Carl Kelley

Church of Christ in Mt Juliet Tenn. I'm 67 years old and the church I attend has about a thousand members. The elders take turns every Sunday and go to the podium and say a prayer of healing for the sick and name every one of them. Its a long list and getting longer every Sunday. After a few Sundays and noticing that not a lot of people were being healed, I started doing some research and found James 5 13-15 and started wondering why this practice wasn't being used. One Sunday I asked an elder right after Sunday school which he was teaching for the adults and specified how James said it should be done with annointing of oil and all. He simply looked at me kind of funny and asked what kind of oil would we use. I told him probably any kind of oil since God didn't specify. I believe if God specified so much detail in things like the ark of the covenant and Noahs ark (type of wood, exact length, height etc he would have specified the type of annointing oil if he though it important. Since he answered me like that I simply walked away kind of disheartened as I figured he didn't believe in that method. I got to thinking about it a lot though and I have it in the back of my mind to approach all the other 10 elders and see what their thoughts were. I haven't done it yet, but now that I have cancer I'm surely more motivated to see if I can get them to consider it. Since I just found out about the cancer I went the Doctor route and had the cancer removed, but understand all cancer has a good chance to return. But I believe that if I get the elders to start practicing the healing though prayer and annointing the cancer will have no chance to come back. Paraphrasing, Jame says that the sick person must call the elders to him (I believe that God means all the elders when he says "the elders". I won't venture a guess as to why God has to have all the elders present but he told us to do it that way so if its to work we chould do it EXACTLY his way. This is one reason I haven't gone to the other elders as yet since I felt that first elder kind of put the idea down by asking me what kind of oil would they use. Strange answer for one who would actually believe it works so I kind of wrote him off as not believing in it for some reason. If anyone anywhere near me is in a church of Christ that believes in elder participation in healing per James 5. please get hold of me and let me know. I do believe it since my bible says it but I also believe it will take ALL the elders in the congregation believing in order for God to do the healing. HELP Carl Kelley 615-390-5009 or email me at [email protected] Thanks and bless you all in Christ. I'm a sinner in Christ Jesus and he in me. Getting better every day in resisting that old devil.