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Floral Design: Stemz // Photography: Rebecca Wood Photography
Over Mark 2:1-12
Jesus is our highest priest, someone who builds a bridge to God.
He came to connect us to the Father.
While in Capernaum, Jesus was performing miracles. The people were drawn to him because of these miracles he was performing. If some guy was performing miracles right in front of your eyes, wouldn’t you want to go see? I know I would. People would be crowding around, coming from all over. Just as it was in Mark 2.
Verse 5 shows a shift, in the men’s emotions who brought the paralytic through the roof and also the paralytic most likely. He didn’t want their sins to be forgiven, he wanted to be healed!
For most of us, the majority of our conversations with God are about what we need, instead of confessing our sin.
It’s easy to say your sins are forgive because how do you know if they are or not? You don’t know, on the other hand, physical healing is something you know immediately.
Jesus set this up, in the passage. If he can tell someone to take up their mat and walk then he can tell them their sins are forgiven. Because he has the power to forgive sins, and in the long run that is what these people needed, they needed Jesus. However, they didn’t trust that He was the Son of God.
Which is why this passage shows so much importance.
If Jesus heals someone and he can prove it, then maybe they should pay attention to the rest of the stuff he says. Jesus is trying to connect people back to God. They needed to know about God and His love. Jesus came to this world to connect us back to the Father. He’s the only priest we will ever need.
Jesus sets them up. He wants them to know he has the authority to forgive sins. Which is why he said that before he healed him.
After Jesus healed the man, no one praised him because he washed the man of his sin, they only praised him for the physical healing.. which was temporary.
We know what’s important now, Jesus knows what was important. That is what He wants us to learn. Don’t miss the importance of Him. Yes he performed miracles, but physical only happens on earth. When he heals us of our sins, that is eternal. Jesus wanted the man to realize that, he fixed the man’s temporary problem, but he cured his permanent problem.
Miracles: If we believe in what God can do for us, then our faith becomes based on what God can do for you. But that’s just a temporary fix. We’re happy with him when we are happy. But when we’re angry we aren’t. If we aren’t careful we get into this Christian idea of “karma” but that’s not what it is about. If that is the case, then your faith will become shattered when anything bad happens.
That is a danger thing called religion, a system.
That’s not what our faith should be about.
You might not believe in God for that exact reason, “I needed God to show up when (something bad happened)”
So what happens when your prayers aren’t answered, where does your faith go?
If your faith is based on what Jesus did or did not do, then your faith isn’t there.
This is what our faith should be based on:
Not just the death, but the resurrection. Jesus’s death didn’t stop there, when Jesus rose again he conquered sin, death and the grace once and for all. Let your faith be based on that. Not just because Jesus died for us but the fact that he conquered sin and death. Victoriously he rose. And he said he would do that. Just like he said he would heal this man and his sins were forgiven.
Jesus came back. Because of His resurrection, we can become confident in our faith.
Confident that Jesus is who he says he is, and that Jesus will do what he says he will do. Faith is confidence in Jesus. He never promised us that the more faith we have the easier it will be. But he says that in this world we will have trouble, he doesn’t stop there, he tells us to take heart because he has overcome the world!
If we ever try to lean our faith on anything other than Jesus and what He did than our faith will fall apart. Don’t let your faith depend on what God does for us, but what He’s already done for us.
Romans 5:8
No matter what happens to you in this life, you can remember this..God loves you. If you trust him your sins are forgiven. No matter what happens, believe that God loves you and your sins are forgiven.
Hebrews 4:14: Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
When the hard times come, where is your faith rooted?
-Kerry Snyder
Anonymous asked: when i come back from retreats, im all fired up and i all i want to do is priase god. but when i go back to school, i get caught up from all the temptations. is there anyway to prevent this?
Retreats are amazing because we’re surrounded by people full of God’s unfailing love. We are on fire for the Lord, because we feel Him in our hearts, we’re learning about Him, we’re driven by His word but the main part of retreats is we are surrounded by people showing us Christ’s love. When we get home, go back to school, and find ourselves back in the ‘real world’ the problem is that. We think that our old friends, our everyday routine is the ‘real world’ and we have no way out of that. It’s wrong though. You need to reach out to people. Don’t hang out with people who put you into those tempting situations. We have to be the salt and the light of the earth.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” -Matthew 5:13-16
Basically what I’m trying to get at is living for Christ is hard. Yes, it’s very hard. He tells that over and over again, how we will be ridiculed by the world and the path to heaven is narrow. But when we live our life for Christ, we have Christ we have God, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us!! So yes, Satan will try to tempt us with our weaknesses, but we have to be strong. We have to reach out on our own. A church group is a great way to help encourage us and keep us going for the Lord, but when we step out of our Christianity comfort zone, that’s when we truly are the church of God. We have to show people who see us everyday that we have truly changed. Once they see that change in us, that dramatic, radical, life-altering change they will start to ask you questions. That would be an opportunity to show someone how amazing Christ is. Sorry I’ve gotten a little off topic, to answer your question, some ways to prevent this: change your life. Change your everyday routine, change how you act towards people, pray constantly, know that the Lord is walking side by side with you wherever you go. God will help you. You just have to take that step of faith. We change the world by changing ourselves first. I’m praying for you! God bless!! :)
We have forgotten the meaning of Christmas.
We get swept up by everything we have made Christmas into, and forget what it’s all about. Our culture tells us that Christmas is a time for feeling good and buying presents. Some people even try to ignore that it’s about Jesus, others don’t even care. It wraps us up so much that we forget that Christmas is about Jesus. The light of the world. Celebrating his arrival. Spreading his love.
We need to reclaim and rededicate it to what it is truly for!
John 1:4-9
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”
Jesus is that light! He’s the true light.
Jesus came to his father’s creation as part of it. Why? So that you and I could become his people.
So that we have a chance of freedom in this life. He has made us free of our sins. Jesus coming down here and living like we did, not only gave us guidelines and a role model to look after, but it gave us hope and the chance to become his people. We are the children of God. How amazing is that! The creator of everything, the almighty God, chose us. He chose you.
Jesus is our light. He’s telling you, I love you and I am here with you.
God sent Jesus to us.
Who has faced everything we have, and encountered every temptation possible.
A god who became his own creation.
so that we can understand…
just how much he loves us
and that he wants us.
Christmas is about the fact that God became flesh and dwelt among us.
Emmanuel- means God is with us. Christmas has been defiled and it needs to be remade.
Jesus is here and he is our eternal light.
What things can you do to escape the patterns of this world and remind yourself what Christmas is truly about?
How can you remind yourself God is here?
He did it ALL for us!
Keep it the central focus as the reason we celebrate.
Spread his light!
-Kerry Snyder
