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Touching the hem of His garment.

8/1/2014

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  Mark 5: A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

31“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”


    Many times it is hard for Western women of the 21st century to fully comprehend the restrictions that women lived under during the days that Jesus walked the face of the earth.  Our culture is so very far removed from the customs and traditions of the ancient Hebrews.  In studying what was permitted and what was not permitted, one thing we understand is that Jesus did more to elevate the status of women than any other single human being in all of history. His compassion faileth not.
    The woman described in Mark 5, had been ill for twelve (12) long years.  Not just a headache.  The King James Version calls her ailment as an "issue of blood."  Other translations describe her affliction as: "...constant bleeding,"  "...a discharge of blood,"...."...a hemorrhage,"..."chronic bleeding."..."a bloody flux."  Under hygienic social restrictions the woman would have been banished from normal routines.  She was considered "unclean."  Much like a person diseased with leprosy , she would have been excluded from community activities and forced to announce her "uncleanness" when in a public place.  This woman had endured such a heavy weight of afflictions for over a decade. Yet, hope sprang to the forefront of her soul as she heard the testimonies of those others that had been perfectly healed of divers kinds of illnesses.  So hopeful was she that she dared to defy the societal restraints that accompanied her affliction and seek relief at any cost.  Perhaps it was her desperation that prompted her courage or her courage that circumvented her desperation.  Perhaps the two worked in tandem. Nevertheless, the woman assumed a position that would both hide her from judgmental eyes and position her to touch "but the hem of his garment."  
     On her knees, under the radar of the critical Pharisees, she hunkered down and waited for the crowd to carry Jesus past her quivering body.   For she "thought, If I can but touch his clothes, I can be healed."  Two very exceptional realities are presented to us in this passage. First, the position of humility is by and far the one that gains ground in the spirit world.  We have been versed in the Proverb: "Pride goes before a fall."  However, the enemy has done a switcharoo with this verse:                                     Proverbs 61:18 states: " Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."
The difference is life threatening.  If a person believes pride may make them fall, they are rather confident that they can get back up and continue on.  But, if pride brings destruction, there is no recovery.  Pride is a deadly sin whether you are saved or an unbeliever.  Only the opposite spirit will bring us into the healing presence of Almighty God; "...humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and in due season He will lift you up." 
       Secondly, our unnamed heroine in  Mark 5, was tenacious. Not only  willing to get as low as necessary to obtain what had been beyond her grasp for twelve very bloody years, but  her bold, clandestine assertiveness  won for her the desire of her heart.  Her  remarkable unspoken  faith  manifested in a prophetic act of laying hold of the goodness of God, even the hem of His anointed garments. Immediately, the issue of blood was dried up and she knew in her body that she was healed.
       Amazingly, she was not the only one that knew that healing virtue had flowed downward to fill the valley of despair.  Jesus, stopped and asked His disciples to identify the person that had received the healing impartation.  Encompassed about by hundreds, maybe thousands of bustling, eager inquirers, the disciples were"put-off" that the Master would even ask such a question.  "Are you serious?'' they replied.
     Jesus was serious for He had felt the virtue leave his body.  Silently he searched for the glow of supernatural health that would be evidenced on someone's countenance.  Just a few feet away from Jesus, she suddenly appeared at his feet, again.
Trembling with awe-struck fear and the after -effects of the anointing that breaks every yoke, she haltingly confessed that she was the recipient of His ever-flowing mercy and grace.  Kindly, gently, with great compassion the Lord lifts her to her feet and pronounces a blessing: “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
     Do you find it compelling that even though she was already healed, even though Jesus already knew that healing virtue and gone from His body, he still instructs her to go in peace and be freed from suffering.  Was this an admonition to throw off the lingering emotional traumas that so often accompany pro-longed physical afflictions.?  He released peace over her troubled psyche and instructed her to walk free of any lingering emotions of self-pity, fear or rejection.  "God in peace and be freed from your suffering." 
     Touching the hem of His garment always brings healing.  And when we are open with the Lord's questioning, and "tell Him the whole truth," we often find ourselves pouring out of our hearts the horrible years of horrific trauma that will continue to  hamper even our healing if not identified and released. Jesus knew this and dealt with this woman on all three levels of her being:  1) physical, "Your faith has healed you. 2) spiritually, "Go in peace." and 3) emotionally, "be free from our suffering."
     Let us not neglect such a great salvation!  The Lord has truly proided for us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness, let us not give up until we walk healed, whole and in complete peace and freedom. 
AMEN!


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Count it all joy!

2/25/2014

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"Count it all joy, my beloved bretheren, when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience and let patience have her perfect way that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing."  James 1: 2-4
.....So, temptations should elicit from our hearts a joyful response, an embrace of the fiery trial that purifies our faith and produces a perfection that would otherwise not be attainable.  A strange equation nonetheless.  Circumstances arise in our walk that present themselves to us in such a manner that we are tempted.  If we define "temptation" using the Apostle James' own words we are told that temptations come "when we are drawn away by our own lusts and enticed."  Our own appetites define the temptation that desires to pull us away from the simplicity of devotion to Christ.  The temptation is custom created by our own soulish weaknesses.  We know that the enemy has been watching our lives very closely.  In fact, I believe that just as we are assigned a guardian angel at birth, we are  also followed by the enemy's minion for the purpose of thwarting the plan of God in our lives.  Perhaps the old cartoon depicting the angel on one side of our head and the little red-suited devil on the other, both whispering into our ears ,is not all that fictitious.  
     Regardless, the spiritual battle known as temptation is real and the pressure can be severe.  The enemy wants desperately to rob, steal and destroy.  The Lord wants us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of His truth.  I must admit I have been and continue to be tempted in various ways.  And as I am aware of each temptation, I have a decision to make.  Usually, "counting it all joy," is not high on my list.  On a good day, I stand quoting scripture and rebuking the devour-er...on a bad day I find myself dissolving into tears, repenting for entering into the snare of the enemy.  But, "counting it all joy?"....not so much...
     Now, we know that Jesus was sinless, therefore the temptations He endured did not come because of moral weakness.  He was, nevertheless, a human being.  He was made of flesh and blood just as we are made of flesh and blood.  Hebrews 4:15 clearly states:  For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points like as we are, yet without sin.  When Jesus was tempted he used the Word of God to push back satan's attempts to get Him to alter the plan of God for His life.  In one instance, however, we do have recorded that He "counted it all joy."  Perhaps, it was the most intense time of Jesus' earthly battle: the garden of Gethsemane.  The Bible tells us  that there was so much pressure on our Lord that the pores of His brow poured forth His passion in great drops of blood.  
     Jesus was not a wimp.  A skilled carpenter, He was accustomed to heavy lifting and long hours.  Yet, the thought of the weight of all the sins of the world upon His sinless soul was crushing.  He pleaded with the Father that if there be another way...yet, from deep within His innermost being came the eternity altering  words: "Not my will but thine."  He could have turned back, He could have called ten-thousand angels, He could have...but He counted it all JOY!  Hebrews 12:2 declares:  ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the JOY set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Alleluia!  It was the joy of the Lord that gave our Lord the strength to go to the cross.  And it will be the same joy that brings us victory in our time of trial and temptation.  
     As we combat the devil with joyful expectation of our assured victory, we are developing much needed patience.  And as we develop patience we become perfect and entire wanting nothing.  Incredible.  Our faith is tried with temptation, by enduring joyfully, patience is produced in our lives and eventually we are perfected and in need of nothing more. Shall we then ,my brothers and sisters ,count it all joy when we are confronted with many different kinds of temptations?  Yes and amen!  We shall be like Him in every way, conformed to His image.  Always remembering that :   the God of hope will fill you with all JOY and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)  And .."though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious JOY, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (I Peter 1:8-9) AMEN!
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