Ecclesiastes 7: 29

There's a verse that is embedded in everyone's memory!

I'm sure it isn't, so here it is in several translations:

God created mankind upright,

but they have gone in search of many schemes (NIV)

God made human beings straightforward,

but they have devised many schemes. (NRSV)

God made us plain and simple,

but we have made ourselves very complicated. (Good News)

God created people to be virtuous,

but they have each turned to follow their own downward path. (NLT)

This is a creationist verse. God made us: virtuous, plain and simple, straightforward, upright.

BUT!

I am writing this the day after the superintendents' meeting in Thetford. I had abdominal pains from shortly after I arrived there. They stayed the whole time. They didn't go away. They are still there today.

I know there are physical causes, but I'm not so plain and simple as I was created to be because I am a fallen human being (saved and sanctified, but still fallen). And sometimes the tension I encounter twists me up inside.

I went to superintendents' meetings when I was superintendent in Scotland and I got on well with everyone, even though we had widely differing theological viewpoints - I was in the only evangelical circuit in Scotland.

I went to superintendents' meetings in Plymouth & Exeter district, where I got on well with all the superintendents, and all the circuits were evangelical.

I can say hello and goodbye to some of the superintendents in this district even though none of the circuits are evangelical (there may be one, but I'm not sure), but there is no one to talk to, because there is no one on my wavelength.

I'm not the oldest person in the meeting, but I have been in ministry a lot longer than all of them (chair of district included). And I'm talking decades here, not just a few years. I have between 11 and 30 years experience more than all of them.

Why am I writing this?

Well, let's start at the beginning. I have a swear box in Southwold for the Foodbank. I don't hear as much swearing in Southwold as I heard yesterday. I know it probably is because I've been around a long time, but I am used to my nonChristian contacts apologising to me if they swear when speaking to me. These are the circuit spiritual leaders and it's just part of their nature - not all of them I might add.

This happened in my previous circuit where one of the ministers complained about another minister from a previous circuit who objected to him swearing in a staff meeting, because, he said, he wanted to be himself. in these meetings. I was surprised that his "self" had to swear.

When I became a Christian my language changed in an instant and I know some of my converts who testified to the same thing.

Then there was the discussion of John 14: 1-14. I never join in these conversations because it would be an unnecessary argument. But the supremacy of Jesus was denied; all religions, we were told, lead to God. Jesus didn't say, "I am THE way, THE truth and THE life" - He was just saying that He is A way, A truth, A life.

Someone mocked his words: "anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works", and asked, "Have any of us ever raised the dead?" When I told my wife about this she said I should have told them. I didn't, because I don't think they would understand.

But I have done those things: heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, and preach the gospel. I save the raising the dead story for healing services, but I decided to write it here. Sorry this is so long, but I thought it might ease the pains if I put this down in writing:

I was in Scotland, in the North of Scotland Mission Circuit. In my first Alpha Course 7 people committed their lives to Jesus, but I didn't see many charismatic manifestations of the Spirit. And then, in my 3rd year there, I had a phonecall to go and visit Doreen in hospital. Doreen was in her 80s; she had dementia; she was in Elgin Hospital; and she was dead.

Well, I say dead, but she was actually ... dead.

Sorry, couldn't resist!

She was being kept breathing with those wonderful machines we have that give the illusion of life. I knew Doreen and her husband. They were members of one of my churches. I knew one of their sons. He was an electrician and he had done some work on our house. The other 2 sons worked on oil rigs, and they had flown in to say goodbye to their mum. All 3 sons were there, with their wives, and Stuart, Doreen's husband, was also there. We talked, I don't remember what we talked about, but then the signal for the minister to leave came, when one of them said, "Will you pray for her?" So I did as I do in hospitals - I normally take the hand, but she was tucked in, so I put my hand on her shoulder and prayed.

When I started out in ministry that was the hardest thing for me. The evangelicals I was at college with, and the ministers I heard, were great flowery pray-ers. They could pray loud and enthusiastically, and call God by all kinds of names. And I found it difficult at first - praying in the church service; praying with people when I visited them. So I did what I do - I prayed about my inability to pray. And since then I have never thought about what to pray; I just close my eyes and open my mouth. And so I don't usually remember what I said - i don't always hear it!

And so I put my hand on Doreen's shoulder and I prayed. I remember praying that God would bless her, but I don't know what else I prayed.

And then I left. And the doctor went into the room and told the family that he was now turning off the machines. He explained that Doreen's organs would shut down one after the other and she would drift away in probably 2 hours.

Two hours later, Doreen sat up and asked for something to eat.

The doctor went into the room and declared it a miracle.

One of the sons said, "The minister prayed".

The doctor said, "It must have been some prayer".

There is a funny conclusion to the story, but I'll leave that for the healing services. I can't say I understand it. Doreen still had dementia. She was still alive when I moved away a year later.

But I know it happens, because I experienced it in a hospital, witnessed by the family (who were not Christians) and the doctor, who knew that she was dead.

I give the glory to God, and I feel sorry for the ministers who go through their ministry with "the form of godliness, but denying its power".

My other puzzle is why I have been ill for 18 months without any healing. The last time I saw someone healed when I laid hands on them was 2 years ago - 6 cancerous tumours in the neck - all gone and not returned.

I would be curious to hear the liberal theologians explanations.

And by the way: OUCH!