Topics:<\/b> Confession; Courage; Denial; Fear; Health; Pain; Repentance; Running from God; Self-deception; Self-reliance; Suffering; Truth<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Jeremiah 6:13\u201314; 8:11; 2 Corinthians 7:8\u201311; Galatians 4:16; Colossians 3:16; James 1:2\u20134, 21\u201322; 1 John 1:7\u20139<\/p>\n
All of us tend to avoid pain. Sometimes, though, avoiding pain can lead to much greater suffering.<\/p>\n
Consider the story of William \u201cthe Refrigerator\u201d Perry. Perry was a colorful defensive lineman for the Chicago Bears when they won the Super Bowl back in 1985. His nickname fit him well, because he was big and wide. Perry was also a friendly man with a wide grin.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for his grin, though he was a mammoth man playing in the tough world of the football trenches, he apparently was afraid of the dentist\u2014so afraid that he didn\u2019t go to the dentist for twenty years. He didn\u2019t go to the dentist even though his teeth and gums hurt terribly, even though his teeth began falling out. Eventually he had lost half of his teeth\u2014some he pulled out himself!\u2014and his gums suffered chronic infection. He was suffering!<\/p>\n
Finally, as he neared age forty-five, Perry went to a dentist, who had to pull out all of his remaining teeth, insert screws in his jaw, and implant new teeth\u2014all of which would have cost him $60,000, except the dentist donated the procedure (apparently for the free publicity).<\/p>\n
Now there\u2019s a story every mother will tell her son when she tells him he has to go to the dentist or brush his teeth. But this is also a story for all who avoid emotional and spiritual pain of any sort, for the body teaches you things about your soul. There are a lot of things that can cause pain to the soul but actually bring health\u2014asking for help, hard work, repentance, looking honestly into our own souls, going to church, dealing with our problems, humbling ourselves, reading the Bible, listening to sermons, facing the truth. This list goes on. It takes courage to face pain. But as William Perry said of his new teeth, \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable. And I love them.\u2026 I got tired of my mouth hurting all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Craig Brian Larson, \u201c \u2018The Fridge\u2019 Gets New Teeth,\u201d Preachingtoday.com; source: \u201cA Story with Some Teeth,\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/i> (December 20, 2007)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Confession; Courage; Denial; Fear; Health; Pain; Repentance; Running from God; Self-deception; Self-reliance; Suffering; Truth References: Jeremiah 6:13\u201314; 8:11; 2 Corinthians 7:8\u201311; Galatians 4:16; Colossians 3:16; James 1:2\u20134, 21\u201322; 1 John 1:7\u20139 All of us tend to avoid pain. Sometimes, though, avoiding pain can lead to much greater suffering. Consider the story of William \u201cthe … Continue reading “PAIN
\n CAN BRING HEALING”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}