Tag: hatred

What’s your Issue(s)?

There’s a story in the Gospel writings in Luke 8:43-48 about a woman who had an issue of blood. She was bleeding profusely for twelve long years with this disease and spent all her money going to see different doctors, but she never improved. She was suffering. In fact, the Bible says, her condition got worse until she encountered Jesus. Interesting?

I can relate to this woman seeing many doctors. I have multiple sclerosis. Diagnosed in 2010, and it’s been one trip after another to see doctors. There are bi-yearly wellness visits, MRIs, physical therapy, medication management, infusions, and sometimes hospital stays for steroids when I have an MS relapse. Unlike this woman during her time, I’m not ostracized by the community because of my health condition. In fact, I once said jokingly to one of the hospital’s welcoming team members, “You guys need to get me a cot and a room to stay over as much as I’m here.” She laughed. Having a medical issue that there is no cure and doctors can’t fix is difficult and daunting.

But medical issues are not the only issues from which we suffer. There are various types and degrees of issues. I like how this verse begins, “There was a woman who had an issue of blood.” The text is specific to her gender and problem. We’ve learned how Jesus came to save the world, so we can draw a universal principle here. Let’s read it again, placing ourselves in the text. “There was a woman [or man] who had an issue of… Stop right there. The Bible teaches us in Isaiah how the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus to save, heal, deliver, or set people free, not only from sin but from other problems or issues they may have. Jesus still does this because He is alive. He is still handling people’s issues who believe and come to (or touch) Him in faith. This is the gist or theological principle in this story. He said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Isn’t this what this woman, and Jesus, did?

You too may have been suffering from an issue for a long time. You’ve tried to solve it yourself or sought help to alleviate the pain, as the woman did. But you found no relief; your issue lingers. What may your issue be? Maybe you’re suffering from a bad attitude, insecurity, lying, racial or biased views, hatred, drinking, mental illness, cancer,  rejection or foolish attempts to fit in, be “cool” with peers, a need to please, overworking, autism, bipolar, body image issues, striving for perfection/success, anxiety, inability to communicate, illiteracy, infatuation with committing criminal acts, drug dealing or dependency, pride, an awful mouth, continually hooking up with wrong romantic partners, intimacy issues, introversion… and on and on and on the list could go.

Jesus commended this woman, who was afraid to be noticed in the crowd because of her issue. He calls her “daughter” and tells her it was her faith that healed her. She could now go on with her life in peace. You too can receive God’s commendation. Believe that Jesus came to heal your broken heart too. Know that He’s alive and wants you to come to Him. To touch Him and be made whole. No issue is so bad, or too complex or complicated for Him. He has the remedy! Only believe!

He has surely helped and continues to help me with mine. 🙂

Be blessed until next time…!

In It, But Not of It: Huh? Part 2

Last month, we looked at Jesus’ words to the disciples in John 15:18-21, where He said,

“If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me.”

We concluded how:

  • Sometimes Jesus’ statements are hard to grasp or accept.
  • Jesus equates those who have accepted Him with Himself.
  • Jesus suggests a mind shift to now seeing ourselves as not a part of this world, although we live here.
  • This “spirit of the world” opposes the Spirit of God. It does not know God or accept Jesus Christ’s ways, teachings, or message. It hates God and His Son, Jesus.
  • We too will experience hatred and opposition as His disciples. We should expect this and not seek any comradery with or acceptance by the world.

In continuing this discourse about “not being of the world,” in John 17, we find Jesus this time talking to His Father, God about it. He prays in verses 13-19, 

“But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience my joy completed in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I set myself apart on their behalf, so that they too may be truly set apart.”

Jesus knows He is about to physically leave them. He confirms with God how the disciples: (1) now belong to Him because they accepted His truthful words; (2) were sent out to proclaim His word, and they went; and (3) they no longer belong with the world but are now with and for Him and God. On this basis then, Jesus asks the Father: not to take them out of the world; to set them apart from the world (or distinguish them) by the truth; and to protect and keep them from the evil one or evil spirit that runs the world. Again, Jesus equates the disciples with Himself, “[Father] they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.”  God sent Jesus; Jesus sends us. The preservation Jesus asks for is about a distinction Christians should have and a work for which they were chosen–to proclaim God’s kingdom and Jesus’ message of being Savior of the world.  They needed divine power, protection, and sanctifying grace for this.

So, Jesus commits them to the custody and care of God. But it’s not just for them. He continues in vss. 20-23,

“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one–I in them and you in me–that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.”

That’s us, folks! 😊 One day, we heard or read the disciples’ testimony about Jesus Christ in the Bible, or someone told us; we believed and accepted it. So, we too, are called out of the world and sent into it with a specific message to share. We unite with other believers to testify of God’s love and show forth Jesus’ oneness with God. Others will also believe and glorify God as we proclaim Jesus’ message in the world.  For such, we’re in it, but not of it.

Author and Pastor Ray Stedman agrees about not being a part of the world. He writes on his Ray Stedman Daily Devotion website a devotion titled, “The Way of Health” at https://www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/nehemiah/the-way-of-health, “We must never forget that we are in the world but not of it. We are never to settle down here for good. I love the way C. S. Lewis has put it: ‘Our kind heavenly Father has provided many wonderful inns for us along our journey, but he takes special care to see that we never mistake any of them for home.’ We are pilgrims and strangers, passing through this world. We are involved in it, deeply sometimes, but we are never to see ourselves as a part of it.”

May we receive the grace to understand and accept this truth from Jesus while still here. May we unite as never before as the early church did–sharing the message of the Gospel of Christ, keeping the unity of the faith, and staying close together.

Blessings until next time! 😊