It got me thinking, what now for the woman? What is God's purpose for healing her? What is her responsibility, if any? Did God heal her so that she will no longer live in pain or does He have other reasons?
The common response from Christians is that when God heals someone, it is because He cares about them and He loves them. The idea is that God does not want to see them live their life in pain, so His will is that they will be healed. The healing is viewed as a blessing from God given because of His love for them. The end goal of this ideaology is the blessing.
Is blessing us God's entire purpose or is there more?
I think God's purposes are bigger than that. Don't get me wrong, God loves and cares for His people and therefore He provides for their needs and takes care of them. But I do not think the blessing is His primary purpose or the end goal. Everything is about Him, not us.
First, it's not true that God intends for us to live without pain and suffering. Pain and suffering are part of God's plans and purposes. He often uses our pain and suffering for His glory.
Christians throughout history have suffered and died for Christ. It sounds harsh, but in a way, His people are expendable. God uses people for His purposes, and our pain, suffering, and death are usually part of His plan.
We also connect with God on a deeper level and get to know Him more intimately during times of suffering. There are things about God that we will never experience first-hand unless we experience pain and suffering.
Second, God heals so that the healed person will go and share the story with someone who needs to hear it. That person is probably an unbeliever and God will use the story to help draw the person to Himself. Their healing is an incredible testimony of God that can and should be shared with people who do not know or believe in God.
This is sowing seed. The person who is healed may not have the gift of evangelist, but they can share their story of God's healing in their life with others, especially unbelievers, and God may use it to draw the person to Himself.
I think this is God's primary purpose for healing. It brings Him greater glory than simply healing us because He loves us, because His love, mercy, grace and righteousness are being proclaimed to people who do not know Him.
One of these ideologies focuses on how God blesses us, while the other focuses on God and it glorifies Him. Our purpose as Christians is to glorify God.
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Several years ago, rock star Alice Cooper became a Christian. He said that his father was a pastor and he strayed as far as he could from Christianity.
He credits his wife for his salvation because of her faithfulness to God and her continuing to pray for him throughout his rebellion.
After becoming a Christian, he considered leaving the music industry, but his pastor encouraged him to continue so he could reach others in the industry.
He has had opportunities to share Jesus with Marilyn Manson and others within the music industry.
He started Solid Rock, which is a faith based organization to help youth find purpose in their lives.
Now, I'm not a huge fan of Alice Cooper's music, and this is not written to defend him. In fact, this is not really about him at all, but about us. His story is only an illustration.
I like a few of his songs and he's known for putting on a theatrical stage show of horror when playing live.
Since becoming a Christian, he hasn't stopped doing the show or hasn't done much in his music to glorify God.
If it were me, I would like to think I would do things differently and I would like to see him do the same. But it's not me, and he may have a reason for doing what he does.
This leads to my question, what is God's purpose for bringing someone like Him into His kingdom?
I don't mean that he is any less deserving of God's salvation than anyone else, but what is God's purpose for Alice Cooper and other rock stars and celebrities who believe in Jesus? Is God's purpose only that they are saved from sin, death and hell, or are there possibly other bigger, grander reasons?
Here's the reason I'm thinking about this:
There is one camp of Christians who believe that Alice Cooper and other celebrity rock stars are not really saved because they haven't left their music and their image behind to follow Jesus.
They believe that they should leave the music industry and live as normal, suit and tie wearing church goers.
They believe that since some like Alice Cooper have not done this, and continue to make the style of music they have always made, continue to have the same image as before they believed in Jesus, and continue to tour with unbelievers and even Satanists, that they aren't true Christians, and aren't really saved.
Not only that, but they believe that Alice Cooper is continuing to promote Satan through his music, image and shows, rather than Christ.
I agree with some of that to some degree. Like I said, I would prefer he left the horror show behind, but I would not use that to judge whether or not he's a Christian.
It's not our job to judge who is and isn't a Christian. God knows his heart and whether he is or not.
Though it's not our job to judge if someone is a Christian or not, it is evident by their fruit.
Someone might not be as verbally open about their faith as others, but their fruit will show if they have faith or not.
In contrast, someone might openly proclaim that they are a Christian to everyone, but they have no fruit as evidence of their faith.
If what I have heard about Alice Cooper's faith is true, he is working to produce fruit. He is using his influence as an experienced, successful rock star to reach others in the industry. He is helping kids find purpose for their lives.
Alice Cooper has the ability to reach people that the typical Christian does not.
We teach in dmm that the purpose of the training is to empower people to reach their own people for Christ.
We also teach in the 3 Circles that after you repent and turn to Jesus, that God sends you back into the broken world for the purpose of reaching the people who are still there.
So, in the rock star world, who better to reach a rock star than a rock star?!
Did God draw Alice Cooper to Himself to leave the rock star world and settle down to become a "normal" Christian, or was it because He wanted to send him back into the broken rock star world to reach his own people for Christ?
Another questions is, is God's purpose for Alice Cooper's salvation so that he could just sit back and reap the personal benefits of salvation, or did He save him so that he would bring more people into the kingdom of God?
Another way to phrase it is, is Alice Cooper's salvation the end goal or is the end goal for Alice Cooper to serve God and help build His kingdom for the rest of his life?
We don't know what all of God's plans and purposes are for our lives, but we can know much of it by what the Bible says, and when the Bible doesn't give us specific direction, we need to consider what glorifies God more.
I don't believe that our own personal salvation is the end goal of God's purpose of giving us salvation, yet that is the message of modern day Christianity.
Though our own personal salvation is important and glorifies God, I believe what brings God greater glory is when we use God's salvation to bring others into His kingdom. There is no greater love than this. Building God's kingdom is the purpose and end goal of God's salvation.
I think this is why God gave Alice Cooper, and other rock stars & celebrities, and each of us salvation. Not for our own personal benefit, but for the benefit of God and for the benefit of others.
Love God. Love others. Make disciples.
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