Monthly Archives: April 2014

How will your faith be displayed today?

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Out of faith came healing…

When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!…”

Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour (Matthew 8:5-10, 13).

No one would have expected a Roman officer to have faith in Jesus, yet his faith was strong enough to believe that Jesus could simply speak the healing into being. And that it was Jesus did. HE TOOK THE FAITH OF A POWERFUL MAN AND DISPLAYED THE POWER OF AN OMNIPOTENT GOD.

Out of compassion came healing and then perhaps faith…

Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother (Luke 7:11-15).

There is no mention of the widow’s faith here; no mention of any one requesting that Jesus bring this young man back from the dead. Yet Jesus did something wonderful for this woman and her son, as well as for everyone else who was watching, out of compassion. I think it is safe to assume that out of this act of kindness came faith. Jesus gave this mother her son back. If there was no faith before, there certainly was now. HE TOOK THE SORROW OF A GRIEVING MOTHER AND DISPLAYED THE COMPASSION OF A LOVING GOD.

There are times when God does something wonderful for us because we ask and times when God does something wonderful for us in spite of the fact that we do not ask. As a result of our faith, God moves and, in order to grow our faith, God moves.

Out of faith comes forgiveness, which brings healing…

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.

When the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.

Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people – 500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces of silver to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”

“That’s right,” Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

“I tell you, her sins – and they are many – have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man that he goes around forgiving sins?”

And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” – Luke 7:36-50

This woman had faith in Jesus and her sins were forgiven. But beyond forgiveness, this woman needed healing from her past and, therefore, Jesus also gave her peace. JESUS TOOK THE REGRET OF A SINFUL WOMAN AND DISPLAYED THE FORGIVENESS OF A SAVING GOD.

What do you need from Jesus today? Do you need healing? Do you need to recognize what God is doing in your life and allow it to grow your faith? Do you need forgiveness for sin? Do you need the healing God gives after forgiveness in order to speak peace where condemnation continues to be your enemy? I pray God gives you what you need and what you ask for today. I also pray that you display your faith by asking God for what you desire today. Remember, He is OMNIPOTENT. Remember, He is a LOVING God. Remember, He is a SAVING God.

“Catch the Ball!”

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Have you ever noticed at sporting events how we sometimes yell the obvious? To the pitcher, we yell, “Get this guy out!” He has been trying to get every batter out for the last five innings but we yell the obvious anyhow. The football team will be seven points behind and someone will yell, “We need a touchdown!” Probably most of what we yell from the sidelines is already the goal of the players on the field. The basketball player who just let the ball slip through their hands doesn’t need to hear us yelling, “Catch the ball!” He knows he messed up. What he needs from us is encouragement – “You can do it!” or “We believe in you!”

This came back to me this morning as I was reading Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. How often do we see the situation someone else is in and wonder why they are not doing something to get themselves out? Why is it that we come up with solutions to other peoples’ problems so much easier than we come up with solutions of our own? When it is someone else who has gotten themselves into a situation, the solution seems so easy and obvious. They do not need us to yell the obvious from the sidelines. They are well aware of the situation they are in. What they need is encouragement. That or put on a uniform and get in the game!

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your own eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).

Jesus is not saying here that we should not help each other; that we should only worry about ourselves. He is commanding us to stop judging each other for the help that we need. We need to first examine our own situations. When we do this, we will most likely see that we, too, are not perfect. We make mistakes and get ourselves into situations we should not be in, just like others around us.

The messages of Jesus are consistent with the idea that we reach out and help those around us, loving them the way we would want to be loved (there’s that Golden Rule again). Jesus is not saying to ignore the single woman with three kids because “she should have known better than to marry that guy.” Jesus is not saying to criticize the parents whose kids are out of control because “this would not be happening if they had just made them obey when they were younger.” The list goes on and on. The answer to all situations is that Jesus wants us to reach out in love to one another, not sit in judgment of each other.

Last week, we looked at the Sermon on the Mount from Luke’s gospel. Let’s look again at how he retold this portion of Jesus’ sermon.

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

Then Jesus gave the following illustration: “Can one blind person lead another? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:37-45).

“What you say flows from what is in your heart.” What we say about other people flows from what is in our heart. A good person produces good things from their heart, an evil person produces evil things. This is good to remember next time I am in the mood to gossip or to say something critical about someone else.
Lord, please forgive me for the evil things that have spilled out of my mouth. Forgive me for my criticisms of others. Lord, my desire is to help others. Please take this log out of my own eye so that I can reach out to others with a pure heart. Amen.