If someone gave you a chair and said it was hand-crafted by Jesus Christ, would you believe them? What if that chair had miraculous powers to heal?
That’s the premise of Jim Rubart’s new novel, The Chair.
He got the idea for this story from a Christian commentator’s remarks on a Jewish historian who had noted that some of the plows Jesus made as a carpenter lasted until the second century.
“I thought, wow, what if he made something that lasted until today?”
Susie and Jim dig into the concept of healing which is prominent in his book. What can be troubling in Christian circles is when people hold onto the idea that God will heal them if they just pray hard enough. It’s tricky to navigate between an understanding of God as being all-powerful and all-loving but at the same time not being a magic cure for our human problems.
“I believe in persistent faith and I believe in stepping and standing in it. But, really, we have to get into what God’s doing, not get God into what we’re doing.”
Jim also emphasized that all physical healing, including miraculous healing, in this life is temporary. We all die eventually. So, those who think that having enough faith will heal them aren’t learning from human experience.
If we are surrendered to the Holy Spirit and asking him continually for direction then we can be following God instead of expecting God to follow us.
Jim also shared a personal story of the healing of a friendship. His story ended in a joyous restoration, but he encourages even those who won’t receive forgiveness to still offer it.
“When you do that anyway there is still freedom in restoration that comes to you. It’s at that point that you leave in the Holy Spirit’s hands.”
Key Scriptures: Matthew 5:23-24, James 5:13-16, Matthew 17:18-20
