PHYSICIANS, MEDICATIONS AND THE BIBLE
~Fr. N.W.D. Mumford+
My friend, If you have an issue with your physician, medication or medical protocols perhaps this will help you. Personally I believe in “Prayer and Prozac!”
I believe God has given us gifts that are directly from him! We NEVER tell people to go against the protocols of your physician or pharmacist. It’s “both and.” “Medicine and Miracles.
If you say grace over your food, try saying grace over your medications. That they will “hit the target” and “have no side effects.”
Biblical foundation:
The wisdom of Ben Sirach
From the apocrypha readings of Sirach in the bible.
(The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including “hidden”, “esoteric”, “spurious”, “of questionable authenticity” and “Christian texts that are not canonical”. Wikipedia.)
Pay particular attention to verses 1, 8, 13 and 14. Verse 15 confirms the words of Jesus to go and sin no more. The correlation of sin and “some” sicknesses.
SIRACH 38:1-15
[1] Honor the physician with the honor due him,
according to your need of
him, for the Lord created him;
[2] for healing comes from the Most High,
and he will receive a gift from the king.
[3] The skill of the physician lifts up his head,
and in the presence of great men he is admired.
[4] The Lord created medicines from the earth,
and a sensible man will not despise them.
[5] Was not water made sweet with a tree
in order that his power might be known?
[6] And he gave skill to men
that he might be glorified in his marvelous works.
[7] By them he heals and takes away pain;
[8] the pharmacist makes of them a compound.
His works will never be finished;
and from him health is upon the face of the earth.
[9] My son, when you are sick do not be negligent,
but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
[10] Give up your faults and direct your hands aright,
and cleanse your heart from all sin.
[11] Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial
portion of fine flour,
and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.
[12] And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
let him not leave you, for there is need of him.
[13] There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians,
[14] for they too will pray to the Lord
that he should grant them success in diagnosis
and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
[15] He who sins before his Maker,
may he fall into the care of a physician.
Submitted by
~Fr. Nigel Mumford+

Having a pity party?
Invite Jesus to the party!
Things will change,
Immediately.
Fr. Nigel W.D. Mumford+

Coincidence or God-incidence?
By Fr. Nigel W.D. Mumford+
My father, The Rev. David Mumford+, taught me about the healing ministry, about faith and about God’s mysterious ways. He was an Anglican vicar for the latter half of his life (like me). When he was in parish ministry he would leave Wednesday afternoons free to spend time with the Lord. Most Wednesday afternoons something would happen. One of his stories he told me was about sitting in his chair after lunch on a Wednesday afternoon. He felt strongly led to get in his car. So he got in his car. He prayed. The Lord told him to start the car and take a left turn out of his driveway. He drove, praying all the time. As he prayed, the Lord would tell him where to go. He came to an intersection (cross roads) where an ambulance, with emergancy lights flashing, was stationary at the halt line… the driver was out of the cab with his hat on the back of his head looking desperate. He was looking at a map… (This was pre GPS) my dad stoped and asked him if he needed directions.
The driver said yes, he is on his way to a heat attack call and was lost! My dad asked the address of the victim. My dad said the said the name of one of his parishioners. The driver said, “THATS HIM” my dad said, “FOLLOW ME”
My dad turned around, put on the full beams of his car and the emergency flashers and was chased by the ambulance all the way to the man’s house.
They arrived just in time to save his life.
Coincidence or God-incidence?
Listen to the still small voice of the Lord.
Fr. Nigel W.D. Mumford+

THE S&P 500 TODAY, A TRUE INVESTMENT
We need to remember the S&P when we first wake up in the morning.
We need to make a new practice of S&P first thing every morning.
We need to remember S&P when we awake from a nap.
The S&P is truly an investment in your future,
So
S&P
To S&P is very simple.
You
SMILE and PRAY
S&P 500
Try it 500 times a day.
Blessings upon your S&P investments.
It will make a difference in you life.
Fr. Nigel W.D. Mumford+

SINGLE?
ARE YOU PRAYING FOR A SOUL MATE?
ARE YOU PRAYING FOR A SPOUSE?
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Mathew 7:7
Here is a plan for your hearts desire.
1). Write down everything you would like in a mate.
2). Hold the list up to God and ask Him what He would like to bless on your list. Aligning your hearts desire with God.
3). Pray.
4). Place your list in your bible at 1 Corinthians 13 and then watch the Lord, being proactive.
Keep me posted.
I’m very interested in answered prayer.
You are “BOTH” in our prayers.
Fr. Nigel W.D. Mumford+

STRESS
More of Mumford’s Musings.
By
Fr. Nigel W.D. Mumford+
THE BOTTOM LINE: STRESS IS THE ENEMY!
STRESS escalates to anger then to rage… Then, on the other side of the hill downgrades to regret and disappoint with self.
Did you know that 75% to 90% of visits to the primary care giver is due to stress? The very dis-ease of stress. That leaves only 10%-25% of actual disease the primary care physician is dealing with! The problem with stress is that it can be transformed, or it can morph into a real, life threatening disease!
Stress is mentioned only once in the NIV but is us used to make a point, to STRESS a point!
Titus 3:8. NIV
This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
Doing what is good is the opposite of stress…
So devote yourself to doing what is good!
I want to stress that stress is the enemy!
Stress is NOT excellent or profitable for anyone…
Stress is mentioned twice in the Message… One in regard to marriage, a rather amusing translation:
1 Cor 7:25-28
“Are you married? Stay married. Are you unmarried? Don’t get married. But there’s certainly no sin in getting married, whether you’re a virgin or not. All I am saying is that when you marry, you take on additional
stress in an already stressful time, and I want to spare you if possible.”
So the best biblical word I can find about stress comes from The Message in
Mark 4:18-19
“The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
Stress strangles what is heard… Stress translates or elevates to anxiety, fears and phobias.
Stress is therefore the enemy.
Please find ways of de-stressing…
Stress causes dis-ease…
Stress causes disease…
Dictionary simple Definition of stress: a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc. Something that causes strong feelings of worry or anxiety. Physical force or pressure.
Ergo, Stress is the enemy…
So what is the antidote…
What is the healing message of today?
The bible verse from Mathew 6:23
Seek yee first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.
So in other words, when we realize we are stressed to say to ones self,
Mathew 6:23, seek first the Kingdom of God.
We could even thank God for the stress because it reminds us to stop and pray… To think of God first…
Ergo, we keep thanking God for the stress because it reminds us of God…
The stress then becomes a trigger for us to praise and worship the Lord.
Not a trigger to become angry, worried and fearful.
Seek yee first the kingdom of God and ALL these things shall be added unto you…
What things shall be added unto you?
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
So, looking to Jesus we transform the stress into a form of worship…
Thank you God this situation is reminding me of you.
Of course the bottom line are the words of the Lord, as he says, in John 14:27
Peace I give to your my peace I leave with you, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Let the peace of God wash over you when you are stressed… Use your stress as a faith builder. Turning a negative into a positive.
Stress can kill…
Stress does kills…
Stress is the enemy.
Seek first the kingdom of God… In seeking the perfection of the kingdom in His perfect peace.
Peace I give to you…
Jesus, after being awoken from the back of the boat, raised his hand toward the stormy sea and said, peace… And the wind and the waves obeyed him.
Stretch forth your hand over the storms of life COMMANDING “Peace be still” In your life…
Avoid at all cost stress as much as you can and when you walk through the storm of stress thank God… Thank you Jesus this is making me think and rely on you.
What do you do to combat stress?
Have the Lord stand between you and the stress…
Letting Him filter the issue.
Be at peace with your Soul, dear Soul.
Fr. Nigel W.D. Mumford+

A LIFE CHANGING HEALING TESTIMONY
Of A WOMAN WITH AN ISSUE OF BLEEDING and HER BABY.
A Woman Called Jackie: A story of healing and its ripple effects.
By
Donna Authers,
Author of
“A Sacred Walk: Dispelling the Fear of Death and Caring for the Dying.”
Jackie walked into our church fellowship hall in Ridgefield, CT on an evening long ago to attend The Alpha Course. As one of the leaders, I greeted her at the door. She was lovely with an air of confidence, an easy smile; and there was an immediate connection between us. We sat together during the welcome dinner and I listened with great interest when she explained why she came. “I’m Jewish,” she said, “but married to a Christian. We have three children ages 3, 6 and 8 (a little boy and 2 girls) and we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukah. The girls have begun asking me questions about Jesus, and my husband is never around when that happens. I don’t know how to answer them and I know very little about Christianity. After seeing the article about Alpha in the paper, I decided to come.”
The article described it as a basic course on Christianity where believers and non-believers alike could come and ask questions about God and the Christian faith. The first evening’s discussion was titled, Christianity: Is it boring, irrelevant or untrue? As our dinner conversation unfolded, I learned that Jackie came from a strict Jewish family who sent her to Hebrew school when she was young. She knew the Torah, had read the prophets, and observed all the Jewish holidays. Her family was not thrilled with her marriage to a Gentile, even though he did not practice his religion except on holidays. However, they grew to love and respect him and they adored their beautiful grandchildren.
Jackie faithfully attended the Alpha course each week with supper, a video lecture, and small group discussions afterwards. For reasons unknown to us at the time, Jackie insisted on sitting next to me and, if the seat was occupied, she politely asked the person to move so we could continue our weekly dinner chats. God had opened her heart enough for her to enroll in this 12-week course, and I was privileged to witness how he continued to open her eyes and ears not only in class, but through his Word.
It was clear that the Holy Spirit was personally tutoring her because she began reading the New Testament every day, with understanding. Her husband said she was obsessed with it, even locking herself in the bathroom to read in private. Her children left notes in the Bible saying, “Mommy, we miss you.” Since she knew the Torah (Old Testament), she came to dinner prepared with a new question or observation such as: “What was wrong with those people (meaning the Jews)! He didn’t do anything wrong (meaning Jesus).”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I’ve been reading the Bible and comparing what Jesus said to what I learned in Hebrew school.”
“Why are you reading the Bible? This isn’t a Bible study.”
“I wanted to verify what I have been hearing in class to know the truth for myself.”
Another week she asked, “That Lamb of God – it’s Jesus, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
With the glee of a child, she replied, “I knew it!”
That’s how it went week after week. After discussing the question “Does God heal today?” Jackie indignantly said, “Hey, you didn’t tell me you knew a healer.” Obviously a mutual friend had told her of my friendship with Nigel Mumford who has the gift of healing. At that time he was the Director of the Oratory of the Little Way in Connecticut. “I need to see him. It’s for my son, so please take me there.”
The next day I called and made an appointment to bring Jackie and her 3-year-old son to see him. He had hurt his leg when he jumped at The Little Gym. Doctors later advised that it was a result of an unknown birth defect. They had tried everything to get his leg to heal. The latest was to put his leg in a cast, but the prognosis was not good and there was fear about this child losing the use of his leg. After introducing Jackie and her son to Nigel, she asked me to stay while she explained the situation. But before we went into the chapel for prayer, Nigel looked at Jackie and said, “How can I pray for you?”
“I didn’t come for me; I came for my son,” Jackie replied.
“Yes, I know, but as we spoke I had the feeling that there was something else bothering you personally.”
Jackie then revealed that she had been bleeding non-stop for weeks and when she finally went to the doctor, it was discovered that she had multiple cysts on her ovaries. He suggested she may have to have surgery. Because she and her husband wanted to have another child, Jackie said she needed time to think about it. When Nigel had a clear picture of the healing Jackie wanted for herself, he brought the three of us into the chapel where he first laid hands on the little boy and then prayed for her.
On the ride home, Jackie was quiet and commented on how peaceful she felt and how much she was looking forward to taking her son to the doctor the next day to remove the cast from his leg. She exclaimed it was already a miracle that her son sat quietly during the entire time we were at the Oratory – even when Nigel prayed for him! The next day, to the doctor’s amazement and Jackie’s joy, she learned her son’s leg was completely healed, confirmed by x-rays and the child’s ability to run around like any normal little boy (and he has since grown into a fine, healthy young adult).
The following week, Jackie returned to the gynecologist to confirm what she already knew. She, too, was completely healed. When she called to tell me, Jackie said as soon as Nigel touched her the week before, she knew something happened. Her bleeding had stopped, but she didn’t want to say anything until the doctor confirmed she had healthy, clear, normal reproductive organs. It was if she heard Jesus say to her, “I do these things so that you know who I am.”
Needless to say, Jackie never missed a night with her Alpha friends each week, and she continued with her questions. After her healing, though, they took on a different tone after her personal experience with Jesus. Jackie was worried about what her parents would say if she told them that she now believed the Messiah has already come. Two weeks later, she came to me once more saying, “I finally figured it out. This is not about my parents; it’s about me and God!”
Not long after the class ended and a new year was about to begin, Jackie called and said. “I just spent 2 -1/2 hours with your priest and I’m being baptized on January 7th (2001). Will you be my godmother?” What joy! All good news, but the enemy was not very happy. He tried to rob Jackie of her peace by heaping her with guilt upon guilt and heightening her fears of telling her parents about her new-found faith. The emotional pain morphed into physical pain that would not go away. It lasted for days and became so severe that it felt as if someone had stabbed her in the stomach. One day as Jackie lay doubled over on the floor, she cried out in agony saying, “Lord if you are real and you truly want me, please remove this sword in my stomach.” Within seconds the pain was gone, never to return again!
Throughout the next two years, Jackie became an active member of our small group Bible study and was “on fire” for the Lord. Her children were baptized and because of her testimony, her brother and his wife were also baptized. During that time, Jackie and her husband had another son, and as the years went by, she continued her in-depth study of Scripture,became a group leader herself, and eventually felt called to ministry. Jackie continues to be “on fire” for the Lord. While she respects and is grateful for her Jewish roots (Jesus was a Jew), she is a true evangelist and presently is an ordained minister and elder in her church.
As a result of Jackie’s persistent prayers, God in his mercy healed her mother of lymphatic lymphoma which led her to believe in Jesus before she eventually passed away. She still prays for her father whose heart has softened after seeing the transformation in his family which all started with The Alpha Course and the healing prayers of Nigel Mumford.

What is the meaning of life?
I can’t help it, I’m a Brit. When I hear that question my default is Monty Python. The very sacrilegious musical spoof by the same name. The moment the Grim reaper appears and proclaims, “I am death” and a guest responds, “Well, that’s cast a gloom over the evening…” awkward silence! Or where the cart, manned by men picking up dead people during the plague, “I’m not dead yet” “Well you will be in a minute!” He is then unceremoniously thrown in the cart. At the end of the movie a woman opens an envelope while saying, “Now here’s the meaning of life; “Be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book, and get some walking in” as the diatribe continues in typical Python langue achieving absolutely nothing!
The wonder of this thousand-dollar open-ended question is that it is different for every one of us. I can only respond from my point of reference. That is from a former Royal Marine Commando drill instructor with a year of combat duty under my belt where I have witnessed man’s inhumanity to man first hand. Where the meaning of life is wasted on young combatants. Now I am an Episcopal priest, I have found the meaning of my life! The call to preach the Kingdom and heal the sick. (Luke 9:2) I used to make grown men cry as a drill instructor. I still make grown men cry as a priest. Funny that.
I have had thirteen extremely close shaves with death. At number nine I confess that I had become rather cautious! I have been shot at directly three times, luckily I heard the buzz as the bullets went past me. I was wounded in the head; I have been blown up five times. I drowned in a scuba diving accident, one incident involving the Russians I can’t talk about, another being forgotten and left alone in a very dangerous combat situation and more recently three weeks in a coma with three months in ICU where a seasoned doctor told me “You came as close to death without dying as I have ever seen in my life.” As I suffered through the H1N1 swine flu virus. I have stared death in the face, my own and many others, in combat, in hospitals and nursing homes too many times. It is now time to live my life to the fullest.
I have no doubt that my faith has got me through all of this with four books under my belt. Come to think of it, my full answer is written in all of those books! *
Some years ago I was asked to speak to a thousand teenagers at a collage in Boston about my life and my faith. I was told they were a very difficult crowd to talk to. I called my spiritual director for help and Godly council. He heard me drag on about my fear and at one point stopped me. He said “Nigel, I have two words for you, ‘Have fun.’ I’m British… have fun? I had never thought of that. That was the moment my life changed. I had been “given permission” to have fun.
This was reinforced at a Bar Mitzvah I had gone to where the Rabi asked the kids four questions. Three were theological but the forth was a question that you will be asked when you get to heaven. The question, “Did you have fun?”
Personally, the meaning of my life is to help others, know the healing message in the Gospels and have fun while doing so.
Be well, do good works and for the sake of God, love one another.
God bless you
The Rev. Nigel Mumford+
*
Publications by Fr. Mumford
Hand to Hand from Combat to Healing
The Forgotten Touch
After the Trauma, the Battle Begins. Post Trauma Healing.
Dying to Live, My H1N1 story. (Early summer 2016)