Healings

1. Believing in persons or spiritual beings
2. Believing that certain facts are real
3. Believing!

I believe that demons are real. I don't believe in them. What I believe in is found in the Nicene Creed.

Peter's mother-in-law had a terrible fever; she possibly had malaria which untreated can and usually does cause death. This fever is deadly. Jesus lifts her up and heals her. We get to heal also.

Jesus goes outside the religious institution. The early Jesus movement was not a religion; it was a way of life. Even today we are are bound up and together through the trust in Jesus which is not a religion. Religion has priests who perform sacrifices to placate gods and goddesses, or intercede between the gods and goddesses and human beings. We have a priesthood of all believers, we can pray to God directly for ourselves and one another. We do not have a priesthood sacrificing animals to placate God, instead, we have healing. We have healing in place of sacrifices.

Everyone came crowding into Peter's small house free healing was taking place there. In their religion there were outsiders and insiders and these people were outsiders. In Jesus, everyone is an insider and everyone belongs. Healing is a sign of belonging.

Today there is a need for healing--spiritual healing, emotional healing, physical healing, financial healing. When someone loses their job the suddenly feel that they don't belong anywhere. They even stop attending worship services because they don't feel good enough. Death in their family, illness or any type of loss can make anyone feel like an outsider. It takes them out of the narrative of health and success.

Peter's house is filled with people who want to be healed, be included, belong and to be counted. In Jesus Christ we all belong and we share Jesus.