Dr. Grant Scarborough

My oldest daughter, Jane, knows what Elvis looks like. She did from an early age. See, she grew up in Memphis, the home of Elvis. Everywhere you looked you saw him. Pictures of Elvis, young and old, were in restaurants, buildings, walls – Elvis singing on the streets – Elvis was alive and well in Memphis. Jane was only 4 or 5 back then, but every picture I saw of Elvis – I would point it out to her – “Jane, who is that?” “Elvis” she would reply. Such a brilliant child! I actually showed this off to my friends who had children not as bright as mine. Their kids could not identify Elvis.

Then one day I saw a picture of Jesus, well, not really Jesus. This was a white skinned, blue eyed, blonde hair Jesus that you see in picture books, but that looks nothing like the middle eastern Jesus in the Bible. I pointed this picture out to Jane as well. Knowing her visual acuity and her ability to recognize faces like Elvis, I said, “Jane, who is that?”

“Elvis” was her reply. “hmmm.” I thought. “Maybe she only knows the middle eastern Jesus.”

I realized at that moment I had taught my child a trick. Whenever I pointed to any picture, her response was Elvis. It could have been George Washington, Martin Luther King, or even herself – she would always say Elvis. Well I couldn’t let my friends know about this, so I always made sure I found an Elvis picture when I asked Jane the question – “Jane who is this?”

Jane is not the only person I know that has a picture association problem. If you hold up a picture of Santa Claus, I would yell “Christmas!” If you hold up a picture of a Christmas tree I would yell “Christmas!” If you hold up a picture of shopping and presents I would yell “Christmas!” If you hold up a picture of Jesus, I would yell “Elvis!” or maybe “Easter!” I feel like Christmas is getting hijacked by our culture and I am fully on board.

Christmas has turned into a holiday of making ourselves happy. Whether by getting presents or giving them, as long as we are happy, then Merry Christmas to all. I want my wife and kids happy from the presents they get, and I have joy by making them happy. If you only knew how much thought I put into finding the perfect presents to get my kids. Listen, I am not against happy – I am actually really really for it! But we have settled for less than happy. We have settled for presents from an earthly daddy. 1 John 3:1 reads, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!” John adds exclamation points and reaffirms his statement with “And that is what we are!” It is as if, John himself does not think we will believe this statement.

Christmas is about a heavenly Father who breaks into our little galaxy to give the greatest joy he could – himself in the form of a baby. He crashed down from heaven on a rescue mission for you. He is born to a 13, 14, or 15-year-old girl living in a poor area of ancient Isreal. The universe explodes with angels singing, wise men traveling, stars glowing, and priest praising. He is born, so that we cannot just be rescued, but renamed. He came for us, so that we can be called sons and daughters of God. Our greatest joy is not from an earthly dad giving us a few trinkets, but our heavenly father giving us the gift of being His child.

Oh, I pray, we will reclaim Christmas this year. Hold out for the best present. Hold out for Jesus. I pray you know this Joy!

by Dr. Grant Scarborough

Often during morning devotion with our staff, I start a verse and make the staff try to finish it. Like this verse from John, “By this my Father is glorified……” Now you fill in the blank.

I read this verse while riding back from a Missions Conference where I had the chance to interact with people doing work in Iraq, Afghanistan, and pretty much every nation. To see the courage of these men and women was overwhelming. They sacrificed everything so that the good news of Jesus would be carried to the ends of the world. I met one young man, whose grandfather died with a missionary named Jim Elliot on the side of a river attempting to share the gospel with an unreached people group. Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” These men and women I met were giving what they could not keep (their very own lives) to gain what they could not lose (eternal life).

I was overwhelmed. How can a small ministry in Columbus, GA be involved with overseas missions? What does that look like? “Lord, it is too much for me!” I doubt myself and my abilities. I doubt MercyMed’s capacity. “Lord, it is too much!” Then I read the verse. “By this my Father is glorified……” I am still overwhelmed, I still have doubts, I still have no idea what MercyMed and overseas missions could look like – but I know what MercyMed is supposed to do. And I know what all believers are supposed to do.

“By this my Father is glorified, that we bear much fruit.” Bearing fruit brings God our Father glory. We are meant to bear fruit – to bear MUCH fruit. I still do not know if we will go overseas, but I do know we will put our efforts into bearing fruit. Fruit can look different for everyone. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Fruit can also be feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, or caring for orphans. Fruit can be encouraging the weak, loving the lonely, and introducing individuals to Jesus.

The more I thought about fruit bearing the more I realized it was not individual fruit bearing. It is a church, or a team, or a community’s work. Some have to plant, some water, some pick the fruit. Every part is essential. MercyMed’s fruit bearing is not from one doctor, but the community around us. We have doctors giving a day a week to help us in Cardiology, Orthopedics, and more. We have dentists donating time on Fridays to care for teeth. We have individuals working hard and giving money to provide services. We have board members giving time and direction for the ministry. MercyMed has had the ability to bear fruit because of you. We acknowledge we could not do it alone.

We are grateful for your involvement. You are a part of the MercyMed team. You are bearing fruit. At the same time, we desire to bear much fruit, so that our Father is glorified. We desire to give more away, serve more, and love more. Thank you for your kindness toward MercyMed. My prayer this coming year is that together we will bear much fruit, knowing that whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God. We are all missionaries. “By this my Father is glorified, that we bear much fruit.”

by Jeff Barkhouse, FNP

Often hearing a patient’s story encourages and even inspires me. Our patients are often dealing with significant financial struggles as well as physical and emotional challenges that are, in many cases, far removed from my life experiences and I am amazed at their resilience, perseverance, and faith. There are also those patients whose backgrounds are much more similar to mine: same church background, same educational trajectory, same ministry career path. Such was the case with Ms. Lisa.

She came in for a check-up and renewal of her meds and we chatted briefly when we discovered our common church background and ministry career path. She had worked to put her husband through seminary and then was a pastor’s wife for a number of years as well as a mother of two girls. But as she and her husband’s life and ministry progressed the normal strain of family and ministry began to expose the underlying mental health struggles in her husband that he had managed, until now, to keep in check.

First there was a change in churches to correct the problem but his manic behavior became untenable and he lost that ministry position as well. Ms. Lisa went from being a pastor’s wife and mother to being a wife and mother working to provide for her family while battling a mental illness that threatened to destroy her family’s stability. When the ravages of the mental illness became too great she was forced to separate from her husband in order to provide stability for her daughters. The couple re-united after a few years in an effort to reconcile and try again, only to find that her husband was unable to consistently live with his mental health issues in check. To her great disappointment and after twenty plus years of trying, Ms. Lisa was forced to separate permanently from her husband to try to establish a stable life for her and her daughters.

Once her daughters married and left home Ms. Lisa realized she had to forge a new life for herself. So in her forties Ms. Lisa, who had never been able to develop long-term marketable job skills because she was always working whatever jobs she could find while caring for her family, determined to go back to school to train for a job that would allow her to earn an income as well as visit her daughters regularly. The girls had married soldiers, were following the Lord, and were spread around the country so what more practical profession for a woman in her upper forties to master than that of a long-haul, big-rig, truck driver? She was actually squeezing this visit to MercyMed in between runs before she headed out west to do a job and visit one of her daughters the next day.

I was thrilled to hear the stories of this new Grandmother and truck-driver navigating unfamiliar city streets behind the wheel of a big rig as she obediently and joyfully pursued this next phase of her life. I am amazed at her resilience and at her determination despite significant setbacks. I am encouraged to follow the Lord more closely after having the privilege of hearing her story. This wonderful Christian woman is continuing to fight the good fight in spite of significant disappointments in her life.

Lord allow me to do likewise.

Dr. Grant Scarborough

Pocahontas died 400 years ago. I do not remember her story very well. Someone asked me recently at a museum, “Who did Pocahontas marry?” I muttered a name – it was wrong.  She was a Native American. I do not know what type. She married a Puritan I think. I cannot remember anything she said. I’m not sure she ever spoke. She never speaks in the paintings I see of her. In fact, without internet and a good school system – I would have never heard of her name. Let me tell you what I remember: my grandparents. At least I remember 3 out of 4 of them. After that, my memory goes dark. But 400 years ago, I remember nothing.

But God remembers. He spoke in the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament,  and then it was quiet. Quiet for 400 years. People would have said, “Remember that time when God spoke?” The response would have been “No, not really.” There is a scroll, but it is old. And no one probably had a scroll in their house – maybe the synagogue.

But God spoke. It was in the scroll of Malachi, and then he was quiet for 400 years. If you look at the last words of Malachi and the Old Testament, it reads, “ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Then silence. Silence for generations, decades, and centuries.

But before he went silent he promised something. He promised Elijah and then the Lord. And what were they supposed to do?

You see, this is why I am writing – I was tracking pretty well with Malachi until here. Yes, of course he was sending Elijah and the Lord to, obviously, save me from my sins. AMEN! Thank you Jesus! The problem is that is not what it says in Malachi. I hate when the Bible does not agree with me.

Malachi says that they are coming to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Well let’s be honest – that does not fit in my religiosity theology of why Jesus came.

Thankfully, there is a New Testament. So let’s leapfrog 400 years of silence and go to when Jesus spoke. Zechariah, an old prophet was performing his yearly duties in the temple. He went in to make sacrifice to God for all the people of Israel. He was met by an angel. And once again, God spoke! Oh fear and joy combined! God is alive and not forgotten His people. God returns! God speaks.

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

400 years is a long time – but not for God – for God it is but a moment. He literally picked up right where he left off in Malachi, it is like he took a deep breath and then kept right on speaking. Yet for us it was 400 years. He never lost his train of thought: “to turn the hearts of the father to the children.”

This is not the gospel I learned growing up. Don’t blame my parents – it is not the gospel I have taught my kids. Jesus did come to save us from death, to make us a new creation. But it appears he focused on more than my individual well-being.

Malachi and Luke tell me, he came to restore families. He came to return children to their fathers and fathers to their children. In the community behind MercyMed where few men are around and almost no one is married, this is great news. God is concerned about their individual salvation, but he is concerned with the salvation of their families as well. In fact God has an even bigger plan.

The last verse of Luke says, “to make ready the Lord a prepared people.” It doesn’t say “a prepared person.”

This struck me so powerfully, in this culture where we grow up, it is all about the self. It is about the individual. America is about life, liberty, and pursuit of my own happiness. But God is building a “people.” He is building a community. A community where individual redeemed people are returning to their fathers and fathers are returning to their children. Where a redeemed “prepared people” group is carrying the burdens of others. Where un-redeemed individuals can see the love of Christ worked out among redeemed people.

The body of Christ is not displayed in an individual, but a community of individuals. God is building community – a prepared people.

I am still processing this idea. But I believe God wants to redeem individuals, families, and communities.

John and Jesus both started out preaching the exact the same sermon. “Repent the Kingdom of God is at hand.” The Lord’s prayer: ‘…Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It is not just Your will – it’s Your kingdom come – here on earth just as God’s kingdom is in heaven. The kingdom of God is not in our heart. It is displayed as a community – just like God’s community in heaven.

Do you see what God is longing for? A kingdom! Just like His in heaven! It is a kingdom where the gospel is seen through the interaction of each other. God is calling us away from a personal relationship with him that is kept to ourselves and to something greater. A community – His kingdom come. Life lived out among other people, where Christ can be seen.

This is my prayer for North Highland and Bibb City. That through the work of MercyMed and other community partners, we usher in the kingdom of God. Couples actually get married. Dads are playing with their kids in the park. Streets are safe to walk down. And the shalom, peace, of God abounds. Visitors to the community will encounter God as one redeemed individual cares for the elderly redeemed individual; and one redeemed individual prepares a meal for their poor redeemed individual; and yet another stands up for the rights of children.

God’s kingdom come – the great plan of God. Redeemed individuals, families, and communities. I think it is time to focus on our community!