1. 1. Enough Faith to Not Be Healed? More About Jesus Seminar #26 - Guide To see the 26 Video seminars complete links list, visit http://nfltrashtalk.com/peaceful-resources/ The interview session tor the last seminar is with Lee & his son Chris, who was best friends with another young man named Travis Allen. Travis was diagnosed with children's leukemia at the age of 18 (& that's rare). This seminar tells the story about what happens as Travis battles the disease. Morris says, It takes a lot of faith to NOT be healed, and it takes a lot of faith to have your prayers answered differently than what you requested! Believe it or not, bad things happen to good people, and even good things happen to bad people. This idea that if you are good and do all the right things then you will be blessed with nothing but good stuff is wrong! If you'll recall, all Jesus disciples except John died a martyrs death. Elisha died after a long lingering illness. The Apostle Paul had an affliction of some kind his entire life that he asked God to remove but God said no. Moses kept praying that God would allow him to go into the promised land, but God finally told him to stop praying about it.
2. 2. We have a lot of stories of people whose faith is rewarded, like the farmer who prays and the grass hoppers eat everyone's crops all around his farm but leave his farm a lone. We love those stories.
3. 3. Then there's the Investment Stories, where someone dedicates the sick chicken or the dead fruit tree to God & are amazed at what happens! LOL. Morris wonders what God could have done with a healthy chicken or tree! Then there's the really great stories of the good, God fearing man who the grass hoppers get to his farm and eat it up just like the neighbors. When the neighbors come by and laugh at him because his property was eaten just like theirs he says, If God wants to graze His grass hoppers on His property then so be it. God is looking for those kinds of people. Those kinds of people are like Job. The devil charges God with setting people up with protection because they love Him, but that's the only reason they love Him because He gives them things. These people prove the devil wrong. God needs people who will always stick with Him through the good AND the bad times. The following are several texts from the Bible about suffering.
4. 4. People have wondered at times why John the Baptist's fate was to be beheaded alone in that prison. The book Desire of Ages, gives an excellent reasoning for it, and at the end of that chapter it says this... @20:20 22:40 Morris tells a poem & then talks about his 40 year old daughter who was born with brain damage. Then he surmises that there will be someone on the inside of the Holy City that has been through pretty much everything that some other person on the outside has been through. Kind of a, See there? No excuses! Basically a statement to the universe saying that we have proof positive that ALL could have chosen to serve God. Imagine someone on the outside complaining to God, saying... You sent a flood and wiped out me and my family! How did you expect me to do any different when the way of the world was evil continually?, & God says, Noah, stand up on the wall! You expected me to follow Christianity when it first got started? It's not fair! I could have been stoned!, & God says, Steven, stand up on the wall. You expected me to be a Christian during the Dark Ages? I could have been burned at the stake!, & God says, Huss & Jerome, stand up on the wall.
5. 5. You expected me to be a Christian when you allowed that cancer to eat me from the inside out?, & God will stand Travis, and thousands more up on top of the wall. You expected me to stay true to you after you allowed my husband to beat me half to death all those years? Thousands more join the crowd up on the wall. Outside the wall a handicapped teen aged girl shakes her fist at God and says, You put me through this and expected me to trust You?, and Morris's daughter says, Dad, I got this one!, and she feels privileged to stand with the rest of the Honor Guard to be counted. Morris daughter never advanced past about a 6 year old IQ, and so reading her Bible Story Books was always a chore for her, but one day she said, Dad, Jesus healed people... why can't He heal me? Morris went instantly hot & cold thinking about the consequences a NO answer could bring. He answered, Well, what if we don't get the answer we were hoping for?, and she said, That's okay, I just want to ask. So, he gave her a little book that he always gave to people before an anointing, and after a couple of days she brought it to him and said, I can't read this dad. Jesus didn't ask people to read books before He healed them. (Crowd chuckles) So, they got together with the three preachers who had influenced his life the most, his father, HMS Richards Sr. & Dr. Heppinstall his major professor, and they prayed. It was a cloudy day, as they prayed, and she was anointed with oil. Lee opened his eyes and saw the sun come through the clouds and it shown strait down on his sister knelling there, and he never forgot that. It wasn't long before they realized they had gotten a no answer, but Jesus continues to be her best friend, and she continues to go on seeking Him. One day she said, Dad, I was out walking my dog today like I usually do, and I was talking to Jesus and I said, 'Jesus, I want to do what's right all the time, but I don't, and I'm so sorry!' Suddenly she felt Jesus right there with her!
6. 6. So, being counted among the honor guard is a privilege, and I believe God needs more of us to join the group. Now Lee at the 29:00 minute mark to the 1hr 22 min. mark tells the story about what Travis Allen went through to join God's Honor Guard. He played the harp & was a skate boarding fanatic, so go figure. (Allow 57 minutes ~ to much to type. ;oP) This story is one you don't want to miss, so you'll have to go & listen to it because, I am NOT your secretary! ;oP Travis Allen's favorite texts.
7. 7. Though you may die while a child of God, saved by grace, God looks at you as if you are alive.
8. 8. A Travis quote: Jesus is the only card I have left to play, but with that card, I am going to win the game!