The Edge of His Cloak

By Kevin Abell

At one time in your life, you may have thought to yourself, or you might have heard someone say something to this effect;

God just doesnt do that kind of thing anymore.

The Bible is filled with stories about people who had God do amazing things for them. Some received loved ones back from the dead. Others were healed of their illnesses. We dont always see the same kinds of miracles in our era. Or do we? Why is that? Are the stories of the Bible little more than fairy tales? Did God stop doing amazing acts?

There is a God, who still performs the miraculous in our time. He acts very much in the same way today that He did back in Biblical times.

If you have everpondered these things, if you have ever needed God in a big way; if youve ever wondered if He can, if you need Him now or if you know someone who does,

Then take the time and look at the stories of those who reached out to touch The Edge of His Cloak.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 31, 2009
• ISBN: 9781449035280

Kevin Abell

Kevin Abell graduated with honours at the University of Guelph in the Bachelor of Science Program (Agr.) in 1996. Kevin lives on a farm in South-western Ontario, Canada. On his farm he has a beautiful wife, a lovely young girl, and three strapping young boys. His livestock on the farm include two dogs, two cats, one fighting fish and a countless number of mice in the winter. And in case you couldnt tell.....he loves Jesus.

Book preview

© 2009 Kevin Abell. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 9/30/2009

ISBN: 978-1-4490-3528-0 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4389-5929-0 (sc)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 601189. All rights reserved.

Other Scripture references are from the following sources:

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

All word definitions are taken from Funk & Wagnalls: New College Standard Dictionary. Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. © 1947

Contents

Prologue – The Edge of His Cloak

Chapter 1 – The Source of Our Suffering

Chapter 2 – Do you want it?

Chapter 3 - It Happens

Chapter 4 – Touching His Cloak

(Part 1)

Chapter 5 – Touching His Cloak

(Part 2)

Chapter 6 – Touching His Cloak

(For Someone Else)

Chapter 7 – Ongoing Counseling

Chapter 8 – Prayer

(Every Christian Book needs a chapter on Prayer)

Chapter 9 –Taking Your Meds

Chapter 10 – Sometimes He Says, No

Epilogue

About the Author

About the Book

For the people of St. Paul’s United Church;

....because He found me, while I was with you.

Prologue – The Edge of His Cloak 

Good evening. How are you? Really. On the way to work today, I spent a lot of time thinking about one of my coworkers. Whenever he talks, most of the conversation revolves around sex, money or the movie he has just watched. I found myself wondering about him. Is there more to him? Is there more to him than sex, money and entertainment? Does he want his life to count for anything? I have never asked him. And by the same token, what does he really know about me? He knows I go to church, but mostly, I don’t say anything at all about the real me. He really doesn’t know anything important about me. It’s almost as if we’re living our lives behind some kind of superficial mask.

Much of our public lives are lived behind this bizarre mask, yet every once in a while, someone allows us the privilege of looking behind their mask. This has been the privilege a few of you have afforded me over the past month. Likewise, I have done my best to live as transparently as I can for each of you. Most of the time, the people we really are - are quite different than the people that we seem to be. Much of the time, we are significantly more vulnerable and in much more pain than we appear to be.

This might not apply to many who read this. It’s just, lately, I’ve found that some of the people who seem strongest, hurt the most. Specifically, over the Christmas holidays, there have been two young women in my life who have shared with me some of the things that are happening in their lives. I’m not at liberty to share their stories, but for now, I’ll just tell you this; they hurt. Badly. If you were to see them on the street, in church or at the grocery store, you would never know there is anything wrong. Which causes me to wonder, who else hurts out there? Could it be you?

When they (Jesus and the disciples) had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. And when they recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to Him and begged Him to let the sick just touch the edge of His cloak, and all who touched Him were healed. Matthew 14:34-36 (NIV)

There is a little more to this story and I encourage you to read the whole chapter. For now, I’m just thinking on this Jesus. The people of this town recognized Him. They brought their sick to Him and every person who touched the edge of His cloak was healed. By now, every one of you has heard of Jesus. Hopefully you know Him and have personally received Him. The question in my mind is whether or not Jesus really is the same person today as He was here in the book of Matthew. Is Jesus really the same yesterday as He is today and as He will be tomorrow? I guess the quick and short answer in my mind is yes. Yes, He is the same today as He was then. If so, then why do we still hurt? Does everyone who touches the edge of Jesus’ cloak find healing? If it’s there, if we haven’t received it, how do we get it?

If the Lord is willing, I hope to spend a bit of time on these matters. For those of you who really do hurt, I hope this will help. For those of you who are strong, like a tree whose roots go down deep, I hope I don’t bore you to death. Maybe I’ll fall far short of the goal. Maybe I’ll never get past this prologue. Maybe whatever comes out of this will be complete trash. Who knows?

Yeah. You’re right. God knows.

Chapter 1 – The Source of Our Suffering 

It seemed like a good idea. It really did. I’m not sure whose idea it was. It could have been Matthew’s idea. He is my first born son, by about ten minutes. He is my prodigy; the first to carry on the family name according to tradition. Maybe he’s taking his life position and using it to be some sort of leader even in circumstances such as these. Or maybe it was Nathaniel’s idea. He’s cunning, intuitive and full of fire. Keep in mind that he’s only younger by about 10 minutes. Merely ten minutes separate him from being the rightful heir to the throne of the Abell dynasty. It could have been him.

Wherever the idea came from and whoever conceived it, it was a really dumb idea. Still, it seemed like a really good idea. They weren’t disobeying me. I had never told them, Don’t use your toy-box to ride down the stairs. It was the sort of idea that spurs one on to do great things. Collectively, they had decided that their toy box would serve as an excellent vehicle in which to navigate our household stair case. It would act as a roller coaster of sorts. It was (and still is) a plastic box, about 3 feet long, one and a half feet wide and two feet high. Four wheels of about 3 inches in diameter were sufficient to allow for any necessary lateral movement of the carriage.

The endeavour would require two participants. One individual would be needed to man the toy box. The other would be needed in order to push the roller coaster down the stairs. It’s hard to say how each of them fell into their roles. They might have used the good old fashioned paper/rock/scissors method. That’s always reliable for settling most decisions. Whatever the method was, I do know of the outcome. Matthew was to man the vehicle and Nathaniel was to be the one to push his brother down the small mountain of death.

As I reflect in the events that took place in my absence, I can’t help but feel a certain sense of excitement from my son as he sat atop this grand adventure. It must have been the sort of excitement an astronaut feels just before he is propelled off of the face of this dear earth. He might have had the same kind of anticipation that we feel as we near the top of our favourite roller coaster at the local amusement park. I picture this six year old boy, grinning from ear to ear, as he gives the command, Ok Nathaniel. Give me a push! As I said earlier, it takes two; one to ride and one to push.

Fortunately for my son, it was a rather short flight. There are only 7 steps in this section of our staircase. It was a short trip lasting only a couple of seconds. I wonder. I wonder how long it took before they realized it wasn’t such a good idea. Did he make it past the first step before the cart began to flip end over end? Did he derive at least some amount of pleasure before the pain? When did the smile of anticipation give way to a feeling of fear, dread and despair? Did he enjoy most of the trip? Did he enjoy the whole trip and maybe the only drawback was when he hit the wall? If one could stretch out these two seconds in the life of this child, how much of it would be devoted to pleasure and anticipation? How much of these two seconds would be allotted to regret and pain? Who can say for sure?

Who is to blame?

The one who got in the box? Or the one who pushed him over the edge? Is it my fault because I purchased the toy box and live in a house that has a set of stairs?

* * * * * * * * * * *

Likewise: It seemed like a good idea. The fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. Genesis 3:6. (NIV) These are good things. It wasn’t a bad tree with bad fruit. The fruit of the tree was good. Seriously. It really was. It was good for food. In all likelihood, it was both tasty and nutritious; perhaps like an apple or strawberries. I like strawberries. It looked good too.

Beyond the taste and nutrition attributes, this food offered something more. It wasn’t an apple tree, a pear tree or a peach tree. This was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Is there anyone reading this who could honestly say that ‘knowledge’ is a bad thing? Certainly not I. The fruit from this tree looked good, it was good for food and it could even help the one who eats it, to acquire knowledge.

Her mind was made up. Eve came to the conclusion that God was holding her back. He’s the sort of parent that nags his children saying, Stop sliding down the stairs! Everybody knows that it’s fun to slide down the stairs. God was this cosmic killjoy. The serpent, now there’s a classy guy. He’s my real pal. He really wants me to enjoy my life. God wants to keep me like some mushroom. He wants to keep me in the dark and feed me crap. God doesn’t want me to eat this delicious, nutritious brain food. The serpent wants me to be enlightened and to enjoy my life. He’s got my back.

Eve had one advantage over my sons. She had been told. You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die. Genesis 3:3 But after considering the benefits, Eve came to the conclusion that God was not only some sort of cruel tyrant, He was also a liar. God must be lying in order to maintain some type of cruel dictatorship over the human psyche. Her conscience gives way to reason. Reason announces the command, Alright. Give me a push!

She took some of the fruit and ate it. Genesis 3:6

How long was it for her? How long did the anticipation last? How much time elapsed before she hit the wall? Her husband was with her. She ate some of the fruit. She didn’t die. Ah-ha!!! God really was lying! I’m not dead. she thought. The serpent was right. The first step of her descent wasn’t all that treacherous. She hadn’t hit the wall just yet. She was still alive. It didn’t make her gag or vomit. Things are still going ok. There’s time for her husband to hop in the cart before it hits bottom.

Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. Gen 3:6

The whole ordeal might have lasted about a minute or two. We don’t know for sure. In the case of my son, I’m not sure at which point the realization hit him. I’m uncertain as to when it hit him that this was a bad idea. However, in the case of this married couple – this is that point and that place….

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. Gen 3:7

This had to be a group effort. It took two. Before this moment, there was still hope. There was still one man who could have lived and maybe they could have had children who chose to live as well. At that moment however, it was a done deal. In actual fact, if we were to look back to Genesis chapter 2, Adam was the one that God told not to eat from this tree. In a way, Adam was ultimately responsible. Now, after 5 or six steps down the staircase, there’s no stopping.

* * * * * * * * * * *

By now, you have no doubt concluded that the author of this piece is one of those fundamental types that claim they know the source of human suffering. You can likely go so far as to predict the word I’m going to use. Come on. Let me hear you say it…..

You guessed it.

Sin. – Disobeying God.

I’d leave the chapter here if I could, but it would leave room for a lot of misconceptions. It would enable a few of us to reduce God to some sort of karma enforcer. Do you know what I mean? Really bad sinners suffer from rare incurable skin diseases and those who are somewhat more righteous just fade off in their sleep. It’s the kind of thinking that, when an airplane drops out of the sky in a fiery inferno, well…they must have deserved it. If human suffering was in direct proportion to our sins, I would have some form of inoperable cancer by now. It doesn’t work quite that way.

Conceptually, (and literally) God was the One who gave life to His creation. If we think on it logically, if we tell the Life Giver to go away, what fill His place? What is the alternative to life? They decided that He was either wrong or lying. And it’s not like God was vague or ambiguous in speaking to His people. Here’s what He told Adam……

You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden- except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die. Gen 2:16-17.

Would you concur? Was He not quite straightforward in His dealings with us? Is there anything unclear in His statement? This man and this woman decided that God’s own word was wrong. Each of us who are old enough to read this, have at one point or another decided the same. At some place in time, in some situation (many situations actually) we have decided that God was either lying or wrong. However, in every case, there eventually comes a point where the pleasure turns to pain. Sooner or later, our eyes are opened to the fact that it was a bad idea. Hopefully we come to that point before we hit the end of life’s wall. Bad ideas aren’t always sinful, but disobeying God is always a bad idea.

The warning and the choice were clear. They both chose death.

I said that sin was and is the source of our suffering. That isn’t entirely accurate….

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. Matthew 12:35

When we disobey God, it’s an indication that something in our heart is not right. Sin is the evidence that there is something wrong in our thinking/decision making process. It’s the litmus test which indicates that we think God is either a liar, or He’s mean. It’s supposed to be a warning signal that we are choosing death rather than life. Have your choices ever been that clear to you? Have you ever knowingly chose death? If you are discerning enough and aware in the situation, isn’t it both sad and funny how willing we are to choose death? We are a species that have to be told to choose life. Now that’s pathetic.

* * * * * * * * * * *

There are different ways in which our sinful choices contribute to our suffering. I’m