Tag: Jesus

Against All Hope Part 2

28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.”29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” – Mark 5:28-29

You don’t hope for what you see, you hope for what is to come.

It was 12 long years of searching, spending and hoping for a cure. A blood disorder that no doctor could find a remedy for. I wonder if she, this lady who had this issue that we read in Mark 5 ever at times gave up? She did have a good reason to stop searching, to give up hope, but she pressed on even into the crowd.

I believe at times we may have an “incurable” type of issue that we might have. Something so big that it’s not within our power to receive or have the questions answered right then and there. God works in mysterious ways, I’ve known of individuals who have gotten instantly delivered from drugs, and alcohol and others who took many years to receive deliverance. We may have to wait, 1, 5, 10 years or longer until, not our search, but our cure, and our Promise is met, and our deliverance is met. We never stop searching, even though we know the One to search for. We must never stop or lose momentum in the waiting, in the pursuing. But simply come to him with the faith that touches His hem.

2. Will I let anything stop me from believing?

Stop and think, what is your “incurable” issue? What is it that you are needing from the Lord today? Is it healing? restoration? deliverance?

Against All Hope

If the ups and downs of our lives were pinpoints on a graph, what would yours look like? Would it be one straight line going up? Or would it look like a mountain range with highs and lows? Throughout our lives, we encounter blessings, victories, trials, and hardships. But how are we remaining hopeful even in the lows of life?

Jesus told his disciples in John 16:33 “In this world, you will have trouble but take heart! I have overcome the World.”

So when you’re against all hope when it feels as if the odds are stacked against you. Ask yourself

  1. Will I still believe it anyways?
  2. Will I let anything stop me from believing?
  3. Will I always expect God to answer?

Abraham was “against all hope,” it says in Romans 4:18 “In Hope, he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told.”

Abraham hoped when there was no hope. The hope he had made no human sense, Abraham hoped when the facts were contrary to logic. They were both well past the age of childbearing but “Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised.” – Hebrews 11:11

They didn’t let what was contrary become the roadblock to their promise, they were against all hope but yet they still believed. What is it in your life that you’ve been believing for? Are you hoping against all hope?

Because of the Blood

Part 1 – He made us Righteous

Have you ever stopped and realized what the Blood of Jesus has done for you? Have you ever thought of what He has bought for us? What do we get to experience because of the Blood?

  1. He made us Righteous
  • Question: What is righteousness? Answer – A right standing before God.
  • Romans 5:9 “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

Christ lived a life that completely fulfilled God’s demand of righteousness and thus offered himself on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Our own doing, and our own achievements could by no means compare to the sacrifice of what Christ gave.

Without Christ paying the penalty for sin, we would have never been justified

Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the ind, take us away.”

Nothing makes us good enough to be accepted in God’s family than only through the Blood of Jesus, that’s when we become justified, that’s when we become righteous before God, He sees the blood when He sees you, He doesn’t see your past, he doesn’t see the mistakes, he sees a blood-bought child of God.

Question: What made Christ become the ultimate sacrifice for us to be made righteous? His Love.

JOHN 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever would believe in Him, would not perish but have eternal life.”

— Christ became the lightning rod, absorbing all of God’s wrath so that you and I could stand justified, righteous in his presence!

– When you question the love that God has for you, look to the Cross!

“God made Him who knew no sin to become sin so that you and I might become the righteousness of God” – 2 Corinthians 5:21

He Was Right Their Waiting

John 4:7-15   7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

This story explains the longing of the human soul, the desire to fill the void that man alone cannot fill but yet so many are visiting these empty wells that can never satisfy. But only He can fill. Here are 3 key areas of how He meets us where we are.

  1. He breaks down barriers

The Woman was a Samaritan and Jesus was a Jew. That’s like having a democrat and republican in the same room, there’s going to be some tension. Not only that, but a man talking to a woman was not of that time. But history tells us that the samaritans and Jews was fierce and long-standing. It dates all the way back to the patriarchs. 

Jesus doesn’t care about your social status or what party you vote for. He rises above all that Because He sees through your walls, He knows the shape you are in and He wants to be right in the middle of it all. But will we let Him?

  1. He knows our needs

Jesus knows this World cannot satisfy the heart. He knows the possessions, talents, gifts that He has given us will not fill us with contenment but only will make us long for more. The World is an empty well, but The Well only offers the Living Water. He met this woman because He knew she needed to hear Him and to see Him. 

  1. He is always waiting

She came for the water, but she didn’t know of a Living Water who was already their waiting for her. In our darkest moments, in our time of a need. He is always there at the well, no matter how fast we run to that Well, He is always there waiting before we get there. What is it that you need today? Come to Well today.

The Position, Posture & Place of our Worship

Part 3 — The Place of our Worship

In the book of Mark is a story of a woman’s act of love, service and devotion to the Lord. Her story is lost to time, not even her name is given in this passage. We don’t know her life story, we don’t know her past but we do see a glimpse of her heart. It is a story that shows us the position, posture and place of our worship.

Mark 14:3-9 ESV

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

  1. The Place of our Worship

When I think about the place of our worship, my mind goes back to the verse when Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well. He says in John 4:23 ” But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.” Jesus then says this in verse 24 “For God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth.

We can go deeper into what Jesus is saying here but put it simply this way; we don’t have to go to a building (church) to worship. Our worship should not only be contained within the four walls of a building, but outside, in your car, in your home, in your workplace. His Spirit is what is living inside of us! Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.”

God, His Spirit is what is living inside of us. He is our place of worship!

The Position, Posture & Place of our worship Part 2

In the book of Mark is a story of a woman’s act of love, service and devotion to the Lord. Her story is lost to time, not even her name is given in this passage. We don’t know her life story, we don’t know her past but we do see a glimpse of her heart. It is a story that shows us the position, posture and place of our worship.

Mark 14:3-9 ESV

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

  1. THE POSTURE OF WORSHIP

THE BIBLE RECORDS NO WORDS FROM THIS WOMAN, JUST A SIMPLE ACT OF DEVOTION. A lot of times especially in worship, we come to know God with and without words. We don’t always have to sing along with a song in order to worship Him. We worship from the heart than with our lips.

IT’S NOT HOW WE LOOK WHEN WE WORSHIP, ITS ABOUT THE POSTURE OF OUR HEART.

GOD HONORS WORSHIP FROM THE HEART, JOHN 4:24 “GOD IS SPIRIT, AND THOSE WHO WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH.”

WE MUST GIVE OUR ALL JUST AS THIS WOMAN DID.

///REFLECTION///

ONCE THE VESSEL THAT HELD THE OINTMENT WAS BROKEN, THERE WAS NO STOPPING IT, IT HAD TO BE USED AT ONCE. ARE WE STOPPING OUR PRAISE FOR ANY REASON? HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE GRIEVED THE SPIRIT FROM HOLDING BACK OUR PRAISE?

The Position, Posture and Place of our Worship Part 1 – The Position of our Worship

In the book of Mark is a story of a woman’s act of love, service and devotion to the Lord. Her story is lost to time, not even her name is given in this passage. We don’t know her life story, we don’t know her past but we do see a glimpse of her heart. It is a story that shows us the position, posture and place of our worship.

Mark 14:3-9 ESV

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. 4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Part 1 – The Position of our Worship

  1. THE POSITION OF WORSHIP.

We must know who we are in Christ when we worship! If we have repented, we are no longer that man or woman who we once was. He has forgiven you! “Our sins are as far as from the east is from the west.” Psalms 103:12

That’s why we can come into His presence boldly!

HEBREWS 4:16 “LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY TO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.”

THIS WOMAN WHO COULDV’E HAD A HORRIBLE PAST, LABELED IN SOCIETY AS AN OUTSIDER, TALKED ABOUT, MOCKED AT, POINTED AT BUT SHE CAME BOLDLY. SHE WASN’T THINKING THAT HER PAST WAS TOO BAD.

When we worship the Lord He Doesn’t see who we used to be, He sees our position in Christ.

Let’s look at verse 4 “There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that?

THIS WOMAN WHO IS SEEN POURING HER MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION ON JESUS HEAD GETS MOCKED BY THE VALUE OF THE PERFUME, THEY WERE MORE WORRIED ABOUT THEIR POSITION IN SOCIETY MORE THAN THEIR POSITION IN CHRIST. WHILE GIVING MONEY TO THE CHURCH AND TITHING IS BIBLICAL OR GIVING TO THE NEEDY; IT’S ONLY IF WE ARE “IN CHRIST” THAT MATTERS.

They were more worried about their position in society more than their position in Christ.

ONCE THE VESSEL THAT HELD THE OINTMENT WAS BROKEN, THERE WAS NO STOPPING THE FLOW OF THE OIL, IT HAD TO BE USED AT ONCE. 

How many times have we grieved Holy Spirit by not giving our all to Him in worship?

PRAYER: Lord, bring us back to the heart of worship, let us give you our all and not to hold back. Let us realize the authority, the power & our position in You when we worship. Amen