Jesus met a needy sick man at a healing pool. He had been there for thirty-eight fruitless years. His complaint: “I have no man” (John 5:7). Jesus met an eager single pretty woman at a frequent well. She had had unfortunate five failed marriages and was in the sixth tentative relationship. Her frank notice to the Master: “I have no husband” (John 4:17). She probably hoped He might have been her Man Number Seven. Everyone discovered their lack when they met Him. His brightness illumined their darkness; His sweet presence amplified the painful echoes of their crushing void.
Month: November 2022
ANOINTED HARD LABOUR
1. How God Blessed Jacob
God earnestly promised that He would bless Jacob, but that blessing was not going to come without effort on the part of the promised man (Genesis 28:13-15). In subsequent years, truly, Jacob got very blessed, and he admitted that the Lord had “dealt graciously” with him (Genesis 33:12), but the gracious blessing came through very hard work, as we may tell from the blessed man’s grieved complaints to his wives and to his boss. God blessed Jacob, but not while he folded his hands and vigorously ‘claimed the promises.’
THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPITTLE AND THE CLAY (Part 2 of 2)
- The Parable of the Blind
A professor is often revered as a great scholar, but in truth, a professor is only a celebrated novice. One is made or called a professor because they have learned so much about a very little matter; because they know more than many others in a very small area. They remain generally ignorant about larger truths of life. The professor of ants might know the names of a thousand species of those crawling creatures that have nothing to do with my next breakfast, yet know nothing about camels and clouds. A professor of American History might be able name all the Pilgrim Fathers and how each died, yet know nothing of the great history of an African village, much less how to fix his faulty phone. For many of his repairs, he is at the mercy of the roadside mechanic with not half as much learning. The professor of pediatrics will desperately need the orthopedic surgeon when he breaks a bone, and the unschooled taxi driver to tell him where to find the critical cobbler. Mighty as Elijah was, he had no answer to Jericho’s lingering problem of common knowledge. It his servant to fix it, with very little apparent effort (2 Kings 2:19-22).
THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPITTLE AND THE CLAY (Part 1 of 2)
1. Every Light is not the Sun
Being an ‘eye witness’ is not always sufficient claim to truth, all the truth. Doctrines made out of personal encounters, no matter how spectacular the encounter, do not always constitute universal truth. A lamp to “my feet” is not the sun in the sky; the “light to MY path” is not the clock of the world (Psalm 119:105).