Hello! last time I posted I said that a person has to have faith to be able to integrate their faith. I presume that you do. To begin you must have been discipled. I learned early in my walk with the Lord that I did not know how to communicate with him. I found this out when our church had a prayer vigil in preparation for a Lay Witness Mission. We were urged to sign up and it felt that I must take part so I went out to sign up. The only times left were at 2 AM and 2:15 AM. I thought they had to be out of their mind to expect anyone to sign up for those times, but I felt I had to sign up, but I did for the 2 AM spot. I went to bed that night and set my alarm for 1:30. When it beeped I got up brushed my teeth, dressed, and went to the church. When I got there the lady who was praying left, and I knelt at the communion rail. It was then that I did not know what to pray for. So I said out loud, "Lord I don't know what they want, but whatever it is let them have it! I then spent the next 14 minutes and 30 seconds realizing that I did not know how to pray.
I am a person who believes in good communication so I read a number of books on prayer, and developed a prayer life. I was not going to be like most church members who only pray 1 minute a day. It took me a while to find out how God communicated with me, but I did learn when I got a copy of Good News For Modern Man. God illuminated the scriptures for me and I found that I needed to read the scriptures each day. Most church goers do not read it but one a week. In time I found that the Means of Grace were necessary for me to grow as a Christian. There are other things a person has to learn to do in this relationship, so I have summarized them all in a book entitled The Nuts and Bolts of Discipleship. I would suggest you get a copy and read it if you want to facilitate your growth. (www.InstChristiangrowth.org)
After you have been discipled you need a call from God to know what you are going to do to serve him. What you need to do to get your call is to tell God you are available and ready to go. "Here am I, send me". Then keep your eyes and heart open to see what attracts you. It will be biblical, and you will find that there will be opportunities for you to indulge your interests. You certainly ought to look at your occupation to see what opportunities exist there for you to be a Christian worker, boss or whatever you are. The best way to start is to love your fellow workers.
I once read a book by Keith Miller entitled Setting Men Free. In it he said that if you wanted to change peoples lives you should affirm (love) them. At the time I had a secretary who was not the most pleasant person in the world, so I thought I would find out if his technique worked. One of my patients told me that I should knock her in the head. "She is one of the nastiest people I have run into lately". I realized I had to do something so when smy secretary came in with a new hairdo I complimented on it and told her how much I liked it. She smiled and thanked me. Then a week or so later she came in with a new pantsuit on and when I saw it I told her that it was very attractive, and how with her new hairdo she was really attractive. Then when she typed a manuscript for me that I was going to present at a meeting the next week, I told her. "Thank you for the job you did for me. That is a said anything wrong. It's just that no one ever says anything nice to me. My dad used to tell me I was ugly and no man would ever want me. Sonny my husband never says anything nice to me. I'm just not used to it". After that she was a changed woman, and everyone commented on the change including the patient who thought I ought to knock her in the head
Many times you will see ministries that appeal to you, or they will be a new use for your talents. I have always been a person who loved to teach. So it was only natural that I should want to teach others about God. I have been teaching 64 years, 46 of them as Christian. I love to share God with people and even more to help Christians grow. This was the reason I took a job in a seminary after I retired from Duke. I had the knowledge and I passed it on. One good example of integrating ones faith is the president to Chick-Fil-A. His faith is reflected in the treatment of his employees and customers.
Finally determine if you have a call, If you don't ask God to tell you what he wants you to do. Then whatever he says unto you--do it.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
IT ALL BEGINS WITH YOU
No one can integrate their faith unless they have a faith. To have faith one must be sure of the things they hope for, and to be certain of the things they cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1) What we hope for as Christians is that we will have eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and we are certain that there is a Heaven and Hell. We know that God has made it possible so the assurance will come if we have obeyed Christs commandments. These are to love God with all of our being, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love one another as Christ has loved us. We are to show our love by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving water to the thirsty, taking strangers in our home and visiting the sick and prisoners. We can do these things, though, only if we are born again and filled with the Spirit. Since we have free will we can choose to be obedient and invite Jesus into our life and when we have been empowered we can can begin to do these things. Without him we can only do what the human nature leads us to do. Our human nature only wants to please itself.
Once you have faith you have to grow in it. Paul called newborn Christians babies that only could drink milk, but once they have grown a little bit they have to be nurtured and learn to communicate with God. Christianity is a relational religion and for us to grow in it we have to learn to talk the talk. We need a thorough knowledge of the Bible, we need to know how to pray, and have to learn that we have access to God by conversing with him and we have to be still and know that he will reply. It is imperative for us to regularly be in conversation with him. This is the greatest failure of Christians in the church today. They pray on the average about 1 minute a day and read their Bible only once or twice a week. Supposed you only conversed with your wife or parents that much. You would not have a relationship. Relationships only develop when we are attracted to other and come along side them and learn all about them. as you do you make them supernaturally part of you because you have installed them in your mind. If you love them you will put their best interests and welfare above your own. An you will live your life for them. To maintain that love and devotion you will have to spend a lot of time with them and communicate with them all that is on your mind. You will never grow or maintain your relationship if you don't. This is what your hove to do to maintain your relationship with God.
When I first became a Christian I did not know how to communicate with the God who had told me he loved me. I had heard preachers pray in King James English, Calling him Gawd, and going on an on with flowery language. Jesus spoke to that when he excoriate the Pharisees for standing on the street corners dressed in fancy robes, and going on and on in their prayer. He said that they had already received their reward. That reward was the admiration of people who saw them there. To learn ho to communicate I had to learn to pray. I realized this when our church had a prayer vigil. We were encouraged to sign up. I went out into the foyer of the church where the sign up sheet was located and found that only two times were available--2 AM and 2:15 AM. I thought they had to be crazy to have someone come to the church and pray at those times., But I felt I had to sign up so I signed up for 2 AM. I went to bed that night set my alarm for 2 AM. When ti went off, I got up brushed my teeth, put on my close and went to the church. When I arrived the woman who was there got up an left. I want to the communion rail and knelt. It was then that I realized that I did not know what to pray for, so I said Lord I don't know what it is that they want, but whatever it is let them have it Then for the next 14 minutes and 30 seconds I knelt realizing not only that I did not know what to pray for that night, but I did not know how to pray.
For the next months I read everything I could find on prayer. When I finished I knew how to pray.I also knew what to pray for too. Now I had to learn about other ways of communicating with God. More about that next time.
Once you have faith you have to grow in it. Paul called newborn Christians babies that only could drink milk, but once they have grown a little bit they have to be nurtured and learn to communicate with God. Christianity is a relational religion and for us to grow in it we have to learn to talk the talk. We need a thorough knowledge of the Bible, we need to know how to pray, and have to learn that we have access to God by conversing with him and we have to be still and know that he will reply. It is imperative for us to regularly be in conversation with him. This is the greatest failure of Christians in the church today. They pray on the average about 1 minute a day and read their Bible only once or twice a week. Supposed you only conversed with your wife or parents that much. You would not have a relationship. Relationships only develop when we are attracted to other and come along side them and learn all about them. as you do you make them supernaturally part of you because you have installed them in your mind. If you love them you will put their best interests and welfare above your own. An you will live your life for them. To maintain that love and devotion you will have to spend a lot of time with them and communicate with them all that is on your mind. You will never grow or maintain your relationship if you don't. This is what your hove to do to maintain your relationship with God.
When I first became a Christian I did not know how to communicate with the God who had told me he loved me. I had heard preachers pray in King James English, Calling him Gawd, and going on an on with flowery language. Jesus spoke to that when he excoriate the Pharisees for standing on the street corners dressed in fancy robes, and going on and on in their prayer. He said that they had already received their reward. That reward was the admiration of people who saw them there. To learn ho to communicate I had to learn to pray. I realized this when our church had a prayer vigil. We were encouraged to sign up. I went out into the foyer of the church where the sign up sheet was located and found that only two times were available--2 AM and 2:15 AM. I thought they had to be crazy to have someone come to the church and pray at those times., But I felt I had to sign up so I signed up for 2 AM. I went to bed that night set my alarm for 2 AM. When ti went off, I got up brushed my teeth, put on my close and went to the church. When I arrived the woman who was there got up an left. I want to the communion rail and knelt. It was then that I realized that I did not know what to pray for, so I said Lord I don't know what it is that they want, but whatever it is let them have it Then for the next 14 minutes and 30 seconds I knelt realizing not only that I did not know what to pray for that night, but I did not know how to pray.
For the next months I read everything I could find on prayer. When I finished I knew how to pray.I also knew what to pray for too. Now I had to learn about other ways of communicating with God. More about that next time.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
My Beginnings
Recently my grandson who is studying in New Zealand started a blog about his visit there. it is like a travelogue, but is more than that. He includes his personal responses to the sights, an people he is meeting. So far it sounds as if he is having a ball.
Years ago I started a blog but quickly lost interest in it and it faded into oblivion. But now that I am handicapped and not as mobile as I used to be I decided to start another. The subject I chose had been used before by several others, so all I am going to do is to record my experiences in integrating my faith over the last 45 years. Mine may be different because I was not taught how to integrate it, I was led by the Holy Spirit to prepare myself, and energized by him to teach others after I learned about it myself.
I am physician, a psychiatrist, and a medical school and seminary professor. I am married, have 5 children 17 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. I have had a rewarding career because I have had compassion for those who are in conflict, and those who are mentally ill. I had unusual training since I was trained in child psychiatry, adult psychiatry, neurology and neuroscience. This took up seven years of training, after my internship. I was blessed in it because I interned at Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. There I was exposed to the third world, tropical diseases, and unbelievable poverty.
From the time I started to medical school I loved every minute of the time spent, and still do today. There is nothing more rewarding than to see messed up people cleansed and made whole again. It is also rewarding to see people lifted from the pits of despair into joyous living again. Also there is nothing more tragic than to see people who have an incurable mental disease that is like living death. But that is the way medicine is, we cannot cure them all. I learned this early in my internship when a young woman was admitted to the isolation unit of our hospital. She had symptoms of poliomyelitis and was very frightened. She did indeed have polio., and I did all I could to cure her, I even put her in an iron lung, but we had no treatment for polio in those days, so I could only watch as she became progressively paralyzed, and in ten days died. I was devastated. She had so much life to live and so much love to give, and her life was snuffed out like a candle. I learned that in spite of the advances in medicine at that time many diseases are not treatable. It still true today that there are many disease that we can do little about except try to comfort them. Unfortunately they do not teach you how to comfort people in Medical school. Oliver Wendell Holmes said once, "That it is the physicians right to cure seldom, help often and comfort always.
After I became a Christian I did learn to comfort people. God taught me how to do it and I have practiced it ever since then. But he also gave me the power to heal, in ways that medicine had not taught me to heal. It has been a exciting journey, for he has been with me all the way and continues to be faithful. I hope you will enjoy this trip with me.
William P. Wilson MD, DD (Hon)
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry Duke University Medical Center
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Counseling Carolina Graduate School of Divinity
williamwilson622@gmail.com
Years ago I started a blog but quickly lost interest in it and it faded into oblivion. But now that I am handicapped and not as mobile as I used to be I decided to start another. The subject I chose had been used before by several others, so all I am going to do is to record my experiences in integrating my faith over the last 45 years. Mine may be different because I was not taught how to integrate it, I was led by the Holy Spirit to prepare myself, and energized by him to teach others after I learned about it myself.
I am physician, a psychiatrist, and a medical school and seminary professor. I am married, have 5 children 17 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. I have had a rewarding career because I have had compassion for those who are in conflict, and those who are mentally ill. I had unusual training since I was trained in child psychiatry, adult psychiatry, neurology and neuroscience. This took up seven years of training, after my internship. I was blessed in it because I interned at Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. There I was exposed to the third world, tropical diseases, and unbelievable poverty.
From the time I started to medical school I loved every minute of the time spent, and still do today. There is nothing more rewarding than to see messed up people cleansed and made whole again. It is also rewarding to see people lifted from the pits of despair into joyous living again. Also there is nothing more tragic than to see people who have an incurable mental disease that is like living death. But that is the way medicine is, we cannot cure them all. I learned this early in my internship when a young woman was admitted to the isolation unit of our hospital. She had symptoms of poliomyelitis and was very frightened. She did indeed have polio., and I did all I could to cure her, I even put her in an iron lung, but we had no treatment for polio in those days, so I could only watch as she became progressively paralyzed, and in ten days died. I was devastated. She had so much life to live and so much love to give, and her life was snuffed out like a candle. I learned that in spite of the advances in medicine at that time many diseases are not treatable. It still true today that there are many disease that we can do little about except try to comfort them. Unfortunately they do not teach you how to comfort people in Medical school. Oliver Wendell Holmes said once, "That it is the physicians right to cure seldom, help often and comfort always.
After I became a Christian I did learn to comfort people. God taught me how to do it and I have practiced it ever since then. But he also gave me the power to heal, in ways that medicine had not taught me to heal. It has been a exciting journey, for he has been with me all the way and continues to be faithful. I hope you will enjoy this trip with me.
William P. Wilson MD, DD (Hon)
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry Duke University Medical Center
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Counseling Carolina Graduate School of Divinity
williamwilson622@gmail.com
The Gospel
Last Sunday I posted a blog about the priesthood of believers. Today I want to add to our inspection of integrating your faith. I know there are others that have written about integrating our faith, but each of us has our own perspective on what it means since our lives are all different. Julian Marias says that the life I live is my life, and is distinctive, but there are things that are basic to reality and we have to be sure to witness to how we have integrated our faith into our life.
Today I want to to tell you why it is not necessary to have a theological education to proclaim the gospel. Jesus ordered all of us to proclaim the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. We are to be witnesses for him to the ends of the earth, and are to make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are all to do what he told us to do. To help us to carry our his orders we were given the Holy Spirit which is the spirit of power. If we are not doing what he told us to do we will suffer the consequences. Gods judgement will be based on two things in our life. (1) are we born again, (2) did we obey his commandments to Love God with all our being, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love one another as he loved us, then have shown love by our actions?
But what is the gospel? In its simplest terns it is described in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. "Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born". This scripture has in it all of the knowledge that, if believed, will result in salvation. Paul said that if we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that he was raised from the dead we will be saved,(Romans 10:9,10)
Today I want to to tell you why it is not necessary to have a theological education to proclaim the gospel. Jesus ordered all of us to proclaim the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. We are to be witnesses for him to the ends of the earth, and are to make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are all to do what he told us to do. To help us to carry our his orders we were given the Holy Spirit which is the spirit of power. If we are not doing what he told us to do we will suffer the consequences. Gods judgement will be based on two things in our life. (1) are we born again, (2) did we obey his commandments to Love God with all our being, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love one another as he loved us, then have shown love by our actions?
But what is the gospel? In its simplest terns it is described in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. "Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born". This scripture has in it all of the knowledge that, if believed, will result in salvation. Paul said that if we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that he was raised from the dead we will be saved,(Romans 10:9,10)
It is so simple!
I was speaking at a large church in Nashville Tennessee when I was told that an old friend of mine who had moved from Duke to Vanderbilt was dying of pulmonary fibrosis. I called his wife and asked if I might come to see him.They agreed and the next day I went at the appointed time. We greeted one another and caught up with our lives, and then he suddenly said that he had been a Methodist, but when he married he had gone to the Episcopal Church with his wife. He said that the rector came by weekly and served him communion, but in spite of that he felt uneasy about his relationship with God. So I asked him if he had ever confessed with his lips that Jesus is Lord and had believed that he was resurrected from the dead. He immediately corrected me and said if he believed in his heart that Jesus was resurrected from the dead! I said, "You are right, have you?" He said, "I call him Lord all the time, and I do believe in my heart that he was resurrected from the dead".
I told him that he had nothing to worry about. I saw him again a month later and he said all doubts were gone. He died two weeks later.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
THE PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS
I have found it difficult to enter new bogs since I forget to do it. But here is another. In my initial blog I noted how the Lord had led me ot integrate my faith. In this one I want to tell you why.
When Jesus began his ministry he did not pick his disciples from the trained attendants and priests in the temple. He also did not pick them from the Pharisees and Sadducees of his Hebrew religion. He went to the shores of the sea of Galilee and first picked two fishermen. He then picked others none of whom were from the priestly class. He knew these men were all intelligent, hard workers, and moral men. He then taught them what God wanted them to know to become a priesthood of believers who were to spread his message of salvation over the whole world. In three hundred years it was spread over all of the Roman empire. It was interesting too, that when God sent the Holy Spirit he sent it first to 150 persons none of whom were described as clergy, but they were ordinary people. They were however empowered to begin the church and Peter' preaching on that fateful morning established the church.
Jesus had told them that the Holy Spirit would empower them and he did. The church continued to grow as those who had been filled with the Holy Spirit witness to the people around them. Jesus had said that they would first carry the message to Judea, then to the surrounding country (Samaria) and then to the whole world. It was interesting that God's plan was for it to be taken to the Roman empire. Paul and Barnabus wanted to take the message to Asia, but that was not God's plan. Instead God spoke to him in a dream and told him to go to Macedonia. Realizing that got had pointed him in a different direction he dutifully obeyed. Christianity then spread to Europe, and now over the whole world. But it is dying in the West and it has lost it's fire. In Europe very few people go to church. In Africa and Asia though the churches are filled. And it is interesting that the church is exploding because the priesthood of believers has been reestablished. just as Jesus picked ordinary people to be his disciples, so has the church in Africa and Asia had to do the same. Missionaries were not welcome in China, and although they were present large numbers they were not effective. Indigenous churches usually do not have theologically educated pastors. I have worshiped in many of them and their pastors may have only and elementary education, or sometimes they may have finished high school.
Simon Mkolo, the leader of a large indigenous church in the poorest part of Zimbabwe, started out preaching under trees and people came to Christ. He soon had one church, then two, and today has over 500,000 people in many churches. Some of them meet in buildings, but they are still led by many men whose education consists of knowledge of the Bible. His church continues to grow. Hanook Tamong who has no theological education, has a church in Nepal that establishes a new congregation every week. They had at one time 130 evangelists in the field. There is to my knowledge no seminary in Nepal, if there is they are not affiliated with his church. Then there is Korea. We have had missionaries in Korea for many years, and the church did not grow during and after WWII, There was seminary education available to many of their pastors, but when Paul Yongi Cho started a church where all members were prayer warriors, witnesses to the saving power of Jesus, the church exploded. Now there are more Christians per capita than in almost any nation. Thirty percent of Koreans are Christians. The most exciting example of how God builds his church is China. Almost all of the millions of Chinese who are Christians today came came to Christ in house churches. whose leaders had come to the Lord through the witness of their fellow countrymen.
Our churches today are declining because we have abolished the priesthood of believers. More about that next time.
When Jesus began his ministry he did not pick his disciples from the trained attendants and priests in the temple. He also did not pick them from the Pharisees and Sadducees of his Hebrew religion. He went to the shores of the sea of Galilee and first picked two fishermen. He then picked others none of whom were from the priestly class. He knew these men were all intelligent, hard workers, and moral men. He then taught them what God wanted them to know to become a priesthood of believers who were to spread his message of salvation over the whole world. In three hundred years it was spread over all of the Roman empire. It was interesting too, that when God sent the Holy Spirit he sent it first to 150 persons none of whom were described as clergy, but they were ordinary people. They were however empowered to begin the church and Peter' preaching on that fateful morning established the church.
Jesus had told them that the Holy Spirit would empower them and he did. The church continued to grow as those who had been filled with the Holy Spirit witness to the people around them. Jesus had said that they would first carry the message to Judea, then to the surrounding country (Samaria) and then to the whole world. It was interesting that God's plan was for it to be taken to the Roman empire. Paul and Barnabus wanted to take the message to Asia, but that was not God's plan. Instead God spoke to him in a dream and told him to go to Macedonia. Realizing that got had pointed him in a different direction he dutifully obeyed. Christianity then spread to Europe, and now over the whole world. But it is dying in the West and it has lost it's fire. In Europe very few people go to church. In Africa and Asia though the churches are filled. And it is interesting that the church is exploding because the priesthood of believers has been reestablished. just as Jesus picked ordinary people to be his disciples, so has the church in Africa and Asia had to do the same. Missionaries were not welcome in China, and although they were present large numbers they were not effective. Indigenous churches usually do not have theologically educated pastors. I have worshiped in many of them and their pastors may have only and elementary education, or sometimes they may have finished high school.
Simon Mkolo, the leader of a large indigenous church in the poorest part of Zimbabwe, started out preaching under trees and people came to Christ. He soon had one church, then two, and today has over 500,000 people in many churches. Some of them meet in buildings, but they are still led by many men whose education consists of knowledge of the Bible. His church continues to grow. Hanook Tamong who has no theological education, has a church in Nepal that establishes a new congregation every week. They had at one time 130 evangelists in the field. There is to my knowledge no seminary in Nepal, if there is they are not affiliated with his church. Then there is Korea. We have had missionaries in Korea for many years, and the church did not grow during and after WWII, There was seminary education available to many of their pastors, but when Paul Yongi Cho started a church where all members were prayer warriors, witnesses to the saving power of Jesus, the church exploded. Now there are more Christians per capita than in almost any nation. Thirty percent of Koreans are Christians. The most exciting example of how God builds his church is China. Almost all of the millions of Chinese who are Christians today came came to Christ in house churches. whose leaders had come to the Lord through the witness of their fellow countrymen.
Our churches today are declining because we have abolished the priesthood of believers. More about that next time.
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