Healing the sick

Jesus performed all kinds of miracles during His 3 year ministry.  We know that He could have healed every sick person in the world during this time.  But His real purpose was to seek and save the lost.  His was a spiritual ministry. 

There are different ways to learn the Bible.  One can spend time in study, or just read.......or lately I have been just skimming.  My purpose in skimming through was to learn better, or memorize, the location of key passages.  I decided to start with the book of Matthew.  It is hard to do this because there is a tendency to get bogged down and start studying in more depth.  But I have been trying.

In Matthew we have the sermon on the mount in chapters 5-7.  Then there is a healing of a leper that comes up soon after.  But there is a really neat story about a Centurion's servant who gets sick, a servant who is dearly loved by the officer.  First, note that a Centurion is an officer over 100 men, a respectable and well paid position.  And note, too, that this story is also told in Luke 6.  The accounts quote the officer saying that if he tells his men to go...or stay....or do, they will do that.  He says that because he realizes that Jesus is of much higher authority.  In fact, he doesn't even feel worthy to go to Jesus directly, but sends some of his Jewish friends to appeal to Jesus to save the servant.  But the key to this story is that he knows,  he knows,  that Jesus has the power to save his servant, even from a distance.  Jesus, realizing the great faith that this Centurion has in Him, is so impressed that He says, "I have never seen such great faith."

The point of this story can be well applied to us today.  Jesus was impressed with this man because of his belief in Him.  It wasn't anything that he did, any great work.  In fact the Centurion did nothing of himself; he stayed home and just sent messengers.  But it shows that Jesus wants first and foremost from us all our faith, our confidence in Him.  It reminds me of the verse in Romans 11:6, "For without faith it is impossible to please Him.  For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

God wants us to be servants, to work for Him, to do good.  But mostly God wants us to be people of faith; people who completely trust and believe in Him.  The rest will follow.

Lets do it!    Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

The Unknown God

The apostle Paul went to Athens, as recorded in Acts chapter 17, and found a lot of idol worshipping going on.  It is interesting to note how Paul taught these people about the real God.

"Men of Athens I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

                            TO THE UNKNOWN GOD

Therefore, the One whom you worship with out knowing, Him I proclaim to you:  God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.  Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' 

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.  Truly, these time of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent...."

Even today, people worship everything but the one true God.  And many of those who claim to be religious do not truly know God.  We also see a large portion of the people of the world, and certainly in our country, not believing that there is a god at all. 

Those of us who are believers must be sure that we are clear as to who God is.  I like the verse in Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is , and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

Let us diligently seek Him.....and know that He rewards His people.

Thanks for reading.  Feel the love......

Jesus

Jesus made His position on this earth clear.  He said in John 14, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me." This is a bold statement, but is the absolute truth.  There were times that Jesus did not speak so boldly.  These were times when He felt that His words would not be believed or understood anyway.  But there were many times when He was quite clear.

In John chapter 4 we find a verbal exchange between Jesus and a woman that He encountered at a well.  The woman was surprised that He would even speak to her since she was a Samaritan woman.  Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."  And later says, "...but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst."

Toward the end of this discussion, the woman says to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things."  "Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am He.' "  Jesus spoke quite boldly to her, letting her know (us, too) that He was truly the Messiah that had been promised for generations.

In John chapter 12, Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.  And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.  I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.  And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.  He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.  For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  And I know that His command is everlasting life.  Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

Jesus made it clear that He is the Son of God.  We should listen carefully to His words and give Him the glory.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

The Gospel

The "Gospel" simply means "good news."  And the good news is that Jesus has arrived.  And He not only arrived, but He had come to fulfill all of the prophecy of His coming that had been made over many centuries.  But more than that, He had come to save people, people of that day and people of every generation to follow.  We see this plan developed over the centuries as we look at the Old Testament and see how it all leads down to the coming of Jesus.  Here are the words of Jesus regarding His central purpose:

Luke 19:10, "...the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."   Here Jesus has just been impressed with the change in the man Zacchaeus.  Z. had been a rich tax collector and had defrauded the people in doing his job.  But Jesus came into his life to effect a change...to "save that which was lost."

Matthew 18:11, "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost."  Jesus is speaking in this context of "little ones,"  followers of Jesus.  He follows this statement by saying that if a man has a hundred sheep but one goes astray, he will leave the 99 and go find the one. 

It was all important to Jesus that every single person have the opportunity to be saved.  And of course, He is talking about the after-life, eternal life, real life.  Our time on earth is just a fleeting thing, a short passing...and we must seek the Lord and His Way.  A favorite verse is Hebrews 11:6,

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

We must seek Him in order to enjoy His salvation.  But He wants us to do that, to seek Him, because He came to seek and save the lost.  Praise God!

Thank you for reading.  Have a great week.

Jews, Hebrews, Israelites

The three words, Jews, Hebrews and Israelites are very closely related and are used interchangeably by most people.  They are not technically the same, but the distinction is minor.  The Jewish faith and people all began with Abraham, as recorded in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.  And the Old Testament follows the history of the Jewish people down through time.  The reason for the emphasis on these people is at least two-fold.  These were God's chosen people to whom He gave a special law to follow.  And these were the people of Jesus.

As the New Testament begins, we read of the genealogy from Abraham down to Jesus.  So Jesus was born a Jew, of the tribe of Judah.  Jesus kept the Jewish law all through His lifetime, as did His family and those around Him.  Jesus had to die before the new religion of Christianity, following after Christ, was to come into effect.  So during Jesus' life He only taught in preparation of the coming change.  But a change was coming....and we read of this in the books of the NT.

The documenting of the change from the Jewish Law to the Law of Christ is shown in the book of Acts where we see the apostles going forth to teach the new way.  They were doing what Jesus had taught them to do when He said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved...."(Mark 16:15-16).  The gospel was the good news that Jesus was the Son of God, that He died for all people, and that through following Him one could be saved eternally.

After the book of Acts we find that the other books, written to Christians to further help them in growing their faith, show clearly that the Jewish Law is no longer in effect.  Colossians 2:14 says it was "nailed to the cross."  Galatians 3:28 says that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Anyone practicing the Jewish faith today is surely in error for several reasons.  One is that Jesus and His followers as written in the NT made it clear that Judaism is over.  And Jesus Himself pointed out that those trying to follow the Jewish Law were not keeping it fully, accurately; and no one trying to do that today would do so correctly.  But it is interesting to go back and to study the religion and the history of the Jews.  After all, this is the family of Jesus.

Thanks for reading.  Keep the faith.

The Church

The subject of "church" is an interesting study, and will be discussed here briefly.  The word is thrown around rather lightly and often incorrectly in our society today.  Many speak of it as a building, as in the question, "Where is your church?"  And yet we know that it is spoken of differently in the Bible. 

"Church" is a Biblical word.  Jesus introduced the subject in Matthew 16:18.  Peter had just make the declaration that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God."  The Jesus followed that by saying, "...on this rock I will build My church..."  Jesus was not saying that a physical building would be built, but rather, that the institution "ecclesia" meaning gathering or "group" in Greek would be built on the fact that Jesus was the Son of God.

It is interesting to me that Jesus didn't try to form this group during his lifetime.  I would think that anyone trying to start something like this would try to do it in their lifetime.  Jesus chose simply to teach and prepare His followers to build the church after He left them.  It is with this approach that Jesus taught His apostles to wait in Jerusalem after His leaving (Acts 1:8) and, "...you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."  The apostles did just that and thus the church was born, beginning in Acts chapter 2.

To be clear, let me restate that the church of Jesus Christ began with the major event in Acts chapter 2 as we see the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles, just as Jesus had promised.  The church was planned and discussed before this, but had not begun.  At the end of Acts 2 we read that the new converts, numbering in the thousands there in Jerusalem, were "praising God and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."

Wow!  What a beginning.  We might note in passing that the word "church" is used in two senses in the Bible, one being the local group, and another the overall group of Christians everywhere.  But they/we are just God's people who are trying to follow Jesus.

And they/we are taught to meet together and work together to accomplish the spreading of the Word of God to others....and to worship.  The church was important enough for Jesus to die for it, and we must show our love for it, as well.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great, God-filled week.

Prophesies

The Old Testament is full of prophecies.  God chose to speak to His people through the voice of other people.  And this is true in the NT, as well.  The NT is written by mere men with their own styles and their own way of writing and expressing themselves.  Yet, God is directing the writing, inspiring ("God-breathed") the writers to say what He wants said.  This, of course, is what is happening throughout the OT, too.  In fact, we see that in the OT there are many cases where God is not only directing these writers as to what to say, He is telling of the future events to come.  We will mention a few of these here as examples of future prophecy.

The book of Nahum, a book not familiar to most people, is written to warn the people of God that calamity was coming at the hands of the Assyrians.  We might remind ourselves here that God is always in control.  He is in control of the rise of nations and the fall of nations.  And we might prefer that He always supports the good nation and brings down the bad.  But what we see happening, as recorded in Nahum, for example, is that God will sometimes use a bad, evil nation to punish His people for their transgressions.

Another example of a book that prophesies doom on His people is the book of Habakkuk.  Again, this is a book, often described as a Minor Prophet because of its short length, that is not so well known.  But in this book of the OT, prophecy is being made of the coming power of Babylon.  The term "Chaldeans" is used in some places, which is the same as the Babylonians.  God is warning His people that they are about to face the terror of the Babylonians. 

In both of these cases we see that the prophecies came true.  The Assyrian Empire was huge and the captors vicious.  Following that, the Babylonian Empire conquered much of the known world including God's people, the Israelites. 

There are many things that we can learn from this.  One is that when God speaks, even through His prophets, it always comes true.  Another is that God is, in fact, in total control.  And we can apply these warnings to ourselves; that is, we need to draw closer to God to avoid the punishments that can come....as individuals and as a nation.  We learn that God will only put up with just so much rejection from His people.  His is very patient....more than patient...but there are limits.

We need to pray that God will give our country, and our world, leaders that will help us get back closer to following Him and His ways.  And we can approach Him for His help so that HE will be praised.....not for our benefit....but for HIS.  He wants to be praised....and He deserves to be praised.  Let us praise God!

Thanks for reading.  May you receive all of God's blessings!