Do 'medical miracles' really exist?

Carrie, I dunno. I think it might be more like required reading in school. In Aussie schools they force feed the kids with this stuff. But instead of brainwashing, it's mouth washing.

And it creates dependency. I don't know if you know this, but vegemite is alive! It's made from yeast extract. And once you have been forced fed a few vegemite sandwiches as a kid, then you get that yeast culture growing in your mouth.

Then the yeast eats all the normal bacteria in your saliva and takes over like a coup de mouth! I've seen the science to back this up.

And then, since all the normal bacteria is displaced by vegemite yeast, the taste buds go through a change. No longer can you stomach hot dogs and hambugers. No, all you want at that point is more vegemite! It's incidious the oral indoctrination that goes on there.

And then I understand it changes how you think and respond to things. It makes you think you can say just about anything you want, and it's OK. It's like vegemite removes all normal and healthy inhibitions or something. Then you don't think anybody should rightfully take offense at anything you say. Hey, but don't talk about their vegemite! Nosiree bobtail. Don't talk about their food, man! They get perfectly offended.

So when you go to Sydney on your next globetrotting venture, just remember to take along a jar of Jif, of course if they don't take it from you going through customs, ostensiibly for smuggling in controlled substances!

 

Nice to see the lighter side of you Henry. A sense of humour is a valuable thing!

When I travel, part of the experience is jumping in with both feet to experience the food and culture and trying to live and eat like the locals do. I always bring back a recipe of a particular food we enjoyed and incorporate it to our meals. That is way more a meaningful souvenir than any "stuff". So sorry, but the Jif stays home.

When in Rome......

 

Humor? What humor? I'm serious! Can't you tell?

And I live by a motto: "Never Try Anything New." That's my motto. Last thing I tried new was a lime green leisure suit. I learned my lesson! That was three years ago and I'll never do that again. I expect I received more grief about that fashion indiscretion than INS got for his brief stint on America's Got Talent, when he came out dressed as a chicken and tried to eat corn dropped from a hopper. Trying to catch the corn with that little beak, well you can imagine what an embarrassment that was. He'll never do that again and neither will I.

But back on Larry's topic, that he so aptly dropped into the Spiritual Corner and the went back to combing the beach looking for supper, there are no medical miracles. That's right, no medical miracles. That may sound surprising coming from me. If miracles had anything to do with medicine, they wouldn't be miracles, now would they?

What we do see is divine miracles, miracles that defy scientific explanation, defy medicine.

My late fried, Spence's mom took part in a faith healing. A lady at their church was in the closing stages of cancer. It was all over her body. In the book of James, James writes that if any members of the church are sick, they should call on the elders of the church. They should anoint the sick person with oil and pray for healing. A week or two later the lady went back in for her oncology visit. The cancer could not be found. She is still alive today. Scientific explanation? Hardly one available. That many cancer cells do not spontaneously disintegrate. That's just one divine miracle I know of.

But one thing that is prevalent when divine miracles happen, and that is the display of corporate faith. The scriptures tell us that when two or more gather in the name of Jesus Christ, there He will be in their midst. That is because the Holy Spirit indwelling in the soul of the born again believer, communes through the atmoshere, across space and in natural time, with the spirit of another believer. And the stronger the corporate faith, the stronger presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst.

Wherever is the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Holy Spirit is nowhere the Kingdom of God is not present. And in the Kingdom of God, no sin or sickness can dwell. So healing by faith is done by bringing him who is sick, into the Kingdom of God. To do that, he must repent of sin. That is why John the Baptist would cry out, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." The Kingdom will only admit the repentant sinner. Repenting erases all sin.

Jesus said that if any of us say to a mountain that it should move, and have no doubt in his heart, the mountain will move. That condition wherein no doubt is present, is a condition of perfect belief, faith, the substance of things hoped for. When we can know in our hearts that God is in our presence, when we can be truly repentant of our tresspasses on others, and when two or more can muster sufficient faith and obedience to the Word of God, that ushers in the Kingdom of God into the natural environment. When that happens, miracles occur. That is the key to healing by faith.

But the Kingdom is fleeting. It goes as fast as it comes. As soon as disbelief is introduced, which naturally occurs, then the kingdom vanishes from our midst.

What I describe happened to Peter. Jesus was walking on the water. Peter wanted to do the same. Jesus beckoned him to do so. Peter walked on the water until doubt set it, at which time Jesus touched him and saved him from sinking, uttering, "Ye of little faith, why did you doubt?".

So that is the mechanism of miracles, of healing by faith. That is not to say that God does not heal individually, without corporate faith in action. God is sovereign. He can do anything He wants to do. But God does not react to demands placed on Him. He does not react to pressure exerted by men who want to disprove His existence by attempting to prove a negative. No, God reacts to two things, normally in coincidence with one another, faith and obedience to His Word, as evidence of faith. That is it. That is what rings God's bell. And God knows our hearts. So it is nothing that we can fake.

So how do we get to such a level of faith? Good question. Prayer and fasting is the Biblical answer. Through prayer and fasting, denying the spirit of natural influences, spiritual influences fill the void. But this is a topic for another time.

 

Henry,a serious question may I ask.You said they should anoint the sick person with oil and pray.My question is what kind of oil should be used?Virgin olive oil,motor oil?What kind?If it's motor oil,what grade motor oil?

 

Sarita that pothole keeps showing up!!!

 

Good reply Henry, although took you long enough to chime in.

 

Unfortunately, BYB, for any discussion that might have otherwise ensued, you say that you are serious, but then you ask me if they would have used motor oil back in the first century. So that leaves me with only three viable possibilities to consider. Either you were dishonest when you wrote that you were serious, or you are too ignorant to know that motor oil did not exist in the first century, or both. Either way, or all three, I doubt that any answer of mine would satisfy your question.

 

Larry you're Palm Tree looks like all of our trees look like in the Midwest and that's me hanging on

 

You must be back with dinner!

 

Henry,
How to do you account for the "miracles" that happens to non Christians?

My sister is as atheist as they come. She has been having serious medical problems for years. Last year she was told to get her affairs in order. Last week the doctors can find no evidence anywhere that her life is threatened by any medical condition. All signs of it are gone. All test results are opposite of what they were last year. No prayers, no oil, nothing.

 

Hank- nice job walking around the pothole

 

If I can add my thoughts on this. You don't have to be a 'believer'. There are so many prayers out there for everyone. Look at this forum, I pray for all of us, I don't pick and choose. I'm sure others do the same. In Mass on Sundays we pray for "All"

 

Oh and YAY for your sister that's great to hear.

 

hee hee I hopped over..

 

As I said, God is sovereign. If you say that there was no medical way out of her situation, and I believe you, then God would have had some reason to heal her. Perhaps that reason is for us to be here talking about it. But I would have no idea.

But I do know this. Either:

1)This was not an irreversible illness in and of the body
2)Some force beyond her body caused the illness to reverse

Given only those two possibilities, what do you think the answer is?

 

Not me Sarita??? I appreciate your reply Carolyn. If you knew my sister, you'd probably agree with me there's not much chance anyone is praying for her!

No pothole here. I was just curious about some of the the stuff Henry said. I hope we could talk about it peacefully.

Shutting my piehole so as not to be construed as a pothole!

 

Carrie, I don't think you were the pothole.

 

Carrie, you are definitely not a pothole. I am interested to know your answer. How do you explain the unexplainable?

 

I've been called things before that end in "hole" but never a pothole. ;D

I don't have a lot of time right now Hank so will be back later.

I can't explain it. I'm weird, I guess because I don't need to. I suppose it could have been inept doctors and a misdiagnosis in the first place . Or they could be wrong now and she is still sick.

The difference between us is that you explain it by divine intervention and I don't need to explain it. Sorry for being so brief but I have to be somewhere. TTYL>