Posts Tagged “operation”

A favorite story of mine is found in Mark 2:1-12. Its a story that connects to what Jim taught this weekend. In it we see a man who is paralyzed being brought to Jesus by some very faithful and determined friends. When these friends could not get the man into the house they resorted to extreme measures, destroying the roof of the house and lowering the man through it to the feet of Jesus. Verse 5 is the key verse “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son your sins are forgiven’.” It doesn’t seem that the man came to receive forgiveness of his sins, it seems that the man came to be cured of his paralysis. We don’t even see the man ask for forgiveness of sins. As far as we know he didn’t pray a special prayer or do any religious exercise. All we know is that this man had faith, faith that Jesus could heal him. Jesus however (being God) sees a much greater problem than the mans paralysis. Jesus sees a heart problem. So he addresses the heart problem and grants forgiveness to the man. You can read the story for yourself to see the controversy this caused amongst the religious folk but the point I’m driving at is the same one Jim drove at this weekend when he used the analogy of a broken leg vs. a broken heart. It doesn’t make any sense to get a broken leg fixed if you have a much greater problem, namely a bad heart. Everything we hate about this life, from violence, to sickness to pollution are all symptoms of a bigger disease, called sin. Thank God Jesus is a truly great physician who doesn’t just treat symptoms but gets at the disease itself, our sin.

Read John 1:35-51

Why do you think people were so anxious to follow Jesus?

Why do you think those who began to follow Jesus so quickly told others about Jesus?

What do you love about Jesus?

Read John 1:29-34

Why do you think John called Jesus “The Lamb of God”?

In what way does Jesus take away the sins of the world?

What does it mean to believe Jesus is the Son of God?

Read John 1:19-28
What can we learn from John the Baptist’s humility?
What can we learn from John the Baptist’s boldness?
What does it mean to “make straight the way for the Lord”?

So lets start with Jesus. Read John 1:1-18 today.
Why do you think Jesus is called the “Word” in these verses?
Why do you think Jesus is called the “Light” as well?
How has Jesus brought both Grace and Truth into your life?

2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all scripture is God breathed. I believe that. I also believe that there are some scriptures that are more profound in their application than others. The entirety of Romans 8 would certainly fall within that category. I was excited when I saw that Jim was going to be referring to Romans 8 this weekend. I’ve been trying to memorize more scripture lately (I’ll mention something about this, this weekend) and after memorizing a smattering of verses from Romans and Psalms I decided to take on memorizing all of Romans 8. I finished verse 4 this morning. Its been really cool to have words like, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” in my brain. I’m not very good at memorizing so this will be a challenge. I’m looking forward to having it all in my brain word for word, but more than that I’m looking forward to having these words change and shape my heart. There are 39 verses in Romans 8 so I should be working on this for the next couple months. Maybe you want to give it a shot with me? Romans 8:1-4 hasn’t been too hard.

There are these moments I have with my kids. Moments I’m sure I will miss greatly when they are older, so I try to treasure them for what they are now. They are those moments when they just let me carry them. When they are too tired, afraid, nervous, shy, hurt and they just rest in my arms and let me carry them. Often their circumstances, that seem so big to them, are not that big from my perspective at all but because its a big deal to them I carry them. Now don’t get me wrong there are moments when my kids are just being lazy and they would rather me carry them to the park then actually walk . Those aren’t the moments I’m talking about. I’m talking about the genuine moments of real need when as a parent you don’t even hesitate to pick up your child. There is something that happens in that moment between parent and child that is very difficult to describe and words aren’t always exchanged, but it is significant. As a parent its a moment where you want to take whatever it is that is causing your child pain, anxiety or fear and remove it from them by taking it on yourself. As a child its a moment of renewed safety as they realize that there is someone bigger and stronger who cares about their circumstances and feelings.

In the book of Deuteronomy Moses is reminding the Hebrew people of all that God has done for them as they wandered through the desert on their way to the promised land. Moses isn’t going to get to go with the people so these are in effect Moses’ famous last words to the people he has led for many years. As he is reminding them of their story he says this in Deuteronomy 1:30-31.

There is a sentence in those verses that just absolutely jumped out at me. “There you saw how the LORD your God carried you as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” This year we have been talking about that. I don’t know if you have noticed yet but the big idea we have been teaching week in and week out is that if there really is a good God out there who sent His son to die and rise again so that we could have life, then that changes everything. That changes our past, our present and our future. If there really is a God like that out there then He is worth having faith in and trusting. If there really is a God out there who longs to carry us like a father carries a child, then life would look much different. He was holding you, He is holding you and He will hold you.