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A Reason For Suffering

God is Still the Healer

Jesus’ disciples asked if a certain man had been born blind because of his or his parents’ sin. Jesus told them that it was neither, but it was for the purpose of displaying God’s power. Remember that, in this age of flamboyant faith healers where you’re often given the impression that it is their spirituality and theatrics that creates the healing. It is not; it is God’s power alone. God is the healer, not the person praying, and he alone deserves the credit.

The Journey: John 9:2-3

“Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” Jesus answered, “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

Where does suffering originate? When someone gets sick, contracts a disease, or is born with a disability, is that the result of personal sin—either theirs or their parents? Has the devil inflicted the suffering upon them? Did God cause it? When we, or the people we love, are forced to endure suffering, we get pretty passionate about finding answers to those questions.

What Jesus said was that not all sickness and suffering is the result of a specific sin. However, in a general sense, because we live in a world broken by sin, bad stuff that was not a part of God’s original plan for human beings now happens. And to be sure, the Bible does teach that I can bring some physical suffering on myself. If I do not follow God’s principles, my body will experience the consequence. If I do not eat right, sleep enough and exercise regularly—which is sin, since my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit—then I should not be surprised when my body reacts with an infirmity. If I do not listen when God’s Word says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but pray about everything” and I worry a lot—which is a sin—if I get an ulcer, then I am to blame. If resentment builds in my spirit—which is a sin, since I am not to allow bitterness to take root and defile me—then the doctors say that what is eating me will not only eat away at my mental health, but it will also take a bite out of my physical health.

So when it comes to suffering and sickness, I need to pay attention to the sin-factor in my life. When sin is at the root, then James says that confession and prayer are the appropriate responses to my suffering:

Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (James 5:13-16, NLT)

However, not all suffering is the result of sin. Jesus blew that idea out of the water here in John 9 when he talked about the man born blind and clears up the notion that the blindness was the result of neither his nor his parents’ sin. Sometimes God permits suffering in your life simply because He wants to heal you and let it be a testimony to the world. John 11:4 tells the story of Lazarus, who was sick and near death. In that case, Jesus said, “The purpose of his illness is not death, for the glory of God.”

Now God doesn’t heal every sickness; if he did, none of us would ever die and go to heaven. But for sickness that is within the Lord’s will to heal, James 5:14 says that we are to do a couple of things: One, we are take the initiative and summon the spiritual leaders of the church. And, two, we are to have those elders anoint us with oil and pray.

This prayer for healing is to be done “in the name of the Lord.” The “name” represents Christ’s authority, which is the basis for all healing. When we offer prayer for healing under these conditions and in that manner, James says, “such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.” (James 5:15, NLT)

God is the healer, not the person praying. Let’s never forget that! In this age of flamboyant faith healers, sometimes you get the idea that it is their deep spirituality and flamboyant theatrics that gets the job done. It is not; God alone deserves the credit.

That brings us back to what Jesus said about suffering and sickness: Sometime it is not the result of sin. It is simply so that God’s power and glory can be revealed in the restoration!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, you prompted your prophet Jeremiah to declare of you, “I will restore you to health and heal your wounds.” (Jer. 30:17) Today, I take your declaration as a personal promise for my life and for my loved ones. Heal us, O God!
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Jesus—The Great “I AM”

You’ve Got To Love Him, Or Hate Him—He Leaves You With No Other Choice

Jesus! You’ve got to do something with him. You’ve got to love him or hate him…but you really can’t live with anything in between and have an intellectually honest life. So be honest—where do you line up with Jesus? I hope you go with what he claimed, and proved, about himself.

The Journey: John 8:58-59

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!” At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple.

There were many reasons, I suppose, the Jews wanted to kill Jesus: They were jealous of his popularity with the people. They hated that he didn’t defer to their spiritual authority and were put off that he wasn’t impressed by their religious pedigree. They were irked that he ministered to marginalized people, hung out with the wrong crowd, operated outside the lines of Jewish protocol and a thousand other things that he did and didn’t do that bugged the daylights out of them. In general, the genuine authority and real power that Jesus displayed in his life and ministry exposed the spiritual impotence of these Jewish elites, which in turn, brought out some fierce insecurities displayed in their childish opposition and irrational hatred of the Lord.

But the main reason their hatred turned murderous? It wasn’t that Jesus sort of acted like God. It wasn’t that he beat around the bush about his deity. It wasn’t that he made some veiled and esoteric claim about Messiahship. No—he flat out claimed to be God. That is why they wanted to kill him. In fact, Jesus committed the ultimate faux pas by using the revered designation for God that no god-fearing Jew would utter so causally and irreverently: “I AM!” Are you kidding me: “Before Abraham was, I Am!” What was he thinking? Saying that about yourself in that culture could get you killed.

Of course, Jesus knew that. In fact, his bold claim would get him killed. Jesus didn’t care—he was God come in the flesh, and he wasn’t going to back away from that claim one inch. That is why he came, and that is precisely what he claimed—no ifs ands or buts about it.

When you consider that claim alone Jesus made about himself, you are forced to eliminate all of the other nice-sounding, politically correct things people say they believe about him. In other words, Jesus cannot be just a good teacher, just a great moral leader, just a respected prophet, just a great figure of history. With Jesus, you have to eliminate “just” from your vocabulary. Jesus left the Jews with no other option, and he doesn’t leave you with another option either. As C.S. Lewis said,

“The discrepancy between the depth and sanity of his moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind his theological teaching unless he is indeed God has never been satisfactorily got over…[With Jesus] you must make a choice. Either He was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman, or something worse. You can shut Him up as a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”

I am sure glad the Great I Am forced that choice on me! How about you?

Jesus! You’ve got to do something with him. You’ve got to love him or hate him…but you really can’t live with anything in between and live an intellectually honest life. So be honest—where do you line up with Jesus? I hope you go with what he claimed, and proved, about himself.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, thank you for revealing yourself in your Son, Jesus. And thank you for making me your child by grace through faith in him. I will be forever grateful that I personally know the Great I Am!
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An Explosion of Grace

Not Guilty. Paid in Full. Completely Forgiven.

Not Guilty. Paid in full. Completely forgiven. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound! If by grace you are saved, have you thanked God lately for the grace that has covered all of your sins! Perhaps now would be a great time to do that. And maybe today would be a great day to extend his grace to another undeserving sinner like you.

The Journey: John 8:11

Jesus said to [the adulterous woman], “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

If I were writing this story instead of John, the scene would have called for Jesus to order down fire from heaven to torch this nasty bunch of Pharisees who had brought the adulterous woman before the Lord. At the very least, I would have had Jesus snatching the poor lady from their grasp and beaming over to Galilee to set her free. That would have made a great story—Oscar-worthy, I’m sure!

But as we’ve come to expect of Jesus, he does the unexpected. Instead of special effects and edge-of-your-seat drama, he simply stoops over and writes in the sand. Do you ever wonder what he wrote? “Jesus was here!” or perhaps the Ten Commandments, or better yet, a list of the Pharisees’ secret sins or the names of their mistresses?

Whatever it was, the religious “Nazis” kept pressing until finally he said, “Look, if any of you are without sin, you can be the first one to throw a stone at her.” Then he began to scribble again, and with those words, Jesus lobbed a grenade into their midst that exploded their self-righteousness. Now defenseless, one-by-one the Pharisees, from the oldest to the youngest, walked away, leaving only Jesus and this sinful woman.

Now what would happen to the adulterous woman? Could she expect to get preached at again, some more condemnation, another helping of humiliation and a pile of rejection? That had been the pattern so far. Instead, Jesus gently asks, “Where are your accusers? Has no one judged you guilty?”

She replied, “Sir, they’re gone…they didn’t judge me guilty.”

Then Jesus lobbed another grenade—this one a grace-grenade that utterly exploded this sinful woman’s self-condemnation and turned her sad world right-side up: “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

So just what was it that Jesus wrote in the sand? I think it is highly likely that he bent over and with his finger, etched these words: “Not guilty!”

A few weeks later, Jesus again wrote those very same words in the sand. This time it was not with his finger, but with blood that dripped from his nail-pierced hands and feet, leaving an indelible stain on the ground at the foot of the cross. This time it wasn’t just meant for an adulterous woman, it was meant for you unfaithful, guilty people like you and me:

“Not Guilty. Paid in full. Completely forgiven.”

I don’t know what that grace-explosion does for you, but it makes me want to “go and sin no more.”

Have you thanked the Lord lately for his grace—grace that has covered all of your sins! Perhaps now would be a great time to do that. And maybe today would be a great day to extend his grace to another undeserving sinner like you.

“This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners, for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s, but ours.” ~Martin Luther

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, thank you for you grace. Please give me more. And help me to rightly understand it so that I want to go and sin no more.
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Looking For God’s Fingerprint

We Need a Baptism of Clear Seeing

Every moment of our day presents opportunity to either see the work that God is doing in the people around us and events that encounter us or to miss it entirely. Depending on how we form our judgments, we will either embrace God’s work, or miss out on the greatness of God in the daily ordinariness of life. Open your heart—God is at work all around  you. Open your eyes—you’ll find his fingerprints on everything you encounter. And if you will learn to root your opinions, conclusions and attitudes in righteousness rather than mere appearance, you will discover Jesus in the details of your day!

The Journey: John 7:24

Why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath? Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.

“Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” People were making judgments about Jesus, and as we see in John 7, increasingly, those judgments were not very positive. In fact, opposition and outright hostility were coming to a boiling point, and it would soon lead to his death.

That’s the way it was with Jesus. People either loved him or hated him—there was no neutral ground. Being around Jesus demanded a position on one end of the spectrum or the other, but staying in the middle was not an option.

To arrive at an opinion of Jesus, a judgment had to be made. Sadly, those who rejected him formed judgments that were not based in righteousness and truth. Their judgments were based on the fact that Jesus had made them uncomfortable. He had challenged their traditions. His ministry had colored outside the lines of established theology. His way of doing things didn’t look like theirs. Why, he even had the audacity to actually heal someone in dire need on the Sabbath—and they didn’t like that one bit!

Never one to shy away from controversy and confrontation, Jesus challenged their attitudes toward him as well as their approach to life in general. He called them to reject this judgment-by-appearance mindset that was keeping them from seeing God for a clearer view of life as seen through the lens of righteousness. Learning to make righteous judgments would make all the difference in their world—it would lead them to see God in the daily details of their world, and in the end, it would lead to eternal life.

Unfortunately, most of the people in Jesus’ day rejected what he had to say. But the story is not meant to end there. Jesus’ challenge to “judge with righteous judgment” (NIV) or to “look beneath the surface” (NLT) or “Don’t be nitpickers; use your head to discern what is right (Message) calls us to reexamine the way we arrive at the opinions we hold and honestly ask ourselves whether they are based on appearance or rooted in righteousness. We form judgments and opinions every day—perhaps every hour—about the people we encounter, the events we observe, and the world we live in. Every moment of our day presents opportunity to either see the work that God is doing in the people around us and events that encounter us or to miss it entirely. And depending on how we form our judgments, we will either embrace God’s work, or like the people in Jesus’ day, reject it and miss out on the greatness of God in the daily ordinariness of life.

Open your heart—God is at work all around you. Open your eyes—you’ll find God’s fingerprints on everything you encounter. And if you will learn to root your opinions, conclusions and attitudes in righteousness rather than mere appearance, you will discover Jesus in the details of your day!

“We need a baptism of clear seeing. We desperately need seers who can see through the mist—Christian leaders with prophetic vision. Unless they come soon it will be too late for this generation. And if they do come we will no doubt crucify a few of them in the name of our worldly orthodoxy.” ~A.W. Tozer

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, help me to practice your presence in the daily ordinariness of my life. Teach me to make righteous judgments so that I might see you in every person I meet, every event I take in, every plan I execute, and in every detail of my world.
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Almost Famous

“Thou Shalt Become Famous” is not One of the Ten Commandments

“Thou shalt become famous” is not one of the Ten Commandments. “Blessed are the spiritual celebrities, for they shall draw much attention” was not one of the Beatitudes Jesus laid down in the Sermon on the Mount. “Feed my sheep so the flock can grow into a mega-ministry” was not the charge Jesus gave his disciples. Those who make it into God’s Hall of Faith are those who never seek fame, but only to make Jesus famous.

The Journey: John 7:2-4

Soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!”

“Thou shalt become famous” is not one of the Ten Commandments. “Blessed are the spiritual celebrities, for they shall draw much attention” was not one of the Beatitudes Jesus laid down in the Sermon on the Mount. “Feed my sheep so the flock can grow into a mega-ministry” was not the charge Jesus gave his disciples.

Yet the all-consuming desire for fame and the gravitational pull of celebrity is stronger today among Christian leaders than ever before. Jesus’ brothers would have made a great PR team, but they don’t hold a candle to today’s image conscious ministries. All you have to do is tune in to Christian television, turn on Christian radio, walk into a Christian bookstore, or surf just about anything Christian and you will be immediately impressed with the swelling ranks of those who have attained Christian rock star status. In this day and age, to make it to the “bigs”, all you’ve got to do is sell a book, have your own show—or get on one, be the spiritual authority all the media quotes when there is breaking news, have your own blog—replete with adoring readers (yikes!)—and do whatever you can to get your name, and your mug, out there where the folks can discover just what a gift you are to humankind.

That doesn’t sound too much like Jesus, does it! He resisted any and every attempt to become famous, catapult to power, get rich and build a crowd of raving fans. In fact, he did just about everything you shouldn’t do to build a successful ministry. He avoided attention—if it was for wrong motives. He said very hard things to would be followers. He insulted the religious movers and shakers. He hung out with the wrong people. He championed causes no one on their way to the top would touch with a ten-foot pole. He grew his band of followers down to 11 guys who were mostly religious rejects. And he got himself killed—crucified as a common criminal. Oh—and he changed the world!

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see a new crop of spiritual leaders who didn’t give a fig about fame and celebrity dominate the Christian scene today? Well, turn off your TV—and the radio. Forget about the cover of the latest edition of “Jesus Weekly” and quit reading all those pastor-blogs (except for one). Get in your car and take a drive out to a small town some Sunday, walk into a little country church and you are likely to find a simple shepherd who isn’t very famous—and won’t ever be—except with God. He, or she, simply loves God, and the flock—and one day, when the dust settles and we all stand before God, that faithful pastor will receive a standing ovation from the Great Cloud of Witnesses.

They never sought fame—they only wanted to make Jesus famous!

Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.
~Emily Dickinson

This week, memorize this Mark 10:45,“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many,” then better you, live it out.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, since your Son came to serve, not to be served, make me like him. Give me the heart of a servant. And use me to make Jesus famous.
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Let Jesus Show Through You

The Cost of Discipleship Is Nothing Less Than All of You

Jesus doesn’t want star-struck fans, he wants fully devoted disciples. That is why, to paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even though your salvation is free, discipleship will cost you everything, even your life.

The Journey: John 6:53-56

So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

The crowds had been pretty impressed with Jesus—and why not? He had healed their sick, he had fed their multitudes—5,000 of them were treated to a full meal when he miraculously multiplied a couple of sardines and five loaves of bread—and he had even walked on their water—literally traipsing across the Sea of Galilee. So you can see why they wanted to hang around Jesus. Who wouldn’t?

But Jesus didn’t want star-struck fans, he wanted fully devoted disciples. So, in essence, he said, “Whatever your reason for following me up ‘til now, let me take you to a deeper, more satisfying experience, and you can only do that by taking my life fully into your own.” Oh, he didn’t say it quite that innocuously; he got pretty graphic and told them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they wanted to be his disciples. And when the adoring crowds heard Jesus lay down the demands of discipleship in that way, they were shocked—and turned off. The New English Bible translates John 6:60 this way: “This is more that we can stomach. Why listen to such words.”

Why were they so upset? Was it because they found Jesus’ word so revolting? Was it because they didn’t understand what he was saying? No, it was because they knew all too well what he was asking of them. He was calling them to accept him as God’s Son, the true bread of life, the only one who could truly satisfy their spiritual hunger and quench their thirst for God, both now and for all eternity. Jesus was calling them radically to commit their lives totally to him, promising that if they did, then, and only then, would their deepest longings and innermost needs be fully met in him.

Jesus’ call to radical discipleship, using those provocative terms, would not have been unfamiliar to them. When a leader in that era called for unreserved commitment, he would demand that his followers “eat his flesh and drink his blood”. So the reason the crowd was upset and abandoned Jesus at hearing this was because they knew exactly what Jesus was asking: Nothing less than total commitment and full surrender.

Interestingly, Jesus used two different words in two different Greek tenses for “eating his flesh.” In John 6:53, the word “eat” meant to eat once and for all—a specific act at a moment in time that produced continuing effects into the future. He was speaking of the act of salvation—a specific moment in time when you give your life over to Christ and are born again. Salvation occurs at a moment in time, but it produces effects that continue throughout life and clear into eternity. The second word for “eat” in John 6:54 referred to a continuous act of daily and voraciously taking life-giving, soul-satisfying nourishment into one’s life. Jesus was referring not to salvation, but to the daily walk of discipleship.

In both cases, to “eat and drink of him” means to so thoroughly absorb Jesus that every fiber of who you are and every aspect of how you live is fundamentally and profoundly affected. And when he is invited and allowed to so fully and completely take over your life that way, something wonderful will happen: Jesus begins to show through.

That reminds me of the story of a little girl who turned to her mother on their way home from church and said, “Mommy, the pastor’s sermon confused me.” The mother said, “Why was that?” The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” The mother replied, “Yes, honey!” Then the little girl said, “And he also said that God lives in us. Is that true, mommy?” The mother again said, “Yes, that’s true, too.” Upon hearing that, the girl said, “Well, mommy, if God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”

That is what happens when you take Jesus so thoroughly and fundamentally in to your life—both at salvation and in your daily walk as his disciple. He begins to show through, and that is a good thing! If he is not showing through, it is likely that you are lacking in good spiritual nutrition, and, in the words of your Lord, you need to go back and “eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man.”

“Salvation is free … but discipleship will cost you your life.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I want to absorb your Son’s life so fully into mine that he shows through me. So on this day, I offer myself to you; fully take me over.

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Saying Grace

Simply Giving Thanks Before Meals is One of Your Greatest Acts of Worship

“Then Jesus took the loaves, and gave thanks to God.” We don’t know exactly what Jesus said in his prayer, but it was likely short and sweet. He acknowledged God in that moment, drawing attention to the Heavenly Provider and reminding both himself and those who were within earshot of his dependence on and gratitude to Father God. That is something you and I can do too, each time we sit down (or drive through) for a meal. We can give thanks. As redundant and useless and perfunctory as it may seem, there is power in this simple act. If Jesus, who didn’t have to, did, then we, who don’t have to do it, most definitely should!

The Journey: John 6:11

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.

This easy-to-overlook verse is sandwiched between two of Jesus’ outstanding miracles—the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two small fish, and the miracle of Jesus walking on the water. Not only that, at the end of this lengthy chapter is some of the heaviest theology that Jesus would ever lay on his would-be followers. It was so demanding and confrontational, in fact, that his followers called it a “hard saying,” and many of them quit following him from that point on.

With so much important stuff going on in this chapter, it would be easy to miss the fact that Jesus stopped to give thanks before a meal. Think about that for a moment: Why would Jesus do that? In a sense, wasn’t he really saying grace to himself? What purpose did this serve?

To begin with, I think Jesus was truly grateful to his Father for this provision of resources by which the miraculous feeding could occur. I think Jesus was authentically thankful that his Father had authorized the use of Divine power and was about to yet again authenticate the Messianic ministry and mission of the Son. I think the Second Person of the eternal Trinity was a fundamentally grateful being. It was just who Jesus was; the organic overflow of his Divine nature.

Not only that, Jesus was modeling for us the appropriateness and power of gratitude. He was reminding us by his actions that it doesn’t hurt to stop and express thanksgiving to God, and one of the simplest and recurring ways to enter into gratitude is to say a simple “thank you” before each meal.

We don’t know exactly what Jesus said in his prayer, but it was likely short and sweet. John simply says he “gave thanks”. He acknowledged God in that moment, drawing attention to the Heavenly Provider and reminding both himself and those who were within earshot of his dependence on and gratitude to Father God.

That is something you and I can do too, each time we sit down (or drive through) for a meal. We can give thanks. As redundant and useless and perfunctory as it may seem, there is power in this simple act. C.S. Lewis said it well,

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.”

If Jesus, who didn’t have to offer thanks before a meal, did, then we, who don’t have to do it, most definitely should!

Before every meal this week, say grace. Pause, think about it, then offer up to your gracious Heavenly Father the gratitude that is in your heart for all the good things he has provided.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, thank you for the daily bread which you have supplied. This is just one of the many good and perfect gifts that have come down from you. Today, yet again, in the food that I eat, you have reminded me that you are a good Father who without fail takes care of me.