Consider This Encouraging Resource

This week I would like to introduce you to a very good source of encouragement. Dr. Karl Benzio, founder of the Lighthouse Network, writes a devotional regularly that can encourage us in our walk with God. Dr Benzio is a Christian Psychiatrist and is intentional about helping people integrate faith into their healing and growth process. This particular article focuses on the question: “What Motivates You the Most?” As he addresses this question, what he is aiming for is those things that tend to hinder our “life-giving practices” with God. He also offers us good practical considerations to regain our connection with God. I found it encouraging, and I hope it is so for you too. To read the article click here.

Do You Want to be Made Well?

And Jesus asked him,

 “Do you want to be made well?”

John 5:6 (NKJV)

Years ago, I had a friend make a wall hanging for my office that had the above words on it. They are powerful words that Jesus spoke to one man, only one, at a Pool called Bethesda in the story found in John 5:6.  Words that I never understood very well before I became a counselor. Here’s why… 

It always confused me why Jesus only interacted with one man at this pool, a pool that the bible says that many people who were lame, paralyzed, blind or suffering from some sort of brokenness, laid around. They all were waiting for the key to their healing that took place at this pool. You see, the bible says that during a certain season an angel would come down and stir the waters. The first person that entered the pool would be made well of their diseases. On this particular day, Jesus goes over to this certain man and asks him the question, “Do you want to be made well?” The man goes into an explanation of why he can’t get into the water first but Jesus doesn’t get caught up in the reasons about why he can’t. Jesus goes to the heart of the matter and asks the guy if he wants to be made well, tells him get up and the man does! He just does what he is told to do! Let me say that again. The man does what Jesus tells him to do!            He was healed. Later, as the story unfolds, we find something interesting in verse 14. The man encounters Jesus in the temple. The identity of Jesus is made known to the man and this is what happens:

14 A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.” (The Message)

Whoa! That’s pretty heavy! Interesting, huh? Here are some of my questions this passage has evoked over the years, as well as other questions I get from quite a few people. Maybe they echo some of yours.

1. Why did Jesus only talk to the one man?
2. The story also says later on that the man didn’t even know it was Jesus!
3. Practically speaking, this man had been an invalid for 38 years...38 years would cause his legs to be atrophied, bones fragile, etc. And he didn’t question this guy who says “Get up”?
4. Does verse 14 mean that our sin issues can contribute to our diseases?
5. Does God make us sick as punishment for our sins?
6. The invalid must have BELIEVED the man who told him to get up off his mat.

I always say I get 3 kinds of people in the counseling room:

1. The ‘Yes’ People- when asked the same question Jesus asked the man, they answer a wholehearted YES! I want healing and BELIEVE Jesus can do it.
2. The ‘I Don’t Know’ People- they are usually silent for a minute or so. Having to weigh their answer of what the cost will be, what the responsibility will be, how hard is it going to be and the exhaustive list goes on and on.
3. The ‘I Don’t Deserve It’ People- they step into the role of God and judge themselves, using their veto power to reject the work that Jesus already did on the cross for them. The bible says we are healed by His stripes. Amen. This group of people doesn’t understand that verse yet.

In working with folks, including myself, I think I have part of the answer for my number one question: Why did Jesus go to the one man? I think it’s because he desperately wanted to be healed, had no excuses and was willing to GET UP! He BELIEVED he could be healed, and he wanted to be healed. Plus, he was willing to do the hard work of walking out that healing without excuse. What is Jesus telling you to do regarding your brokenness??

As far as the other questions go, a big resounding ‘Yes’ to question #4. Our sin issues can perpetuate our diseases. We can be lazy about doing exercise, eating right and establishing good sleep patterns in order to help in our healing process. On the other hand, a big resounding ‘NO’ to question #5. God does not punish us with sickness. All of the punishment we deserved for our sins was put onto Jesus Christ when He died on the cross and came back from the dead on the third day so we too can have eternal life with Him when we say ‘YES’ to Jesus!  That is the good news, folks!

The big point I want to end with is this: It is absolutely, absolutely imperative that you BELIEVE Jesus can and desires to heal you. Jesus heals in many ways, three of which I have listed.

1. Instantaneously
2. In a process
3. When we see Him face to face.

I pray for the grace to accept His answer to my healing. I always want an instantaneous healing and am willing to do my part in the process of healing, but will still praise Him if it won’t be until Glory. In Scripture I find Jesus asking people all the time, “Do you Believe?” They respond ‘Yes, I believe” He then says, “Your faith has made you well”. Folks, there is something very important about BELIEVING Jesus can do it!! He can BREAK EVERY CHAIN!!! Check out this video Tasha Cobbs, Break Every Chain. Worship with it, watch the expressions of Worship in the video. Ask yourself, “Do I Believe Jesus can really BREAK EVERY CHAIN off my life?” I would encourage you to check out John 5 for yourselves. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what He wants you to understand in the passage.

Be blessed, friends

--Lois Robinson

A Big Black Bird

Have you ever seen God reach down and change a circumstance in a way so unnatural that you were sure you were feeling His very presence?

My grandparents lived in Vincentown, and my brother and I spent many happy hours roaming around town; Great-uncle Ed had a candy store! And Great-aunt Helen lived down on the corner (now a funeral home) and she had a plum tree in her yard! Everyone in town knew who we were, so we were pretty free to go anywhere.

But we had a favorite place to play, seldom visited for fear of getting seen by someone who would tell our grandmother! I don’t know if it’s still there, because I haven’t been in Vincentown for years, but Stokes had a tomato canning facility right on the other side of the road out of town closest to ‘home’, and it was great fun. The canning season was over; no one was there, and there were wonderful things to play with. We were not allowed to cross that road, so, being inventive kids, we found a way to go under it! There was a creek, and a bridge, and under the bridge were narrow concrete walkways on our side. We would go around our barn and down into the meadow, and then cross under the bridge with our backs to the wall and come out right near the cannery. Of course, we never hurt or destroyed anything, or went inside, but there were long racks covered with metal rollers made for moving cases of cans, which worked just as well with us in a box! And we played hide and seek and counted cars going by and climbed on things and just had fun.

And that’s where we were one afternoon, without having any concept of how much time had passed. The day was pretty well gone and I was hiding inside a crate, and my brother couldn’t find me. He looked in all the familiar places, but I had found a new one. I was getting tired of waiting for him to discover me when suddenly, with a noisy rush of wings, a HUGE black bird flew right in front of my hiding place, TWICE! It was likely a turkey hawk or some such, but it scared me to death! I started to cry, and finally looked outside and saw that it was gone, and I raced to my brother crying, and said, “I want to go HOME!” We RAN, to the bridge and under the bridge and up through the meadow and into the house. And there were my grandparents and my mother and a FIREMAN! My mother was in tears, and no one was mad at us, and they seemed like they were really glad to see us!

Of course, what had happened was that we had been gone a very long time, and no one in town had seen us, and the fireman was there because they were getting ready to drag the creek for our bodies! We only knew the full scope of things much later, but we had to confess where we had been and how we sometimes got there, and our horrified loved ones absolutely forbade us to EVER go there again. Which we obeyed.

My mother told me, when I was older, how she had prayed for God to send us home. She didn’t know then that He did it with the frightening presence of a big black bird.

I still can see that bird swooping so close to me. I had nightmares for a long time. But I never gave God credit until much later, after I had found Christ and fully understood the reality of His love and power and presence.

I wonder how many, many times God intervenes in our lives to save us, or redirect us, or cause us to see or do something we might otherwise have missed, perhaps not with the drama of a huge, frightening black bird, but always in love, with a strong hand and a good purpose. What a wonderful, wonderful God we have!

--Norma Stockton

The Heart of a False Teacher: When the Lord Jesus Puts the Squeeze on the Pharisees at Lunch

Just prior to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in late 2017, I preached a message from Luke 14:1-24 entitled “The Heart of a False Teacher: When Jesus Puts the Squeeze on The Pharisees at Lunch.” Instead of writing a summary from this message, I am simply going to include the link and encourage you to listen to this timely message on false teachers. You don’t have to listen to it all at once - feel free to listen to it in parts. When we came home from church that particular Sunday, my wife Lisa said to me, “I had no idea there was so much history and so much to extract from that passage. I would have just read it and moved over it quickly without a second thought. There’s so much more there than I first thought.”  She is so right!

Good exposition of the Scriptures takes a lot of time. Many dozens of hours were devoted to preparing this particular message. It took me much time and research and labor; and I took my time chewing on it until I had it just right. Truth teachers want to herald the message that the Lord gives exactly; false teachers, instead, usually pervert and twist many things that God says. While the LORD Jesus always says the things that the Father wants Him to say; the Pharisees try to squeeze Him until He quickly squeezes them back. What happens in Luke 14 is a classic and repeated example of our LORD not giving the Pharisees the upper hand in many situations, ever. And the Squeeze is on.  

Please enjoy this sermon and may His Word always encourage you, build you up in the faith, and exemplify our Beloved Christ Jesus, Who cannot be squeezed - but Who Squeezes back at just the right time.

-Thor Knutstad