Thursday... Would you like to get well?

John 5:6 (NLT), "When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, 'Would you like to get well?'"

Now I can ask you that question. I can, but my asking it is totally different from Jesus asking it because he can do something about what is wrong with you.

Now friends are great to have, they really are. There is so much they can do for us. The same is true of our family. They can in so many ways make such a difference in our lives and it is so great to have them but Jesus can do so much more and this man here in John 6 had been lying there sick for thirty-eight years. And the fact that Jesus knew that shows how different he is from us.

We celebrated last night my daughter's birthday. Now Margaret, my wife and I were the only ones around that table who were at her birth. We did all we could to make sure she wasn't born on Friday the thirteenth and we made it. She was born in the first hour of Saturday the fourteenth. But there is so much more about Stef that we don't know but God does and he can and wants to make such a difference. Yes, we had a part in her birth but God was and is the one who brought it about and who has been there with her all these years. And I'm not going to tell you how old she is.

Now Jesus here in John 6 went to this pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate where there were crowds of sick people and he knew that one of them had been lying there sick for thirty-eight years. He not only knew that but verse 6 says, "When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, 'Would you like to get well?'" So let me ask you, "Would you like to get well?"

Jesus not only knows about the situations in our life, but he can also do something about them. And that is a tremendous extension of the benefit of having a relationship with him. He not only knows but he cares and he can do something about it.

So what did this man say? And this is also very important. Verse 7 says, "'I can't, sir,' the sick man said, 'For I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone always gets there ahead of me.'" That was why all those sick were there.

Verses 3-4 in the Amplified Bible says, "In those porticoes lay a great number of people who were sick, blind, lame, withered, [waiting for the stirring of the water, for an angel of the Lord went down into the pool at appointed seasons and stirred up the water; the first one to go in after the water was stirred was healed of his disease.]" Yes, God even today provides ways for us to be healed. But this guy had no one to help him get into the water.

Yes, God wants us as his followers to be there to make a difference in people's lives. We are a part of his plan. And Jesus was there on this particular day to take care of this guy. What was Jesus response? Verse 8 (NLT) said, "Jesus told him, 'Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!'" There will be ways that He wants us to show that we believe that He will do what He says He will do.

And then verse 9, "Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking."

Now later, Jesus found him in the Temple and that was a great place for this man to have gone. Verse 14 says, "But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, 'Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.'"

This is so important for us to see. Jesus says in verse 24 (AMP), "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, the person who hears My word [the one who heeds My message], and believes and trusts in Him who sent Me, has (possesses now) eternal life [that is, eternal life actually begins - the believer is transformed], and does not come into judgment and condemnation, but has passed [over] from death into life." And that is why God sent His Son, Jesus to earth and that is the greatest miracle that He can do in our life.

Yes and that is how we really get well. So just tell Him right now, "I give you my life" and then tell someone what you did. So, would you really like to get well? Then give Him your life. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

Friday... We have this hope of expectancy.

Psalm 5:3 (NLT), "Listen to my voice in the morning Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly." Friday... We have this hope of expectancy. Now David found a great way to start his day. He says in Psalm 5:1-3 (NLT), "O LORD, hear me as I pray." And that is a great place to start. It really is. Morning sunrise He goes on, "Listen to my cry for help, my King, my God, for I pray to no one but you." And that is so important. We don't try to pump ourselves up by ourself. No, we pray to no one but you, God, my LORD, my King. Now this relationship with God is so, so very important. And then David says, "Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you" And that is so great. And then he says, "and wait expectantly." Yes, we have this hope of expectancy. We are experienced. That is what a relationship with God and a moment by moment connection does. It makes a difference in our daily wa...

Friday... Yes, we can know this to be true.

Psalm 12:6 (NLT), "The Lord's promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over." Friday... Yes, we can know this to be true. Maybe this is what you want to say in this day in which we live. Psalm 12:1-2 (MSG) says, "Quick, I need your helping hand! The last decent person just went down, all the friends I depend on gone. Everyone talks in lie language; lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues." Do you ever feel that way?" Have you found that to be true? Well David the writer of this Psalm continues and says in verse 6 something to encourage us, to lift us up, to give us hope. Psalm 12:6 (NLT) says, "The Lord's promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over." The Message Paraphrase says verses 6-8 this way, "God's words are pure words, pure silver words refined seven times in the fires of his word-kiln, pure on earth as well as in heaven, God, keep ...

Friday... So what is it that you really fear?

1 Corinthians 15:57 (NLT), "But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." Friday... So what is it that you really fear? Yes, fear holds us back. It seems to take hold of us so that we can't even really enjoy living. Now I have found that one of the best ways to handle fear is to solve the problem of what we fear. Let's say that death is what we really fear. Everyday we wake up afraid to get up because we are afraid to do anything because we are afraid to die. And that is so understandable. Now I have found the solution to fearing death. I have through faith taken care of my fear to die. 1 Corinthians 15:57 (NLT) says, "But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." Verse 22 (CEV) says, "Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us." Death was not God's plan. Adam was created for an eternal life but he and his partner, Eve blew it and sin a...

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