Archive for God encounters
Jesus, the Healer of Broken Hearts
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If we believe that God is purposeful in His actions, then how significant is the fact that the first words of the first message Jesus preached were, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because … He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted…”? (Luke 4:18-19)
Jesus came to heal broken hearts and not only as a side benefit; it’s one of his life purposes! That’s good news because all of us who are in this world have experienced the pain of having our hearts broken in one way or another. If we look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels, we find that he moves throughout his days interacting with humanity and healing broken hearts. That healing takes many expressions. Today I want to look at how Jesus healed the heart of a woman as recorded in John 4 and what that healing means for us now.
Let’s take a look at the story.
Jesus was exhausted from his long trip. He had gone to the city well to get a drink of water. However, what followed was not a chance happening at all because we are told that Jesus “needed” to go through the region of Samaria; he was compelled to do so.
Jews did not have anything to do with Samaritans in those days. Samaritans were considered half-breeds and unclean by Jewish tradition. Yet Jesus, a Jew, chose to go through the middle of Samaria instead of making the usual trip around the area as most Jews did in order to avoid the Samaritans.
When Jesus Offers You More
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This morning I am contemplating the passage in Luke 17 which records the story of ten men who had leprosy being healed by Jesus. I am arrested by the response of the one … “and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.”
And my heart is drawn to this idea… “When he saw that he was healed…”
Sometimes our healing comes just this obviously. We look and we see. We are healed. At other times, our healing is a process; it comes piece by piece, particularly when Jesus is healing our hearts.
Today I am asking myself, and I hope you will ask yourself, how do I respond to God’s healing in my life? Can I see what He is doing in me?
All ten lepers could physically see that they were healed. Yet this one, he saw more. He saw the person of Christ. He saw His redeemer. The others were doing just what Jesus told them. They were going to the priests in order to be declared ceremonially cleansed which would allow them to reconnect with their world and their God. Yet this one…
The Power of Awakened Desire
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What do you think of when you think of the word “desire”?
The Life of Faith
Posted by: | CommentsMore than once Jesus told his disciples to follow him. For the disciples to follow Jesus, they had to embrace a lot of change. Change in their everyday lifestyle. Vocational change. Change in family relationships. Change in religious beliefs. But those changes were a really just a reflection of deep inner change.
Signing up to follow Jesus means signing up for a lifetime of change. Change of heart. Jesus spoke so often about the heart because it is central to everything. What we do and say and believe and teach and model all flow from our hearts.
On one occasion, Jesus got into a boat and his disciples followed him. Sounds fun, huh? A day at sea or a journey to the other side. A huge storm suddenly appeared and the disciples found themselves in a boat which was literally becoming covered with waves. I would be afraid, wouldn’t you? They naturally looked to their leader. He was asleep. I don’t think they hesitated to wake him up. They said, “Lord, don’t you care that we are dying?” Makes sense to me. They have committed their lives to following Jesus. They followed him into this boat. A storm has arisen. Jesus must be unaware. After all, he is asleep.
Encounters of the God Kind
Posted by: | CommentsSo pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
Welcome to My Journey
