Participants: Agatha Thrash, Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000145
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00:01 Hello, I'm Agatha Thrash, a staff physician from
00:04 Uchee Pines Institute. 00:06 This is an institute for the training of medical missionaries 00:09 and also for the deepening of the personal spiritual faith of 00:14 the patients as well as our workers. 00:17 We are taught very clearly in the Bible that the human being 00:23 can trust in divine power. 00:25 This is the topic that we'll be talking about 00:27 for the next half-an-hour. 00:29 We invite you to join us. 00:51 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" with Dr. Agatha Thrash 00:55 of Uchee Pines Institute. 00:58 And now, here's your host, Dr. Thrash. 01:02 The GREAT majesty of God teaches us that 01:05 we can trust in Him. 01:07 And there are many other things that teach us 01:10 that we can trust in Him. 01:11 The evidences of His great love for us teach us that we 01:15 can trust in Him. 01:16 Faith IS trusting God. 01:19 Believing that He loves us. 01:21 Then, if we have this understanding, we can trust 01:25 Him when we're sick. 01:26 We can trust Him when we fall into bad fortune of some kind. 01:30 In the Bible, we are taught that healing and forgiveness 01:36 are almost synonymous. 01:38 Let me read to you something that I think will be helpful... 01:42 "Jesus taught that forgiveness and healing were in 01:45 some instances practically synonymous"... 01:47 as in the case of the palsied man of Matthew 9:2-6. 01:53 And the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, 01:56 yet, in the case of the Apostle Paul who suffered from 01:59 an affliction given as a protection from the 02:02 self-exaltation that seemed to threaten him, 02:05 far from shaking his faith, 02:08 the misfortune seemed to strengthen it. 02:11 "My grace is sufficient for thee," 02:15 and that was sufficient for Paul. 02:17 He was satisfied with the explanation that God gave 02:21 in that instance. 02:22 But if Paul had been of the emotional or personality 02:28 disposition to distrust God, 02:31 at that point, he would certainly have had the 02:34 opportunity to do so. 02:35 And so may we, when we fall into any kind of sickness... 02:38 whether it be a cold, or whether it be some serious 02:42 thing like cancer. 02:43 We may be tempted to say, 02:44 "God has departed from me, or I have done something 02:48 so terrible that He is not going to bless me in this matter. 02:52 And why doesn't He heal me? 02:54 Certainly, I have prayed and others have prayed and 02:58 He could heal me. " 03:00 We may find ourselves in the same position that the Hebrew 03:04 worthies did when they were being thrown into 03:06 the fiery furnace. 03:07 I'm sure that when they said, 03:10 "Our God can save us from your furnace"... 03:14 I'm sure that they could have said, 03:16 "Yes, He will save us. We know He will. " 03:19 And then, they began to be bound up. 03:23 When they were tightly bound, 03:25 I'm sure they could say then, 03:27 "Lord, when are you going to save us?" 03:30 Then the men lifted them up and carried them towards the furnace 03:34 "Lord, when are you going to save us?" 03:36 And then when they began to be swung into the fiery furnace, 03:41 I'm sure at that time, all hope died... 03:44 And they then said, "The Lord is NOT going to save us. 03:48 We're going to meet our death in this fire. " 03:50 And so they were thrown into the furnace. 03:53 If at any time prior to that, they had been delivered, 03:56 they would not have seen the FULL majesty of God. 04:00 It's the same thing, often, in our illnesses. 04:03 Sometimes we must experience the pain. 04:06 We must experience the weakness and the nausea or whatever 04:10 difficulty our disease brings on us. 04:13 And then, after we have experienced these things 04:17 and we see the mighty power of God to heal us, 04:20 we can then know that we have been healed. 04:23 That it is God who has given us that great healing. 04:27 Now in the Bible, we are often seeing Christ as simply 04:31 putting His hand on someone or speaking a word to someone 04:36 and they were immediately healed. 04:38 And we might wonder why it is that God does not do that today. 04:42 Well, it is that in the Bible God simply bypassed 04:47 man's part. 04:48 He wants to teach us by this that He has a cooperative 04:52 venture with us in this experiment with sin. 04:56 That's the case with our forgiveness as well. 04:59 He has His part. 05:01 We have our part to play in our forgiveness and in 05:04 His reinstatement of us into the joy that we have 05:10 in His salvation. 05:12 Now with disease, in the Bible we bypass the diagnosis... 05:19 We bypass all the treatments that man can do. 05:23 We do not have to see all of those things go by 05:30 before we see the healing. 05:31 Take in the instance of infectious fever, 05:35 we didn't have to see all that man can do, 05:38 or in the issue of blood, or the blindness, 05:41 or the epilepsy, or the insanity... 05:44 or even death. 05:46 We did not have to see all these things go through 05:49 to their completion in the Bible. 05:51 We can see that God has the power to do these miracles, 05:56 to do these healings, to bring about the transformation of 06:00 bread and fish into enough food to feed a multitude. 06:04 We can see all of those things in the Bible. 06:08 What about in our lives today? 06:13 Is it possible for us to see a case of divine healing now? 06:17 And Don Miller, who is one of my coworkers at 06:21 Uchee Pines, a lifestyle counselor and a helper 06:26 in our education department, 06:27 Don Miller will talk with you about a case that he had 06:32 that tells about the divine intervention of God. 06:37 It's a privilege to work with God's simple remedies... 06:40 And 3 years ago, in 1999 or how many years ago that was, 06:44 a man came to Uchee Pines who had a problem. 06:47 It was a serious problem. 06:49 And he had done all that he could think to do and all 06:52 that he could find to do and as far as regular medicine 06:56 could allow him. 06:57 He had spent 2-1/2 years... 06:59 He had spent a quarter of a million dollars... 07:02 and he had been to 23 different doctors 07:05 to try to find out what his problem was and 07:08 how to cure him of his problem. 07:09 And he was no better for his time with these doctors 07:13 and the money going out. 07:15 And finally, he said, "Well I'll go Uchee Pines. " 07:18 And he came to Uchee Pines and I had the privilege of 07:20 having this brother as my patient. 07:23 And each day, we would take him into the treatment room 07:26 and I read some literature and I said, 07:28 okay, it was something to do with his intestinal tract 07:31 he had some type of a problem in there... 07:33 and I read through some of Kellogg's materials 07:36 and other materials and I did some very simple things... 07:39 I would do a Russian steam bath on him each day 07:42 and after the Russian steam bath 07:44 I'd have him stand up in our Russian steam bath room 07:47 and I took a hose with cold water and I would spray it 07:51 in a very sharp spray and I'd start on his ascending 07:55 colon and I would just work up the ascending colon, 07:59 across the transverse colon and down the 08:02 descending colon. 08:04 Every day I would do this. 08:05 And we did these simple things. 08:07 We were doing our part. 08:09 He was, at last, doing his part. 08:11 We had him on a good diet and lots of fiber. 08:14 We were doing the things that we knew to do and 08:16 just praying for that miracle. 08:19 Well one Friday night, 08:21 my patient was lying in bed. 08:24 He was sound in sleep, his back was to his wife, 08:26 who was in another bed on the other side of the room. 08:28 He was facing the wall and he heard his name called. 08:32 And he woke up, and he rolled over to see what 08:35 his wife wanted and she was sound asleep. 08:37 So he rolled back over again to go back to sleep, 08:40 and he heard his name being called again. 08:43 And he was wide awake now... 08:46 and a voice told him, "Brother you are healed. " 08:51 And you know what, he WAS healed. 08:54 The next morning, in church on Sabbath morning, 08:57 he asked permission to come forward and give a testimony. 09:01 And he gave the testimony about how long he had wrestled with 09:04 this problem, and how much money it has cost him and 09:06 ALL the doctors he had seen 09:08 and all the things that we had done. 09:09 Then he says but, "last night God told me I was healed. " 09:14 And he was, indeed, healed. 09:15 He went home... 09:16 whatever the problem was... 09:17 completely clear of the problem. 09:20 God blessed... and I think that's the way God does 09:22 His miracles nowadays. 09:24 We did all we knew to do. 09:26 We were faithful in giving God the glory with the 09:29 hot water, the cold water, the forceful water... 09:32 And God then gave the results. 09:36 Yes, it was a miracle. 09:37 We consider it a miracle. 09:38 Every healing is a miracle because 09:41 we don't deserve it in the first place. 09:42 But God blessed that day and I'm very thankful for 09:45 the experience I had with this brother... Yes. 09:48 That's a very wonderful story. 09:49 Thank you, Brother Don. 09:51 Sometimes people come to Uchee Pines with various 09:56 expectations of healing there. 09:59 It may be that they have spent a lot of money... a fortune 10:04 on their illness and still are not well. 10:07 They may also feel that somehow through our prayers, 10:11 the Lord may hear us when they have not heard others. 10:15 Generally speaking... we should believe that prayer, 10:20 no matter who offers it, 10:21 it will be effective with God. 10:23 God wants people to trust in Him. 10:28 God wants us to know He will hear EVERY prayer. 10:32 And I would like to write for you on the board 10:35 some of the various phases of prayer so that you will 10:39 know just what it is that represents the very best of 10:44 prayer that we know. 10:45 This is the prayer that the Lord gave to us. 10:48 And the first thing is the address. 10:51 As you know, the Lord taught us to say, "Our Father" 10:55 So address, we address Him as "Our Father. " 11:01 This is the term that He wants us to give Him. 11:05 OUR Father... how intimate, how personal... 11:09 how sweet that is for us to say, "Our Father. " 11:14 Then, we should picture where He is... His location. 11:19 He is in heaven... and we want to know that 11:23 that's where He is. 11:25 He IS in heaven and we picture in our minds where 11:29 heaven is, what it's characteristics are, 11:31 how beautiful it is... 11:32 and the POWER that there is there. 11:35 And the many attendants that He has for us. 11:38 Then, the next part of prayer is the characteristic. 11:49 Characteristic of God. 11:51 Our Father, which art in heaven, HALLOWED by thy name. 11:57 He is hallowed. 11:58 He is a holy being... 12:00 SO holy that a man cannot approach Him, 12:03 we can only know of Him through the imagination. 12:06 Imagination made perfect through the, or still imperfect 12:11 but honed by the experiences that we have in the Bible 12:17 that tell us about our Heavenly Father. 12:19 And then, the next thing is the character of God. 12:24 That is in His name... hallowed be thy name. 12:30 The name of God IS His character. 12:34 And so we think of His purity, His virtues, His honesty 12:39 His honor, and we compare that to our own which falls 12:43 very far short. 12:44 Then, the next part of the Lord's Prayer is the WORK that 12:48 He has given us here on this earth. 12:51 Here on this earth is where He wants us to experience 12:58 our relationship with Him. 13:00 Then, the next part, after "Thy kingdom come," 13:03 is our submission. 13:05 "Thy WILL be done. " 13:11 And the next part is our petition. 13:14 And the Lord wants us to present our petitions 13:17 to Him at that time. 13:18 Our petition is important to Him... 13:24 not that He doesn't know already what we need. 13:27 He DOES know already what we need before we ask... 13:30 He already knows what we need, 13:33 and He is all ready... He WANTS to give us what we need 13:37 and what we want. 13:38 Then the next part is repentance. 13:45 Repentance is a very important part 13:49 of the attitude that we must have about ourselves 13:52 when we approach God. 13:53 But not only is it repentance for our past deeds, 13:57 but it is also deliverance. 14:00 "Deliver us from evil. " 14:06 Now after these aspects of prayer, 14:08 then we have the final part of prayer... 14:12 And that is a literal SOARING of the thoughts about God. 14:17 We want to know that He is hallowed... that He loves us. 14:24 We want to give glory to Him. 14:26 Our gratitude should flow over to Him for the wonderful 14:31 things that He has done for us. 14:33 When we present our petition, as we go through all of these 14:37 parts of prayer... 14:38 and it isn't necessary that it be canned but that we know 14:42 that these are things that God SEES that the human being NEEDS 14:47 in prayer. 14:48 As we go over these things, God then looks at our petition 14:52 and can see that it's the heart-cry. 14:56 I would like healing but I am submitted to Your Will. 15:00 If it is not best for me that I be healed, 15:02 I am still submitted to Your Will. 15:05 And so as we go through these parts of the Lord's Prayer 15:10 and yield ourselves at every point, 15:13 repent and have the gratitude that the Lord only can fill 15:17 the heart with as we know Him. 15:18 Then we are very much prepared to accept His will in all things 15:23 Now in trust in divine power, 15:27 John Champen, who is one of my coworkers at Uchee Pines, 15:31 will talk with you about another aspect. 15:33 John Champen is one of our health educators. 15:36 He is in administration there 15:38 and I'm very happy to hear what you're going to say 15:41 about "trust. " 15:42 John Champen. 15:44 "Trust" 15:45 We find that church-goers live longer. 15:49 That's one blessing there, 15:52 and that prayer for the sick means shorter hospital stays. 15:56 Also, that God blesses the health of those who trust in Him 16:00 These are 3 very good reasons to trust the Lord... 16:04 A longer life... people will do anything today to live longer. 16:09 Some of the people in hospitals, their last days there 16:13 anything and everything is done to prolong life. 16:16 And yet, if they would trust in God, 16:18 they would find that He would lengthen their lives many times 16:23 and have shorter hospital stays 16:26 and our health is improved. 16:27 God has given directions on how we can do that. 16:30 We have a part to play and that part is very important. 16:34 We're told that we are to trust in the Lord 16:36 with ALL our hearts, and lean not unto our own understanding. 16:40 In all our ways, we should acknowledge Him and He 16:44 shall direct our paths. 16:45 It's very interesting that as when we come into the world, 16:50 we come into the world dependent 16:51 We are totally dependent on others to do for us. 16:54 We have no ability, no strength, no anything 16:57 when we come into the world. 16:58 But the Lord provides for those who come into this world. 17:01 But we see that as we grow older, 17:04 we begin to trust our mothers and fathers and our big sisters 17:09 and cousins and whatnot. 17:10 And then we learn to lift that trust higher to the Lord. 17:15 There's a great need for that. 17:16 Within the heart of each individual, 17:18 there is a need for trust. 17:21 We WANT to be able to trust. 17:23 And we sense also that we need to be able to trust God. 17:30 What is trust? 17:32 Trust is confidence... confidence in God. 17:35 Can we trust Him? 17:36 Is God trustworthy? 17:38 Every day we say things like "Well, tomorrow I'm going to do 17:42 thus and so and I 17:43 plan to go here and there and accomplish this and that. 17:47 And yet, tomorrow is in God's hands... it always has been. 17:51 And WE are in God's Hands. 17:53 And we always have been, whether we recognize it or not. 17:57 And we see that the sun goes around every day, 18:02 according to its appointed path. 18:04 The months change, the years change and we get older... 18:09 and we're wondering whether we can trust God. 18:11 And yet every beat of our heart, 18:13 every cell in our body, is under the control of God. 18:17 Can we trust Him? 18:18 Can we NOT trust Him? 18:20 It's amazing that we don't trust Him... 18:23 and yet, we don't trust Him as we need to and as we can. 18:28 We're to trust with all our heart... 18:32 everything about us should be trusting God. 18:35 In this world, it used to be that a handshake and a word 18:39 was enough. 18:40 We could have confidence in an individual that we had some 18:44 experience with and then whatever they said, 18:46 it was good enough. 18:47 A handshake and we would be satisfied with that. 18:52 Trusting another's word... 18:54 Christians are called to be people of their word. 18:57 If they say they are going to do something... 18:59 If they say they're going to be there... 19:00 If they say... whatever, 19:02 we should be able to trust them. 19:04 And we DO and we put a lot of confidence... 19:07 We will say that so and so is very trustworthy, 19:09 and I feel so comfortable with that person as a part of my team 19:15 But can we trust GOD? 19:18 Has He not given evidence to each of us that He's trustworthy 19:23 Day after day, as long as we are alive, 19:27 we have evidences about us that God is a Person of His Word 19:32 A God of His word, if you will. 19:36 Can we trust Him? 19:37 Should we trust Him? 19:39 And, if we trust Him... 19:41 Can we trust Him all the way? 19:43 Can we put our full confidence in Him? 19:45 I think we can. 19:47 We see in the Scripture stories where this exactly was the 19:52 experience where confidence and trust was put in God 19:55 right with their very lives. 19:57 Now let's think of it this way for a moment... 19:59 Our lives are in His hands anyway... 20:03 Everyone that is watching this program today is being 20:07 kept alive by the power of God. 20:09 Whether we know it or not, 20:11 whether we recognize it or not, 20:13 whether we acknowledge it or not, 20:14 we are kept alive by the power of God... 20:17 A loving Father... 20:18 and as Dr. Thrash showed us just a few moments ago, 20:22 He invites ALL to call Him... Our Father. 20:26 He is The Father of all Creation. 20:28 A wonderful God... 20:30 He is a very patient God. 20:31 And I believe He is Trustworthy. 20:33 I believe we can and should trust God. 20:36 Thank you so much for those thoughts. 20:39 Certainly our trust in God can be bolstered by the fact 20:43 that we read in the Bible where He could even transform 20:48 a little bit of food into enough for a great multitude of people. 20:53 Don Miller is going to take another of the Bible stories 20:57 and tell you some of the special aspects of it. 21:01 Don Miller. 21:02 Dr. Thrash just sort of alluded to the fact that sometimes 21:06 Christ would take a few loaves and a few fishes and greatly 21:09 multiply them. 21:10 And that was a miraculous feat. 21:11 How can you do this? 21:12 There was the creation of matter that Christ did when He was 21:16 on this earth. 21:17 He did the same thing in many of His healing situations. 21:20 I like the story there in Luke the 5th chapter. 21:24 Let me just read a couple of verses, beginning with verse 12. 21:26 And it says... "And it came to pass, when He was in a certain 21:29 city, behold a man full of leprosy"... 21:34 Picture this thing... FULL of leprosy. 21:37 To be FULL of leprosy means you are pretty much devoid of 21:41 yourself... your nose had fallen off, your fingers had fallen off 21:44 YOU WERE A MESS! 21:46 He was FULL of leprosy... not just a little white spot here 21:50 and a white spot there. 21:51 The man was FULL OF LEPROSY. 21:53 ...who seeing Jesus, fell on his face.. 21:56 ...or what was left of it... 21:58 and besought Him, saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, 22:01 thou canst make me clean. " 22:04 He wanted to be clean of his situation. 22:06 ...And He put forth His hand 22:09 ...you weren't supposed to... these were called "untouchables" 22:12 Jesus put forth His hand and touched him saying, 22:16 "I will, be thou clean. " 22:19 Something happened here beyond what we really read in the Bible 22:23 It goes on to say... 22:24 "And immediately, the leprosy departed from him. " 22:27 It wasn't that a white patch now became whatever the 22:31 skin color was. 22:32 What happened was... he became a nonleper. 22:35 He became the same as he was before he had leprosy. 22:39 FLESH appeared... His nose came back. 22:42 His fingers came back. His toes came back. 22:45 Otherwise, how would you tell he no longer had leprosy, 22:49 because the next thing Christ told him to do is 22:51 ...Go show yourself to the priest and offer the offering 22:56 that Moses told you to do for the cleansing of leprosy. 23:01 Jesus had caused flesh to come back... 23:05 This was a miracle. 23:06 The man had done his part. 23:07 And basically, he could do nothing about his 23:10 physical condition. 23:11 But he came to the only one who could. 23:13 And Christ did not just ARREST the problem, 23:17 He reversed the problem. 23:18 And that's what Christ wants to do with all of our physical 23:21 situations. 23:22 He won't do with all of them now, 23:24 but one of these days, when He comes in the clouds of glory, 23:27 we shall be changed in an instant. 23:30 I'm looking forward to that day, but until that day, 23:32 I believe God still has some miracles in store, Dr. Thrash. 23:37 I do too and I'm so grateful for these Bible stories. 23:41 There is another Bible story... 23:43 The story of a man who was by a pool. 23:47 This man had a most serious disease. 23:52 We would, today, give it a name. 23:54 But John Champen is going to talk with you about 23:57 the Bible miracle that occurred to this man who had such a 24:02 severe neurologic problem that he was paralyzed. 24:05 Paralyzed for 38 years, Dr. Thrash. 24:08 Not being able to walk. 24:10 Desiring, looking forward to the time when the waters 24:13 would be moved... 24:15 as he believed that that was the time for healing. 24:18 But every time that happened, someone would 24:20 step down before him. 24:22 Jesus came by and He looked upon him. 24:25 He asked the question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" 24:30 Do you want to be made well? 24:34 He could have paused and questioned... 24:38 and lost his opportunity, but he didn't 24:42 The faith that God had given him, took hold of those 24:46 words of Christ. 24:48 Took hold... he hadn't walked, 24:50 he KNEW that he could not walk. 24:53 And yet the hope that was in the words of Christ 24:56 touched his heart. 24:59 He put forth the effort. 25:01 Well the effort didn't do anything for him actually. 25:04 But it was the faith factor. 25:06 It was demonstrating his faith in the Word.. 25:09 And by demonstrating his faith in the Word that came to him, 25:14 God gave him the power. 25:15 What a blessing it was to that family that day. 25:18 And for the friends and loved ones. 25:19 When he arose, took up his bed, and just as Christ 25:23 had invited him to... 25:25 He went home. 25:27 I think that was a wonderful day for all, 25:29 don't you, Dr. Thrash? 25:30 Oh yes, that was a great day! 25:32 Not only for the man himself, 25:34 but as Brother Champen said, it was a great day for 25:38 all of the family and for everybody who saw... 25:41 it was a great day for miracles and a great day for a blessing. 25:45 Not everybody accepted it as a blessing, 25:48 but it could have been to everyone. 25:50 Now, as we think about the way that we go about 25:54 the healing of disease... 25:55 The first thing is that of the diagnosis. 25:58 Let us take the woman with the issue. 25:59 The issue of blood which she had had for many years, 26:03 around a decade. 26:05 Now, she had spent a lot of money and gone through 26:07 a lot of things with various physicians trying their 26:11 treatments and none of them had helped her. 26:13 If she had been here today, we would have probably 26:16 made the diagnosis of either intermenstrual bleeding 26:19 or postmenopausal bleeding. 26:21 As the case might be, we would do an evaluation of her and 26:25 find out what her problem was. 26:26 Then after we had made our diagnosis, 26:29 then we would institute a special treatment 26:31 such as black cohosh and maybe some hot baths, 26:36 maybe some massage, maybe some exercise... 26:39 whatever would be specific for her. 26:41 Doubtless we would have given her several herbal remedies. 26:45 And then we would have expected improvement to begin... 26:48 pretty much right away. 26:49 And then we would expect a convalescent period... 26:53 that after a time, she would be completely well. 26:57 Maybe even able to tell others and to minister to others 27:02 who have a similar affliction. 27:04 This is the usual course that man goes through. 27:07 But when God performs a miracle, 27:10 He often bypasses all of those steps. 27:12 All of the diagnosis, the evaluation, 27:17 the institution of various kinds of treatments, 27:20 the convalescent period... 27:22 all of that He bypasses and goes from the persons being sick 27:27 to the persons being well. 27:29 And when we come to think of it, 27:30 it is this experience that we will have when the Lord 27:35 appears in the skies. 27:37 We have all been born brain-damaged. 27:39 We have all been traumatized by this life by many 27:43 different things that happen to us. 27:44 And yet, the Lord will GIVE us that very special blessing 27:49 when He comes in the clouds 27:51 and He takes away all 27:52 our diseases 27:53 and our change comes. |
Revised 2014-12-17