GOD HEALS DURBAN SURFER

“The doctor looked at my spine and couldn’t believe what he saw,” Bruce* told me just moments ago on the phone. Bruce was the surfer I met in the water last Monday.

I had come to the end of my surf session, so we only spoke about 10 minutes before we both caught a wave in. As we walked up the sand toward the public showers I said, “Nice to meet you, maybe I’ll see you again.”

He responded, “Not for awhile. On Wednesday I go in for major back surgery. I’m only 52, but it will be my fourth major surgery. The doctors have to put a prothesis between two slip disks (L3 and L4).” Basically, that’s a metal rod used to fuse the two disks back together.

Bruce told me on the phone tonight that he had this surgery done before elsewhere on his spine and later the prosthesis broke causing all sorts of pain and problems. So naturally on Monday he was nervous about his upcoming surgery.

Somewhere between showering and saying goodbye to Bruce, God dropped in my heart that I should pray for him. He had no idea that I was a pastor or even a Christian. So I plucked up the courage to say, “Hey Bruce, I’m a pastor. Can I pray for you?”

He got a bit apprehensive and responded, “Sure, I guess. But I’m not practicing.”

I said, “That’s okay, God’s still practicing.”

My wife, Megan, walked up at that moment and I introduced her to Bruce and told her we were going to pray.

Bruce began to weep as he shared briefly about some of the struggles he had been experiencing.

We put our surf boards down, bowed our heads and began to pray. Surfers were passing by, but it was as if we were the only ones on the boardwalk.

We first prayed for healing. And then we invited God to come and show Bruce how much he loved him and how he wants to give him purpose. Bruce kept weeping.

After we said goodbye, Bruce went home and told his wife about us and how something had happened. He didn’t know how to describe it. He called a Christian friend of his (Colin), with whom he works, and told him that a change had happened in his back and heart.

And then comes the really cool part.

On Wednesday, the neurosurgeon (one of the best in Durban), opened up Bruce’s back. He couldn’t believe what he saw. L3 and L4 were already perfectly fused together. He told Bruce later that he had never seen anything like it. He said, “No one could have done a more perfect job. I wish I had had a camera with me to video it.” The doctor contacted other surgeons in America to find out if it was possible for this to have happened naturally. He didn’t know what to say. Bruce’s previous MRI clearly showed the need for the surgery, but Bruce had been healed.

As the doctor told Bruce what happened he (and the physiotherapist that was present) started crying. He was amazed at God’s mercy. He told the doctor about “the couple who had prayed for him” and said it was a miracle from God. The doctor said it was a miracle of science. Bruce disagreed and said it a miracle of God.

It’s Friday night and I just got off the phone with Bruce. His last words to me were, “Drew, please come to my place as soon as you can and meet with my wife and me. I’ve got so much I want to talk about with you. So many questions.”

Now for the real healing...

Love,
Drew

*Bruce is not his real name, but since I’m just getting know him, I felt I didn’t want to risk offending him. Please pray for Bruce, his wife and his two grown sons.

You’re God’s Idea, So You’re Unique

Perhaps you’ve heard the proverb; “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Do you know who first said it? God. Well, King Solomon actually. But since we know that the Bible is God-breathed, we know that it was His proverb first.

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

So from this verse we know that as long as something is done or made or fashioned or thought of under the sun, then it’s not going to be that original. But what about things that were thought of outside of the sun… like… something thought of before the sun and world were ever created? Naturally, it would probably be considered unique.

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4).

Obviously this verse is loaded with many significant meanings, but to prove my point, notice what it has to say about timing issues: before creation, you were thought of.

But the truth is that I don’t really have to convince you biblically that you’re unique. Just look at your thumbprint and it’s pretty obvious. There is no one just like you. Never was. Never will be. And for whatever purpose God created you, only you have that particular purpose. You are unique. One of a kind. Irreplaceable.

You are God’s idea. He obviously wants you. And he obviously has decided that he needs you too. And what he needs from you, is for you to be you – the person he created you to be in him. And the person that does what he’s called you to do.

You’re God’s Idea, So You’re Valuable

The most expensive painting ever sold was called, No. 5, 1948, painted by Jackson Pollock. In 2006 it was sold for 140 million dollars. Now think about that for a moment. A painting titled No. 5, 1948 sold for millions and millions of dollars. And if you saw the painting you’d be even more surprised. It’s literally a canvas of squiggly lines. To me it looks as plain as it sounds.

You’d expect it to have a more glamorous name. Maybe, “The Great Scribble” or “Chaos On Canvas” or “I’m Worth Millions Of Dollars Because I Was The First Of My Kind.” But No. 5? How did Pollock ever expect to sell something called No. 5? And that’s just the name. The art itself makes you wonder how it ever got a $140 million price tag. But obviously, someone knows a lot more about art than I do. And they know a lot more about Jackson Pollock than I do. Perhaps if I knew the artist and his skill a bit more, then I’d think the painting was valuable.

The reason we often question our value, is because we’ve undervalued our Creator. We are valuable because we are his and because he gives us value. Our direct connection with God makes us priceless. That’s the very reason he had to come down him self and purchase us, because nothing created was valuable enough to buy you and me. That’s how valuable we are to him.

“You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Do you need to reassess your value in light of who it is that gives you value? Perhaps you need to defer to someone who knows a lot more about you than you and to someone who knows a lot more about the One who created you. Perhaps you need to let God have the final say on your worth.

When you went up for auction, the sale went to the highest bidder – the man who lifted his right hand, and then his left, had them nailed to a tree and paid the greatest price that’s ever been paid. Your name may be plain. You might feel as average as they come. But according to God, you’re to die for.

You’re God’s Idea, So You’re Not An Accident

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Psalms 139:13-16, NLT).

If those verses above didn’t take your breath away, then you either didn’t read them properly or you stopped breathing a long time ago. Do yourself a favor and read them again – slowly.

Think about the detail mentioned in those verses –

• He made the delicate parts. He wasn’t just interested in the meat and bones. He was there in the detail – shaping your eyeball and forming your sternocleidomastoids (if you don’t know what those are, don’t worry, God does).
• He watched you being form. Your parents might have a seen a sonogram or two, but God was there for every new development. He didn’t miss a minute of it. That’s how much he delighted in your arrival.
• And not only did he watch you, he kept a journal about it. Day 1: Wow! What a beautiful blob. Day 2: I think the blob just moved. This is gonna be an exciting nine months.

You might struggle with your identity, but you’ve got no room to think that you were an accident. In fact, if your parents didn’t plan you, then that should give you even more confidence in God – nothing was going to stand in the way of your existence.

God was there before you began. He was there through it all. And you can be sure, he’s there right now – where you’re sitting and reading this. Why don’t you tell him thanks?

You’re God’s Idea, So You’re His Masterpiece

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT).

Friends of ours recently bought us a BBC series called, Planet Earth. It has hours of the most amazing footage ever taken of our planet. I’m left speechless every time I watch it. But you know what amazes me more? How we can lift our eyes with admiration when we see the earth and drop them in disappointment when we look at ourselves.

Wasn’t the same artist who brushed the shade in the sky, the one who also swirled the colors in our eyes? Wasn’t the same sculptor who formed the mountains, the one who also shaped our frame? Wasn’t the same architect who sketched the bottom of the oceans, the same one who designed the intricacies of our senses? The earth bears his signature, but so do we. So how can we smile at one and frown at the other?

Of course, you might say the problem is that we’re fallen, tainted, no longer the beauty that God intended? True. That is (or was) our problem. (We’ll talk more about that later.) But for now, notice what it says in the Ephesians verse, “He has created us anew in Christ Jesus.” If you’re in Christ, then not only did the Master put his mark on you when you were born, but he has revamped you completely, through Jesus, and put his seal of approval on you, through the Holy Spirit, for all time. You’re a masterpiece twice over. Not only do you bear his signature, but also he has taken up residence in your heart. If the BBC understood the significance of that then they’d do a series on every Christian on the planet. The earth bears God’s signature, but you bear his presence.

And God himself looks at you and says, “No that’s what I’m talkin’ about! That’s my best work yet!”