Everyone knew who John Chapman was. I first heard him speak when I was a layman in Brisbane Diocese. He came across to those of us newly converted to Christ as the jovial “Friar Tuck” of the Anglican church. His enthusiasm for the person of Christ, his obvious love for the Bible and his joyous demeanour certainly encouraged a lot of young fellows to seriously consider living and preaching the gospel that he preached. He was a true example of a gospel preacher, a real person without pretence, who loved the Bible, who loved Jesus and who loved people.  When I moved to Armidale to be the Dean of the Cathedral it became obvious that he had made an incredible impact in that diocese during his ministry there. It was always a joyous time for clergy and lay folk when he returned to preach in the diocese.

I saw a different side to his personality some years later. It was during a Preachers’ Conference in Sydney. John with others was to teach on preaching and then do a critique on the sermons of 3 selected participants. I had been chosen to be one of them. I didn’t particularly relish the idea of being “carved up” in front of my peers.  So I tried to do as much preparation as I could to lessen the pain. But some traumatic things took place in the days preceding the conference and I had little time to prepare a sermon. One was ministering to a young mother whose baby had died of brain injuries inflicted by the father. I will always remember the scene at the funeral at the graveside where family gathered in deep sorrow and obvious anger. It was deeply traumatic for all concerned. Another was getting ready for an appointment with a couple for a wedding interview when I desperately wanted the time to get a “good” sermon done.

As I preached that night at the Preachers’ Conference I shared some of the details of what had taken place during the previous week. It meant sharing honestly my deep humiliation when I discovered that the couple I didn’t particularly want to interview for a wedding were wide open to the gospel. Both of them gave their lives to Christ that afternoon. I shared too I had been deeply convicted that I had been more concerned about preaching a “good” sermon at the Preachers’ Conference than I was in spending time to meet the spiritual needs of a needy couple.

When the sermon was over I waited for the “carving”.  Chappo spoke first.  He said, “I’m moved. I’m deeply moved.” That was all he said.  I was astonished. To my mind there was nothing special about the sermon. But as I later reflected on that evening I realised what a spiritual giant of a man John Chapman was, to be touched by a sermon from a virtual nobody. His attitude that night taught me a lot about true humility. John would listen intently for God’s voice as the word of God was preached through all kinds of human instruments. He was humble, always hungry for God to work through him to bring others to Christ. I recognised by contrast that I had been judgmental in my attitude to the couple seeking marriage, seeing the interview as taking up my “valuable” preparation time.  The time spent sharing the gospel was never “wasted time” for John Chapman. It was his life.  It led to thousands of others finding true life in Christ through his ministry.

Like thousands of others around the world I praise God for raising up a man called “Chappo” to accomplish incredible things in His church in Australia and overseas.  Someone once said that the world has yet to see what God can do through a person totally committed to Him. He certainly did an amazing amount through “Chappo’s” dedicated commitment to Him. His courage in presenting the gospel encouraged many. His humility made many of us examine more deeply, our motivation and goals in ministry.

Blog No.099.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 19^th November 2012

We are looking at the words from our Gospel passage. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” (36)  And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” What a probing question from Jesus, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Fifty two years. That’s how long the Wednesday night Healing Service in the Anglican Cathedral in Sydney has been going.  Almost every Wednesday night for 52 years.  In that time, thousands of healings have taken place.  During the services we asked people to put up their hands if they needed prayer for any need they had. Some of our pray-ers would go to those people in the seats and ask them this question. “What do you want the Lord to do for you?” (The same sort of words Jesus used in this gospel passage.) They would tell us and we would pray according to their expressed needs.

I’d like to share just a couple of those healings that remind us that God brings His healings in His way, in His time, to His glory.

1).    THE WIFE A OF A MEDICAL SPECIALIST.  At the Wednesday night Healing Service

The first story is about the wife of a leading surgeon.  She had cancer of the brain. He had been given 2 months off to spend with his wife before she passed away. It was to help prepare him and their 2 young boys for life without her.  He brought his wife to our Healing service in the Cathedral. On the first night we prayed for her she was no more than a vegetable having been assisted into the Cathedral for the service. She looked down for the whole service. The next Wednesday night they attended for the second (and last time). She actually looked up at us as we prayed over her.

The weeks went on and I was saddened to hear after a couple of months that she had passed away. The following Wednesday I noticed the doctor in the Healing service. At the end of the service I went to see him to express my condolences. I was surprised when he said to me, “Jim, did you know she was healed?” I must have looked utterly shocked. You know that some people can be in denial. But here was a medical specialist telling me that his wife had been healed and I knew she had just been buried. He must have seen my shocked expression. He smiled and said “Jim, let me tell you what happened after that second healing service when you prayed for my wife.”

He told me the story. They went home from the service. It seemed as though nothing much had happened. The next morning he woke to find his wife smiling beside him. She was as she had always been, before the cancer took hold of her mind. For the next few weeks she was the wife and lover she had always been to him. She was the beautiful loving mother that she had always been to their 2 young boys. For those 2 months it was as though there was nothing wrong with her. They had the time to enjoy trips and picnics and had a wonderful time together as a family.

At the end of those 2 months, he woke one morning to find his wife dead in bed besides him. He said to me, “But Jim she was healed. She was wonderfully healed for those 2 months. What happened was a miracle. It just can’t happen medically. I lived with a miracle for all those weeks. The last memory I have of my wife is of a woman who loved me deeply. The last memories our boys have of their mother, are of a mother who was fun to be with. A loving mother who loved them so deeply over those 2 months. I will always be grateful to God for the healing He gave to my wife during that time. It was a miracle.  He saw it as time they were given together when it seemed impossible for anything good to happen in their situation.

2).   A DYING BABY. At Our Healing Ministry Centre In Inner Sydney.

This second incident happened at our Healing Ministry Centre in inner Sydney, just a few kilometres from the Cathedral. About 9 pm one evening there was a knock at a side door that was rarely used.  My wife Carole and I were in the room with the Manager and Assistant Manager of our Healing Centre. We opened the door to find a young couple holding a tiny baby that was only hours or days old. They had been told by the specialists at one of our major children’s hospitals that the child could not survive. It would be dead within hours. They told us that they had been given special permission to bring the baby to our Healing Ministry Centre to receive prayer. They came immediately without being able to contact us.

So here was the scene. Four of us in the room with the parents, and a child who would be dead in a few hours. What do you do in such a case?  PRAY! But what to pray? For comfort for the parents or healing for the child? Again it was a case of “What do you want the Lord to do for you?” Their answer was, “We want Him to heal our son.”

We prayed over the little baby asking that God would touch the child in His love and power. Then they left, going out through the same side door to take the child back to the hospital. We heard nothing more. We often talked among ourselves over the following years about what a strange occurrence it was. We wondered what had happened to the parents and the baby.

About 10 years later there was a knock on the front door of our Healing Ministry Centre. We opened it to find a young couple standing there. The man said, “Do you mind if we come in and talk to you for a moment?” When we were seated inside the fellow asked, “Do you remember us?” We had to say, “Well not really? Were you guests here once?” She said, “No, but can you remember the night we knocked on that side door because our baby was about to die?” Of course it all flooded back into our memories. Then pointing to the young 10 year old boy who was with them, she said, “Well, here he is!” He didn’t die. He has no problems at all since that night you all prayed for him.  We just wanted to come back to thank you all for praying for him. God answered our prayers. We were so grateful to God for saving our son’s life that we have now entered into full-time Christian ministry. We are now both Pastors in a Pentecostal church.” 10 years of wondering were solved as they gave testimony to the grace and power of God in saving the life of their child.

The thing we have learned in more than 50 years in the Healing Ministry is that God loves to answer His children’s prayers. As Jesus promised in John 14:13-14, (13)  WHATEVER you ask in my name, THIS I WILL DO, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.(14)  If you ask me ANYTHING in my name, I WILL DO IT. But He does it in His own way and in His time. We need to pray that we will be able to recognise how He brings the answer.

TODAY is another day in which we can know His love and power in our own lives. The Risen Jesus stands among us. As Jesus promised,  “Where 2 or 3 are gathered together in My name, there am I in their midst,”  Mat 18:20. He says to each and every one of us, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Do you want Him to do something about the (USA) nation that it may continue to be a nation whose motto is “In God we trust.” Then tell Him what you want.  Do you want Him to do something about your children or grandchildren caught up in addiction to alcohol, drugs or sex.  Tell Him what you want. Do you want Him to do something for you personally. Your illness or weakness? Your stress and anxieties? Your depression? Your own addiction? As we pray, tell Him what you would like Him to do for you.  Then thank Him that He has heard your prayer and that He will bring His answer in His way and in His time and always to His glory.

Blog No. 098.  Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Sunday 18^th November 2012

1).  A TOXIC SITUATION.  HOW GOD BROUGHT HEALING.

My wife and I and our family had gone to minister in what was normally a very beautiful part of the world.  However a toxic situation had arisen. There had been widespread attacks on a conservative minister who had been elected as bishop. He was the right man for the position but some academics in the city had vented their disapproval of the appointment. Not only that but the previous Dean of the Cathedral had moved on suddenly to the surprise of the parish. We arrived in the beginning of a drought. The farmers had no crops. The sheep were dying in the fields.  The famous Australian gumtrees were dying being poisoned (we were told) by a small beetle. There was desolation everywhere. I went there to be the new Dean of the Cathedral.

A marvellous thing happened a short time later. The ministers in the city got together to pray. We would meet one morning during the week from 6.30am to 7.30am. We gathered together to pray for one another and for the city. We sat in a circle and put what we called a “hot seat” in the middle of the group. Any minister could sit there and ask the rest of us to pray for whatever need they had personally or for their parish. We would gather round and lay our hands on that person for God’s protection and for blessing on their ministry. We wanted the Lord to be exalted in all the churches.

The drought continued. So we began ecumenical services in which we prayed for rain. The first was in our Cathedral and I preached on this passage from 2 Chron 7:14.  At the end of the service we went out into the bright sunshine into a shower of rain. It was a bright blue sky except for a little white cloud immediately over the Cathedral. It was as though God was saying “YES!” to what we were doing.

We worked together to try to win the city for Christ. We invited a Christian motor cycle gang called the God Squad to come and speak to the schools in the city. Dozens were won to Christ. We invited women to come to a mid-week luncheon to hear the evangelist from the God Squad talk to women on what Jesus could do for them and for their families. Seven hundred women came. Dozens of others had to be turned away.

We invited David Watson and his team from York in England to do a mission in the town. We filled the University hall with hundreds of secondary school aged children. Dozens more came to know Christ. Then a very significant thing happened. It was the night of the final public Rally with David Watson and his team. The 1000 seat University Hall was booked out. I was to lead the evening as the Chairman of the Ministers Fraternal. Just as I was about to leave to go to the meeting, I received a phone call to say that a teenage lad whom I knew had been playing squash and had received a direct hit to his eye.  The doctors thought that he would almost certainly lose the sight of that eye. They were worried about the other eye as well. As I opened the meeting I told the crowd what had happened and invited them to pray with me for the young lad. So 1000 people (perhaps a majority being Christians) prayed with me. The next Sunday I told the Cathedral congregation what had happened. Then I asked the young lad to stand up and face the congregation. He had nothing wrong with either of his eyes. God had marvellously healed him. Word quickly went around the whole town of his marvellous healing.

The rains came. The drought was broken. It was as though God had baptised the earth with water to refresh the land and had poured out his Spirit on all the churches in the city. Our evening service grew from a handful to sometimes well over 200, mainly young people gathering together to praise God.  People were coming to the communion rail after the service and giving their lives to the Lord. Others received wonderful healing.

We joined together from all the denominations in the city in processions of witness in the main street of the city singing God’s praises as we went from one church to another in procession. The desolation had gone. The toxicity disappeared as the Spirit of God began to fall on people and a great sense of spiritual refreshment came on the believers in all the churches.  The people of God had become energised by the Holy Spirit of God.

Then it was time to leave that Cathedral to go to the Cathedral in Sydney. Just before we left I was asked to pray for a young woman who hadn’t been able to fall pregnant after 10 years of marriage. IVF treatments hadn’t worked. Humanly speaking there appeared to be no hope she would ever have a child.  I met her and her mother in the Cathedral during the woman’s lunch-break. Her mother and I prayed over her. A few months later her mother rang and said, “We’re going to have a baby”.  The daughter had conceived naturally within a month of our praying together.  It was a great encouragement as we settled into a demanding role in the Cathedral in Sydney.

The whole time in that city in the country reminded me that the Lord is the Lord of this universe. No matter how great may be the toxicity in people’s lives, or in cities or in politics, God can still do His thing if people are willing to be used by Him. IF they humble themselves, and pray and seek God’s face and turn from their wicked ways

2).  GOD WILL BE PRAISED FOR HIS MERCY AND GRACE

I don’t have time to tell you of the amazing things God did in the Healing service in the Cathedral in Sydney during our 18 years there. I repeat WHAT GOD DID! We witnessed what He was doing, as His word was preached.  Let me jump right ahead to 4 years after my retirement from the Healing Ministry in Sydney. I was invited to preach at the 50th Anniversary of the Wednesday night Healing Service. I shared some of the great things God had done in answer to prayer at the service during 50 years. It was a reminder to many present who had come to the service over the years with broken hearts, broken limbs, broken marriages, broken relationships, shattered dreams and God had healed them. I made the point in the sermon that the Healing ministry was God’s ministry. He is the Healer. Then I said these words, “The Healing Ministry is not about Jim Glennon (my predecessor and founder of the ministry). It’s not about Jim Holbeck. It’s not about young Chris.”  (the new Leader). I pointed to the heavens and said, “It’s all about Him!”

And then it happened. Spontaneous combustion. Volcanic eruption. People jumped to their feet shouting out “Alleluia” or “Praise the Lord” or “Thanks be to God”. Many other expressions of praise and thanksgiving filled the Cathedral. Others stood and silently stretched out their hands to heaven. It went on for over a minute and it ceased as quickly as it had begun. I had never seen anything like it in almost 30 years of Cathedral ministry or 42 years in ministry. It was a spontaneous outburst of praise to God. It was as though God had baptised us with an outpouring of joy and love and His healing grace. I was still standing there in a pulpit waiting for the noise to die down, my hand still pointing to the heavens.

No human could have orchestrated such an outburst of praise. It was as though the hearts of the people overflowed with praise and thanksgiving to God for all he had done for them personally over the years. Many of us felt that we were standing on holy ground in the Cathedral that night in the presence of the Risen Lord.  When a Bishop came forward to pronounce the blessing, he said, “That is the most fun I have ever had in this Cathedral.”  It was a moment of glory. It reminded me of the passage in Luke 19 where there had been a spontaneous outburst of praise when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered in verse 40, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” The stones didn’t need to cry out that night in the Cathedral. The people were released to cry out in their adoration and praise and thanksgiving to God. We returned home praising God that He had been honoured and glorified by His people on that special night in the Cathedral.

Just a little over a week later one of our family members was touched by the Lord and brought into the kingdom of God.  In God he trusted. “In God we trust” was the cry from the people in the country Cathedral as they humbled themselves to pray for rain and for God’s blessing on the city. “In God we trust” was the cry of the people in that 50^th Anniversary service in the Cathedral in Sydney as they rose as one person to praise God for their healing over 50 years.

HOW ABOUT TODAY? (The night of the USA elections)

The USA motto is “In God we trust”.  Florida’s motto is “In God we trust”. Tomorrow about half of the people in America will be sad. The other half will be joyful. One of those men Mr Obama or Mr Romney will become the most powerful human in the universe.  But he won’t be able to transform human hearts. He won’t be able by himself to reverse the slide towards secularism or a turning away from God. He will either help or hinder what God wants to do in His world. But no matter how we voted, we will be on the victory side tomorrow as believers. Our God reigns in His universe.

The risen Christ stands among us tonight as the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the only ruler of princes. He it is who holds the whole universe in His hands. He it is who accomplishes His will through (or sometimes in spite of) the politicians we elect. He is the God who can transform toxic situations and who can transform and heal you and me. It depends on whether we do our part in what He wants to do.  He encourages us in His word, (2Ch 7:14)  if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. In response to His challenge to us we can offer Him all we are to be used in his purposes and can receive from Him the healing we need to do His will. Would you pray with me a simple one sentence prayer so that you and I as individuals can be healed to become part of what God wants to do in His world. “Lord Jesus, I invite you to do in me and through me what you wish.  To Your glory.  AMEN”.

Blog No.097. Jim Holbeck.  Posted in Florida. Sunday 11^th November 2012

At the present moment we are in Florida once again to do another (almost) month-long Healing Mission in the same church. The Rector had kindly invited me to speak at his weekly Sunday Forum which occurs before the last of the 4 morning services. As I was preparing to speak I introduced myself to a woman sitting alone. She said, “Do you remember praying with me some years ago?” Again her face wasn’t familiar. (I think I need to develop a photographic memory!)  She went on to say that some years ago she was suffering third stage cancer in two areas of her body. She had asked for prayer and I had anointed her for God’s healing.  She said that subsequently the Lord marvellously healed her. She no longer has cancer. So once again an encouraging testimony as we began another Mission in the same church.

It made me realise that often we don’t come to know the marvellous things God has done in answer to prayer. When I was the Leader of the Healing Ministry in St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, I had the opportunity to go to many cities and country towns around the nation to teach on healing. I was amazed at the number of people who would come up to me and say that they had been to the Wednesday night Healing service in the Cathedral in Sydney some 5 or 10 or 20 years before and received prayer for healing  and had been wonderfully healed as a result. Only a few of those folk had remembered to write and tell us what had happened.

Sharing a testimony of how God has healed us is never a matter of boasting. Whenever the Lord touches anyone’s life with His healing power, it is always due to the His grace, to the outpouring of His love and mercy on those who need His touch on their lives.  So praising Him for a healing we received is exalting Him and not ourselves.  I was pleasantly surprised at the response I received to my last blog which told the simple story which came from a woman in her nineties. Her story obviously touched hundreds of people around the world. I am told that she was delighted that her story has been a blessing to so many. So even in your nineties God can still use you to His glory if you humbly share what He has done in your life with others.

It would be a great thing for the kingdom of God if more of us were willing to share the good things God has done for us in answer to prayer.  People in today’s world are desperate for hope and are longing to see that God is real. Real healings of real people stimulates faith in those who hear of those encounters. To put it in the wonderful words of Psalm 107, 1  Oh, thank GOD–he’s so good! His love never runs out.  2  All of you set free by GOD, tell the world! Tell how he freed you from oppression (The Message).

Blog 096.  Jim Holbeck. Posted from Florida on Friday 2^nd November 2012

The word “charm” was spelt “B.O.A.K!” He could charm people without realising how charming he could be. As one woman put it, “When he talked to you as an individual, he made you feel that you were really someone very special.” It was genuine. When the late Lawrence Bartlett of Australian Hymn Book and Australian Prayer Books fame worked with us on the Cathedral staff, it was like living between the covers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica such was the depth of their combined knowledge and their individual mastery of the complexities of the English language.

Boak will always be remembered for his dedication regarding the multi-million dollar Cathedral restorations in the year 2000. On countless occasions he would don his hard safety helmet and disappear into the dimly lit Cathedral to investigate the progress of the work. Perhaps no other person had the ability to raise the awareness and support for the financing of the whole project. It brought a crumbling building in some aspects into a modern, clean, beautiful edifice which was a pleasure in which to minister. But it took its toll on him as he spent so much of his time and energy on the project.

On those occasions when there were formal services in the Cathedral it was obvious that Boak was “the man” for the occasion. It was obvious who was running the show even when the congregation included many of Australia’s leading personalities. He ran a “splendid” show. “Splendid” was a word you heard frequently from his lips. He and his wife Di made a glamorous “splendid” couple who were a wonderful advertisement for the Cathedral. When I farewelled them from the Cathedral at a Staff luncheon I referred to them as “a class act”.  They were. They were wonderful ambassadors for the Cathedral, but more importantly for the Lord they served. Boak will be missed by many, many people whose lives he touched for the Lord. Many people! Deeply!

My wife Carole and I join with hundreds of others around the world in assuring Di and their children, Lachlan, Ben and Sarah of our prayers for them at this very sad time for them in their unexpected loss.

Jim Holbeck. Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney from 1988 to 2006. (Presently Acting Rector, Anglican parish of Maclean, Northern NSW)

Blog No.090.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 3rd September 2012

I would like to next time take some interior shots, I heard it has some beautiful stained glass windows. but here are some that I took whilst relaxing on that day.

It was my privilege to meet John and his wife Rosemary in England in 1988. The late Canon Jim Glennon had arranged for me to go to England to visit Crowhurst Healing Centre among other healing centres before I took over from him as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney.  Crowhurst is in East Sussex near the historic town of Battle (Battle of Hastings, 1066). Whilst I was their guest there, Crowhurst celebrated its 60th Anniversary. The celebrations included a Garden Party in the grounds. There was a liberal scattering of bishops, well-known clergy and outstanding lay people of whom I had read in Christian magazines.  Most of the people seemed to know a considerable number of fellow guests.  Just when I was thinking about how to break into one of the groups, I was approached by two charming people.  I was amazed to find that they were John and Rosemary Richards of whom I had read so much previously.  I was blessed by their fellowship and doubly blessed by the interest they took in my own ministry as Dean of a country Cathedral in Australia.

Several years later I had the joy of arranging to have John speak at the Wednesday night Healing Service in St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.  His ministry was warmly received by the congregation and by all those who met John and Rosemary as they ministered in Sydney. My wife Carole and I witnessed their great joy when we put them on the train in Sydney to begin their trip home to England. Joy? To be leaving Sydney? No, of course not! John loved boats and trains. He had looked forward to one day doing one of the great train journeys in the world, the crossing of the Australian continent by rail. The Indian Pacific Railway links Sydney and Perth (the Pacific and the Indian Oceans) and traverses about 4,350km (2,700 miles).  We were so happy for them that they had the opportunity to fulfil that dream.  We read later of John’s interest in travelling across the English Channel by small boat in a celebration of the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940. 

John, as a minister of the gospel, faithfully strove to fulfil the Biblical injunction, 2Timothy 2:15  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.  He succeeded. Many ministers around the world can testify to that. We thank God for outstanding leaders like John whom God has used to bring insight and blessing to the lives of thousands of people around the world; very humble men but spiritual giants in God. 

Like many others around the globe we will remember Rosemary, Paul and Tracy in our prayers as they mourn the loss of such a wonderful man, whilst praising God for our experience of God’s love through him. 

Jim Holbeck.   Blog No. 26.   Posted on Friday 8^th July 2011