Mark 3

Healing

As I was reading Mark 3, I got that moment when you just stop and wonder. An AHA! moment. Here it is in Verse 3:

Mark 3:10 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁰For He had healed so many that all who had distressing bodily diseases kept falling upon Him and pressing upon Him in order that they might touch Him.

I stopped reading and tried to imagine what it would be like for Jesus. Here was, going from town to town and performing many miracles of healing and deliverance from demons. As the word spread about Him, the number of people seeking his healing swelled to such a number that he had to have a boat ready so that he wasn't crushed by the crowd (see verse 9).

Can you imagine it? He would be waking down the street with people shouting out his name in order to be heard. They were desperate and they probably didn't care who they pushed out of the way to get to Him. The crowds must have been suffocating, being pressed on every side with hands grabbing at Jesus' garments, touching and grasping at His body. Every imaginable smell in the heat and dust of the day was most likely assailing his nostrils.

And why? Because they were desperate. Desperate for what? His healing touch, His healing words.

It then struck me that they were not seeking that relationship with Him. They just wanted something from Him. It was not what He was, but what He could do for them.

Then I searched in my mind for my relationship with Jesus. And I realized that I was so desperate for the healing in my soul and in my life, that I was like that crowd, pressing and pushing and seeking just a touch from Him. It wasn't the relationship I was looking for, it was the Healing. It was after the healing that the relationship started.

And what a relationship He offers! I look back in time and see that what I thought was the everything, was just the beginning of the unimaginable friendship that I have with my Healer, Redeemer and Deliverer.

How about you? Are you searching for the Healing alone, or are you yearning for the relationship?

2 Thessalonians

A few things struck me as I read these scriptures this morning.

1. Love:

Paul spoke of how well the Thessalonians loved each other in the first book of Thessalonians. In the second, he again commends them for how well they love each other.

Isn't that what life is all about? Love: Love God, love each other, and love yourself. :)

Life is all about relationships. It's not about task lists (reminder to self), the acquisition of things, or the mindless running around. It's all about people.

What are we to do with people? Enjoy them! Help the weak, feed the hungry, comfort the hurting, visit the sick, encourage the lost, heal the broken. Laugh and cry with each other, be real and allow them to be real back.

2. Faith. In the face of so much persecution, their faith was strong. Contrast that with his previous letter to the Galatians, "Oh, why have you been so easily led astray by the detractors to the Gospel??"

1 Thessalonians 1:4 Amplified: And this is a cause of our mentioning you with pride among the churches (assemblies) of God for your steadfastness (your unflinching, endurance and patience) and your firm faith in the midst of all the persecutions and crushing distresses and afflictions under which you are holding up.

He is proud of them! They are steadfast despite the persecutions, crushing distresses and affliction. They irrevocably trust God (for more on trusting God, check out my article: A Trust Issue).

3. Tough Love. In the last chapter of the book, Paul commands the brethren to stay away from every brother who leads an unruly life. (New American Standard). What??

Just previously he commended them for their great love for each other. Is this love? Absolutely. Tough love is an action that hopefully brings repentance unto those who are sinning. As Paul described in another letter, excommunicate the brother and leave him to the devil. Sounds harsh.

As written in Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible:

"This was probably in order to excommunicate him, and deliver him over to Satan for the destruction of the body, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

I had to display some very tough love once, as explained in the article: What if they Stray?, with excellent results. So, I believe that Paul really knows what he's talking about.

I'd like to end this with the way Paul begins his letter: "Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."