I guess there are times when I might have a little bug. And I did have surgery for a surface melanoma. Sometimes I feel "under the weather." But I am not a sick person. I don't belong in a hospital, or a doctor's office, like those other people. In fact, I want hospitals to have a "sick" wing and a "you’re really not sick" wing. Maybe my doctor can have two waiting rooms.

Yet all of us, including me, get sick and need care. It is not healthy to deceive myself into thinking I am never sick, cannot get sick, and am never a sick person. So I am working on my perception of hospitals and doctor offices. They are places of healing for sick people, and sometimes that means me.

I wonder how many times we have distorted our view of churches the same way I do hospitals. Do we believe churches are for people who cannot "get it together," who have made lots of mistakes, and whose lives are a mess? Do we believe that does not describe us, or that we are not like those people who need church? The truth is, we are just like those people. I do not know of anyone who goes through life without needing help from anyone.

Churches sometimes seem to have gone to the opposite extreme. It is as if they want to appear to be a place where only healthy people meet to celebrate the fact that they are spiritually healthy. It was not meant to be that way. Churches are places of spiritual healing for those who are sick. And they are made up of those who have been healed ... even while remembering that we are survivors.

Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31).

That call is for me. If you are looking for healing and hope in your life, visit www.hopeforlife.org . Join our discussion about this on our blog. Or write me at steve@hopeforlife.org.

I want to help you find spiritual healing.

Churches are where the spiritually sick find healing.

(Expressed written consent must be obtained prior to republishing, retransmitting or otherwise reusing the content of this article.

Are you presently experiencing a new life? God's word says, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" This new life is a free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. If you want to know more about this life that only Jesus can give you, sign up for one of our Bible courses. Wherever you are in life, whatever you've done, you can begin again. You may also contact us at info@hopeforlife.org if you have questions about becoming a new creation.

 

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Title: "I Don't Like Hospitals"
Author: Steve Ridgell
Publication Date: July 09, 2008

House by Frank Peretti & Ted Dekker Best-selling authors Peretti and Dekker join forces for an adrenaline-laced thriller!

Steve Ridgell serves as the Director of Ministry for Herald of Truth Ministries in Abilene, Texas and writes for Hopeforlife.org. You can reach him by writing to sridgell@heraldoftruth.org.

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