This week has been a busy week! Not so much working, but the day-to-day life things like home needs, kid needs, Marie's needs, (I need to get into healing)…Age will do that to us.😂
With all that’s been going on this month, I have needed direction and turned to the scriptures. They have assisted me throughout my life. They have always been a great part of how I exercise my faith. It’s also how I find help and gain insight specific to my life. I was taught by my parents, “Ask questions in prayer and find answers in the scriptures”. I know the true teacher is Christ and we hear Him through the Holy Spirit. I love when the spirit teaches because I learn from a different angle of thought. For example, what we read today in the Bible can mean something different than it did a year ago. The scriptures open up our minds to personal insight which affects us differently and according to our circumstances. They are alive! They will touch our hearts and minds if we continually read them. Of course, the words don’t change, but we do…our lives change.
That happened to me this week:
I reread the story of the blind man In John 9. I’m sure he was outside his whole life by the pool of Siloam, every day, begging. He must have been a long-time fixture and those who lived there knew him. In the story, the Savior stopped and put a mixture of dirt and spittle on his eyes and then asked him to go to the pool and wash it so he could be healed. This story affected me differently…was it because my life is different? Is it because I’m going through some challenges and need a different perspective? Is it that I need to comprehend differently in ways I haven’t before? Is it that I’m getting older? 😂 Don’t answer that! 😉 All I know is it did!
6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
We are told to liken ourselves or to put ourselves into stories that we read in the Scriptures. Several things stood out differently. First of all in this situation, and I knew this, the fact that the Savior, before seeing the blind man, Jesus had just proclaimed that he was the son of God and was fleeing from the rabbis, who were trying to take his life. In that hustle to get away, the Savior stopped to heal this blind man. He stopped…. My heart became very tender because it hit me that Christ was never too busy to help someone in need. It made me ask the question, “Am I that way”. Then when Christ spat, I wonder what the blind man must have thought. OR, did he feel the power of the person before him? Did he feel the peace and spirit of the Lord before him. Did he need eyes to know that the man before him was the Son of God?
Then he hears this:
7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
If that happened to me would my attitude affect my ability to heal? And how far away was that pool he had to wash in? Did he have to go downstairs? How difficult was it for this blind man to accomplish this task? Whatever he was thinking he DID what the Savior said, and he made the “effort” to be healed! The Savior didn’t just give him sight straight away. Oh! He could have but he didn’t. He had this man make the effort. That fascinated me He asked him to exercise hope… to use his FAITH. Faith is not something we can have just by saying it. Faith is an action word. It’s using thoughts to choose to have a positive attitude. It’s putting a desire in us to create or make things even miracles happen. And I believe we appreciate things much more when we work for them don’t you?
When God created the world He said “Be a firmament, be an earth, become mountains, etc. and it was so.” It makes me wonder what we create in our lives by our thoughts. Are they positive or do we create a negative environment? Do we have enough faith to see a better day…to be healed from our struggles, and trials, like the blind man.
I thought about another story in the Bible. The one about the 10 Samaritan lepers. When Christ told them they could be healed. He could have done it right then and there too but he didn’t. He told them to go tell the rabbis about their healing and as they went, on their way they would be healed. How far away was it for them? And the Samaritans had to go find the Jewish rabbis. We know how the Sadducees and Pharisees felt about Samaritans. Yet they did it. They put aside their fears and did with Christ asked them to do to be healed. They put in the effort, and chose to have the right attitude… they believed in Jesus, they exercised FAITH in Christ, and that faith healed them.
So, going back to the blind man's story, this man had probably been outside the temple for most of his life begging…years of it. How did the rabbis—when they questioned if he was blind—not know him? Were they so blind in their pride of being special, of being rabbis, that they never took the time to see this poor man in need? Did they never see him, even once, begging for help over the years? How could they not know him? It made me ponder if I ever get too busy that I become blind to others' needs around me.
This week, as we seek Christ’s love, guidance, healing, and even miracles in our lives, my goal is to strive harder to better “see” those around me. We are told we find ourselves when we lose ourselves in service to others. If I’ve ever accidentally walked past some of you without seeing you I hope you will please forgive me. I love you all and I’m so appreciative you would take your precious time to come see me perform. I want to say I’m so grateful for your love and kindness towards my family and me through the years. May the Lord bless and help us all as we trust in Him. Our God IS a God of miracles He only asks that we follow His Son's example and exercise our FAITH to follow Him. By doing this, I know we will see miracles transpire in our lives.
May 8-14: Matthew 19-20, Mark 10, Luke 18
May 15-21: Matthew 21-23, Mark 11, Luke 19-20, John 12
May 22-28: Matthew 24-25, Mark 12-13, Luke 21
May 29-June: Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19