Doy Cave
New Orleans Seminary
He served as a chaplain to American troops stationed
in Europe during World War II.
He spent the next 37 years ministering to hospital patients,
23 of them at New Orleans Baptist Hospital.
During those decades of ministry, Myron Madden said he
has learned one essential thing about ministry – the power to bless.
He served as a chaplain to American troops stationed
in Europe during World War II.
He spent the next 37 years ministering to hospital
patients, 23 of them at New Orleans Baptist Hospital.
During those decades of ministry, Myron Madden said
he has learned one essential thing about ministry – the power to bless.
“Gods plan is to get himself involved
in the process of blessing people,” Madden stressed at a meeting in conjunction
with the Southern Baptist Convention. “Only the truth blesses – and only
the truth can bless.”
Madden spoke at the Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counselors
Annual Convocation, held earlier this month at First Baptist Church of Orlando,
Fla. In addition to serving as a chaplain, Madden is author of several books,
including “The Power to Bless,” which recently was revised for re-release.
Madden has been an influential presence in the chaplaincy
ministry and said he believes it is a chaplains duty to bestow Gods
blessing on the hurt, discouraged and sick.
This blessing is not merely a way with people, the
New Orleans counselor insisted.
It is the power of God to change lives.
“Blessing is power,” Madden said during
the recent meeting. “Blessing is empowering people, affirming people, giving
them the freedom to be who they are.”
Blessing is part of the power of God through Christians,
Madden noted. It is not the same sort of power offered in the temptations of
Satan, he emphasized.
Temptation is about power, but Satan never could
offer real power to Jesus in the wilderness, Madden explained. Satan only offers
a shortcut to destruction, he said.
To illustrate, Madden told of a young pharmacology
student who had twice failed his classes. The student was in turmoil and wanted
to get out of the class. He had been wrestling with the idea of power and told
Madden of a friend who was involved in drugs. This friend had promised the young
man he would be driving a Mercedes in six weeks if he agreed to join him in
the drug lifestyle and trade.
“Medicine just takes too long,” the friend
had told the young student.
“The devil offers a shortcut,” Madden said.
“(However) God is a God of promise, not of (open-ended) guarantees. He
told Abraham, I will bless you, but I want you to be a blessing.
“He blesses us (in order) to give his blessing
away,” Madden insisted.
The result of blessing is to enable people to be
who they truly are and to see their lives in truth, Madden said.
Temptation distorts the “stories” or the
life journeys believers have taken, he continued. Part of the chaplains
ministry is to help people get their stories straight and to see themselves
as God sees them, he said.
“The worst lie is the lie about who I am. Tell
your story until you get it right.”
Madden recounted bits of his own faith journey, which
included his misconceptions about his achievements in life. He said he believed
his success in college and his training in seminary had made him worthy for
kingdom work. It was not until a friend blessed him that he realized his need
for grace, he said.
“It took me a long time to accept grace,”
Madden said. “I had to completely readjust my story and to realize that
the Apostle Paul calls all those things (so-called achievements in life) a dung
heap.”
However, while individual stories are a testimony
to the power of God in people, the story of Jesus is the power of God incarnate,
Madden concluded.
It is this story that Christians should be sure to
get straight, he said.
“If we can get the Jesus story straight, the
release of power will be unfathomable,” he emphasized.