Once again, I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read this week's message. I hope that this week has been a good one.
Last week in our message, we took a one week divergence from out study in Mark. Today, we get back into what the Lord has to teach us from this book.
Our passage for today is one of the turning points in this Gospel. While the events in the story did actually happen, the healing has a deeper symbolic meaning.
First off, after Jesus fed the four thousand, He encountered a blind man who needed to be healed. The first thing Jesus did was to take the man out of the village. He then spit on the man's eyes and asked him if he could see anything. The man said he saw men walking around like trees. Jesus touched Him again, and the man's vision was completely restored at this point. Jesus then instructed him not to return to the village.
As I said, this did happen. However, Jesus performed the miracle in this way to show a greater spiritual point.
We are all like the man who was blind. We have no spiritual sight whatsoever. The Bible says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We need someone to show us how to see things in a new way. We need our vision transformed.
Jesus took the man out of the village, and he had to be willing to let Jesus lead him out. In order to have our eyes open and our hearts set free, we have to have the desire to move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His glorious light. A lot of times, a person comes to a realization of the truth of who Jesus is in stages under the guidance and grace of the Lord. By the grace of the Lord, we begin to see more and more what the truth is and that we need a Savior. We begin to want to be moved from darkness to light.
Then, there comes a time when by His grace we come to place our complete faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and His glorious resurrection. We accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord and move completely out of darkness into the light of the abundant life that only Jesus can bring to us.
Once we have come to faith and trust in Jesus, we don't want to go back to the old way of life. We want to keep looking to Jesus who is the author and perfector of our faith. We don't look left nor right. We do not look back. We keep looking to Jesus and we follow the narrow way that leads to life.
Next week, we will see how this miracle was a turning point in the life of the disciples. They began to see more clearly who Jesus was and that revelation would be even more clear when they saw Him risen in power and great glory. Amen.
Prayer Requests
Please pray that the rains being predicted in much of the USA this week will not be as bad as forecasted.
Keep praying for peace. Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan all still need prayer.
Pray for an end to Ebola.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in China and North Korea. Pray that many will come to know Jesus.
Next week, we will continue in Mark. I will post the verses on Tuesday. May God bless you all.
