Can You Heal Without the Christ of Christmas?

Everybody needs recovery. We're all recovering from something.

This Christmas season, I wish to pose this question to anyone who may be going through some challenging, recovery times: Can you heal without the Christ of Christmas?

Here's the bottom line: Without Jesus Christ, you can never have complete healing, recovery, and wholeness. Whatever you're going through today, Jesus is the only way.

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6).

That's an essential point of Christmas. Christ came from heaven to bring healing to man's total being -- soul, body, mind, spirit. In this life and beyond.

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel - which means, 'God with us.' "

So you mean, only Christians heal? I'm not saying that. I think that, in this fleeting life, those without Christ may also experience a measure of healing and recovery.

But how much do you want to heal and recover? Do you want to walk with someone aiding you or do you want to walk free and strong? Do you want to just walk or do you want to run? Do you desire running or soaring the heights?

God loves the heights for you!

"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint" (Isaiah 40: 30-31).

That's the promise of healing of the Christ of Christmas. We can be totally free, healed, and transformed -- not just recovered.


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How Do I Celebrate This Christmas?

Today’s Christmas holiday and year end is a time of uncertainty for many. In the country where I live, there are literally millions of people facing stormy experiences as a result of recent tragedies and calamities. Recovery and healing is still ongoing. This is also true in many parts of the world.

The real battle is not in the circumstances or the problems. It is most often in how we react to them. Mind-set. Attitude. In the face of difficulties, a lot too many are tossed about by stormy circumstances. They live on an emotional, psychological roller coaster.

This Christmas and each day of our life, that’s not how God wants us to live. Circumstances and problems say you are a “victim.” But God’s Word says you are “victorious in all things through Christ Jesus” (read: Romans 8: 26-39).

God wants us to choose to look beyond circumstances. And, put our hope in the Christ of Christmas, no matter what we see or feel. Circumstances are subject to change. But God’s Word, His promises and love, never change.

“ … and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Some people complain: “But I don’t have money this Christmas,” “I’m sick and suffering,” or “My loved ones are away.” Remember you don’t have to wait to possess all these in your earthly days to receive the “abundant life” Jesus came to bring us (John 10:10).

When we realize that God is ALL we really need ultimately in life – not our money, health, loved ones etc. – we’re able to enter into His tremendous peace.

As Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled nor let it be fearful” (John 14: 27).

This love, hope, and peace IN CHRIST will keep you and I steady in uncertain, stormy times -- during this holiday season and beyond.

Let’s celebrate true Christ-mas!

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The Only Medicine for Selfishness

As I’ve shared in my recent post, selfishness is a persistent disease of human nature. For thousands of years, this epidemic disease has continued to afflict and distort people’s thinking and choices. By nature, we do all tend to approach life from a fundamentally selfish point of view.

I’m reminded of a married man who confessed about his ongoing “problem:” gambling and womanizing. He knows and studies the Bible for years. He even wants to be a minister. Yet his “problem” persists. The fact is, he chooses to gamble and womanize even when he knows that they are harmful and will destroy him. What begins as a choice becomes an enslaving addiction.

Paul describes this kind of mindset: “For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those whose lives are in the flesh are unable to please God” (Romans 8: 6-8). In Ephesians 4, Paul further notes a kind of loss of sensitivity (especially to morality) and “have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (vv. 18, 19).

How did we get this disease? And how can we cure it?

Selfishness began with our first parents – Adam and Eve – who chose to believe and follow the serpent (Satan). God gave them freedom to choose good or evil. They chose evil and placed self above God. Take note that, behind this disease of selfishness, is a “great dragon … called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), “the prince of the power of the air” and “god of this age” (John 12:31; Ephesians 2: 2; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Satan’s massive deceptions have led mankind to follow him rather than the true God.

There is only one medicine, one cure, for the disease of selfishness – the Holy Spirit. Those who accept the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus and live for Him will receive the power and medicine of the Holy Spirit that’s greater than the power of Satan. As the apostle Paul wrote, God’s Holy Spirit is “a spirit of power and love and of self discipline” (2 Timothy 1: 7). When one follows Christ and His Word, “it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2: 13).

May God’s Holy Spirit touch you today! He is the only medicine -- the divine power that will enable us to diagnose, cure, and heal the disease of selfishness in our being.

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The Disease of Self

"... once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was" (James 1:24).

I was sitting in a mall coffee shop. Suddenly, a man I’d met only a few times before approached my table. Across him, I watched his face contort as we conversed. Listening to his sighs and moans, he complained about lots of people who irritated him because they won’t meet his demands or needs and expectations. The man and how he understood himself in his situation disturbed me. Feeling helpless, whatever I attempted to say to him to help sounded weak. I can only watch how he handled himself.

Perhaps you have never thought of yourself as like that man. You may have family, friends, and a life full of provision and activities. Enough things occupy your time and thought. But the truth is, there could be many things that you can discover about your self through this man. For example, like him, aren’t you also looking out for “number one?” Isn’t getting ahead, centered on your self-interest and needs, also your goal?

We all live in a “me generation” world. Selfishness is a widespread way of life. This started shortly after Creation when our first parents – Adam and Eve - elevated “self” above God (Genesis 1-3). Since then, “self” has dominated human affairs. Living for self, Lot selected the better land. Jonah fled out of preoccupation with self. Samson denied his heritage for the sake of self. James and John competed for self-promotion. Peter denied Jesus to save his self. Judas was eaten up by self.

In our modern times or recent history, the problem of self is more evident than ever. It is still the same pattern, the same “sickness,” that overcame the first couple thousands of years ago. If you want to witness examples of this problem of self today, ask any person you know or watch TV or read your newspapers. People stealing, kidnapping, or murdering. Corruption in government, business, or in any institutions. Adulterous relationships, unfaithfulness, immorality, broken families. All of these are caused by the sickness of selfishness.

While serving among “overseas foreign workers” or OFWs, I discovered one of today’s versions of this problem of self. Blinded by the deception that money can buy a better life, I saw mothers sending their newly-born babies back home in order to continue working in a foreign country. Something was basically wrong. Then, the children (who eventually become teenagers) of these OFWs suffer little opportunity to be close to their mothers due to absence. As a result, these children and teenagers frustratingly strike out on their own search and understanding of self. So, the painful cycle continues across generations.

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Dr. Linus Pauling's Healing & Longevity Secret

Dr. Linus Pauling was the only man in the world to have won two unshared Nobel prizes. He devoted himself to the struggle against diseases and to the benefits of vitamin C. According to him, "People who take vitamins in optimum amounts can live 25 or 35 years longer than otherwise. More than that, they will be free of disease. This optimum nutrition cuts down the probability of developing cancer, or heart disease or diabetes, or infectious diseases." He wrote the book "How to Live Longer and Feel Better" championing the role of Vitamin C in fighting cancer and other diseases in the human body. Dr. Pauling himself took megadoses of Vitamin C. He led a very fruitful and healthy life until August 19, 1994, when he died at the ripe age of 93.

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Have Your Reservoir of Strength

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31).

I'm blessed to work as a part time pastoral preacher, counselor, and chaplain at a wonderful government-funded hospital. There, the miraculous can be commonplace as patients come dejected and leave hopeful in the Lord. In a number of cases, cured of their cancer and other illnesses as well!

In this life blog, I believe the words I write here, my viewpoint, shaped by biblical witness, will provide significant help to you in your battle with any type of wound, sickness, trauma, hurts or habits -- physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. While I share my spiritual worldview, I sincerely believe that those who do not call themselves as Christians can also immensely benefit from the blog pages.

My goal is for us to find our reservoir of strength even in the midst of pain ... to be an advocate for life, as well as for the One who has given us life.

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Is 2012 The End of The World?

Last night, after church, my daughter Christine asked us to watch "2012," one of this year's most popular movies. The movie predicts end of the world or holocaust on December 12 or 21, 2012 based on astrology and the mayan calendar. Major movie studios, websites, Newsweek, books, and numerous media channels are now fanning the "2012 end of human history" craze. There goes again, like the Y2K, the end-of-the-world prediction!

It is true that the Bible is filled with prophetic statements, which includes "end of the world." You and I only have to read and understand the books of Revelation, Ezekiel, Daniel, among others, to confirm this truth. Revelation 6: 1-17, for instance, mentions judgments released upon the earth in the form of 7 trumpets, two witnesses, a dragon (the devil), a beast (the anti-Christ) and false prophet, and 7 golden bowls. The judgments passed on to the earth and its inhabitants shall be in the form of earthquakes, plague, hailstorms, fire, famine, meteor storm, lack of drinking water, and many more!

Bottomline, the biblical "end of the world" prophecy has to do with the battle between good and evil. Following the catastrophes, the bible prophecy leads us to the emergence of the anti-Christ in partnership with the devil and false prophet (unholy trinity) to rule the world for a period of time until the Battle of Armageddon. At this point, Scriptures states that Jesus Christ returns to earth and destroys the forces of the anti-Christ. Then the false prophet and the anti-Christ along with the devil are thrown down into the lake of fire.

Now regarding what the movie (or astrology or mayan calendar or even Nostradamus) predicts to be the date (December 12 or 21 of year 2012) these will begin to take place, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself made a clear statement. In the Gospels, Jesus taught His disciples and confirmed the signs of His coming and the end of the present age. While giving His disciples signs to watch for, Jesus stated clearly that no one knows the exact date except His Father.

"But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32).

"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour, in which the Son of Man is coming" (Matthew 25:13).

What are we then to do amid all these 2012 predictions?

Friends, whether or not the end of the world is in 2012 or near, the question we all need to ask ourselves is, "Am I ready?" Following evil in this life leads to separation from God and His judgment. Accepting Christ as Savior and Lord and living for Him gains entry into eternal life with God. The purpose of bible prophecy is the reminder of our need to be closer to God and preparing for Christ's return and end of the world, in 2012 and in every year of our lives.

"Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" (Matthew 24: 44).

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