We Need Him 5

Revelation 1:17-18

In an episode of the television show M*A*S*H many years ago, the character of Doctor “Hawkeye” Pierce performed a risky procedure on an injured soldier. After the operation Hawkeye made a comment to the patient that one reason the surgery had been successful was because the patient had looked at the doctor with confidence. The doctor knew the patient trusted him, and with that trust the doctor had his own confidence.

In Revelation we have an account of the visions God gave to a man named John. The book ultimately is a message of hope for humanity, although some images may be disturbing. John’s first encounter with the Lord, in fact, is somewhat overwhelming.

How did John react? What encouragement does Jesus give? What qualities does Jesus profess about himself?

As we examine our own situations, looking at our physical health needs and our emotional needs, we must first determine if we trust Jesus enough to turn to him for the healing we might need. Who is this Jesus? Is he just a smart teacher or wise philosopher? Was he a trickster or a clever magician?

No, absolutely not. Jesus was and still is the very Son of God. He is the Beginning and the End. He holds the keys of death and Hades. Jesus is the one who is in control of all things.

With that knowledge, with that confidence and assurance, we can turn to Jesus with complete trust and faith. He is able to heal us of our physical infirmities. He is able to ease our troubled hearts and minds. He is able to cleanse a sin-sick soul.

As we consider how Jesus encounters us, as we see Jesus as the Great Physician whom we need, let us bear in mind always the power and authority that Jesus has.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you be confident as you turn to Jesus?

We Need Him 4

John 3:19

Many years ago our neighbor had a load of mulch delivered to his house. The huge pile of wood chips and fertilizer was dumped very near our house, and then for a few days we were plagued with cockroaches that came in from the mulch.

It was disturbing to enter into our family room, switch on the light, and watch dozens of the creepy little creatures scatter and hide. They didn’t like the light. They preferred the dark, and it was somehow fitting that these bugs which we detested preferred to avoid being seen.

It isn’t only bugs that like the darkness. Some people seem to prefer the dark, and Jesus has his own comments about them. What has Jesus brought to the world? What was the response?

A few verses before this comment Jesus explains that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.” This comment harkens back to the beginning of John. John 1:4 states, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”

The gift of Jesus – his teaching, his sacrifice, his healing – was a gift of light from God. Jesus is the gift of light, which is the light of hope, the light of joy and the light of love. Jesus brings us the light of spiritual healing, and healing of the heart.

Yet, so many people prefer to ignore the light. They choose to continue living a life of darkness, a life of ignorance, a life of shame, a life of suffering. Some people prefer to be in the darkness of sin and suffering, rather than confess their needs to God and accept Christ as their Savior. Some people are, perhaps, unaware that what they are doing, how they are living, is the wrong way of living. They may need light shone into their lives and hearts so that they can see there is a better way.

Are we willing to face the darkness so that we can instead turn to the light? We must be aware of our need so that we can go to Jesus for our healing. And when we have been healed – body and soul – we can help others come out of the dark and enter the light of God’s love.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you keep darkness out of your life?

We Need Him 3

Matthew 20:30-34

Today’s passage is a little longer than most days, but it presents a story which flows rather quickly. Who does Jesus encounter? What do they want? What do the people in the crowd do? How does Jesus respond?

This is a simple story of healing from the Book of Matthew. As Jesus is traveling he passes two blind men who call out to him for healing. There is nothing wrong with that, but for some reason the crowd wants them to be quiet and leave Jesus alone.

But they persist until they get the attention of the Lord. Now Jesus addresses them directly – what do you want? Obviously, they want the ability to see. And so, with great compassion, Jesus touches the men and they are healed.

It’s a wonderful story but, of course, we can’t just leave it at that. There must be something deeper going on.

The first thing that I notice is that these two men who are in need of healing sought out Jesus by way of calling to him. They knew they had a need and they were willing to do something about it. When they were aware of his presence they tried to get his attention. Now, for some reason, others wanted them to be silent.

Could this be a message to us that we need to be willing to be honest about our need for Jesus in spite of what others think? If we need the healing power of Jesus – whether physically, emotionally or spiritually – we should be willing to call out to our Savior without fear of what others may think of what we are doing.

The two men were self-aware enough to know what they needed. They needed the ability to see.

What about us? Although we may have the physical capacity to see, we may need the self-awareness to know that we need to have the eyes of our spirit opened so that we are more sensitive to how we can live in the Kingdom of God. We may need to have Jesus touch us so that our vision is the vision that God gives us.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you get new “sight” from God?

We Need Him 2

Isaiah 53:5

As the summer nears we are planning our vacation. But I can’t simply walk away from my responsibilities in the churches. Whenever I am going to be out of town for any reason I must arrange to have someone take my place in the pulpit. Someone has to do the work for me while I am away, but it will only be for a week.

This is nothing new to most people. Whenever we deal with a replacement for ourselves – someone to cover our job, someone to hold our place in line – it is usually a temporary situation.

But we can see in Isaiah that Jesus has been a replacement for us for a much more important reason and for a much longer time. What has Jesus suffered? Why did he do this? How do we benefit?

We know we need Jesus to give us comfort and healing. We know that we need the presence of Christ to help guide us, to show us how to live a better life. It is simple to turn to Jesus in times of stress and fear. It is simple to turn to Jesus when we are sick.

What we too often overlook is how much we need Jesus for our salvation. Because we are human – mortal – we are easily tempted into the earthly way of thinking and acting. We sin. We commit selfish acts. We do the wrong things.

Because of this we deserve punishment. We deserve to suffer. But God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to be our replacement in the punishment. Instead of suffering for our own wrongs, Jesus has stepped in and suffers in our place.

So, we need him. We need Jesus because he is the one who was able to be pierced and crushed for the wrongs we have committed. He is the one who is able to endure the punishment we have earned. We need Jesus to be spared what we deserve.

And through Jesus we are brought into that place of total healing, of complete grace and love – of forgiveness – with God. We need Jesus for our soul-healing.

DAILY CHALLENGE: What can remind you of the soul-healing Jesus offers?

We Need Him 1

Matthew 4:23-24

For the past two weeks a family in our church has had to cope with the sudden illness of a loved one. The medical problem came on unexpectedly and was very serious. In those days and hours in the hospital there were many times of prayer, many times of fear and worry, and many times when we all relied on the strength of God to make it through.

Sickness and injury are nothing new. People of all times and places have had struggles with health. In Matthew we have a brief summarization of the work Jesus did. What does this passage tell us of Jesus? What was the response of the people?

Most everyone has had to deal with themselves or a loved one in the hospital. Whenever our health fails or we are injured, when we are stricken with illness and need the medical attention we can only find in the hospital, it is a simple step to turn to Jesus for that assurance. We can see that Jesus was a healer. He restored the physically ill.

Calling on the Lord can be a wonderful source of spiritual strength as well as being a time of physical healing. We need God to help us in difficult times, and Jesus encounters us when we call upon him for help.

But if we look at what he did when he went throughout Galilee we can see that an encounter with Christ should be more than simply a help when we are ill. As Jesus healed he also preached. He preached the good news – the message that we can be forgiven and saved from our sin if we will accept him as our Savior. The healings he performed were a part of the whole healing process – he healed the soul as well as the body. He restored people completely.

We can call on Jesus to help us in times of illness or injury, but we need to be certain that our encounter with Christ is a relationship of total healing, not just a temporary help in desperate moments. Jesus heals not just the body, but the soul and the mind and the heart also.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you turn to Jesus to be healed in your soul as well as your body?

We Are Invited 2

Luke 5:31-32

I recall as a youth listening to the presentations that visiting missionaries would often give at our church. They showed slides of the places they had been to, Third World countries with rampant poverty and great needs. Some of them showed slide after slide of churches they visited, homes where they were treated to fancy meals, and buildings where they had meetings about what people needed.

When these missionaries showed their pictures I would often ask myself, “weren’t they supposed to work while they were there?” Truthfully, I have no idea of all the details of what they did while on their mission trips. While sometimes the pictures indicated they spent their time having fun, I trust they did what they could to help the needy.

But we don’t have to be a visiting missionary to miss out on helping the needy. When confronted about his decision to associate with sinful people, how does Jesus respond? Who needs repentance?

Jesus did not always behave as people might have expected. He healed sick people. He touched lepers. He spoke to prostitutes and tax collectors. This shocked many people around him. They were accustomed to shunning these people. If a person wasn’t perfect it was okay to treat them poorly or ignore them completely.

But Jesus pointed out that he had come not to keep company with folks who were already in he right place spiritually. He was here to help the lost. He was here to give aid to the needy.

Our first thought on this should be, “Thank you.” We are the sick who need a physician. We are the lost who need a guide. We are the sinful people who need be led to repentance.

Our second thought should be about how we are acting. If we will be Christians who imitate Jesus we must be willing to get our hands dirty helping the poor. WE must be willing to risk our finances by assisting the needy. We must be willing to spare the time to feed the hungry.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you help the sick rather than associating with the healthy?

Priests View the Cross 4

John 9:28-34

One of my favorite stories is of my father who was fixing a boat motor for a friend. My dad told him to get a certain part to replace what wasn’t working. But the man at the dealership said that such a part was not available since no one could remove it from the motor. But my dad removed the part from the motor, handed it to the man, and said, “This is what we need.” He had done what everyone said couldn’t be done.

The passage today is just a small section from John 9. The entire chapter of John 9 is the very involved story of Jesus healing a blind man and the reactions that the healing receives. I recommend reading the whole chapter if you have time.

The priests have interrogated the man healed of blindness and ask him to repeat the story, but he refuses. How do the Pharisees respond to this in verses 28 and 29? What logical argument does the man give in verses 30 to 33? What is the solution for the Pharisees?

I have always found this story to be amusing. Jesus heals a blind man and no one, it seems, can accept that it happened. Who did it? How did he do it? Why did he do it? Are we sure this man really was blind?

Instead of celebrating the miracle, instead of rejoicing in the goodness of God, the religious leaders got caught up in trying to understand what went on. And a large part of their frustration and anger was that this was something out of their control.

The final solution was to simply get rid of the problem. Throw the man out!

Don’t we do that in our own worship communities? Sometimes it seems more important to us that we sing properly, sit properly, and dress properly. If God performed a miracle we would complain that there was too much noise or that the carpet got dirty. We would miss the joy of God’s work.

When a new believer comes to God we should celebrate this change of heart, and not get bogged down in the “who is this?” and “why are you here?” of the matter. Let’s be careful to watch for the amazing work of God and not simply throw out what we do not understand.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How do you react to the impossible?

Priests View the Cross 2

Mark 3:1-6

“I’ve got my eye on you.” This is an expression we have all either heard or used ourselves. If we suspect someone of being a troublemaker, or we anticipate problems with another, we will keep our eye on them, watch them closely for any opportunity to attack or correct them.

Such was the situation with Jesus. He had been stirring things up by performing healings and teaching concepts that the religious leaders may not have agreed with. Now they were watching him for any chance to attack.

What problem did “the man” in the synagogue have? How did Jesus handle the situation? What was the response to his question? How did they react to the healing?

It is interesting to note that one of the commentaries I have points out that those people in the synagogue who were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus were watching him closely, not to see if he could heal the man, but if he would heal the man. They knew he could. They were watching to see if it would happen on the Sabbath.

Jesus presents them all with the truth of the matter. Is it okay to do good on a holy day? Isn’t it better to help someone rather than harm?

But there was no answer, even though they knew and we know what the answer is. What is important is the fact that they were going to use whatever Jesus did as ammunition against him.

At the heart of it the question addresses our view of the cross. Is it important to do good and help others? Or is it more important to do things the “right way?”

Unfortunately, we have many people in our place of worship that have similar attitudes. They seem to overlook the goodness of the fact that other people are coming into the presence of God to worship and deepen their relationship with the Almighty. Instead they are caught up in who they are, what they are wearing, how they are behaving, and so on.

DAILY CHALLENGE: Jesus was “deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.” How would he feel about yours?