Category: Biblical Foundations
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Christian Social Responsibility as described in the Lausanne Covenant
I think the Lausanne statement on Christian Social Responsibility is a helpful framework for our response to the brokenhearted of the world, and I commend it to you, along with the commentary by John Stott produced below. Medical missions is an expression of our beliefs about God and man. We must not just care for…
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The Ephesian Moment — one body, many parts
Mission medical workers want to see healing of the body, the child with malaria, the mother suffering with postpartum depression, the young man wounded in a fight. But there is another body we want to see healed, the body of Christ. In Acts chapter 15 we read, “And some men came down from Judea and…
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True healing is not always what it seems
One week ago today my own mother passed away. At 87 years, she died in her sleep in the dementia unit of the nursing home. A nurse working there commented, “In my 36 years of nursing I have not seen anyone die more peacefully.” As a believer, she had trusted Christ for salvation over 40…
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"And who is my neighbor?"
Yesterday I was talking with a nursing teacher who is an expert in the care of women with childbirth injuries called fistulas. SIM has a hospital caring for these women in rural Niger, West Africa. She is considering ways to get involved helping train our national staff. The hospital treats any woman in need, regardless…
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So what do we mean by healing, anyway?
As a young person in medical school, my view of health was confined to understanding disease processes, drugs and physical causes. Health had to do with the body, and things of the spirit didn’t overlap the physical world. As a young believer in Jesus, I could see that He had dominion over both the physical…
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The wounded healer
When I arrived in Ethiopia in 1986 the country had been impoverished by communism, famine and long-standing poverty. I was trained in community health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and was ready to roll out a comprehensive community health program, working alongside the church. With hindsight now I can say that I was…
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"Why have you stricken us so that we are beyond healing?"
As healers we must face the limits of healing. Life and healing are a gift of God, and yet because of sin, He has set limits. Death itself is a limit to healing. We were created by God as the pinnacle of His creation, not designed to die. Yet human rebellion against His authority caused…
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"Why have you stricken us so that we are beyond healing?"
As healers we must face the limits of healing. Life and healing are a gift of God, and yet because of sin, He has set limits. Death itself is a limit to healing. We were created by God as the pinnacle of His creation, not designed to die. Yet human rebellion against His authority caused…
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Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Last month my wife and I had our first visit to Jerusalem. We took these pictures at the site of the foundations of the wall of the original city of David, destroyed by the Babylonian army in 586 B.C. The sign continues to read, “The floors of the houses were covered by a thick layer…
