Knowing God - John 5:6-7

(from Pastor)

Jesus said to him,

"Do you want to be made well?" 

The sick man answered him,

"Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool

when the water is stirred up ..."

John 5:6-7

Have you ever laid in a hospital bed? Or sat for days with a loved one there?

Have you ever had a much-too-happy aid come in -- oblivious to the gravity of your situation -- and said something as inane as "Do you want to be made well?" Has a sarcastic "of-course-I-want-to-be-made-well" ever been the gentlest response you can manage?

The man at the pools of Bethzatha, looked for a physical answer to a life-long illness. How many of us look for physical answers when the deeper problem is really spiritual?

God can cure the physical. He did in this man's case. But sometimes the greater miracle is not physical. Sometimes the greatest miracle is faith in a world of pain.

Faith is all that ultimately matters to Jesus. Why? Because if we have faith we will ultimately be healed (and ultimately means in the realm of "no more mourning or crying or pain"). But if we don't have faith, all physical healing is destined to be temporary. (More meat ... less fat ... in the eternal barbeque.)

God aims for the permanent. How about you?

In Christ's Love,

a guy who wants to be even more permanent

than a Sharpie

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The pain doesn't have to be physical. It can be emotional as well. Sometimes emotional pain is so intense a person will do almost anything to physically feel the pain.  In the realm of emotional pain - hearing people say "Just think happy thoughts" is enough to trigger a sarcastic or caustic remark from me.  God can cure the emotional as well. But again - the greatest miracle is faith - even in a world of emotional pain.  


My faith is a bit shaky. I am always asking questions.  I want to understand. I want to know that God is healing me. I want the healing to be permanent. I can't go through many more months like the past several.