Broken Pieces

Reading for today: Romans 8:28

Retrieved from elizabethhagen.com

Every summer my parents, sister, and I would crowd into our small car and head south from New Hampshire to visit family. After the first few hours we would be sweaty and grumpy, drinking ice water from a thermos to keep cool.

I remember when my parents finally bought a car with air conditioning, a sky blue Dodge Spirit. We were excited to hit the road that summer. Unfortunately, by the time we crossed the Massachusetts border, we heard a loud crunch and dad noticed in the rear-view mirror that something had fallen out of the bottom of the car.

He pulled over, grabbed the pieces of our car, and prayed the car would start. It did. But the air conditioning we were anticipating never came on again.

Nine hot, sweaty, and grumpier than usual hours later, we arrived at my grandparents’ home. My dad drove the broken car to the nearest mechanic.

The mechanic asked my father what seemed to be the problem. My dad replied, “I’m not sure, but I think these have something to do with it.” He laid the broken pieces of his car on the counter.

The mechanic laughed, recognizing the pieces. He fixed our car and we had air conditioning from then on.

While life can be full of joy, it can also be full of broken pieces. When you break down, don’t forget to grab the pieces. Bring them straight to God. Lay them on His counter. He’ll recognize the pieces and know exactly how to fix them, but usually in ways you never expected.

Dear God, I am broken in this area:________________________. I need you to put my pieces back together. Fix it, Lord. Make me new. Show me the good you have intended for my life. Amen.

As you meditate on God’s power of redemption, listen to Ellie Holcomb’s testimony and song, The Broken Beautiful.

Day 2 – Psalm 51:10-12

Day 3 – Psalm 34:17-19

Day 4 – Psalm 147:3

Day 5 – 2 Corinthians 4:6-10

 

Read Full Post »

Hey! You Stole My Miracle: 3 Lessons on God’s Timing – Lesson 1

Read for today: Luke 8:40-56

“Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any more.” Luke 8:49

 

Lesson 1: God’s timing is never too late.

Jairus knew Jesus could heal his dying daughter. If he could find Jesus, then there might be a chance.

As if God had heard his desperate prayer, there was Jesus! Pushing through the crowd, Jairus threw himself at Jesus’s feet. Please come, heal my daughter. Desperation gave way to hope as Jairus led Jesus through the masses. Oh God, let us make it in time.

And then, out of nowhere, Jesus stopped. He began to search the crowd for something or someone else. Who touched me? Jesus asked. Nobody responded. Jesus continued to wait, looking around. Precious time ticked by.

There are hundreds of people all around, why are you stopping to ask “who touched me?” Then a woman stepped out of the crowd, revealing that she had touched Jesus and because of it, was healed from a twelve-year-old disease.

Twelve-year-old. The age of Jairus’s daughter. The daughter who also needed Jesus to touch her with his healing powers. But now it was too late. Men from Jairus’s house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Don’t trouble the teacher any more. It’s over. This hemorrhaging woman had stolen Jairus’s miracle! While Jesus had stood there commending her on her faith, Jairus’s daughter had died. Her life was over. They were too late.

But God’s timing is never too late. In fact, it is perfect every time. However, our response to His perfect timing is usually one of four reactions: fear (as in Jairus), annoyance (as in the disciples), cynicism (as in Jairus’s household), or faith (as in the hemorrhaging woman).

God’s timing is about getting us to that place of faith. His seeming delay afforded one woman another chance in life, healing her body and strengthening her faith. To a scared family, their cynical household, and a frustrated group of disciples who all wanted a healing, God’s timing allowed for a bigger miracle: a resurrection.

As you go through this week, what are you waiting on God for? Instead of responding with worry or fear or frustration, ask God to give you faith. Remember, God loves you and He has a plan for you. He will bless you abundantly and make you a blessing to others. Trust His way. Trust His timing.

Dear God, It is so hard to wait for you. Make me fearless and give me the strength to believe that you have everything perfectly timed. Amen.

This week read about the blessings of waiting on God’s timing.

Day 2 – Jeremiah 29:11-12; Psalm 27:14

Day 3 – Romans 8:28-32

Day 4 – Isaiah 30:18; Lamentations 3:22-26

Day 5 – Psalm 130

 

 

Read Full Post »

Face the Sunshine

I thought I would share this post from four years ago as encouragement for this week.

 

Originally posted on 5/23/2012 my blog, http://801seminaryplace.wordpress.com

The last few international women’s Bible studies that I led were about understanding what Christians mean by faith or belief. The last two stories we studied were about the healing of a demon possessed boy and the resurrection of Lazarus. Both stories illustrate not only the amazing power of Jesus, but also the two-sided coin of Christian belief.

In the account of the demon possessed boy (Mark 9:14-29), Jesus had just been away on a mountain. While waiting for his return, a man had approached Jesus’ disciples for help in healing his boy who was possessed by an evil spirit.  The disciples were unable to heal the small boy and because of it, they and the Jewish scribes had gotten into a heated argument.

It is at that point, Jesus returns and asks what they are arguing about. The father explains his son’s dire situation and then asks Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus responds, “If I can! All things are possible for one who believes.” To which the father immediately cries, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Likewise, in the story of Lazarus (John 11:17-45), Mary and Martha (Lazarus’ sisters) call for Jesus to help their dying brother. Jesus tarries and when he finally arrives, Lazarus is already dead and buried, and the funeral procedures are well underway. Both women come to Jesus privately and express their confidence in Jesus’ ability mixed with their disappointment in his delay. Martha says, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Later a distraught Mary also says, “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Jesus promises Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Yet when Jesus asks them to move the stone of Lazarus’ tomb away, Martha questions him saying, “Lord, by now there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” In other words, “You are too late to do anything.”

In Matthew 28:17, the disciples are watching Jesus prepare to ascend into heaven and it says, “And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some of them doubted.” The Greek word for “doubted” in this verse is distazo which means to waver between two points of view, to be uncertain at a crossroads, to vacillate.

To be uncertain at the crossroads. To waver between two points of view. Belief and unbelief occupying the same space. British writer, Adrian Plass wrote in his book Why I Follow Jesus, “Perhaps belief and unbelief are two sides of the same coin. You can turn the coin over, but you can’t make the side you’re not looking at go away” (2000, p. 7).

But that’s where Jesus comes in. Our worthiness for the gift of faith, or healing, or a miracle is not dependent on the excellence of our belief or the absence of our unbelief. No, our worthiness is completely dependent on Jesus’ merit.

To the father of the demon possessed boy, Jesus did not walk away affronted by the man’s lack of confidence. Instead, he turned to the boy, cast out the evil spirit, “took him by the hand and lifted him up.” To Mary and Martha, Jesus did not take offense to their limited and shifting belief in his power. Instead he wept with them and then performed one of his greatest miracles – he brought Lazarus back to life. To the doubting disciples standing on the mountain, Jesus did not withhold his blessing from them. Instead he gave them the ultimate job of making disciples of all nations, promising them, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So what do we do about the other side of the coin? What do we do about our uncertainty at the crossroads? How do we manage distazo?

We look to Christ. We cry out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” as the father did. We fall at his feet and pour out our hearts, as Mary did. We allow the stone to be rolled back, as Martha did. We accept Christ’s authority and his promises, as the disciples did. We persistently face the Son so that we cannot see the shadows.  It is in “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:2a) that we see where our strength of faith truly comes.

 “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” ~ Helen Keller

 

Read Full Post »

The Power to Save: A six-week study on the powers of Jesus: Week 4

The Paralytic (artist unknown)

Reading for today: Mark 2:1-17

“Sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge” (Timothy Keller from The Prodigal God, 2008, p. 50).

Sin is our debt towards God. And just like any case of a debt and a debtor, the only one who can forgive the debt is the one to which everything is owed. In the case of humanity’s great debt, the only one who can forgive our sins is God – the very one we are indebted to.

That’s why the religious leaders found Jesus so offensive. By saying to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” Jesus was making a bold statement, which was: I am God. I have the power to forgive your sins. And either Jesus is correct, and he is God. Or he is a con artist and a liar.

“Who does he think he is? The religious leaders asked angrily. “Is he in the place of God, that he can forgive?” The paralytic and his friends certainly thought so. That’s why they made every effort, in faith, to come to Jesus. And in faith they received not only healing, but also the forgiveness of sins.

Sin separates us from God but forgiveness brings us back to him. And that forgiveness comes from Jesus. God the Father gave Jesus the power to forgive our sins and bring us back into relationship with God. Jesus paid our debt for us. He erased it. That’s what the Easter story is all about.

As we prepare to understand the power of the Easter story, we need to see the damning power of our sin. But be confident in this, Jesus’ power is greater. In the midst of our darkness, Jesus calls us out and into his marvelous light.

Dear God, We know that something is wrong in our world and in our hearts. That “wrongness” is sin. Please forgive our sins and give us your saving faith. Amen.

Jesus’ mission on earth was to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). This week, read more about Jesus power over sin and his gift of forgiveness.

 

Day 2: Luke 7:36-50

Day 3: Matthew 18:21-35

Day 4: Luke 15:1-32

Day 5: Colossians 1:13-14; Psalm 32:1-5; Psalm 103:10-13

 

Read Full Post »

The Power to Save: A six-week study on the power of Jesus: Week 1

We are in the season of Lent. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and culminates on Good Friday. For church people, Lent is traditionally the time to stoically remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us. During this time, we tend to dwell on the fact that Jesus gave up all his power on our behalf.

While this is very true, I want to spend the rest of Lent looking at the power Jesus did not give up on our behalf. Specifically I want to discuss six powers, that when combined not only make Jesus the perfect sacrifice but also make him mighty to save.

Reading for this week: Luke 8:41-56

“I perceive that power has gone out of me.” ~Luke 8:46

At the time of this story, Jesus was still early in his ministry but famously known for his power to heal. He healed the sick, the lame, the blind, the infirm, and even the dead. Because of his power to heal anything, he had a following and everywhere he went, people gathered.

In this particular story, Jesus was heading towards Jairus’ home. Jairus’ daughter was very sick, close to death. Yet Jesus allowed himself to be delayed along the way by a desperate, sick woman reaching out to grab a bit of his power. And it worked. This woman, who had spent twelve years consulting experts, only to be left worse off, was healed in a second, simply by touching Jesus’ clothes.

Jairus’ Daughter by Barbabra Februar

After healing the woman and finally arriving at Jairus’ house, it was too late. The disease had killed the little girl. But Jesus seemed unfazed by the mourners. There was not a “let me see what I can do”. No, Jesus confidently walked over to the little girl and commanded her to arise. And she did.

There are two crucial distinctions in Jesus’ power to heal. First, unlike a doctor or an expert, Jesus doesn’t just possess a working knowledge of common diseases, ailments, and afflictions, he rules over them. That’s why he can demand Jairus’ daughter to rise up out of her death, and she does. That’s why he can rebuke a fever into submission, and it immediately dissipates (Luke 4:39). That’s why he can spit into the dirt, make mud, and smear it over a blind man’s eyes, to heal like no medicine available (John 9:6-7). He has complete power over disease.

Second, faith is involved. In both situations, Jesus links his power to their faith. In the case of the trembling woman, Jesus reveals that the power that had gone out of him was released by her faith. And to the mourners at Jairus’ house, Jesus says, “Believe, and she will be well.” In each situation, Jesus is not simply showcasing his power, but he is demonstrating that we have access to his power through faith. And that power, is life-saving.

Dear Jesus, You have the power to heal. Heal us. Thank you for your ultimate, life-saving healing where we, through faith, receive your salvation. Amen.

This week delve into the world of Jesus the Healer. As you read each story of healing, remember that the Bible does not expound on every healing. With that in mind, ask yourself the following questions: Why is this story included in the Bible? What can I learn about Jesus from this story?

Day 2 – Matthew 20:29-34

Day 3 – Matthew 8:1-17

Day 4 – Luke 6:6-11

Day 5 – Luke 17:11-19

Read Full Post »