Friends

You noticed I didn't get to fancy with the title of this post.  It just seemed right to me to highlight the idea of friends as a simple concept with profound meaning to our lives.

Beside from our relationship to God as being the primary purpose in our lives, there is also a very real and important message conveyed in God's Word about our relationship with each other.  The aesthetics (monks) who sequestered themselves away from other people in order to draw closer to God and lead a holy life, were pursuing a goal that is unobtainable.  How can we possibly have a close relationship with God and ignore others?

^{Mt 22:35} Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
³⁷ Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

We are to love our neighbors, not shut them out.  I could write pages on the trends in our society that break down relationships and are destroying communities.  Instead though I would like to focus on the passage we looked at last time where one of the major themes was the faith of the paralytics friends.

I am not going to include the quote from Luke 5:17-26 in this posting.  If you do not have a Bible handy you can refer pack to my posting on May 24th. In my last posting I mentioned 4 major themes from this passage.

• The challenge of the Scribes and Pharisees
• The faith of the friends
• The priority and power to forgive sins
• The healing

In the last posting we talked about the challenge of the Scribes and Pharisees.  We saw that they had a heart attitude that put them in opposition to Jesus.

Moving onto the second theme, what do we know about the paralytics friends?

• They were helpful.  They were willing to carry their friend. What a great picture.  Friendship here isn't about sports, hanging out, watching a movie or going out drinking.   Friendship is about helping.  Here we see a picture of friends literally carrying the burden of their friend to Jesus.
  
• They were willing to persevere for thier friend.  When the going got tough because of the crowds, they climbed on the roof of the house Jesus was teaching in.  The opened up the roof and lowered their friend in front of Jesus.  Their was a physical obstacle to overcome, getting to Jesus.  And a social obstacle.  I am sure some of the crowd were not happy with their bold move to get to the front of the line.
• They were faithful.  I think they demonstrate faithfulness in two ways.  First they were faithful in bringing their friend to Jesus no matter what the obstacles.   The paralytic had friends that he could trust to standby him and help him.   I also believe they demonstrated faith in Jesus, trusting that Jesus would take care of their friends needs.  Jesus acknowledged their faithfulness in believing that Jesus could heal.

 Some of you reading this post are my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I urge you at every opportunity to bring your friends to Jesus.   Your faith in Jesus to heal their broken souls will be acknowledged by Him.

Maybe you are my friends and family who do not know Jesus or you are a friend of someone who has forwarded this posting.   I would urge you to follow the link below and read how you can know the salvation message.

Bridge to Eternal Life

Our Heart Attitude

As a reminder over the next several weeks I will be keeping these posting short until my right hand heels.  I thank you for your patience as it will be especially difficult with so much to cover in today's passage.

We will be looking at Luke 5:17-26.  I am not going to copy it into today's posting, if you do not have a Bible handy, you can see the quoted passage from the last posting.

Here are some themes from this passage that we will look at one at a time over the next several weeks.

• The challenge of the Scribes and Pharisees
• The faith of the friends
• The priority and power to forgive sins
• The healing

  What should be our attitude toward the Scribes and Pharisees?    It would appear in this passage they have come to listen to Jesus not because they are searching for a savior but there is concern that first John the baptist and now Jesus is attracting peoples attention by speaking about their relationship with God.  As you saw from my notes in my last posting this is stepping on the toes of the Scribes and Pharisees.  They held the authority to tell the people about what God requires of them.

When Jesus tells the paralyzed man his sins are forgiven, the Scribes and Pharisees immediately find their opening to condemn Jesus.  Because of the crowds it would appear that their comments were made amongst themselves.  They accuse Jesus of blasphemy.  Essentially that Jesus is bringing insult to God.  If they don't believe Jesus is the Son of God, then they will reject Jesus doing something that only God can do.

Though Jesus was not meant to hear the Scribes and Pharisees, he perceived their thoughts.  He indicates that their thoughts are a result of their heart attitude.  "Why are you reasoning in your hearts?"  


Jesus is not concerned  with the position that the Scribes and Pharisees hold in the community.  Neither is he concerned with their memorization of scripture.  He is not impressed with their holiness.  Jesus is concerned with the heart.  Jesus knew their hearts.  He knew that their reasoning was a result of their heart attitude.  As we will discover in later passages the Scribes and Pharisees were arrogant, proud, self righteous and eventually plotted to have Jesus crucified. 

Our heart attitude toward God and the Savior can have profound effect on our reasoning. Is your attitude one of faith and trust in Jesus like the paralytic in this passage?  Or are you skeptical, arrogant, proud and worried that a faith in Jesus will mean giving up your ability and authority to be in control?  The chouice is yours.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your heart to God's Word, so that you can find the truth as you Search for the Savior?

Short and Sweet

A week and a half ago I was riding my motorcycle to work when the car in front of me stopped suddenly.  i applied my brakes but my bike kept sliding. I crashed right into the back of the car.  For the car it was less than a minor accident.  For a rider on a motorcycle i don't think there are minor accidents.  Some are real bad and some you get to walk away.  Or in my case stumble away.  I bruised/popped my ribs and broke the bone that goes from the wrist to the base of the thumb on my right hand.  My motorcycle was drivable but the assessor counted it a total loss due to a bend in the front frame.

It just so happens I am right handed and received surgery this past Friday to insert a plate to hold the bone together.  You might be wondering who is typing my blog.  I am with just my left hand.  It is very slow going thus the title of  this blog entry "short and sweet".

The next blog entry we will be looking at a passage in Luke where we will meet some folks that are new.  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law (or scribes) were not good buddies with Jesus.  I had already had some notes on these two groups to include in this blog for background I will just cut and paste that in with the Bible verses that we will discuss next time.

Though I am banged up and not able to do a lot at this time, God has granted me his grace to draw closer to him and know that no matter what He is in control.  Praise God.

Pharisees - a religious party or school among the Jews at the time of Christ, so called from perishin , the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word perushim , "separated."

While it was the aim of Jesus to call men to the law of God itself as the supreme guide of life, the Pharisees, upon the Pretence of maintaining it intact, multiplied minute precepts and distinctions to such an extent that the whole life of the Israelite was hemmed in and burdened on every side by instructions so numerous and trifling that the law was almost if not wholly lost sight of.

The Pharisees at an early day secured the popular favor and thereby acquired considerable political influence. This influence was greatly increased by the extension of the Pharisees over the whole land and the majority which they obtained in the Sanhedrin.

Teachers of the Law (scribes) -  The priests were therefore also in the first instance the scholars and the guardians of the Law; but in the course of time this was changed. The more highly esteemed the Law became in the eyes of the people, the more its study and interpretation became a lifework by itself, and thus there developed a class of scholars who, though not priests, devoted themselves assiduously to the Law. These became known as the scribes, that is, the professional students of the Law. During the Hellenistic period, the priests, especially those of the upper class, became tainted with the Hellenism of the age and frequently turned their attention to paganistic culture, thus neglecting the Law of their fathers more or less and arousing the scribes to opposition. Thus, the scribes and not the priests were now the zealous defenders of the Law, and hence, were the true teachers of the people.

^{Luke 5:17}One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. ¹⁸Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. ¹⁹When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
 ²⁰When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
 ²¹The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
 ²²Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? ²³Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? ²⁴But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." ²⁵Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. ²⁶Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."