We are extremely blessed by Nathan and what he brings to the band.  We are grateful that God has yet again provided for us what we needed when we needed it.

But if you look at what Christ did on the cross and what that means to us, then you should be filled with a joy that cannot be contained.  Each and everyone of us were born sinners, and were enemies of God.  We stood seperated from our Father by our sin and rebellion, and there was nothing that we could do about it.  We had a criminal record with our every offense against God written down on it, and there was a price that justice demanded must be paid for these offenses.  But Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross, and bore God's wrath for us so that we could stand blameless in the eyes of our Father and be restored to a right relationship with him. 

How does that make you feel?  I think David put it best.  "Oh, what joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight.  Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!" 

No longer do we live guilty and condemned.  We live forgiven.  We were all guilty of so much, and we deserved death, but Jesus took upon Himself the penalty for our sins, and gave us life.

How do you feel when you think about the ramifications of that?  What you're feeling right now is called joy, and that is something that nothing going on in the world around us can take away.

When recounting the years  of hardship in an undeveloped country like Bangladesh he had this to say.  "It was the greatest adventure we could ever have.  When you're in a hard place, when you're over your head again and again, when you're sinking and beyond yourself and praying your heart out-then you see God reach out, and touch your life, and resolve the situation beyond anything you could have ever hoped.  We got to experience that again and again and again.  We wouldn't have missed it for the world.  In my opinion, finding the purpose for which God made you-whatever that may be-and then fully pursuing it is simply the very best way to live."

I couldn't agree more.  Find the purpose God made you for and pursue it with everything you've got.  And just like Viggo experienced, our purpose is much greater thananything  we could ever accomplish on our own.  We have to rely full upon God for the provision of everything we need.  When doing what God has called us to do we will run out of resources, strength, opportunity, and ability.  When we realize that we are utterly incapable of the great things God has laid out for us, and plead for Him to step into the situation and glorify Himself, He is faithful.  He will always provide for us. 

If you are in a situation where you need God's miraculous provision then cry out to Him.  If you are in a situation where you don't need God's miraculous provision, then you aren't where you should be.  Find out what it is that God has called you to do.  It will be something you can't do on your own, and you will need to count on God to make it happen. 

Here is the second thing that made me really re-think God as my Healer. Pastor Lee tipped me off to this very powerful song with a very powerful story behind it. A must watch!

A couple of things in the last few weeks have really helped to remind me that God is my healer, the first of which I will share with you in this post.  My wife, Anna, went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic to work with a Dominic Russo Crusade there.  God moved there in an absolutely amazing way.  The first night of the crusades there were about 20 thousand people there, and by the last night there were about 60 thousand people there.  Thousands of people were saved, and lots of people received miraculous healings from God.


Anna was with a group of people who prayed for a man with dark, cloudy, blind eyes.  After they prayed for God to heal him his eyes were immediately clear, bright, and perfectly restored.  They also prayed for a kid who was blind and deaf, and he instantly received his sight and hearing.  They prayed for a lame person who was instantly healed and started to jump around and dance and praise God.  They prayed for a man with a huge tumor on his stomach.  They laid hands on his stomach and as they prayed his stomach shrank all the way back down to normal as the tumor was removed by God from his body.


There were tons of other miraculous healings that took place on the trip too, as well as people being set free from the bondage of sin, and placing themselves under the lordship of Jesus.  What this group of people did was what Jesus commanded his disciples to do in Matthew 10, "7As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' 8Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons."  Jesus called us to follow the example that He himself set in proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and healing the sick.


I think most of us are totally onboard with preaching salvation from sin, but how comfortable are we with healing?  Why aren't we comfortable with healing?  I would guess we are a little scared of it because it is not something our culture is well acquainted with, and the reasons for this are two fold.


1.  We Rely On Ourselves

2.  We Don't Have Faith


When someone we love gets sick so many of us never even think to pray for their healing. We rely on ourselves and on our fellow man.  We will go to a doctor, a specialist, do yoga, eat fiber, drink from the backside of a glass, and just accept our death before we ever even go to the Great Physician to ask Him to heal.  And so many times when we do pray, we don't have faith in God to heal us.  But we know from scriptures that faith is a key component to healing.  How many times did Jesus say your faith has made you well, or it will be as you have believed?  And why was it that he couldn't do many miracles in his own hometown?  Because of a lack of faith.


The people in the Dominican that received so many incredible miracles had nothing to rely on but God.  They have absolutely nothing.  No money, no doctors, no options other than a miraculous healing.  And they have a great faith in God to be their healer.  You throw those two together and God moves in mighty ways on our behalf.


Is this to say that you will always be healed from everything bad?  No.  Why is that?  I have no clue.  We are all still mortal beings living in a fallen and cursed world.  But we do know that God moves mightily on our behalf to restore our health when we turn whole-heartedly to Him and have faith in Him to be our Healer.

Enjoy it, pass it on, and let us know what you think!

uzziahband.com/schedule/Woman. mp3

Before.

During

How I threatened to leave it.

After.

If anyone else would like a haricut, the Salon de Jeremy is accepting new clients.

If you were there, let me know how God was moving at camp, how He's revealed Himself to you, and what it is that He wants you to do. 

In fact, maybe that will be my next topic.  "How to know what God wants you to do."  What do you think?

Post Away!