Episode 63
Jesus Heals Broken Hearts

Charlie:
00:11

Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of our Finding Hope podcast, Getting Through What You Never Asked For. This is Charlie LeBlanc, and we’re really excited today to bring you into a previously recorded podcast or teaching that we did. We were invited to minister on Healing Journeys Today, which was a platform that our good friends Butch and Julianne Hartman have out of California. And they have a lot of people that get on there and share healing testimonies and teach on physical healing. And yet Julianne and Butch are dear friends of ours, and they so highly respect what we are doing.

Charlie:
00:58

And they really understood that they needed to have us teach on healing the brokenhearted. And as you know, in Luke four eighteen, Jesus came and He said He came to heal the brokenhearted. And also, we see it in Isaiah 61, of course. And then other scriptures about He’s close to the brokenhearted as well. So there’s healing, a physical healing, which we thank God for.

Charlie:
01:26

We don’t see it enough, but we know Jesus purchased that healing on the cross. But now on this episode, we’re going to talk about healing the broken heart, which we do so often on our podcast. So we want you to sit back and enjoy this ministry that Jill and I did on healing the broken heart. God bless you.

Jill:
01:50

Jesus Heals Broken Hearts.

Charlie:
01:53

Yeah.

Jill:
01:53

So that’s the type of healing we’re gonna be talking about with

Charlie:
01:56

you. Mhmm.

Jill:
01:57

You know, we wanna share a little bit of our story, what has brought us to this point today. Sixteen years ago, our 23 year old son was diagnosed with pretty severe cancer. It started in his thyroid, it was all spread out throughout his neck region and by the time he got to a doctor, he dealt with sore throat for several months and and we could see in photos that his neck starting to get puffy and he just wasn’t looking good and finally got him to go to a doctor to an ENT who took one look and said something’s not right with this kid. So did a lot of testing, found out it was inoperable, stage four metastatic thyroid cancer and is very, far reaching, like I said. So, you know, we did everything we could.

Jill:
02:54

We had him with us for nine more months after that, and we did everything spiritually. You know, we just knew that, you know, we’ve been trained in this for all these years working, you know, in in this wonderful ministry, and and we just knew that God was going to get the glory from from this journey. So we did everything spiritually that we could do. You know, we believed, we stood, we trusted, we worshiped, we prayed, we spoke all of it and meditated and did every did everything we knew to do. In that on that side, in the spiritual side, in the natural, we did everything we knew to do.

Jill:
03:35

We were he had to have a feeding device because they had to trach him. And so they had a feeding tube going into his stomach. So we made all of his food. We didn’t buy the stuff in the cans that they offer you the hospital. We made it all.

Jill:
03:50

We loaded it up with nutrients and gave him lots of supplements and just did everything in the natural we could do. And then medically, like I said, they they had to trach him, gave him a feeding tube, and then they did radiation because they said chemo probably wouldn’t work on this because of the type that it is, but let’s try radiation. And lo and behold, after seven weeks of radiation and then a radioactive iodine treatment, most of the cancer went away except for one little spot. I think it was on his vocal cord. But I mean, it was pretty much completely gone after about, what, six or seven months.

Jill:
04:31

And it was just it was so exciting. So he got his trach out, and he could start breathing without the trach again, and and never really could eat very well still because all the radiation had messed up his his swallowing. But anyway, a lot of details. And so during that time, the cancer had spread to his lungs, unfortunately, and that is what ended up taking him out over the next two months. So that was they had been watching it that they couldn’t do anything about it.

Jill:
05:04

Anyway, he passed away in our home in January 2009, so that’s been fifteen years now. Can’t believe it’s been fifteen years. I tell you, when you lose a close loved one, it just the time just flies. And all of a sudden, it’s been a year already. I feel like it’s been two months, you know, and that’s just the way it’s been.

Jill:
05:28

And so here we are fifteen years out. And we’ve learned a lot. And so we want to help you with the things that we’ve learned. Because we know there’s a lot of you out there that have walked through loss. Mhmm.

Jill:
05:43

Maybe maybe you’ve lost a loved one. Maybe you’ve had a divorce. Maybe you’ve lost a career. Mhmm. Or something very valuable to you.

Jill:
05:54

Your home. Yeah. No telling.

Charlie:
05:57

And your dreams.

Jill:
05:58

Yeah.

Charlie:
05:58

And you know, as you were saying that Jill, you know, obviously this we were devastated. We were brokenhearted. We were we were destroyed really. I mean, at the at the moment, you can imagine losing a child how devastating that could be. Well, it was and we we were just distraught, grieved, disappointed, angry, all the different things that happen when you lose a loved one that you’re standing with but you know, as you were talking about that, I thought, you know, Jesus heals broken hearts and really our hearts were broken on in two on two two accounts, in two ways.

Charlie:
06:40

On one way, obviously, anyone who loses a loved one, their hearts are broken over their loss but our hearts were broken over the loss of our of of our faith in god. You know, like because we put everything on the line and and it didn’t turn out quite the way and didn’t turn out at all the way we expected it to and so really we walked away broken in so many ways. Yeah. Our lives were just barely hanging on by a thread and you know, there’s a scripture, Joe. You actually wrote a song many years ago before we lost Bo.

Charlie:
07:19

We were with Joyce Meyer Ministries doing an album for her and she wanted to do album on Healing Broken Hearts of all things. Yeah. And and and Jill wrote this song out of Isaiah forty two three that says, a bruised reed, he will not break and a dimly burning lamp, he will not put out. He will not quench and the New Living says, he will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to them who have been wrong.

Charlie:
07:49

Now, I know Joe’s gonna share a little story about that in a few minutes but I just wanted to bring that out right now that that you know, we were broken. Yeah. And and we were dimly burning, a dimly burning wick but thank god for his mercy. Yeah, his grace, his his loving kindness, his his mercies that never cease. You know, there’s so many scriptures and songs that have helped us through this through these years to to to know that god loves us and that he’s standing with us and that he fights for us and that he’s he won our hearts back and and all these things but but you know, just to know that man, if you’ve gone through a heartbreaking moment in your life, there’s hope on the other side.

Charlie:
08:34

It may seem impossible as it did for us. We didn’t think we’d make it. But God’s grace brought us through.

Jill:
08:42

Yes, it did. You know, a little something that’s comforting on one sense. It was really hard to face the fact that our son died right in front of us. You know, he took his last breath and we prayed for over well, we prayed for five hours after he took his last breath for him to come back from the dead to be with us, come back into a healed body, and it didn’t happen. And, you know, so we had to make a decision.

Jill:
09:14

Are we gonna continue to pray? Are we gonna let him go? And we we chose to let him go. And the comforting thing is he went straight into the arms of Jesus.

Charlie:
09:27

Yeah. We know that.

Jill:
09:28

It was you know, I mean, it was it was instantaneous. And, you know, some people will say to someone that’s that’s grieving, they’ll say, but death is swallowed up in victory. You don’t have to grieve. That death that that scripture, I I wanna I wanna actually read it to you in first Corinthians 15 verses 53 to 55. A lot of verses in chapter 15.

Jill:
09:58

It says, for our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. Then when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this scripture will be fulfilled. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory?

Jill:
10:23

Oh, death, where is your sting?

Charlie:
10:25

Yeah.

Jill:
10:26

That’s what that scripture is talking about. For Bo, there was no sting. He’s he stepped out of his earth suit as they as we used to call it into his transformed glorious body that awaited him on the other side of the veil. And people say the veil is so thin. People that have crossed over into heaven and come back say that veil is so thin.

Jill:
10:50

Oh, my god. So we know that he just he just went right into heaven. And so that’s so exciting for him to know that he’s not suffering any longer.

Charlie:
11:00

Right

Jill:
11:00

now. Because he suffered a lot, especially the last well, the last nine months. It was a hard journey.

Charlie:
11:07

A hard journey.

Jill:
11:08

Yeah. And and the very end was really hard. Yeah. But he instantly left that behind and was just caught up into the love of God Right. Into the Lord’s presence.

Jill:
11:21

And so that that for him, he didn’t have any sting of death. So But But we

Charlie:
11:28

It stung us.

Jill:
11:29

But we were left in the wake of all that.

Charlie:
11:32

Oh my god.

Jill:
11:33

You know, in ever since the beginning, you know, God created Adam and Eve and then they had two sons and one of the son eventually killed the other son. And it’s like, my gosh. And so from the beginning of mankind, there has been death and suffering and pain. Mhmm. And it’s it’s just part of the life that we live.

Jill:
11:59

God never intended for us to have that. He didn’t intend for us to ever experience separation because he intended for for mankind to live in the garden with him in fellowship and

Charlie:
12:11

just That’s right.

Jill:
12:12

You know, be his children. Just have that beautiful relationship forever. But sin came into the world and changed everything. And so there is a lot of pain when there is separation. So we have god god’s grace carried us

Charlie:
12:32

Yeah.

Jill:
12:32

Through these times. I mean, we we were on the trash heap

Charlie:
12:36

Yeah.

Jill:
12:37

And we weren’t sure we would survive.

Charlie:
12:39

Yeah.

Jill:
12:39

And some people say, but but thank God, he went straight to heaven. Yeah. He did. We didn’t.

Charlie:
12:47

Yeah.

Jill:
12:47

We’re living here without him. And, you know, that’s he was 23, so there’s a lot of life to live without our son. And I was just saying to Charlie this week, I was seeing you know, we have a few photos around our house and things on the wall, things framed, not like it’s a shrine, but like we have with all of our children and grandchildren. And and every now and then, I look at these pictures of Beau, and I just think, man, it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to see him. Yeah.

Jill:
13:18

And I really miss him.

Charlie:
13:20

Yeah.

Jill:
13:20

But, you know, that’s temporary. It’s it’s all gonna pass. So, we’re looking forward to that day.

Charlie:
13:26

That’s right. Yeah. Well, you know, that’s the thing. It’s like when you have a loss like this, we wanna encourage you that it’s okay to cry and it’s okay to mourn. The Bible says that there’s a time and a place for everything in in Ecclesiastes three and it says that that there’s a time to mourn.

Charlie:
13:48

There’s a time to grieve. Yeah. There’s a time to weep and you know, part of what we want to accomplish through this time of ministry and sharing with you on these Fridays is is to help you, to help your heart heal but in doing so, some of the things that we’ve learned is is like what we’re talking about is giving yourself permission to mourn, giving yourself permission to grieve, giving yourself permission to cry.

Jill:
14:14

Yeah.

Charlie:
14:14

I I felt like for a while that, you know, I couldn’t cry, that I had to man it up, I had to be tough, you know, through this thing. But man, I’ll tell you what, my heart was so broken that I could not stop the tears. I even went to the doctor at one point and said, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I said, I can’t stop. I’m crying almost every day.

Charlie:
14:34

Can you help me? And he said, Charlie, I could give you this pill or that pill, but I’m not going to do it, he said, because what you’re going through is normal. And it is. When you lose a loved one, the pain can be so deep, depending on your relationship of course with the loved one, the pain can be so deep that you’re broken. I mean it’s like your child or your mother or your father or your best friend or your spouse or your cousin, your nephew, you know, depending on how close you are with them, but part of you is ripped out.

Charlie:
15:06

We have several, friends of ours who have lost their husbands in the last five It’s or six just crazy. And their their their hearts are torn out of them because they’ve been one with their husband for all of these years. And you know, part of our goal, and I know we keep saying things like this, but part of our goal is that if you haven’t had loss, is to help you understand people around you that have had losses so that you can understand their pain and you can be patient with them. Because you see, we always want to fix people, but God tells us not to fix people. He says to just love people.

Charlie:
15:45

In fact, he says in Romans 12 to weep with those who weep. It didn’t say fix those who weep. I want to hear a shout out there somewhere. It says, weep with those who weep, not fix those who fix.

Jill:
16:02

Who weep.

Charlie:
16:03

I’m going to give, yeah, not fix those who fix. Don’t fix those who weep. Come on now. I was going to give myself a shout. Amen.

Charlie:
16:14

But you know. Charlie’s an amenner. Yeah. So so back to you know we’re we’re flipping back and forth between you know those who have broken hearts and how to get broke healed and then also ministering to those of you that maybe haven’t had losses but you’re around people that do and you’re like, I don’t know what to do with them, you know. Well, love them, care for them, comfort them, bear their burdens.

Charlie:
16:39

In fact, second Corinthians, which has become a really important scripture to us, second Corinthians, the first chapter and the third verse, the scripture says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. That scripture jumped out of the page at me because I saw the Father God as like a comforter. We know the Holy Spirit it says will come and he’ll be the comforter. He will not leave us comfortless. He will bring a comforter.

Charlie:
17:13

But through just to always realize that God is a comforter. And then it goes on to say, who comforts those in all their tribulations so that we can comfort others with the same comfort that we’ve received from the lord. That’s another thing that we’re trying to do here is to comfort you if you had loss, if you’ve been in any difficult situation because we understand that.

Jill:
17:36

That’s right. We’re sharing all this out of our lives because we want to give you a glimpse and hopefully bring some affirmation if you’re the one walking that same journey or maybe some information if you haven’t gotten there yet. Mhmm. But maybe you’re walking beside someone that has or maybe you will walk beside someone that has or you might become one walking the Greek journey.

Charlie:
18:02

Yes.

Jill:
18:03

God forbid, but we are in this world and that’s how people get out of here.

Charlie:
18:09

Yeah. Things happen. Yeah. Yeah. We were just in Texas this weekend at a funeral of a, I’m sorry, I don’t know if you heard that, but that was a phone ringing.

Charlie:
18:20

But we were at a funeral of a dear friend of ours who’s 98 years old passed. No. I think. No, 89. 89.

Charlie:
18:28

89 years old. He passed and what a man of god and what a victory to see him go into glory after all the years of him preaching and preaching. He even led worship at CFNI when he was in his I guess 20s or something. So, this guy has been in ministry all these years.

Jill:
18:45

He’s one of god’s generals.

Charlie:
18:46

Yeah, he he really is and and so it was a glorious time. We honored him. Of course, his spouse, Emma Jean, was there and we loved on her and cared for her. She just, she’s turned 89 this week and so we we were able to be there with them and sing and minister and we ministered Sunday morning. Basically, this kind of message But one thing that really touched me deeply was we were working with a young worship leader there at the church and we were spending a lot of time with him because he was helping set up our equipment and helping us sing and everything.

Charlie:
19:22

And we just got to talking and all of a sudden he shared with me that he lost his dad in 2020 and his dad died of COVID and it knocked him out. And we, you know, my heart bled for him, of course, I started to just love on him and he started, you know, we just started sharing and sharing. And then I met his mom who had lost her husband. And as we talked, tears were just, just all of a sudden, we just go, droop, drip down her eye. And she didn’t just break down and cry, but she was just sitting there going, droop, droop, these tears.

Charlie:
19:57

And I was just like, oh my God, it’s been about four years now for them. But listen, we remember, we’re almost sixteen years out, we’re fifteen and a half years out, but man, we remember those first few years and on where I mean to tell you, was hard and the pain of the loss and the loneliness and the caring for you know for this for this woman and many others. It’s still there people and and here’s the thing. Here’s one thing I want to say. Don’t don’t let them hide in the pews of church.

Charlie:
20:31

See, they’re they’re afraid to tell you. They’re afraid to tell you they’re hurting. Why? Because they’re afraid you’re gonna beat them over the head with the Bible. They’re not gonna they’re not gonna receive comfort from us.

Charlie:
20:43

That’s, you know, so we need to always remember that they are hurting people around us and many of them are hiding their pain and hiding their hurt. And brothers and sisters, the Bible tells us to be, to bear one another’s burdens. Galatians two, six:two, bear each other’s burdens, Be a comfort to them. As I said, weep with them. Be part of Jesus with skin on you.

Charlie:
21:07

Jesus is inside of you, so be that person that’ll hug and don’t let people hide out in their pain. You may say, well, how you doing? Maybe they just said, we’re fine. Well, they’re going to say that quickly because they don’t want, you know, it’s too short of a time because they think that I can’t really share with them what’s going on. But take them out to coffee or something, take them out to lunch.

Charlie:
21:26

We had that experience in England. John Donnelly sat us down in England just about four months after Boyd passed. We were there to do a big conference with Andrew Womack and he brought us out to lunch and he put his hand on my hand and said, Charlie, how are you really doing? And I just looked at him and I just thought, oh God, what do I do? What do I do?

Charlie:
21:44

What do I do? And all of a sudden I just burst into tears right in front of him, him and Susan Donnelly. And Jill and I just sat there and we wept and I wept and he ministered to me and he loved me but he was what we call a safe friend and we got so much to share, we’re hoping we can do this for a long time because we have so many things that we’ve learned but you know reach out to people who are hurting, give them a hug, weep with them, take them out to coffee, offer to come out and take them out to lunch, especially if they’re a widow or a widower, get with them. They’re lonely, they’re home alone. Amen.

Jill:
22:24

Yeah. There’s a lot of loss taking place last four years, isn’t there? It seems like since all that stuff took place four years ago that people either got sick and lost their lives or they tried, they did some other things that tried to keep them from getting sick and those made them sick. Yeah. And they died.

Jill:
22:52

So there’s just a lot of

Charlie:
22:54

Or when they got to the hospital, the doctors did the wrong things, gave them the wrong medicines, and they died.

Jill:
23:00

Yeah. You know, there’s a lot of loss happening. So we need to be equipped. We need we need to be the ones able to reach out to those that are hurting.

Charlie:
23:11

Yeah.

Jill:
23:12

We like in the book, we tell a story about a little boy who was scared because there was a thunderstorm going on outside and he was in bed and his mom was in bed across the hall and he kept crying out, mommy, mommy, I’m scared. And she kept saying, you’re fine, Jesus is with you, and that went back and forth a few times, and and finally, it kept thundering, and he he ended up next to her bed, and he said, mommy, I’m still scared. And she said, I told you Jesus is with you. And he said, I know, but I need Jesus with skin on. Amen.

Jill:
23:47

And so, you know, that’s what people need. They need us. We are Jesus with skin on. And so

Charlie:
23:56

So true.

Jill:
23:57

Yeah. And and that’s what people need. You know, Jesus Jesus himself said, blessed are those who mourn. He didn’t say, selfish are those who mourn. No.

Jill:
24:11

You know, He said, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Amen. That was our Jesus. Praise God. He is so caring and so kind and and loving.

Jill:
24:23

And I I read a story. We got a friend of ours who read our book, wrote and told me how much it ministered to her, and and she lost a grandchild that shouldn’t have died. He died in his sleep, and yes, he was was sick, but he wasn’t that sick. But the doctors did some things wrong, and he died in his sleep. And I think he was a year and a half old.

Jill:
24:53

You cute little guy. Oh my gosh. So she’s the grandmother, and her daughter’s devastated. And, you know, she’s she’s devastated for the toddler, and then she’s hurting for her daughter. And so she’s got this double whammy, but she’s she’s a full on believer.

Jill:
25:10

She loves the word of God. She’s filled with the holy spirit, but she she felt like she had to stuff this grief that she couldn’t express it because she just thought, I’m I’m just being so emotional. I’m just being emotional. I need to pull it together. And and so she wrote us after reading the book, and she said she said, I love your honesty.

Jill:
25:34

There are so many things in there that are true, but no one says. Mhmm. Thank you for reminding me that I am actually normal. And that’s what we are trying to express to you. You know, we’ve had a healing journey.

Jill:
25:49

This is our healing journey today is what we’re what we’ve been sharing about and how the Lord has brought us along. Yeah. And it if you don’t let grief some people look at grief as evil and opening the door to the flesh, but the word in in the Greek for grieve and mourn, there it’s basically the same word. It’s it’s interchangeable, and and grief is something that the Lord gave us to be able to release the pressure of the buildup after the pain takes place.

Charlie:
26:29

Yes.

Jill:
26:29

There is nothing wrong with grieving. It helps us. Yeah. If we stuff it down and try to put it on the back burner and don’t give any place to it, that’s when we get in trouble.

Charlie:
26:41

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I I I thought of this script not scripture, but this thought earlier this week. It just it just really ministered to me and it and I thought that Jesus never rebuked any person for having a broken heart.

Jill:
26:55

That’s right.

Charlie:
26:57

But he rebuked people for having hardened hearts, even his disciples. And they were like, you know, they they would wouldn’t learn a lesson. They wouldn’t, you know, they wouldn’t believe him. They wouldn’t trust him, and he would rebuke them for hardened hearts. But any any person in the Bible that had a broken heart, Jesus loved them.

Charlie:
27:16

Yeah. He comforted them. Even the women that that the well with five husbands or whatever, that whole scenario there. Jesus didn’t condemn her, He loved her. She had a broken heart.

Charlie:
27:27

The woman that wept at the feet of Jesus and dried His feet with her tear with her hair and her and her tears. Jesus didn’t rebuke her for crying. No. He he loved her. He says, you know, though her sins were many, she’s you look what she’s done.

Charlie:
27:45

No one else in this room washed my feet when I came in, you know? And so Jesus loves people who are hurting.

Jill:
27:52

Yes, he does.

Charlie:
27:53

He’s close as we said in the scripture. He is close to the brokenhearted. Psalm 3four 18, Jesus is close to broken hearted people, so how about you and me? Yeah. Why don’t we get in the boat with them too?

Charlie:
28:07

Amen? Yeah. You know, we should get in the boat with broken hearted people, not condemn them, not rebuke them, not not try to fix them, not try to tell them what the Bible says. No, we’re to get in the boat with them and hold them until they get better. Okay?

Charlie:
28:23

Pray with them, hold them, weep with them, as we’ve said, and I’m going to keep wearing that scripture out in Romans, weep with those who weep. Hello again everybody, this is Charlie and Jill and I just want to say a special thank you for joining us on this latest podcast episode And we want to remind you, we actually have a new episode every Tuesday. So come and join us on all of these. And if you could, share them with your friends, give us a thumbs up, follow us, however you can. It’ll help us reach more people, and that’s our heart.

Charlie:
28:59

And we also wanna encourage you that we have a website that will really help you. We have grief resources. We have music, lots of music that’ll really bless you. So we encourage you to sign up on our mailing list, and, there’s free resources if you do, free songs, lots of good stuff there as well. So God bless you, and thanks again for joining us.