Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Something old, something new

Tonight we're having our first Service of Prayer for Healing and Wholeness. I'm quite excited about it - part of how you know you're in the right place is when you get excited over things like getting to help develop new church services. Am I a church dork? Yes, and proud of it.

Services like this may be new to Covenant but they come from a long tradition. I think of biblical passages like Luke 10:1-16 where Jesus sends out the seventy. Among other things they are charged with curing the sick and saying to them "the kingdom of God has come near to you."

When we prayer for healing and wholeness, we aren't trying to change God or demand of God that which God does not willingly give. We are trusting in God and that we will be healed - though the whens and the hows are still a little fuzzy.

When I think of what healing and wholeness is, I think of that saying. We are whole when we are with God and so when the kingdom of God has come near to us, we are healed. Whether or not we are physically healed of our illnesses, we can be so complete with God that we transcend those illnesses... At the same time, we recognize that God can indeed heal our physical wounds... It's one of those things - and for me there are so many - that goes beyond my understanding. So I think that's one of the things I really enjoy about this type of service. That and the candles I got to buy for it :).

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