WARNING
PREACHY…
A Greek born girl is healed as well as
a Jewish born deaf mute; Jesus heals them both.
---
In Mark we see that Jesus, as a Jew,
pointed out that he could not have (maybe should not have) healed the Greek
girl because the Jew is preferred in Judaism.
Certainly the Jews preferred their own kinsmen and easily discriminated between
themselves and everyone else. And Jesus
points this out to the woman by (possibly sarcastically) reminding her that
she is no better than a dog in the eyes of the Jews. But she replies to Jesus with words of great
faith and he readily accepts her words by granting the healing that she sought.
Jesus also healed a Jewish man who was a deaf
mute and by healing them both demonstrates that there is no preferences for or
discrimination between persons.
We humans have an ugly way of judging, for
ourselves, who is worthy of our Lord's blessings according to our own biases when
the only thing that matters to our Lord is faith. We even might believe at times that Jesus cannot forgive
and love our own selves because of something that we may have done rather than
simply allowing our faith in what HE has done to be the determining factor.
We need to stop being the judges of
the world but fully accept the righteous judgement of Jesus.
We are taught not to Judge according
to our own preferences which is by discrimination (v. 2:4) and favoritism (v. 2:9).
---
James talks about allowing our faith
to be effective in our lives with demonstrations of deeds of faith. He talks about true faith expressing itself
as “believing”.
I hear all the time that people
"believe" in God, and even Jesus, but their belief in Jesus is like
one's belief in any historical person. However,
the belief that James is calling us to is a genuine faith that is present and active. A
present and active faith is not an easy believism based on some nebulous
past. The belief of true faith is a
belief in the present and active NOW.
NOW, we believe and have faith that we are presently redeemed.
NOW, we allow the Holy Spirit to invade our world
through us.
NOW, we believe and know the peace that passes
all understanding.
NOW, we live our lives on earth as it is in heaven.
Our present and active belief is not a
one-time event so that we can go to heaven when we die but it is an active
present reality that allows us to live heaven here on earth NOW.
Our lives and churches thrive now
because Jesus is alive now and so we believe and have faith now. Unfortunately, too many of us are not living
life on earth (as it is in heaven now) because we have allowed the evil one to convince us that since we are
"saved" we need only sit back and wait for the return of our Lord.
NOW friends, is the time to begin
living out our faith for all eternity.
2 Corinthians 6:2
2 For he says,
“In the time
of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you,
now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
---
(As I wrote this I kept thinking that
this song was appropriate. Because He Lives [3].)
No comments:
Post a Comment