Hope is powerful. With hope a person can endure anything. The most miserable people I can think of are people who have no hope. So what are we to do for those who have lost hope, how are we to help them? Let them see you are weak and that you struggle with things to. Let them see you are not perfect and neither is your life's circumstances. To often christians are scared to let people see them weak when we ought to be thankful for the weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). People tend to listen to other people they can relate to, people who share similar experiences in life. I see so many people acting as if "life" just hasn't ever happened to them, as if they have never had circumstances so hard it really challenged their faith. So if we hide from our weaknesses and we hide them from others we essentially hide the help we possibly could give others. We are to be like Christ and though Christ is God He took on the likeness of sinful flesh becoming "weak" in the sense that He was like us, having to depend totally on the Father by faith(Romans 8:3). Christ didn't enjoy everything He faced but He always endured, especially the cross for the joy that was set before Him(Hebrews 12:2). You see life is not always "fun" or easy but it is always worth it. We face many sorrows here and often are left to wonder why for a season. Some things we understand in time some things we never fully understand but through Christ they are used to make us more like Him. What we need to do is take all our weakness which weights us down like burdens and controls our steps like a heavy yoke and give them to Jesus Christ. But how? First if you are lost you must be born-again and this is ONLY possible through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. If the Holy Spirit is drawing you then repent (turn) from sin, wickedness, and mostly unbelief. Trust Christ is all you need to be saved, that He not only came and lived a sinless life but that His sacrifice on the cross was/is sufficient for you. By His death He took the penalty you deserve which is eternal death and by His resurrection He sealed eternal life for all who by faith believe (trust) Him. Why is this important? Because Jesus is all the hope we need but not only that, Jesus is the only real hope we have in this life and the life to come. If you love God and have been born again by the mercy and grace of God then you can have hope that God will work all things together for good for you
(Romans 8:28). Remember this though, contrary to popular belief God WILL allow more than you can handle to be put on you. He allows it so you must trust in Him, so you will realize that your sufficiency is in His strength not your own. God is not a rewarder of the strong but those who diligently seek Him(Hebrews 11:6). It is through these trials that our faith is tried which works our patience and when it is complete we are left lacking nothing(James1:4). Those of you who are struggling with hopelessness I know from experience that it hurts but through Christ you can have REAL hope, real peace, and real joy. You will have trials and tribulations, I'm not trying to promote a gospel that doesn't exist but the true Gospel that is honest with us about what we really are without Christ(Romans 3:23), the trials we will face and the promise of God who believes the testimony of Christ(John 16:33). What I want you to take away from this is that even though you are weak in all sorts of ways it is for a purpose and that purpose is for the glory of Christ to be seen in your life. Let others see your weakness but in seeing your weakness let them see where you get the strength to carry on, let them see Jesus in your life and hear Jesus in your words.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Unmistakable
John 5
1After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
4For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
5And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
7The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
8Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
10The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
11He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
12Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
13And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
14Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
15The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.
The first verses I want to talk about are the verses that are highlighted above then I will comment some on the others. What I want us to see is Jesus healed the man from his physical condition, told him to take up his bed and walk. The man did so IMMEDIATELY!!! This was a true miracle, no doctor, no medicine, or even time healing wounds but Jesus performed a miracle on this man. The man I presume was so excited about being healed that when he gathered his bed and began to walk he was seperated from Jesus because of the crowed around them both. So this man is now walking along with his bed and then here comes the worldly religious crowed. "It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." The man looks at them and says pretty much "listen, I hear what you're saying but the guy who healed me told me to take up my bed and walk, so I did like He said". I mean what would you have done if you would've been him? So they began to ask him who it was that healed him, the only problem was he didn't have a clue. Now before you get all "holy" and everything think how many times Jesus has done something for you and you didn't even take a minute to realize it was Him much less give Him thanks for it. Anyway, Jesus was not finished with the man yet! Jesus again finds this man in the temple and aproaches Him, Jesus says " Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. "
So this time Jesus addresses the mans real need, his sin problem, the real handicap that he was born with just like every other person who has ever been on the earth. Jesus deals with the sin, this man walks away a new man. After this meeting with Jesus he has no doubt about who he has just met. He goes to the Jews and tells them it was Jesus who healed him. So what happened? Jesus does heal people, as a matter of fact all TRUE healing comes from Him because all good things come from the Father... James 1:17, (I say true healing because the devil has a lot of people masquerading around pretending to heal people) but the problem is to often we give doctors, medicine, or procedures the credit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against doctors or anything like that but all they do is provide the right treatment to put us in the best place to recover, God always is the one Who heals. So what point am I trying to make here? When Jesus found the man and dealt with the sin of his heart the man walked away knowing it was Jesus, there was no doubt it was Jesus. That is how it is today, when Jesus lifts the burden of sin off your heart you know it was Jesus and not only do you know it was Jesus you will tell others! Why? Because no one or nothing but Jesus and His precious blood can wash away our sin and make us whole. This man was crippled for 38 years of his life, when he was healed he didn't know who done it and he didn't seem to care to find out, not that he wasn't thankful but when he was confronted about his sin and Jesus dealt with that problem he walked away a different man all together that wasn't just healed physically but spiritually and he KNEW who done it.
The last comment I want to make on this for now is notice how this man laid there for 38 years and the Jews ignored him but as soon as he was doing something they didn't understand they immediatley "cared" to know all his bussiness. Think about that, are you like Christ aproaching those who are hurting physically and crippled spiritually by sin or are you like the "Jews" here who are just content to ignore those type of people until God touches them and uses them in a way that doesn't make sense to you because you are to blinded by tradition and what you think is right? Be careful how you look at people who trusting God enough to live outside YOUR tradition and comfort zone. We are to seek God to give Him glory, if our traditions can do that let us keep them but if we are just doing them because we've always "done it like that" then I believe it's time we repented of vain worship and return to our first Love, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior the Son of God!!!
Remember if Jesus has called to your heart and told you that you have been "made whole" you will know His name not just in passing but His name will be precious to you.
Comment please. Thank you.
1After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
4For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
5And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
7The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
8Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
10The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
11He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
12Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
13And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
14Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
15The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.
The first verses I want to talk about are the verses that are highlighted above then I will comment some on the others. What I want us to see is Jesus healed the man from his physical condition, told him to take up his bed and walk. The man did so IMMEDIATELY!!! This was a true miracle, no doctor, no medicine, or even time healing wounds but Jesus performed a miracle on this man. The man I presume was so excited about being healed that when he gathered his bed and began to walk he was seperated from Jesus because of the crowed around them both. So this man is now walking along with his bed and then here comes the worldly religious crowed. "It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." The man looks at them and says pretty much "listen, I hear what you're saying but the guy who healed me told me to take up my bed and walk, so I did like He said". I mean what would you have done if you would've been him? So they began to ask him who it was that healed him, the only problem was he didn't have a clue. Now before you get all "holy" and everything think how many times Jesus has done something for you and you didn't even take a minute to realize it was Him much less give Him thanks for it. Anyway, Jesus was not finished with the man yet! Jesus again finds this man in the temple and aproaches Him, Jesus says " Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. "
So this time Jesus addresses the mans real need, his sin problem, the real handicap that he was born with just like every other person who has ever been on the earth. Jesus deals with the sin, this man walks away a new man. After this meeting with Jesus he has no doubt about who he has just met. He goes to the Jews and tells them it was Jesus who healed him. So what happened? Jesus does heal people, as a matter of fact all TRUE healing comes from Him because all good things come from the Father... James 1:17, (I say true healing because the devil has a lot of people masquerading around pretending to heal people) but the problem is to often we give doctors, medicine, or procedures the credit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against doctors or anything like that but all they do is provide the right treatment to put us in the best place to recover, God always is the one Who heals. So what point am I trying to make here? When Jesus found the man and dealt with the sin of his heart the man walked away knowing it was Jesus, there was no doubt it was Jesus. That is how it is today, when Jesus lifts the burden of sin off your heart you know it was Jesus and not only do you know it was Jesus you will tell others! Why? Because no one or nothing but Jesus and His precious blood can wash away our sin and make us whole. This man was crippled for 38 years of his life, when he was healed he didn't know who done it and he didn't seem to care to find out, not that he wasn't thankful but when he was confronted about his sin and Jesus dealt with that problem he walked away a different man all together that wasn't just healed physically but spiritually and he KNEW who done it.
The last comment I want to make on this for now is notice how this man laid there for 38 years and the Jews ignored him but as soon as he was doing something they didn't understand they immediatley "cared" to know all his bussiness. Think about that, are you like Christ aproaching those who are hurting physically and crippled spiritually by sin or are you like the "Jews" here who are just content to ignore those type of people until God touches them and uses them in a way that doesn't make sense to you because you are to blinded by tradition and what you think is right? Be careful how you look at people who trusting God enough to live outside YOUR tradition and comfort zone. We are to seek God to give Him glory, if our traditions can do that let us keep them but if we are just doing them because we've always "done it like that" then I believe it's time we repented of vain worship and return to our first Love, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior the Son of God!!!
Remember if Jesus has called to your heart and told you that you have been "made whole" you will know His name not just in passing but His name will be precious to you.
Comment please. Thank you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)