Jesus & Boogers

Last night I had a pretty interesting experience.  We'd just gotten home from our Christmas gathering and were getting ready for bed, when Ben tells me he has a headache.  He was in obvious pain, and whining quite abit about it.  So I did what anyone else would do,  I prayed for him.

Wait, what?  You prayed for him?  But anyone else would have given him some Tylenol and told him everything's gonna be just fine.

I can imagine this is what most of you are probably thinking.  Perhaps I should have said,  So I did what Jesus would've done.  Or Paul would've done.  Or  the disciples would've done.

The funny thing is, 3-4 months ago, I would've reached for the Tylenol, and tried to help him feel better on my own strength.  But then one day I read a scripture in
1 John 2:6

⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. 

So I studied the gospels, and studied Jesus and really decided I'm gonna try and model my life after this really cool dude.  My Savior.  Well, one aspect of his life is that he healed everyone.  Every person he came into contact with was healed of disease, ailment, and sickness.

So then I asked myself, How can I live as Jesus did in the capacity of healing? And here is what I discovered.

Mark 16:15-18 
¹⁵ He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

OMG.  Seriously?  Believers (That's me and you if you believe in Christ)  will place their hands on sick people, and they WILL.... THEY WILL GET WELL.

So back to Benny now.  I prayed for him and then asked him if he still had any pain.  He gave me a strange look.  Then he says, "It's almost all gone."

I truly didn't expect this response, and deep inside I was like, "OMG, this is really working!!! "  I was doing backflips on the inside and my faith just increased dramatically.

So anyways, I say, OK, let's pray again because Jesus doesn't want you to have any pain.  So we pray again and I ask him again if there is any pain left.  He holds up his fingers to show me how much pain he has left.  "There's only this much pain left.  Just a tiny tiny bit"  he says.

So, I pray again for the 3rd time and ask him again if there is any pain.  He says, " No.  It's all gone!"

Say What?  I just did something scripture told me to do, and it worked. Wowsers.  This is interesting because if you go back to my last post, which is in Jan 2010, I wrote of a similiar experience, but really didn't have the knowledge that I do now, as to why this occurred. 

Now, I have to share what happened next because it's pretty hilarious.  Carissa sees this happen and asks me if I can pray for her "cough and boogers."  LOL.  So I say sure, and began to pray for her cough.  After I was done I tell her to check herself to see how she feels.

She says,  "Dad, my cough feels like it's going away, but my boogers are still here."  LOL

I tell her, "I don't think Jesus is gonna make those boogers disappear... you're gonna have to take those things out yourself ."

Late Night Thoughts

Wow. I can't believe I'm doing this. Everyone's asleep so what the heck. Oh, and the Dish Network box broke which is another great excuse to do this.

I haven't blogged in 8 months and I'm kinda rusty, but here goes my thoughts.

1. What I've been reading: Francis Chan- Crazy Love (On my 2nd time around in the last couple weeks.) Also reading his book, Forgotten God. Is that what it's called? I forgot. Well, anyways, it's his new one. Just finished the book of Matthew. Also reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. So, ya, reading alot lately.

2. 2009- Wow. The most money I've made in one year. Ever. God has blessed and I'm so thankful, especially during this crappy economy. But 2010 will be a little different. I've taken a less stressful position and decided to give up the overtime. Less money, but health and family is definitely more important.

3. God has really opened my eyes towards the less fortunate this year. The poor and needy. MFI. All my friends who are struggling to make it because of job cuts or hours cut. It hurts to see that. I hurt for them.

4. I'm so proud of my beautiful wife. Her desire to love on the women at MFI is awesome. Even though she has never experienced anything these ladies have gone through, (drug addiction, prison life, physical and sexual abuse), she obeyed God and was courageous enough to show God's amazing love to them. To see how they've responded to her brings me joy.

5. This week has been a rough week. Rach and I had some health issues that were really painful. A couple nights ago we were lying in bed and I was reading. As I read, I really sensed this "pain" was a spiritual attack. I know, call me crazy, but I felt like I needed to pray for Rachel at that moment and just rebuke the enemy. So I did and then right after Rachel prayed for me. As she prayed for me the pain left just like that. She also said her pain left. How cool is that. I just know that after this experience, I definitely need to pray over her and my children more.

That about sums up what I'm thinking right now. Hopefully I'll blog more often this year.

-D-

Spacebar Woes

I was gonna post an awesome blog today but Lily ripped the spacebar off my keyboard and I couldn't seem to put it back on all the way. It now takes extra effort from my thumb to create spaces so now I'm not gonna post one. I love my Lily.