Holy molars! A miracle in Texas
What you are about to read, well… I could hardly believe it, but here it goes.
Recently, the Hispanic churches in my hometown of Stephenville – Baptist, Charismatic and Pentecostal – came together to hear an evangelist from Mexico. At one point in one of the services, he said that he believed that God wanted to heal someone’s teeth. My own daughter-in-law had just had fillings in the RIGHT side of his mouth, but the left side hurt. At the urging of her father (Simón Hernández, pastor of a local Hispanic charismatic church), she reluctantly approached to pray. Then came the surprising part of her: she told me that she felt a tingling in the RIGHT side of her mouth. The evangelist asked another lady to look into her mouth to confirm that God had indeed filled her teeth with GOLD fillings! I have seen these fillers with my own eyes! They’re much smoother and shinier than the man-made side AND (get this) they’re shaped like birds and crosses!
Now, I have heard of such things happening in the nations of Central and South America and, I must admit, embarrassed I shit on these stories. Thoughts like “Too Pentecostal!” , “Just weird!” , “false signs and wonders!” and “why not get new teeth?” you may be going through your own mind as you read this. On the other hand, where unity is present, the power and presence of God can be found. In my own life, I have seen some pretty incredible miracles in the living rooms of Arlington and also here in Stephenville, where we meet for house church. Why? Personally, I think it’s because of the love and unity brought together by a group of people who can’t seem to get enough of each other’s company, centered around the teachings of Jesus and his presence. God seems to love when his children are playing nice together and he hurts them. That’s not unlike me, as a young father, buying ice cream for my four children when they were “playing cool.” Such behavior seems to COMMAND a blessing!
Barbara and I celebrated our anniversary last night. All my children were there, my parents and some members of my church family. There stood my daughter-in-law, her mouth open, a crowd gathered around her yelling “oooh” and “ahhhh.” She seems to be telling everyone “look what the Lord has done!”
I remember the verse that says, “Many will come and SEE and put their trust in the Lord.” Well, through my beautiful daughter-in-law’s helicopters, she’s giving them something to see. As a man who was in severe pain and walked with a cane 5 years ago, I can attest: Jesus STILL heals.
Imagine what would happen if all of us, Hispanics and Anglos, Blacks too…Protestant and Catholic…just decided to throw our man-made doctrinal differences to the wind and focus the whole thing on lifting up Jesus and focusing only on HIS teachings. . ! Can we not try to BE the Church – the ekklesia, the “called out ones” – rather than simply GO to church, having “an appearance of godliness but not the power of it?”
Selah.
The mind boggles at the thought. Imagine the POWER we could generate if we put aside all differences and focus only on Jesus!