Heal Me

 John 4:46-47 '. . .And there was a certain nobleman who son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Yahshua was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto Him, and besought Him, that He would come down and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.'

I have some troubling news for those living in Milwaukee.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a posting in the Friday November 27, 2009 paper - page 8C.  Aurora Health Care Metro Inc. announced a 4.9% rate increase for 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Health_Care

According to wikipedia information, Aurora is the final result of a 1984-87 merging of St. Luke's Medical Center, Good Samaritan Medical Center, and Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Just like the schools and the government, the healthcare system managed to take religion right out of it.  Has healthcare gotten better without it?

John 4:49-51 'The nobleman saith unto Him, Sir, come down ere my child die.  Yahshua saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth.  And the man believed the word that Yahshua had spoken unto him and he went. . .and. . . his servants met him, and told him saying, Thy son liveth.'

What do you believe?

1 Peter 2:24-25 'Who His own self bare our sins in His own body. . .by whose stripes ye were healed.  For ye were as sheep going astray. . .'

Sheep going astray.

Many Christians today do not try to walk circumspectly, or exercise temperance in their lives.

2 Peter 1:4-7 '. . .having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. . .giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.'

There is a progression of growth we must go through as Christians to reach the true stage of Charity we call for and believe in.  Charity as the Bible speaks of it, is not the same thing this world describes charity as.  The world and the worldly have not gone through the stages of growth.  They try to jump ahead - which makes it easy to slip back.  There is nothing stable about their jump to charity, and at the slightest hint of loss, or sacrifice, charity is expendable.

In other words, they remember that it wasn't thier Creator they were serving when they hoped to be charitable.  Lurking in the shadowy recesses of their hearts, the idol of mammon still stood, a candle glowing at its feet.

Jude 1:11-12 'Woe unto them!  For they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward. . .These are spots in your feasts of charity. . .'

1 Timothy 1:5 'Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.'

Colossians 3:14 'And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.'

1 Corinthians 13:3 'And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.'

That is a lot to absorb.

One of the things I teach in our Home Assembly, especially to my family, is that you don't give anything to anyone unless you are prepared to never see it again.  It doesn't mean you can't borrow things to people, or ask people to pay you back.  What it does mean is, you go into the arrangement with a pure heart, a heart that puts no worldly value on whatever it is you are borrowing, be it a coat, a shirt, a rug cleaner, a car, or even money.

If you feel like it is that important to you, that you get it back, don't give it.  Look back at 1 Corinthians 13:3.  Just because you give things and sacrifice your time and do things that burn and wear you out - doesn't mean you understand charity, or are being truly charitable.  If you don't have that pure heart when your giving, your charity profits nothing - which means - the Lord doesn't take it into account that you did anything good.  You were trying to be good without losing anything.  You wanted a guarantee = You wanted insurance.

And now we fall right back into the healthcare mud pit.

Hospitals provide a service and they want to get paid.  They say all the right things. They hang up billboards and posters, they advertise that they are there for the public, for the sick, the elderly and the children.  They want to help.

But back in the dark recesses of their charity, of their offer to help - they want something back.  The idol of money needs to get paid.

Aurora Health Care states that it is a not-for-profit organization.

http://www.aurorahealthcare.org/default.aspx

A non-profit organization is supposedly organized for something other than profit and in which no part of the organizations income is distributed to its members, directors or officials.

http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Non-profit_organizations

The mindset of healthcare officials is now centered on the idol, on money.  Read the link below.  In 2008, when the financial collapse was hitting, and bankruptcy and foreclosure started to ramp up, Aurora Sinai, which had only one other profitable year in the past decade, profited.  And usually, as the article states, it doesn't matter whether or not Sinai profits because it is part the whole Aurora system.  Other hospitals make enough to off-set the inner city hospital's losses.  St. Luke's reported making $105.4 million in net income in 2008.

Why is there such a discrepency between the hospitals?

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2009/09/28/story3.html

The discrepency comes from some hospitals serving more of the city's poor and underinsured.  They say that Medicaid only pays .48 cents for every $1 it costs to take care of a patient.  Almost half of the patients going to Sinai had Medicaid compared to only 7% to St. Lukes.

Why is it that the hospitals and the medical assocations can't come to an agreement with the state on how much care should cost.  The state is basically saying - "You are charging 52% too much.  BRING DOWN YOUR COSTS and MAKE IT AFFORDABLE."

You wonder why so many are fighting to keep the government out of healthcare.  The hospitals and medical associations prefer to deal with the insurance companies because they are more willing to pay the fee, whatever it may be.  And yet, that is not true anymore because people are constantly finding out after having procedures done that they thought would be covered, are not covered, or only partly covered.

1 Corinthians 13:4 'Charity suffereth long and is kind. . .'

At the bottom of the posting Aurora placed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, they stated, "The increase is necessitated by the reimbursement policies of the Medicare program, which accounts for approximately 49% of the hospitals revenues.  If this federal government program paid its fair share of hospital costs, this rate increase would be significantly lower or not necessary at all."

Christians, it is time that we see that greed is a catch-22, it is circular reasoning, that always arrives at the same conclusion.

1 Corinthians 16:14 'Let all things be done with charity.'

The Bible - Yahweh and Yahshua - tell us to let ALL THINGS be done with charity.

The world tell us to let all things be done with profit.  Aurora stands as advertised as a not-for-profit agency which makes millions in profits as a gigantic organization.

When the people they serve are losing their jobs, losing their insurances, and must rely on government benefits - they fuss at the government and tell the government to pay them more.  BUT, where does the government get its money?  Oh fools that they are - they get it from the people who are losing jobs and losing benefits - the same people who get sick and need care.

When an agency, any agency, post profits like Aurora is accustomed to having, the last thing they want is to go down, or make less.  This is a sign of failure.  For the idol of money and success to be satisfied, it is important that business keep expanding and growing.  It doesn't matter to them that the economy around them has fallen apart and the consumers (those sick people again) can't afford to pay what they are charging.

Here is what we have lost sight of.

Taking care of people, providing for their health is not a business.  Taking care of people and providing for their health and wellbeing is a Christian duty.

Philippians 2:20 'For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.  For all seek their own, not the things which are Yahshua the Messiyahs.'

They are selfish and seek after their own.  They don't care what belongs to Yahshua.  Do you know what belongs to Yahshua?

Hebrews 3:4 'For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is Yahweh.'

And Yahweh has commanded that all things be subject to His Son, Yahshua. (1Peter 3:22)

Watch the video I included that shows a Hardball discussion between Chris Matthews and Rudy Guiliani.  Rudy is worried about people spending their money on other things like tvs, cars and such instead of healthcare.  He sees healthcare as a business, as something that is managed and marketed like any other enterprise.  If people don't want or can't afford the service, oh well.  Matthews on the other hand, thinks everyone has a right to healthcare but wants to make sure no one picks up the tab for anyone else.  He likes the idea of everyone paying for their healthcare insurance, whether they can afford it or not - mandatory insurance.

When you make car insurance mandatory, what you are saying is, if you want a car, you have to be prepared to pay for any damages you do with it.

When you make health insurance mandatory, what you are saying is, hey, if you want to live and breath here, we don't want to have to help you do that.  You need to pay, to be alive.  And if you have children, you're going to pay for those too.  So you poor people out there - stop having babies, stop creating more people than you can afford.

If we take a moment to remember ancient Egypt and how they treated Yisrael, we may see the similarity.  They wanted the nursemaids in Yisrael's camp  who helped with the birth of the children, to start killing the babies. The population of the slave ranks was getting too large.

We are creating a slave rank.  When people can't afford to live anymore because the cost of living is so high they'll do anything and work anywhere for anyone - what else is it?

Luke 10:8-9 'And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you, and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of Yahweh is come nigh unto you.'

Healing the physical body begins with the spiritual heart.  It is a door to understanding that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.

Do you know what that means?

It means, your going to die.  Even though you find healing, death is still coming.  Healing your physical body has to be seen as a temporary respite for the eventual sickness that will end your life.  No matter how much you pray, no matter how many times you are healed, you are going to die.

A healthcare field that says they will heal you for a small (or extrordinary) fee, is not doing you any favors.  They are not going to send you on your way saying, 'The kingdom of Yahweh is near.'  No, they are going to say, 'The bill is in the mail.'  And if they don't get what they want - if they don't get the value they placed their services at - they will sue you and collect it - no matter what kind of hardship it creates for you.

When you were laying in the hospital bed, they wanted to help.

When you are up and about, they'll take your tv, car, house payment - whatever they can get from you to fill the cost of their charity.

We all know what the Good Samaritan of Luke 10:33-35 did.  He did everything for the stranger who was hurt, even pay with a pure heart, the cost of his recovery.

No wonder they renamed their organization.  They couldn't possibly live up to being a good neighbor like the Samaritan.  They chose the name Aurora.  Aurora was the Roman goddess of the Dawn.

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 'And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.'

Remember, In Christ, our salvation is in the end and not the journey getting there.

In the end, with a pure heart, we give and do without expecting anything back in return.

In the end, Satan's ministers give and do expecting payment, expecting money - and that is the end of their work.

Jeremiah 17:14 'Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, for Thou art my praise.'

Amen