Tag Archives: faith

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – “I WANT TO SEE!”

Bible Study, ,

“I WANT TO SEE!”

46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Mark 10:46-52

What did it mean for Bartimaeus to be noticed by Jesus? It seems that the only time he was ever noticed was to be silenced or to be chased away. His calls for mercy produced irritated voices telling him to shut up but he refused to be silenced. This was his one chance in a lifetime and he was not going to miss it. Jesus might miss it  in the din of excitement the crowd was making.

What did Jesus hear?  If the noise was anything like the din our indigenous people can make, there was no way He could have heard him with His natural hearing. Bartimaeus must have surely been on the edge of the crowd. He would not have risked getting mixed up with pushing, jostling people. But in the midst of the din, Jesus’ ears caught the cry for help. His heart connected with the desperate call and He stopped. “Bring him to me,” He commanded.

The attitude of the people changed dramatically. Instead of trying to shut him up, they now became patronising. Instead of ignoring him and treating him like scum, all eyes were on the blind beggar. Notice the reporter’s comment, “Throwing his cloak aside…” Why did he do that? Didn’t he need it any more or was it a symbolic act? Was he tossing aside whatever got in his way of getting to Jesus?

His cloak was his beggar’s licence to beg. When he threw it away, it was an act of faith in Jesus’ willingness to heal him. He would no longer need it when his sight was restored.

Willing hands now guided him through the path the crowd had opened up for him. Perhaps he knelt reverently in the dust, sightless eyes looking expectantly into the Master’s face. He heard the gentle voice, “What can I do for you?” and, without hesitation he responded, “I want to see.” Jesus only spoke, nothing else. No touch, no spit, no mud as at other times. “Go! Your faith has made the connection.” Instantly the darkness vanished, the mist cleared and he stared into the most loving, compassionate and gentle eyes he had ever seen. He was smitten forever. He not only saw but he SAW and he followed. Never did he want to be parted from Him again.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – RESURRECTION PROOF

Bible Study, ,

RESURRECTION PROOF

“When this became known all over Joppa many put their trust in the Master. Peter stayed on a long time in Joppa as a guest of Simon the Tanner.” Acts 9:42-43 (The Message).

What was it that caused the message of Jesus to touch people’s lives in wave upon wave every time a miracle happened? Was it the miracles that attracted them or was it the proof that Jesus was alive that convinced them?

Miracles do not produce or sustain faith. We only have to read the story of God’s people in their deliverance from Egypt and their sojourn in the wilderness to recognise this. At no other time in their history did the Israelites experience more or greater miracles than when God rescued them from Pharaoh “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” and cared for them for forty years in the desert.

Plagues that destroyed a nation and its economy and finally wiped out its military might; natural phenomena like a wind so powerful that it cut a path through the sea; manna that appeared every six days out of seven; a flock of birds so vast that it covered their camp; water that flowed out of a rock enough to satisfy the needs of more than two million people; a pillar of cloud that gave the people shade from the desert sun by day and fire that warmed them at night — these and much more, were the order of the day. Could God have done any more for them than He did?

Yet they grumbled, rebelled, disobeyed and even set up a forbidden image in spite of all the miracles that attested to God’s invisible presence with them and power among them. A deeper investigation into the Old Testament actually reveals that the greatest miracles happened during the times of Israel’s greatest unbelief e.g., during the times of Elijah and Elisha.

No, miracles do not produce saving faith. What was it that convinced people everywhere that what the disciples were proclaiming was the truth? There were no billboards inviting people to “come and get your miracle” as we so often see today. Their message was simple. “Jesus is alive and He is Lord.”

It was the resurrection of Jesus that powered their faith. Miracles were the evidence of the presence of God’s kingdom on earth. People put their faith in the risen Jesus, not to get their miracle but because He is alive and He is who He said He is. They did not come to Him to get their needs met or to have a comfortable life or even a free ticket to heaven. They entrusted their lives to Him because He is Lord.

Not even the threat of persecution could stop the phenomenal growth of the church. Persecution weeded out the passengers and strengthened the faith and character of those who truly followed Jesus. And God continued to verify the truth of His Son’s resurrection by confirming His word with signs following.

Peter remained in Joppa. A new branch of the church was growing there. As a guest of Simon the Tanner, he stayed on to preach and teach about Jesus so that the faith of these new believers would be anchored in the truth of who Jesus is.

What if Jesus did nothing for us? He owes us nothing and is under no obligation to do anything for us. Would we still follow Him and put our trust in Him, or is our faith so mercenary that we only believe in Him for what we can get out of it? What He does for us flows from His infinite generosity and we are beneficiaries of pure grace.

It is His passion to put His glory on display that prompts His goodness to us. Let us never slip into the false notion that there is anything in us or anything we can do for Him that merits His favour.

MOLLY AND ME – PERSISTENCE

Christian Life, ,

Molly gets ten out of ten for persistence.

I take Molly for a walk every afternoon… Well, let’s be honest. Most of the time she takes me for a walk… actually, we go “drag racing”! She drags, and I race! You see, she hasn’t yet learned who is the boss and who is the dog and who is supposed to be taking whom for a walk.

In the middle of a hot South African summer, she doesn’t understand that 3pm is far too early to walk. When she wants to go, she wants to go. There are so many new smells and sights and sounds out there that she can’t wait to start her new adventure.

She starts by jumping up and down next to my recliner to get my attention. When I acknowledge her and bend down to pick her up, she stays just out of reach so that I have to get out of my chair to grab her. That’s the signal to run out of the door and wait. “Are you coming?” she looks back at me.

When I remonstrate with her that it’s too early to go w-a-l-k-i-e-s (I dare not say the word in case I really set off the excitement), she carries out the same ritual until she finally gets the message that we are not going yet. In great disappointment, she lies in her bed or paces the small enclosure outside my front door until it’s time to go. Even if the wind is blowing a gale, she always wins!

Once again, Molly reminds me that persistence is a quality that God loves to honour. Not that we have to twist His arm or overcome His reluctance to answer us by continual nagging. Jesus insisted that our Father knows what we need before we ask Him.

Why, then, does God want us to pray persistently or even pray at all if He is far more aware of our needs than we are? I believe that there are at least three reasons, if not more, for God’s desire that we pray.

1. God wants us to have fellowship with Him. What if we never had to ask for anything? What if we never prayed? He uses our needs and struggles to get our attention so that we will come to Him as our heavenly Father to express our dependence on Him as His children.

2. God wants us to trust Him. Adam’s rebellion has left us, in our old sinful natures, with an inborn mistrust of God as our loving Father. Of course, our arch enemy, the devil, through all the influences of the world around us, stokes the fires of unbelief in our hearts.

Our journey of learning to trust Jesus is a lifetime journey, one day at a time, one need at a time. How spineless we would be if God gave us everything we wanted, everything we needed every time we asked! He gives us only what is good for us in HIS time. He is working to a far bigger timetable and a bigger plan than our little lives demand.

3. God wants us to glorify Him. When we come to Him with small, inconsequential need, we don’t realise that He wants to show us just how great He is. That’s really the most important reason for us to pray because, through His answers to our needs, big or small, we get to know Him, and knowing Him builds our faith, and our faith pleases Him (Heb. 11:6) and, in the end, it’s all about Him.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish more than we might ask or think. (Eph. 3:20).

So, let’s go “walkies” with Jesus. We never know what exciting adventures we may encounter on the way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did You Know (3)

Apologetics, , , ,

DID YOU KNOW (3)

…That miracles do not produce faith – faith produces miracles.

The history of Israel alone is testimony to the fact that miracles have no effect on people to grow faith, who do not believe God. No nation in history has experienced more divine intervention than the Jews. From their illustrious ancestor, Abraham, to their miraculous conquest of the Promised Land and throughout the Old Testament story, God was with them, actively involved in protecting, providing for and nurturing them in preparation for the coming of their Messiah, but they continued to rebel and disobey Him, even to this day.

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness where you ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.” (Heb. 3:7-10).

Israel’s unbelief culminated in their rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah. John testified that the works Jesus did were so numerous that the world would not be able to contain all the books written Him (John 21:25). Yet, in spite of all the evidence, the Jewish leaders had Him killed for being a blasphemer because His words and works testified that He was the Son of God but they refused to believe.

On the other hand, Jesus did many miracles in response to faith. Time and again, He commended people for their faith and responded to their plea by intervening with miracles.

As Jesus went from there, two blind men followed Him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When He had gone indoors, the blind men came to Him, and He asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored (Matt. 9:27-30a).

Sometimes He healed in response to the faith of another who came on behalf of the sufferer.

When He saw their faith, He said to the paralysed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven…I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all (Mark 2:9).

However, faith was always the trigger that released His power to intervene and restore.

I have two observations from this thought. Firstly, because faith is the vehicle through which God does His miracles, it follows that,

Without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Heb. 11:6).

Secondly, God works through His Word.

Jesus said to him “Shall I come and heal him?”…The centurion replied, “…Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” …When Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Matt. 8:7-10).

He sent out His Word and healed them (Psa. 107:20).

As I have read and studied the Word, I have discovered that God always responds to His own Word. That does not give us the right to hold His Word like a gun to His head. Jesus said:

It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Matt. 4:4).

When we wait for God to speak into our spirit, whatever the issue and whatever His decision, He will do what He says.

When we ask for a miracle, we have no guarantee that God will give us exactly what we ask but, when we ask for a word, God always fulfils His promise.

Miracles are not the reason for faith but the fruit of faith. God asks us to trust Him, no matter what the outcome which is not always what we expect. He wants us to trust Him, not our expectation of the outcome. Like Job, we must say, “Even though He kills me, yet I will trust Him.”

From where does this faith come? Our faith in God is kindled and strengthened by hearing and reading God’s word.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Rom.10:17).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, is now available on www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com or from me at luella@efc.org.za at R130,00 including p and p.

 

Faith And Perseverance

Christian Life, , , , ,

FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE

If humility is the basis of our approach to God, without faith and perseverance, prayer will achieve nothing. Unlike the pagans, who “pray” to get what they want, God’s children draw near to Him because they are family, and family are held together by the bonds of love and trust. Children look to their Father because they trust Him. They know Him and they are confident that He will always do what is best for them. They don’t give up because they know that He will keep His promises to them.

Faith is a non-negotiable attitude in our interaction with this God through prayer. Our entire lives as disciples of Jesus are based on confidence in a God we cannot see with our human eyes or hear with our human ears but we are convinced is real. Jesus stated very simply:

Have faith in God. (Mark 11:22)

Who is this God in whom we are to have faith? If we were to follow the Pharisees’ interpretation of God, we would not have much to go on. We would have to entrust ourselves to a God who is always on the lookout for violations of His commandments. We would be cowering under the weight of our guilt. We would be working very hard to earn His favour by nit-picking over every little rule and regulation. In spite of all that, we would still be more focused on our efforts to satisfy Him than on His mercy and grace towards us. We would have more faith in ourselves than in Him. But:

Without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. (Heb.11: 6)

The bottom line is “Who is the God in whom we must have faith?” If our confidence is not rooted in the one true God whom Jesus came to reveal, we have nothing because no other god exists. The Pharisees’ god and every other god are inventions of human imagination. We can see and know who the real God is when we gaze at Jesus because He is the perfect replica and representation of the Father.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. (John 1: 14; 8)

Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am?

I have revealed you to those you gave me out of the world. (John 17: 6a)

The Scriptures give us overwhelming evidence, both from the mouth of Jesus and from His witnesses, that He is a true and accurate representative of the Father.

Paul wrote:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Col. 1:15),

and the writer to the Hebrews echoed:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being . . . (Heb. 1: 3a)

This is the God in whom we must have faith, not some being of our own creation. Jesus modelled faith in God. He did not question His intentions or His instructions because He knew Him. He had a strong and unbreakable link with the Father because He had faith in who He is, and how reliable He is.

As Jesus’s disciples, we are to follow our rabbi, entrusting ourselves to the Father as unquestioningly as He did, relying on Him not just to do what we ask, but relying on Him, full stop, no matter what, because He is God and we are not.

Another parable illustrates the attitude of perseverance.

Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up. (Luke 18: 1)

What do you suppose He meant by “always pray” and “never give up”? Is God so reluctant to answer us that it takes a lot of praying to persuade Him to intervene for us? This story is about a worldly judge who gave in to a widow’s persistence because she would not give up. The story is not about how like the unjust judge God is. It’s about how unlike him He is. The judge finally gave in to the woman and did what she requested because she pestered him day and night and refused to take “no” for an answer. God intervenes speedily because we are His children. The answer to our question is found in Jesus’s final statement:

However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18: 8b)

If the judge finally gave in to get rid of the nagging widow because she persevered, surely God will be far more gracious to us than that because He is our Father and we trust Him!

Why does God want us to pray and to persevere in prayer? Faith! To build our faith! But why is our faith so important to God? Faith is the invisible link between us and God. It’s about relationship. Our faith in God is more precious to Him than gold.

These have come (‘all kinds of trials’) so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1: 7)

Trust is the basis of any relationship that works. When trust breaks down, the relationship ceases to have any meaning. God is invisible but real. However, for us humans, trust in God is built up over a long period of time and through many trials when we have no other option but to trust Him. Don’t you think that God would orchestrate or allow those trials to develop our faith if it is so precious to Him?

Abraham is an example of one who learned to trust God over many years as God tested him and taught him how to persevere. He waited for twenty-five years for God to give him the son He had promised. Many of us would have given in and given up, but not Abraham. His desire for a son was so strong and his confidence in God’s promise so secure that he refused to give up on God.

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. (Heb. 11: 11)

Perseverance is not stubbornness or presumption. It is committed and persistent trust based on the faithfulness of God. God’s promises are a declaration of intent, but they come into effect in His time and in His way. We have a part to play in the fulfilment of those promises – faith and patience.

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Heb. 6: 12)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.