Hey everybody. Today's post is going to be a fairly short one. Recently, I have had a song by my favorite band (Skillet) stuck in my head. The song is called "Looking for Angels". Have a listen:
The song talks about how people in this world are looking for somebody to be an "angel". Now, an angel, in simple terms, is a messenger from God. As Christians, I think that it is our job to be the angel to these people. One way we can be an angel to the hurting, is through service. Jesus give us a great example of service in the parable of the Good Samaritan:
"Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouting oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend when I return I will repay you."
-Luke 10:30-35
This story is a beautiful example of service. The Samaritan saw this guy on the side of the rode, sacrificed his time, energy, and money to make sure that this man got better. He was being an angel to this man.
So, as Skillet puts it:
"What will you do to make a difference, to make a change? What will you do to help someone along the way?"
How will you be an angel?
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Faith
"And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."
-Matthew 17:20 (NASV)
That is such a powerful verse. Jesus tells us that even if our faith is very small, we can MOVE A MOUNTAIN! How cool would it be to walk up to a mountain and say "mountain, move to this other place" and have it move?
Now, as cool as moving a mountain would be, it is not the only thing that God can and will do if we have faith in Him. The Bible gives us lots of examples of what can happen when somebody has faith. One example, is found in Matthew 8:1-3:
"When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said "Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean" Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him saying "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed"
This man is a great example of what faith looks like. He had faith that Jesus had the ability to heal him, so he was not afraid to ask.
A second example of a miracle that occurred because somebody had faith is found in Matthew 9: 20-22:
"And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak; for she was saying to herself "If I only touch his garment, I will get well." But Jesus turning and seeing her said, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well."
Much like the man in the first story, this woman had faith that Jesus had the power to make her well. So she reached out and touched his cloak, and the power that was within Him healed her.
A third example (my favorite of the 3) is a little bit different than the other 2. It is found in Luke 5: 17-25:
"One day He was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you" The scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you' or to say 'Get up and walk'? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."-He said to the paralytic-"I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher, and go home." Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.; and they were all filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today."
What I find most interesting about this passage is the phrase "their faith". This part of the passage, in my mind, is not referring to the paralytic, but to his friends. His friends had enough faith that Jesus could heal their friend, that they were willing to do whatever it took to get him to Jesus. Through the faith of friends, the paralytic was healed.
So what can we learn from these three passages? Well....the short answer is that if we have faith, God can (and will) do amazing things! Not just for us (like in the first two examples) but through us (like in the third example). The amazing thing is, it doesn't even take very much faith for these things to happen! Like it says in the verse at the beginning, it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed (which for those of you who don't know, is very very small). So the question is, how big is your faith?
-Matthew 17:20 (NASV)
That is such a powerful verse. Jesus tells us that even if our faith is very small, we can MOVE A MOUNTAIN! How cool would it be to walk up to a mountain and say "mountain, move to this other place" and have it move?
Now, as cool as moving a mountain would be, it is not the only thing that God can and will do if we have faith in Him. The Bible gives us lots of examples of what can happen when somebody has faith. One example, is found in Matthew 8:1-3:
"When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said "Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean" Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him saying "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed"
This man is a great example of what faith looks like. He had faith that Jesus had the ability to heal him, so he was not afraid to ask.
A second example of a miracle that occurred because somebody had faith is found in Matthew 9: 20-22:
"And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak; for she was saying to herself "If I only touch his garment, I will get well." But Jesus turning and seeing her said, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well."
Much like the man in the first story, this woman had faith that Jesus had the power to make her well. So she reached out and touched his cloak, and the power that was within Him healed her.
A third example (my favorite of the 3) is a little bit different than the other 2. It is found in Luke 5: 17-25:
"One day He was teaching and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you" The scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you' or to say 'Get up and walk'? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins."-He said to the paralytic-"I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher, and go home." Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.; and they were all filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today."
What I find most interesting about this passage is the phrase "their faith". This part of the passage, in my mind, is not referring to the paralytic, but to his friends. His friends had enough faith that Jesus could heal their friend, that they were willing to do whatever it took to get him to Jesus. Through the faith of friends, the paralytic was healed.
So what can we learn from these three passages? Well....the short answer is that if we have faith, God can (and will) do amazing things! Not just for us (like in the first two examples) but through us (like in the third example). The amazing thing is, it doesn't even take very much faith for these things to happen! Like it says in the verse at the beginning, it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed (which for those of you who don't know, is very very small). So the question is, how big is your faith?
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Sorry!
Hey guys, sorry that I didn't have a post up by Friday, life is crazy right now and I kind of forgot to plan one :-P I will have on up by next Friday though! I have been praying that God will give me things to write about, and He has come through. Some topics that you can expect to see in the coming weeks include faith and being a light to the world. Stay tuned.
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