I was pretty inspired last week after reading John 9:1-41. It was day 61 from “The Essential Jesus” reading plan- found on the youversion.com app. For most people familiar with the Bible, this is a fairly well-known story. A man blind from birth receives his healing from Jesus. Before the healing took place, His (Jesus’) disciples were inquiring why this man was blind–did his parents sins cause the sickness? Jesus explains, “there is no such cause-effect here”.
What really encouraged me was that Jesus coupled His divine power with natural ability to produce sight in this man- a healing so profound all the town was buzzing over it! Jesus chose to work within the God-realm and the human realm (by mixing His spit with clay/rubbing it in the man’s eyes/asking blind man to go wash in the pool of Siloam). He didn’t have to do that. There are many other records of Jesus healing people by simply saying, “get up”. I don’t understand why the all-powerful, Spiritual, Holy, completely loving, righteous God of the universe and beyond wants to partner with us to do His work. We seem to mess up everything we touch!
But, in this partnership is where we find the miraculous at work. This is the place where the glory of God can be recognized and revered. When I offer God everything inside of me (gifts, talents, abilities, & even failures), He supernaturally uses it for the unexplainable. The Pharisees in John 9 couldn’t make sense of this wonder.
“They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?” vs. 17
Jesus came and demonstrated that what He was doing in the natural, He was going to make happen in the spiritual. Vs. 39 “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see…”
From a trip to Nashville last week to work with homeless & The Bridge Ministry (this is the birthplace of New Hope’s Bridge Ministry in Augusta, GA)
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