Healing of the Soul and the Body

Spurgeon was a prolific preacher, who relied on gleaning gems of truth from the Scripture.  His church grew to be one of the largest in the world, all without the entertainment and experience that is passed off as worship in many of our churches today.  In the following commentary he discusses healing of the soul and the body.

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease.  Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honor is to be given God who gives virtue to medicine, and bestows power to the human frame to cast off disease.  As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone.  He claims it as His prerogative, “I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal.”  One of the LORD’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the LORD that heals us.  “I will heal thee of thy wounds,” is a promise that could not come from the lips of man, but only from the mouth of the eternal God.  On this account the psalmist cried to the LORD,  “O LORD, heal me, for my bones are sore vexed,” and again, “Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.”  For this, also, the godly praise the name of the LORD, saying, “He healeth all our diseases.”  He who made man can restore man.  He who was at first the creator of our nature can create it anew.   What transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!”  My soul, whatever your disease may be, this great Physician can heal you.  If He be God, there can be no limit to His power.  Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding.  Come with the limping foot of wasted energy.  Come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the ague of shivering despondency.  Come just as you are, for He who is God can certainly restore you.  None shall restrain the healing virtue that proceeds from Jesus our LORD.  Legions of devils have been made to admit the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been baffled.  All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and you will be among them , my friend, if you but rest yourself in Him this night.

 

Having a baby in Ukraine!

You are a young couple and you decide to start your family.  You find out you are pregnant and need to decide where you will seek medical care.  If you are one of the new Ukrainians you can choose to have your baby at a new private hospital.  The cost is only $10,000 and you have to sign a paper saying you understand a healthy baby cannot be guaranteed.  Understandably this is too expensive for most Ukrainians.

 The next alternative is to give birth at a government hospital.  In Ukraine you always have two obstetricians.  One is typically a consultant and the other actually delivers the baby.  When the time of delivery arrives, you call your first choice and pray they are not busy.  Of course, that is why you have a back up.

Mothers and babies usually remain in the hospital for 3 or 4 days for a vaginal delivery and 7 days for a C-section.  For follow-up the pediatrician from the polyclinic comes to your flat after you come home.

I can guarantee this information is up-to-date since our neighbor just above us is the young couple having a baby.  She was very excited to learn that I was a pediatrician.  She said I will be her new best friend.  I told her our twins born 24 years ago by C-section cost about $4,000 and that when I was born the cost was $150.  She was quick to add her father born during the Soviet days cost nothing!

 

Doctor and Dad

Serving as a physician in a foreign country does present some interesting challenges in the doctor patient relationship.  In Ukraine where people openly don’t trust the system or in situations where someone wants to double check or just hear an explanation in their native tongue, I often get calls for assistance.

 I received one such call today from our daughter, Jeanne.  She was visiting friends about an hour and a half outside of Kyiv.  It was 5 AM and she woke up with excruciating back pain.  She initially dialed the wrong number and later told me she just started crying and said to the person, who happened to be a friend, ” Your not my Dad.  I need my Dad!” 

When we finally connected, I first switched into doctor mode, asking all the pertinent questions.  Then as the Dad, I said, “Do you want to come home?”  I knew her friends where taking good care of her but I also knew there was very limited medical care available in Rezhechyev, pop. 10,000.  I know how helpless I felt being able to offer advise only by phone, but I wonder how Ukrainians feel about the same problem living here all of their lives, I am sure no different.

Jeanne’s pain did not subside and she could not keep even ibuprofen in her stomach.  Her friends called back and said they were on their way.  To get the rest of the story you can read Marianna’s blog http://ukrainiac.wordpress.com and Jeanne’s too at http://jeannepeipon.blogspot.com.

Being a licensed physician in any country requires mastery of the language of the country in which you practice.  I am much better in speaking Russian, but far from fluent.  It is quite frustrating when you cannot communicate what used to be simple orders.  The names of the tests are never exactly the same.  Then there is the problem of accent.  Imagine someone having difficultly understanding me because of my thick American accent.

The thought process as doctor and dad is different.  I am thinking how can I help my daughter.  What happens if she needs to be admitted?  How do I get the medicines I need realizing some are the same,  some are similar but with different names, some are not available at all, and some are ones I have never heard of before.  Then there is the issue of being sure Jeanne’s mother and my wife know all the possibilities but being confident enough so as not to make her overly anxious.

 Well a good place to start is practice what you preach and begin with prayer.  As the day unfolded, God was certainly there guiding my thoughts, plans and steps.  I thank Him for His assistance today in helping me be both doctor and dad.

 

Quarantine!

As a kid growing up just when the polio vaccine was becoming available, the word, quarantine struck fear into the hearts of families. In the United States it is seldom used any more, except in regards to cattle and chickens.

In Ukraine it’s use is still quite common and is used regularly during this time of year. It is what we call the flu season. Vaccination for the flu is uncommon here and not recommended at all for children mainly because of availability which is different than in the USA. Usually as the number of cases of “grip” increase the schools, elementary through high school are closed for up to a month. Also access to hospitals by visitors is limited. However kindergartens or day care centers remain open as well as universities. To make up the time lost, kids attend school on Saturdays or have the school program modified for most of the rest of the school year.

So where do the kids go. Sometimes grandparents are put into service to allow the parents to go to work. The kids who are not sick of course may actually look forward to this time.

Our ministry with children with HIV/AIDS is affected because we are denied access to the hospital.

Quarantine is actually a principle often prescribed in the Bible to separate the clean from the unclean, the holy from unholy. God’s word is full of practical wisdom which needs to be rightly applied.