The Great Physician

Who is the real Doctor...?

In Acts 28:8-9 the shipwrecked Paul is made aware of the local Chief’s father being sick with feverish dysentery. I have been experiencing abdominal discomfort this week also. Though my ailment is probably temporary due to something I ate, Paul visited this man and putting hands on him he prayed, and God healed him. This led to the other people on the island who were suffering from diseases to come and also be cured. It does not say but I am sure that Paul did everything within his power to say that he was not a god and that his power came through Christ. He was doing this while he is held as a prisoner before unbelievers (Roman guards, sailors, passengers and believers (Luke, companions).

But imagine what Luke a Doctor must have been thinking? He knows these diseases and has attempted to treat them his entire profession. He identifies them in medical terms, and I am sure is amazed to see Paul through Christ heal things instantly that would take him weeks, years or never. As a first responder there were times when I unfortunately knew that the person I was talking to was going to die and there was virtually nothing that I could do other than make them as comfortable as possible and manage the pain. And yet, Paul healed people instantly. I know the world was never designed to be like this. Sickness, disease and death are all part of the curse from the fall, but it is not fate that will lead to one’s death. How do I know? Paul was just bitten by a poisonous snake and simply shook it off (Acts 28:3-5). The natives superstitiously thought that Paul was a murderer because he survived the shipwreck only to die by snakebite. When Paul didn’t die, they had to resolve the bite within their World View so, in their minds, Paul had to be a god (small g).

Paul is not a small “g” or ever gave credit to himself but only to God who had told him that he would be His witness of Him {Jesus} in Rome. I am sure a snake bite hurts but Paul is secure that nothing happens but by the will of God and used it as an opportunity to be a Blessing to the sick and diseased while a prisoner. I will not get cancer due to being a firefighter breathing in everything cancerous all those years. I get cancer because God permits it and my job is to honor Him in the midst of it. Likewise, I am to pray for the healing of the sick and diseased in both great and small because the Great Physician has the Power to Heal and Heal He can. At the end of the day, I know this sickness and disease will end and every tear will be washed way. Like Luke I am amazed, that the things that concern me is nothing that God can’t Heal and Heal fully. I long for the day when I experience no pain, no discomfort but fully experience the beautifully and wonderfully made body He designed just for Michael. It also leads me to pray for my wife who is struggling with a cold, my daughter who has a wrist injury, a friend’s wife who has cancer and unfortunately so many others. I pray God, heal our hearts and heal our bodies and thank you that one day, we will not experience these things to the Glory of God…