I love the scripture! One of the most awesome thing it does is when it shows me, me. When it is the finger of God pointing directly at me saying "Change!' Understanding this immediately shows me that God loves me and that His grace is affording another opportunity to get lined up with His Word.
In John 5 we find that a had been lame for 38 years. That my friends is a long time. Several things happen here at the first. Jesus noticed him. There were many other people around that pool that day, but Jesus noticed him and chose him out of the rest of them. When the man began making excuses, Jesus simply said 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 'At once the man picked up his mat and was cured. Jesus doesn't mess around, but requires this man to act on what HE commanded. Why? Because the man had to prove his faith. Shortly after this the enemies of Christ wanted to know who healed him. He told them that he did not know, because Christ had slipped away into the crowd. Then in verse 14 we see this "Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you." The man went away and told the Jews that is was Jesus who had made him well.
Let us look at this:
Jesus chose this man out of all of the others to heal.
Jesus commanded the man to get up, take up his mat and walk.
He did, and he was healed after 38 years of being lame.
The man did not know anything about Jesus, but he knew that he had been healed.
Jesus went and found the man and commanded him to STOP SINNING!
The man went and betrayed Christ to the Jews.
You may be thinking "Wow! that guy is terrible!" But I will be the first to say "I have walked in his shoes." Many times from the age of 12 until I turned 36, Jesus came, and He healed me from my sin. He healed me from financial dilema's, He healed me from personal problems, and He healed me from me. The issue of sin, and desiring it over Jesus was always my downfall. I too would deny Christ, by the choices to sin in front of all the people who were around me. How many times have you heard that same command "Stop Sinning, or something else will happen to you?" I heard it many times, and chose the sin over Jesus.
If you are reading this and if you have any sin in you today that needs to be taken care of, realize this "Jesus chose you to read this blog. Jesus want to take a step of faith and begin walking with Him. He does not want us to go and pick up sin again. The terrible warning to the man and us is this "Something worse might happen to us, and I believe it will be eternal." People are watching us today. If we continue to sin then they will nto see a way out to be healed, and they surely won't see Jesus~
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