For the Naysayers

I don't believe there are any true miracles without naysayers. In Exodus 4:8-9 God told Moses how to convince His own people that He had spoken and it took 3 supernatural signs.  "Then the LORD said, 'If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.” So, far be it for me to expect everyone to believe God did a miracle here.

However, I don't hear a lot from naysayers myself. Of course there are a few who anonymously comment on here, but for the most part people are asking my friends about it instead. So I thought I'd address it in case there's anyone out there who just doesn't have someone to ask about it, or doesn't have the nerve.

The way I see it, there are a few specific ideas the naysayers may have about the events I've blogged about. First, maybe I made it up. Second, maybe I am not really healed. Third, maybe something other than God healed me. I'll talk about each of these below, but if you know of another argument I'll be happy to address it.

Argument 1: Maybe I made this all up. I think I'll scan the two PET scans in (not tonight but soon) to show some evidence, but that wouldn't appease everyone because they could be forged or different people. Nothing will satisfy people like that, so let's move on. So, if I made it up my goal would have been to convince people to become Christians. If that's the case I either a) think more people should follow Christ, or b) am an atheist and think it's hilarious to get people to believe in anything. There are problems with both of these ideas. If I am a real Christian (which I am!), to have true faith I don't lie because it's a sin, and trust God to make His own miracles without my help. I hope those who know me recognize my honesty and if you don't know me you can tell that my faith is deep. So I do trust God to show Himself as needed. If I'm a huge liar and just watching to see how many people I can get off course, I'm really messed up because making people believe in different things than I do would actually hurt my cause. So, hopefully that suffices to demonstrate that I don't have any reason/s to lie about all this.

Argument 2: People may believe I'm not really healed. They could say the cancer is coming back. Time will tell, so stay tuned I suppose. Although there's "no cure" for Stage 4 cancer, 5 years of remission is when people tend to be convinced cancer is permanently gone.

Argument 3: People may say the chemo cocktail or combination of drugs healed me. To be clear, I received 4 doses of A/C chemo, an extremely common type. For 10 days before the PET scan I followed  a diet that many other people follow. The author of the diet book studied the evidence and purported that, at best, the diet slows or stops growth of cancer. Doesn't remove it. Time will tell with this argument also, because if somehow the common chemo + 10 days of eating more vegetables can now cure an incurable disease it will be the best news to hit the medical community in a long time.

By the way, if that's the case, I will still give God the glory. He created man, He made our world turn with very specific laws and rules that man is able to use to help us survive. He is the one who gets to break those rules when He sees fit. And for me, He broke them last week. For you, He might break them tomorrow.

One last thing that's been on my mind--God performs miracles all the time. ALL the time. For us on earth we only recognize them when they are impossible for us to define in other ways. However, every answered prayer or move from God is an equal "challenge" or effort for Him. But whether He answers your prayer for help with finances by having your bills add up to a lower amount this month or by having you find the winning lottery ticket in the pocket of your brand-new jeans, they're all miracles. You ask, you believe, you receive. James 1:6-7, "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."