About the Book
"And Jesus Healed Them All" by Gloria Copeland explores the healing power of Jesus as described in the Bible. The book delves into the stories of various individuals who were healed by Jesus, emphasizing the importance of faith and belief in receiving healing miracles. Copeland also offers practical guidance on how readers can experience healing in their own lives through prayer and faith in God.
David Livingstone
"[I am] serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men or taking an observation, [even if some] will consider it not sufficiently or even at all missionary."
With four theatrical words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"âwords journalist Henry Morton Stanley rehearsed in advanceâDavid Livingstone became immortal. Stanley stayed with Livingstone for five months and then went off to England to write his bestseller, How I Found Livingstone. Livingstone, in the meantime, got lost againâin a swamp literally up to his neck. Within a year and a half, he died in a mud hut, kneeling beside his cot in prayer.
Berlin Congress spurs African independent churches
The whole civilized world wept. They gave him a 21-gun salute and a hero's funeral among the saints in Westminster Abbey. "Brought by faithful hands over land and sea," his tombstone reads, "David Livingstone: missionary, traveler, philanthropist. For 30 years his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets, and to abolish the slave trade." He was Mother Teresa, Neil Armstrong, and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one.
Highway man
At age 25, after a childhood spent working 14 hours a day in a cotton mill, followed by learning in class and on his own, Livingstone was captivated by an appeal for medical missionaries to China. As he trained, however, the door to China was slammed shut by the Opium War. Within six months, he met Robert Moffat, a veteran missionary of southern Africa, who enchanted him with tales of his remote station, glowing in the morning sun with "the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary had been before."
For ten years, Livingstone tried to be a conventional missionary in southern Africa. He opened a string of stations in "the regions beyond," where he settled down to station life, teaching school and superintending the garden. After four years of bachelor life, he married his "boss's" daughter, Mary Moffat.
From the beginning, Livingstone showed signs of restlessness. After his only convert decided to return to polygamy, Livingstone felt more called than ever to explore. During his first term in South Africa, Livingstone made some of the most prodigiousâand most dangerousâexplorations of the nineteenth century. His object was to open a "Missionary Road"â"God's Highway," he also called itâ1,500 miles north into the interior to bring "Christianity and civilization" to unreached peoples.
Explorer for Christ
On these early journeys, Livingstone's interpersonal quirks were already apparent. He had the singular inability to get along with other Westerners. He fought with missionaries, fellow explorers, assistants, and (later) his brother Charles. He held grudges for years. He had the temperament of a book-reading loner, emotionally inarticulate except when he exploded with Scottish rage. He held little patience for the attitudes of missionaries with "miserably contracted minds" who had absorbed "the colonial mentality" regarding the natives. When Livingstone spoke out against racial intolerance, white Afrikaners tried to drive him out, burning his station and stealing his animals.
He also had problems with the London Missionary Society, who felt that his explorations were distracting him from his missionary work. Throughout his life, however, Livingstone always thought of himself as primarily a missionary, "not a dumpy sort of person with a Bible under his arms, [but someone] serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men or taking an observation, [even if some] will consider it not sufficiently or even at all missionary."
Though alienated from the whites, the natives loved his common touch, his rough paternalism, and his curiosity. They also thought he might protect them or supply them with guns. More than most Europeans, Livingstone talked to them with respect, Scottish laird to African chief. Some explorers took as many as 150 porters when they traveled; Livingstone traveled with 30 or fewer.
On an epic, three-year trip from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean (reputedly the first by a European) Livingstone was introduced to the 1,700-mile-long Zambezi. The river was also home to Victoria Falls, Livingstone's most awe-inspiring discovery. The scene was "so lovely," he later wrote, that it "must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."
Despite its beauty, the Zambezi was a river of human misery. It linked the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, the main suppliers of slaves for Brazil, who in turn sold to Cuba and the United States. Though Livingstone was partially driven by a desire to create a British colony, his primary ambition was to expose the slave trade and cut it off at the source. The strongest weapon in this task, he believed, was Christian commercial civilization. He hoped to replace the "inefficient" slave economy with a capitalist economy: buying and selling goods instead of people.
The ill-fated Zambezi expedition
After a brief heroic return to England, Livingstone returned to Africa, this time to navigate 1,000 miles up the Zambezi in a brass-and-mahogany steamboat to establish a mission near Victoria Falls. The boat was state-of-the-art technology but proved too frail for the expedition. It leaked horribly after repeatedly running aground on sandbars.
Livingstone pushed his men beyond human endurance. When they reached a 30-foot waterfall, he waved his hand, as if to wish it away, and said, "That's not supposed to be there." His wife, who had just given birth to her sixth child, died in 1862 beside the river, only one of several lives claimed on the voyage. Two years later, the British government, which had no interest in "forcing steamers up cataracts," recalled Livingstone and his mission party.
A year later, he was on his way back to Africa again, this time leading an expedition sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society and wealthy friends. "I would not consent to go simply as a geographer," he emphasized, but as biographer Tim Jeal wrote, "It would be hard to judge whether the search for the Nile's source or his desire to expose the slave trade was his dominant motive." The source of the Nile was the great geographical puzzle of the day. But more important to Livingstone was the possibility of proving that the Bible was true by tracing the African roots of Judaism and Christianity.
For two years he simply disappeared, without a letter or scrap of information. He reported later that he had been so ill he could not even lift a pen, but he was able to read the Bible straight through four times. Livingstone's disappearance fascinated the public as much as Amelia Earhart's a few generations later.
When American journalist Henry Stanley found Livingstone, the news exploded in England and America. Papers carried special editions devoted to the famous meeting. In August 1872, in precarious health, Livingstone shook Stanley's hand and set out on his final journey.
When Livingstone had arrived in Africa in 1841, it was as exotic as outer space, called the "Dark Continent" and the "White Man's Graveyard." although the Portuguese, Dutch, and English were pushing into the interior, African maps had blank unexplored areasâno roads, no countries, no landmarks. Livingstone helped redraw the maps, exploring what are now a dozen countries, including South Africa, Rwanda, Angola, and the Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). And he made the West aware of the continuing evil of African slavery, which led to its being eventually outlawed.
5 Important Heart Lessons from the Woman at the Well
At times, we may need to have a heart-to-heart with someone we love. Those conversations can be difficult. We may be afraid to say whatâs needed because we donât know how the other person might react when we get the courage to speak up. Maybe we donât want to hurt their feelings, but we canât continue without change in some way. The longest one-on-one conversation Jesus had with someone in the Bible was with a woman. She went to the well to draw water and Jesus was waiting there. Like many of us, she didnât know him very well. Sheâd heard of the Messiah but didnât realize He was right there with her. Her daily duties were keeping her occupied and he appeared in her life out of left field. She wasnât expecting him to show up and she sure didnât expect him to change her life. But He was expecting her. He had plans she knew nothing about. He used her powerfully even though her life was far from picturesque. Itâs an encouraging story and beautiful. Encouraging to us because God allows us to participate in His work here on earth. It doesnât matter where weâve been or what weâve done in the past. He can use us and will for His purposes. Itâs beautiful because when we have a personal relationship with Him, He gives us what we deeply need â the satisfying, living water to quench our spiritual thirst. Here are 5 heart lessons we can learn from the woman at the well in the Bible: 1. We might find Jesus waiting for us. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacobâs well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, âWill you give me a drink?â John 4:7 The woman at the well was doing a routine chore â drawing water from the well. Nothing was out of the ordinary, except for who was sitting at the well, resting â waiting for her. I love how the Scripture mentions that Jesus is tired. Iâm sure Heâs been exhausted with my own spiritual immaturity, rebellion, and stubbornness at times. But He patiently waits for us. He wants us to be honest with him about our life. He waits until the perfect time to work things for good or to change us in some way for the better. 2. When we know Him â weâll love Him. The Samaritan woman said to him, âYou are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?â (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, âIf you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.â John 4:9-10 Jesus doesnât even acknowledge her comment about their differences but goes straight to the heart of the matter. She doesnât know him. Itâs one thing to know who Jesus is but itâs the real deal when we know Him in our hearts. Then itâs love. Iâll never forget figuring out I was âin loveâ with Jesus. (I didnât even realize we could fall in love with Him. Iâd never heard anything about that in the church I grew up in.) I couldnât stop thinking about Him. For years. Everything reminded me of Him, and I saw God in creation everywhere I looked. Why do I think about God 24/7? We think of someone constantly for years and canât get them out of our thoughts because weâre in love. When we truly know Jesus, we will love Him. 3. Sometimes, we donât believe. âSir,â the woman said, âyou have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?â Jesus answered, âEveryone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.â The woman said to him, âSir, give me this water so that I wonât get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.â John 4:11-15 She must be wondering how something as natural as water can become something that seems impossible. Living water? It doesnât make sense. Jesus is about to transform her natural way of thinking into spiritual drinking. Theyâre alone when this intimate relationship begins. We may discover our own relationship with Him requires alone time, too. He works best in us when weâre not distracted by the world. Maybe weâre in a hospital bed or down on our backs with nothing else but Him to keep us company. Itâs in these moments, he gets our attention and speaks to our spirit, making his presence known and drawing us close. 4. Jesus opens our eyes to see the truth clearly. He told her, âGo, call your husband and come back.â âI have no husband,â she replied. Jesus said to her, âYou are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.â âSir,â the woman said, âI can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.â âWoman,â Jesus replied, âbelieve me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.â The woman said, âI know that Messiahâ (called Christ) âis coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.â Then Jesus declared, âI, the one speaking to you â I am he.â John 16-26 It didnât take her long to realize Jesus was telling the truth. Her eyes were opened, and his words helped her know Him better. The same is true for us. It can take a long time to truly get to know someone. He shows us who He is as we go through the troubles of life. We get to know Him better as we go along putting our trust in Him through lifeâs difficulties. Jesus will replace natural thought with spiritual insight. He takes lies we believe and gives us truth through His word. Helping us worship Him in spirit and in truth. 5. Donât linger in a place you should leave. Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, âWhat do you want?â or âWhy are you talking with her?â Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, âCome, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?â They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the womanâs testimony, âHe told me everything I ever did.â So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, âWe no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.â John 4:27-30, 39-42 She didnât linger when it was time to leave. Her water jar was left behind as evidence of what she forgot about when she met Jesus at the well. Literally leading others to Jesus with her powerful testimony. They went to him and asked Jesus to come stay with them. And (my favorite part) because of his words many more became believers. It can be hard to distinguish Godâs direction when weâre not in a close relationship with Him. But when we spend time with him in prayer, reading the Bible, and surrendered in obedience, we will act out of our personal relationship. Weâll want to share what Heâs done for us with others. We want everyone to know Jesus the way we do. As Jesus rested by the well, waiting for the woman, Heâs patiently waiting for us, too. He knows us quite well even if we donât really know Him. He wants to have a heart-to-heart conversation with us, as well. Open your eyes and see Him. Know Him. Your heart will never be the same. Melinda Eye Cooper Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
