Mark 2:1-5 And when He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, even near the door and He was speaking the word to them. And they came bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. And being unable to get to Himbecause of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, My son, your sins are forgiven. I have come to realize that everything in my life hinges on the level of desperation I have for Jesus. If I allow myself to become dull of hearing or distracted with any number of things throughout the course of a week and neglect my personal private devotional time with the Lord, everything else in my life sinks below its optimal level. Webster defines desperate as, involving and employing extreme measures in an attempt to avoid defeat or frustration. In the above text four men, give us an example of using desperate measures to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. When we analyze the text, we can learn much from their example. First they had to carry their friend everywhere. It took four men to do the job. They had to be unselfish, committed and unified. Secondly, when they got to thehouse where Jesus was, the room was already full of people and there remained no place for them to enter or stand. Thirdly they were faced with a choice. They could either go home or complain that they should have left earlier to get a good seat, or they could figure another way to get their friend to Jesus. These men were desperate and going home without making contact with Jesus was not an option. They decided to climb up onto the roof and dig an opening and carefully lower a paralyzed man down through the opening without causing him further harm by tilting over the pallet or dropping him. This took a tremendous amount of courage, skill, strength and teamwork. The Bible says when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man. “My son your sins are forgiven you.” He saw their faith through their desperation and called a paralyzed man, “My son.” He did not say my paralyzed son or my handicapped son; he simply called him His son. How many of us would have given up when we couldn’t get inside the house? How many of us would have quit before we made it to Jesus because of the stress and fatigue of having to carry this man everywhere? How many of us would have climbed up on the roof of someone else’s house to get our friend to Jesus? We need more desperate Christians today. Our nation needs us to stay desperate for Jesus. Our desperation for Jesus never goes unrewarded. These men are examples to us today of how not to allow anything or anybody to stand between you and Jesus. What will you allow to stand between you and Jesus this week? Make it a great day. Blessings and Peace, Pastor McGill
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 00:04:25 +0000
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