Lessons from an old lady! (Luke 13)

Lessons from an old lady! (Luke 13)

Luke 13.10-11 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all [niv]

I remember the first time I prayed and God answered. I was nine years old at the time, and a relatively new Christian. My Dad had stopped at a petrol station and while he was inside, I prayed a very simple prayer, "God please let Dad buy me an ice-cream, and I will serve you the rest of my life." If I could go back in time, I would travel back to this day and grab that chubby nine year, look him straight in the eyes and scream, "ARE YOU CRAZY!" But sure enough, when Dad came back to the car, he wasn't empty handed.

Then there was the time when I was a teenager, I asked God for a sign if He was real. The words had barely left my lips when the night sky lit up by a huge streak of lightning, followed within seconds by an almighty clap of thunder which shook the whole house.

There was also the time when I was pastoring my first church in Warrnambool, pleading with God to cover the church's debt of $10,000. Within minutes of praying, I got up, walked out to the letterbox to find a bank cheque for $10,000 in the letterbox!

But there were other times I prayed and heard nothing.

Like the time I prayed for God to heal my Mum of lung cancer, but she died. Or the time I cried out to God to deliver me from certain addictions, but He didn't. I've prayed for certain family members to come to Christ, and they haven't. There have been times when I have tithed and honoured God with my money and nothing happened. The bills kept coming in, the bank balance never changed and the cupboards stayed empty.

The woman in this story was suffering with some form of spinal arthritis for 18 years. She spent 18 years of her life bent over, looking at the ground and not able to straighten up. Yet when Jesus finds her, she is not at home feeling sorry for herself, watching "The Bold and the Beautiful". She is in the synagogue.

According to the custom of the day, she would have gone there at least once a week. So each week she goes to a place of worship, where prayers are offered, scripture is read and offerings made. And each week she walked home exactly the same! Bent over. She did this for 18 years!

As Christians we will all go through times of trouble or pressure. What I have found after 30 years in ministry is that often when faced with difficulty and God seems silent, we tend to stop praying, stop reading the Bible, stop tithing, stop serving and eventually stop attending.

Yet this woman after 18 years still remained consistent even though her situation never changed. She kept doing those things she knew to do, every though her circumstances screamed out at her, "GIVE IT UP!" It was her consistency which made sure she was in the right place at the right time to receive her miracle from Jesus.

When Jesus turned up at her synagogue that particular day, she didn't come to listen to guest ministry, or to receive a prophetic word. She didn't try to touch the hem of his garment, climb a tree to catch his attention or cry out in a loud voice, "Jesus Son of David have mercy on me!" She just stood there, probably towards the back. Bent over. Looking at the ground. Silent. Because that's what she did every week for the past 18 years. And Jesus noticed her out of everyone.

Maybe we can all learn something from her.

Read more »

Be Thankful for Fleas! (Colossians 4)

Be Thankful for Fleas! (Colossians 4)

Colossians 4.2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving

In her book 'The Hiding Place', Corrie ten Boom recounts her experiences as a prisoner during World War 2. While living in Holland, Corrie and her family were arrested for helping hide Jews from the Nazi's. Her parents didn't survive the horror which followed and Corrie and her sister Betsy were eventually transfered to a concentration camp in Ravensbruck, Germany.

It was a large camp with several oversized and overcrowded barracks. Each barracks housed hundreds of prisoners. On their first day there, Betsy and Corrie were shown their sleeping platform, a wooden base covered with mouldly, foul-smelling straw. Corrie felt something pinch her leg. "Fleas!" she cried! Sure enough, the barracks were infested with them!

Through a miracle they had been able to smuggle a small Bible in with them. If caught, they would be severely punished. Betsy opened the Bible and reminded Corrie that the Word of God instructed to pray earnestly and be always thankful.

As hard as it was, they began to thank God for the fleas. Over the next several months, the sisters began to notice something strange. The guards never came to their barracks! They took courage and began to lead the women in prayer and Bible study right in the heart of a Nazi concentration camp! Through this countless numbers of women came to faith in Christ. Their barracks became a sanctuary and a refuge in the midst of hell.

It was only some time later that they discovered the reason why the guards left them alone. They stayed away because of the severe infestation of fleas!

God calls us all to be vigilant in our prayers. And He wants us to do it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Our ability to do this should have nothing to do with our circumstances but rather we obey simply because His Word tells us to.

When was the last time we stopped complaining about our problems and instead thanked God for them. Maybe our problems aren't really problems, just God's blessing in disguise!

It might not be what we expected, but if God can use a flea to keep His children safe during a holocaust, imagine what He might use to help you!

Read more »

Forgive and Don't Forget! (Colossians 3)

Forgive and Don't Forget! (Colossians 3)

** please welcome the lovely Cathy Swan as today's guest blogger

Colossians 3.13 You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. [nlt]

I forgive you. A phrase we can often find very hard to say, especially to those who call themselves Christians. Aren’t Christians supposed to be just that – ‘Christ ones’? We seem to hold those in the Church, to a higher standard than unsaved family or friends. We expect the pastor to always be available when we need him, we expect our Christian friends to be always loving and never judgmental.

There are so many self-professing Christians who refuse to even darken the door of a church because they have been ‘hurt in the church!’ Yet when Jesus was here on earth He told us that ‘offense will come’!

The truth is that we will be hurt by people, regardless of whether they are in pastors, family members, close friends or fellow members of the family of God. It’s a natural part of living here on planet earth. If we can understand that, it will help us to move on and deal with the hurt and forgive.

Jose and I have been through two extremely difficult situations in church life that caused us a lot of hurt and even made us question our faith and our future involvement in church. This betrayal of trust and Godliness hurt us badly but if we had not forgiven and walked on, we would probably not be in a place of much use to anyone today.

We hear the phrase forgive and forget thrown around very carelessly today. But the key to forgiveness is remembering. Remembering that the Lord forgave us! Even when we were still locked in our own sin, He loved us and forgave us. His expectation of us is that we go and do the same. We have no right to harbour unforgiveness to others. We need to accept that hurt will come, and then act swiftly to show forgiveness. God doesn't say 'if' we can forgive, He says we 'must' forgive!

Then we can heal and move forward.

Read more »

Paid in Full! (Colossians 2)

Paid in Full! (Colossians 2)

Colossians 2.14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. [nkjv]

It was one of those embarrassing moments which has probably happened to most of us at some stage of our life. Frances Martinez was trying to pay for her groceries but was having problems with her debit card. The eftpos machine was refusing to accept it, citing 'insufficient funds' as the reason for its non-cooperation. After a few attempts she left her groceries on the counter and went to phone the bank. When she came back, the cashier had surprising news for her. "Someone has paid for your groceries!" When Martinez asked who this Good Samaritan was, the only clue the cashier could give was that it was a lady who had been standing behind her in the queue. When Frances Martinez arrived home, all she could do was cry. She later told her local newspaper that, "with times the way they are and the economy so bad, it's wonderful to think that someone would do something like that for a complete stranger!"

Although we are no strangers to Jesus, this is exactly what He has done for us! When we were left with no means to pay, He took the long list of sins we have committed and paid for these in full with His blood, nailing them to the cross for all eternity. Our debt is gone!

However we need to make sure that list stays nailed to the cross. The temptation for all of us is to listen to the lies of satan, who tries to get us to remember our past. He wants us to take our list back off the cross. When it is in our hands, it's easy for him to pour on the guilt and condemnation, causing us to doubt God's work in our lives. We forget that it was all settled at Calvary.

Martin Luther once told how satan laid heavy condemnation on him because of his sins. Luther told satan to list them all, and even reminded him of some he had forgotten. Then he told satan to write across the whole list, "paid in full by the blood of Jesus Christ."

Just like Luther, we can rejoice and rest in the knowledge that our sins have been 'paid in full' by Him who loves us. They have been nailed to the cross and to the cross they must stay.

Read more »

She Said Yes! (Colossians 1)

She Said Yes! (Colossians 1)

Colossians 1.10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God [niv]

On 20th April 1999, Cassie Bernall, a junior at Columbine High in Littleton Colorado, was a typical teenager having a typical day, when a couple of her classmates trained a gun on her head and asked if she believed in God. She said "Yes". Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold pulled the trigger and shot her in the head. They went on to kill another 12 students and a teacher and injured 26 others before turning the gun on themselves.

Christians all around the world were impacted by the news of Cassie's death, with many calling her a modern day martyr. In the wake of the Columbine shootings, many Christian teens began asking themselves tough questions like, "What if it were me?" Many saw the possibility of dying for Christ as attractive. The idea of martyrdom became popular.

Helping this along were merchandisers who saw this as a great business opportunity. Cassie's last words, "Yes, I believe" have been immortalized on everything from key chains and t-shirts, to bracelets and coffee mugs.

While I stand in awe of those who have laid down their life for the Gospel of Christ, we need to be careful not to turn martyrdom into something that it isn't. Yes, dying for Christ is an honour, but so is living for Him. I think dying is easy, it's faithfully living for Him, day after day which is a harder thing to do. In fact the most amazing thing to me about Cassie's story, wasn't how she died but rather how she lived.

May we live a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him in every good work and growing in the knowledge of Him.

Read more »