See Connett's Thoughts: Sickness

While wondering through the desert Satan tempted Christ by appealing to his hunger. Satan said to the Lord, "Turn these stones into bread and so you do not have to go hungry!" It may not sound like much of a temptation, but the real point was to get Christ to rely upon himself, instead of trusting that the Father would provide for him what he needed. Christ responded by quoting Scripture and standing against Satan saying, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." We have to eat to live, but if all we take in is bread, then while we may continue to exist, we are far from having full lives.

This was part of the problem that the church in Corinth dealt with. Instead of taking in the Word of God, they were more concerned with the bread and wine of the Lord's table. Paul condemns the church noting that some come and feast, and others are left to starve. Instead of sharing love and compassion for one another they became selfish gluttons. To partake of the Lord's supper is to share in Christ, to eat and drink of his memory and in obedience to his words, it is not just to fill our stomachs, but to live on the Word of God.

Christ promised his presence always, and proclaimed of himself that he is the bread of life. Obviously there is metaphor involved in that statement. Christ is not literally made of bread. Likewise, as much as I respect those Catholics who take seriously the traditions that have been handed down, as a protestant and one who adheres to solo scriptura, I find nothing in Scripture that makes me think that the bread literally becomes the body of Christ and the wine becomes his blood in some metaphysical way. But, despite the fact that the bread is not literally Christ, when we partake of the bread and the wine, we are joined to Christ in his presence, as we partake of the feast that he is preparing for us in heaven.

To eat of the Lord's Table is to partake of a heavenly feast. Consider this: Christ began and ended his ministry with food and wine. When his mother asked him to help with the situation at the wedding feast, Christ turned the water into wine. When Christ gave his last instructions, before his death, to his apostles, he did it over a feast including bread and wine. And, when Christ brings all things to completion, we will once again sit down to a feast with him, at the wedding supper of the Lamb. When we eat of the bread and drink of the wine of the Lord's Table, we are participating in feasting with Christ, joining with him in faith to the Father, believing that one day we will eat at the wedding supper of his Son.

This is why Paul was so severe with the church in Corinth, and why he says that when we eat of the Lord's Table and fail to recognize the body of Christ, we eat and drink judgment on ourselves. When we partake of the Lord's Table, if we do not recognize that we are eating a fellowship meal, a celebration of Christ and the feast that will join all believers together, then we are not acting in faith, but faithlessly. We turn the admonition of Christ on its head: instead of living on the Word of God, we begin to treat the feast of Christ as nothing more than bread and wine. Any church that treats the Lord's Supper lightly, not realizing the significance of what it means to partake of the body of Christ is asking for the same judgment that Paul says was already being poured out on the church at Corinth: weakness, sickness, and premature death.

It ought to be born in mind that death, weakness, and sickness, do not necessarily have to be upon individuals. Those who sit in the congregation, who are ignorant of the reality of the Lord's Supper, while certainly responsible for failing to take seriously the Word of God, are not as accountable as those who teach them. Thus as James says, "Not many of you should desire to be teachers, knowing that we who teach will be judged more strictly." In this way, because those who teach from the pulpit have failed to properly teach the Word of God, and because those who sit in the congregation have failed to hold them accountable to what has been taught, everyone brings judgment upon themselves for their faithless living before God. So, particularly in congregational churches, no one has excuse, and no individual can claim innocence if they have not been faithfully warning their brothers and sisters of the coming wrath of God.

Because Churches do not take seriously the Word of God in what it teaches about why we should do the things we do, the churches get weak. The churches grow sick. Eventually, those churches who fail to be faithful to God, who no longer reflect a healthy image of his body, die. And no amount of man made emotion and passion can change what God has already said will be the judgment of those who take the Lord's Supper lightly. But it does not have to be this way.

Our God is a God who forgives, who restores, who wounds and heals. If we will turn back to him and seek him, then he has promised us blessing in Christ. We, who are in Christ, do not need to fear that God will hold our sins against us, for we are already forgiven, covered by the blood of Christ. If we seek to partake of the blood of Christ at his table, then we must be sure that we are covered in the blood when we are away from the table.

God is faithful to himself, and he will exalt himself through judgment, and through mercy. Thus, we have great reason to pray to God for revival, if we are willing to embrace the discipline of God in our lives. We do not need to continue to eat and drink judgment to ourselves. If we will learn from the Word of God, and understand what it means to be a part of the body of God, then we have great reason to hope in God. Our God is full of grace, and he speaks to us if we will be listen to his admonitions.

Let us eat of the Lord's Table with joy and with sobriety. Let us recognize that what we do here prepares us for a feast we will share there. But, let us also remember that when we eat and drink of the elements of the table, Christ is present with us, partaking with us as we are his body. We eat and drink not simply in his memory, but also in his presence. There is great reason to rejoice for those of us who rightly recognize the body of Christ when we come to the Lord's Table, so let us rejoice!

In my post yesterday I mentioned that I have a poison ivy rash. Today I want to go into more detail on that, and tell you about why I don't hate it quite as much as I did. But, I ask you to bear with me some, as I want to go a little into the details of my particular situation. You see, my exposure is not typical. My exposure has been pretty bad actually.

I went a saw a doctor about my poison ivy rash. Two weeks out from the first exposure the rash seems to be continuing to show up on other parts of my body. Initially I had a minor rash on my right arm, and a few little spots on my left arm where it looked like I touched my arm with my fingers after they came into contact with the plant. A minor rash, at best.

I was exposed on Saturday, August 24th. By Wednesday of the next week, it looked like I described it above. I showed it to some of the people from church as my wife and I went to bible study. Most of them noted that it looked like a minor rash, they even teased me that the little rash I had wasn't sufficient to be called a poison ivy reaction. If only they had been right.

On Sunday I showed them the rashes again. By this point, on my right arm I had a think leathery scab just at my wrist and extending about an inch up my arm. It was mildly annoying and I couldn't bend my wrist very well because of it. My left arm had blossomed into a minor swelling all along my lower under arm. Now I had validation: I had a certified poison ivy rash.

So, by this point I'm in a bit of discomfort. I'm spraying calamine lotion (with pain and itch relievers) on the left arm. On the right arm it wasn't itching too much, the scab was so thick it basically just hurt a little bit. I'm still not worried though. Instead I'm making a point of keeping ice bags on my arms as I can and just trying to avoid scratching it. I'm hoping it will start to heal soon, and Sunday night brought some additional hope to my attention.

An aunt and uncle along with cousins from my wife's side came to visit us. Spencer (my cousin) told me about how he used a product called Zanfel to treat his poison ivy. He told me it could do what no other product claimed to be able to do: it could remove the Urushiol from my arms! That's right, the Urushiol that had bound into my skin could be pulled out, I could stop the spread and get rid of the itching! Excellent!

I got some. $35 without tax for one ounce. If it would do what it claimed though, it would be worth it. I took it home and used it as per the directions. The itching stopped. I thought that was the end of it all, now I could heal. God is only amused at the feeble attempts of mortals to control that which he created to serve his will.

The rash seemed to stop on my arms, but it wasn't healing very fast. Oh, and the scab on my right arm was thicker. It was starting to crack to the point of bleeding lightly. I now could not move my wrist at all without pain, or close my fingers on my right hand because it would pull the skin at the top of my hand, adding a little more pain to the situation. The swelling on the left arm began to lightly scab. And a few new bumps had developed on my right hip and side.

Add to this the general disgust that I was oozing. That's right, the serum that forms scabs was attempting to form little scabs on all the spaces where my skin had broken down a little bit. Imagine holding a rubber ball with tiny little holes in it with a pressurized gel on the inside, so that the gel was continuously forming little bubbles and lightly flowing out of the rubber ball. That's how my left arm looked. Wherever I went I tried to take a napkin or a handkerchief with me to prevent oozing on anything I might rest my arm on.

My right arm was oozing also, but the breaks in the skin were thick enough that instead of forming little scabs that couldn't adhere to anything I had large scabs that caught the hair on my arm. Ah, one more minor inconvenience, feeling the hairs on my arms getting pulled every time I moved my arm. But, at least I wasn't leaving slug spots behind me wherever I rested my right arm.

I want to add one more final annoyance of my particular exposure to poison ivy: pressure. Every time I held my arms down by my side for more than 30 seconds the blood flow in the area would get so intense it would feel like my arms were swelling up. Add to this the irritation of feeling my blood flow. That's right, the little vibrations that travel through your arm from the pumping of your blood would aggravate the sensitive skin and cause minor pain or itching. Constantly. No, no, you don't understand, I mean all the time with out end constant itching and minor pins and needles pain in my left arm, and pressure in my right arm.

But, I finally went to the doctor. Once I realized the rash is still spreading, still is spreading, I figured I have what is known as systemic poison ivy. Basically the poison ivy didn't just adhere to my skin, it got into my blood stream. Now it is traveling around, having a little carnival in my body (whoopee!) and popping up wherever it decides to make a picnic lunch. It should stop now though. I got a steroid shot and some topical steroid cream (Charlton smash!) that should help me heal. And I'm on an antibiotic since I have beautiful open wounds on both arms now.

I told my wife though that it brought a comparison to my mind. Everything I described about my poison ivy is a lot like the sinful situation of all of us. At first, when we are young or do not know much of the glory of God and his holiness, we think we only have a minor exposure. We figure, over time, we'll heal, we'll get better. Finally, after the sin has spread sufficiently in our lives, we hear others talking about how they have fought sin in their own lives, and we do the same things. We hope that by applying a cream to our sinfulness, we can stop the outbreak.

The problem is that the wounds just don't heal, the sin may not be spreading any more, but we are powerless to really heal it. Unknown to us, sin is not just on the surface, it is in our blood, in our very souls. Wherever sin decides to crop up, it will, and we are powerless to fight it. We will always be powerless, and we need someone who can treat the sinfulness within us.

Christ is our great doctor. He alone has the power to give us what we need to be free from the sinful condition of our bodies. Just as I needed a steroid shot, we need an injection of Christ into our lives. And just as I have a cream to apply to my sores to help control the outbreak and heal my skin, so also we have the Holy Spirit who continuously convicts us of sin and helps us to recover from the wounds that persist, even after we have been forgiven. Moreover the power of Christ not only removes our sin, not only forgives us, it also makes us righteous, just as I needed treatment not just for the poison ivy, but also because of the potential of infection.

Not really a new metaphor, but hopefully, Christ as our great physician means a little more to you today, as it does to me.

For those of you who want photos, continue to the bottom of the post! I have included "before" photos, and "after" photos. The first three were taken around 9/5/10, the last group was taken on 9/11/10, when I finally went to the doctor. You can decide for yourself whether you think going to the doctor was really necessary.

WARNING! These pictures are potentially disturbing. If you've ever seen a moderate/severe chemical burn these most closely resemble such. Please, if you have a weak stomach, you probably don't want to look at this. If you have young children you may wish to look at these first and then decide whether it is appropriate for them. The first three look like just cuts or scabs, the last six are more graphic. (They are only shots of my arms, but they are pretty bad.)

Here are the photos from 9/5/10: