JUST A SHARING THAT MOVED ME TO TEARS :)

This morning I was reading the gospel of Matthew, the eleventh
chapter, from verse 2 up to six. It reads as follows
“Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples,
3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those
things which ye do hear and see:
5 The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have
the gospel preached to them.
6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”


Now here there are 7 points that were impressed in my mind as I was
reading this.These verses seem to be parallel to the verses we read
yesterday.Just a reminder,yesterday we read a story about Jesus being
tempted in the wilderness(Matthew 4).We said the devil succor to
maneuver his evil plans in our state of our weakness. Today the story
is about John, the Baptist who was born in the Herodias kingdom. John
is the one who was born and lived for one purpose; preparing people
for the great light which is Jesus Christ. This man is he that was
spoken of by Isaiah saying, “he is the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord and make His path
straight.” In the wilderness, it is where he was taught by God
himself; where he was not influenced by any secular education, even
from the Pharisees. This man I’m talking about is the man who baptized
Jesus. Without taking more of your time, let me go straight to the
points I discovered through the aid of the Holy Spirit.


1. In verse 2, we see John in prison. He then hears a rumor about the
works of Jesus and sends His disciples to Jesus. Underline the fact
that he sends them about after hearing rumors about the work of
Christ.


2. In verse 3 we see John who told people to behold “the lamb of God
which takes away the sin of the world” confused about who Christ
isoform emphasis sake, this is the one who baptized Jesus: and heard
God speaking from heaven, that Jesus is his son in whom he is well
pleased. Allow me to say that even when we have seen miracles of God
and his grace intervening in our lives; when we are in the prison of
this life’s tribulations we forget and get confused about who Jesus
is.


a) We doubt Jesus and hence we seem not to fathom him, especially when
we hear people around us being blessed by him, while we are in the
prison of suffering and tribulations.


3. In verses 4 and 5 I am confounded by the answer of Jesus which
amazes me even now. In such a way that puts me in the shoes of John
the Baptist, for it leads me to ask, “Does Jesus really care?”


4. The question is “are you he who should come or do we look for
another?”, and Jesus answers not the question. Instead, he heals,
raises people from death, delivers people from demons and gives sight
to the blind. Then he commands John’s disciples to tell John what they
have seen.


5. Here, we learn that hearing about the good works of Jesus is enough
to uplift your faith when you are in the prison of sufferings and
tribulations.
-The fact that we are in prison i.e. facing problems, does not change
who Jesus is in our lives. He is the Lord and he changes not (Malachi
3:6).
-The fact that you hear that there are people who are still blessed,
while you are in prison does not mean he cares not about you; but his
mercies are still open for you, only if you don’t doubt His Word.
Remember Matthew 4:4,”man shall not live by bread alone but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
-You hearing that the Lord has delivered other people must bring hope
and assurance in his Word that says “I will never leave you nor
forsake you.”


6.Jesus cares about everything we go through.Sometimes,he does not
need to come himself to us, but he sends the Holy Spirit to comfort us
through his Word that evokes faith evokes faith to a despairing soul
in prison as he did to John. For faith is more important than miracles
to them who believe in God already.
-Allow me to say as Jesus was also led into the wilderness in his
ministry; even John had to go through the same thing.However,being in
the wilderness was not going to bring the faith that God wanted to
establish, for the wilderness is where he grew up.So,it was his
comfort zone. And so his wilderness was the wilderness where he had to
stay with the infidels.


7. Jesus is the way to eternal life, so let’s allow God to lead us
even where he passed. He went to the wilderness and he was able to
conquer the devil’s temptations by the Word of God. Even so it is with
us. Let us follow still for where he leads; he is able to sustain us.
“For it is given to us not only to believe in him, but to suffer for
his sake.”
-The devil is pleased when we are in prison (faced with trials); for
he knows it is the convenient time for him to lead us to doubt Jesus.
Allow me to say it was good news for John to hear about what Jesus was
doing for I am told; faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
Sometimes, hearing the Word of God is more sufficient for your faith
THAN miracles. Be blessed and know that Jesus cares.
By M.M

COMFORT FOR A WEAK SOUL :-)

What we fail to tell others when one accepts Jesus in his/her life is,life won't be a fairytale.But in the midst of discouragement,heartache and pain,Jesus will be there to bring comfort and "peace that passeth all understanding".In fact,as I was reading this week's Sabbath school lesson I realised that as christians,we should expect suffering.We are not immune to it,but we've got strength to withstand it.Which reminds me,Scripture has all these promises that bring comfort to the soul,and for me,there are two verses that do that for me:


1 Corinthians 10:13

New International Version (NIV)


13 No temptation[a] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[b] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[c] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.


Isaiah 26:3

New International Version (NIV)



3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.