Cleansing the Body, Soul & Spirit

Starting January 1, I cut back on everything, cutting out all sweets, alcohol & rich foods, and beginning with Epiphany, January 6, it has been a strict Daniel Fast - no meats, no dairy products, simply fruits, vegetables, whole grains and detox herbal teas.

I'm trying to cleanse the temple, while believing God for a healing. I've been anointed and prayed for by people of faith, more times than I can count, but today, the Lord spoke through a dear local pastor to go even deeper, so starting tomorrow - 21 days of water!

It's amazing what we will do when it's a matter of life & death, especially in the natural. The humbling part of this is the challenge to have the natural reflect the spiritual and vice versa.

The reality - I hate fasting most any time, but a cancerous biopsy has a way of motivating you. But what about a spirit biopsy? What unhealthy, spiritual cells reside down in my soul? Unforgiveness, resentment, guilt, condemnation, disobedience, unbelief?

It's one thing for me to deal with all of this personally & privately, but I don't live a private life. I lead a community, shepherd a flock, and with a name like Healing Grace, I desire to live into our name and model Kingdom faith.

We have been humbled by the prayers & support and encouraged by the love & kindness; all the while feeling the tension between trust & medical treatment and not allowing the corporate focus to be on me, rather than what the Lord is about in our midst.

So tomorrow, the next step in this journey begins - water, 21 days, and an expectation that the one, who baptizes in Spirit & fire, will baptize me afresh and take me deeper into His presence than ever before, with a bodily healing simply a byproduct of the Healing Grace permeating my soul & spirit.

The Spirit and the Bride say come!

An Epiphany Fast

It's now the third day of the season of Epiphany, and I'm "celebrating" in an odd fashion.

I've gone on a cleansing, detoxing fast - juices, fruits, some vegetables, herbal teas and yikes! NO COFFEE! I have discarded all meats (I love steak!) and dairy products, bread & pasta and anything that has sugar (even my Sunday indulgence of Ghirardelli brownies), so A King's Day feast is quickly becoming a faded memory.

I am in the process of overcoming prostate cancer, and I have been sifting, praying and plodding through tons of info on treatments, side effects, diet changes and cancer treatment centers. I've consulted Internist, Urologist, Oncologists and Dietitians; been anointed and prayed over by my Bishop, congregation (twice), fellow pastors, wife and a colleague's children.

It has been an odd journey with people constantly asking, "How are you feeling?" When the fact is I feel great. I had a PSA blood test in a routine physical; it came back high; had a biopsy.

I received a call from the doctor, "You have cancer, early stage, slow growing; we'll meet and go over your options."

Just like that, with no symptoms, the world changed; mortality slapping me once again.

I had long been delivered of the immortality of youth - skin cancer at 27 will do that to you, but that had been a mere nuisance. This was different.

This was "manhood" cancer, and the options, in the natural were alarming. Do nothing - die. Surgery - impotence & incontinence. Radiation - long term complications.

So I'm working on a holistic approach that includes three things.

1. Pray God's promises over my life and surround myself with people of faith, who when they pray, they expect God to heal.
2. Do everything I can to cleanse my natural body, while doing everything to cleanse my mind & soul.
3. Continue to seek medical advice (praying for Christian doctors with faith) and prayerfully choose the course of treatment that I believe the Lord says is best for me.

Yesterday I was greatly encouraged, when a urologists in Charleston said, "Mark, you have something going for you that many don't - prayer & faith. If I were you, this is what I'd do...."

I think I've found the physician that the Great Physician would have me consult.

Let the cleansing & healing continue!

Fresh Wind - Fresh Fire

Fresh Wind – Fresh Fire:

The Quest for Vision

“Cease striving and know that I am God.”

we are the beneficiary of a new thing

there is something pregnant within us

conceived by the Holy Spirit

we have known the pangs of a striving labor

trying to help it come

the contractions have left us exhausted

no natural position is comfortable anymore

we’ve got IVs filled with the opiates of this age

seeking to numb the pain

we’ve miscarried so many times

and more often than we’d like to admit

given birth prematurely

so now we wait in an ordained season of unknowing

“though the vision tarries, it will come”

oh, God, open the eyes of our hearts

let us see with your eyes

uncork the well, bring forth the child

raise it to its full stature

seeking Your face & not Your hand

release fresh vision and revelation … or we die

“Bless the LORD, oh my soul,

and forget not His benefits.”

“Though the vision tarries, it will come.”

- mark d. cooke, corporate version, 5-24-08

New Year New Blog

I'm not quite a dinosaur, although my cell phone is as old as dirt, and I am somewhat "high tech" challenged. Nevertheless, I enter the bologospere, thinking that somehow my reflections, ramblings and writings may encourage someone along the way, this pilgrimage of healing grace.

You will hear about healing grace quite often, because it's not just the name of the Anglican church that I pastor, it's also what I truly seek to daily experience, live into and give away.

For me the journey of healing grace is anchored in a childhood conversion at a Baptist VBS, winding its way through an adolescence marked by typical insecurities, a father's depression and a deep hunger for God, and now flowing through 32+ years of companionship & adventure with Jane Leigh Meredith.

After countless ministry assignments, raising five kids, with many ups & downs, successes & failures in both, there remains a freshness (often a frightening excitement) to faith, a deepening passion for His presence, a continuous battle with the "old man" and a sharpening desire for the manifestation of the Kingdom of God - in my life and in my world.

So I simply plan to post my thoughts and experiences as I continue to go out "not knowing where I'm going", ever moving towards Zion.

Be blessed!