The Nurse Theologian

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.” (Romans 10:1) To whom it may concern, I have heard someone say, “Go to hell!” Or, “I wish they would just go to hell!” I may have said one of these myself, though I do not recall at the moment, but the Lord knows all things. These are not statements of love, but of hatred for another person. It is against the Law of Christ that anyone would desire hell for another person. The apostle Paul was under persecution from the Jews, yet his heart’s desire, and his prayer to God for them was for their salvation. Jesus said,  “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”  (Luke 6:27-28) I confess that I am angry that my children have chosen to go their own way. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) I know that there is no universal salvation. God is

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Mt. 10:37) To whom it may concern, The above text, which was part of my reading this morning, has come apparent in our lives. We are facing a real decision between following all that the word commands and having a relationship with our daughter.  I had contracted covid-19, sars, a few days before Christmas. I awoke at 5:00am on Christmas morning alone. My wife and I were isolated away from family and friends because of my illness; she was sleeping in another bed. Darlene and I have been married for 30 1/2 years and have always slept in the same bed but because of my illness she was sleeping in another room.  On Christmas morning I awoke at 5:00am to two messages on my phone: One a message from the clinic confirming that I had covid-19, sars. The other a text message from our daughter, our daughter is 27 years old. I expected Merry Christmas but what I go

To whom it may concern, This morning I read Isaiah 18-22. This year I have decided to read a different genre everyday of the week. On Friday I am reading from the prophets; therefore, the reading on Friday is the longest of the week. When I was working on my masters degree, I took a class called, “Evangelism and Discipleship.” In one assignment, we were to read an assortment of gospel tracts from varying ministries and evaluate them. The best tract by far came from the Billy Graham school of missions, evangelism and ministry, at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  This tract used the word GRACE as an acronym: G stands for God R stands for rebellion A stands for atonement C stands for conversion E stands for eternal life It is a really thorough tract covering the entire biblical text. However, they are a little expensive to give away. They can be obtained through the SBTS book store. I have some of these tracts, but I would only give one to someone whom I have had a discussion t

To whom it may concern, Lately, I feel like Job and wonder what I am hear for. Our children have departed from us and they are not following the Lord Jesus Christ. I work, I come whom, I rest and I do it all over again. My life is like the rising and the setting of the sun, but this will not go on forever. Someday, I will not rise and go to work. Someday, God will judge the world in righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Regarding my children, I have no comfort, and like job’s friends, our friends are of little comfort. I think that people mean well by what they say, but their words cause pain. I trust in the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ and that scares me. Why does the goodness of God scare me? The goodness of God scares me because he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Like the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; (Ex 34:6-7) “ He (The Lord Jesus Christ) is the radiance of Hi

To whom it may concern, The Lord God has changed my heart, my mind and my will. In times past my will was to please myself, but now I will to live a life pleasing to the Lord our God, creator of heaven and earth. He took out my heart of stone and put into me a heart of flesh. He put his Spirit in me and he has written his law upon my heart. My desires have changed from serving myself to serving the Lord.  Three days a week I work in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care seeing to the needs of others and I spend the other three days a week reading. I love the word of God and I love the church; therefore, I study the word of God and church history. Prior to going to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I loved the scriptures and desired to take courses for that reason. However, I really enjoyed studying church history. All of the history if the world relates in some way to church history. I enjoy history because it is the record of the Spirits work in the world.  We cannot go back to wha

To whom it may concern, Yesterday, I spent the day caring for two persons, both of whom were recovering from a surgical intervention: a man who had undergone coronary bypass surgery and a woman whom a recovered from a video assisted thoracotomy. I do not love what sin has done to the images of God but I love caring for my neighbor. The profession of nursing is difficult. The things that we see and the things that we do in caring for others is difficult. Nursing is ministry despite anything else mankind has decided it to be. Nurses are as much ministers as the pastor who preaches on Sunday morning. I have decided to bring back a gospel tract that I wrote eight years ago. I have written a few tracts since but I have never improved upon that original tract; therefore, I decided to bring it back.    This morning I read Joshua 16-20. I had never thought about it before but realized while reading the text, the land of Canaan was essentially divided between the sons of Joseph to the north and

To whom it may, concern, Jesus said to his disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” ( John 16:33)  This is the last recorded words of Jesus, in the gospel of John, before he was arrested. Between his teaching the disciples and his arrest is the high priestly prayer.  This morning, I recited John 16 and read Genesis 12-15. It always amazes me how these things come together. In Genesis 12-15, God promises Abram and in John 16 the Lord Jesus promises the disciples. “ Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Gn 15:6) Both P aul (Rom 4:3, 20-22; Gal 3:6) and James (James 2:23) quote this passage when talking about salvific faith in the Lord. We must trust the Lord while living in a world in which there is much trouble. We cannot see the promise of the Lord but must trust his word. We must trust that the Lord has defeated all of our enem

To whom it may concern, I have been thinking about our salvation. There are essentially two salvations: a spiritual salvation and a physical salvation. God is Spirit but we are physical beings. We have been spiritually redeemed, we have a relationship with God by which we call him Abba! Father! But we are waiting for our physical redemption, the redemption of our bodies, the resurrection from the dead on the last day of this present world. The already aspect of spiritual redemption and the not yet aspect of physical redemption is present in both Scripture and in the world. There are people who are not walking according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, yet the redeemed and the unredeemed alike physically die. One aspect of my profession that I do not like, in fact I hate it; that is keeping a body alive beyond the bodies ability to live. However, most aspects of critical care nursing is good. Take for instance one of the patients that I cared for yesterday. This man developed p

To whom it may concern, This morning I read the great sermon, “The Sermon on the Mount.” (Matthew 5-7) I have thought about it for a long time, and I have determined this year to write down every commandment given by Jesus in the gospels. I am reading a section from the gospels every Saturday morning. The sermon on the mount is full of the commandments of Jesus. In fact, this morning, I wrote down nineteen commandments given by Jesus from the sermon on the mount. There are many sub-principles in the teaching of these commandments. Several of these commandments covered several verses; therefore, I summarized them into a single sentence. I shall not go through these commandments this morning, for I do not have the time to do so, but I plan to write about all that Jesus commanded when I have completed this project. It came to mind to do this while reciting the gospel of John. It Just so happens that the passage that I speak of came from my recitation of John this morning. ( John 14:15)  “

To whom it may concern, The text that I read this morning was Isaiah 12-17. The apostle Paul said, when he preached on Mars hill: ( Acts 17:30-31) “ Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Isaiah 12 begins with thanksgiving for the salvation of the Lord, then chapters 13-17 speak about the coming day of the Lord. in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed. (Isaiah 16:5) “A throne will even be established in lovingkindness, And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David; Moreover, he will seek justice And be prompt in righteousness.” Mankind does not like to hear of the judgment of God. Modern man has painted God is a grandfather who laughs at sin, pats on the head and gi

To whom it may concern, Job was a man given a great deal by the Lord. He had a wife from whom came severn sons and daughters. He had many positions and he was healthy. However, the Lord God allowed Satan to take away all that Job had. Job did not know the reason for his calamity. His friends made the assumption that Job did something wrong. They told him to confess and forsake his sin. However, Job knew that he had done nothing wrong, yet this calamity came upon him. He had not sinned in the way that his friends assumed. Job wanted ask God what have I done to deserve this calamity? I have seen a great deal of human suffering during my years as a Critical Care Registered Nurse. Early in my career, I made the assumption, like Job’s friends did, that the individual had done something to bring this calamity upon themselves. However, this just does not fit with reality. All die but some people suffer a great deal more than others and there seems to be no rhyme or reason for it.  The son of

To whom it may concern, Psalms 6:1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. These are the words of David, as he prayed to the Lord for mercy during time of trouble.  It seems that this past year has been nothing but trouble. The life that I was living became disrupted in March of last year and it has never returned to the same. I spend all of my time at work or in my home. I have not eaten out with my wife or spent time in fellowship with my friends since. Others do not understand this because they do not see the things that I have seen, people suffering on a ventilator and much death. Our church, for a time, did not hold corporate worship but that returned in the fall of last year; you cannot really fellowship with others in a worship service, as all eyes are forward and we are separated to every other pew. During the last week of the year, I was infected with Covid-19 Sars, contracted from a patient. I was fairly ill but not like many other people; I stil

Today I read a lengthy portion of Scripture, Joshua 11-15; the defeat of the kings of the land of Canaan and the apportioning of the land among the tribes of Israel, except the tribe is Levi.  Joshua 13:33, “ But to the tribe of Levi, Moses did not give an inheritance; the LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as He had promised to them.” This blog is my journal. I do not know who if anyone reads the things that I write in it. I use to have a Facebook account and would post on that account the articles that I wrote in this blog. Even though I tried, I really could not get anyone to follow my blog. Over a year ago, I deleted my Facebook account but I have continued to write in this blog, not knowing if anyone reads it and I doubt if anyone that knows me reads it; therefore, I thought this morning, why not truly write as a daily journal. My life is not what it ought to be. In fact I have been struggling a great deal for the past year. Being that I am a Critical Care Registered N

What shall I write today? What do I have in my heart and on my mind to say? I just read Genesis 8-11, which gives us the historical record from Noah to Abram and Lot the son of Abram’s brother Haran. They moved with their father Terah to a city, Haran, near to the land of Canaan. Canaan was the son of Ham whom Noah cursed because Ham saw his father’s nakedness and did not cover him up. Do you believe that Genesis is history and if not history what? The book of Genesis must be taken as history because it is a historical record but should be read understanding its purpose. The purpose of this historical record is to point to God as the author of life and to trace the historical record of a people Israel. However, the historical record will not end with the people Israel. The record will continue to the birth of the Son of God and the birth of the church of Jesus Christ. We are now living in the historical record between the inauguration of Christ as Lord and his returning to sit down on

Text: Romans 5-6 I am awed by every word in this letter to the church in Rome. The theology that Paul is expressing in this letter turns all other theology preached by men on its head. Picture men standing on their heads and this is the theology of the world’s religion. That form of religion died when man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The form of religion that I am speaking of is earning your way to heaven through righteous deeds and law keeping. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We were all hopeless, only facing eternal separation from the Father in death. Romans 5:8, “ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  In Christianity everything is reversed. We begin unrighteous and are declared righteous when we repent and believe in Jesus. However, it does not stop there. We are actually becoming righteous through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is how to tell i

Reading: Matthew 3-4. Before the ministry of Jesus began, John the Baptist was preaching repentance and baptizing in the Jordan. Jesus came to be baptized by John. After he was baptized and came up out of the water, the Spirit of God descended on him and God the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Then Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights to be tempted by the devil. Three times the devil tempted Jesus and Jesus always answered from Scripture. Then Jesus came into Galilee, he moved from Nazareth and settled by the sea in Capernaum as his base, which fulfilled the word of Isaiah 9:1. From that time on Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus called Peter, James and John from their occupations as fishermen by saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” When Jesus called them, they immediately left everything and followed him. Lastly, “J esus was going throughout a

Reading: Isaiah 7-11 I think that Bible prophecy and the way that Scripture is canonized is very interesting. Beginning with the first full week of this year, I began reading the Scriptures in a different way: Sunday Epistles, Monday Law, Tuesday History, Wednesday Psalms, Thursday Poetry, Friday Prophets and Saturday Gospels/Acts.  It is very interesting reading the Scriptures in this way because every week there is a build up to Jesus Christ and the Church. It is very vivid as you quickly go through Scripture. By reading the Scriptures in this way I am able to take my time and really absorb what the word of God is saying but quickly progress and see how all of Scripture points to the incarnation of God in human flesh and the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ.  One interesting thing that I read this morning is seeing how Bible prophecy has more than one meaning. Bible prophecy is like skipping rocks on a lake. The rock is thrown and it touches down on a spot in the water but then li

Job 3-4 Job did not charge the Lord with injustice or with evil but he did lament the day of his birth and wished that he had never been born. He thought, aren’t the dead better off than the living and are not all equal in death. The wicked no longer do harm in death and the suffering are at rest.  I confess that I have thought this way myself. I do not think that I have ever wished that I had never been born. However, nurses and especially ICU nurses see a great deal of suffering. I have seen suffering that haunts my very heart, mind and soul.  People also want to put to death criminals because in death they can no longer do any harm. Is it true that the dead no longer suffer and the wicked can no longer act wickedly? Is it true that the suffering are better off dead than living? The Christian hope is not death but the resurrection and eternal life in the kingdom of God.  Job’s friend Eliphaz begins to lay out a case that Job is suffering because he has done some kind of evil. Eliphaz

My reading this morning came from Psalms 3, 4 and 5. The world is full of wickedness and evil men but the psalmist trust in the lovingkindness of the Lord his God. Lawlessness and evil men seem to be increasing on the earth. Either there has been a change on the earth or there has been a change in my perception. I do not know which it is and it could be a combination. The antics of the politicians, law makers and people are bothering me a great deal. I understand but I do not understand. I understand that man chose to rebel against the commandment of God but I do not understand why men choose to rebel against the will of God. At the U.S.A. capitol, last week, there was protest that turned into rioting. For some reason, the president of the country refuses to succeed the election result. He was making accusations of fraud and these people believed what he was saying. It seems that they thought that the right course of action was to storm the capitol and stop the law makers from certifyi

My reading this morning was of Joshua 6-10. How should Christians understand the conquest of Canaan? We are not a nation like Israel. We are people from every tribe, tongue and nation on earth. We are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus taught his disciples to not hate their enemies but to love them. (Matthew 5:43-48) So how should a Christian understand the conquest of Canaan, where the sons of Israel hacked to death the inhabitants of the land and did not allow any to survive? The history of Israel is real history but there is a lesson for the Christian in it. The church of Jesus Christ is not a physical nation as Israel was but a spiritual people. We are guided by the Word and the Spirit. Our home is not this world but in the world that is to come; therefore, we should remember that the historical books are written about a historical people but the Scriptures themselves are Spirit. There is a message for the Christian in the text of the historical books. Jesus came to save his

My reading this morning comes form Genesis 4-7. Cain killed Abel because he was jealous. Cain’s line was followed for a while but then a third son from Adam and Eve by the name of Seth was born. This family lines descends to Noah and his sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The Lord God destroyed all life on the earth with a flood, except Noah and his wife, with their sons and their wives, and the animals that were taken aboard the ark. The Lord God destroyed the earth because the earth had become corrupt in his sight, for the earth was filled with violence because of man. I do not think that I will ever understand men who claim the name of Christ, yet promote or sanction violence. Jesus taught peace, not only peace with God but peace among men. Men think that evil is the answer for evil. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” Evil cannot be overcome with evil. The only way to overcome evil is with good. My favorite television show is “The Andy Griffith Show.” It was a television show

Justification by faith is one of if not the most important doctrines in all of Scripture, because it is in this doctrine, that all other doctrines come together. This morning I read Romans 3 and 4. I have to tell you that this is my most favorite passage in all of Scripture because it gave the answers that I was seeking. I did not grow up in a Christian home but when I was about thirteen years old our mother took us to a Methodist church. By this age, I had already done many things that I was feeling guilty about. I had reached puberty and had much lust. I heard in this Methodist church that God forgives sin but I did not understand how. I went along with it because I had meet many friends in the youth group and it became my place for socialization. During my last two years of high school I found other friends and other ways of filling my lustful desires. When I graduated high school, I joined the army and left my boyhood home and never attended a church until I was married and had chi

Today I began reading from the gospels. On Sunday, January 3, 2021 I started a fifty-two week reading plan in which I will read a different genre of Scripture on each day of the week: Sunday - epistles; Monday - Law; Tuesday - history; Wednesday - Psalms; Thursday - poetry; Friday - prophets; Saturday - the gospels and Acts. It is very interesting reading the Scriptures in this way. When I saw the reading plan, the format appealed to me because it is the way that I studied the Scriptures in the Bible survey classes at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. This format allows me to see the entire canon of Scripture as a whole during a week. Some genres are much longer than others; therefore, my reading on some days is brief (Psalms) and other days (history and prophets) much longer. Today I read the birth of the Messiah in Matthew 1-2. Having read from the other genres during the week, coming to the birth of the Messiah had a fuller meaning. One thing that I caught but had read many t

This morning, my reading came from Isaiah 1-6. The Lord through Isaiah said that a animals know their masters but the Lord’s people do not know him or understand. They are very religious. They offer many sacrifices and observe the feasts but they do not know the Lord their God. Isaiah then spends five chapters laying out what the Lord has against them and explaining what the Lord wills.  Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of his disciples: “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)  So, the questions is not do we know of God or know of Jesus Christ but do we know the Father and the Son. Jesus said that know one knows the Father except the Son and to whom the Son reveals him. (Luke 10:22) Jesus is God in human flesh. The writer of Hebrews said that he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature. (Hebrews 1:3) Jesus said to his disciples, “If you had known me, you would have known my Fa

This morning I read Job chapters 1-2.  Job was a rich man with much integrity who worshiped the Lord God. Satan made accusations against God, that the reason that Job worshiped the Lord was because of the good things that the Lord does for him. Therefore, the Lord allowed calamity to befall Job’s possessions and children but did not allow Satan to harm Job. Four men came and reported Job’s losses. However, through all of this Job did not sin nor blame God.  Satan then returned to accuse, saying that the reason that Job holds his integrity is because he was not harmed. That a man will give anything for his life. The Lord gave it to Satan to harm Job but not take his life. Satan smote Job with boils that covered his body. Job sat on the ashes of what he once had and scraped his boils with a potsherd. Job’s wife came and said to him, “Curse God and die.” However, Job said, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” I have been thanking about this lately because I hav

The righteous and the wicked are contrasted in Scripture. (cf. Psalm 1:1-6) It is easy to read this text and say to oneself. I am righteous, I read the word of God daily, and I seek to obey his will; however, that other guy over there does not even go to a church.  Let us not forget what the apostle Paul said in Romans 3:10-12,  “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” If the righteous are like a tree firmly planted beside streams of water and the wicked are like chaff which the wind blows away, who is righteous on the earth? We compare persons with other persons, or to some standard that we conceive, but the Scripture calls a person obedient to the word and will of God righteous. Have you been perfectly obedient to the word and will of God? Psalms 2:11-12 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling.

Joshua 1:10-11 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, to possess it.’” Joshua, יְהוֹשׁוּעַ Yehoshua or יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua; “the LORD is salvation,” Moses’ successor, also the name of a number of Israelites. (NASB Strong’s Dictionary)  The Lord is salvation is his name. Yehoshua was the name of a number of Israelites in Israel’s history. It is also the Hebrew name that was given Jesus by the angel, Matthew 1:21, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Jesus is the English rendering of the Greek Ἰησοῦς Iēsous ; Jesus or Joshua, the name of the Messiah, which is the Greek rendering of הוֹשׁוּעַ Yehoshua or יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua.  I find this to be very interesting because Joshua told the o

God created the heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain. God created everything that exist in orderly fashion. God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God gave to them marriage, to populate the earth, to subdue the earth and rule over the creatures of the earth. God gave the man and woman the fruit of the trees as food. God put them in a garden to cultivate it and keep it. In the garden were many trees that grew fruit but there were two special trees; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Mankind was commanded by God to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, though they could eat from any other tree in the garden, including the tree of life. However, they choose to disobey the command of God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They choose what would kill them rather than life. It has been theorized by many as to the tree of the knowledge of go

The apostle Paul believed himself to be a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and so doing, he served all of mankind. He had been given a mission by the Lord to preach the gospel to the Jew first and also to the gentile. For this reason he became known as the apostle to the gentiles. The word gentile means non-jewish person.  Romans 1:14, “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”  His obligation was not to serve Greeks and barbarians, or the wise and the foolish as they saw fit, but as commanded by the Lord. Paul was sent by the Lord to preach the gospel to the nations. His obligation was to tell the truth and the truth often hurts. The word sin as Paul used it means a violation of the divine law in thought, word or act. In his epistle to the Romans, chapters 1-2, he shows that both gentile and Jew have violated the divine law.  Paul agrees with his jewish brethren that the way gentiles were living was heinous, and he gives the reason for

(Luke 24:45-49) Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” There are four facts concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Luke gives us these four facts in orderly account. First, there was a tomb and Jesus dead body was placed in that tomb by a man named Joseph, a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus and after preparing his body for burial by Jewish custom, placed his body in a new tomb. The women took note of the tomb, prepared spices and rested on the Sabb

Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined Him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against Him... And he released the man [Barabbas] they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Jesus to their will. (Luke 23:13-14, 25) The righteous for the unrighteous, the innocent for the guilty. This is what happened on that fateful day that we call “Good Friday.” He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus was accused by the chief priests and the rulers and the people of being one who incites the people to rebellion, but having examined him, Pilot found him to be innocent. However, a man who was guilty of this very crime was released and Jesus was sentenced to death on a