I’m really excited: Mark just wandered in with my ticket to go see Lord of the Rings tonight. A group is going to the midnight show … 9 hours and counting! The only complicated thing is what to do after the film. It’s over 3 hours long so I’ll be wandering around having got about 4 hours sleep at 4am. One thought that crossed my mind is whether to go directly in to work and come home at lunchtime. Alternatively I could grind my way through the day and hope that nothing comes up and that I can get an early night tomorrow. Final idea is to take the morning off work and sleep. Last option would also afford me some shopping time for Ali. Hmmm. Looks like the responsible thing and the crazy thing (come home lunchtime) might correspond.

Having an interesting experience with migrating Chronicle Lite over to using Java 1.4.2 so far. I expected there would be differences - there always are - but didnt expect anything as bad as a few years ago when we had to migrate from Java 1.1.8 to 1.2 at a company I was consulting at. Sure enough, things proved very easy enough and only one real issue has come to light so far. On the other hand its an issue that no-one really helped with on the ‘net either. It seems that there’s been a change in the URLClassLoader class. None of the plugin classes seemed to be loading and I was getting a whole bunch of java.lang.ClassNotFoundException errors and startup was tremendously slow. Tracing the code through, I found the offending line was where I was creating the array of URLs for the URLClassLoader.

The change, as noted by other open source projects, has to do with how a URL is constructed. While the class can figure out the protocol in use based on the string you give it - say, “file://c:/temp/my_jar_file.jar” (it would be the “file:” protocol for that example). It should be the same saying

    URL myURL = new URL("file://c:/temp/my_jar_file.jar");

as saying

    URL myURL = new URL("file", "", "c:/temp/my_jar_file.jar");

I say “should be” the same but it turns out not to be in this version of the JDK. Switching over from the first to the second way of creating URLs worked the magic and everything started perfectly.

Where is healing rooted? Is it in the atonement - the Cross of Christ? Maybe it’s in the person of Christ? Perhaps it’s in the Kingdom of God?

If healing is rooted in the person it’s easy to say that He’s not walking the Earth today and therefore divine healing isn’t for today. Far too easy in fact. No-one should base a theology on experience. Our basis needs to be the Word of God, so having an experience and “finding” verses scattered all over the place that loosely seem connected is not a valid way of creating theology. Very often our experiences are contrary to the Word, or they’re a missed and cloudy bag containing both truth and error. This is equally true of an argument from silence also: just because the Word says one thing and our experience seems contrary, we should believe the Word in preference to our own feelings and experience. For instance, the Bible says that we are loved by God yet we often dont feel that way and our experiences day-to-day might seem to invalidate that fact. Still, it stands as true that God loves us whatever our feelings. Yet we make theology from other cases where our experience of not seeing Divine healing today. Elabourate theological concepts have been created to explain why God “wouldn’t do that today.”

If healing is rooted in the Atonement of Christ, in the Cross, there are still problems. Some people are healed through Divine intervention today: everything from small items like headaches to backpain, curvature of the spine and on through cancer. The problem really comes when people arent healed. What then? Is the Atonement somehow ineffective? We read in Isaiah “by his wounds we are healed” and yet some people aren’t … so we naturally cast doubt on the Atonement itself asking whether salvation through the Cross is also suspect?

I find it deeply challenging to look at healing as being rooted in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom broke in 2000 years ago with the advent of Christ and He left specific instructions for all that would follow him

Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

What did He command the disciples? Matthew 4:23 says

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

further to that, Matthew 10:7-8 says

He commanded the disciples “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

So, our mission today remains the same: preach the Word, pray for the sick, give to those in need. I am as much under the command to pray for the sick / lame / maimed as the first disciples were and I proclaim the good news of the very same Rule and Reign of God. God has not changed, neither has His message or His mission, or His power to minister to the sick.

Matthew 15:29-31 says

Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

It’s interesting to note the two highlighted words. The two words are distinct in the orginal Greek: Kullos (maim) and Cholos (lame) are separated, with clear distinction. Just pulling definitions from an English dictionary we see that:

Lame: Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible.

Maimed: badly injured, perhaps with amputation - maiming implies the loss or injury of a bodily member through violence.

In other words Jesus healed not only those unable to walk (who had all their body parts) but also those who were missing body parts. I know there are many who would claim that healing is more psychological than physical - mind over matter, believing that you can and so on - but it’s verses like this that clearly say it’s way more than that. Jesus came preaching the “Kingdom of God” - the rule and reign of God - and healing was an integral part of the message.

The latest Friday Five:

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?

It all depends on what I am shopping for. For instance, I bought a decorative bag from one store and spent a day filling it with a bunch of gifts for my wife as an anniversary gift. Shopping in that case was wonderful as I was anticipating her reaction to each item. Shopping for groceries I couldnt care less about though. I think the main thing is that I like to give and shopping is a means to that end.

2. What was the last thing you purchased?

Snacks and gas for the road-trip back from Virginia, where we spent Thanksgiving.

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?

Again, it depends. I love the tactile sensation of handling the items while shopping - pulling a book off the shelf and leafing through it, taking in the sights, sounds, smells. When I shop online I dont get that feeling and the association of rummaging through stuff and it reminding me of other items. Online there are also benefits. Specifically, I love the Amazon reviews and suggestions. I love the immediacy of walking away with items from a store yet online I can get almost anything, from anywhere, with less wait than it often takes offline.

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?

Yes, I got an allowance. Strangeley enough, I was asked to make a budget of what I wanted to buy. I remember distinctly coming to a figure of One pound and Twenty-one pence, and that was what I got. I remember also getting into trouble for not spending the money on what I had said I would spend it on though too!

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?

I’m meant to be on a diet, so I guess I regret buying all the snacks on the road-trip!