I want to Tell You a Story

 I want to tell you a story. If a story can make you sad and angry simultaneously, this is such a narrative. 

What I'm going to tell you is not fictional but true. It happened in a real place, a real home, and a real older lady who lived with her son and daughter-in-law. Involved in the story is a real pastor who came to visit this lady.

She had a disease, the one most dreaded. Her pastor came often to the home to offer prayer and comfort, but he was one of those men who did just the opposite. His words carried no solace. He delivered his messages to her in the privacy that her son and daughter-in-law were graciously allowing the two to have. But when her son discovered what the pastor was doing, he no longer allowed such privacy. 

Her son discovered that her pastor was a thief who, in every visit, stole something precious from his mother. You see, the pastor was one of those false teachers who believed this:

."Because Jesus had perfect health, you can have perfect health…Jesus didn’t have tumors so you don’t have to have them either…as Jesus is in his health, so are you.”  

Then the visiting pastor echoed such ideas as this: “He [God] promises to heal all – everyone, any, any whatsoever, everything – all our diseases.”.  

After one of those visits, the lady's son discovered his mother in tears, and through her tears, she blurted out the question and the demand, "Why doesn't God heal me?" The pastor who was to bring comfort into that room had left the poor lady thinking something was wrong with her because he had told her she didn't have enough faith or else she would be healed. His visits left her defeated and bitter.  From that time on, her son and his wife sat in on all the visits. 

At all costs, those pastors must keep various verses locked up, kept from their congregations. Such texts as:

1. John 5: Jesus goes to a pool with many, many sick people present, yet only heals one.

2. II Cor. 11:24ff

3. Philippians. 2:25-27 

4. II Tim. 4:20

This story is true and is the story of a number so large that no man can count. This believer died in defeat. It is so sad and so maddening.