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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Today's Passage : Today's Passage: Subject:Jesus Heals an Epileptic Boy Bible Verse:Matthew 17:14-21 "When they returned to the crowds again a man came and knelt in front of Jesus. “Lord, do have pity on my son,” he said, “for he is a lunatic and is in a terrible state. He is always falling into the fire or into the water. I did bring him to your disciples but they couldn’t cure him.” “You really are an unbelieving and difficult people,” Jesus returned. “How long must I be with you, and how long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me!” Then Jesus reprimanded the evil spirit and it went out of the boy, who was cured from that moment. Afterwards the disciples approached Jesus privately and asked, “Why weren’t we able to get rid of it?” “Because you have so little faith,” replied Jesus. “I assure you that if you have as much faith as a grain of mustard-seed you can say to this hill, ‘Up you get and move over there!’ and it will move — you will find nothing is impossible. [However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.]” Note: The sentence in brackets at the end of the passage is included in some texts of Matthew but not others. Scholars argue over whether it is original to the Gospel of Matthew. " Message:
Way back in Chapter 10, when Jesus first sent the apostles out on the road, in pairs, to preach the gospel, He gave them the authority to case out demons and heal. Now, we discover that their power is not co-extensive with that of Christ, because their faith is not perfect. We will see this repeatedly until the end of Matthew and the other three Gospels, as well. Most notably, we know that Peter — the most advanced of the twelve — will both attempt to defend Christ with a sword, and then deny Him three times on the night of His arrest.
In fact, the apostles will not become complete in their faith until a much later time, after Christ has left earth: The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It is not so simple a matter as a person not generating sufficient faith in himself, for the perfection of faith must come from God, in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The apostles will, after receiving the full gift of the Spirit, be able to heal and cast out demons. The Book of Acts of the Apostles is filled with accounts of signs and wonders performed by Peter and others.
Which brings up one of the knottiest problems in Christianity: What happened? Why are we not able to perform such healing today? The only time we even see “demons cast out” and people “healed by faith”, it seems, is by professional pseudo-Christian hucksters who prey on the gullible. (There are genuine healing services in many church communities, but despite their frequent and great success at comforting the soul, they do not expect to produce the immediate miraculous cures that the apostles were able to effect.)
Jesus explains our problem in today's Scripture. We do not see true miracles from the church today, because our faith is insufficient. We need only look at the faith and the power of the Holy Spirit in the early church, and compare it to our own, to see it.
In the church of the first two or three centuries, faith in Christ was absolute. Stephen, the first martyr, fell to his knees as he was being bashed to death with stones, looked to heaven, and asked God to forgive the people murdering him. (Acts 7:54-60.) He was not, mind you, one of the apostles, not a person who ever himself worked a miracle; the faith of the “clergy” at the time, who were the apostles, was a magnitude greater.
The greatest of our faithful living today has less of the Holy Spirit than the least of the first church. Mother Theresa, world famous for her charity and life of dedicated service, admitted to the torture she felt at her lapses in faith; at times, she could not even bring herself to pray.
So, we should not look for miracles; we should look to our own growth in the Holy Spirit. The process of coming to God is not one of guilt and pain, but simply finding the Spirit in prayer and study, and letting Him do his work in us!
Repentance and remorse are very different things. Remorse is painful; Repentance is pain-relieving. Christians are not driven; we are called. So let us turn our hearts to God this year, letting go of the world of power politics and money and self-aggrandizement, and answering the call of faith and love and humility. The Holy Spirit wants to have a full relationship with us.
Meditation : Prayer : O Sovereign and almighty Lord, bless all your people, and all your flock. Give your peace, your help, and your love unto us your servants, the sheep of your fold, that we may be united in the bond of peace and love, one body and one spirit, in one hope of our calling, in your divine and boundless love.. Amen |
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