Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

Read John 5: 1-9

Don’t you just love that Jesus isn’t afraid to live His life on the edge?

As chapter five opens, we see that Jesus is once again in the middle of a group of people who aren’t the up and comers of Jerusalem: they are all blind, lame, or paralyzed (v 4). Can’t you just picture Jesus walking by the Sheep Gate and being drawn to the crowd of helpless people lying by the pool? Jesus always has the poor, the orphans, the helpless, and the sick on his radar, and I can just imagine Him making a beeline for the worst one there. Verse six tells us that Jesus learns that one of the men has been sick for 38 years.

Jesus then asks him what seems to be an obvious question: “Do you want to get well?”

Why would Jesus ask this question when the man has been lame for 38 years? Surely the answer has to be yes. I wonder if Jesus did this because the man has lost hope, accepting this affliction as his permanent reality. Perhaps Jesus needs to reawaken in this man his dreams of a normal life and a healthy body.

You’ll notice that the man doesn’t directly answer Jesus’ question with a yes or no. He instead offers an explanation as to why he hasn’t received healing—he has no one to help him in the pool when the water is stirred, so someone else always gets there first. If that’s the case, it’s no wonder the man is discouraged.

Probably every day a friend or family member on his way to work carries the lame man to the pool and then picks him up on the way home. All day the lame man simply waits and watches the water—we don’t even know how often the Spirit stirs the water. Every day, week, or month? At the first ripple of water, the man desperately tries to crawl or roll to the pool, but for 38 years, someone else always gets there first.

I can just imagine that Jesus stays quiet until the lame man stops talking. Jesus locks eyes with the man and tells him “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” And just like that, he does. Thirty-eight years of atrophy gone in one second.

What can our friend from the pool of Bethesda teach us?

• A vibrant faith reawakens hope in our lives. When the lame man meets Jesus, he sees the power of God in Jesus. This ignites his faith, and Jesus heals him.

• A vibrant faith sometimes requires us to make a move. The lame man has to act on that faith. He takes Jesus at his word, picks up his mat, and stands up.

Where has hope died in your life? Jesus is trying to get your attention, look you in the eye, and shake you out of your spiritual paralysis.

What is he asking you to move out of and on to in your life? Like the lame man did, we need to pick up our mats and leave behind the years that crippled us. Faith flies in the face of years of bad habits, patterns, and stagnation and moves us toward health and healing and possibilities.

This is the first blog in our faith series. Please leave a comment below on your thoughts, feelings, or experiences in growing your faith.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Faith is such an important part of our lives as Christians. The very essence of our relationship with God is based on our faith in Jesus. We just take it on faith that He died for our sins and because of that we can be reconciled to God.

Faith and prayer are also intertwined. While I don’t pretend to understand all of the intricacies of how God uses our prayers, I am fascinated by prayer and have felt God calling me to spend some time studying the subject of faith. Might I be able to increase my faith by meditating on scriptures about it? Would God be able to use me in a bigger way if my faith were bigger? I’d like to explore those possibilities, so I’m beginning an ongoing series on faith.

Periodically, I’ll be writing blog posts about faith. You can find these under the Blog tab on our navigation bar. When you hover the cursor over this tab, you’ll see the Faith series drop down from the rest of the blogs.

I’ll post the first blog in this series this week, but for now let me leave you with this scripture to reflect upon and pray about:

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

Feel free to join me on this faith journey.

Pray on!

Who do you think of when you hear the word hero? Perhaps you think of our military. Maybe you think of the first responders who raced into the Twin Towers on 9/11. Or maybe someone you know is your hero.When my son was young, he used to spend hours playing with his superhero action figures as they battled the “bad guys.”

Well, last week my pastor Dave Rodriguez gave me plenty to think about in his third sermon in our Hero series. He said that heroes of the faith “are ordinary people with a deep conviction that spills over into extreme action for the love of others and the glory of God.”

I guess the emphasis on ordinary people caught my attention, because … that means that all of us are candidates to be a hero. As a matter of fact, the subject of his sermon that day was as unlikely a candidate for a hero, as ever has been: Rahab. If you remember Rahab from the Bible, she was a prostitute who ended up saving the lives of the two Hebrew spies who came to scope out the city of Jericho before the Israelites took it over. When the king’s men came knocking on her door looking for the spies, she sent them in the other direction, while she hid the spies on her roof.

Rahab had heard the stories of God and his people, and she chose to believe them and believe in Him. She went against the tide of what everyone else was doing, because she put her faith in the one, true God. Then she acted on that faith. As Dave said, “No one ever becomes a hero by just thinking about it. Intentions play no part in heroism–action does.”

A few weeks ago, Mary and I spoke at a women’s fellowship luncheon at the Foundation of Truth Worship Center in Indianapolis. Our topic was on Defeating Your Strongholds and Rahab’s story was one we used as an example of a woman who broke her strongholds. Her story is amazing, and it doesn’t end in Joshua 2.

Rahab is actually mentioned in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of Jesus (!), and she is listed in Hebrews 11 as one of the heroes of the faith, along with many others. Praise God that our pasts don’t keep us from doing big things for God. You see, it wasn’t that there was anything special about Rahab or the others listed in Hebrews. What Hebrews emphasizes was that by faith they each did their heroic deeds. Not faith in themselves, but faith in the great God we serve.

Rahab didn’t have a lot of time to decide or pray about her decision to hide the spies–heroes rarely do. It’s a risky faith that makes a person a hero, one that’s willing to act by faith when no one else is.

And like Rahab, anyone of us has the potential to be a “by faith” hero–because we serve that very same great God!

Pray on!

Who doesn’t love that sweet little baby face? It’s hard to resist chubby cheeks, sparkling eyes and toothless grins! But what if we stayed as babies for our whole lives? Would it be quite so attractive?

We are smack dab in the middle of a series at church called Colossians: Living a Life Worthy of the Lord. It’s been a challenging series, not a feel good one necessarily. But one that is sorely needed. It’s all about moving beyond baby steps with Christ and growing and maturing in our faith.

A few Sundays ago, the scripture we were in was Colossians 1:24-29 and Colossians 2:1-5. Pastor David Bell was talking about how our maturity matters greatly to God, and how it is an expected privilege of all who follow Jesus. It got me thinking about the whys of it all. Why is maturity important in our faith? What would the world look like if we just happily accepted our salvation and never moved on from there?

Well, one way to look at this is to use the analogy of a baby. Babies are immature of course. They need to be fed, changed, cared for, loved and protected. They can’t stand on their own. They can’t do much for others yet. They are pretty much in the “taking” mode. Imagine how we would feel if our babies never grew up. We would forever be immersed in diapers, baby food, car seats, play pens and strollers. Now I know we all are nostalgic about the days when our kids were little, but there is something very satisfying about watching children grow up, reaching new milestones and independence, making mistakes along the way, yes, but ultimately becoming productive members of society—and God’s kingdom.

Now let’s imagine that this is similar to how God sees us. When we take our very first step of faith by accepting Jesus as our Savior, we are born into God’s kingdom. And for too many of us, that’s where we wallow. It’s a comforting, easy place to be. We’re loved, we’re fed—all our needs are taken care of. But, I can imagine God looking down and saying “Come on, it’s time to take those next steps. We need to get rid of the baby food and get some meat into us. I’ve got work waiting for you to do!”

It takes time and work to grow in Christ. Sometimes we have to give up other things to attend that Bible study or take that class. We need to devote time to prayer. We need to spend time with mature Christians who can encourage us. Often times, it’s far easier NOT to do those things. But where would our world be if we all took that attitude?

What if Martin Luther, George Müller, Amy Carmichael, Billy Graham, your pastor, the person who introduced you to Christ, what if they all had made different decisions, different choices in their lives? What if they had never grown up in Christ?

God doesn’t see each of us any differently. He’s got things that He prepared in advance, waiting for us to do (see Ephesians 2:10). What if we never get there?

This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip. If you are already growing in God, then don’t pile on anything else that He hasn’t given you to do or hasn’t called you to. But, if your Christian life hasn’t changed much since you started following Jesus, and you feel God is nudging you to grow up, here’s a few questions David left us with at the end of service that Sunday morning that may help you too.

1. Am I content where I am in my maturity in Christ?
2. Is God content with where I am?
3. Is there room to grow?
4. What areas do I need to grow in?
5. Am I willing to pursue what it takes?

What do you think about maturity? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Pray on!

Jane VanOsdol

Last time we looked at how Jesus was able to maintain peace in His life and found out that prayer played a big part in His serenity. What I would like to look at today is how we can do that same thing in our own lives. Some of you may be thinking that if I only knew what situation you were facing right now, that I wouldn’t be so quick to talk about being peaceful.

Let me say, I hear you! I have been through a few tragedies in my life, and I know how desperation and despair feels. But, I have also seen my Lord move into each situation and restore hope in my life where it had previously been dead. What we need to focus on is not the situation, but the only One on heaven and earth who has the power to bring life out of dead things and peace out of chaos:  Jesus.

First of all, let me ask you, What situation do you need peace in right now? Let’s just start with the hardest thing and get it out in the open. Maybe you’re even afraid to mention it to your friends or family anymore because it has dragged on for so long, or maybe it’s a fresh worry. But acknowledge to yourself what it is. May I also suggest an activity for you?

I would like to suggest that you write down what it is that you need peace about in a notebook. Write down everything about it and your prayers for the situation. Ask God to give you a specific scripture(s) to pray for the situation and invite Him to begin working. Then try to rest in that. Continue to write and journal and pray about the situation and record how you see God working. It may be that over time you see a person you have been praying for changed. Or, it may be that it is YOU that God changes instead. It may be that an ill person you want healed for earth instead dies and is healed to heaven. If that is the case, continue to record how God is moving in the midst of that tragedy in your life. Over time, you will begin to see patterns of God living and working in your life.

Often times just the actual writing down can help bring us a peace, but the real peace comes from understanding this scripture:  And we know that all things work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

In the times when our prayers are not answered the way we want them to be, when the sick are not healed, or when the job does not come through for example, this does not make this any less of an answer; it is just a different answer. I begin to cultivate peace in these situations when I cling to God’s promise that He will work together to bring good out of this desperate situation. Be persistent in prayer and know that you have God’s word that He will bring good. Be waiting and watchful and record the good when you see it.

It also helps to keep the big picture in mind. Encouraging to me is the meaning of the word peace from John 14:27. The Blue Letter Bible defines peace in one instance as ” the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever that is.” When we know that our big picture is taken care of, other things tend to pale in comparison.

Cultivating a life of prayer and peace is only attained through persistence. God does not minimize our earthly trials. He walks and prays us through them.

Pray on!

Jane VanOsdol

In today’s episode, Jane chats with author and speaker Ann Kroeker about her latest book Not So Fast:  Slow-Down Solutions for Frenzied Families. Ann offers great tips for families who want to learn to live a slower-paced lifestyle to savor time with each other and God. You can find Ann at https://annkroeker.wordpress.com. Click below to listen to the podcast now or download it to listen later.

Ann Kroeker

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