Faith
of our Fathers
By Gene
Roncone
I was
doing research on organizational change and had taken on the challenge
of reading through old minutes of the Northern California and
Nevada District Council meetings. Reading through meeting minutes
is about as exhilarating as memorizing the IRS users guide for
the 1040 long form. Not exactly the kind of stuff you can expect
to make you leap out of your chair with a shout of blessing.
At 10:39
that night the desk clerk politely informed me that they would
be closing the library in just 20 minutes. As I hurriedly turned
to page 38, the heading across the yellowed page, “Thursday
morning, June 29, 1939,” caught my eye. As I read the entry,
I was struck by an insight. There, in the midst of monotony was
an ice cube in the desert. The desert of detail involved an old
summer camp owned by the district and a committee that reported
to the council. The ice cube was in the report.
“The
campground committee chairman brought in a report and a recommendation
from the committee relative to paying off the $5,400 mortgage,
and the new cabin and rest room indebtedness which amounted to
approximately $1,300 by each of our 400 ministers and 150 churches
paying $15 each over a period of a year. Pledge slips were passed
out and $945 was pledged and $56 was paid in cash making a total
of $1001. All hearts were melted at the goodness of God, and it
felt ‘all things are possible with God’ on our side.
Sister Mary Savidge felt God would have her contribute $300 which
she had just recently saved on an operation, as the Lord healed
her.”
Did you
see it? There was something deeply profound about what happened
to Sister Mary Savidge on June 29, 1939, that grabbed my attention.
I was reminded of the words of the Psalmist when he said in Psalm
22:4, “In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted
and you delivered them” (NIV). I was reminded of the prolonged
blessings of divine healing.
I found
it interesting that healing somehow opened the spiritual eyes
of this believer to see greater depths of faith and involvement.
For our dear sister’s infirmity to warrant a $300 expense
more than 65 years ago, it must have been of a serious nature.
God’s healing touch upon her life not only restored health,
but it opened her eyes to see a new and exciting opportunity for
faith in the future. Divine healing has the power to reach beyond
today’s opportunities and into tomorrow.
Divine
healing impacts the whole of human experience. Many times we mistakenly
think that God’s miraculous touch is confined to our physical
bodies. But divine healing reaches far beyond the physical. Because
of her healing, this woman saved money and was able to make a
donation she would otherwise be unable to make. The healing brought
spiritual blessing in that it helped to provide new camp facilities
for future outreach, evangelism, altar calls and Spirit infilling.
Her physical healing had an impact upon the practical realm as
well. Time would fail to tell of the many who benefited from the
simple but necessary “cabins and rest rooms.”
As one
meditates upon the incredible potential of divine healing to open
our eyes to greater depths of faith, to impact the whole of human
experience and to yield a compounding return, we can say with
Solomon of old, “May the Lord our God be with us as He was
with our fathers” (1 Kings 8:57).
Gene
Roncone is senior pastor of Aurora First Assembly in Aurora, Colo.
E-mail
your comments to pe@ag.org.
