Great Physician

Mark 2:17

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Yesterday I had to take my son to the doctor because he had an ear infection.  He had been up the night before crying that his ear hurt.  Upon hearing that he had to go to the doctor, suddenly he felt better.  Of course I knew better and still took him to the doctor to get the medication needed to heal him.

This started me thinking this morning about how the world often lives when it comes to the Great Physician.  We really don’t want to go to him unless it’s serious.  And while Jesus said it is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick, we may very well be sick but we pretend to be healthy so we do not have to go to the Great Physician. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all sick!  We have this deadly disease called sin.  We are in need of the Great Physician to give us the medication needed to heal us.  This medication can only come from him. 

I urge you today to go to the Great Physician and seek the medication needed to heal whatever it is in your life that you need healing from.

Our Journey to Adoption, Part VIII - Glory from Delay

The delayed process to adopt James and Sarah was frustrating. However, looking back, we can see how God received greater glory through all the delays! He made it more and more clear He intended us to adopt and that He was in control to bring it about.

Last March and April we continued to keep James and Sarah on weekends as we awaited the outcomes of other possible families for them. First, their biological mother said she appealed the termination, but she only thought she did (or wished she had, or wanted to believe she had). No record of an appeal was found, so the termination of the rights was not reversed.

Second, the uncle that said he was interested in the children didn’t have enough money to come up from Texas to even meet the children. He already had three of his own children, and didn’t have a permanent residence at the time. So, he relinquished his interest.

Third, one of James’ former foster families turned out not to be interested in adopting the children themselves, but wanted a relative of theirs to adopt. The relative didn’t have any recent connection to the children, so they were also scratched off the list. That left us and the current foster family.

God’s seeming delay is always for His purposes and His glory. As with the raising of Lazarus, Jesus delayed for God’s glory and the benefit of his disciples.

John 11:1, 3-6, 14-15  Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha… ³So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." ⁴When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." ⁵Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days… 

¹⁴So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

Can you think back over your past situations and see how God received greater glory and grew your faith through seeming delays? Let’s remember that as we face new situations that don’t seem to be working out in the timing we think is best.

Alice 

Tues Devo: Tension

Colossians 1:19-22 ”For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” (NASB)

Hello,

The continued recent political tensions in our country (No, I will not really go into how I feel…) had me thinking about tension in general. As believers we will never escape tension. Notice how the Colossians are described here prior to their conversion – “hostile in mind”. Paul also mentions how Jesus came to “reconcile all things to Himself” – if something needs reconciliation, there must be an issue!

There is a natural tension between right and wrong, between God and Satan, and between those who follow God and those who don’t.

One thing to note about this tension however is that peace comes through the person of Jesus Christ (through His blood on the cross as Paul reminds us above). Most people look at achieving peace in the midst of tension as coming to an agreement in the middle, not necessarily on one “side”. But since God is the creator of the world, well….He kind of is right! What is truly amazing is that instead of being forceful and tyrannical, He offers reconciliation through peace and love.

So, yes – there will always be tension, but we can help ease that tension one person at a time as we share the peace and love of Jesus.

Will Hill