - because this can cause us to not pray for the sick! We may very well begin to disqualify ourselves, thinking “Oh, it didn’t happen all at once. Therefore, I don’t have the gift of healing.” And then we stop praying for the sick. That is not what God wants! This also leaves room for doctors. It’s okay if God heals you with the help of doctors! So, I want to remind you that we are a Church that believes in praying for the sick. We realize God sometimes heals people the first time we pray and sometimes the thousandth time we pray. Either way, we continue to pray for the sick knowing that God wants to bring healing! Always remember, you haven’t “failed” if the person you’re praying for doesn’t get well immediately. It’s not his/her fault, and it’s not your fault. We will pray for him or her again. That’s just part of life in the Kingdom of God - - the “Already versus the Not Yet.” Our responsibility is not to know “how, when, or where” a person is healed; it simply lies in being faithful to praying for sick people. And we are faithful to that! Any person can get prayer at every single service we have here at the Vineyard if they want to. This is very important because it is how people get healed and how miracles happen. But if it doesn’t happen immediately, don’t get bummed out and stop praying for the sick. Just keep on keeping on! We are a Church that believes in healing and miracles. Keep praying for the sick! Update on Recent EventsFamily Fun Day and Water BaptismEveryone had a great time at this year's Labor Day Family Fun Day and Water Baptism at the Glendale Community College pool. "Celebration" was indeed the word of the day as 59 people were water baptized, symbolizing their new life in Christ. Celebration carried over to other events throughout the day. Families enjoyed great food and family members of all ages participated in several games, including relay races, a bubble gum blowing competition, and a pie eating contest. Our younger members (children) also enjoyed some good slippery fun on the jumbo slide and slip-n-slides and enjoyed an all-out water assault in the Super Soaker Zone. The day's activities culminated in a family water balloon war. Families were able to spend the entire afternoon playing games and enjoying being with each other. Life doesn’t get any better than that! Join us for the next Water Baptism on Sunday, November 11 at 6:00 pm and for our next Family Fun Day and Water Baptism on Memorial Day 2008. -Jody Kingston, Children’s Pastor Marriage Bowl 07Our first Marriage Bowl was a success! Ninety couples joined us for food and serious competition between the newlyweds and the not-so-newlyweds. Our first "physical" challenge began as three couples from each team were blindfolded and had to work as a couple to unwrap and eat a Twinkie without using their hands. For our next challenge, we asked each husband to bob for a tangerine in a small pool of water, keep it in his mouth, run to his wife and pass it to her mouth, and then she ran back to toss it in a bucket (all without using hands). We finished out the evening with a tug-of-war competition between the newlyweds and the not-so-newlyweds. Our newlywed couples barely defeated their more seasoned competitors. Everyone really enjoyed an evening of laughter, competition and fun! The Marriage Ministry has a couple of great events coming up soon: A marriage conference that will be later this Fall and Marriage Connection on October 12. -Emmanuel Qureshi, Associate Pastor Family Fest (October 2007)Due to new building construction, we will be unable to have the Family Fest on October 31this year. When construction is completed on our new buildings, we look forward to hosting this great event again for church families and for the community. -Jody Kingston, Children’s Pastor |
Events and HighlightsHere are some major events that we can expect to see soon:
Upcoming Classes:
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