The Healing Choice
Good Morning Friends,
As believers, we know that it is important to do God’s will. But finding God’s will for our individual and collective lives is a lot of work. Paul tells us to “work out our salvation.” He doesn’t tell us to “work for our salvation.” He is telling us that we need to allow the salvation that is ours to be lived out in our daily lives, as we each day face The Healing Choice.
Scripture: Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12-13 (NRSV)
Jesus said, ‘Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’
Matthew 6:9-10 (NRSV)
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught [Peter], saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 14:31 (NRSV)
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew, Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’
But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ‘ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
John 5:1-15 (NRSV)
Message: The notion that there are two kinds of human beings, the strong and the weak, is just not true. When it comes to psychic strength and spiritual strength the core of who we are, the two are much alike. What is different is our secrets and the masks and fronts that hide our fears. We are much more alike than we may think. What is different is the external masks that hide identical inner weaknesses and fears. All of us are afraid of others, of God, of ourselves, of life, and of death. What distinguishes us from one another is the way we react to our common distress. Friends, if you desire to know God’s voice then invest time developing an intimate love relationship with Him. Make adjustments in your life that are necessary to obey. Know that the Lord’s Prayer is a dangerous prayer. In praying it know that if you choose Jesus you will change. Do you want to be healed? Do you want the world to be healed?
Pray we have the willingness to experience revolution in our lives. Pray we know the importance of grace in helping us to accept ourselves realistically in the confidence that God has already accepted us in Jesus Christ. Pray that in Christ we are empowered to find hope and freedom from fear. Pray that in our relationship with Christ nothing is a secret. Pray we are serious about our faith. Pray we believe that no one can heal us better than Jesus. Pray we discover the power of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. Pray we know that social transformation begins with the connection of Jesus who changes individual lives and relationships. Pray we find hope and freedom from fear in the Will of God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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