I know you have seen the ads for Cancer Treatment Centers of America: Some testimony about a person condemned to have only 2 months to live, then they go to the CTCA and they give them hope. Maybe even some treatment. They then live or die.
I'm sure they are nice people at the CTCA. I am also sure they charge people money for what they do.
What they do is do examinations and reexaminations and make sure any cancer diagnosis' are correct. Then they make sure the treatment (curative, experimental or palliative) are in order for the situation at hand. It's not a cancer cure center, it's a cancer treatment center.
They do not promise a cure. They promise hope. Some people do get better. Some never die as prematurely as their family doctor said they would.
The people at CTCA are caring, compassionate and full of hope that somehow by direct or indirect intervention the people involved will be made well or at least live life more fully till they are done.
I do not object, I am not judging them. It's just wrong.
That is exactly what the Church of Jesus should be doing.
- Offering Hope for Healing
- Giving Comfort
- Building Faith
- Encouraging the discouraged
- Telling people to look again
- Giving a reason to believe in the impossible
And, if some people don't get healed, being there for families. That is MORE than CTCA does.
I believe in healing enough that I am actually surprised when someone who comes in faith to Jesus for healing doesn't get healed. Not all do, but many. I have people with incurable cancer who I know that are still among us because they came to a fellowship and like the woman with the issue of blood reached out for healing and were made whole. I know several in fact. Then I know some like my friend Jean who after we prayed, laid on hands still died. She and her husband were prepared for whatever happened. He holds no bitterness. Hope in God was all she had. Hope in God or hope in Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Which is better?
When we minister to someone and then they get worse or die WE are labeled as quacks offering false hope. That is a crock. We in the Christian community should be aggressive in offering hope for healing.
What about Cancer Treatment Centers? I'll wager their cure rate is less efficacious than the power of Jesus for healing.
When I get sick before I ever go to a doctor I go to Jesus. So should you. He doesn't charge. The Cancer Treatment Centers didn't build those big buildings from nothing.
I am not critical. It's just kind of a crime that in a formerly Christian nation like the USA the medical establishment prospers many times better than the Christian Church. I blame the Church. We don't believe in healing any more. We lost our authority because of tradition. Oh we pray for the sick in a sick kind of way. Then blame God when nothing happens. We have as Christians in America lost our zeal and understanding of our authority in Jesus to deal with sickness and disease. Very very few PASTORS I know actually have a clue in how to minister to the sick. This isn't taught in seminary at all.
We used to be a place that people could come to be healed. Now we aren't.
Isn't there something wrong here?
I think there is.
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