Month: March 2013

Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of the synogogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet and begged Him earnestly, saying, ” My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up. and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” But His disciples said to Him, ” You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. “Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”  Mark 5:21-34

We read of two people, a well known synagogue leader, and an anonymous woman who had been sick for twelve years. Both of which were in dire need, and came humbly to the Lord on their knees. To see our children sick is very difficult indeed. Probably the easiest way to get to the heart of a man is through his children. We are told later on in the Scriptures, that she was twelve years old. A delightful age for any parent, bringing so much love and joy to this man’s family. But now the father’s heart is breaking, fear has set in that he may lose this precious bundle of joy. And though he must have struggled with his decision to leave his daughter’s side, he set out to seek after Jesus. And when he found Him amid the surrounding crowd thronging Him, he made his way through the crowds not taking any more chances. And came face to face with the Lord. And begged Him, “Please come, My little daughter is at the point of death. Just lay Your hands on her and she will be healed.”This synagogue ruler knew that Jesus could bring healing even to this condition of the point of death. The first step of faith, no matter how weak, will lead to greater blessing.

The word “touch” in Greek is grasped or clasped onto. This woman anonymous by name, but clearly known by Jesus, had set a point of releasing her faith. “The moment I touch His garment, I know I will be healed.”It is disturbing to think of all of the so called “healing evangelists” that over the years has taken advantage of people such as in this woman’s condition, and has fleeced the pocketbooks of so many into thinking that if you touched their garment or positively confessed your healing, you too would be healed. God clearly can bring immediate healing to anyone. He can bring you through any known disease or sickness should it be His will. But one thing is for sure, if you are a Christian today, God is well aware of what you need. He can be trusted to give you hope beyond this earthly life. Peace, that surpasses all human understanding, and grace for strength to endure to the end. What these two people have in common in our text, is an encounter with Christ, that enabled them to bring all of their burden to the Lord. Today, we can do the same through prayer knowing that God always hears the prayers of the righteous, but He opposes the proud in heart. This woman for twelve years lived with this condition which ostracized her from others as “ceremonially unclean,” but a ray of light with shining hope, was Jesus to her. I’ve been asked to pray for healing of the sick, I’ve been given the position of an elder by the Lord in the church. And as I have laid hands on with other elders on the sick, and anointed with oil, God has brought the miraclous healing. But i’m convinced that there need be no special way in asking the Lord for healing, than what we have read in our text. That we only have to come to Jesus by faith, and believe that He can do for me what no one else can. And leave the results in His hands. Later in the text, we read that Jairus daughter actually died, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. Then He took her by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which translated, “Little girl, I say to you arise.” Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age.(Mark 5:40-42)

Beloved friend, No matter what your facing, no situation is so desperate that Jesus cannot work. Disease, or delays, even unto death are under His control. Jesus goes with you to the place of disappointment and sorrow and will meet your needs. We read in Romans: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.(Romans 8:37-39)

May the Lord bless your walk with Him!

He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.        Proverbs 28:13-14

A lot of people through out history have tried to cover their sins. What they have learned and what we have learned was written down for us in the pages of Scripture: “Be sure your sins will find you out.”(Numbers 32:23), But God tells us what we ought to do, In first John we read, “If a man says he has no sin, he is only deceiving himself, the truth is not in him. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”(1 John 1:8-9). Just confess and forsake your sins, God will be merciful to you. For their are examples of men in the Bible who have tried and failed to cover their sins from God, why would we think we would be any different? David, while king over all of Israel wrote: Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old, through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the guilt of my sin(Psalm 32:1-5). This clearly shows the folly of trying to cover your sins. You’re not going to prosper. You’re not going to get away with it. Until you / we confess and forsake, we will have to answer for them. So you see sin must not be concealed but confessed. A Christian walks habititually in the light ( truth and holiness), not in darkness (falsehood and sin). Continual confession of sin through out your walk with God, is an indication of genuine conversion and salvation because of the fear of God.Meaning continues in reverence of God, and is obedient to His Word.

Paul wrote to the church in Rome, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them(Romans 1:18-19). This is not an impulsive outburst of anger aimed capriciously at people whom God does not like. Rather, it is the settled determined response of a righteous God against sin. Paul shows the overwhelming evidence of man’s sinfulness, underscoring how desperately he needs this righteousness that only God can provide. Everyone from the irreligious pagan Gentiles, to the outwardly only religious Jews (the Pharisees), and concludes that all men alike deserve God’s judgment.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)   The word for “Blessed” literally means “happy,” fortunate,” “blissful.” Jesus was describing the dively-bestowed well-being that belongs only to the humbly faithful. We read in Matthew 18, In His response to His disciples asking Him, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.”(Matthew 18:1-5) This is how Jesus characterized conversion. Like the Beatitudes, it pictures faith as the simple, helpless, trusting child-like dependence of those who have no resources of their own. Like children, they have no achievements and no accomplishments to offer back to God, nor anything to which to commend themselves with. Just themselves in their incomplete state.

Beloved friend, How profound in our modern society of high tech, and rapidly changing world, that we still don’t have anything to offer back to God of which we have any right to say, “I’ve the right to be in heaven!” That somehow my good deeds have been more than my bad deeds. The Good news for us all is that, For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.(Romans 3:23-24) A parenthetical comment explaining that God can bestow His righteousness on all who believe, Jew or Gentile, because all men—without distinction—fail miserably to live up to the divine standard set by God. So you see, if we humbly confess, and forsake our sins, we will be forgiven of all of our sins and be cleansed by God, through the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ who died for us on the cross at Calvary. What is our alternative? Try and conceal our sins until the Day of judgment? No thanks! I will rather trust in God’s revealed Word, and obey what it says, and enjoy my inheritance, and so can you!

May the Lord bless your walk with Him today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cups runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Psalm 23

One day as David was watching his sheep, the idea came to him that God was like a shepherd. He thought to himself, of the incessant care that sheep require—their helplessness and their defenselessness. He recalled their foolish straying from the safe pathways and their constant wandering made it obvious of their need for a guide. He thought of the time and patience it took for them to trust him before they would follow. During times when they needed him to lead them out of danger as they huddled close behind their shepherd. How he must think for his sheep, fight for them and be on guard for them against predators. If need be he would bind up any scratch or wound, until they were healed and how quickly they would be prone to wander again and again. Yet, in all of this caregiving, not one of his sheep was aware of how constantly they were watched and loved by their shepherd. Yes, he mused, God is very much like a good shepherd. Ancient shepherds knew their sheep by name. They were acquainted with all of their ways—their peculiarities, their characteristic marks, and their tendencies. Back then shepherds didn’t drive their sheep; they led them. Even if two shepherds were calling their flocks at the same time and the sheep were intermingled, they would never follow the wrong shepherd.

Hundreds of years later, after David had penned this psalm, Jesus said with quiet assurance: ” I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep (John 10:11-15). This is our Lord Jesus, “that Great Shepherd of the sheep”(Hebrews 13:20). He was One with His Father, and saw us as lost sheep without a shepherd. ” He came to seek and to save that which was lost.”(Luke 19:10) He is the One who left the ” ninety-nine on the hills”and went “to look for the one that wandered off,”forever establishing the value of just one person and the Father’s desire that not one of them should perish (Matthew 18:12-14). The Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep. With a shepherd’s heart, He demonstrated an unforeseen love that was willing to even lay down His life for their security. His own lifeblood for the ransom price. He never takes His eye off His sheep, ever faithful to always be on guard against the wolf. The term “good”has the idea of “noble”and stands in stark contrast to the “hireling”who cares only for self-interest. The “hireling” represents the religious leaders of Jesus day who perform their duty in convienent times, but never during times of adversity. Where in contrst to Jesus, who laid down His own life for His flock. Since the beginning of Old Testament laws, religious leaders have decreed that a lamb should give up its life for their own. The high priest would bring his lamb to the sanctuary, lean with all his weight on the lamb’s head, and confess his sin. The lamb would then be slain and its blood would flow out—a life for a life.

Now the Shepherd gives up His life for His lamb. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisment for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all(Isaiah 53:5-6). The stripe that caused His death has brought salvation to those for whose sins He died for. The Servant Shepherd died not for His own sin, since He was sinless (Hebrews 4:15), but as the substitute for sinners. He died for all sin, not just the gross sins of murder, adultery, and theft. But also for the secret sins of selfishness and pride.

Beloved friend, In John 10:7-9,  Jesus tells His disciples that not only is He the “Good Shepherd,”He also is the “gate.”As the gate, He is the only way in and out. As the good shepherd He confronts danger to protect His sheep. He waits until we know that nothing else matters in this life, nothing will ease the pain that comes from the absence of His peace. Nothing will make life worth living except His presence, His forgiveness, His righteousness which in turn makes us in right standing with the Father. And best of all, when we realize this about ourselves and turn to Him, He is there to greet us, and except us as His own. Praise God ! For His glorious grace and goodness that the Good Shepherd gives to His sheep!

May the Lord bless your walk with Him!