Tag Archives: blind

Walking On The Word

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WALKING ON THE WORD

“After saying this He spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ He told him, ‘wash in the pool Siloam’ (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” John 9:6-7 NIV.

What was that; a new kind of eye salve? That was a strange way to heal a man, or was it? What was it that Jesus asked the man to put his trust in — the mud on his eyes, or in the word that He spoke?

How easy it would have been for the blind man to have been side-tracked by what Jesus did to him, and put his faith in that rather than in the simple instruction Jesus gave him. Had he not obeyed Jesus he might have sat around with mud on his eyes waiting for his miracle until the day he died.

Remember Elisha and Naaman the Syrian general? He was also given an instruction by the prophet which he pooh-poohed because it didn’t suit him. It was humiliating for him to wash in the muddy Jordan rather than in the clear stream in his homeland. He almost missed his miracle because of his silly pride!

Washing in the Jordan River and washing off the mud in the Pool of Siloam were only the means of testing the obedience of the sufferers. Acting on the word was what triggered their healing.

In John 1 John introduced Jesus as the Word who was with God from the beginning and who was God. Like the spoken word, Jesus is the manifestation of the Father in another form. He is the embodiment of what God has spoken. When He speaks He reveals and reflects the Father. Therefore, whenever He gave an instruction, the Father backed up His word by the action that brought the word to pass.

In John 8 we read that He sets us free from our slave-drivers — implied — when we put His teachings into practice. When we weave His word into our lives, we are like a wise builder who establishes his house on bedrock so that, when the storm blows in, it will not dislodge and destroy the house.

How often do we not put our faith in our faith rather than in what God has promised! Faith in the Word releases the power of God to honour His promise. The blind man’s simple obedience brought the miracle he was not even expecting.

“His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, ‘Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?’ Some claimed that he was. Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’ But he himself insisted, ‘I am the man.'” John 9:8, 9 NIV.

Strange, isn’t it, that a blind beggar believed Jesus and risked making a fool of himself by obeying His word and was rewarded with a miracle! Yet some of the bystanders made fools of themselves by denying that the man who used to beg was the same man who now could see. How stubborn and wilfully blind can a person be to deny the obvious and forfeit the miracle of spiritual sight.

Were the people who denied the identity of the healed man afraid of the Jews? Probably, otherwise there is no reason for their foolishness unless they too, stubbornly resisted the idea that Jesus was their Messiah.

It reminds me of the men and women who stubbornly believe that the universe just “happened” when common sense screams out that everything that is made has to have a maker. Nothing just “happens”! Slime doesn’t become complex creatures who perfectly function in their environment. Behind their foolish insistence that evolution is fact is the refusal to believe in a Creator God because they do not want to be accountable to Him.

Unfortunately for those who refuse to believe the truth, it will not change or go away to suit them. Like some of the people who denied that the healed man was the erstwhile blind beggar, those who deny the existence of God rob themselves of the miracle of true sight. How surprised they would be if, in the process of acknowledging Jesus, they found out what life is really all about and experience the joy of being reconnected to their Creator!

Are you walking on the Word?

Let’s See What God Can Do!

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LET’S SEE WHAT GOD CAN DO! 

“As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’

“‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no man can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'” John 9:1-5 (NIV).

Two worlds; two perspectives!

The disciples represented the world view of the people of their day.  They looked upon any adversity as punishment for sin. A righteous person enjoyed God’s blessing while an unrighteous person experienced hardship and trouble as a result of his evil deeds.

This philosophy of life posed a problem for Job and his friends because Job suffered huge loss and yet he knew he was not guilty of wickedness. His friends tried to convince him that he had done wrong while he protested his innocence and accused God of being unjust. Both parties were unaware of the behind-the-scenes conversation between God and Satan, and Satan’s challenge to remove Job’s blessings and see him turn on God.

It was natural, from the disciples’ point of view, for them to question Jesus about the cause of this man’s blindness. Someone must have sinned and been responsible for his blindness, either the man or his parents that he was in this condition. To them this was about cause and effect.

Jesus had a different world view from theirs. In the words of Eugene Peterson (The Message Bible), “Jesus said, ‘You’re asking the wrong question. You are looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.'” John 9:3.

From His perspective, trouble and hardships were not a punishment from God but the outcome of living in a fallen word. “‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.'” John 16:33 (NIV). It was not so much about who was responsible for the bad things but what God can do to reveal His love and mercy (glory) through them.

Jesus lived His whole life from a “kingdom” perspective. He viewed life from God’s point of view. What was that? Since He was the lamb “slain from before the foundation of the world”, sin was no longer the problem. He gave Himself as a sacrifice for sin which enabled Him to forgive the sinner without an animal sacrifice. Because His religious opponents did not understand this, they were infuriated with Him when He forgave sins and released the sinner.

He revealed God’s true nature as a merciful and forgiving Father who opened His arms to receive His erring sons back into the family. He no longer needed to punish them. When they experienced hardship, it was His opportunity to show His mercy and reveal His glory by intervening to deliver them from trouble.

Unfortunately there is a stream of thought in many areas of the church which mimics the philosophy of ancient Israel. If a person is sick or his business fails, for example, he has either sinned or lacks the faith to be healed or for his business to be restored or for any adversity to be reversed. This leaves the sufferer disappointed, disillusioned and suspicious of God because He didn’t come through for him. He prayed for a “breakthrough” and God don’t answer him.

There are many ways that God reveals His glory through our troubles. He may heal or restore our fortunes or He may not, but use them to teach us to appropriate the grace that make us strong in our weakness. From His point of view, “…In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NIV).

Instead of looking for someone or something to blame in our troubles, let’s look to the Father with expectation because He has something up His sleeve that will surprise us and shine the light on His glory!

Let’s see what God can do!

Yes Or No?

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YES OR NO?

 “John’s disciples reported back to him the news of all these events taking place. He sent two of them to the Master to ask the question, ‘Are you the One we’re expecting or are we still waiting?’ The men showed up before Jesus and said, ‘John the Baptist sent us to ask you, “Are you the one we’re expecting or are we still waiting?”‘ 

“In the next two or three hours Jesus healed many from disease, distress and evil spirits. To many of the blind He gave the gift of sight. Then He gave His answer: ‘Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard: The blind see; the lame walk; lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; the wretched of the earth have God’s salvation hospitality extended to them. Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourself fortunate!'” Luke 7:18-23 (The Message).

Poor John!

He was sitting in a dungeon at King Herod’s good pleasure. Would it not have been reasonable for him to expect Jesus to do something about him? After all, He was family and he, John, had paved the way for Him! And besides, didn’t the Scriptures prophesy that He would set captives free?

What did John expect? Perhaps, at the very least, Jesus could have gone to Herod and put in a good word for him. Day after day he sat in his prison, waiting and hoping for release, only to be disappointed. He began to doubt that Jesus was the Messiah, after all. Perhaps He was a hoax. The longer he sat there, the more the doubts plagued him.

He had to find out. At least he would know whether there was any hope of being rescued before Herod got it into his head to execute him. He couldn’t go himself, so he sent for a few of his disciples to go for him. ‘Master,’ they asked Jesus, ‘John wants to know whether you are really the Messiah, or do we have to keep waiting for someone else to come?’

Jesus gave them no direct answer. All He said was, ‘Watch and listen.’ So they followed Him around, watching and listening. After some hours He asked them, ‘So? What have you just seen and heard? Now go and tell John all about it.’ He gave them a resume’ of the miracles He had done over the last while. ‘Ask him if this is what he was expecting? If it was, then he is truly blessed.’

What was going on here? John’s circumstances were getting to him. No one can blame him. Who can endure incarceration like that and not give in to self-pity. He had preached that the kingdom of God was a realm of generosity and unselfish service but, in his own suffering, he had begun to turn inward. Hoping that Jesus would mount a rescue, he could not understand why nothing had happened. Perhaps he had been mistaken after all.

His disciples returned with an answer he had not quite expected. A straight ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ would have been better. Instead, in typical “Jesus” fashion, He invited John to weigh up the evidence and decide for himself. That was His way of convincing him who He was according to the evidence and the Scriptures.

John was a rabbi and, of course he had memorised the entire Hebrew Scriptures. He would have immediately caught on to what Jesus was saying. ‘John, don’t take my word for it. Take another look at what the Scriptures say about me and then decide for yourself.’ The Messianic fingerprint was clearly visible in the Old Testament prophecies. All John had to do was to match it up with what Jesus was doing.

Whether or not Jesus got him released was irrelevant. Overshadowing Herod was God’s hand and he had to rest in that. His story was being written into God’s bigger story and Jesus was writing the meaning of that story into the lives of sick, maimed and side-lined people. It was up to John to answer his own question.

We all have to decide whether Jesus is the Messiah or not. Weigh up the evidence.

Is He? Then follow Him!

Blinded and Blind!

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BLINDED AND BLIND!

“As I arrived on the outskirts of Damascus about noon, a blinding light blazed out of the skies and I fell to the ground, dazed. I heard a voice, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?’
“Who are you, Master?’ I asked.
“He said, ‘I am Jesus, the Nazarene, the One you’re hunting down.’ My companions saw the light but they didn’t hear the conversation.
‘Then I said, ‘What do I do now, Master?’
“He said, ‘Get to your feet and enter Damascus. There you’ll be told everything that’s been set out for you to do.’ And so we entered Damascus, but nothing like the entrance we had planned — I was blind as a bat and my companions had to lead me by the hand.” Acts 22:6-11a (The Message).

Blinded and blind! Paul’s vivid encounter with the alive and living Jesus outside Damascus was forever engraved in his memory and coloured his understanding of the ways of the God. Was he writing about himself when he penned the words, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”? 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV).

En route to Damascus, it was a spiritually blind Saul who was bent on wiping out the people who were following Jesus in a new way of living. Then a blinding light shone in his eyes, blinding him so that he had to be led by the hand into the city. Blind on the outside, it was the first time he had really “seen” the light. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV).

Jesus claimed the title, “Light of the World”. On the first day of creation, God declared, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. What was this light, since the heavenly bodies were only created on the fourth day? John gives us the answer. “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it…The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” John 1:3-5; 9 (NIV).

Before He made the physical lights, God assigned the earth to Jesus to be the light of understanding and truth in a world controlled by the prince of darkness. His presence dominates the Old Testament but His people were blind to Him. He tried to alert the religious leaders of His day to this truth in His encounters with them but they persistently rejected His claims because they were too blind to recognise Him.

“‘Your father, Abraham, rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’
“‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ the Jews said to Him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’
“‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!” John 8:57-58 (NIV).

That sent His opponents over the edge! They refused to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

This kind of blindness is a choice. “‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly, that what he had done has been done through God.'” John 3:19-21 (NIV).

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 (NIV).

Stone Blind!

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STONE BLIND!

“His companions stood there dumbstruck – they could hear the sound, but couldn’t see anyone – while Saul, picking himself up off the ground, found himself stone blind. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus. He continued blind for three days. He ate nothing, drank nothing.” Acts 9:7-9 (The Message).

We tend to think of Paul’s “Damascus” experience as the moment when he had a blinding revelation of Jesus, lying on the ground and hearing a voice so real that his companions heard it too. No doubt that was the beginning but what about the three days of blindness and fasting in Damascus that must have elongated and consolidated that life-changing encounter with the Master.

In his letter to the Galatians, in the heat of the defence of his apostleship, he refers, possibly, to this interlude in his life, suspended in time, when the on-going revelation of Jesus forever cemented his conviction and his loyalty to Him as the Son of God. He lived in the aura of this moment for the rest of his life.

“I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preach is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

“For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man…” Galatians 1:11-16 (NIV).

What transpired in his heart in those three days of blindness and solitude? No-one dared go near him – at least none of the community of believers – because his reputation had preceded him. He was probably too stunned to say anything to anyone. Even those who hosted him, most likely people of his old persuasion, seeing his companions were like-minded and would have contacts in Damascus, would have left him alone.

How would they have understood why he was suddenly blind and why the fire of hatred against the believers had gone out? They must have either tiptoed around him or left him alone to process what had happened.

Perhaps he reflected on the bewildering experience of watching Stephen die at the hands of vicious murders, and witnessing such grace that it fired his antagonism even more. Now the Jesus whom Stephen saw in his dying moments was the Jesus who had spoken to him outside the city. So He was alive after all! He could no longer dispute that, and fighting against it was futile.

Whatever took place in his inner being during those days, Saul was convinced that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead and that everything He had preached and claimed was the truth. From now on he, Saul, soon to be renamed Paul, would as fearlessly proclaim His resurrection as he had fought against it in his ignorance.

Nothing less than a personal encounter with the risen Jesus could have ever convinced him of that truth. For three days and nights he marinated in that moment until it energised and influenced every waking minute of the rest of his life.

Without the resurrection our faith is as empty and ridiculous as any other religious fantasies taught and believed as fact. Jesus Christ of Nazareth claimed to be the Son of God and, to prove it, He said He would be crucified and, after three days, He would rise again. He said it and He did it! Whatever else He said, did and promised hinges on this.

In those three days of physical blindness, Saul came alive, and was able to “see” more clearly than he had even seen before. His eyes were opened and he saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.