July 25, 2019
Dear friends,
Last Sunday, Karen and I watched a powerful sermon online by Pastor Aubrey Krahn in Winnipeg – https://www.churchoftherock.ca/watch-online/series/an-inside-job/. He spoke about the importance of having our heart aligned with God. It was very timely, as I had started reading a book entitled “Seeing the Heart of Christ,” by Bill Crowder, who spent over twenty years in pastoral ministry and now serves as vice-president of ministry content at Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you are not familiar with that organization, they produce a publication of inspirational devotionals, with Scripture readings and a thought for the day. When I began writing this blog in 2011, a friend wrote that it reminded him of Our Daily Bread.
In his recent book, Bill Crowder examines twelve stories from the New Testament which reveal Jesus’ compassionate and loving heart. In the first chapter, we see that Jesus approached a man with leprosy, a disease that was called “the finger of God” by Jews who believed that it was a direct punishment from God. Crowder writes: “There were sixty-one ceremonial defilements listed in the Jewish law – restrictions that would cause a person to be disqualified for a time from participating in temple or synagogue life. And of these sixty-one defilements, only touching a dead body was worse than touching a leper.”
So what does Jesus do? He responds to the leper’s faith – “If You are willing, You can make me clean” (Mark 1:40) – by stretching out His hand, touching the leper, and speaking to him as He healed the man (Mark 1:41-42). Crowder continues: “In a sense, it seems that the healing of the man’s leprosy was, to Jesus, almost secondary to the healing of the man’s heart. That simple touch, so unnecessary to the man’s physical well-being, was absolutely essential to the man’s emotional and spiritual welfare. With that warm, welcoming touch, the man was no longer alone … That divine touch was an invitation to rejoin the human race.”
I have never been to India, but I have met people from there and others who have gone to the subcontinent to share their faith in Christ in one of the most populous countries of the world. A few years ago I learned that there is an organization in Canada that is reaching out to Dalits, those who were born into the low caste. You can find out about this at: https://dalitfreedom.ca.
This morning I learned that Greg Johnson, a retired professional hockey player, recently died at his home of an apparent suicide. This tragedy may have been the result of depression caused by concussions. It brought to mind that many people are desperately looking for a purpose in life. If you suffer from emotional and spiritual anguish, seek the Lord and trust Him to heal you, as He did for so many in Israel.
Scripture for the weekend: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18 (NASB)
Thought for the weekend: “If we want to know what to do, we need to know first who it is that will tell us. ‘Be still, and know that I am God’(Psalm 46:10). If we have once shut up long enough to know this, we have, at least in that moment, been ready to obey. But it is the being still that is so hard for us. It often takes illness, loss, suffering of some kind, isolation and loneliness. Only when we have come to the end of our own resources, when few distractions are left to us, does it become possible to be quiet.” – Elisabeth Elliot (from her book “A Slow and Certain Light”)
By His grace,
Steve