Healing Mandate | “Healing Made Simple” Sermon

Healing Made Simple — D. Karl Thomas

Leviticus 13:45-46  “Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ … He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

Pictures: Leprosy and Jesus healing a Leper

Matthew 8:2-3 “And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

 “The Power Of Touch” (Psychology Today) Rick Chillot March 11, 2013

Touch is the first sense we acquire and the secret weapon in many a successful relationship.

If you’re close enough to touch, it’s often the easiest way to signal something, … We feel more connected to someone if they touch us…”

University of Miami School of Medicine’s Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute, has linked touch, in the form of massage, to a slew of benefits, including better sleep, reduced irritability, and increased sociability among infants—as well as improved growth of preemies.

Mark 6:56  “Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well.” 

 “Hem” (kraspedon) :— edge, skirt, margin, a tassel, tuft: the Jews had such appendages attached to their mantles to remind them of the law

Picture of Tzitzit

Numbers 15:37-41 (NLT) “Then the Lord said to Moses,  ‘Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord.

When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do. 

The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God.  I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!’”

Tzitzit:—  Tassel,Each tassel has 8 threads and 5 sets of knots, totaling 13. The sum of all numbers is 613. (Commandments) Type of blue dye (Heaven Throne) as physical reminder that the people belonged to God.

John 1:17 “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

5:— Grace.   8:— New Beginning 

2 Corinthians 5:17 “…behold, all things have become new.”

Mark 5:25-34 “Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years,  and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.  For she said, ‘If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.’

Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”

But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

      She Heard

      She Said

      She Came

      She Touched 

      She Was Healed 

Acts 5:12-16 “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people … bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.”

Acts 19:11 “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul,…” 

Mark 16:17-18  “These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: … They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” 

TOUCH

More recent studies have found that seemingly insignificant touches yield bigger tips for waitresses, that people shop and buy more if they’re touched by a store greeter, and that strangers are more likely to help someone if a touch accompanies the request. Call it the human touch, a brief reminder that we are, at our core, social animals. “Lots of times in these studies people don’t even remember being touched. They just feel there’s a connection, they feel that they like that person more,” 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign psychologist Michael Kraus tracked physical contact between teammates during NBA games. The study revealed that the more on-court touching there was early in the season, the more successful teams and individuals were by season’s end. The effect of touch was independent of salary or performance, eliminating the possibility that players touch more if they’re more skilled or better compensated.

“We were very surprised. Touch predicted performance across all the NBA teams,” says Kraus. “Basketball players sometimes don’t have time to say an encouraging word to a teammate; instead, they developed this incredible repertoire of touch to communicate quickly and accurately,” he explains, adding that touch can likely improve performance across any cooperative context. “touch strengthens relationships and is a marker of closeness,” he says. “It increases cooperation but is also an indicator of how strong bonds are between people.”

If a post-rebound slap on the back or the brush of a hand while delivering a bill can help us all get along a bit better, it may be because “when you stimulate the pressure receptors in the skin, you lower stress hormones,” says the Touch Research Institute’s Field. At the same time, warm touch stimulates release of the “cuddle hormone,” oxytocin, which enhances a sense of trust and attachment.

The release also helps explain our propensity for self-caressing, which we do hundreds of times each day as a calming mechanism. “We do a lot of self-touching: flipping our hair, hugging ourselves,” Field notes. Other common behaviors include massaging our foreheads, rubbing our hands, or stroking our necks. Evidence supports the idea that it’s effective: Self-massage has been shown to slow the heart rate and lower the level of the stress hormone cortisol.

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