"Jesus didn’t heal everyone.

I’ve wrestled with that truth in the quiet places no one sees, in the hospital hallways where prayers echoed unanswered,

in the graveside silences where I begged Him to come late like He did for Lazarus…

and still believed He could.

He didn’t always stop.

He didn’t always speak.

Sometimes… He just walked by.

And that truth used to ache in me like a wound I couldn’t name.

I had this idea that if He could, He should.

That if He was near, He would fix what was broken. That if He loved me, He’d rescue me, quickly, publicly, visibly.

But He didn’t.

And yet… He loved me still.

I used to think miracles were the evidence of favor. Now I see, sometimes, the silence is.

Sometimes the “no” is just as holy as the “now.”

Sometimes the waiting is more sacred than the wonder.

Because the truth is, Jesus didn’t heal everyone.

Not every lame man walked.

Not every blind eye opened.

Not every storm was stilled.

Not every grave was emptied.

But He saw every ache.

He felt every cry.

He wept at every tomb.

Even the ones He didn’t raise.

I’m learning that His love is not proven by how quickly He answers,

but by how faithfully He stays when He doesn’t.

He didn’t always heal the body.

But He always touched the soul.

He always restored what mattered most.

And He always walked in love, even when His hands didn’t move the way I hoped.

So here I am, years into a prayer I’m still waiting on. Holding the tension between faith and fatigue.

Still believing He can.

Still trusting Him even if He doesn’t.

Still finding Him in the places I didn’t expect,

the long nights, the dry spells, the closed doors, the empty hands.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s the deeper healing.

Maybe He walked past them so He could walk with me.

Maybe He withheld the miracle to give me more of Him.

Maybe the greatest healing isn’t in the answer,

but in the nearness of the One who holds me while I wait.

He didn’t heal everyone. But He never passed by the brokenhearted.

And I know now, He has not passed by me."

Gwen Brewster. 

 

I went to the downtown Mission today, which is located in the worst part of Portland, the very heart of human desperation. I walk two blocks from my car to the mission doors midst the most distressing sights of human degradation. The sun was shining and the weather was crisp on this beautiful fall day; such a contrast, skies clear radiating hope, a day for a daydream, but the streets lined with the wages of sin.   

I meet weekly with a man in the program and we had a productive visit, the Lord had me help him dodge a bullet with a woman of evil intentions. 

As I left he walked me to my car and as we rounded the corner, there was a woman sitting on her haunches, skin of dark ebony, clothes worn for many days with a shawl covering her head and face. It was just a moment, a few seconds passing her by, but something struck my soul so deeply, my heart said stop and do, but my steps continued past as our conversation distracted me. We said our good-byes and as I pulled out I looked for that woman where I saw her, but she was gone. 

My emotions were so strong for this faceless stranger. She looked so helpless, so lost, and I was so full of the Holy Spirit, but.....

I learned a lesson today, be prepared. The very least I could have done, even with just a moment, is to have given her a pamphlet on the Mission's brand new women's shelter where she could get free help, loving counsel, spiritual encouragement and support, three nutritious meals a day, a warm room and a soft bed with ongoing care to help her meet all the challenges of easing back into life clean and sober.   But I was not prepared.....

Photo of random person on the Internet. 

 Listen to this woman and her team that go into Strip-clubs and spread the Gospel, it'll set your heart on fire!!! 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/415130431358505

 My son shared this about the birth of one of his grandchildren --

"The morning that my granddaughter was born (5am)

I was awakened by some of the most strong and deep prophetic dreams, ministry and words of the Spirit between 4-6am.

One after another the words swelled like waves upon me.                   I was awake and then fell into dream-sleep over and over again.

I felt like I was on the shores of a Scottish Isle being battered by stormy seas of prophetic words.

After I got a phone call from my wife to see my granddaughter for the first time via FaceTime, I wrote this prayer/prophecy:

“Blessed be the Lord!

May she howl like a wild voice of the wind of the Holy Spirit.

May the Lord be magnified by the halo of His glory on her soul.

May she be unleashed on the earth like a stampede of sacred Stallions unleashing a mighty move of God.

Daughter of destiny,

handmaiden of holiness

and helper of man.

Bearing the crest of her fathers,

the breath of her ancestors

prayers and songs,

the hands of heroes,

heart of fire

and the feet of island stone.”

Isa. 59:21

“As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them:

My Spirit who is upon you,

and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth,

nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore”.

My wife told me that when she came out of the womb she was screaming and howling like a wild one."

The photo is a random pic from the internet.

 I like music, almost all music. I grew up with a love for the Blues and Rock n Roll, then when I became a Christian I was introduced to Gospel and "Spirit in the Sky." 

I ran across an old Blues singer today named Memphis Minnie. She was born in '35 and on one of her songs the lyrics caught me. 

"These strings ain't made for lullabies

They sharp, they cut, they bite. 

Cut so true you can hear 'em moan, hear 'em cry; 

Every note I pick is thunder from the sky." 

I love a good 'turn of phrase,' and these lyrics cry out to be preached from the pulpit today. As God has seen fit, He's opened the pulpits at the jail and at the mission, where I preach to those in crisis. Hardened souls, hurting souls, angry souls, and souls in anguish. The stories of the men and women remind me of the lyrics from another song --

"Well, I looked my demons in the eyes

Lay bare my chest, said, "Do your best to destroy me"

See, I've been to hell and back so many times

I must admit you kinda bore me."

To reach a heart like that the Lord assists me by giving me words with barbs as well as balm. Lectures and lullabies won't reach a hardened heart, it takes the soul piercing power of the Holy Spirit: which is where the lyrics to Memphis Minnie come in - These sermons ain't made for lullabies, they sharp, they cut, they bits. They cut so true you can hear 'em moan, hear 'em cry. Every word I pick is thunder from the sky. 

Once the wound is lanced, then the precious balm of Gilead is applied in lavish measures and the goodness of God and the Blood's cleansing flow leads even the hardest heart to repentance. 

 

"Walter Landor, speaking of the difference between Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, says:

"There is as great a difference between Shakespeare and Bacon as between an American forest and a London timber-yard. In the timber-yard the materials are sawed and squared and set across; whereas in the forest we have the natural form of the tree, all its growth, all its branches, all its leaves, all the mosses that grow about it, all the birds and insects that inhabit it, now deep shadows absorbing the whole wilderness, now bright bursting glades, with exuberant grass and flowers and fruitage; now untroubled skies, now terrific thunderstorms; everywhere multiformity, everywhere immensity."

I couldn't help but think of the different kinds of Christians; some are like the London timber-yards, great attention to details, a faith squared and sawn, and set across in tight and tidy doctrines set in systematic rows. 

While others, with hearts of love, compassions that fail not, deeds that reach others with flower and fruitage, bursting glades of grace, entering in deep shadows with sufferers, everywhere an immensity of compassion and grace.  

 

"That is Nature's way; she will allow a gentleman of splendid features and poetic aspirations to sing woefully out of tune and not give him the slightest hint of it; 

While she takes care that some narrow-browed fellow, trolling a ballad in the corner of his pothouse, shall be as true to his intervals a a bird." 

 

"There are those who consider, and I agree with them, that the education of boys under the age of twelve years ought to be entrusted as much as possible to women. Let me ask, of what period of youth and of manhood, does not the same hold true? 

I pity the ignorance and conceit of the man who fancies he has nothing left to learn from godly women, I should have thought that the very mission of women was to be, in the highest sense, the educator of man from infancy to old age: that that was the work toward which all the God-given capacities of women pointed - for which they were to be educated to the highest pitch. 

I should have thought that it was the glory of woman that she was sent into the world to live for others, rather than for herself; and therefore I should say, let her smallest rights be respected, her smallest wrong redressed; but let her never be persuaded to forget that she is sent into the world to teach man what, I believe, she has been teaching him all along, even in the savage state, namely, that there is something more necessary than claiming rights, and that is, the performing of duties; to teach him specially, in these so-called intellectual days, that there is something more than intellect, and that is, purity and virtue just as she sees in her Redeemer and her Lord." Charles Kingsley.  

 

"Heart, be not the grape that underneath the leaves

Hides, that it may not be the prey of garden thieves,

No thief has found that grape; but ah! no sunbeams power

Has reached its dark retreat, and so that grape is sour."

 

Have you read the great Reformation authors?

Every Christian should read the great Christian literature authored by the Reformers and Puritans. Without some familiarity with the great Christian authors of the past we have but a husk of truth. Here are some quotes about being caught up in the world and politics by some of the most notable authors from the past.

"The duty of the true Christian is clear and plain. Whatever others do, he must give all diligence to make his own calling and election sure. 

While others are occupied in national conflicts and political speculations, he must steadily seek first the kingdom of God."

J.C. Ryle

"An unsound heart, a rotten heart, 

is most taken up about the outside, —

informing that, and reforming that, and watching of that—

but as for the inside, 

there is no eye cast to see how all stands there."

Thomas Brooks

 "If we would talk less and pray more about them, 

things would be better than they are in the world: 

at least, we should be better enabled to bear them."

John Owen

"I see men for the most part spending their strength and time 

more to oppose things they disagree with 

than to practice the things they agree are most necessary."

John Owen

"The man that is most busy in censuring others is always least employed in examining himself."

Thomas Lye

"Study the Word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less."

John Flavel

"It is a just matter of lamentation that all the tokens of God's anger 

produce with many of us 

no better fruit but bold censures and loud clamors, 

instead of humiliation for our own sins, and the due preparation to take up own cross, and follow Christ in a suffering path."

John Flavel

 

"The loving service of the weak and needy is an essential part of the discipline of the Christian life. Regular association with the poor, the dependent, the sorrowful, is an indispensable source of the highest elements of character. If we are faithful to the obligations which such contact with infirmity will bring; if we gently take the trembling hand that seeks our guidance, and spend the willing care, and exercise the needful patience; - why, it makes us descend into healthful depths of sorrowful affection which otherwise we should never reach." 

James Martineau.  

 "You have turned Justice into poison

and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood." Amos 6:12

This verse caught my eye as I was reading in the book of Amos. I live on the outskirts of Portland, a city of protests, upheaval, social unrest and Antifa infiltration. 

When I moved here in the seventies it was a beautiful, peaceful city, but now, this once flourishing downtown shopping hub, is filled with graffiti, boarded up shops and the police are forced to stand-down and let chaos have its run. To say this town is liberal can't be exaggerated. 

Truly justice has been turned into poison, and what appears as righteousness is wormwood, meaning, bitterness and hard to take. 

We hope our leaders will bring justice, fairness and peace but here they have allowed corruption and chaos and harmed society like venom.  

 Infatuation

 Infatuation is the state of being completely lost in the emotion of unreasoning desire.

Urgency, intensity, sexual desire, anxiety, high-risk choices, reckless abandonment of what was once valued. (Virginity)

Reckless commitment to satisfy one's all-consuming lust.

All-consuming euphoria similar to recreational drug use (addictive chemical reactions in the brain), stupidity (cupidity). Can risk everything for the next hit of adrenalin.

Being controlled by brain chemistry, not the heart, loss of ability to make rational evaluations of what is true, valuable and worthy.

This is temporary in life and ends after some period. 

Here is a quote from an 18 year old girl that has met her first love --

"This guy. This romance.  These feelings...... Oh my word.  They can be good,  sad at times,  overwhelming,  challenging,  time consuming,  miserable, can make one insecure, make me feel older than I am at times,  make me feel stupid,  happy,  exciting, exhilarating,  peaceful,  paining,  questioning and sooooooo  much more.  This is my first ever real relationship and it at times can be so much and other times feeling so aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah- small."

When I saw this picture I had to include it in a post because it captures the overwhelming emotions of infatuation. 

It leaves us nearly helpless, and many a fool has been made because of it. Every relationship we have is important, a chance to learn, about the person, but more importantly, about ourselves.