Healing the Leper in Matt 8:1-4

The leper asked for healing the Lord desired his healing and told him not to mention the healing to anyone, but rather offer the gift Moses outlined. Sadly we live in a day most "Christians" don't know what that gift would be. The Lord can determine the seriousness of our allegiance to Him based on our knowledge of His scripture.

Jesus healing blind men in Matt 9:27-31

Why did He tell them not to spread the news of Him healing them?  The Lord wants a relationship with each of us, and relationship to Him is healing enough.  Physical healing in this life is temporary, because it is a fallen world.  Relationship to Him is eternal.

thoughts that have come to mind

If God is a 1

we are a 0

putting ourselves over God (0/1) = 0 still

putting God over ourselves (1/0) = infinity

Its been right there the whole time i've taught in digital class, and AC, etc.

In the Garden of Eden, after the fall, Adam and Eve hid from God, didn't embrace relationship to Him but rather hid.  In our time we put off our moments with God (we hide from Him) due to the "busyness" of life.  Maybe we're still fallen?????

come quickly Lord Jesus

Father we cry out to you.  In a country where we've turned our backs on You for our own selfish ways.  We've failed to raise our children in Your ways because we have rejected Your ways. 

Strengthen us Lord to not be unstable and double minded, but rather Christ minded in all things.

Soften the ears and help those who don't hear the crying of the murdered unborn to hear and repent.  Lord I cry with them "How long?".

Your ways our higher than ours- as Your word says.

Lord help us .

a change

In "my utmost for His highest" today it said pray in all things in the situation you find yourself.  So instead of weekly posts which I'm failing at i hope to offer prayers. 

My recent thoughts are why do people turn from God?  The Lord in His earthly ministry never forced Himself on anyone, but when they were ready for Him, He was available.  So scaring people to Christ may mean people confess before they are ready, then there is a falling away, or is it a falling away.  The disciples had an experience of Christ as did the apostle Paul that they were willing to die for Him.  People who confess Christ and truly have relationship with Him will have that kind of experience.  It will be a personal experience that probably can't be proven the disciple just knows.

Jesus is ready and waiting knocking at the door of all our hearts if you will to have relationship with us.  Yet we often fall into a belief that we can make and control our own world when in fact we cannot.  It is at the end of self that we truly find Him.

In terms of prayer we have to not look at our circumstances but practice the presence of Christ at all moments in our life.  Look at Elisha, surrounded by Assyrians (2 Kings 6) but he saw the armies of Christ so spiritually he saw, in the natural he appeared foolish.

We as supposed Christian don't promote Christ in all facets of our life and so we get to deal with the drama of life and its all around us.  Cling to Him, its not about serving its about deepening relationship to Him.  Service will come out of deeper relationship.

May God bless you.

16-10-02 notes

Have you bowed your knee to Christ yet?

How is your relationship to Christ?

Are you convinced that Christ' ways are best and that anything you think best that don't align with Christ' ways will end badly? Do you realize the only way we can all live together in the harmony we claim to want is to put Christ first?

Has life taught you continually that you don't know everything, and that when you actually did think you had everything figured out your were often in error?

How is your legacy? Isn't our only legacy our children? Were your children inconvenient, or is it more likely you realized the "inconvenience" was only your own selfishness?  Do you realize we have no control over our legacy, others get to decide.

We will all bow to Christ because eventually we come to the undeniable conclusion that we aren't God and He is. We are creatures living in a world that we did not create - another conclusion we all come to. We often try to re-create the world the way we want it, but if it doesn't align with Christ's plan it will end in loneliness and despair.

We all have relationship to Christ just as we all have relationship to our fellow humans. Some humans we don't know, some we cherish being around, others we avoid. Our relationship to Christ should be the model we follow for our relationships to others.

Do we hope the best for all - the best being close personal relationship to Christ? do we long for that? Pray for others?

Are our own feelings and wants sometimes repugnant as we realize our own selfish wants, and the fact we're ok that others will be hurt?

16-09-18 notes

In Genesis when the three angels were journeying to Sodom they stopped at the place Abraham was staying. Do angels journey? the intention was to see Abraham, and how did he respond to the visit?

First of all He recognized the group or one of the group as being his Lord, secondly he stopped everything he was doing and had a meal prepared for them. He got his servants involved, he got Sarah involved. What is striking is that when the Lord showed up he served Him, he sought fellowship with Him.

What would be our reaction/response to the Lord coming to see us in the flesh in person as it were? Would we focus on what He could do for us or would we recognize who He is and serve Him and enjoy Him? When Jesus walked the earth later people would go to Him, not to serve but to get their infirmities addressed or the infirmities of their friends. He healed, he responded to their requests but often told them not to tell anyone. Christ wants to first and foremost be our friend, and companion, and He seeks that we first and foremost are His friend.

The best of friends serve each other, they give of themselves to serve and make comfortable each other. They put each other ahead of self. Suddenly any personal infirmities don't matter so much. They are always glad to see each other, they enjoy spending time together without there necessarily being a purpose. They purposely seek to spend time with each other.

Do you have that kind of friendship with Christ? Do you have that kind of friendship with any other person? Christ seeks that kind of friendship with us, He is ready, He is standing at our doors knocking to see if we'll let Him in. Will we then be that kind of friend back to Him?

This is not to shame it is meant to cause reflection, we all know where we are in all our relationships and we all know we have shortcomings. Christ wants to be closer than a brother to us and we should be closer than a brother to Him as well as in our other relationships.

Christ called 12 and made them His friends on earth, and yet one betrayed Him. Others ran away, curious as to what He was doing, but keeping a distance and denying Him. Yet when He was risen and came back, His apostles were changed, they truly understood His friendship and it changed their life. Changed it to the point that most of them endured horrible deaths for the sake of His friendship.

Can we have the same friendship with Him? YES

Can that model our friendship to others? YES

Is it natural for us to be this kind of friend to Him and others? NO, in the natural we preserve our flesh, we focus on gratifying it. We do need His touch, His help to be the kind of friend to Him and each other we should be.

Help us Lord Jesus.