Faith Baptist Church is up and running. We have three services a week and have discipleship with a few during the week as well. While there are no shortage of churches in our area, there is a lack of Bible-preaching churches. This is shown by some of the requests we are asked. A week or so ago we were in the middle of the church service when my wife walked out to talk with someone who had half-way walked in. I didn’t know what was going on and I was right in the middle of explaining a specific verse in the Bible. When my wife walked back in I could see in her eyes that something was wrong. Whatever just happened would remain a secret until well after the service was over. In 40 minutes or so, we closed the service in prayer and spent the next 15 minutes or so talking with those who had attended. When the last person left we began closing everything up and prepared to leave. I asked my wife what happened. What she told me has bothered me since that service.

A woman had come to the church to inquire about her father. Her father is very sick, and needs to be healed. She asked my wife how much I charge to heal people. This took Leslie off guard. She quickly told her that I couldn’t heal her father and that all I could do is pray with him and that we would not charge anything for it. Leslie invited her to the service. The woman was very confused. She was willing to pay for the healing, but she wasn’t there to learn about Jesus.

There are a few things that bother us about this…

• This actually happens here regularly. “Pastors” charge to “heal” the sick. I don’t understand this for anything. I don’t understand giving the loved ones of sick people a false hope and then also charging to use this “power” that they claim they have. Salvation in Jesus is not a message that is strongly preached, but the power of healing in the name of Jesus for a premium is. The need for Gospel preaching churches is obvious in this light.
• The woman wanted a supernatural healing, but did not care for learning about the God who could heal her father. In fact, she didn’t even consider God as the healer, but looked for the man with the “healing power”. It is sad to know that people want the power of God but reject any desire of having the God of that power in their lives. As if to say, “God, I am not interested in you, I just need you to heal my…” There is a greater need than healing from physical sickness!

Although this is a very sad thing to learn, it also is exciting to know that we can be used of God to explain the truth of God from the Bible. Knowing Jesus is more valuable than any physical healing we could possibly find!